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Thread: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

  1. #241
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Another week. Not a massive amount to show but been busy sorting stuff out, another visit to the interior trimmer, sorting out nuts and bolts for the engine and chassis and the blasting/powder coater's.
    In the garage I've been cracking on with the engine to get it ready for dry fitting. Got it up on the stand and finished cleaning down the old oil and crap.

    Sump off. Looking into the cylinders they seem to be in good condition with no obvious wear marks.
    IMG_6674.JPG

    RWD sump and engine mounts fitted and all the openings sealed.

    IMG_6677.JPG

    IMG_6678.JPG

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Today I've got the engine onto the front cross member. The gear box and bell housing together with the gear box mount and all bolted to the engine.
    Spent some time knocking out a few dents and some bent edges from the cross member.
    Its set on a couple of dollies so the hole lot can be rolled into position.
    Plan is to initially leave the car on the spit, roll it 90* and push the engine gear box into position from the side rolling the shell back until it's all in position. When that's done, I'll drop the shell on to stands, get a crane in for the day and lift the engine into position. Hoping to get this done by Monday.

    IMG_6706.JPG

    I've only done a light fitting. there's no sump baffles or oil pick up pipe and I used the old sump gasket, there's no fly wheel, clutch etc. There's no point at this stage, I just want to make the alterations to the shell, like the gear stick opening, and check positioning of exhaust mounts and bits like the expansion tank and oil catch tank.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Blimey, 26 years since an engine filled that space

    IMG_6744.JPG

    IMG_6743.JPG

    There'll be a bit more detail to follow, and there's a fair bit of work needed, but seeing the engine sat there supported by the cross member made today significant.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Makes you smile when you see an engine in the bay again.shes coming on strong and keep it coming

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Couple of weeks of faffing about with the tunnel mods.
    Even with the Auto tunnel you still need the riser plate, and cut back the tunnel strengthener.
    First fitting was to allow marking up of where to cut.

    IMG_6719.JPG

    Initial cutting smaller sections having marked out the edge of the plate

    Initial cutting of the tunnel strengthener. This the Type 9 gearbox on the RS2000 ally bell housing.
    IMG_6722.JPG

    And an unforeseen problem..
    IMG_6721.JPG

    This is the extra wide gearbox mount from RF, which was marked up as suitable for Grp4 and Auto tunnels. Unfortunately that's not 100% correct due to the "flair" at the bottom of the auto tunnel. So fixing brackets needed making up and welding in. Due to considered clearance issues with fitting bolts if using the wide mount and fabricating tunnel brackets, it's best to use the standard width mount.
    Fair play to the guys at RF. No arguments, and with apologies they sent out a standard width mount that arrived next morning along with refunds. The website was also altered.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Checked and marked up the centre line of the shell/drive train.
    I left the engine/gearbox in and covered it whilst cutting for the riser plate.
    IMG_6728.JPG

    This is why you need the riser plate.
    IMG_6732.JPG

    I decided to completely remove the top of the strengthener, on the basis it would be easier to make it good by fitting top fillets..
    IMG_6729.JPG

    The Zetec on a standard cross member and mounts sits at a noticeable angle. The drive train is designed to sit at 4* to the front chassis rails.
    To get the engine sitting correctly the mounts where tapped down into the cross member. There's a lot of play here and you may be surprised how much the engine will bed down.
    IMG_6736.JPG

    Looking for about 15mm between the sump and steering rack.
    IMG_6731.JPG

    By tapping the engine mounts down and adjusting the gearbox up, i've got a drive chain angle of 4.4* Happy with that.
    It's a bit awkward working out the angle, and a second pair of hands would help.
    Measure from the chassis rail up to the top of the head (not the top of the rocker cover) at the front and back, making sure the rule is vertical at 90* to the rail. measure the distance on the rail of the 2 points. Measure the distance of the 2 points along the head.
    Subtract the rear vertical measurement from the front. Now either do the trigonometry, or use an on line calculator. Put in the horizontal measurements from the chassis rails and head and the result from the subtraction of verticals. That's three sides of the triangle, and you'll get the resultant angles. I'll put up a little picture which probably explains a bit easier..

