Complete Modification Listing:

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This is a list (most with pictures) of all the mod's I have carried out on my car (Not in order). Look in the How-To listings for help doing them, if they do not appear there then they don't have a how-to yet. I am unlikely to answer you by email if you ask for one, post on MEG if you want to ask a single question.

Modification Number #1: Rear Courtesy Light.

The very first thing I ever did to the car and probably one of the easiest, if you look at a normal LX in the dark you get that.. humm, not much light in here feeling. The mondeo is a big(ish) car and should be properly lit! There is a How-to available here

Modification Number #2: Electric mirrors.

Well this one occurred due to the fact that I wanted to paint my mirror casings to match the body colour. You can paint manual ones but you won't get a smooth surface because the plastic is textured. All electric ones have body coloured mirrors as standard and after painting they look a lot better! Electric mirrors aren't really the most useful mod in the world, you don't need to adjust them much unless you aren't the only driver. However the mondeo is a wide car and you can't reach the passenger mirror easily so you have a benefit from doing it there But by far the biggest benefits is the fact that all electric ones are heated which makes cold driving a lot easier - they defrost in about 2 minutes!

Modification Number #3: Interior Swap!

By far the biggest modification I've done to the car. I took the entire interior, dashboard and all, out of the car and replaced it. When I first got the car I had the blue interior which is pleasant but nothing special - I rang a few scrapyards to try and find a black leather interior to go with the blue. I didn't find anything but a cream one! After deciding that was no use I was in the process of selling it when a combination of dodgy decorator's and some careless driving left bright purple stains all down the front seat and a little on the rears. Retriming was to expensive to consider so it was either ditch the leather and the £170 I paid for it or fit it and hope that I found a replacement front seat! I went for the latter option and had a rather horrid mix of blue dash with cream seats/door cards for about 3 months. I was then presented with the chance to buy a front seat in cream for £40. Result. The rear seats weren't that bad and after some severe action with W5 cleaner and leather restoration kits, although they still have some small marks on them, the leather was pretty much as new. I still had the problem of blue and cream and so I went to my local scrappy and got a rear parcel shelf with surround and complete dashboard for £20. Now fitting the shelf and surround was easy. The Dash proved to be significantly easier then I had anticipated and took a little over 3 hours from start to finish. The trickiest part was the old instrument cluster drive cable. The cluster comes away without a problem but the cable is attached to the dash and would not come out! Eventually after a lot of tugging, unscrewing and general hammering it broke away from the dash and me and the cable were flung out the car! I put that to one side and continued, everything else went like clockwork and the result was certainly worth it. The car's interior now matches perfectly and the outside (blue) looks a lot better with the cream - someone should tell Ford that two-tone blue isn't a good look! The only thing left was the speedo drive cable that had snapped away, I had the choice of replacing the cable or getting a later dash with electronic pulse driven speedo. I went for the latter option:

Modification Number #4: Instrument Cluster Replacement

After a disaster with the old cable driven speedo (plus I had wobbly needle syndrome!) I decided to change for a latter type unit with electronic pulse drive. This isn't as tricky as I thought it was going to be, especially as I already had the VSS (Vehicle Speed Signal) in the car from the trip computer modification. There are some wiring issues that need to be addressed when you change. The airbag control light light has a different drive circuit on electric speedo clusters so you need to remove a small chip from the back of the cluster and short across. There is also a second ground wire on the back that has to be changed from Ground to constant +12V for the electronic speedo to work. You should also notify DVLA if the mileage is going to be seriously out. Mine changed from 80K to 30K which could cause some problems with mileage verification when you come to sell your car!!

Modification Number #5: Top Dash Surround Swap

This is the bit that surrounds the cluster and Mk1 units are a little on the ugly side with all those blanking plates! Replacing it with a Mk2 unit makes the dash look a lot smarter and isn't very tricky. The key points are that you have to do some rewiring of the front and rear window screen switches (If you don't have a heated front windscreen then you can get a switch with just the one position from Ford buts it's about £20), you have to wire up a new "fog-light on" warning bulb (MOT failure without one!) The center air vents need a little adapting at the rear to get them to marry up with the air pipe feed and finally none of the screw holes align! Now the screw holes not aligning isn't a major problem as its a tight fit and once you've got it in place it holds itself in place.

Modification Number #6: Body Coloured Parts

Body colouring the door handles, bumper top strips, door guard strips, rear number plate surround and mirrors makes the car look a lot smarter and isn't all that tricky to do. You need to mask the surrounding areas really well or take them off the car. A couple of cans of paint will do the job but make sure its well matched! Halfords paint can's are quite poor at matching so if they have a paint matching service get them to make you up a can as the match it much better!

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