Colin-Tempest

Hello everyone,

Allow me to give a brief intro, my name is Colin, and I'm from Holland. I've been following all these awesome threads for a year or so, and I have a Escort mk4 XR3i for a year and six months now. This site has given me a lot of inspiration and I want to restore the '3i back to its glory.

Its an 1990 model with and EFI engine setup. When I bought it it had no MOT, a lot of holes and a louzy interior. My uncle knew someone who could help with the welding, so off it went, the floor and sills were ok , for just a quick MOT not a beauty-contest unfortunatly. Bought it in February 2009, collected parts througout March, worked on it in April and had it MOT-ed end of May, just days before my birthday, the 1st of June..

Well enough talks i'll post some pics and explain some more

i love this picture:


But , lets start at the beginning:
The day I got it:


As you can see, bad bodywork ( havent got any pics of the floor)




After welding, got it back home and started to work for MOT, it needed new tires, so bought a used set of mk3 XR3 wheels, love them!

was gutted to see how they f*cked up my wheelarch ( rather had some crust rust then this )


This was the workshop ( parking back home, havent got a garage )

Some mates helping me , thanks again!


(I'm the one in the blue)

After giving the engine a real big service, a good polish, some new seats and the MOT it was time to drive around in my First Ford


Had a awesome summer with the car, drove it everywhere offcourse, took it to the meeting of the Dutch XR/RS-club and in september to the EFE. Then in august the best thing ever happend, i started working for a Ford-dealership in my home town!, no I'm not a real greasemonkey, I sell new Fords ( well try at least) but it gave me a lot of help with the car and got to order original FoMoCo parts offcourse. But then the winter came..

I thought i was lucky having and EFI setup, but all the sensors had a hard time in the winter. Temperature-gauge was doing all sorts of things, as was the cold start, real weird RPMs.. turned out to be old thermostat and sensor.
Then the real snow came down.... loved the pirellis on the front in the summer, hated them in winter..

Switched to some winter-tyres after busting up one of the mk3 wheels ( hate myself) and these are still of of the best things ever!


After its first year i wanted to change a lot of things, I saw a lot of threads here of full resto's , really wanted to do mine after seeing the most holy-ist thread of all, the Red S2 RS Turbo, the EDAN of Twins ( LEGEND!!!)

But, work, money, experience, help and my education wouldnt allow it..
I did bought some nice things for it, Like this:

Allso got me a S2 side skirt set in black, almost mounted it, but I didnt liked it in the end so want to spray them red some day..
Changed back to the original wheels because one of the XR3 wheels got dented in the winter wich caused a lot of vibrations on the steering.


What I saw after the wheel change was horrific:
the rear chassis beam:



I though well this is it then, because this happend 2 weeks before the MOT..
I couldnt fix it myself and it looked so bad..
Considering a lot of options, I thought it would be best to take it of the road and fix it properly.. Without any hesitation, I took out the interior the same day.




Then I thought what the hell was I doing, I couldnt get it totally repaired in just a few months, I wanted to go to the Ford Fair in august!..
Calling some friends, turned out one mate was a good welder!

Drove the 3i over there, jacked it up and he started to do his thing, we couldnt get it properly fixed cause we didnt knew how to take out all the rear suspension and exhaust, so he worked around it and managed to get it welded for MOT... I still know there is rust.. someday I'll get it all out.

Well got her trough MOT, to the 2nd Ford-club meeting and hoped to get her ready for Ford Fair..
Bought this, wish I did it a year earlier, its so much fun!



2 weeks before Ford Fair I took her to the NurburgRing in Germany.. still waiting on some photo's a friend of mine took. I'm realy proud on the old girl, not on my own driving skills though... i spun around in on of the last corners and the car rolled out onto the curbstones and came to a halt a the wall.. really gently but still damaged the rear bumper and the metalwork above the taillights... damned
After the drive home, she was giving me a hard time in the mountains, weird noise coming out of the transmission...Back home, took her into the garage at work, turned out the clutch was gone... f*ck... couldnt get it fixed in time, so had to cancel Ford Fair...was really gutted..

have parts waiting for her, managed to buy some 15 inch with wider tyres for some extra bite, think of spraying them black.. for now, here she is currently..


been working for almost 2 hours on this post, like I said everythings still a first so I hope you like what i have so far, i'll give a little away about want I have planned:

* new clutch duh
* headlights
* the wheel and tyre upgrade
* electric windows and mirrors

This to be done before the EFE in about two weeks!

