I thought id start a new thread about my car as the old one got a bit lost, and wasnt really up to date.
The car as i bought it
So a summary of up to now:
I bought the escort back in december 2004, with the intention of doing some road rallys, hillclimbs, sprints and trackdays. however i never quite got to that as every 6 months something would break that i had to then fix as it was my only car.
The first incident seven months after buying it, being rear ended by an uninsured driver, 8 months later i got the pay out after they tried to write the car off for 650quid. however id put a few quid aside so while it was having a new rear panel and the passenger side rear quarter fixed, i ditched the sagging original rear end and installed tramp bars and a panhard rod as well as making use of the turrets with some adjustable shocks and swapped in a 3.54 diff.
6 months later and the gearbox progressivly shat itself leaving me with only 2 forward gears, meaning i had to replace it, only the tall gearing made for a boring drive what with the 1300xflow only putting out 80bhp or so. the best option was to go 5speed and i thought if im going to replace things i'll but the best on i can afford, i settled on a 2.8i box with a modified input shaft, but while that was being built i thought why not do some other things i wanted to change... so while it was in getting an auto tunnel fitted i had a rear disc conversion and went back to the stock 3.89 diff.
When the car was back on the road i think i had the longest period without issue at just over a year, and i started looking for local car clubs and events, that is untill the catch tank begun to fill itself a little too rapidly and an engine rebuild was on the cards... i thought about just refreshing the 1300, i loved how it reved but the lure of more power got me. i bought a decent spec 1600 which promptly threw a rod while it was ticking over on the ramp in the workshop before id even driven it, a combination of a semi stripped thread on one of the conrod bolts and making contact with the sump which wasnt adjusted enough the cause... so with a tired 1300, a broken 1600 and another block i went to Vulcan and asked them to build a decent engine from the lot, settling on a 145bhp spec setup.
Sometime later i got the engine fitted, ran in and could actually enjoy it, the only thing was the open diff was a bit annoying, so when an opportunity to fit a 4.4 steel plated slipper came up i took it. with the 5 speed, top gear was pretty much where it had been originally with the 4speed and diff so it really wasnt that bad and the gearing really suited the car.... While rebuilding the funds to take the car to the track the tin worm started to bite.
I eeked another year out as id been repairing bits here and there but i knew it was going to need some serious work to pass the next MOT, weighing it up i knew it needed more than just a few patches. confirmed by Gary giving it the once over at a TS meetup declairing in not so many words that the front end was a bit past its best, with nowhere to do the work myself (living in central london in a 3rd floor flat) and no money to pay someone else i put it up for sale... i got a few offers around what i wanted but came to the realisation that i would just buy another like it, only would be chasing the same rust in a few years, the only way to to it was to do the work myself... there was a space i could use, it was just 160miles away on my parents farm. but if i could be organised it would work, besides there was a dry space with power and access to a friends welder. what more did i need? (apart from being able to weld)
so in July 2010 the car was trailored up and put in the yard, ready for being stripped while i cleared a space in the barn. a few months past before i had time to start breaking it down at the end of September but finally i could start making progress. or so i thought...
the car in its new home
Starting the strip down, doing this on my own i decided dropping the front end out the bottom would be easist way
without too much difficulty i converted it into a monster truck
with the front pulled clear i could strip off the crossmember and suspension much easier, the same with the back as i pulled the axle and springs out as one
this was made a little easier with the help of some handy farm machinery
with the car now sitting on blocks i could remove all the exterior fittings
and i could rip out the interior, leaving the roll cage in for a bit of support
the floors didnt actually look too bad, a couple of holes but all as expected
the boot was very clean, but then this was all rebuilt and painted not that long before
with the engine bay stripped even the heater bubble didnt look too bad, it was all quite promising
untill i went to remove the front roll bar mount, which instead of unbolting, came away with a chunk of car attached
leaving a very messy looking hole and a lot more rust behind
i thought i should practice my welding, which i think is fair to say i need to spend a lot more time doing
after removing the rollcage i badly welded in some supports, i dont think they do anything but it made me feel better having them there
i then set to work removing the doors, after smacking seven bells out of the hinges (and my hands), filling my eyes with rust and not seeing any visible signs of movement from the pins i decided drastic action was required. using a dremel with a flexie lead and some very fine cutting discs i sliced through the pins, doing minimal damage to the hinge itself, i reasoned i could rebuild the bits id cought with weld, that and id finally got the f'king doors off.
however i could now see some pretty sever rot, no wonder the doors had sagged, there wasnt much holding them on
the drip rails were shot so after cutting them off and pulling the wings away it revealed more rust and holes,
including some previous owner repairs with angle iron silicone sealed in place
working in the freezing rain with a not quite waterproof gazebo till it went dark and then a bit more i got all the glass out
not wanting to leave the rear arches on incase they were hiding some more suprises i set about cutting them off, cutting the backs off the rivets and then hammering them out from the inside
with the arch pealed off the gap underneath had been filled with expanding foam, it actually made the arch much more secure and there was no evidence of rust caused by it underneath
there wasnt actually that much filler blending in the arches, and undeneath what looks like a previous colour, id also found bits of purple elsewhere, but then it has had 14 previous owners so a few colour changes would be expected
after 2 weekend the car was totally stripped, and ready for going inside. the plan to dry it out and get in blasted before giving it a quick prime to keep the rust off over the winter before starting in ernest repairing in the new year.
however, shortly after i did this there was a bit of a fire at one of my dads units, caused by someone welding, they were repairing a fully dressed car near the fuel tank and suprise suprise it went up, they coudnt put the fire out or push the car outside, so a lot of damage was caused, and more over my dad changed his mind about letting me use his barn to weld my car since he didnt like the idea of sparks flying in a wooden barn where he also stores various bits a pieces worth a few quid
Not the end of the world as he was in the process of building a service shed for the farm machinery, it didnt have power but he bought a big enough generator to run a welder and it would be dry and secure with plenty of space. all i had to do was wait till it was finished
so the car was covered and left where it was, hoping that in the new year i could move it to a dry barn and crack on....
but it didnt quite go to plan, and the next spring the cover was torn to shreds and the new barn wasnt finished, i was looking at another winter with the car outside, the rusty bits got more rusty and it was pretty frustrating seeing it get worse, but on the plus side id been putting money a side with no hobby to spend it on.
it would take until june 2012 for anything to happen though, the barn wasnt finished and didnt look like it was going to get finished. i decided to stump up and pay someone else to do the work, that someone turned out to be Greg over at North West RS Centre, which was only an hour and a half away. with a bundle of new panels the car was packed up and put in a trailer
with another excuse to use the farm toys
so over to gregs, (after a brief round trip ) for him to turn a load of rusty escort into something a little more solid
well that was a long post hopefully Greg can put up some of the repair pictures
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