Looking Very Good!!!!
Looking Very Good!!!!
The axle is away being modified atm, I will measure it when I get it back. The rims are 8 x 13 with a 3mm positive offset.
Didn't think of that, I will check it. The Watts came from here http://www.kandamotorsport.com.au/
Mocked up the front suspension to check tyre clearance and ride height.
2 things will need to be done. First the track can be increased 20mm each side . Also the top strut mount will have to be raised 25mm because at the ride height I want the damper is not at mid travel.
Unfortunately my back problem has flared up again so I have had to stop work on the car.
My axle shafts are away being modified so I don't have a finished width yet either.
I am using a narrow Hilux axle but with 10" x 15" rims with a neg 26mm offset rear and 8" x 15" neg 4 fronts.
So after seeing your rear arches fitted I am thinking are my wheels going to be covered.
I will soon know when I get the parts back and am able to start mocking up.
Years ago I remember having a run of 4 MK1 late mexicos that i had to correct the back axle offset on.
With those vehicles it was a tramp bar problem.
I was working in the UK as a panel beater at the time.
I am enjoying watching your build, it is interesting to see the different aproaches taken on both sides of the world.
I have also been watching this mamoth rebuild that you may find interesting as you have a bit of time on your hands not being able to continue in the shed at the moment.
http://boardroom.wscc.co.uk/cgi-bin/...3;t=46169;st=0
Hope your back gets better soon.
http://z7.invisionfree.com/CEOCI/ind...showtopic=9719.
Have a look here for a major over haul of an escort.
To finish first, you must first finish
Well it has been a couple of months since my last update so it is time for another.
I have been resting my back but not my wallet
First purchase some roll cage padding in a nice blue that will go with the colour scheme I have in mind.
Next up a lightweight tubular crossmember.
And then the most expensive a Sadev 6 speed sequential gearbox complete with long gearstick and gear position indicator at no cost.
This is the same gearbox that Simon Mauger has in is tarmac rally car so it should be
Check it out here
Getting this gearbox shipped to over here caused me a lot of worry as I was tracking it on the internet. First it was picked up from SWR Racing in Essex by Fedex then it went to their depot in Stansted. Next it was in Paris which is ironic as it was made in France. Then it went back to Stansted. Now I was getting a bit concerned. Next it was off to the Fedex depot at Poyle near Heathrow. ( Maybe it was being sent to Austria not Australia by mistake). Then it arrived in Perth Western Australia 4 days after it was it had been picked up from SWR. Fedex rang me because I had to pay customs duty which I did and it then showed up on their website as being cleared for delivery.
Great I thought I will get it in a couple of days as Fedex won't deliver to my door, they give it to another courier to do that. Waited for 3 days but no gearbox turns up . Getting more worried because it cost me a lot of money. So I rang Fedex ( in India probably) but all they could say was that it had been sent to the other courier and I should get it on Monday ( this was late Friday).
Monday still no gearbox, Tuesday morning was getting ready to kill someone so I rang the courier who said their records showed they had it but didn't have an address so I would have to deal with Fedex. I asked if I could pick it up from their depot but was told no because it is still Fedex's property. So I rang Fedex again and they said they would look into it and ring me back soon. Of course they didn't so I decide to go to the Fedex depot. No joy there because it had been sent to the courier.
So I went to the courier's depot politely asked could I please have my gearbox. After some pissing around and mumbling about it being 42 kg it was found and loaded onto my ute and I took it home with great relief. What really pissed me off was when I got it home there was a label on it the clearly showed my name, address and mobile phone number. I believe if I hadn't gone to pick it up it would have sat at the depot who knows how long.
Anyway I have made some progress on the car.
I needed to get some paint on the inside and underneath as it was rusting and with winter approaching it would only get worse. Much of the inside and underneath where I had welded in new metal had surface rust so removed it with this
This worked really well. I just brushed it on then rubbed the rust with a scouring pad then washed the sludge off with a wet rag.
