BRIAN BRIAN_WIFE CLOTH_MAKER DARREN EMMA FUZZ_TOWNSHEND HOWELL MALE_WITH_CAP_ON MALE_WITH_GREY MALE_WITH_SHORT_GRAY NARRATOR TIM_SHAW NARRATOR Today, on Car SOS, dyed in the wool petrol-head Tim Shaw, TIM SHAW I love this car, absolutely. It's just stonking. NARRATOR And mechanical maestro Fuzz Townshend, FUZZ TOWNSHEND Oh, d'you know, I love the smell of gearbox oil. NARRATOR Are once again on their undercover mission to rescue classic cars for deserving owners. This time the boys go back in time to the 1980s. TIM SHAW But what a stunning hot hatch it is. NARRATOR Tim joins the local art class. TIM SHAW It's gonna blow your pants off. NARRATOR Fuzz invents a new plate. FUZZ TOWNSHEND I could eat my dinner off this. NARRATOR And the stage is set to make another automotive dream come true. TIM SHAW This is your car. MALE WITH GREY HAIR, GLASSES My God. MALE WITH SHORT GRAY HAIR, FACIAL HAIR And it's mine. MALE WITH CAP ON It's gotta be one of the best days of my life. NARRATOR Today, Tim and Fuzz are off to north Wales where a not so hot hot hatch awaits. FUZZ TOWNSHEND So here we are on the beautiful Isle of Anglesey, Timmy boy. TIM SHAW Yes, we're on holiday. We're on holiday. Yes, I love holidays. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yes, well, we're not on holiday today, we're here to do some work, because we are picking up Ford's first ever hot hatch. Yes, it is the XR2. TIM SHAW R2, Mark I. NARRATOR Launched in 1976, the common or garden Ford Fiesta was a success from the word go. A cheap, presentable alternative to the five door hatchbacks that were coming out of Europe. It did however, take another five years before Ford unleashed the high performance edition, the XR2, a hot hatch that was just about perfect for the 1980s. The recipe was simple, install a highly tuned 1.6 litre [UNIT CONVERSION 2.81 pints] engine, stiffen the suspension and make it affordable. The car was capable of 84 brake horsepower and sub ten second 0-60 at a top speed of 105 miles an hour [UNIT CONVERSION 168 kiometers per hour] but really, it was those spot on 80s good looks that sold it. Essential go-faster stripes, spoilers, spotlights and not forgetting the distinctive pepper pot alloy wheels. Nowadays this may all look positively tame, at the time its R2 lowered stance and black plastic body kit turned the Fiesta, a granny shopper, to a proper boy-racer. If ever there was a car that encapsulated a decade, it was the XR2. For once, it was made in Blighty, but mind you, the one the boys are about to pick up, looks more like it was made in a leaky bucket factory. TIM SHAW For me, it was the first car that really went to town on its looks, as a little hot hatch. The XR2 Mark I absolutely changed the future of the appearance of cars. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, it did. TIM SHAW The daddy of all hot hatches. NARRATOR Well, today's once nifty hot hatch is owned by 46 year old IT engineer Brian, who, 13 years ago, decided to take the big step to embark on a full nut and bolt restoration, a potential show-winner. His choice of weapon, an XR2. Sadly for Brian, things were not to turn out quite the way he wanted, a serious illness that put him and his project at a standstill. FUZZ TOWNSHEND But it was a marketing department's dream, TIM SHAW Yes. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Because it looked so great and it handled well and everybody wanted one. Let's get on with it. Let's go and see what we're gonna get. NARRATOR It was Brian's daughter Emma and family friend Howell that wrote to SOS hoping that Tim and Fuzz could be the cavalry that come to the XR2's rescue. TIM SHAW Emma, lovely to meet you. EMMA Hi. TIM SHAW Tim and Fuzz, you alright? Right, where's your dad? EMMA He's in work. TIM SHAW Are we safe? Are we clear? EMMA Yeah. TIM SHAW Okay, what's this place then? Where are we? HOWELL This is my garage. Brian basically thinks that it's come here for a bit of fettling and I've bought one other garage into the ruse, about 30 miles [UNIT CONVERSION 48.28 kilometres] away. TIM SHAW So if he comes here to see it, oh, it's not here, it's there? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Can we have a look? HOWELL Two seconds. TIM SHAW Right then. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Ah, yes. TIM SHAW Wow, look at that. What a stunningly, beautiful hot hatch it is. FUZZ TOWNSHEND This is just a rolling shell. It's a stripped car and that is never a good thing. Here, it's nicely presented on a palette and in boxes and stuff. TIM SHAW Hang on, hang on. Do we know if it's all here? HOWELL I think it's safe to assume it isn't. FUZZ TOWNSHEND There we go, so it isn't all here. TIM SHAW Right, so we have a lot of the stuff, FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, we got some. TIM SHAW But mostly importantly, we've got your dad's car and this is why we're here. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Right. Okay. TIM SHAW Let's go. Let the old man whinge to himself. FUZZ TOWNSHEND The problem with taking on a car that is incomplete, is that we haven't stripped it, so we don't know where everything is. We can't just go and ask Brian. We've got boxes and boxes of parts. We don't know if we've got all of 'em or if the ones that are in there, are any good. This is gonna be a big job. This thing is gonna bite us on the backside. TIM SHAW Tell me about your dad. What kinda guy is he? EMMA Well, he's very friendly, likes a joke. He loves a natter. Loves to know everybody's business but he loves to know everybody's business, so he knows where he can help out. Just the other day he went down to volunteer on our local pier, to fix out one of the kiosks, because parts of it had broken off, so, you know, he's handy in a garage but he's, you know, handy in a workshop as well. TIM SHAW What does the XR2 mean to him? EMMA He's always liked Fords and he's always liked Fiestas. One of his first cars was a gold Fiesta that he had. TIM SHAW Really? Does he love that car? EMMA He does. It was a barn find when he got it. It was absolutely rotten, covered in moss, completely falling apart. He's had it about ten years now. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Starting off, got a bonnet, little rust holes here and there that we need to address. There's nothing in there, barring a steering rack, and looking in through the missing windscreen, I can see that, yeah, it's had some work done to the floor, but let's have a look. Okay, we've got a bit of rot down the bottom of the doors. We've got corrosion that's eaten into the window panel here and there's work to do on the tailgate. We've got little rust holes, rust pinholes, a little bit of corrosion here and we've got our interior, there's a few little cigarette burns and stuff like that in the seats. I'm hoping that that engine has been rebuilt and that the gearbox is serviceable. What I haven't seen though, is a whole car. This Fiesta's going nowhere fast. TIM SHAW Why is the Fiesta like that? What's happened in your dad's life? EMMA At the start of 2023, he fell really ill. He was vomiting in work, you know, rushing to the toilet to be sick in the sink. He had actually finally gone to the doctors and as he was getting out of bed, he got a call from them and they said, "You need to go to hospital now, you've got sepsis." If we'd left it any later, they said 24 hours, he would have been dead. He lost about 2 stone [UNIT CONVERSION 12.7 kilograms] over the month that he was in hospital. He looked skeletal really. TIM SHAW What next? FUZZ TOWNSHEND It transpired, "You have cancer." Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. TIM SHAW Cancer of the blood? EMMA Yeah, and that's why he had the sepsis, 'cause he was immunocompromised. They'd caught it early, thanks to the sepsis, funnily enough. As my mum puts it, "He's not dying of cancer, he's living with cancer." A short walk down the road, that could be over-exerting himself for him. Something like that will just set him back for the rest of the day and he can't function. TIM SHAW How's he doing emotionally? EMMA He just felt like he'd had the rug pulled from underneath his feet. TIM SHAW What do you think it would mean to your dad, to be in his little Fiesta? EMMA He doesn't know how long it's gonna take for him to put it back together. He thinks years and he's thinking, do I even have years anymore. He is a petrol- head and at the end of the day, a car to a petrol-head, it means the world. TIM SHAW It's everything. EMMA So, I think it'd be amazing. TIM SHAW We'll load it up and we'll get it out of here and we'll get stuck into it. Alright? EMMA Alright. TIM SHAW Go on then, let's go. TIM SHAW Is it emotional to see it go? EMMA Yeah, in that, the emotion I'm feeling is happiness. TIM SHAW Great, 'cause it's gonna get done? EMMA Yeah. TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND All tied up this side. TIM SHAW Howell, lovely to meet you, mate. HOWELL Very nice to meet you, mate. TIM SHAW Get out of here. FUZZ TOWNSHEND See you then, Emma, take care. HOWELL See ya later. TIM SHAW See you soon, guys. FUZZ TOWNSHEND See ya. TIM SHAW See ya later. EMMA Bye. TIM SHAW Bye. Cheers, guys. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Bye. TIM SHAW Good looking car though, ain't it? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Well, they are good looking cars. TIM SHAW They're a nostalgic car that throw you right back to when you were a kid, those bad boys. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, little icons. TIM SHAW Enjoy the calm before the storm, Fuzz. Where we're going, it's gonna be rough waters, man. NARRATOR Yes, the shipping forecast looks gloomy as they head back to the workshop. Have they landed themselves an XR2 or hauled up a quivering wreck? TIM SHAW Right, Fuzzbot, for the first time ever since the beginning of sausage, I am not gonna need a screwdriver to prod and poke with this one, I reckon it's a pint glass, mate, straight down the pub. It looks like it's been done by us. It's already covered in stone chip and painted. We've got new brake lines, new springs. Lovely new stainless bolts. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW Nice. Bingo. FUZZ TOWNSHEND That's great as an exhibition car. TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND However, what about a car that's gonna go down the road? TIM SHAW One of the things that I know about stainless is it's quite brittle and it should never usually be used in places of high stress and what have you. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, exactly. TIM SHAW High load. FUZZ TOWNSHEND That's good. Keep the enthusiasm levels up, because look, look at the doors, okay? The door's pretty rotten. Oh, hold on, what's all that on the wheel arch there? It's all chewed away. Just come over here. TIM SHAW What? FUZZ TOWNSHEND We've got the inner flitch here. TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND It just looks like little plug welds there. TIM SHAW Yeah. So a plug weld, you've got two flat pieces of metal, you wanna weld them together. So you drill a hole in one and fill it up with weld, but it welds the two together. FUZZ TOWNSHEND That's right. It's pretty good, they're pretty strong. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, it's kinda like it's just tacked on. TIM SHAW It's not enough, is it? FUZZ TOWNSHEND No. TIM SHAW The fact that it looks good, doesn't mean it is good. FUZZ TOWNSHEND What we really need to know is, whether it's been done properly and, most importantly, we need to look at that little lot there and find out if we've got the rest of the car. TIM SHAW I agree with you. FUZZ TOWNSHEND The penny's beginning to drop, I believe. NARRATOR Tim and Fuzz are about to get busy with a 1983 Ford Fiesta XR2, a British hot hatch that's more like a jigsaw puzzle than a car. TIM SHAW Right, Mr Know-It-All, let's line everything out. All this stuff here, let's put it where it goes, so we know what we've got and what we haven't got. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Okay, gotcha, right. NARRATOR Yes, it's always good to have hundreds of parts for a car, unless of course, you're not the one who stripped them off, because then, they cease to be car parts and become hundreds of little headaches. TIM SHAW So what's the plan then? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Right okay, so the plan is, I'm looking at the engine and gearbox there, so I'd like to start that engine up and just check it over, to make sure it's been built properly. TIM SHAW Right. Let's just have a little look around this car. We've got the wings, we've got the lights, we've got the skirts, we've got the centre console, we've got the wiring loom, we've got spare drive shafts, we've got the back seats, we've got wheels. Back end sorted, rear lights, boot spoiler, get in there. FUZZ TOWNSHEND The dash is absolutely shocked, cracked absolutely everywhere. Now also, one of the biggest problems is what you're sitting on. There's a rip there. TIM SHAW It's mouldy around the front. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW There's a rip there in it. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW Right into the pinstripe. Oh, a cut in the worst possible place, because it's in the middle of the pin-striping, so you can't just stitch that up, 'cause it'll look like a scar. FUZZ TOWNSHEND And another thing, pull that door card back, so we've got two door cards; one with vertical stripes, one with horizontal. TIM SHAW This one is scrap. FUZZ TOWNSHEND The likelihood of being able to get any of this material, is, I would say. TIM SHAW Zero. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, that's the one. I'm afraid, this is a seat too far. TIM SHAW What are you looking at me like that for? It's the last thing I need. NARRATOR Yes, Tim might initially have thought he was in for an easy ride but, in reality, it's a top to bottom rebuild and all the trials and tribulations that go with it. For a start, that 1,600cc engine appears to have been fully rebuilt, but has it? Appearances, as we know, can be deceptive. That will require a full inspection and if that doesn't go well, a full rebuild. Then there's the interior, or more accurately, lack of interior. Brian was aiming to get the Fiesta to a show-winning standard, so that dirty old fabric will have to go but, where do you get new 1980s seat fabric in this day and age? And then there's the really big concern, putting everything back together. As the entire car, every wire, every dial, every bit of trim has been removed and until they're refitted, we just don't know what will work, what won't and what is or isn't missing and the bits that looked okay, are now starting to pop up on Fuzz's radar. FUZZ TOWNSHEND On the face of things, the Fiesta doesn't really look all that bad, but when you start to look more closely, then you start to find all the little problems that we're gonna have to sort out. Take for instance, this seal here, now for the front, it should continue, but it's been cut which means that we've got a single skin piece here. If you had a significant knock at the front, it could just hinge up. When we come around to this side, we've got a hotch-potch of panels that have been welded on top of the corroded metal. And on the inside, the welding may not be connecting the side with the arches here, in what should be a strong monocoque shell. It's gotta be done right, 'cause if it's not, this will just be a flimsy house of cards. NARRATOR So a biblical amount of re-welding goes onto the list, luckily Tim has recently become a man of the cloth. TIM SHAW This is rapidly becoming a nightmare. If you could see how many phone calls and how many people I've annoyed, trying to find this cloth, this stuff here, the cloth for the XR2. Nobody makes it and I've found a place that weaves silk and cotton for the Royal Family. I am praying that these guys will be able to make us some cloth. TIM SHAW Hello. CLOTH MAKER Hello. TIM SHAW Hello, mate, how you doing? 'Cause I'm looking for some major help, can you make this material? CLOTH MAKER It looks like a woven fabric to me, so you've come to the right place possibly. We can take it through to Darren in design and he'll be able to tell us, pretty much straight away. TIM SHAW Okay. CLOTH MAKER Yeah, follow me. CLOTH MAKER Come in. Darren, we wanna find out whether it's a knitted fabric or a woven fabric. DARREN Yeah, I'm fairly certain it's woven. I'll just take a quick scan on my phone and get it up on the computer. CLOTH MAKER Well, Darren's gonna get an imagine of the fabric, to establish exactly what size the yarns are and the exact colour of the yarns, how many threads per inch there are. TIM SHAW Right, so what can you tell from looking at that, Darren? DARREN It's definitely woven and it's a quite simple weave, probably two in one, so we can recreate that quite easily. TIM SHAW Yes, fantastic and it's a simple one, I heard that as well. DARREN Yep. TIM SHAW Right, sweet. Can we actually smash some out today? Can we get it done? CLOTH MAKER Certainly not today, no. There's a process to go through, it takes about eight to ten weeks. TIM SHAW It's longer than we have to restore the entire car. CLOTH MAKER Oh, I'm sorry, but let me show you exactly what we need to do. Follow me. NARRATOR Oh, dear, a potential time delay so early in the rebuild could spell disaster. Let's hope that Fuzz has better news when he probes into the car's 1,600cc Kent Crossflow engine. Could it really be as good as it looks? