Mk1 Escort (Ratspeed) project build....

[madragon199]

After being inspired by so many build projects on here i thought id start my build...

ive always loved Thunder salons /zakspeed cars ect and recently drift cars..

So i thought id build A HOMMAGE to all i like in one car...No Appologies...and call it Ratspeed..

This is a general idea of what i want it to look like (the blue one)


Some pics of cars/ stuff that i like..













This is my £100.. mk1 shell i brought last year....this is as i got it....

Rear quater no petrol cap hole and really bad tubs for arches



whats left of a rally consule...note... no floor or chassis rail left on the o/s




The front scuttle complete with extinguisher /cut of pulls


rear firewall but still no floor..never seen a solid rear panel as std




Front inner wing...got small hinges..round hole for cable i guesse and the bonnet opener is on the wing..the battery tray has also dissapeared...




the front panel round headlight and starter hole...funny indicator fixing (or ive just forgot)


new floor panels welded in and rusted out where the welds are (panel date 1984)


and some more pics showing whats left...i recon it was blasted then primered then planted in someones garden...






im splitting the work between lounge and garage..

first job at the garage is to make a complete floor/tunnel ect on the bench then cut the old rusty floor out and weld in the new one..

and in the lounge /kitchen some ally work..
thought id start with the rear wing ....all ally


Wing build next...cheers mark

[evans2822]

Looks an interesting build

[zetecmk2]

loving this.....we seem to have the same taste in cars!!!

[AlexA]

Will be great watching this build come along.

[Marigold]

looks like mini clubman indicators from the holes - also an early shell based on the rear firewall

[madragon199]

Made a start on the escort....as you can see the complete floor is toast...even the tunnel has had it.....

i got a bulkhead that still had most of the floor still attached...



so after selling the bulkhead to a turbosport member i was left with floor and door pillars....
decided to use this to make up a complete floor on the workbench then transplant in car

first i braced the floor to keep it dimensionally correct...



you can see where the chassis rails were removed by the previous owner..

starting on the drivers side rear i cut the inner sill lower section out..



then cut the floor pan panel to suite.... a befoer pic



after pic...with 3 sides trinmmed off



placed panel in position and marked outline



cut hole



and test fit floor panel ready for butt welding..









cheers mark

[NRspeed]

looks like mini clubman indicators from the holes - also an early shell based on the rear firewall

Deffo early shell as the heater bubble pointed ends gives it away as well. If you have the original doors you will see the lock in handle button.

Do you have a bonnet? if not I have one and it is a early one (washer jet hole).

[madragon199]

Deffo early shell as the heater bubble pointed ends gives it away as well. If you have the original doors you will see the lock in handle button.

Do you have a bonnet? if not I have one and it is a early one (washer jet hole).

Thanks for the offer...but im going to have a go at making an alloy bonnet..

It had a passanger door..and as far as i could see there are no external locks...just locks from pushing the inner opening handle..

Cheers mark

[madragon199]

Started to weld the rear floor in...got most done before ran out welding wire





As the floor is off the car..i decided to enlarge the gearbox tunnel..but try and keep it looking origanal...

This kind of idea



Gearbox tunnel cuts





floor cut away ready for new front "panel floor "and extend tunnel width

30mm wider each side...



florr cut out





the new floor panel was rubbish...so had to flatten and rebend to fit
test fitted ready for welding





front and rear floor...



As you guessed the front and rear floor dont actually meet there is about a 4" gap...which i will make an infill panell for..
This is situated under the seat cross btacing so wont be seen from inside...

Next up is finish welding then repeat on other side...

i coated every thing in rust eater /primer untill ready for paint...(probably in 4 years time at this rate)

made a start on the alloy parts

First of the Zakspeed inspired rear spoiler ..

Cheers mark

[finlay]

Gonna be a belter 👍 cheers

[Steve]

Nowt to loose for a £100 lol
Following

[Capri-X-pack]

Awesome car bud

[Phat13]

I'm also starting my mk1 build,I also like the drift look,so good on ya buddy ;0)

[racing escort]

Brave man, I hardly see an escort in the pile of rust !

[madragon199]

Brave man, I hardly see an escort in the pile of rust !

I no what you mean lol...
BUT
Its a perfect shell for building into my project,,,because most of the metal is coming out any way...couldnt do that to a good shell...cheers mark

[LAWRENCEM]

looking forward to seeing how this comes on its nice to see a bit of a different restoration taking place!

[madragon199]

Finished butt welding the passenger side then moved on to the driver side floor, same as before cut //butt/weld...





In this pic you can see the wider tunnel idea



the floor finished ..but it needs abit of strength so next was the seat /floor brace..i decided to go 3/4 height on oassanger side and 2/3 stepped to 1/2 on driver side...
1.2 zintec sheet


Marked and bent to shape ..punched a 67mm holes and welded to floor pan..


both sides welded...the tunnel will still flex untill the gearbox tunnell is fixed to the bulkhead...




