My New Project ( Millington Escort) to stop me using this

[genRS2000]

Time to start on the brakes.

I spent a couple of hours trying to decide where to mount the brake/clutch fluid reservoirs. It meant putting the bonnet on and crawling( hoist is being installed next week ) under the car and getting into the engine bay to check clearances and various postions.

I finally made the decision to mount it in the middle and made up a cardboard template to make a bracket.



Folded up a bracket from ally.





Looking good





Grommets in the firewall for the fluid inlet hoses. The hose is 9/16" OD and the grommets are 1/2" to get a tight fit.



Next up was the pedal box. The Gartrac one I have has a 7/16" balance bar and the adjuster I have has a 3/8" thread so I had a adapter made from nylon to join them. Being made from nylon the fit is very tight allowing the bar to be turned both ways without unscrewing.

[MK1_Oz]

Where is that fluid bottle from? Looks neater than the 'usual' 3 white plastic bottles

[exboyracer]

It's a tilton one
http://www.tiltonracing.com/content....st2&id=501&m=b

If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it

[genRS2000]

It's a tilton one
http://www.tiltonracing.com/content....st2&id=501&m=b

If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it

I saw it in the latest Demon Tweeks and thought " I just have to have that" but I got it from Summit Racing in the US which was a bit cheaper.


My pedal box needed a throttle pedal and I could have bought one but as usual I decided to do something different.
On my previous car I put a MK2 pedal on a MK1 pedal box with the throttle cable being connected on the clutch pedal side so it would clear the balance bar adjuster and allow the cable to come through the firewall , not higher up. I wasn't very happy with how I did it so I did some more and this is the result.


First I got 2 MK2 pedals I had lying around that I needed to make 1 pedal.



Usually the pedal is inside the box but that is no good with the bias box. It needed to be bent and lengthened to sit correctly.




I welded a 3/8" UNF bolt in place of the original cross shaft



The other pedal was cut and straightened and another bolt welded to it and this was inserted into the LHS of the box



A brake pipe connector was perfect to join the 2 bolts together so that the pedal pivots on the original plastic bushes. The split pins will be replaced with roll pins when it is finished.

[genRS2000]

I have finished the pedal box and installed it. Hopefully it won't have to come out again as it very difficult to put it in with the door bars in place.



I have welded the ball end from the original pedal onto my new one.



Bias adjuster in the air vent hole.



Reservoir bracket painted and the scuttle grille etc bolted in.

[genRS2000]

Time to make some brake lines.

I bought a high quality 45º SAE flaring tool to replace the cheap one I had that didn't produce very good flares.



Then I found out that the only bulkhead fittings available were JIC 37º so I had to buy another flaring tool for them. I still needed the SAE tool for the master cylinder fittings.
Also the flexible braided lines I will be using are JIC so I will be able to do the flares for them.



Both these tools made excellent flares.
The JIC lines only need a single flare because they have a tube sleeve that bears onto the flare.




Lines to the pedal box installed. Short lines to to the bulkhead so that if I need to remove the pedal box , it will be easier than single lines.
I couldn't be bothered being a buffty and making the lines really straight.

[Hoogi]

Like it................I'm thinking of doing it the other way round if a standard pedal doesn't fit a Gartrac Pedal Box and altering a GRP4 Pedal to have the standard Ball End ?

One of my next jobs when I'm next home.

[genRS2000]

Like it................I'm thinking of doing it the other way round if a standard pedal doesn't fit a Gartrac Pedal Box and altering a GRP4 Pedal to have the standard Ball End ?

One of my next jobs when I'm next home.

I would say it would depend on what throttle cable you want to use i.e. a Ford or GRP4


I was not happy with the look of the rear bulkhead





so I have made some trim for it

[genRS2000]

The hoist has been installed and the car is now on it ready and waiting for all the bits I have collected over the past 3 years. All except the engine , hopefully there will be good news next week

[genRS2000]

More work on the brakes.
I like to have servos on my brakes but I didn't want to mount them under the bonnet so I have put them in the boot. The vacuum is supplied by a pump and there is an accumulator tank also.

This time I have made the brake lines prettier





Had a moment of panic because the fuel tank wouldn't fit into the well but it was only the Sikaflex in the corners stopping it from sliding in.
I have modified some 2 piece ratchet straps so that they are a single loop to hold the tank in.




No good news on the engine front so if the bits needed haven't arrived next week it will have to be shipped without them because don't want to wait any longer as I ( and my friends ) am dying to see it.

[exboyracer]

Great work there, very interesting brake setup there too!

Have you done any vacuum draw calculations or is it poke and hope?

