“I DON’T DO MODIFIED IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE RESTORED AS STANDARD”
The decal for the bootlid had to be specially made when the car was resprayed. “It’s different to the 1980’s XR4i one so I measured it really carefully and photographed it a lot before the paint was stripped.”
Clean up crew
“Before that I’d started to clean it, then decided to get a professional to do a full valet inside and out. I was finding mouse droppings and so on. I then cleaned the engine bay and after the full respray of course that came back covered in dust. The guys were happy to clean it for the price of a drink or two. I also fitted new wheels and tyres.
“It’s still very original, that’s the engine it left the factory with and all the glass has the registration number etched in it. The numberplates are original and so is the radio with the amplifier underneath it. That gets a lot of attention whenever anyone sees it. With 67,800 miles on the car I suspect it might even be the original exhaust. I don’t do modified cars so it was always going to be kept in standard condition.
“I worked on the Sierra on odd days when the weather was nice and it took about two months then passed the MoT with no advisories,” remembers Andrew. “I’m really pleased with it and have no regrets about buying the car. Finding out it was rare was obviously a bonus but I’d have done it even it was a normal Sierra. Although I had one Sierra expert suggest to me that it might be a fake, which worried me because it’s proved completely impossible to research. There’s nothing online about these cars.
“It drives beautifully and with discs all round it stops great too. I like it, but I do really fancy something a bit older…”