100
Meanwhile, Ben set to work on the interior trim. ‘It needed new
headlining and trim clips, and there’s only one firm that makes
them– Aldridge Trimming. They managed to get a good colour
matchfor the headlining, with the right holes in it for the sunroof
andgrabhandles. But made to order with a glassfibre liner mould,
itwasgoing to take three weeks.’ At this point the JAR team knew
thecarwouldn’t make it to the RSOC show, but Ian was clear –
gettingthe restoration just right was more important. Just as well,
asthings were about to get complicated.
‘Thedashboard has heat cracks in it. A lot of Eighties plastic
dashboards, even Porsches, go the same way. Thankfully Ian had
managed to find an uncracked dashboard from an XR4i. We tried
toinstall it, but it just wouldn’t fit! We couldn’t work out why,
asthey looked exactly the same. I put them side-by-side and
measured them, and it turns out they’re designed to clear different
A-pillartrims, plus the shape around the dials is subtly altered too.
‘It’s not the RS Cosworth dashboard that’s special, but the
XR4i’s,because it was the luxury model with a multi-speaker
stereo.The Cosworth used the single-speaker dashboard from the
base1.3-litre three-door, and hardly any were sold in the UK. Most
survivors are left-hand drive, so European parts were no good.
‘Weconsidered sending the original away to be plastic-welded,
butwewanted to stay in control and were concerned it wouldn’t
comeback right, so we’ve refitted the cracked original. But Ian’s
onthehunt for a right-hand drive three-door donor Sierra!
Original dashboard reinstalled, the car was just a set of tyres
awayfrom completion. ‘The original-pattern Michelins are out
ofproduction, and neither Michelin nor Dunlop make suitable-
spec205/50 R15 tyres any more,’ said Jonathan. ‘So we went for
Yokohamas instead. Some of the racers used Yokos in period!’
Allfinished!
‘Ianwent to the show in his other Sierra Cosworth in the end,’
Jonathan chuckles. ‘And it was just as well because it chucked it
downanyway – the show was a total washout!’ But what did Ian
think of his new RS500?
‘I’ll never sell it now,’ he says. ‘It means too much to me
for that – it’ll go to my children. But I do plan to use it
- not just to exhibit, but to actually drive to shows and
events. And it’ll definitely include the RSOC Donington
meet this time around!’
n e x t
month
Mercedes
350se
[Epic Restoration] Ford RS500
‘Wecouldhaveleftthiswiringmessalone,tweaking it until it
worked, because at this point we were getting very close to the
August 2018 deadline. The car was supposed to be ready for the
RSOC show, and we could have rushed the restoration to get it
done in time, but we knew the car wouldn’t be right. We contacted
Ian and he agreed – getting the restoration done properly was
more important than putting the car on show. But we’d still try.’
Trim and details
‘It was the final touches that held the restoration up,’ says Ben. ‘But
because this car was intended for shows and concours, they had to
be right. For example, if a concours judge sticks their head under an
RS500, they’re looking for dummy suspension extension brackets.’
Racing RS500s had separate mounting points for rose-jointed
suspension, and as a homologation special the road car needed to
make provisions for them – just like the extra injectors. And on this
RS500 the brackets were missing.’
Explains Barry, ‘I had to fabricate the brackets from
photos. I think the originals were taken off in the accident,
or during the repair job, because they were only lightly
tack-welded into place at the factory. I couldn’t get
accurate measurements from photos so the first set ended
up too big, and I had to remake them from scratch.’
Ian is still on the hunt for
a replacement dashboard
All finished bar the odd elusive replacement
part, the RS500 respects originality – of both
factory and period-tuner spec – and usability
