1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

[Zakspak]

Wing gusset plate.
On the RH side I had part of the original flange that was spot welded to the bulk head, that was a good guide to placement. I marked it up, ground it off and clipped on the new one. Then clipped the wing on to line up as best as possible with the top of the scuttle panel/roof pillar. Then adjusted the gusset plate to meet the wing flange. Removed the wing.
A plug weld at the bulkhead and wing rail to hold it in place, then a bit of hammer work to get it to form along the bottom flange before finishing off the plug welds. Same on the LH side, none of the original part was left there, but lining up to the wing is what's important.

RH side plate
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[Zakspak]

Done a couple of other jobs away from the shell.
Had the wheels stripped. They are back with me for various reasons I wont waste time on here. The centre disc and rear rim will be going for cleaning, powder coating at some point. I'm going to clean up and polish the front rim and rebuild them. I've spoken to a company that specialise in the older Compamotive wheels that are out of production with regard to re-building them. More to follow when I get on to them properly.

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Also stripped down the front struts, to check condition of the inserts and prep/paint the legs.
Plan was to use the original inserts for now getting the car on the road and seeing how it goes. However it seems you can't get overhaul kits for them, so I'll be replacing the inserts with one of the performance parts available, but not decided what yet.

That's how the struts look stripped

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[Zakspak]

Off the stands and back on to the skate. I took it out to strip off the paint around the roof panel joins, clean it down and blow off the dust from all the work so far.

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[Zakspak]

On to the roof :-
This is the last major body panel.
Last look at that sun roof hole
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[Zakspak]

Roof panel joints stripped back.

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The black marks on the gutter are where the spot welds are. There's a lot of them 20-25mm (1") apart.
There was also a lot of lead around the joints. I took this off with a course wire disc so it didn't kick up fine dust. Breathing mask is a must, and the reason I did this out side

[Zakspak]

Next I ground back the spot welds along the front and rear wind screen flanges, and pillars opening up these joints. I didn't use the spot weld drill as I wanted to avoid damage to the frame flange. The roof panel is scrap.

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Then I ran a 1mm cutting disc down the roof panel where the flange is formed. This released the panel leaving just the flange spot welded on to the gutter part of the frame to remove.

I started off grinding the spot welds, but this didn't work so well as even with the roof panel gone the gap between the gutter outer edge and the frame is tight. So I went to the 6mm spot weld drill, taking my time on each weld and using a fine sharp chisel to split the drilled spots. It took about 3 hours to do both sides.
Once again Ford's original production was not at it's best. about 1/2 the spot welds on the RH just popped apart with no effort, not really leaving any mark were they had been. Interesting how the Rh side of this shell has had various issues like this through out the rebuild.

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[Zakspak]

With the roof all gone, I found I'd gone a little deep with the 1mm cutter and had caught the frame, so a weld repair needed, and dressed back

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Frame then cleaned down and some surface rust dealt with before priming

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And that's me up to date.
This week I'll be getting on with separating the donor roof panel from its frame when I'm home. I'm expecting it to take some time to do because its can't be rushed to avoid damage.
The donor panel is really nice, does't seem to be a spot of filler on it. And look at the difference in the original production joints.

Original panel front pillar join (lead removed)
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Donor panel front pillar join. No lead, no filler.
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[Matt75]

Great stuff mate. keep up the great work

Cheers

Matt

[Zakspak]

Thanks Matt, I’m trying but the rain has stopped play as I need to get the donor roof outside to start removing it from the frame. Just a bit too tight on space in the garage at the mo.
Thanks for looking in and your comment.
Cheers

[filstu]

Great work to an excellent standard

[Zakspak]

Quick update. Been working on removing the donor roof panel and as expected it's taking some time.
First off I cleaned up all the seams to expose the spot welds.

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[Zakspak]

Because the roof panel has only a little more rigidity than a wet news paper I pre drilled it for the plug welding.
Trying to centre punch and drill the flanges without the frame would be a trial with a risk of damage.

