Bit of wiring and Problem handbrake

Trying to fit the original ford wiring loom in was tricky as it was so big and long, but with a lot of electrical tape and cable ties it was in well enough to start building around it. A lot of the wiring would be cut out later on as it wasn't needed in my 2b.

You can just about see the handbrake arrangement in this photo. The problem is that where the bracket for the cable is welded it is hard up against the dion tube holding the diff leaving no reeom the get the cable through. You'll see later in the blog how I eventually solved this design flaw.

Throughout this build I didn't use the supplied "Instruction tapes" as they were pretty useless. Instead I followed other blogs and advice from RHOCAR and other 2b owners. This is what makes every 2b different from others.

Firewall

I didn't really like robin hoods idea for the scuttle so decided to try something for myself that would also hold the battery (instead of in the passenger footwell). I used marine ply and then planned to plate it with stainless steel sheets. It took a few attempts to work out but eventually made something that worked. You can also see the GBS Zero pedal box arrangement welded onto my frame.

Trial fitting panels

The original sierra wiring loom. I decided to keep this and use it instead of any other type as I figured it would give me the best chance of getting it going.

Trial fitting the interior panels. I was in fact missing some panels from the kit.

Engine fitting

Time to attempt to fit the engine!

As you can probably tell, this chassis wasn't exactly designed with this engine in mind. To get it passed the front I had to take off the water pump and crankshaft pulleys.

Eventually got it in and soon found out how much spare room was left for other things that needed to be in the engine bay.

Quick check to see if the bonnet would fit over the top

Engine

I cleaned up the engine as best I could and got a sump from an xr4i to replace the 4x4 one. I decided to not strip and rebuild it as the chances were that I'd get it wrong and I couldn't afford to have it professionally done.

All I did was paint it up and check that it wasn't seized.

Front wishbones on for trial fitting. I lost count of how many times I had these off and on during the build

Rear sierra frame

After a lot of struggling me and my friend Stuart finally got the rear diff and dion tube attached. The suspension at the back was on loan from Jez (There will be a lot of mentions of his name throughout this blog) until I could afford to buy my own.

One of the advantages of the xr4x4 was that it had rear disk brakes instead of drums.

Donor parts

After a lot of searching for a 2 litre or 1,8 litre donor I had all but given up. Then one day Jez from RHOCAR contacted me and said he had possibly found a donor fro me already stripped. As you have probably noticed it wasn't from a normal sierra. It was from a sierra xr4x4 and that meant it was a 2.9 v6. Alot bigger than the pinto, but as my choices were limited I decided to give it a shot. The gearbox was from ebay as a 2b can't be 4 wheel drive.

Painted frame

After a lot of hammerite, its finally black. Thought about powder coat but quickly realised that it would over time get scratched to pieces.

Where it all started

So this is what I started with. A bare chassis bought from GBS off ebay as the last 2b chassis they ever made. It came with a lot of parts but still needed more. This chassis was a hybrid of the 2b with parts of the zero, as you might see later in this blog. The pedal box and steering brackets were both off the 2b as was the handbrake arrangement (Which wasn't thought through very well). All in all this build took just over 3 years. And even though I had many problems the outcome was well worth it.