Long term 5 door Sierra LX project

[MarkV8]

I've been lurking here for a while and subscribe to PPC.

With a mortgage, two kids and a Wife to keep happy it's going to take a while to finish

Pics below represent 18 months of work in my spare time and 5 years of parts collecting!

Started with this



I pinched the engine and sold the rest for scrap



A
pair of these will help it breath



Fast forward a few years and I bought this rolling shell with 2WD Cosworth axles and diff.



After some nicer wheels



Wheels got stuck in the loft for safe keeping.

[MarkV8]

No way I was going to use an auto box and I picked up an Ebay bargain T56 six speed for a 4.6 mustang.



The bell housing does not fit my engine though and the correct one from the U.S was $600

Plan B was to get a bellhousing for a different gearbox and make it fit.
T56 is the short one.



Out with the precision marking gauge.



Stone cutting wheel in a side grinder did the job.



I had a piece of ali welded to it and then borrowed the CNC machining centre where I used to work.





No where for the clutch fork to go now so this will do the job.

[MarkV8]

Fitting the engine and box from underneath made it easier working single handed.



Modified the cross member to use early Mustang engine mounts




Gearbox cross member made and fitted



modified Cossie prop

[mjslonergan]

As a bit of a Sierra fan, I am liking this

[OilyFingers]

Nice!

Are you keeping it stealthy or going for side-exits?

[MarkV8]

Fairly stealthy, it will have a single 3" exhaust.

Some more pics of progress so far.
I had some header flanges water cut and TIG welded some stubs in.




Some bits from OJZ engineering

I tacked it all together and then took the header pipes off to weld one at a time.






Several months of spare time condensed into those pictures.

More to come.

[Renrut]

This is looking like a really nice project. Everything looks so shiny, even the underside of that sierra!

Are you keeping the LX badge on the back?

[MarkV8]

Thanks for the positive comments, the underside is pretty good for a 22 year old Ford but has some rust that needs sorting (fixing the rust and dents is what I'm up to at the moment)

I'm going to get it painted frozen white and will probably just have a Sierra sticker with no clue to whats under the bonnet

Some more of the goodies I've been collecting over the years...






331ci - 5400cc stroker kit with steel rods and forged pistons along with Edelbrock Performer RPM intake.



Just fits under the bonnet



Next chapter is fixing the bodywork.

[MarkV8]

Nearly up to date now.









On the spit











Sorry about the pics but this site seems to chop the right hand side off some of them.

That's as far as I've got with the Sierra in the 18 months I've owned it

Any updates will seem a bit slow in coming as scraping and grinding the bottom of an old Ford is soul destroying and time consuming.

It's going to be 100% road car with sound insulation, ABS, heated screen etc etc.

thanks for looking!

Mark

[Mr Bounce]

I absolutely LOVE this. Will be keeping an eye on this and really want to hear it when it's finished

[bulletproofbob]

nice work so far fella, i like!! reminded me of the old boy i worked with who ran a flat dark blue saphire with hub caps and tow ball... passed me one day on the A1 i was doing 85mph but i seemed to be stood still!!! it was an ex borders police armed response motor 2.9v6 4x4 complete with 1.8L badge!!! he'd had 155 out of it on a private test track apparently!

[Buddy]

lovely build thread, would love to be there when the first subaru pulls up next to you at the lights!!

[MarkV8]

I have to say that cleaning the underside is the worst job so far.
I've been welding up any nasties as I go.



After days and days of work it's getting there



Trying a lazy way to clean up the front hubs...







Will leave it to brew for a week and then give them a look.

[MarkV8]

It works, but takes ages, kills the bearings and rusts very quickly afterwards.

WTF is up with the pictures on this forum ?

The the edges get chopped off

[Relentless Rob]

I find Cola works better than Vinegar. The forum has limited page width.

Looking good though.