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  8. #247
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Little bit of adjustment needed on the cross member/chassis mounting to get the engine gearbox straight.

    IMG_6801.JPG

    Riser plate tacked in. And to make room for measuring for the gearbox mounts, a piece of steel bolted in to the gear stick location. This also gives a good degree of adjustment.
    IMG_6804.JPG

    IMG_6805.JPG

    This took far longer than expected to get right. maybe i put too much emphasis on getting the brackets square, but better that than problems later
    It's a tight space laying on you back with the shell on stands. There's some odd angles here so it's not as straight forward as it looks.
    IMG_6806.JPG

    Tacked in
    IMG_6807.JPG

    There's things to consider like fitting the mounting bolts, not creating corners that will act as a mud trap.
    IMG_6808.JPG

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    You did well and it’s looks tidy, car is coming on well and look forward to the final stages before paint. Keep it up and updates are motivating as I need to get a finger out and get back to mine

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Thanks gents for the interest, and happy people find some of this useful.
    Donnie, you really do need to get your finger out, your car seems so close to being done.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Didn't get to finish the update last week.
    Here's the diagram for working out the drive train angle

    IMG_7017.JPG

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    With the gearbox mounts tacked in, out comes the engine and gear box, and I made good the tunnel strengthener.
    It's a tight space a tricky to get into with the mig torch. Leaving the gear stick gator ring off allows more space to get into the top of the fillets.
    I took the fillets up into the riser plate to a point above where the stick ring would be fitted to get maximise strength when it's all complete.

    IMG_6861.JPG

    Gearbox mounts, seam welded and dressed back.

    IMG_6860.JPG


    Mount aligned and brackets drilled. I marked the brackets for drilling after they were tacked in and the gearbox was still in place.
    IMG_6853.JPG

    Top ring fitted
    IMG_6852.JPG
    I've cut this out of the standard tunnel that came with the floor.

    All dressed back. Riser plate is seam welded and the ring plate is stitch and plug welded
    IMG_6858.JPG
    IMG_6859.JPG

    I had considered putting doubler plates on the tunnel in side the car but after finishing up welding it all seems stiff enough, so not going to.

    IMG_6864.JPG

    Engine gearbox back in, and it all works, job done.
    Last edited by Zakspak; 18-12-2019 at 22:48.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Got the exhaust on. Had to drop the engine to fit the manifold.
    Other than that the exhaust has gone on fairly easily, but I'm modifying the brackets.

    The centre mount is very simple and would require a small plate welded over one of the floor plug holes and then drilling. I don't want to drill the floor or have a stud and nut in the rear foot well. Also the leaver arm on that bracket is substantial and with a small twist of the pipes the bobbing is distorted.
    IMG_6872.JPG

    Fortunately nicely placed above the pipe is the tunnel bracket for the 2 piece prop shaft with a nice M8 captive nut. And it's not that far off the mount I want to delete
    IMG_6879.JPG

    IMG_6873.JPG

    The supplied bobbin doesn't fit due to being hexagon. I've ordered a suitable round bobbing with male/female ends. male stud going in to the captive nut and a bolt will go through the hanger I'm making up. For that I've ordered an exhaust clamp, and will use some steel plate fitted to that to bring it all together
    IMG_6874.JPG
    More to follow on this, the rear bracket is a little bit of an issue to.

    Other little jobs have included checking position of oil catch tank, radiator expansion tank and looking at the mods needed to the heater matrix pipes so the water pipes can be made to fit.
    The loom came with it's own bulkhead grommet, but requires a 50mm hole drilling, that I don't fancy, so a little thought needed to get it to pass through the original bulkhead loom grommet with the original loom.

    The last week hasn't seen much done due to home stuff and now some man flue which is a right bugger.

  15. #253
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Keep up the good work. Im at a similar stage though used an RX8 box

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Happy new year.
    Little progress over Christmas. The dreaded man flue has been an issue, so not wanting to waste time being ill, I found some thing to do indoors, so I've stripped, checked and cleaned the instrument panel.
    IMG_7055.JPG

    It did cross my mind that this wasn't a great idea once I started, messing with 40+ year old plastic held together with metal screws, but it worked out ok.

