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Cars and Car Conversions - Feature: Project Fiesta 1300S (Sport)
"Part 3 - ...the bodywork and interior treatment"
March 1988
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Feature: Project Fiesta 1300S (Sport)




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.....reversing light, and a panel can be cut out to accommodate the fog light if necessary.

You're probably thinking this sounds very easy, but it really shouldn't be too difficult providing you take things slowly and methodically, remembering to always do a dry run first to check for fit and always clamp the part in place before starting drilling.

The finished article is very pleasing, since it retains the original functional look of the XR2 while the additional side skirts and rear apron give the car the appearance of being very low.

With the exterior now sorted, we turned our attentions to the interior. The first items which had to go were the front seats in favour of something more supportive. The seats chosen are a pair of Cobra's figure-hugging Montreux recliners finished in sunburst-effect cloth. As you can see, they are of Recaro style but at a fraction of the cost. Fitting the seats couldn't be easier. For popular makes of car such as Ford, Cobra makes adaptor bars pre-drilled which fit between the seat and existing runners, thus eliminating the need for those awful universal sub-frame kits which usually fall to pieces when going over the first bump.

The seats themselves are very comfortable, being both supportive and firm, making long journeys much more relaxing. The importance of good seats cannot be stressed enough, particularly with the sort of roadholding we're hoping to achieve with the Fiesta. After all, adjusting your bottom in the seat while doing some fast cornering is the last thing you want to be doing. The final addition to the interior is, I have to confess, a complete extravagance- a Momo Monte Carlo steering wheel, probably more at home in a Ferrari than a Fiesta, but what the hell.

So there we have it, in one instalment we've changed the Fiesta's appearance from a fairly nondescript family hatchback into something looking more than a match for any XR2 - it certainly provokes interest from XR2 owners on the road. As with any project, the ideas and modifications carried out here are just suggestions and can be carried out as and when funds permit. Economies can be made, for example steel XR2 wheels can be fitted in preference to alloys and the classified sections of certain motorsport weeklies can be a positive gold mine for Ford bits and bobs.

On the subject of Fiesta parts, an interesting Fiesta parts catalogue recently came my way. The catalogue produced by a company called Forparts is probably the most comprehensive Fiesta products and accessories catalogue I have ever seen, all 77 pages of it. The only problem is that they're based in North America, which is quite remarkable considering the Fiesta hasn't been imported to the States since 1980. However, they do produce a lot of parts exclusive to themselves (some of which I may try and use in the future), so the catalogue may well be worth a look, so see the address right.

Next month we will be rounding the project off, we hope, with a trip to the rolling road to fit the carburettor (a Weber 34 DMTR twin-choke) and to get those all-important bhp figures. To make sure the car stops, we'll be looking at the brakes and also checking out the suspension for serious roadholding.

Finally, many thanks to all who have helped this month, particularly Steve Foster at Fibresports for giving such a good demonstration of body kit fitting.

Contact addresses:

Fibresports, 34-36 Bowlers Croft, Cranes Industrial Area, Basildon, Essex. Tel: (0268) 27331 (0268) 282723.

Cobra Supaform, Heslop, Halesfield 23, Shropshire, TF7 4EW.

Forparts, 6767 SW Dover Street, Portland, OR 97225, USA.

Captions -

Left-Right - Wheel arch clamped in position - Side skirt checked for fit - Wheel arch and front of spoiler - Rear apron trimmed tor perfect fit - Spoiler being drilled for self-tapping screw - Apron locates on bumper mountings - Spoiler is fitted between wheel arch extensions - Rear wheel arch drilled and fitted - Cobra Montreux recliners, comfortable and supportive