Colour Scheme Applied

So got a bit bored waiting for the DVLA inspection so decided to try out some sample vinyl stripes that I had bought of eBay.  I was very pleased with the effect so ordered some more and finished the job.  I was going to get the car professionally wrapped, but in the end decided to have a go myself with individual stripes.  Very pleased with the result and all done for a lot less money.

Was going to stripe the sills and maybe get a 'Martini' logo made up for the bonnet, but I think it was going to look too busy, so won't bother for now.

Also I sprayed inside the nosecone where the grill mounts.  Looks much better now.

Exhaust Clamp

Prior to the second engine run I tried renewing the joint between the collector and the silencer with high temperature silicon sealant.  Unfortunately, this did not hold either.  So I bought an exhaust clamp from ebay, which I think is normally fitted to motorbike silencers.  I avoided the normal chunky u-bolt type clamp as this looks a bit clumsy and has more sharp edges to cause radius issues at IVA test time.

To make the join I first cut a 30mm slot on each side of the end of the silencer pipe.  Then aided with some more silicon sealant I clamped the collector and silencer together.  All seems good, but I'll only know when I next run the engine.  Fingers crossed.

Front Suspension, Hubs and Brakes

Here are the very sorry looking Cortina uprights, discs and calipers bought from ebay.

These were dismantled and the discs discarded.  The uprights just needed the rust removing with a wire brush attachment in the drill before they could be masked and painted with Hammerite.

After cleaning the hubs I attempted to remove the outer bearing races.  Unlike the rears, which were easy to remove, these would not shift.  The task made harder by the fact that they need to be pushed from the opposite site, i.e. a tool was needed to get through the centre hole of the hub, from the other side.  In the end it looked my efforts were going to risk damaging the hubs, so I admitted defeat and took them down to my local engineering shop.  They removed the races the same afternoon for a small amount of beer tokens.

Here is one of the hubs with the new outer bearing races fitted and the wheel studs repaced for longer versions.  These are to accommodate the alloy wheels instead of steel.

The hubs were then painted.  After fitting new discs the centre of the disc was masked for painting, the part that is not swept by the brake pads.  The idea here is to prevent this from going rusty and looking unsightly behind the alloy wheels.  Time will tell if this area gets too hot for normal Hammerite paint.

The bolts that fix the discs to the Cortina hubs normally have locking tabs fitted.  Two were missing.  I fabricated two new ones from some thin sheet steel by tracing round one of the originals, cutting with a jigsaw and then finally filing in the vice, with the new and old clamped together as a guide.  Spot the difference?

Hub and disc ready for fitting.

Upright fitted to car.  Upper ball joint not fully torqued until the camber has been set.  This will be done at a later stage.

Hub assembly fitted to upright, using a new wheel bearing kit.  This was then torqued to the correct amount, as per the Cortina Haynes manual.  As one of the hub grease caps was missing I bought two new aluminimum ones from Rally Design.  They were not cheap, but are very well made.  Shame they won't be seen behind the centre of the alloy wheels.

I entertained the idea of renewing the calipers, but in the end it seemed too much effort when new ones can be bought from Rally Design for a very competitve price.  The old ones will go back on ebay.  Here are the new calipers fitted, along with a set of new EBC Green Stuff pads.

All complete, barring the fitting of the brake flexi hose.  This can only be done once the body shell is on.

Driveshaft Renewal

The driveshafts had previously been removed from the Sierra rear beam and set aside. Soon these will be needed for assembly onto the car. However, first they need to be renewed.

First the internal metal surfaces were masked in tape, i.e. those which go inside the final drive and the rear hub. Then a wire brush attachment in a drill was used to remove all loose rust. After degreasing, a couple of coats of smooth Hammerite were added.

The driveshaft gaiters were most likely the original from when Ford built the Sierra about 20 years ago. It seemed prudent to change these while the driveshafts were off the car. I used a 'slide-a-boot' kit for each. These were bought from eBay and can be used without having to dismantle the drive shaft.

First the old gaiter is removed. The cone is cut down to length and covered in the lubricant provided. The cone is placed over the end of the draftshaft and the gaiter is pulled over the cone on to the driveshaft. The gaiter needs to be pulled inside out beforehand. The gaiter is now pulled the back the right way, grease packed into the CV joint and finally the cable ties used to secure the two ends of the gaiter. The cable ties were used in preference to the metal bands as these were difficult to get tight.

Below the finished driveshaft, painted, gaiters replaced and ready for installation on the car. Same process for the other driveshaft.

Final Drive

Here is the final drive (differential) as it was removed from the donor Sierra rear beam. Quite sorry looking, with some oil on the case where the original oil seals had started to fail.


First job was to remove the nut on the prop shaft flange. Then the flange itself could be removed with a three legged bearing puller. The three oil seals were removed by pulling very hard with adjustable grips, being careful not to damage the inner surface of the final drive unit.

After spraying with water soluble degreaser the final drive unit was steam cleaned using a domestic steam cleaner and a small wire brush drill attachment. The result was very good, with all oil and dirt removed. During the cleaning the openings were covered to prevent debris, degreaser or water getting into the internals. A couple of coats of Hammerite special metals primer were added. This ensured the silver top coat would have good adhesion.


The final drive unit was then given two coats of smooth silver Hammerite. The prop shaft flange as well as the nuts on the rear of the unit were painted in black Hammerite. Then the new oils seals were installed, using a suitable drift and hammer. Camberley Auto Factors no longer stock oil seals or other parts for the Sierra, but eBay came to my rescue (yet again).

Here is the final drive mounted in the chassis using the new bolts and nyloc nuts provided by Tiger.

eBay is my friend

Up to this point I was still not in posession of a Type-9 five speed gearbox. It seems to be getting harder and harder to find a good example at a fair price (excluding fully re-conditioned units at £400, inc. bell housing).


Finally I won a good Type-9 on ebay for a reasonable price. Problem was, like so many, they are in other parts of the country. A 250 mile round trip was needed to pick this up. Apparently, this unit was bought as a spare by a Robin Hood owner. It was removed by the Robin Hood owner after driving the Sierra home and appeared to be working fine at the time. Fingers crossed, we'll find out if that is the case (much) later on.