Great build mate. It's nice to see someone fabricating everything themselves and not just buying brackets and stuff and welding them on.
Regarding the axle offset problem you had, I don't know about atlas axles but on english axle'd escorts the wheel on one side is usually slightly closer to the arch than the other side. (Can't remember which side though). Now I'm talking about standard cars or at least cars with an unmodified english in its stock location ie. leafs.
When I first got my estate I noticed this and it worried the hell out of me but after looking around and checking out other escorts on the island and speaking to other owners it seems that it's just how they are.
Thanks. I get satisfaction from making my own stuff but it can be frustrating at times. On the other hand it also can be frustrating buying something that doesn't fit and having to modify it.
I had the same problem on my RS2000, the rear left tyre would rub on the body but the right was OK.
This is what the interior and boot looked like after many hours removing the rust.
Time to test my spray painting ability. I had only done stuff with spray cans before so I was a complete novice with a spraygun and compressor .
First thing I did was to make a spray booth in my shed. Well it was really just some builders plastic hung over some wires to try to keep the overspray confined. It did work reasonably well with only some overspray escaping.
Applied one coat of etch primer.
I was hoping to spray the top coat onto the etch after it had dried for an hour but it wasn't really smooth and also some cobweb like bits formed in places so thought I would experiment on the underneath to see what type of finish I could get. After cleaning off the webs and dust from the etch primer I sprayed on 3 topcoats.
The result was alright but I wanted something better for the interior so bought some ordinary primer and sprayed that over the etch primer and rubbed it down with 400 grade " no fil" paper.
Many hours later this was the result.
The "ghostly" look is from the dust left from using the no fil paper
Still all very inspiring work....
Looking very good. I want that gearbox
nice job on that roll cage mate,keep up the good work
Thanks for the encouragement
After removing most of the dust with a wet cloth I sealed the rear firewall and the interior and boot seams.
For the firewall side of the boot I used this ( the grey sealant )
and the rest this ( the white sealant )
Fantastic build mate. Thanks for posting the products your using, points us noobs in the right direction.
Great work, will look forward to seeing the car at events.
P.S. The wifey busted me coming out of the dunny with pictures of your gearbox.......not a great moment. Lol
Hi Mate the cobweb affect on the etch could be a couple of things: To high air pressure, to far away from work piece ( not heavy enough application meaning spray slower or closer with the air pressure set at the gun and not at the commpresser) experimenting will find the desired finish you want.
Even experianced painters have to experiment with new equipment and products.
Love that gearbox
At least it didn't involve another woman.
I can't take the credit for the Sika Firerate. Gary ( Retromotorsport) on here recommended using a intumescent sealer. I had to search the web to find out what that meant!
It wasn't a good choice to use epoxy etch for my first go at spraying. When I used the normal primer it went on really well. I have plenty of etch left so I will experiment to see if I can get a good finish with it.
I am waiting for the weather to improve so I can spray the topcoat so I did this instead:
Started the topcoat today. Have done the boot.
When I sprayed the primer I had a lot of trouble with paint mist collecting in the boot making it very difficult to see where I was spraying. I bought a smaller version of the spraygun I was using and this solved the problem and also made it easier to spray into all the nooks and crannies in the boot.
Pretty happy with the result. There is some "orange peel" but most importantly no runs I got a couple when I did the underneath which I will fix when I touch up the spots I am not happy with.
Spent 4 hours yesterday painting the inside. Not an easy task trying to paint with the roll cage in place. No wonder it costs a lot of money to get a professional to do it.
Got a couple of runs on the cage that I will have to fix but the rest is OK.
It is Ford Frozen White but the photos don't seem to show the real colour.
Hi there. I didnt know you were running a thread on teh new car (I only found it just now )
You are doing a fantastic job and should be well proud of your efforts. I like the 4 link boxes you made (your original Gartrac items are now well and truely part of my car )
Is that single or two pac paint? After your run in with the stripper I think you might have opted acrylic single pac??