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Here's the engine out of the Fiesta and I've loosened off the spark plugs already. Place 'em in that box. I have this little tool, an endoscope. Put it on, picture of me, I hope. Pop it inside thebores, and I'm just gonna have a little look around there, just turn the engine a little bit, just going down, right. Just looking at the cylinder walls. There's a bit of pitting and also some scoring of the bore, so that doesn't look great. Let's just look in number one cylinder. I can see those same sort of marks. Little bits of rust where condensation has taken hold and rusted the cylinder walls. We need to take a further look inside this engine. Off with the rocker cover. We'll remove our valve rockers. I'm just using a piece of card to store the push rods, so that they match the wear on each of these little balls here. Seven and eight. Off comes the cylinder head, there we go. Remove the cylinder head gasket and those valves where they're pretty old, are starting to get worn out, we can really see all those little pits and pot marks. But what's more telling is, the lip at the top. Now the pistons have piston rings around them. Where those piston rings run in the bores and going up and down, up and down, up and down, gradually they wear the bore larger. There's no point in putting this back in the car like this. This is a rebuild. We're gonna have to remove the crankshaft, so we may as well replace the bottom end bearings at the same time. NARRATOR Well, that's that then, not one single part of this car has had a clean bill of health. NARRATOR Back at the fabric factory, has Tim managed to save a stitch in time? CLOTH MAKER Welcome to the mill. TIM SHAW This is incredible. CLOTH MAKER These are all bobbins of cotton yarn, two different colours. There's about 300 bobbins on there but the threads are being drawn off through the reed and around the warping mill to make the length of the fabric. 300 individual threads but once we've made up the sections, they'll be about 9,000 individual threads in the warp. TIM SHAW Right, so the length is called the warp. CLOTH MAKER Yes. TIM SHAW And what's the bit that way called then? CLOTH MAKER That's called the weft. TIM SHAW The weft? CLOTH MAKER The weft. When that's ready, it goes into the back of the warp reading for weaving. TIM SHAW How old is this machine? CLOTH MAKER The machine is about 100 years old. TIM SHAW Okay, so where does the weaving happen? CLOTH MAKER The weaving happens in another part of the mill. TIM SHAW Sweet, can we see that? CLOTH MAKER This way. Jan, do you mind turning the loom off for me? Thanks. TIM SHAW Wow. CLOTH MAKER This is a weaving machine. TIM SHAW Right. CLOTH MAKER Otherwise known as a loom. TIM SHAW Okay. CLOTH MAKER A prehistoric weaver would understand what's happening here, because weaving hasn't changed at all. TIM SHAW Right. CLOTH MAKER The principles of weaving are identical from when the first person ever wove anything. You've got the warp threads, which are coming in from the back, these threads, which are being lifted and lowered by the harness and there's a gap that's created between the threads that are lifted and lowered, whereby the weft is passed through that. Jan can inch the loom over, so you can see how the process works. TIM SHAW Right. CLOTH MAKER So these are the rapier heads. It'll meet the other rapier head in the centre and it will continue the journey the full width of the fabric. TIM SHAW So it's go below some, above some, below some and that's creating the design. CLOTH MAKER That's creating the design. TIM SHAW So right until this process here, everything in this factory is individual threads. HOWELL Individual components, if you like, like a car, that come together at this point. TIM SHAW 9,000 threads come in from the back? CLOTH MAKER Yes. TIM SHAW Not connected at all? CLOTH MAKER No. TIM SHAW Each one of those is controlled and lifted up or lowered, to create a gap, depending on the design and not only that, but it weaves the lot together. CLOTH MAKER Exactly, it makes it a stable fabric. TIM SHAW And this whole process you've shown me, is precisely why it takes. CLOTH MAKER It takes eight to ten weeks, TIM SHAW To make some cloth? CLOTH MAKER To get to this stage. TIM SHAW For an XR2, nice and simple grey, with a strip of red and blue in it. CLOTH MAKER If you push me, I could probably do it in about a week. NARRATOR Yes, he always gets his way in the end. Back at the workshop and what at first looked like a reasonable shell has turned out to be pants and in need of a full bodywork treatment. So, all the panels are being relined up, all the rust has been welded over, exposed, cut out and replaced with stronger steel. In fact, the sparks are starting to fly. Good timing, taking Fuzz to nip out, to take a trip down memory lane. TIM SHAW Right, Mr Fuzzbottom, X to the R to the 2. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Okay, so welcome home, Timmy. Now I passed my test in a Ford Fiesta Mark I. TIM SHAW So one of these, but not an XR2? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Not an XR2, it was a 1.1L [UNIT CONVERSION 2.3 pints]. When I passed, my mum said, "Well, look, if you've paid for the insurance, you have the car." TIM SHAW No way. FUZZ TOWNSHEND I was like, "Yes." A two year old car when I was 17. TIM SHAW Wow. FUZZ TOWNSHEND And that was great. This was the aspirational Fiesta, so this is the moment that I have been waiting for since 1981. TIM SHAW No way. Why I hold it in such high regard. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW Is because they created something with this car. They sat down and they said, we want a different look, we wanna care about the outside. Spoilers front and back, that skirting that makes it look a little bit like a hovercraft. That has changed, completely changed the appearance of cars from thereon in. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Also, if you think about the decals on the outside, the sort of fading into the lines and all that kinda thing, TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Made it look very special indeed. TIM SHAW And kind of aggressive and a bit rally. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, very much so. This set the tone for the next 20 years. TIM SHAW So what is the drive experience? FUZZ TOWNSHEND We're still in the 1970s. TIM SHAW Right. FUZZ TOWNSHEND We've got manual steering, which at low speeds, feels quite heavy. TIM SHAW So no assistance? FUZZ TOWNSHEND No assistance at all. You've got slightly wider tyres, TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND So of course, that means that. TIM SHAW Heavier steering. FUZZ TOWNSHEND You know, once you get going, it's brilliant. And now, we're going downhill, brakes, what are they like? Actually, they're alright. TIM SHAW Feels as a passenger, like, it's driving so well. It shows that in the last 40 years, when it comes to the basics of how cars work, yeah, we've filled them with technology. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Over-stuffed them. TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Like a great big over-stuffed turkey. TIM SHAW Exactly. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Whereas this is a neat little partridge on a plate. TIM SHAW It is, isn't it? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW Right, give it some beans. Right, come on then. Red lining, go on and again. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Okay. TIM SHAW Actually, keep it on, keep it on. Take it up to six, come on. It's actually sticking pretty well, isn't it? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Well, that's just as well, 'cause that was quite a tight bend. [LAUGHS] TIM SHAW Why does it feel like you're going so quick, when you're not? FUZZ TOWNSHEND That's because it's only got four gears, so you're revving it all the time. You've got that loud revvy, peppy, sporty feel without actually, necessarily going particularly quickly. TIM SHAW It's great, isn't it? It's a great little car. FUZZ TOWNSHEND It feels agile. It feels sporting. It feels taut. It's quite loud in here, quite noisy, but the fun's still there. The thrill's still there and on roads like this, going through Wales, this is absolutely brilliant. However, that spoiler on the back, TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND I don't think it needs it really. TIM SHAW No I don't. [LAUGHS] FUZZ TOWNSHEND It's great. I love it. I really love it. It's been an absolute treat. I've just passed my test, I'm gonna go and pick up my girlfriend, TIM SHAW Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Gonna go out for a spin, brilliant, love it. TIM SHAW It's a time machine. It's a time machine, Fuzz. It's a time machine. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. NARRATOR So the XR2 gets an overwhelming stamp of approval from the boys. At the workshop, stamping is what the bodywork team are gonna do when they're asked to do yet another late night on this monumental restoration. TIM SHAW I've been given your number about some Fiesta parts, backing plates for the brakes, track rods. Okay, no worries. Thanks very much. NARRATOR Tim and Fuzz have taken on the very essence of the 1980s, a Fiesta XR2. A once compact, fast Ford that was well on its way to the scrap heap. FUZZ TOWNSHEND The front balance wasn't quite in the right place, so now, that flange has been brought into contact with the other side of the flange, so that this could be welded together. NARRATOR This huge project was started by IT engineer Brian, whose ambition was to fully restore the car and take it to shows. However, when he contracted Lymphoma, his Fiesta dream fell by the wayside. EMMA As my mum puts it, "He's not dying of cancer, he's living with cancer." NARRATOR Since arriving at the workshop, the car turned out to be a massive undertaking, because if Brian wants a show-winner, then it's got to be perfect. Daughter Emma is here to find out if her dad's car is in the pink or on the brink. TIM SHAW Right, well, we're not hiding it under a cover for you. So it's changed slightly, what are your first impressions? EMMA Different colour bonnet. TIM SHAW Different colour bonnet. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. EMMA How bad was it? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Well, you know, we found little bits that we've had to do, bits of welding here and there and putting extra panels in. We've inspected the engine, that's off getting a bit of machining. Let's hope that nothing springs to the fore that does a wrong foot and is gonna trip us up. TIM SHAW Is your dad missing it at all? He is like, "What's going on? Where's my car?" EMMA He's alright. He's keeping himself occupied with a bit of DIY and just trying to get on with things really. Not suspicious at all. TIM SHAW So we are in the clear? EMMA Yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND But there's one other thing, EMMA Oh, no. TIM SHAW No, it's a good thing. Car manufacturers, they release certain limited editions and this car was one of only two that rolled off the production line. Your dad is a stickler for originality, isn't he? EMMA Yeah. TIM SHAW So the order of the day is getting it right, as it came out of the factory, absolutely to the nail. EMMA Yeah, ideally. TIM SHAW To the tee. The colour of the vehicle as you see it now, or the colour of the vehicle that your dad assumed it should be. EMMA Yeah. TIM SHAW Is not the colour that it came out of the factory at all. EMMA Oh. TIM SHAW And the car's getting sprayed tomorrow. So would you like to see the colour that this car rolled out of the factory? EMMA I'm worried now. TIM SHAW No, no, don't be worried. How you feeling? EMMA Is it not red? TIM SHAW But original's what matters right? EMMA Yeah, okay. No, go on. TIM SHAW This is the original colour of the car. EMMA No way. TIM SHAW Yes, way. One of two. EMMA Oh, no. [LAUGHS] TIM SHAW So these are, have been prepped, painted, lacquered, ready to rock. The car goes into paint tomorrow. EMMA [LAUGHS] TIM SHAW What? EMMA Oh, it's funny. FUZZ TOWNSHEND It's a strong look. It is a strong look. EMMA Yeah, it is. TIM SHAW Hang on, what are you thinking at the moment? EMMA Well, it's pink, ain't it? TIM SHAW Yeah. EMMA Ah, he's gonna look like Ken driving around, isn't he? [LAUGHS] If it's genuinely the case that this is only one of two and it did originally come in this colour, to find out that he has what is inherently something quite rare, I think he'll be fine with it. But, yeah, it's a strong look, isn't it? [LAUGHS] TIM SHAW There is something we'd like to show you about what you're looking at here. There's a new paint that's just hit the market. EMMA Oh, funny. You're very funny, aren't you? TIM SHAW [LAUGHS] Did we get you? EMMA Can you wrap my car in that then? TIM SHAW It's not a wrap. It's actually a paint. You can sand it, you can lacquer it and underneath there is actually the genuine colour. Your dad got it right. EMMA Phew. TIM SHAW I'm sorry, but we had to do it though. EMMA I hate you. [LAUGHS] TIM SHAW The reveal, giving the car back to your dad, the red car, the red Fiesta as it rolled out of the factory. Not the pink, not the Ken doll car. Right, how could we make it happen? Where can we make it happen? How far will your dad travel? What's he into? EMMA Cars. TIM SHAW Cars. EMMA In the state he's in, he can't really travel for more than a couple of hours. TIM SHAW That gives us a lot of scope for coming up with something creative. Well, safe journey back and we'll see you at the reveal. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, sorry about the joke reveal. NARRATOR Yes, there's nothing like a funny practical joke and that was nothing like a funny practical joke, but it does mean that the deadline has been set. Brian will also be on the end of a Car SOS scam, as he's going to be unwittingly roped in to visiting a high end car showroom. One particular vehicle will hopefully catch his eye. Of course before then, there's a long way to go, but as all the concealed rust, poor welds and unfinished repairs have now been sorted, the prep for paint has begun and while the big transformation takes place, Fuzz heads back to the boxes of bits and uncovered a job that's a performance car essential. FUZZ TOWNSHEND So this is our Weber Type 32 twin down draft carburetor here. So we have, at the top here, two choke butterflies. Now as the engine heats up, these open up to allow full flow of air. With them closed, you get a richer burn, so less air, more fuel. I'm going to take off this gnarly inlet. It has dried out and cracked, that will not be being used again. Right, let's get our little choke control arm off. Off comes the top of the carburetor, our twin floats. The carburetor gasket is all broken up. Petrol is allowed to flow in via this valve here and fills up the carburetor float bowl, just like a toilet cistern. This little needle valve, it looks pretty old and nasty. Right, here we have our new valve. Pop that in position. New fresh gasket. Clean the float up a bit and put it back. So that, the top part of the carburetor sorted out. NARRATOR Yes, that carburetor will now be as good as the day it left the factory. NARRATOR In fact, the Fiesta restoration proves that recycling is the way to go if you wanna save yourself time and money. Two things that Tim holds very close to his heart. TIM SHAW Yeah, more rust there. I need to clean all these and in fact, I've got a plan, there's something I wanna show you. TIM SHAW Two central sections of, in this case, kitchen roll connected together and a compressed airline. In goes the tube into the bigger tube and blowing that, you're just getting compressed air coming out of the end of there, look. That is filler dust on the floor. Now the simple science behind this vacuum, is how we are going to clean Fiesta parts for Brian. Right, yeah, come with me a sec. So let's imagine a pipe. Right, pipe's coming along here and we're gonna have a bit of restriction there, like this. So here's your pipe, restriction here like that. So imagine that is a cross section of a pipe. When you're sending fluid down the inside of this big bit of pipe down here, it's chilling, the pressure is high. It's all good, plenty of space going down there, nice and slow. What do you think would happen here? I mean, in the same way when you put your finger over the end of a hose pipe, what happens? Well, actually the speed, the velocity of this fluid increases, hence why, when you put your finger over a hose, it goes a lot further. But the pressure goes down, now here's the clever bit. So we've got low pressure here and then when you get big again, what would you imagine happens there? Well, actually, the pressure increases. Something you can take advantage of. You've got this low pressure area here and if you introduce another pipe here, believe it or not, there's sort of a vacuum created in there, which means anything that's inside this pipe will get drawn into this mixture and fire out the end. Check this out. If you go online and you spend yourself an Ayrton Senna or a tenner, you can get one of these things. Look at the way it's designed. So it's pretty much like that. Look, you've got a pipe joining it here. It gets bigger right around there and if we put the other end of this pipe into sand and then we stick this end onto a pressure washer, you can now clean those pieces of car that are a nightmare with one of these things. So it sucks the sand up in there, introducing it to the water flow here and it sends it with such speed that it removes the rust and pieces of steel. TIM SHAW Look at that. The rust is just coming flying off that and that was a rusty bit of Brian's Fiesta, but look at it now, new. Yeah, you are, aren't ya, massively impressed? TIM SHAW Bye, bye, rust. Bye, bye, rust. NARRATOR There you are, it just goes to show that when it comes to classic cars, you should never throw anything away. It's not just the little bits and bobs that are getting their shine put back, because the other filling and flatting has come to an end, the XR2's once tatty shell has gone into the paint booth to get a few coats of sunburst red paint, which will put the colour back in its cheeks. It also means, once it's dry, the time has come to start putting the thing back together. So it's every man for himself, grab a refurbished part and off we go. The revamped dash goes back in the car, along with all the clocks. FUZZ TOWNSHEND We are in. NARRATOR The back door is carefully fitted. The car's old exhaust manifold, which has now been ceramic coated, can be bolted on to the fully rebuilt engine. TIM SHAW Right, bingo, that's it, done. FUZZ TOWNSHEND We're gonna put the engine and gearbox in together and go in from underneath. Okay, bring it down. Down a little bit more. All feels good and we've got a nicely rebuild carburetor on there now, we're