SECOND CHANCE
Six years after selling his Dad’s old Mk2 Fiesta, Phil Ray managed to buy it back again and this time he’s never letting it go.
I’m a classic Mini fan at heart and have owned more than 10 of them over the years, many of which I’ve entered into concours events around the country,” explains 43-year-old Phil Ray. “I’ve also owned some cool Fords too, including an RS1600i and a Sierra Cosworth over the years, but I’d never actually aspired to owning a Mk2 Fiesta,” he laughs. And yet now, Phil’s Zetec-powered Fiesta is the favourite of his fleet.
Phil’s love affair with the Mk2 began rather unexpectedly when his Dad passed away in 2003 and his Mum tasked him with scrapping the car.
“My Dad had bought the Fiesta back in 1997 and loved it, so when he died I just couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it,” remembers Phil. “It drove terribly, but the body was good and rust-free so I decided to use it as the base for a project.”
Knowing there was still life left in the bodywork, Phil sourced a rust-ridden Mk2 XR2 for £300 and set about swapping out the 1.6-litre engine and the rest of the running gear into his Dad’s old car.
“This was back way before Mk2 Fiestas were worth anything and I’d never seen anyone bother doing an XR2 engine swap into a base model before,” he says. “I’m guessing it had been done, but it obviously wasn’t hugely popular, or commonplace for that matter.”
After a spell pressed into use as both his and his wife’s daily driver for a few years, Phil’s attention for the car waned and it ended up back on his Mum’s drive, where the years of hard use and youthful neglect had taken their toll. It was the usual suspects that had succumbed to the red rot including the front end, rear arches and the sills.
“A couple of years went by and, with no regular use, the car was only getting worse,” Phil recalls. “In fact, my Mum was in the position of having scrap collectors regularly knocking on the door to see if she wanted them to take it away!”
However, just like before, when faced with losing the car, Phil couldn’t let it go, so
decided to reverse the previous process and look for a new car to rehome the XR2 innards. He found what he was looking for in a non-runner in the same base spec, colour and trim that was for sale.
“This time, the bodywork was good, so I trailered it from London to my Mum’s driveway where I set about repeating the conversion to XR2 spec taking the mechanicals and interior from my Dad’s Mk2, which was then scrapped, and installing them into the new rust-free one.”
Surprisingly, after completing the swap, Phil decided it was finally time to let go and sold the Fiesta to fund the purchase of a Mondeo ST220 estate.
Fate intervened
Years passed and Phil thought little more about the Mk2, having his RS1600i and then the three-door Cossie to keep him entertained, but then a random event occurred in 2014 that intervened to see the pair reunited once again.
“I was on Facebook and noticed a Gumtree ad at the bottom where there was a postage stamp-sized photo of my old Fiesta staring back at me,” he says. “I recognised it instantly. It must’ve been fate, as to this day I haven’t used Gumtree to search for anything!”
After relaying his fateful experience to his wife, Sam – who instantly agreed he should buy the car back again – Phil immediately contacted the seller and, to his relief, the car was still available. £500 later and the car was back where it belonged on the Ray family driveway.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t in as good a condition as was when I sold it, with the sills and inner wings needing rust repairs and arches that had been butchered by the previous owner who had tried to solve a scrubbing issue with some low-offset Starmag alloys,” sighs Phil. “But once again I dragged it back home, to my own house this time, to start the process all over again.”
At the time Phil was knee-deep in the restoration of a Mini 1257GT, which was sitting on a rotisserie in his garage, but the
revival of his Dad’s Fiesta now took priority. “Technically, at this point, it’s not really my Dad’s car anymore, as it’s had more new parts than Trigger’s broom, but to me it will always be ‘Dad’s car’ and that’s what makes it so special to me and worth saving.”
Over the next few months, Phil worked tirelessly on the Fiesta to bring it back to its former glory with the intention to use it as a daily driver. However, with more modern alternatives to use, the Fiesta was soon relegated to weekends, so Phil decided to do something a bit more special with the car that was quickly becoming his favourite toy.