Rust cure under coat applied for now...dries black





next task is to join it to the shell...i want to keep as much of the new floor sill rad as its origanal so needed to work out how to cut both the new floor and the old shell to achieve a good butt joint and keep everything in tolerance...

in the end i found datum points on the shell and floor made a jig and cut.....
The jig


this locates on the inner rear pressed panel as pic below




It doesnt matter if its parallell or even straight as long as both halves are the same..thats why the jig makes it easy...



all cut ,,,decided to put an inner piece in the floor section door pillar...this will make it easier to align and easier to weld..i hope anyway..









for the front cuts i used the hinge bkt as a location point..on the shell i left the inner strengthener ..so it would slot together..

[madragon199]

The Floor ready to be fitted ...


Before i can fit it i need to remove all the old floor/tunnell sills ect....but i want to keep whats left of the chassis rails for reference later on...

Took ages to remove all the rusty floor ...3 layers of floors 3 inner sills and a floor plate welded to the outer chassis rail..pic of the rusty floor removed


Whats left of the chassis rails front and rear ...complete with springs still attached...








Cutting the shell using the jigs ready for the floor








Front posts cut leaving the inner hinge support for location and strength



The shell raised and ready for the floor to be fitted



cleaned and ready for mating part





floor in position and braced after lots of measuring...ready for welding all 4 corners...you can see i removed the spotwelds for the gearbox tunnel top befor i fitted it in position...





All for corners welded...i need to fit the bulkhead to floor to regain the strength..but before i can do that i need to rebuild the drivers door post...

cutting the rust out...and cutting and bending the new outer and lower inner panels

[madragon199]

Cutting the rust out..chasing goog metal...




i have left the flitch panel in position for now just for datum lines..it will be removed when i have the lower section fixed in place..

lower section curved to meet floor and welded in place...



The previouse owner cut the door hinges of when the doors where removed....but because im using aluminium doors i will use rose joint hinges..
so flush the hinge brackets with the door pillar and plug weld a strengthening plate over old hinge area ready for the rose joint.



bottom half in place ...remove flitch panel and rest of rust .ready for new part panels





new inner panel welded and new outer panel fabbed and welded in place..top hing removed and plate spot welded over for top rose joint





a coat of rust eating primer..i will do the detailing later when i have the structure of the car stable..





the outer finished..now to do the inner lower part...i wanted to replace this part because i wanted to take it further down on the floor to get a good joint to tie it all together...

fabricated the lower section ..fun little part to make..tapered bends and swaged holes...
This is the part im copying..this came of the new/ old floor its slightly different to the older shell



marked the bent lines and cut lines...



i bent the profile first then punched the holes ..then swaged the holes last...







used small mole grips to get the swage started then hammer and pipe to finish...i left the flanges over size..will trim when attached ..





plug welded on door edge and seam welded to inner sill and to floor edges... trimmed the flanges to follow door lines and for flitch /kick panel...all nicely tied together..coat of anti rust primer for now

tha inner wing looked ok so while i was doing the door post i used some gel rust remover ..came up nice ..the bottom chassis rail part will be replaced anyway and the top cup will be replaced and the bulkhead /floor section..so gave it a coat of anti rust primer for now..



Now i can move on to the bulkhead with gearbox tunnel..my bulkhead has rust from the bottom upto the bend line and rust from the top centre heater bubble... so cut all this out...really just left the pedal box mounting bkt...

as i have an old sierra xr4i sitting on top of a container i decided to cut the gearbox tunnel and bulkhead out...the idea is to replace the bulkhead and the gearbox tunnel as one..to give it a factory look..

the part removed from xr4i



Its massive...

Cut the front part of on the red line..this will then go in the floor tunnell sides and be spot welded to look factory..and the top plate will be added later..



when i removed the tunnell i left as much metal as i could ..the idea was to fill the hole left by the removal of rust with just the one panel..

after a bit of reshaping to follow the floor chasis rail curve and to meet the innet floor tunnel sides and the top of the heater bubble i managed to get a fit and shape im happy with...ive just clamped it at the moment....needs a little dressing and a top lip welded on...

View from in the engine bay



Here you can see the amount i had to remove to find metal...as i was removing this anyway i decided to cut it square on purpose and make it the fluid reservoir fixing or something else





so far ive burnt out 2 grinders and used 24 cutting discs...

cheers mark
Cheers mark...

[Ruudje]

Holy crap What a project!

Good luck

[Mk1mexcos]

Only 24? You must of got your money's worth out of them !

[madragon199]

Only 24? You must of got your money's worth out of them !

lol yea....hunting on the floor for an old one when you run out of new ones.....

[freddy686868]

epic project! loads of great fabrication work going on here too!