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Got this stamping on the front flange. Found similar at the rear of the boot floor.
Also note the triangle cut out. There's one front and back and mark the centre line
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[Zakspak]

Getting the panel off the frame has to be done bit by bit cutting away the frame. I started by removing the side frame sections. This is made up of several sections forming a box section.
I've got the roof on padded trestles to reduce the chance of damage/denting of the panel.

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Front and rear box sections are fairly easy, running a cutting disc along the back of the flange which leave just the flange attached to the roof panel. I pre drilled through the spot welds, so a sharp fine chisel separated the flanges.
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Corners are slow work needing several careful cuts followed by grinding back the part that is spot welded and brazed.
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Still got the side flanges along the gutters to remove. There's a lot of spot welds here, one every 20-25mm. Managed to make a start on this today, just about 10cm. Hope to get back on it later in the week.

[Zakspak]

Dropped in to Burtons during the week, to size/check some new inserts for my front legs.
Probably going to go with a set of the short Gaz top adjustable inserts.

Also picked up a few things, full set of Super flex bushes for the back end, front hub bearing kits and a Grp4 Fabrications Pan hard rod kit and a Greyston long wheel stud. Only got one just to try it. I had a set from another supplier (not Greyston's) but they turned out to be 0.4mm too wide, not much but solid steel into solid steel it might as well of been 4mm. The Greyston stud fits fine, so I'll order a full set.

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[Matt75]

Been there, done that!

[Zakspak]

Matt, how did you get on with plug welding the gutter seams ? or did you use a spot welder ?
That’s some roll cage you have fitted !
Cheers

[Matt75]

Hey Mate,

We just used the mig to plug weld and dressed it back then ran a big bead of sikaflex down the channel to smooth it out. Its a race car so show car finish isn't required

Yes, we used about 30 meters of tubing!!

Cheers

Matt

[donnie]

She’s coming in well, keep at it

[Zakspak]

Just been looking at your build Donnie, really nice work. Interesting situation with the Retro Ford Radiator. I’ll have to check they’ve fixed that before I order mine.

[Zakspak]

Took another 3+ hours to get the last of the frame off the roof panel so I could do a trial fit.
Needed tapping down along the gutter panel using a thin piece of wood. The front pillar flange of the donor roof panel has a slightly different profile to my front pillars, the panel being a little wider, other than that its a straight fit.

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[Zakspak]

Back off, and cleaned up with a stripping disc and emery cloth before rubbing it over with some surface rust treatment using a scouring pad just to be belt and braces.

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Then a coat of zinc primer and a top coat of white in the closed areas. Masked the mating edges up as the 2k just makes cleaning up for welding more tricky and it scorches which doesn't look good.

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Blown into the cavity and outer of the frame with gloss black from a rattle can to seal the zinc primer, and white 2k on the areas that will be visible even though they'll be hidden behind the roof liner. Gutter, front and rear joins masked before applying the 2k white, then the weld points all pre cleaned.

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The string visible tied off by the front LH pillar is to pull the interior light loom through later.

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And the roof cross member.
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[Zakspak]

All the prep done and final dry fitting. Clamps laid out ready.

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The strap was an idea for holding the panel down tight as I didn't think I had enough clamps, but wasn't needed.

Alignment checked I put in some blocks to lift the panel clear so I could run in the seam sealer. A second pair of hands would have been useful now and saved the use of the blocks.
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In place and clamped for welding. I tried to run the seam sealer in so it wouldn't get into the mating faces, but of course that wasn't 100% successful which effected how well those points plug welds laid in.
Had a late night on this last Thursday, as I wanted to get the 4 corners done. Actually got more done than expected. The front and rear flanges went well. The gutter flanges are more tricky due to the limited space, but was not as bad as expected.
The rear LH pillar plug welds could be better, this is due to the seam sealer getting around them. I clean it out so there's none visible but I think what's left that I can't get to burns and it soots up the cleaned area just enough

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Not complete as it got too late. This is after I finished with a lot of the clamps removed. Hopefully i'll get on it at the end of the week when I'm back from work. Maybe a good day on it and the welding will be done and possibly ground and dressed.