Where did you get the pump from?

[genRS2000]

Great work there, very interesting brake setup there too!

Have you done any vacuum draw calculations or is it poke and hope?

Where did you get the pump from?

Haven't done any calculations. The vacuum pump is made for American V8s so it should be OK.

Got it from Summit Racing http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SSB-28146/


Made one brake line today. I have run out of pipe so I will get some more tomorrow.

[genRS2000]

Finished the 3 lines in the car, thank goodness. Trying to get all the bends in the right place was really difficult. Some are not exactly right but it will do for now.

I couldn't get any suitable clips for the lines so I made some from black HDPE.











The next task is to fit the Atlas.
But first I needed to fit the rubber bushes to the link bars which is a very difficult job. I bought a tool to do this from GRP4 Fabrications.It has this cone shaped part to allow the bush to squeeze into the tube on the bar.



The kit has a bolt and nut that is used to draw it in but I used a press to do it.





With plenty of detergent applied the bushes went in easily.

[FOSSIE]

Great work, as ever.

Couple of quick questions: is that receiver tank in the boot steel or ally? What are the dimensions and could you possibly point me in the direction of where you got it from, please?

And are those brakelines Goodridge "hardline stainless" or something else?

cheers
Tom

[genRS2000]

Great work, as ever.

Couple of quick questions: is that receiver tank in the boot steel or ally? What are the dimensions and could you possibly point me in the direction of where you got it from, please?

And are those brakelines Goodridge "hardline stainless" or something else?

cheers
Tom

Thanks Tom.

I pretty sure the tank is steel. I got from eBay USA some time ago but it doesn't seem to be listed anymore. But here is a bling one that is the same

http://www.ebay.com/itm/show-chrome-...#ht_500wt_1180

The brakelines are zinc plated steel I got from a local brake supplier. Our motorsport governing bodies requires steel not copper lines.

[genRS2000]

It fits

All the measuring and mocking up of the Atlas axle has paid off. It bolts in perfectly. Well there is one problem caused by changing the link bars to heavy duty ones with larger rose joints. They are 10mm longer than the ones I mocked up the axle with so the axle is too far back. I can shorten the bars a bit and cut the rose joint lock nuts in half too solve this.

[exboyracer]

Looks great

[genRS2000]

Now you see it, now you don't.



I have had to take the Atlas out because I can't get the halfshafts in. Well one goes in but it is very tight. I suspect the problem is the baffles I put in the tubes to counter oil surge. They are central to the tubes but I don't think the diff is. So the diff has to be removed and the baffles taken out.

Plenty more things to do though.

I have connected the front towing eye tube to the chassis rails.




These bits are what I am going to use to mount the fuel pump in the tank.

[genRS2000]

The strut tower extensions bolted in.



Now the strut brace I have won't mount on the body where it should go so it will go onto the top of the extensions. But it is too long.





So it has to be made shorter and new brackets made. I cut up the brackets the came with the brace and welded these to plates that bolt onto the strut towers.









The brace has a section cut out to get the right length. It is held in place for now by 2 bits of round ally bar. It will have to go away to be welded as it is aluminium and I can't weld it myself.

[davblue]

lovely job ur doing
be some racer once ur done.

[MK1_Oz]

The skill effort and detail you are putting into this car is amazing. A complete credit to you.

[genRS2000]

The skill effort and detail you are putting into this car is amazing. A complete credit to you.

I have been waiting 30 years to build an Escort Mk2 like this bit I never thought it would take so long to actually do it. Part of the problem is that things have moved forward in the past few years and there are plenty more things to put onto an Escort than there were all those years ago and so the build has got far more complex than I ever anticipated.

Also when I look at the quality of what other people have done on this forum it spurs me on to better things.


Crossmember and steering rack in place.





Fitting the crossmember was straight forward but the rack needed fettling.

The rack is not a Ford one so the alloy mounting brackets would not fit so some filing was required.





The smaller bracket had to have 1mm taken off each side.



Eventually fitted with a plastic spacer.

[genRS2000]

Now for my bespoke front suspension.

Everything was made to bolt straight on, I just had to weld the compression strut brackets to the chassis rails.

I made sure that the TCA and compression strut mounting holes were in the same plane to make they articulated properly.






I have removed the baffles in the Atlas housing and it goes back to the experts to be put back together tomorrow. The halfshafts should go in then, I hope!

[exboyracer]

Very impressive!

[genRS2000]

Both compression strut brackets welded in and painted.







The Atlas is back from being reassembled and halfshafts slide in easily

I will put it back in tomorrow.

[FrEdOoOo]

Impressive Job

[genRS2000]

Atlas back in.