1970 Mk1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car
Hi Glenn
I am staying well away from two pac After the paint stripper episode I seem to have become very sensitive to solvents.
The paint is synthetic enamel which has:
Pros: good gloss straight from the gun
dries very hard
less volatile thinners
Cons: it can't be 'worked' ie the finish from the gun is final, sanding and buffing destroys the protective top layer
takes ages ( a month ) to cure
I am not going to use it for the outside of the car because it is difficult to apply without mistakes for a novice sprayer like me so I am going to use single pac acrylic.
well done on a cracking build looking forward to seeing it painted
I have been pretty slack with updates lately, so here we go.
Haven't done much on the car as I got fed up with having an untidy and disorganized workshop and shed so I have spent a lot of time reorganizing, tidying up and chucking out stuff I don't need.
Here's a few pics of what everything looks like now.
Bought a new bench grinder , parts cabinet with draws for nuts and bolts etc, work trolley and a press as well.
Then I started back on the car. Just before the big tidy up I painted the engine bay.
You will see 2 large holes in the strut towers, these
go there. The reason for the "top hat" inserts is that because the car will be very low the struts need to be higher in the body to retain full bump and droop of the suspension
Thats a shed to make any man cry!!
1970 Mk1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car
^ What he said. jealous.com
http://escort.accelerator.org
1968 MK1 Escort 1300GT
1969 'Big Wing' MK1 Escort
1972 MK3 Cortina 1600XL
1984 Sierra XR4i
And other junk I don't like to talk about!
Every man needs a shed and the man who dies with the most tools wins
More progress:
Had to reduce the diameter of my existing adjustable top mounts to fit inside the top hats. The centre plate is sandwiched between the 2 blue plates and by loosening the mounting nuts both camber and castor can be adjusted.
More goodies have arrived while the exchange rate so low.
I was going to have vented rear discs but I now think that they would run too cool for my purpose so have now got some AP single piston calipers and AP 267 mm discs to go with them.
Because the exchange rate is so low I have lashed out and bought a Tractive LSD for my Atlas axle. Hopefully it will be as good as their reputation suggests.
At Last!!!
It is off the spit.
Now I can start preparing the body for paint.
Offered up the front spoiler to see how it fits. It will need a bit of dressing but it will be OK.
The front panel will need tidying up before the spoiler is fitted though.
After offering up the spoiler I decided that I wanted it lower than the normal rally car height so I bought a length of 80 mm x 3 mm aluminium flat and carefully shaped it to the front of the car so that the spoiler could be attached 60 mm lower.
A fair bit a reshaping was required on the spoiler to fit the extension.
The top edge needed to be bent back towards the body to get a flush fit.
I made up a tool to do this from an old pair of multigrips and 2 bits of flat steel.
Looked pretty good from the front
Dressed the corners in. A bit of filler will tidy it up.
Looking the ducks nuts mate!
Jealous of the shed x 3, and all the new shiny bits.
Before I could bolt the spoiler on I needed to fix the accident damage on the front panel. Some filler had it tidied up nicely.
The spoiler and extension were then bolted on and dressed into place.
Later on I will use some filler and sikaflex to finish it off.
Next up is fixing all the dents in the body but first I had to fill in the fuel filler holes. This car has 2 because post 1977 all Aussie Escorts had a 12 gallon tank slung under the boot with the filler behind the number plate that was on a flip down bracket. The original filler in the quarter panel had a blanking pate screwed in.
I welded in a couple of plates to fill the holes that will be blended in with filler.
I've started on filling the dents etc and have taken the rear arches off. I did this because the RH quarter panel needs a lot of filling and to do it neatly it is better to have the arch off the body.
Now that the arches are off I have decided to tackle something I have been considering for a while. The rear tyre clearance is a bit marginal and this could be solved by reducing the axle width 10mm each side but I really don't want to do this, in fact I really want to increase the width 10 mm each side so that I don't have to shorten the halfshafts I have.