[Matt75]

great stuff, its a real ball ache doing this but it's come up well

Cheers

Matt

[katana]

Sort of makes you appreciate the method sequence's used in new car production that are designed for sealing and the old one that weren't! I guess it was a case of weld it together and if you could brush sealant on the joint it got it - maybe!

[Zakspak]

Hi Katana, you’re right.
Modern production would probably not weld the roof, but use a polyurethaning sealing adhesive. I looked into doing just that, but having discussed it with people that know decided it best to stick with the original welded method as it’s a road car. Original build quality was not great, as I’ve noted previously, the tunnel was not square and they must of had a predetermined amount of sealer to use as it didn’t fill the gap, so the water crept in over the 15 years it was on the road previously, leading to excessive corrosion down the RH side. Although dimensions wise the tolerances of my car were spot on. Once all the welding is done I’ll be going around with the seem sealer.

[donnie]

What a cracking job, feels good after the metal work is done. You must be looking forward to getting her into paint.

Cracking job and keep coming with the updates says the man who never touched his for over a year

[Zakspak]

Thanks again Donnie, you're not wrong about getting to paint, really want to try and hit my November target for that.
And another update is here whist I'm in your part of the world working this weekend.

[Zakspak]

Little update. Roof finished. Few hours to finish the plug welding and another 3-4hrs dressing back the welds before the usual zinc paint. I put a series of "spot" welds around the panel pillar joins where it was originally brazed, just to stop the otherwise loose edges causing cracks in the finishing filler when its back on the road.

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When it's back down off the stands I'll push it outside seam seal the gutters and strip the roof back to remove the old vinyl roof glue.

[Zakspak]

As the shell is up on the stands and levelled I decided it was worth dealing the rear axle, radius arm and pan hard rod fitting before dropping it back onto the skate and then the spit .
I've given all the rear axle parts a clean up, later they'll be going for media blasting.
Fitted the poly bushes, even if they weren't an improvement on the rubber bushes, they look good.
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Had the bushes for the radius arms pressed in at a local garage to save knocking them in and possibly damaging the powder coat. They're fitted, and a very tight fit.
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All laid out ready. hoping to get it all fitted on Monday.
I'd like to get the radius arm brackets tacked onto the axle to, time allowing.
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[donnie]

Some good motivation to see some more bits being trial fitted, installed

Great job with the roof as it’s one job I have never tried

Keep the updates coming

[Zakspak]

Update time again. Had other stuff on so more time has passed than I'd hoped, and a bit of messing about needed with the pan hard rod fitting.
First off cut off the ARB brackets, and clean up the axle where the brackets will go.
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Then fit the axle and check alignment. It all lined up nicely and was square which was good to know after all the work fitting the rear chassis rails. The rear of the car is supported on stands under the axle, and I've weighted the shell at the back to simulate its road weight on wheels, followed by bouncing it over a couple of days to help settle the suspension.

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Then fit and tack the axle radius arm brackets. That was fairly straight forward. I changed the mig wire over to 0.8mm for this.
Again please to find the brackets fit slightly forward of top dead centre as they should.
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[Zakspak]

next the pan hard. this is the Grp4 fabrication kit for a left hand fitting exhaust. meaning the chassis bracket fits on the RH side, which is why the bracket is marked LH, for the exhaust not the bracket.
Over all it's nicely made and having read up that's why I went with it. But like the Rix radius arms it still needed a fair amount of messing about and re-working

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the flat plate on the left is a floor strengthener to prevent cracking of the boot floor

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Bit of trimming and shaping to get the chassis bracket in place. but look at the out board face... Clearly it needs to be vertical. and overall profile isn't great.
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But there's more. I wanted to fit the axle bracket between the spring U bolts. I didn't want it to straddle one of the U bolts, and i wanted the minimum amount of thread extension at the ball joint to prevent a weak point.
The problem is fitting the brackets as they come and in this manner can't be done.