[MK1_Oz]

Hydraulic handbrake?

[genRS2000]

No handbrake, saves weight

[genRS2000]

Bolted the rear anti roll bar on. Because it sits lower than the way its meant to be I need to make some brackets to lower the body mounting points.
The lowered mounting will not have to be as big as the gap in the photo as the axle is fully down here.





I have attached as much of the front suspension as I can for the moment. The struts need the lower tapered hole bored out to fit the 5/8" bolt in the lower control arm. I gave then to my machinist last week but he is snowed under with work from mining companies, he says next Tuesday... I hope.









There is a slight problem with the anti roll bar mounts. The chassis rail is not perpendicular to the bar so when the mount bolts are tightened they lean over and the bar is then too tight in the bushes.



I have put in some shims to that allows the bar to move freely but I will have to sort it properly which will require more






Now back to the fuel tank.

I have had this thing that looks like a rocket welded up to support the fuel pump in the tank.



These two half rings go inside the tank and the top plate will be bolted to it. I used a high strength Loctite to hold the bolts in place, if they start to unscrew then it will be difficult to remove the plate.







Top plate with the fuel inlet and electrical connections for the pump in place.







The pump is a Bosch 044 that has a filter attached to inlet to allow it to be used "in tank".





All together it is a "module" that is lowered into the tank. The pump is held in with in tank fuel hose to damp vibrations.

[exboyracer]

Awesome work as usual!

[Group4_Mark2]

This is not a car build, it is a work of art.

[FOSSIE]

There is a slight problem with the anti roll bar mounts. The chassis rail is not perpendicular to the bar so when the mount bolts are tightened they lean over and the bar is then too tight in the bushes.



I have put in some shims to that allows the bar to move freely but I will have to sort it properly which will require more

I have the exact same problem - my plan was to fit some spherical bearings in the brackets rather than a nylon bush, then you should be able to bolt the plate up flat and the bearing will cope with the misalignment? Not got round to trying it yet... currently still got shims like you.

[jimmy2006]

the car is coming along now mate i need to get my finger out and get on with my car

[genRS2000]

This is not a car build, it is a work of art.

Maybe I will mount it on the wall when it is finished

Tom, I think I will true up the LH chassis rail, the RH one will be OK with a shim.

I was never happy with the plastic parts of the bonnet pin kit and sure enough one broke when I was fitting it so I have had copies made from alloy.



I was going to use the seat from my old car. I even did the mounts to suit it then I saw this seat advertised with £173 off so I now have a brand new seat and amazingly the original seat mounts fit this one although I had to drill 2 new holes in the body mounts.

[turbospud]

did you measure the rack arm centers in realation to the crossmember,those thick tube alloy racks are difficult to get parallel

[genRS2000]

did you measure the rack arm centers in realation to the crossmember,those thick tube alloy racks are difficult to get parallel

Well it was parallel but then I had to space the rack out a bit more because I hadn't allowed enough clearance for the U/J pinch bolt so I had to set it up all over again.
The rack tube is definitely parallel to the crossmember tube now
Interestingly I had a look at the plastic mounts that come with the rack ( it was on my old car) and if I had used them the rack would not have been parallel.

I have been thinking a lot about wether to have power steering. After a lot of indecision I finally thought I would put it in now and if I didn't like it I could remove it.

So I will mount the upper column to the roll cage dash bar and not use the original mounting bolts.

I have welded a bracket onto the bar ... using plenty of insulation to protect the surrounding area.




The other news is that my motor ( but without the dry sump tank and radiator that still haven't appeared ) is finally on it's way. It is probably on a plane now and hopefully will be here early next week. that it isn't a saga like my gearbox shipment.

[genRS2000]

Some paint for the steering column bracket. Also you can see in the background I have added the master cylinder to reservoir hoses.



Then it was back to the fuel tank.
I have finished the fuel pump mount and the fuel level sender is in. The sender is not pointing where I wanted it to because I used the gasket as a template to drill the mounting holes but the hole patten is not symmetrical so it could only go in one way and of course it wasn't the right way



Then back to fabricating. This time the body mounting brackets for the rear anti roll bar.



Is this the end of fabricating? I hope so....

[sgallywag]

jesus mary and joseph WOW ur fab work and skill is the nuts mate

[genRS2000]

jesus mary and joseph WOW ur fab work and skill is the nuts mate

Thanks for that, I am glad you like what I am doing.


I have welded on the brackets and given then a coat of paint.






News on the motor.

It has arrived here in Perth Western Australia and I have paid the import duty and taxes so I hope I can pick it up tomorrow. Can't wait....