Midnight Blue RS2000 Project

[beeRS]

Hi Everyone,

I've been a member for some time, but never got round to showing off my project... well here it is


Spotted advertised on PistonHeads in October 2004. I saw the as at 9pm, phoned the guy and drove over to Basingstoke (from Essex) for 7.30am the next morning

I did the deal and got home in time for lunch


These pics were taken the following day. Bodywork seemed to be in good order. Waxoiled and well maintained. near zero rust

59,000 genuine miles, loads of history, completely standard inside and out except for...


the aerial loction in the front wing and speaker holes in the door cards.


The inside was almost perfect...


apart from the top of the rear seats which were sun bleached and as thin as a rizzla


Mechanicaly she was completely standard except for the Janspeed exhaust and 4 branch manifold.


At first I thought that was overspray on the washer bottle, but it turned out to be some kind of blue alien algea growing inside


I even got a boot full of bits with it.

The RS2000 stayed as she was until the MOT run out in February 2005. Thats when the fun really began. Shes come on a long, long way since then and I have many pictures of the full rebuild. I'll post them here if there's enough interest.

[dangerousdave]

Yes get the rest of the pics up, looks a minter

[ExtraHot]

Damn! she's a beaut.

pics

[fieldstvl]

More photos please!

[PIG]

very clean m8,get the pictures up of the rebuild as well

[Mr Day]

Very nice,i hope you've kept this standard?
Get those pics up

[oxb1l]

Love it !

I had a midnight with bvr but someone had changed it by the time I got it to red

What's the plans ?

L8r Bill

[lincolndanny]

Get the pics up or else,

[beeRS]

The first thing I wanted to do was sort out the engine. I fancied something with a lot more oomph. Wanting to keep it relatively original looking under the engine bay I quickly decided the Pinto would stay.

I decided to give the re-build job to CTM in Ilford (Essex).
This is a pic of a complete 1.3 Pinto from a Sierra that I picked up on Ebay for next to nothing (Yes such a thing does exist) Charlie at CTM advised me that the 1.3 Pinto cylinder head is an ideal starting point for my engine so I tracked down this complete engine.


The original 2.0 Pinto comes out.


The RS2000 2.0 Pinto joins the 1.3 Pinto for a trip to CTM.


After a few weeks I picked up my newly built 2.1 Pinto from CTM . I can really recommend CTM's work. Very helpful and knowledgable


The build spec features;

TOP END

(Using 1.3 Sierra Pinto head supplied by customer)

• Gas flow head to race spec
• Supply & fit 1.750 inlet valve
• Supply & fit 1.500 exhaust valve
• Supply & fit Bronze guides
• Supply & fit Race springs
• Supply & fit Bronze cam bearings
• Supply & fit unleaded valve seats
• Dowel & port-match inlet manifold to 1.3 head
• Fit Piper 285 cam (supplied by customer)

BOTTOM END

(Using original RS2000 Pinto block)

• Bore to 93mm (to achieve 2.1L)
• Supply & fit 93mm pistons
• Machine pistons for valves
• Stress relieve Cosworth rods (supplied by customer)
• Supply & fit ARP rod bolts
• Supply & fit Heavy duty bearings
• Carry out full balance

BUILD

• Paint block and head to original spec black
• Fully build engine to spec
• Supply & fit Veriner cam pulley
• Supply & fit competition gaskets
• Supply & fit competition timing belt
• Fit U/r oil pump
• Supply & fit ARP flywheel bolts
• Supply & fit ‘Ultra light’ flywheel
• Fit Valeo OE Clutch assy (supplied by customer)
• Fit Crankshaft sensor (supplied by customer)

I picked all the throttlebody hardware from a mate cheap . The Jenvies are brand new, but they're red


Never mind - I thought. I can fix that.


Chrome heat proof paint - ideal. Well pleased with the results.


Even the inlet manifold gets a coat of silver enamle.



The throttle bodies are done!


The ECU (with a map for a 1.8 Opel Manta ) and various electrical connectors. Its all confusing to me.

At this point I was wondering what to do with the rest of the body/interior. Its in good condition, but not perfect.

I'll post some pics of the body restoration soon.

[merp0]

Very nice

[Kevmk2]

Looks like a mint car, cant beat the standard interior look

[Jules]

Nice car, keep the pics coming.

[ExtraHot]

Throttles & 60-2 ...
NICE

[cossymax]

Mmm lovely clean Mk2, and loving the silver Jenveys.... Cant wait to see it in the metal so to speak, very nice indeed
Keep up the good work

[Joe-Tait]

Love it so far keep up the good work

[beeRS]

Throttles & 60-2 ...
NICE

What's 60-2 ?

[dave_cos4x4]

a very nice car to begin with, cannot wait to see what it will turn out like.

[beeRS]

Thanks for all your great comments guys

here's some more pics of the build...


Now, I couldnt put the engine back in to the tierd looking engine bay. Here it is with all the surface rust taken care of.


With white high-build primer applied. Notice the battery tray is still in place in this picture, but I have since removed it for extra clearance for the Jenvey's.


The blue goes on.





And after a polish the engine bay looks like this.

Now its come to decision time; how far do I want to take this project?

Do I re-spray the whole body?
Do I strip off the underseal and make it equally nice underneath?
Do I keep the vinyl roof?

[dangerousdave]

Go for it, sounds like you enjoy the challenge and the bay looks fantastic! Plus doing all that, if you can do it yourself will double the cars value for nowhere near that in materials cost

[Mr Day]

If you do the outside as nice as the engine bay it'l be one very nice shiney car as for the underside i suppose it depends on if your wanting to use it or not?
Keep up the good work!

