your opinion on tc xle - Ford Forums

xle_freak · 05-22-2006, 07:17

Hi everyone,

I have come back to ask more advice from the "cortina gods" about what you think I should do. I will be coming to some money soon $4000 and want to spend it on my beloved tc xle but I don't know where to start, as $4000 isn't really that much when your talking cars.

At the moment the whole car is very tired with everything needing some attention the main areas are.

Motor: the standard 250 pre crossflow is pretty sad and I want to put a 250 injected crossflow into it. I have the motor and was running fine when removed.

Body: paint is reasnoble but the panels arn't very straight. 3 out of the four doors are dented as well as the left front guard. I have the panels to fix it but would need to be painted and fitted. I was really hoping to do a colour change from factory aqua to kawasaki lime green.

Interior: is also shagged and at the least would need new underlay and carpet and seats recovered I was hoping to do it black with lime green highlights but couldn't unless the colour of the car is changed.

Eventuly this car will get the full treatment and have everything done but that won't be for a few years so what ever I do now has to count. I was thinking get the injected crossflow fitted and running with a c4 trans then move to the body get it straight and paint the new panels standard colour then seeing what's left for the interior?

What do you think ?????

Thanks

Andrew

TaraHymen · 05-22-2006, 08:58

sounds like a good plan

use the engine u have but dont worry about the injection cos u wont get that into your budget. grab a secondhand carb/manifold/air cleaner from an xe/xf for a maybe a couple of hundred. u'll also need an electric fuel pump cos the efi engines dont have the lobe to drive a mechanical pump. unless your trans is shagged the crossflow will bolt straight to it to save some funds. should be able to do all that for $500ish if u'r engine is ok.

depending on how bad your seats are they arent that expensive to get retrimmed. if they're ok then even a decent set of seat covers might do the trick. even if u stuck new carpet in while u had the seats out there's maybe $1000ish

that in theory should leave u with about 2 1/2 to spend on the body. with paint u never get more than what u pay for but in theory the more u spend the better the job. 2 1/2 wont be enough to change the colour to a decent quality but it you can find the right person u might come up with the goods.

good luck, have a go yourself. anything u can do yourself is going to save u money and secondhand cortina bits are always cheap.