    IMG_7059.JPG
    Gently dusted out the back of the gauges and checked the coils where ok. The oil gauge is capillary.

    The main plug PCB contacts had lifted so I've used a flexible jewellers glue to re-fix them, and I cleaned all the contact points with a fibre pen.
    IMG_7060.JPG

    Speedo needle had discoloured so that's been refreshed with an acrylic white (acrylic paint wont yellow)
    IMG_E7056.JPG
    IMG_E7057.JPG

    Dealt with a little scratch on the rev counter face with some satin black
    IMG_7061.JPG

    Why the air brush was out I blew the dash panel over with matt black to freshen it up, cleaned and polished the clear cover and surround.
    IMG_7058.JPG

    Just got to put it all back together.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    In the garage I've got the exhaust centre bracket made up, and it works really well.
    I didn't use the clamp I bought which was a bit bulky. Instead I made a collar up that goes just over 1/2 way around the pipe, which involved welding a lip around it as I don't have facilities to bend the edge of the collar. Then used one of the supplied clamps which is like a jubilee clamp, much slimmer.

    IMG_7075.JPG

    IMG_7076.JPG

    This bracket works better than I had thought

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    After fiddling about with the rear bracket and considering options, I found It could be used quite effectively with the addition of wedged pads between it and the boot floor. I've made these up with wood as a trial, this will be replaced with nylon wedge pads.

    IMG_7080.JPG

    The pads square the bracket up and give it clearance from the boot floor ridges, so when it's bolted in, it's really firm without any distortion.
    IMG_7081.JPG

    Going to put a small arch in the rear valance to add a little clearance for the pipe.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    There's been tinkering with positioning coolant expansion tank and oil catch tank, and I removed the radiator support panel strengtheners as I just wasn't happy with how they looked in there position, and the welds were scruffy, I couldn't get in to dress them, so I've made up new ones.
    Before
    IMG_7085a.JPG

    After
    IMG_7085.JPG
    To be welded later

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Battery tray located. I planned to mount it forward on top of where the boot floor is bulged up for the axle, but it was just getting too complicated to build a mount that I thought would be sufficient to support a battery, not be overly heavy and look tidy. I want to keep the spare wheel well free to use, and don't want the battery next to the fuel tank. In the end I've gone with "easy"and placed it on the main floor, transversely across the boot floor. To save drilling the boot floor I've put in 4 brackets that the frame bolts to.

    IMG_7133.JPG
    This has used up far too much time, and due to working late and time frustration, I managed to weld the brackets in pissed. It took me twice as long to remove and re do them.
    Re done. The tray still needs the clamp studs welding on, but this can be done later.

    IMG_7134.JPG

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    At the back I've made this arch in the rear valance for exhaust clearance. Without it the pipe had about 5mm clearance, so any bumps would probably cause contact.

    IMG_7142.JPG

    IMG_7144.JPG

    Now this is done, I'll be taking the engine, gear box and exhaust out to do a few jobs in the engine bay, before getting on to refitting the rear arches, front wings and nose cone. Hoping I can pick up progress, seems to have been a lot of time spent on doing very little.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Taking shape nicely, keep it up looking forward to seeing her in paint

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Thanks donnie. Any progress on yours ? Can you post some more pics of your engine bay, and what fuel pump and filter are you using ? Your set up is very similar to what i'm doing. be helpful to cross reference
    Cheers

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Jobs done in the engine bay.
    Radiator mount strengtheners fitted. They are welded underneath mainly, and will have a little skim of filler on the top to blend them in.

    IMG_7161.JPG

    IMG_7164.JPG

    Deleted the rectangle holes in the front panel either side of the rad. Never knew what they were for, I've never seen them used. Maybe they were part of the panel pressing process? Anyway on this panel they were a bit scruffy

    IMG_7163.JPG

    Deleted the break servo tower and break pipe "T" piece mounting holes in the RH inner wing
    IMG_7162.JPG

    I'll have to re-drill a bolt hole for the "T" piece in a better position.
    IMG_7166.JPG

    And finished taking the bulkhead back to bare metal, all finished with the zinc primer.
    IMG_7165.JPG

    Just got to put the scuttle panel on to drill and fit the stainless steal "riv-nuts" I'll be using to secure it with, then I think it's time to fit the rear arches, front wings etc

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    More great progress

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zakspak View Post
    Attachment 85055

    Deleted the rectangle holes in the front panel either side of the rad. Never knew what they were for, I've never seen them used. Maybe they were part of the panel pressing process? Anyway on this panel they were a bit scruffy

    Attachment 85054
    What rectangular holes ? where ?

