LS2 engine fits Firenza. Working on fitting out the interior

[matt mechanic]

martin hope your ok matt former employee of the numpty manock at turbo systems john the other mechanic has just had a little girl 3 days ago nice to see you doing well

[martin-reyland]

referance martin rayland firenza
martin are you the martin that i once knew from the days when i worked at turbo systems in stoke?

That's me

[yoeddynz]

More please.

[martin-reyland]

More please.

Forgot about updating here! Copied over from the snoot forum..

It's the small jobs that are taking the time now, here's the gear lever surround for instance..

Wooden mock up..



Alloy plate..



A bit of CNC machining..



Can you see what it is yet??



Trail fit...



Then its off to the chrome platers...



Mondeo electric window switches and a Civic type R hazard switch..



I'm fitting it all tomorrow so will post pics of the finsihed centre console hopefully.

Small update...

Centre console starting to look exactly how I'd hoped (handbrake gaiter still to be fitted!!)







Had to lengthen the panel to the left of the column (column centralised if you recall) and have added switches to suit my loom



Since the above pic was taken I have added the HRW switch, that in itself had a knock on effect that took a bit of time to work out... I hate HRW switches that continually stay powered up whilst driving and it bugs me that they're still on when the car is used again if left in the on position so I decided to work out how to wire in a timer relay that releases when the ignition is turned off. I used a Sierra relay which sadly didn't have the same pin configuration as the OE Rover 100 fuse box HRW relay socket, undeterred I made up a lead to do the job and then converted the latching switch to momentary and hey presto when armed the HRW stays powered up for about 15 mins and then turns off, if during that 15 mins the ignition switch is turned off the HRW is off when its turned back on



Next on my pet hate list is the HC interior mirror, this proved to be a bit of a mission as I wanted a newish mirror but also wanted a chrome stem that would tie in with the chrome door release handles, gear lever gaiter surround and gear knob. I found that a Triumph 2000 stem was chrome plated and fitted the Firenza interior lamp surround but sadly the ball that the mirror head clips into was 5/8" so I bolted that out hoping the Firenza ball would fit (both stems made by Tex) but that was a no go as it was too small (1/2") for the Ford (14mm) mirror that I had chosen, what a headache!! Here's how I attacked it..

Triumph, Vauxhall and Ford stems..



Triumph ball..





Threaded and Ford alloy ball tapped..







Next problem to fix was the pedals, these fitted perfectly prior to trimming but with Dynamatt, thick sound deadening and nice quality carpet they fouled when fully depressed, accelerator was worst as I could only get half throttle (I recon that might have been enough anyway!) and the clutch wasn't great so there wasn't a great deal of options, it was time to shorten the pedals!! The accelerator wasn't a problem at all as it's a Sierra jobbie made from steel, the bias pedal box on the other hand is cast alloy and the only safe way to shorten them was to cut the pads off and move them up 30mm, its all done now and works great. I added some alloy pedal pads which do look a bit max power in the pics but look great in the flesh..



Bolted together pre welding..



A bit of sneaky engraving that will hardly be seen ..





Trail fit pre painting properly..





The alloy pads will hopefully tie in the steering wheel alloy finish too..

[junkyarddog]

Wow

The attention to detail and sheer skill on this build is astonishing.

Looking forward to more updates on this

[hbpeter]

Totally amazing.

Peter

[oli8925]

+1 in the attention to detail. It's the kind of finish I dream of getting. Keep up the good work!

[GTpete]

Any chance of organising a meet at your place when your car is finished to see it in the flesh before any magazine articles?

[martin-reyland]

Any chance of organising a meet at your place when your car is finished to see it in the flesh before any magazine articles?

Yes that could happen, might even fire up the bbq!!

[GTpete]

Great, I am sure others will be interested too? Love to see your old Cossy Mondeo too?