Ford Fiesta XR2i 8v
When my sister and I were learning to drive, my parents very generously bought us a Mk3.5 Fiesta 1.1 which we then had to share once we'd passed. As my sister didn't drive much at all, I'd pretty much decided the car was mine and I'd modify it, as you do when you're 17. I'd decided I needed so many parts that a donor car was the best thing for it so I started looking for XR2i's that I could pillage.
I eventually found a 1990 Ford Fiesta XR2i locally that was for sale with no mot or tax and various other problems, namely that while it was sitting, someone had tried to steal it and cut through a load of wires making it a non-runner, but it was all there! I think I paid about £175 for it and had a family friend use their low loader to transport it back to mine. I will never forget how happy I was sat in the cabin looking behind me at MY little black hot hatch.
Unfortunately this was a little before digital cameras came attached to phones, key fobs, spoons etc so I don’t have many pictures.
As I said, I bought it as a non-running, which I wasn’t too bothered about as I didn’t need anything mechanical from it. After a change of heart I decided to see if I could get it running. Now at this point I really was a complete amateur and had no idea what I was doing. I did notice however that all the wires going into the alarm siren had been cut and the rest weren’t looking too great. I traced each wire back to where it had been spliced into the original loom (it was a fairly simple system), cut the alarm out and joined the original wires back today. Stood at the front of the car I connected some jump leads to the battery and the hazard lights flashed "Something works!" I thought. Then I jumped inside, turned the ignition on and watched all the dash light up and heard the fuel pump prime, turned the key to start it and it fired first time!
I would have loved to take it for a quick spin up and down my quiet, dead end road but that would have been naughty so I of course didn’t do that...
With the car running and actually not looking too bad, I did have my doubts about breaking it, but after seeing how much filler was used around the petrol cap I felt less guilty.
I've only got a few poor quality pictures, but they're here, plus a couple of pictures of the 1.1:
It was a great learning curve to take a car apart, and although I didn’t really touch any of the mechanical components I still learned a lot. With all the parts I wanted stored in the shed, the rest were put up for sale and the shell was eventually taken for scrap. I’ll admit I did have a little lump in my throat as I watched it get towed away to be scrapped.
You may notice the other Fiesta in one of those pictures; well, I decided I didn't like the thought of sharing the 1.1 with my sister and started looking for my own, better Fiesta. More on that in other pages.