Readly RF Feb 20

FIESTA XR2
Make no bones about it, this little pocket rocket
had been very neglected over the last few years
and needed a total full-on restoration. “The car had
already been stripped down to a bare shell and was
mounted on a rollover jig,” he tells us. “I dare say
many people would have turned and run a mile, but
cars like these need saving don’t they!” Never such
a true word was spoken, Niall, and who better than
to take on such a massive task than you.
“What I had was basically boxes of parts and a
rotten shell. It had sat outside for many years and
had not faired well at all,” he remembers. “The roof
around the sunroof opening had rusted through,
both outer sills and rear arches were rotten also,
and that was just the start of things as with further
poking around both front wings had rotted from
the inside out, along with the usual holes in the
inner sills and floor pans.” A long job ahead but
visualising just how grand this XR2 would be once
complete, is what really excited and drove Niall.
“It’s like anything such as this, the same as people
who renovate a house. You can’t just look at it how
it is at that time, always picture it as how you want
it to be.” At first, the plan was to restore the Fiesta
to standard spec and in light of this Niall had started
gathering the parts to do this. It was going well, but
with a struggle in sourcing some essential parts,
Naill headed in a new direction, he explains, “I just
couldn’t locate a good set of the rear plastic arch
covers which are part of the body kit. I even tried
searching for those from the Supersport all to no
avail.” For those of you that don’t know, the Mk1
XR2 came with plastic arch extensions along with a
front lip spoiler. “I found myself looking at pictures
online, which brought me on to some of the Mk1
Fiesta forums. On seeing a few with wider arches,
and 7” wheels fitted my mind was made up, so I
ditched the search for the kit!”
With the direction decided, it was time to tackle
the shell and get it back in tip-top shape. Out
came the welder, with Niall spending many hours
painstakingly fettling the replacement panels on.
“New front wings went on along with inner and
outer sills, an excellent second-hand scuttle panel
was grafted on too. “I welded up and made good all
the holes in the floor.”
You’ll recall a moment ago on how bad the
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