Then, I'm gonna ask around for help with the rust... permantly..

See you in the next post mates!

Signed,
Colin

bigryrs

iTrader: (10)

nice motor mate! looks clean

xrmalin

Looks good pal keep at it

mark.

fezzielove

nice car shame about the rust when you finaly think you have gotten the better of it BAMM!! your door drops off good to hear it got through its mot and dont give up on her

scottyrs

iTrader: (1)

looks clean that mate good luck and welcome

Twins

iTrader: (18)

Welcome to the site ,thanks for the kind words about my car ,may bump into you at the efe in two weeks

paul0461

ive seen worse rust then that mate. seems quite clean, you keeping with the 3i engine?

Colin-Tempest

Hi Everyone!

It's been a couple of weeks since the first upload, this is just a small update because I havent really done that much...

Well I started working on the clutch offcourse... never did that before... dont know if I ever wanna do it again too xD... thanks for all my co-workers for helping me out!

startet working...

Look at me go..... ()


Was a whole days job :P... glad to have it all working again, old one was just completly gone

I was gonna make it to the EFE for sure , car was ready to hit the road. Just give it a quick wax with the Autoglym... al shiny


As you can see, this message was posted in the 12th of September, the day of EFE.
That means i didnt visited it. The wheater was shite, I needed to drive al alone cause no one of my friends wanted to go with me.. at first I thought '' ah just drive over there'' and so I did.. but just I hit the motorway, the steering started shaking as crazy... 100 kph/ 60 mph wasnt fun... I think i need to balance the wheels...
so i turned around, and now I'm bored ass hell... hate this weather...

So, another goal for next year. FordFair, i'll be there, EFE I'll be there too... and then I got something to show you guys

just a last pic, I wanna show you guys where I work..



Nice huh :P

Greetings out of Rainy Holland,

See you in the next update!

Colin-Tempest

Well, its been a while and a lot has happend..
I have had an nice offer about the full resto, meaning welding and paint..

On the first of december last year.. I lost my job..
Was really pissed, angry, sad and just MAD about it... Here I was, my first job, working for FORD FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!
It couldnt be any better... but I guess its true what they say, everythings to good to be true... to suplement this, I almost bought an RS Turbo, which was being advertised as an ''good'' car, first owner, always garaged yadayda... turned, had more ROT then the 3i.. and they asked 1500 buck more then I had totally invested in the '3i..
Watching a lot of threads coming by, especially those with mk4.... i really wanted to start... but as you might recall, i haven't got a garage, no experience, at least i know a good bunch of people that can help... but time, school, money and the fact that my parents are never happy ( about the car) with me spending an awfull lot of time with it made a heck of lot harder to do it... But I never, NEVER, had the idea to give up on her.
So, after 2 months of standing outside feeling sorry for herself, i took of her blanket and turned they key and after an big blue cough, the old CVH came to life, and I took her for a spin...

She only looked like this early december with the first snow I promise!, after cleaning I thought, fuck this i aint doing this every time it snows, so I bought a blanket but sorry no pictures of that...


So early January, after the snow was gone, little drive...
Took the 15 inch motorsports wheels of to have them blasted and painted.. back to 14inch.. sick of the pirrelli's now..

Couple of weeks ago, I noticed after walking back to my car that my rear box was hanging quite low..

lost a rubber, and offcourse this happend on a sunday...

turns out the old rotted backbox was allready pealing of from the pipework.. after some fitteling it just fell off!!

had to peel off the old pipe like a banana! really rusted shut!

at least the dog thought it was funny, i didnt... you know how freaking cold it is laying on your back with the car on axle stands, you chopping away for 2 hours!


THAT COLD!