on the home straight. TIM SHAW Right, this is what I've been waiting for. In fact, there it is and it feels identical. That's the thing, it's thick, it's durable, it's strong and the pattern is just bang on. See you in a bit. To the trimmers. NARRATOR Yes, that's gonna keep Tim busy and while the seats and door cards are being recovered, with just a couple of days to go, the rest of the team pull out all the stops. The new electric loom is wired up and plugged in. The revamped radiator is put in place And a nice new set of hoses all connected up, but even though Brian's boxes of bits have so far come up trumps, it's only at this stage we're really finding out what's missing. FUZZ TOWNSHEND One of the simplest jobs that we've got on this whole project is fitting the air filter. Trouble is, there's a missing bracket. What happens when you pick up a car where everything's in boxes? There's loads and loads of missing parts and we need to find them and quickly. NARRATOR Yes, with the boxes of bits now running dry, every missing clip and bracket becomes a major fabrication issue. That said, slowly but surely, the car is starting to look like an 80s classic once more. FUZZ TOWNSHEND D'you know, it's so gorgeous underneath here, I could eat my dinner off this. NARRATOR Well, you can't have your cake and eat it, but with a final flourish, the fully recovered seats go back in the car. The distinctive XR2 body kit is fitted. The lights are connected. The fluids are topped up. In fact, it's looking very much like this battle has been won. TIM SHAW 20 seconds to show you around the inside of this car, considering we were missing so many parts in all those boxes of XR2 parts. Have a look at the steering wheel. The dashboard's got no more cracks in it. The stereo. The rear view mirror. We've got the glove box, hang on a minute, spare bit of cloth in there from the trimming of the seats, ready for Brian to wipe his tears on the day he gets his car back. And the door card, both of them now match. Right, let's crack on. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Tim, come on, I want you to get on thekey, will you? TIM SHAW Just had a text saying that we need to start the car right now. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Right, well, get on with it then. TIM SHAW Don't you wanna know who it was from? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Who was it from? TIM SHAW Me. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Right, great, come on. TIM SHAW You ready? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Go on, yeah. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Oh, yes, brilliant. TIM SHAW Oh, listen to that. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Okay, yes. TIM SHAW Yes. TIM SHAW Loads of oil pressure, revving it up, looking good. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Okay, I think we've got a bit of tuning to do. TIM SHAW Really? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah, okay, knock it off. Brilliant, we're well on the way to getting this back to Brian. But d'you know, I've really enjoyed working on this car, 'cause it takes me back to when I was a teenager working on my own Fiesta Mark I. TIM SHAW We've actually taken this vehicle, which was rusted and rotten, and we've made it brand new again. Bonnet, windscreen, bold down the seats, job done. Let's get it back. FUZZ TOWNSHEND I reckon we're about 85% of the way there. Come on, let's finish it off. TIM SHAW Right. NARRATOR If there's one thing that every petrol-head likes to do, it's have a good old nose around a high end classic car showroom. You know, the ones where you can fawn over a Ferrari or ogle over an old Roller, dreaming that one day that one of them could be yours. Well, at this particular showroom, one of them is yours, well, it is if your name's Brian and you own a mint condition Fiesta XR2. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Take a look at that, even on a dull, drizzly day, it's sunshine with this car. It just looks absolutely amazing. It's pinging. TIM SHAW This is the one you don't wanna give back isn't it? FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW I can see the way you're touching it. You love this one. FUZZ TOWNSHEND It does look absolutely splendid. TIM SHAW Right. FUZZ TOWNSHEND But, look, where are we and what's the plan? TIM SHAW Right, we're in Bangor, North Wales. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW This place sells beautiful vintage cars. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. TIM SHAW But today, well, let this do the talking for us, but have a look at that little advert there. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Wow. TIM SHAW Look at that. What are you looking at, Fuzzbox? FUZZ TOWNSHEND I'm looking at a Ford Fiesta, XR2. TIM SHAW Yeah, for sale, round here. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. It's this one. TIM SHAW It is this one. "Hello, mate, Brian, it's Howell. I've found an XR2 online local to where we are. Can you come down and have a look at it with me, please? I'm thinking about buying it." FUZZ TOWNSHEND Hey, that's cool. TIM SHAW But actually, it is his car. FUZZ TOWNSHEND Yeah. Brilliant. TIM SHAW What a belter. NARRATOR Well, today's surprise reveal is a classic Car SOS sting. Later on, an unsuspecting Brian is gonna get an emergency call from mate Howell, begging him to come and cast an eye and give a second opinion, on a mint condition XR2 that's just come up for sale. What Brian doesn't know, is that it's just a ruse to get him face to face with his own car. Friends and family are here to witness his jaw as it hits the ground, but does the car have their approval? EMMA Oh, my god. TIM SHAW Right, what do you reckon? BRIAN WIFE It's amazing. Is it the same car? TIM SHAW It is. BRIAN WIFE He will love it, won't he? EMMA He will love it. BRIAN WIFE Wow. TIM SHAW It is like it's rolled off the conveyor, hasn't it? BRIAN WIFE All them bits that was in the attic. HOWELL Are all together now. It's an incredible transformation. I mean, you can't put