[ExtraHot]

What's 60-2 ?

the new timing pick-up
60 - 2 teeth
that he fitted in front of his pulley

he can now make away with the dizzy & run a coil pack

[ExtraHot]

lookn goood.
go for it, all or nothing,i always say

[beeRS]

the new timing pick-up
60 - 2 teeth
that he fitted in front of his pulley

he can now make away with the dizzy & run a coil pack

I see!

[steveo_mex]

that is one mint escort, good work mate!! what a find!!!!

[beeRS]

Finally got roud to stripping down the rear suspension.


These bolts had not been undone since they were fitted in the factory in 1980. Can't believe this car is sooo original


You can just see my other project car in the background in this pic!


With the axle and exhaust mocked in place I can sort out a panhard rod. I know its not very common to use a panhard rod with leaf springs, but I have heard of it before (Not sure where - maybe I dreamed it ).
I thought that this would be a simple off-the-shelf job. Bought one from a well known supplier and the quality was poo . No way was I putting that on my car. Rather than see if I could find a better supplier, I decided to bite the bullet and fabricate my own


Making my own bar meant that I could have polyurethane bushes at either end (its gonna be a comfy road car!). I used a pair of rod ends from Pop Browns in Harlow (http://www.popbrowns.co.uk/) He's a top bloke that's always willing to help and offerend to weld the rod ends to a bar whilst I waited. His TIG welding makes my MIG welding look like pidgeon sh*t So with a complete rod in hand i just have to fabricate the brackets.


Here Is the beginings of the axle bracket. The two 'U' shapes are cut from steel plate. Making my own Panhard also means I can tuck it up nice and close to the axle - more room for a normal exhaust rear box.

Does anyone else use a panhard rod with leaf springs? I know its a little contraversial but I just need to know that its not a 'bad' idea.

[exboyracer]

Yes - I've got a panhard rod on my MK1 in conjunction with anti-tramps. It sorted the rear end out a treat

Lovely project my the way

[Dan]

nice project

would have thought a panhard rod with leafs was fairly common, if youve seen a pic of a car with just leafs mid corner and the wheel poking out the arch (or followed one and seen how much it moves sideways) everyone would have them on

i think for a lot of people if you add tramp bars, you put a panhard rod on too, it just makes sense. i know i did anyway

[beeRS]

What improvememnts did you get from the addition of the panhard rod?

[Dan]

the back end didnt wobble about when cornering. most noticably without it the rear of the car would sit into the corner after youd already turned (basically the axle grips and the weight of the car carrys on pushing the leafs sideways, taking up the slack) i dont know if gary has that pic to hand, i know he's posted it before, but there is a car on a trackday cornering and you can see the inside rear wheel pokeing out the arch a good inch or two

with the panhard rod on the back end just feels more settled, more connected and you can feel how much grip is there... when i added mine i also put decent dampers on, but the it was a massive improvement, very noticable as to how the rear end behaved

[beeRS]

Making the Axle end bracket; On the right is the cardboard template on the left is the steel plate cut-out.


Mocked in place - see how close it is to the axle.


This part was cut out of a piece of box section (saves on metal folding effort )

...and that's the panhard rod mounted to the axle complete.

So far so good, but now I've got to mount the other end to the chassis

[beeRS]

Fabricated the chassis braket for my panhard rod.

Using a cardbourd template and cutting fron 2x4 box


Here it is wedged in place.


...and more cardboard...


All done

[dangerousdave]

Make sure you brace the bracket in properly, mine is braced more than that and has split my boot floor....would hate it to happen to anyone elses finished resto's! I need to weld a xmember (similar to a alloy tank's stand) across the boot so it picks up on the top of both chassis rails and stops the one with the panhard on from twisting!

[beeRS]

Sound nasty! I'll have to think this through a bit more carefully. Cheers for the warning

[beeRS]

Make sure you brace the bracket in properly, mine is braced more than that and has split my boot floor....would hate it to happen to anyone elses finished resto's! I need to weld a xmember (similar to a alloy tank's stand) across the boot so it picks up on the top of both chassis rails and stops the one with the panhard on from twisting!

Have you got leaf springs with your Panhard rod
I thought that with the leafs in place there would be a lot less side ways force than with a 4-link.

[dangerousdave]

Im on a 4 link but my brother said the same happened to his mk1 which was on leafs

[beeRS]

This might seem like a wierd way for routing the handbrake cable, but it works!


After sand blasting



[img]http://media2.turbosport.co.uk/2008/6/200910122029861152156.4.jpg[/img]





Nice clean bits ready to re-fit The next step is going to be to scrape off the underseal - I know this aint gonna be fun

[beeRS]

Afer what seems like a lifetime, I've had a chance to post some more pics of the progress;

It took for ever. Loads of blood sweat and tears , but I finally got the underside clean .




Yep! One big pile of sh*t.


Meanwhile I've had a selection of parts powder coated...


...and zinc plated (I'll save you the pain of trying to figure out what some of these parts are by telling you that there's two project cars worth of parts in this pile).


OK, after a lot of soul searching I decided to remove the vinyl roof (I'm sure some would hang me for it). There was a tear in the middle piece anyway and a hole where someone put an aerial - so that's my justification . What the hell is vinyl roof glue made from? it took a lot of elbow grease to remove.


This has left a few holes that need sorting!


An aerial hole in the roof...


and one in the wing that must go.

Just a little more tidying before its off to the bodyshop .

[grs2000]

love this car! will be a great blend of old and new when completed.

[gringo!!]

very nice.. in for a penny..in for a pound i always say...

[dave_cos4x4]

excellent work you are doing.