“I’ve always liked sleepers and had completed Zetec conversions on cars in the past, so once the seed was planted in my mind, I set out to find a suitable donor car to give up its engine,” Phil says. “And in 2015 I bought a Mk5 Escort 1.8 Cabriolet that I could cannibalise for the parts.”
Transplant time
Once the donor car had been stripped of all parts necessary for the conversion, the rest was sold on to recover as much of the cost as possible. This just left Phil with the job of removing the CVH motor and transmission from the Fiesta and the transplant could begin.
With the empty engine bay and all the new engine parts cleaned, serviced and painted to look like new, an Escort Si IB5 gearbox was sourced and fitted along with an Escort GTi flywheel and clutch.
“There were a few bits of custom fabrication work that needed to be done in order to get it all to work, such as modifications to the alternator pulley and to the block to allow things to fit or line up correctly, but it’s nothing too serious,” Phil explains. “The engine mounts obviously needed altering too, along with fitting the Zetec loom and ECU, which is mounted behind the dash out of sight.”
A Pipercross induction kit was then added to allow the Zetec to fill its lungs more easily, while a Zetec downpipe feeding a Sportex exhaust system was drafted in to ensure the waste gases could exit as efficiently as possible.
“I would’ve preferred a standard XR2 exhaust really,” Phil reveals. “But that would’ve caused a big restriction and limited power, so the Sportex was the next best solution.”
The fuel lines were also replaced with 8 mm items and a new injection tank fitted with a Bosch 044 fuel pump, while water pipes were made by combining a selection of CVH and Zetec items.
With the engine swap complete and running sweetly, complete with modified gear linkage and throttle cable, Phil equipped the Fiesta with a set of XR2 steels which he had powdercoated and fitted with some fresh Toyo rubber.
“The steels looked great on the Fiesta but I needed to lower it slightly to get them to sit in the arches better,” Phil says. “So I fitted a set of new dampers and 50 mm lowering springs from the Fiesta Centre.”
Sorted suspension
Combined with the higher profile rubber, the uprated suspension not only gave the Fiesta the squat stance that Phil desired, but also
improved the ride quality, too — a nice side effect that makes long journeys in the 1980s hatch much more comfortable. And another nice touch that greatly enhances the driving pleasure of Phil’s 1980s icon is the gorgeous leather interior.
“I’d had a few interiors retrimmed in the past and always felt that a good retrim really lifts a whole car, especially when you are behind the wheel,” Phil says. “So when I sold my Cosworth in 2018 I decided to treat myself to a new interior and sent the mismatched XR2 Recaros, the stock rear bench, door cards and steering wheel off to the guys at Moss Upholstery to be covered in Mullberry red leather.”
The gorgeous retrim is a real highlight of the Mk2 and contrasts perfectly with the refreshed white paintwork, which Phil painstakingly wet-sanded and machinepolished to remove any orange peel or runs and give it the same flawless finish that he has achieved with the rest of the car.
“With the paint now looking its best, I started thinking about finishing touches and that lead me to graphics,” Phil recalls.
“I considered a full racing livery but there was only one period 1980s design that I really liked and that would’ve involved painting some areas of the car to achieve it, so I started looking at other less extreme designs.”
What Phil settled on was the cool 1300S-style side stripes, which he had custom made by DMB Graphics in the same colour as the seats and with 1800S numbers to match the car’s new 1.8-litre engine displacement.
“I hadn’t put a decal kit on for about 20 years, so I was a little hesitant to start with but, in the end, it worked out great!” he beams. “I really think it adds a nice final flourish to the car, that also ties the interior into the overall colour scheme.”
And we couldn’t agree more. And although it may not be the exact same car that his dearly departed Dad used to drive around in, we’re sure he would approve of what Phil has been able to achieve, and would be glad that his car-mad son grabbed his second chance with both hands and built himself a Zetec-powered cult classic that, this time, will definitely be a keeper.
“I HADN’T PUT A DECAL KIT ON FOR 20 YEARS SO I WAS A LITTLE HESITANT, BUT IT TURNED OUT GREAT”