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Quote Originally Posted by katana View Post
    What rectangular holes ? where ?
    I'd say he was talking about those small rectuangular holes, pre-red oxide primer.

    Quote Originally Posted by Zakspak View Post
    Deleted the rectangle holes in the front panel either side of the rad. Never knew what they were for, I've never seen them used. Maybe they were part of the panel pressing process? Anyway on this panel they were a bit scruffy
    Attachment 85053

    Not sure why it's not loading the attachment properly.
    Last edited by rallyrob; 22-01-2020 at 12:27.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Katana, Rallyrob has it, the 2 small rectangular holes either side of the radiator panel. You can see them in some previous pics on my thread and in the first pic on that post before I dressed them back, and any Mk2 front panel. Happy they aren’t obvious now under a coat of zinc primer
    I also deleted the LHD bonnet release cable clamp holes.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Thanks gents for the interest.
    Hopefully not too many issues with seeing pictures.
    rallyrob, I’ve had problems seeing pictures here to, not only on my thread. Had one the other day on my post that required me to click the picture symbol to load it. It wasn’t obvious, but once it loaded it’s stayed visible on both the laptop and iPad
    Thanks again

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    More more more

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Great job as always, like the way you blanked the holes that weren’t needed, should have done that with mine

    Keep the updates coming

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Thanks Donnie, any progress on finishing off your car ?
    Can you post up some more detailed pics of your engine bay and fuel system set up please. Want to cross reference what you've done with my plans for a very similar set up..

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Bit of a drag over the last couple of weeks. Been working on the doors. Nothing very interesting, mostly cleaning out the wax oil. Unfortunately the wax oil must have been done some time after the doors were new so there was the normal corrosion inside at the bottom of the doors, one worse than the other. The wax oil has defiantly been helpful as I've had the doors stored in the garage since about 1992.
    I used a hot air gun to melt the wax oil, then wiping it out. Some of the oil had gone hard, and needed scrapping out. Long messy awkward job, as to put the primer on later all the wax has got to be gone and the most important areas are the most difficult to get to. I peeled the door skin back from the frame in the corners for access. Anyway its done. Insides zinc primed, edges seam sealed and the restraining links removed, cleaned, primed and top coated with the white. I've also fitted the locks and striker plates.

    Then fitting. RH door, no real issue. LH door........ bugger. When I did the sills I used the old door. When I fitted the new door, it wasn't good.

    IMG_7230.JPG

    This is the gap around the bottom rear corner. It's not the sill, they are straight. If I'd used this door I would have found the problem earlier, not aligned the sill differently. The top frame was also thrown out within the opening frame.

    IMG_7231.JPG

    After a lot of messing about, door on, door off single highhandedly I've got it sorted. The top hinge needs a shim between it and the A pillar. With a 3mm shim the door lines up fine. However I have to replace the internal plate with a thinner one so there's enough threads for the nuts. Ideally I'd like to re-position the hinge, but I don't have means to cut the welds out without damaging the frame or hinge. I'll speak to the body shop about this option though.
    Something to consider if changing doors out.

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    The reason for getting the doors sorted is, its X-Pack time.
    Whilst 1st time around I think I did a fair job of this, there's always room for improvement.
    Fair bit of time dry fitting with clamps and gaffa tape to get the alignment of the rears as best I could

    IMG_7238.JPG

    IMG_7237.JPG

    IMG_7240.JPG

    IMG_7241.JPG

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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Once happy, time to take the drill to the body and use the screw clamps ready for final fitting.
    I'm following the instructions that Fibre Sport produced for Ford when these arches were part of the X-Pack option list.
    The guy who originally fitted these and the previous forest arches on the Mk1's told me they used to lift the shells via the arches and never had a failure, so I figure if that worked then it's best to stick with the tried and tested methods and materials.

