72' MK1 4 door Escort

[Anthiron]

Well I bought another car.



I finally own a Mk1 Escort. It is a 1972 MK1 XL 4 door.

I purchased it site unseen on Gumtree and flew from Brisbane to Newcastle (Australia) and made the 10 hour journey home in the new purchase.

Luckily the car was as described and apart from a very slow leak in a rear Tyre and a wheel bearing with a bit of a rumble by the 8th hour it didn't miss a beat!



The car is a 4 door which some people aren't a fan of, but personally I am pretty happy with the purchase. It is basically rust free (Few bubbles from poor paint prep in the rain channels and a 5c piece sized bubble on a rear wheel arch is about all I could find. The paint is a home job and has some runs as well as a weird sort of reaction on the passenger side front door where there might be some bog that reacted to the paint??? But it is a presentable car and will be driven hard not looked at.



2 Litre Pinto engine

4 speed single rail box

Lowered 2 inches on HD front springs and blocks in the rear

MK2 2L front brakes

AutoTechnica Bucket seats which are Mod Plated (These will be going promptly to be replaced by the cobra low backs from my Cortina)

2 Piece Roh 16" wheels (These have already been removed and replaced by the Superlites from my Cortina)



The plan is to swap the 45 DCOE's from my Mk2 Cortina and then the Cortina will be for sale (Feel free to make an offer however I am in Australia), Re-make the alloy dash panels which are pretty rough, matching switch gear, put the cobra bucket seats in, fit Speedhut GPS speedo and quad gauge into the stock 2 dial dash, re-locate oil and gen warning lights to the switch panel in big LED's, Paint bumpers black (The qtr bumpers are glass so Chrome is out), De-chrome the wheel arches, fit a bigger more practical steering wheel that allows me to see how fast I am travelling, replace the cheesy led indicators on the front with some stock ones, Convert to round headlights and then pretty much drive the wheels off it!



Oh and I also swapped the stereo from the Cortina into it which sounds much better.



Anyway here are a few pics.



Some from the advertisement.













I took this one just before we jumped in it for the drive home







I am quite bad at remembering to take photos but here are a couple when I got it home. Unfortunately I had to travel back to work for 2 weeks so I will have an update when I am back home.



















Nick

[andy-v]

looks very nice and solid, is there any rusty cars down under

[Anthiron]

Ha Ha, Yes. Many.

Fortunately though, due to the drier climate if you store vehicles indoors and don't live near the ocean they last a lot better.
I have owned a few Volkswagens and still have a Baja Bug that is halfway through a rebuild. The body was so rusty that I sent it to scrap metal and bought a second car just to steal the body from.

[type49mk1]

nice car, colors not for me tho

[Anthiron]

A bit of an update on the car.

I have made some dash panels to tidy things up a bit and get some matching switch gear, fix up some bad wiring etc. in.
Cobra seats are now in the car, OMP wheel, fixed a dodgy earth in a brake light that was earthing out through the indicators, painted the grille and bumpers black.

My speed hut gauges also arrived and I have a dash facia to modify for these. The only thing they dont incorporate is the oil and charge warning lights but I have relocated these to LED lights on the switch panel.

Next time I am home with the car I intend on getting stuck into the engine bay.

I ordered a round headlight grille from Ebay.uk and the international shipping division decided it was too big to ship and kept it! refunded my money without talking to me and let the seller keep my money. Then kept the item! very dodgy and wont reply to my emails! not happy

Basic cutouts of the dash pieces




Progress shot on the interior


New gauges and dash facia they will be going into.

[Anthiron]

Made a few changes to the escort over the last couple of months.

Twin 45's taken from my Cortina which is now sold, Oil catch can, Battery in boot, Burton rocker cover, some changes to the exhaust, new dash vents (mine were quite sun damaged), 190lb front springs, Gaz eccentric strut tops, strut bar, Gaz adjustable rear shocks and a few other bits and pieces. I also have a full poly flex bush set to go in and have ordered a new carpet kit (The one in the car is recent but has been cut by a blind man) and some Dynamat style sound deadening to hopefully reduce some of the resonance vibration noise that the car makes at various RPM's. Also picked up a Type 9 box in great condition which will go in down the track when the motor gets rebuilt to a better spec.

[Course_Out]

Looking great mate! I have a soft spot for 4 doors, and I am really liking the direction of this! I think I remember seeing this on gumtree (I'm in Newcastle) and shaking my head at those seats....

Keep up the great work!

[Anthiron]

Cheers for the feedback.

Yeah it was on Gumtree for a while. Ive actually seen this car sold twice before I bought it. It was a QLD car before it was sold the the guy in Newy that I bought it off.
You're not wrong about the seats. I got $100 for them locally which was alright. They barely even fit in the car!

I am trying to keep the car practical to drive but also be a nice quick street car. Progress is slow as I work away from home for 2 weeks at a time.

Also found another round headlight grille. So I just need to make the brackets for the light buckets and that can also go on.

[alesh]

waw...awesome
Where did you find these gauges? How do you hooked?

[Anthiron]

Got the gauges in a couple of days ago.

Basically I removed the actual gauge assembly from the fascia. The I widened the holes to suit the Speed Hut gauges. The skirt around the rear of the fascia had to be trimmed away to let the screw clamps do up tightly and lock the gauges in. Then Filled the old indicator/high beam/warning light holes with araldite and sanded and painted.

I think it came up OK. They have a lot of features like standing 1/4 mile timer, peak speed recall, high and low warning lights for the secondary gauges. Everything is programmable its fantastic. Best thing is I can now see clearly how fast I am traveling at night time!




A before and after pic.






Also the passenger side door got fixed up. There was a fair bit of humidity bubbling in the paint which turned out to be the result of a spray job done over poor quality enamel. Looks great now. Also got the panel shop to fit a passenger side mirror I had.




Have a 2.4 turn quick rack ready to go in too but I ran out of time so it will have to wait for now.

[Anthiron]

Also realized I had neglected to say that the Type 9 and quick shifter is now in the car. Much nicer to drive at highway speeds now.

[Anthiron]

Did a bit of work on the Escort last week.

- 2.4 turn quick rack is in
- Oil pressure sender T piece added so I can still run the warning light on the dash (Relocated to the centre panel)
- Round headlight conversion

Also the car is fully poly bushed (Happened a couple of months ago but didn't update.)





Also gave it a bit of a wash and drove the pants off it. Went through 4 tanks of fuel in a week. Love driving this thing.

[Anthiron]

Haven't posted here in a while.

- Front is now a little lower still. Much better stance now.
- Had an oil pressure problem (pump drive shaft spun resulting in a scored big end.) Cheers to Pete @ Performance Thumpers for getting me back on the road with a days turn around to make a cruise the next day!
- Nothing much too new has happened on the car really. Not too much left to go really (Coil over front, Vented front discs and MK2 rear drums, engine rebuild, rear seat recover, wrap the headers so my left leg doesnt get so hot when driving it hard on a hot day) but putting the eski on the backburning a little atm to get a few things done on my Chevy Luv.

Some pics of our local group.

[Cort500]

I am bit behind the times but well done on getting the Eski I guess you don't want to buy mine now??
Its looking really good mate!! Hopefully mine is back from panel shop at the end of the month and then try put it all back together in between Dad duties with a new baby.

[Anthiron]

Hi Adam,

Ha ha, Would be nice to have another one but no I don't think I would be able to explain a 4th car to the missus ;P

Saw that you had taken yours in for paint. Any progress on the other shell. Still going duratec?

You will need to bring your car up for a run with the Sunshine Coast group before you sell it.

nick