[wildo105e]

so far ive burnt out 2 grinders and used 24 cutting discs...

cheers mark
Cheers mark...

I bet you have some epic work. I have always thought why people don't make more factory looking tunnels. I always meant to have look at a Capri tunnel.

Keep going some great innovation here

[Darbo]

your doing a good job

[marshyboy2002]

Wow I thought I was brave doing mine
Fair play to u and if u get it to look like what ur heading towards it will be a bute
Keep it up

[madragon199]

The bulkhead all welded in....nice and strong..but the top edge looks to straight/square....so a bit of detail metal work...to create a curved illusion.....10mins work...only took 2.5 hours...as always takes longer than i thought...

this is what i mean



made a wire template to the curve that looks correct..



then cut out with angle grinder....

scribed a curved 10 mm bend line and using my specialist tools....mole grips and hammer bent to shape..








spot welded/plug welded in place...creates the first curve...i will add 2 more curves on the heater bubble top edge to create a reverse curve thing...





next step the top edges...same steps as above ...mole grips hammer ...




here it is in position ...you can see the 3 curves down /left/right ect
i havnt welded it in place yet ...i need to tie it into the lower heater /dash panel to create the strength...here it is just sitting in position..top and front view...bit of cleaning to do and then weld in place





cheers mark

[madragon199]

Finished of the heater bubble steel work and plug/stich welded in place...





will make an ally infill later on to make it look pretty..but for now its all tied together ...i have left half the heater hole for ventilation in the car
gave it a quick coat of anti rust...

next on the list was to make the bulkhead lower part....this would then tie the gearbox tunnel to floor and to the inner wing/inner wing chassis rail..

so removed the rest of the lower bulkhead to see if there was an inner wing to weld to...and for a change the inner wing is good.....



thats as far as i got..ran out of steel sheet...

so while waiting,, i cut the rest of the gearbox tunnel . for the top section


cut the sides of



cut a srction out the middle


welded it to gether quick grind



and a quick trial fit to see if i like the look...





dunno if i like it...will sleep on it...cheers mark

[Jimmythedimmy]

fantastic work going on here

[madragon199]

Metal arrived... made the little infill panel to fill this hole.


but welded to diff tunnell. you can see the penetration on this pic...



then ran out of gas for the welder..

so started to make the rear 4 link/floor/difftunnel...

first remove all the old...massive hole again....





the 4 link is on 780mm centres and my boxs are 50mm wide ..so to make things easy i cut the floor sheet between boxes 730mm



I will keep the floor complete between 4 link boxes for now...this will give the shell some rigidity...when i spin the shell i will cut the excess out...

sheet cut and marked and bent to shape.



test fit in hole





all good..check with 4 link box



now the large diff tunnel..full length,,,,

measure and marked ready for bends



bent to shape...ready for side profile to be cut..



cut



test fit ...





seat cross brace....full height for 4 link box...i will make it in 2 halves join them and add a top brace..

first side (o/s) marked out



cut and bent



started to swage holes...i only have a 69mm punch and die so everything is worked around this sixe hole...



cheers mark

[Phat13]

Nice work , good ideas going on there bud��

[Darbo]

you could raise the floor a little between the link box and diff tunnel to let your exhaust run with more clearance or option to put a small exhaust box in there

looking good though

[madragon199]

you could raise the floor a little between the link box and diff tunnel to let your exhaust run with more clearance or option to put a small exhaust box in there

looking good though

The idea is to bring the exhaust out the driver side ...but i havnt worked out how to get past the chassis rail....yet....

cheers mark

[madragon199]

you could raise the floor a little between the link box and diff tunnel to let your exhaust run with more clearance or option to put a small exhaust box in there

looking good though

good idea.... if i cant achieve side exit..i will do that.....cheers mark

[evans2822]

Coming on a treat well done

[finlay]

Friggin excellent !!!!! 👍👍👍

[madragon199]

Some more bits done... finished the seat/4link brace...need to trim the ends when the diff tunnel is welded in place





then welded the diff tunnel to the floor....





then welded to the existing floor/tunnel ect...forgot to take pics

I have also finished the rear zakspeed (style) mooosive rear spoiler..will post pics later cheers mark

[madragon199]

As promised the zakspeed style rear spoiler....

capri spoiler...



and mk2 escort spoiler



I went for the mk2 escort height ...because at roof height on a mk1 it looked wrong...

i will post this in reverse order...starting with the finished spoiler then pics of construction...

as always some drawings doodles so i no what im making...



i built it out of 0.9mm aluminium...and used the plane wing tech...






















I havnt painted anything..just grain sanded in different directions...gives a 3d effect..
cheers mark

[scubaste]

great work on the spoiler pal and great fabrication in general

[Matt75]

Awesome work on the spoiler. How much does it weigh out of interest.

Keep up the great work

Matt