Great build but I'm now upto date after taking my times over the last few weeks reading the whole thread.

I might have revisit once a week now.

Thanks guys!

Porkie, Cheers! I'm not sure about 184, but on page 3 I mentioned Paul J's 179.8.

I finished another couple of small jobs tonight. The alloy spacer for the new steering column is complete. I had a lip added to the rear face to prevent the nylon bush sliding off, and the alloy spacer itself has a tapered bore to prevent it moving on the shaft. I had to sweat the spacer on to the column so it's certainly secure.


The new column fits perfectly!


A very minor job on the rear quarter trims. The plastic covers for the seat belt aperture weren't a very good fit and could have caused a small rattle, so I've put some felt tape around the aperture. The covers (not pictured here) are now a very snug fit.

Amazing project.

I do hope the car makes some appearances at Sunday Services over the coming summer!

+1

And in reference to Porkie, Yes it was Lucas trolley from one of the ford mags.

If you google the trolley 183.99mph it ll come up i think.

Edited: for spelling

Ha, sorry all I'm very busy with work at the moment so I haven't had chance to devote a great deal of time to the car, but here's a small update. All the following photos were taken on my mobile, so please excuse the poor quality.

Alcantara Roof Fittings
I've trimmed in Alcantara the sunroof mounting bracket and also two 'buttons' which secure the rear roof lining. They were previously a pale grey.


Poor photo, but the buttons are just visible either side of the rear light.


Cruise Control
I mentioned way back in the thread that cruise control was on my 'to do' list, although it was one modification I wasn't entirely sure would be possible, so now the steering column is mounted it seemed like a good time to find out. It's not the technicalities of the system itself that are the issue as I have a good understanding of how it all works, it's the Fiesta airbag clock spring that may prevent the retrofit. The clock spring is mounted behind the steering wheel and provides a way to continue the wiring loom through to the steering wheel mounted electronics. In the Mk3, Mk4, and Mk5 Fiesta there were only ever two wires to connect the drivers airbag, but if I am to integrate cruise control then I will need more to support the steering wheel mounted controls.

The Cruise Control system I've chosen is from a Mk1 Focus and requires three additional conductors in the clock spring. To start investigations I bought a clock spring from a Focus equipped with CC and stripped it down to find the extruded flat cable had nine conductors, the additional being for Focus specific features including a dual stage airbag. The Fiesta cable is on the left for comparison, and note that the thicker tracks are always for the airbag.


The clock spring is sandwiched between the column stalks/switches and steering wheel; moving the column switches was not possible, spacing the steering wheel was not a safe option and would leave an unsightly gap around the column trim, and I had ruled out machining of the steering wheel due to lack of material. The problem at this point then was how I could add tracks, but do so within the confines of the Fiesta clock spring housing. I tried several things and settled on including a cut down version of the Focus cable within the Fiesta housing together with the original Fiesta cable. This approach meant that I could leave the Fiesta airbag cable and terminations completely untouched, but the downside was that space in the housing was limited.

I produced a proof of concept build to test the theory and noted that the standard 6.5 turn capability of the Fiesta spring was reduced to 4.5 turns. The PAS rack in my car is 2.4 turns lock to lock which leaves 2.1 turns of excess in the spring. I knew that the same clock spring was used on all model variants and some came with a manual rack at 4.5 turns LtL, which gave an excess of 2 turns. This was slightly less than the excess I had with the PAS rack therefore I was happy that the concept was safe and had been proven.


Now I knew the conversion was possible I looked to perfect the steering wheel controls. I bought some Focus cruise control switches and a base model fiesta steering wheel and deployed airbag to work on. The donor Focus was well worn so all the white text on the buttons had worn off!


After a bit of trimming of both Fiesta airbag and Focus controls I had the controls sitting where I wanted them, and fabricated this bracket to mount them to the Fiesta steering wheel.


It fits snugly in the steering wheel and will be secured by 'fir tree' type trim clips through the two holes.


Controls screwed on.


Looks reasonable from the rear.


Complete. They're not the greatest looking switches in the world, but will fulfil a useful purpose.

Thanks all.

rohrl - http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/smoke.ht...

Top work on the cruise control mate, excellent indeed.

Is there any way to tidy up the rear of the wheel?

I presume you'll be adding some kind of 'anti chafe' protection to the wires that pass under the metal plate?

With your attention to detail, I'm sure you will be, but I had to ask!