Car is comming along a treat and some great engineering skills gone into your watts linkage .
You certainly got plenty of room in the new workshop and by sounds of it need room to fit aircon
Car is comming along a treat and some great engineering skills gone into your watts linkage .
You certainly got plenty of room in the new workshop and by sounds of it need room to fit aircon
Thanks Ian, and the office is air conditioned.
spent the day cleaning and building new benches, arranging new, old, to be refurbished, falcon, suzuki and other car parts or toys etc into a logical probably never to be found again spots.
then off the trailer ready to be rotated tomorrow
and look how bad fitting these rear arches are, time for some new ones I think, I have to butcher them to repair the rear 1/4 lowers anyway.
JP
Last edited by jpblue; 07-01-2015 at 07:50.
OOPS got a bit pull-it-apart happy
bit of diff clearancing, will probably just box the tank platform in rather than reshape it all with one piece
cut, ground and trimmed plenty of little bits and pieces then
ahhh more big holes
actually not that bad but now is the time to fix the rear arches for good about 45mm further back and a lot less rotated around the wheel like before
JP
Last edited by jpblue; 08-01-2015 at 14:01.
love the project and what an awsome workshop !, love it !!!
Nice work Justin
Thanks Freddo and Finlay
passenger side bubble removed and rear 1/4 section cut out
not such a big hole as other side
but the pattern part needed a lot more 'fettling' including a sliver sectioned out of it
I havent welded the fronts yet as Im going steel arches so will be cutting a bit more of it out soon
then to repair the old boot massacre
new panel sections made with stiffening and my own interpretation of the original plugged openings cause I can!
JP
About Time Justin, looks like your now getting stuck into it now👍
Happy new year too😀
Old skool forever
Just don`t tell the wife
how much it really costs!
full steam ahead while I have holidays,
cheers Mark back at you hope '15 is a good one
Busted out the tube notcher
and started on the cage replacement parts...notcher makes it so much easier, string lined it al up first to get the angles and lengths before cutting
can anyone see anything really wrong with this before I weld it all up! yes it the correct type and dimension of tube. It is better aligned than shown just tape isnt that permanent and I will install gussets in the 'X'
I'm not going to bother with the windscreen reinforcement as it needs to be bent 'out' or if straight I have 55mm between steering wheel and the bar for my hand...plus its only necessary for international events and I aint doing any.
Im also considering not putting the lower bar in the front strut triangle as it looks to be impossible to fully weld though I could tack it , remove both bars and fully weld before re-inserting...maybe. Im figuring the floor, bulkhead, splash panel offers reasonable stiffness in that direction...Im being lazy aren't I?
JP
I would have the x the other way round i.e easier to get in and out and the higher part to protect you.. Although I thing it' will be hard getting in and out if it anyway.
Old skool forever
Just don`t tell the wife
how much it really costs!
Mark,
the 'X' isn't as bad as what it was. the front upper used to be above the dash line and with the steering wheel removed was Ok to enter egress. the cross in the side intrusion now runs parallel to the top of the seat side giving me elbow room and being no harder to exit than the seat itself...in a panic!
Cheers. JP
guard goat love it
Dont know what Ive been doing. been there several times but achieved nothing
Ran out of welding wire wednesday night with about 6mm of welding left before I could etch that part...damn it
15Kg's of welding wire has been poured over it...I wonder how much was ground back off?
Roll cage getting there
started making 'x' bar gussets, fits well but is only 0.8mm. Worked as a template though
stripped the dash back to metal and welded in the windscreen pillar gussets
these cant be seen from the seat position
also finished the fluid reservoir base
cheers
JP
roll cage finished
so some blurry photos to mark the day
tank platform to weld in re engineer central seat mount and when they arrive fit the steel arches then that's it for welding...oh I need a clutch pedal stop and bungs in the drivers floor for the aluminium foot plate and the new front panels...will it end
JP
Last edited by jpblue; 08-02-2015 at 08:46.
Coming along well now and must be good to start ticking of a few of the bigger jobs
So I finally broke out the grinder and welder and made some real progress on the escort.
The side intrusion bars clipped the front of the seat so I needed to move it about 5mm inboard. With this work its actually 20mm more central utilising the previous outer floor mo8unts and a new tunnel mount.
all gusseted up nicely
and now the seat fits
needing the new deep dish OMP
So onto diff hump/tank floor and which is all cut and shaped just needs welding in. Hopefully next weekend.
Ive also taken a Monday a fortnight off for the rest oft he year to dedicate to the workshop!
