Only 6 years?
That sucks. Massively, in this day and age.
Mind, Ford's are s**te. Always have been, always will be.
Between us we've had 3 of 'em...... the Festers were absolute sheds well before their time (MkI and MkII Festers). Mind the MkIV Escort wasn't _too_ bad - ours was German built, so survived quite well, but the CVH was smoking like a good 'un when I sold it.
SteveH waffled on in a quite bewildering manner to produce...
as you can probably tell, I've had rather a lot of cars (100+ as my own personal transport!, have driven, worked on, broken, and screwed the nuts out of thousands more) and when it comes to Fords I have the following advice.. Don't buy ANY front wheel drive Escort bar the 92-94 RS2000, German built ones did seem to be better, avoid the CVH like the plague, never buy an 86-87 Ford of any description unless you're handy sweeping up rust, ignore Granadas after the Mk2, avoid V6 engines in most of 'em (apart from Mk2 Granada 2.8i and Capris), and if you want to buy a Fiesta, have yer head checked. (unless it's a Zetec powered one, and check for oil leaks on the early ones). Focii are fantastic, and Ka's are probably the best handling shopping trolley money can buy.
Pete M
Amen to the above paragraph!
Just get the front ones for £20. Don't expect miracles though, my Ka has had them from new and still has surface rusted in the sill corners at rear of door. It's done 96000 miles though. Will be treating them next week. Ford do some little clear bits of plastic protector to stick on the corners as fitted to the latest Ka's, Part numbers F1124217 and F1124218. You need one of each at £3.28 plus vat each.
-- Tim Buckley
Mudflaps are likely to promote more rust than they prevent. They trap dirt and moisture permanently against the paintwork so it never dries out. Rust forms in tight, inaccessible areas and adding flaps just creates more of these. You're far better thoroughly washing inside the arches and other areas regularly, touching up any broken underseal and covering any exposed metal ASAP.
Agreed, for nearly every car. The Ka is a rare exception to this though, as the mudflaps fit to the plastic wheelarch using existing fittings, so it is plastic to plastic.
-- Tim Buckley
What's the best paint method to use then? Aerosols?? I have some touchup paint, but I fear that might look a bit too naff if I tried using that to sort the affected areas!!
I'm going to try Halfords' aerosols, with a lot of rubbing down and compounding. Hopefully I'll end up with something half decent, but not really much of a match to the existing paintwork. In my experience, Halfords' touch up is naff. Ford's touch up paint was cheaper last time I went to the dealer.
OK. Come to think of it my car is all plastic at the back there but I wouldn't fit mudflaps because they'd make it look daft. Not a problem with a Ka. ;-)
Yeah I got the Ford stuff, and was also quite surprised at how cheap it was! New engines for £500 too...you can't beat it ;-)
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