A roadster build is not an overnight job like a caterham or westfield so the one thing you have is time to keep looking and find one local to you at a price your happy with bide your time and keep looking

Just my thoughts

Hope it helps

Dave

How long will it be before we are all looking back, regretting butchering sierras!

If i had started building a Locost when i 1st got the book and managed to get hold of a Mk1/2 escort as a donor, i'd be kicking myself.

Well - to be honest I don't know what to expect - so would currently accept that if I need to pay £500 and do a round trip from Essex to Devon to collect a driveable Sierra to butcher then so be it!!

jps......that IS the best attitude to have going into a roadster build ....there are ways and means to get around just about any problem that can arise.....and I am not saying it can be a money pit as anything can nowadays but persevere and stuff will become available just be eagle eyed on ebay ,papers, gumtree etc

Certanly agree with that.
I definitely regret butchering some of the now classic cars that I have owned over the years.

Would like to think that some of the better Sierras will escape untouched ( Folk are a lot more savy these days ) :)

Back to the original poster.

My advice, if you are set on going the Sierra route, bide your time as one will come along when you least expect it & at a price you are happy with.

Currently 3 Sierras in my drive.

Juniors daily driver.



Genuine one owner car & absolutely rot free, paid quite good money for that one.

Then there's these 2



The Red Sapphire was bought a couple of months back.
Came up localy on ebay, long mot & short tax, paid £325.
2 litre DOHC Ghia with automatic gearbox. Possibly too good to break ( Not been underneath it yet )

The Blue Sapphire was rescued from a field a couple of weeks ago, paid just short of scrap value for it.
2 litre DOHC fitted with a manual MT75 gearbox ( Definitley pulling that one apart )

Found another 2 litre Sierra in my local scrayard last week.
Fully intact other than the rear brake calipers, now missing some other parts because I had them. :D

As Bob says, they are still about if you are prepared to play the waitng game.

I was quite lucky in that my donor was only an hour's train ride away. I paid £500 for it as well but at least it came with a new mot so I could drive it home. If you live miles away from and get to the point in your build where you really need the parts to progress, it maybe a better option to just buy the bits you need from breakers or ebay and settle for a Q plate. Odds are it will work out the same sort of price by the time you add in the costs of moving a sierra that's a long way away...

There are some good resto projects goin g on in sierra land, and some mint low mile cars popping out of the tinwork.

I purchased possibly the last pair of rear chassis rails a few weeks ago, I have 2 genuine rear Saph quaters in the loft, a genuine rear sapphire panel and a genuine rear 5DR drivers side quater, 3 new wings and 2 slam panels.

If I ever get out of sierra ownership that stash will be worth some cash :)

TT

I bet your place is like a Fairy Grotto of Sierra parts Rob :) :cool:

That's the kind of stuff worth keeping for a very long time. :)

Cant agree with this. 2.0 Pinto with decent carbs and a tubular exhaust manifold gives plenty of poke in cars our weight even before changing cams and modding the head. It's a dead easy engine to maintain or upgrade, unburstable and of course works very well with the standard type 9 and diff ratios without having to mess about

Just thought i'd add an update in case anyone comes along and reads this in the future! I've spent the last few weeks looking for sierras and have seen probably about a dozen come up on eBay that would have fitted the bill - although none that were quite right (fuel injection, or DOHC engine, or no MOT and a LONG way from home)...

On Tues I saw one for sale near Bedford, only 80 miles away, and snapped it up for £390. A C reg, 1.6 L. Pinto and carbs, 3 previous owners with one of those having it from 1988 - 2009 and what the current owner thinks is a genuine 98000 from new.

This'll let me stick to a 'book' build and get an age related plate - and perhaps i'll install the Zetec and MT75 gearbox i've got once the car is registered and on the road...

Not quite the £30 of the book, but I didn't mind forking out that much. Especially as it has 12 months and 2 days of MOT left, I think i'll be cruising round in it a little bit until time comes to rip it apart.. :-D

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