JP
love the color
and very nice work it loos awesome
Good lad Justin looking good
Old skool forever
Just don`t tell the wife
how much it really costs!
cheers mark,
got to play with the escort today, checking the harness still fits and where it might bolt up...still need to weld in the plates etc for that.
then decided to get it on the floor so I can fit the arches. Need it at ride height to align wheels.
They are along way back...which may not be a bad thing?
but centered
and it looks like the arches will fit without additional widening
replaced the front falcon studs with super long ones and 20mm spacer
and the front wheel fits well
needs bringing forward a long way though...not sure I have enough length in the compression strut? probably a relatively easy fix with new tubular struts!
I also ordered underbody paint today.
JP
Got it setup on a raised platform today ready for alignment and arch fitting.
got the wheels pretty close a mm here or there to fine tune later but good enough to fit body panels too.
Looks like I need to make longer compression struts though as I'm obviously running way to much caster or the measurements for the comp strut brackets were advised wrong?
so old front panel needs a bit of work
Having been cut and hacked about a few times and full of filler
So I turned it into a pile of old misshapen steel parts on the floor
before I trial fitted the new inner radiator shroud and intercooler
New front panel
and checked if the guards fit, which is nice that they are pretty close
Cheers
JP
Can anyone see a reason why I shouldn't fix the front panel in place on with steel rivets rather than spot welds. Would make fitting the intercooler and future work much easier.
Judging by the 12 spot welds across the top and 3 along the bottom the panel is just decorative anyway.
JP
Thanks guys,
spent a bit more time up there, got it up on 'blocks' so I can dummy build it
front suspension nearly all together have new sway bar brackets to suit comp strut sway bar which mounts the bar further back. need longer drop links too as the front arms are so wide
fitted the brake reservoirs and that all works great, good access below to screw in the flexible lines.
dropped engine in alone, couldn't get engine and gearbox in in one go even without the front panels
\
and now for the tough question.
Does this arrangement look like a bad idea...especially if the oil cooler is between the intercooler and radiator?
Going to have 90 degree bends welded onto the intercooler to minimise rubber stuff
I can get it all to fit with minimal cutting if I mount it all this way. failing that its finding a place for the oil cooler? under the front arch or behind the crossmember cool side? or radical cut to passenger floor to scollop an underfloor duct and mount it there!
JP
So nothing like a bit of pressure.
90% chance of returning to the UK in September...so car has to be finished, and stored before September 10!
seem to recall doing the same last time. fool!
so why not spend the previous weekend in Melbourne for 4 days and mothers day at the zoo with my 13 month old and her mother!
but I got 4 hours done on Saturday after dads play group...oh shit im fucked!
Managed to fill this hole as a recess for the seat front corner as its moved across towards the centre a fair bit
and then made these infill parts for left and right
and stripped too much filler from this part...and hey presto it actually does have a crease above the sill which is firstly straight, parallel and secondly sharp...unlike it did before. the Fiber arches over the top of steel meant the filler on this corner was thick and obviously erroneous.
Also having a custom header tank and swirl pot welded up as I type so another piece of the puzzle sorted.
Only a few small parts to make and weld on then paint process. I might farm the rear arch blending out to a professional as I still have to finish the kitchen renovations too!!!
Dumbass.
JP
very productive day yesterday.
managed to knock many items of the now ever reducing long list
managed to find some nice flat radiator rubbers
so could finally fully mount the radiator and slam panel
Ill be riveting the slam panel on so added a second skin to the inner arch top to reinforce it and the bonnet pins.
finshed welding and smoothing the arches and stripped the old filler from the rear 1/4 and sill, and hey presto nice creases again!
Closed in the rear bulkhead and made recesses for the turret tops, the original idea to put them in a well wasn't going to work
also tidied a number of older welds and cleaned the gutters of the workshop.
JP
bit more done this weekend.
front guard is very secure now and its beginning to look like a car again. other side to do one weeknight this week.
started with a hole and a bung
made a tool to hold it square and not burn myself.
tack weld
presto
and had this made up, breather tank for radiator
Only problem somethings wrong with the door!
hinge holes line up fine but the rear of the door sits 20mm too low everything must bend when the door is slammed shut and is very difficult to open. somehow something has moved. what techniques are employed to realign doors on escorts with welded on hinges...
Oh and the doors fitted fine after the floors were done?
JP
Like it :-)
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
love it
Very nice, bet you can't wait to fit it up? Looks hard as nails
Old skool forever
Just don`t tell the wife
how much it really costs!
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