So I need to have the arches wider. This could be done by replacing the existing tarmac ones with wide tarmac arches but A: I don't like the way they look and B: it would be too easy .
So I am going to try to stand the existing arches off 25 mm from the body ( not sure it will work but I am stubborn enough to try ).
I want to use HDPE ( High Density Polyethylene) because I hope I can heatform it to the shape required. The main problem is that arch sits above the swage line so the spacer will need to follow that shape.
I started by shaping a thin piece of MDF ( it bends easily) to follow the profile.
After getting the MDF to a profile that fitted pretty well I transferred that shape to a strip of 15 mm thick HDPE.
That fitted both sides so a made a duplicate.
Now I hope I can bend it to fit closely to the body and the arch.
The next installment will see if it works or it will back to the drawing board.
I wanna see the result of this. Def outside the square!
1970 Mk1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car
And the result is........
mixed.
I started by drawing the outline of the arch on a board and with nails on the shape. Then I heated the plastic spacer and bent it and placed it on the board with the nails keeping it in place.
When it had cooled down I removed it and it kept its shape pretty well. Then I attached it to the arch with the same bolts as before. They screwed into the plastic, acting like a nyloc nut.
Unfortunately when I offered the arch and spacer up to the body the fit was terrible.
Not willing to give up I decided the better way would be to fit the spacer to the body first and then fit the arch.
The result was far better
There are a couple couple of gaps at the top but I never expected to get a perfect fit, some sikaflex will fill them.
I have offered the arch up and I am sure it will fit with some gentle persuasion.
The bottom ends of the arch will need separate spacers because the plastic I had wasn't long enough to go all the way around.
A better result today.
Finished off the bottom spacers, I had to cut and bend them to follow the body. I found that if I heated the plastic and then put into cold water immediately it would keep its shape.
I had to relieve some of the spacer where it sat on the swage line so that it had the same profile as the arch.
All I need to do now is to fix a piece of aluminium strip over the spacer and blend it into the body with some filler.
Next I will tackle the other arch, hopefully it will be easy now that I have done one.
Very impressed. A different approach that seems to work well. Do you need the ally strip? Could you just use body filler straight over the plastic? Well done!!
1970 Mk1 Escort Tarmac Rally Car
OK time for an update on the arch spacers.
I have to admit that it has been far more difficult to do than I thought it would be but I seem to be doing things differently on this build
Used a heap of clecos to form an aluminium strip onto the plastic. Had to cut and bend the ally at the bottom to follow the body contour.
I used countersunk rivets to to attach the strip to the plastic.
Filler was used to blend the spacer into the body and fill the rivets.
Then it got harder
I could only sand the filler by hand as I could not use anything mechanical on the small radius of filler.
After hours and hours of sanding and applying some stop putty I finally got a result I was happy with.
Later I will fill the gap between the top edge of the arch and the spacer.
It has taken a long time to do but I am glad I did because now I have more options to choose from for wheels and tyres and it is different
nice idea fella, real simply but time consuming i guess, keep the great work up,
very good project. good work mate
Top marks to you for perseverance!
http://escort.accelerator.org
1968 MK1 Escort 1300GT
1969 'Big Wing' MK1 Escort
1972 MK3 Cortina 1600XL
1984 Sierra XR4i
And other junk I don't like to talk about!
I like the arch mod its a good original idea
Thanks for all the kind comments, I am working on filling all the dents in the body now... might not get much done in the next few days as using a DA sander in my shed makes dust everywhere so I need to do it outside but rain is forecast.
While I have been slaving over the bodywork ( pics soon ), my friendly machinist has done some modifications to my Atlas.
First some inserts to increase the width 10mm each side:
and something to ( hopefully) reduce the amount of oil surge into the axle tubes. These inserts are tapered so that when putting an axle in it will slide up into the diff easily.
( this one is not pushed right in of course )
Last edited by genRS2000; 23-09-2011 at 10:50.
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