    IMG_7242.JPG
    Having spent so much time replacing panels, filling holes etc, taking a drill to it was difficult.

    Once they were fitted with the screw clamps, it's time to drill out the arches for the screws that will be used to hold them in place when I do the fibre glassing. That's every 4cm, that equals 68 screws.
    Picture from inside the boot.
    IMG_7243.JPG

    Whilst the arches fit fairly well, there is room for improvement. just to get them to form more closely to the body shell. There's a bit of a gap around the LH rear lower corner. Making the panel a closer fit will reduce stress on the joints from pulling them in and also reduce filler thickness later.

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    Just extended the glass from inside. Using the professional glass and resin is great, and matches in with the original panel perfectly. The red is from using Isopon P38 originally (I think it was P38) which compared to the stuff Fibre sport supplied is awful to work with.

    IMG_7248.JPG
    Then with the Panel in place, I'll apply the resin to the glass sheet so it forms to the shell nicely and trim it. Looks a bit scruffy here I know.

  40. #274
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Good to see the Xpack kit going on again and grande job. Will post the latest fuel line photos this weekend for you and as for mine, she is taking shape as I starting getting the glass back in last time back so it’s starting to look like a car again

  41. #275
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Modifications to the rear X-Pack continued

    Resin applied
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    Selection of pics of various areas modified or repaired

    RH side
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    IMG_7297.JPG

  42. #276
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Extending and profiling the RH side rear lower section
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    IMG_7256.JPG

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  43. #277
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Marked out, masked and painted a top coat of the white. It's just a sealing coat to stop any chance of moisture penetrating the zinc primer. Whilst that is unlikely, if it did it wouldn't be good. I had 2-pak paint left over so I used that.
    I've also marked out the strip where the panels will be bonded on, which in old money is 2".

    IMG_7277.JPG

    IMG_7279.JPG

  44. #278
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Panels trimmed up, the surfaces keyed and final dry fitting ready for final bonding.

    IMG_7300.JPG

    Doing this job right is all about the preparation, once you start you've only as long as the resin remains liquid.
    That meant making sure all the glass strips a pre prepared. The instructions from Fibre Sport say 6" strips.

    IMG_7293.JPG

    I've also worked out mixing ratios for the resin and hardener, from the max to min and in between at various different quantities. Doing the mods & repairs also gave an opportunity to note drying times for the ratios vs temperature.
    I set up to work on a drying time of 45 minuets. The instructions say 20 mins. Maybe that would be possible with 2 or 3 pairs of hands but not on my own.

    Ready to go... Last thing is strip to bare metal the bonding area, and key it with 80 grit emery cloth.
    Did this right before the bonding, so there was no time for any surface corrosion to even consider starting.
    Masked up to catch any resin runs, just to save extra cleaning later.
    Resin mixed and stop watch started
    1st thing, a coat of resin brushed over the bare metal strip, helps with the bonding but also makes sure no bare metal is left exposed

    IMG_7301.JPG

    Then on with 2 layers of resin soaked glass strips, working fast and with every thing laid out, this took a good 50 minuets. then quickly run resin around the panel flange, and on with the panel.

    IMG_7303.JPG

    Finding the 1st screw hole was a bit tricky, but once it was there the others lined up fine.

    Little note on the side of the car to make sure I didn't forget to put the seam sealer on the tabs around the extended tubs so they are bonded to the inside of the panel.

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  45. #279
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    LH side 24hrs drying time and then the RH side. Same again
    48 hrs and both side trimmed and cleaned up.
    Bit of extra glass here and there to smooth and improve the form of the fit, then a coat of resin to seal every thing.
    It's not complete, but I'm away for a couple of weeks.
    When I'm back I'll nip down the edges and lay on some 2" edging glass strip so the panel will be sandwiched between the glass strips, strengthen the corners, and the transition from Fibreglass panel to body shell will be as smooth as possible, which will reduce the filler needed.

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    That's it for now. Looking forward to crack on with the front when I'm back

  46. #280
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    Re: 1977 Mk2 Zakspeed Escort. Rebuilding my pride and joy.

    Awesome job mate. Well done.
    Have you re routed the looms in the engine bay so that’s it’s not close to the exhaust?
    rgds

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