it at being the same car. EMMA It's amazing. It's pure 80s really. NARRATOR A reassuring thumbs up all round and it's time for operation, Oh That Looks Red, to go into action. The car is hidden in plain sight. The family go into hiding and Howell makes the call, but will Brian, who's busy at work, fall for it? BRIAN Hello. HOWELL Hiya, dude, how you doing? BRIAN Not bad, how are you? HOWELL So, random, went on Facebook seen that and went. BRIAN I know, the one on Facebook. HOWELL I need you to have a look at it, please. BRIAN That's fine. Yeah, yeah. HOWELL Yeah, see ya in a minute. Ta, ta. BRIAN Okay, bye. NARRATOR So stage one worked a treat and Howell goes off to retrieve Brian and it's not long before they're back. TIM SHAW Right, they're here. Brian and Howell are here. HOWELL There it is. Hi, there. NARRATOR Brian starts to unwittingly start the inspection of his very own car. So far, he seems impressed, will he be able to negotiate a good deal with who he thinks is the showroom owner? TIM SHAW Hello, Alan speaking. BRIAN Hi, Alan, how are you? TIM SHAW The calls I'm getting about this car are ridiculous. It's not my scene to be honest with you. I'm pre-war but, you know. BRIAN Yeah, it was just really wondering if you knew any more about it. TIM SHAW What's the mileage on it at the moment? BRIAN 38,000. TIM SHAW What's the mileage, mate? BRIAN Ah. [LAUGHS] FUZZ TOWNSHEND Hello, mate. Alright, Brian. TIM SHAW How you doing? You alright? You alright? BRIAN Yeah, I'm good. TIM SHAW What's going on? BRIAN Blimey. I'm just in shock. [LAUGHS] TIM SHAW Whose car is this? BRIAN I'm guessing it's mine. TIM SHAW This is your car. BRIAN Really? TIM SHAW You didn't have a clue, did you? BRIAN Well, I just thought, that's a bit strange there's one of these round here. EMMA Hello. TIM SHAW It was actually this young lady here that wrote to us. EMMA I think we're all a bit guilty of not really appreciating you or, you know, telling you that we love you and I couldn't think of a better way to do that than do this for you. BRIAN Thanks. TIM SHAW It's gonna take a lot to sink it. That is your little Fiesta, mate. That's your XR2. BRIAN Just unreal. Even looking round it now, I was thinking, that looks really clean. If only mine gets anywhere near that, I'm gonna be really impressed. TIM SHAW Well, that it did and that's it. It's like looking at it in a showroom, isn't it? BRIAN It is. HOWELL Sorry. TIM SHAW Brilliant. BRIAN Wow. TIM SHAW Is that a good day? BRIAN That's a very good day. TIM SHAW It's the best, is it? BRIAN It's the best. NARRATOR The last time Brian saw his XR2, it was a dream project that had stopped for good. Hundreds of hours had gone into it, but with hundreds of hours still to go, it was nothing more than an unsightly mess. Boxes of bits and a bare rolling shell. Now however, the car has been transformed. The gleaming red paint and pepper pot wheels look like they've just left the factory. The distinctive trim and decaled screen, 1980s once non-existent interior has now been replaced and looks, smells and feels like it's a new car. If Brian once had plans to take his XR2 to car shows, he'd better buy himself a trophy cabinet, because he's going to need it. BRIAN Just gone from a bag of parts to a fully finished, in a blink of an eye. My head hasn't computed that yet. TIM SHAW How does it feel to sit in your car? BRIAN I'm still shaking my head. I still cannot believe that this was my car, because I've never really sat in it properly, because I've just spent all my years working on it and collecting parts. It's only ever been a project. My Ford Fiesta was always my first car, it had a special place and not being able to ever afford to buy or insure an XR2 at the time, it was just something I wanted to see through. So to actually sit in it finally, it was ill health that just said, no, there are more important things to worry about and I need to simplify things. TIM SHAW When was it you made that decision? BRIAN While I was sat in the hospital bed with sepsis. It was that point there when they were doing the tests that they found the cancer. After that, you just don't listen. I couldn't even describe how the mind just flipped 180. It was a hugely emotional time, like it is for anybody who gets bad news like that. They caught it early. If I hadn't have gone in with sepsis, who knows? TIM SHAW Yeah, but what you're seeing in here, is actually a huge message which is, "Dad, we love you," and that's why she wrote to us and that's why we wanted to do it, because of what you mean to her. BRIAN I think she wanted to be on the insurance. TIM SHAW [LAUGHS] What's wrong with that? Petrol-head. Like father, like daughter, hey? BRIAN Yeah. I think she's also been the one that's wanted me to not get rid of it. TIM SHAW There is only one thing left for me to do and I think you know the show fairly well, don't you? BRIAN I do. TIM SHAW What happens next? BRIAN I need some keys. TIM SHAW There are the keys. So, Brian, it gives me great pleasure to hand you the keys and say, you've been Car SOS'd. BRIAN Thank you very much indeed. TIM SHAW And you totally deserve it. EMMA I can't wait to go the vintage rally and stuff like that. BRIAN At least I've got a free entry now to all the local shows. HOWELL It's a really cracking example of the car that he wanted to build. I think it's exceptional. BRIAN It's like being back when I passed my test. BRIAN WIFE The first car he had when we first got together was a Fiesta. BRIAN It drives so nice as well. EMMA Go on, put your foot down. BRIAN WIFE A lot of our things we do revolves around cars. We both like cars, so it's something we'll be involved together, to go and show off the car basically. Hopefully the dog will go in it as well, but he might not let the dog in. [LAUGHS] BRIAN It's one of those cars, the slower you drive, the more people that see you. I can't believe you done this for me and how you kept it such a secret. EMMA It was difficult. It was really difficult, I'm not gonna lie. When are you gonna let me drive it? BRIAN I think that might never happen. ### ### ###