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The black mark on the axle bracket is where the end of the rod lines up with the unmodified chassis bracket in place

and the chassis bracket .....
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Bugger !!
I made the decision to modify the chassis bracket, it already needed a fair amount of cutting about. .....

[Zakspak]

so I've cut the profiled section off the chassis mount, mounted the rod both ends having tacked the axle bracket, then marked the chassis and boot floor for profiling

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Used steel wire to get an accurate profile, which is transferred to light card,
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Light card checked and adjusted, and when correct the template transferred to a heavier card that also is similar thickness to the metal plate being used
Light card
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Final template
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All fitted up and checked
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Transferred to 2.5 steel plate
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Cut out,trimmed, hand finished by file and test fitted. Both plates fit so well they hold in place unsupported
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[Zakspak]

Tacked and fully welded inside and fitment check.
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I've tried to get the rod as horizontal and parallel to the axle as possible. It runs very close to the hand break bar support. So I'll remove that and lower it by 10mm which should give the clearance without effecting the hand break.

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Final welding, dressing and shaping of the chassis bracket
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Finally tacked on to the shell
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[Zakspak]

Before taking the axle and springs off I removed the half shafts. They're held nice a firm on the car, far more so than on the bench. As the cars stood for 25/26 years, I figured the bearing maybe a bit tight, so rather than using a slide hammer, I used a combination of nuts and bolts to pull them out. RH side needed a bit more muscle, but both popped out ok with no twatting with big hammers.

RH side
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[Zakspak]

With the axle stripped and every thing ready, final welding of the brackets, moving the hand break guide and fitting new break pipe supports. Original pipping goes along the bottom of the axle, but running the pipes along the top make more sense and clears all the new brackets

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Off to media blasting next for the axle along with a pile of other bits

[Zakspak]

back down on the skate and outside with the new roof whist the garage gets a sweep out. Next up is back on the spit for fitting the rear outer tubs and finishing off some welds on the front chassis to floor. Little corrosion repair to do on the RH C pillar to.
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[donnie]

Got to smile and say the car was out this year :-)

Coming on nicely and the towers took some doing

[Zakspak]

Donnie, get an update on yours, you seem so close to being finished

[Zakspak]

Tackled the "C" pillar repair this week.

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This "little" area of corrosion showed it's self in 1993 with a couple of tiny paint bubbles. As the car was off the road for the planned winter works I'd stripped it back and put some rust treatment on it. Not sure that really made any difference. This is "iceberg" rust..... the little bit you see on the surface is nothing to what's beneath.

Clearly going to have to cut back further. I cut the sections out in such a way they could be put back and welded along lines that would be easily dressed back.
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Cleaned and Patched up the inner panel. There's a lot of surface rust inside the pillar to that needs cleaning back.
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Cleaned the back of this section and welded back in.
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Then the repair sections to replace the sections that were too far gone.
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The tricky bit here is getting the shape of the window pressing right.. I took this pic of the other side and used it as I worked out how the panels needed shaping. I also used a black marker to High light the lines.
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Done and dressed back. The pic doesn't show the profile that well, but it's there. I have deliberately left it a bit lower than it should be as the area will need a skim of filler on it and it will be easier to build up that shape than if I'd made it too pronounced
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I've cleaned up the inside of the pillar, underside of the window frame and boot opening, given it all rust treatment. When that's had a good 24hrs drying time I'll be praying the zinc primer up in there. This is all easily accessed through the rear wheel tub with the shell on the spit. Much easier than getting in the boot space upside down at a later date.

The other side isn't as bad but needs cleaning up inside and rust treatment, I'll be on that next.
Both sides will need seam sealing to stop water coming into the rear quarter from the louvred section. Ford did this in production by putting the sealer around that inner panel before fitting the outer quarter. But the way it was done leaves a trough between the panels which didn't get any paint on it, so is a prefect rust trap. It's going to be tricky getting the seam sealer in through the openings on the C pillar, but I'll find a way.