In the meantime i've aquired a lot of stuff, like another set of mk3 XR3 wheels that wait blasting and spraying, and a black S2 Kit, taped it on just for trying on but didnt like it so has to be painted, some front adjustable koni's that wait fitting, and I FINALLY finished fixing up our shed so I now have some space to dump the stuff



When I was giving her a quick service, noticed that the enging was really greasy so no i'm going after an rubber valvecover gasket, an following some grease led to a shocking discovery:


this stupid thing is ruining my K&N Filter!!

dirty brown yuck.... all in the filter

took of the stupid thing, sumpventilation filter or whatever...
tried to clean it...


Now waiting on a new one i ordered at my old employer...

Hope to get some more stuff done this week so I'll be keeping this thread alive, at least I hope... ( jobinterview tomorrow!!!)

cheers!

EscoVan

Great project mate and good luck on your interview

Colin-Tempest

Thanks Mate! Let you know how it went!

BillyCabrio

iTrader: (1)

You can't beat an old 3i

Colin-Tempest

Right about that mate!

So Job-interview went well, nothing solid though, I got profiled and will hear some more next week!

I was stil waiting for some parts to arive for the service, I visited the local auto shop for some K&N cleaning!!



Even got it with discount

And i couldnt resist some of these... had to do something!



Also bought some for the interior light and the numberplate, interior took me some time but I got a good tip for switching the negative and positive sides , look closely


nasty bug in there


But i didnt get the result i hoped for, as you can see only the right side shows more light then the left ( flash is used by cam)



numberplate:


Coolist of all...



normal H4 light looks stupid now, sow i'm considering an Xenon upgrade or some high super bright thingy lights..



Was to dark to start cleaning the K&N but at least I had some quality time with the car... damn that felt gooood

Hopefully tomorrow parts will arive!

cheers!

kdavie86

Nice project mate! Yours makes me want to keep my RS1600i/S1 Turbo wheels on my mk4. They look great. Keep up the good work





https://passionford.com/forum/restor...-reg-xr3i.html

Colin-Tempest

Whow, i'm inspiring people...
Ah the 7-spokes just suit the mk4, and its an easy upgrade and original Ford!

Well then, small update, had some more stuff done last week.. ( also cought a nasty cold )

That filter arrived, so fitted it asap, also one of my old co-workers made a quick check-up on the car. Turned out, brakes need some work, especially fluid renewal, pads and discs are not bad but they're noisy like hell.

the crankcase recirculation filter ( sounds like something like that)



al new part...



Also took on the back box, keeps rubbing on against the bumper



Turned out the old rockercovergasket was gone, so replaced it back home, outside, it was cold and windy so that must have been where i caught a cold



organized chaos... really fed up with working outside .. i want my damned garage lol



Now i'm on the hunt for some brakes and suspension.. allready got some koni fronts, still needs some rears and springs..
speaking of brakes, thinking of going Ferodo DS2500 and Rotor Discs... anyone got some experience with that?

And i'd really love some smoked rear taillights... but they are so hard to find here in Holland... tried multiple stores and they can only order right taillights.. T_T

well then, on to the next one!

macdoodle

iTrader: (2)

You are doing very well with the project keep at it If you get stuck on something put a post up as there's alway's some one on here who can help..The mount of time's ive been stuck on my S2 turbo project i will search the site and if i dont find what i need to know i will put a post up this site is great Keep at it mate as it's a very nice XR your doing well for your fist project

Colin-Tempest

Thanks Macdoodle for the kind words!

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Top project mate.Keep up the good work.I wish i had my own garage too.

Twins

iTrader: (18)

I have replied on my thread for you

Colin-Tempest

@ Glenn.: Thanks! We're being busy!

@ Twins: Looked it up, thanks very much, didnt know you could spray ''smoke-tint'' lol, looks like another trip to the auto-shop for me :P!!!

Silver'Scort

Looks a nice little motor that mate, fair play for keeping up to it and putting the hours in!
As a piece of useless info, you look incredibly similar to a mate of mine, must be your English identical twin!
Keep up with the good work

Colin-Tempest

I have a English identical twin? awesome... always knew I couldnt have been dutch..... just knew it lol ( must be the name )

Small update, have been more busy thinking than working to be honest...
At least i now know a bit more wich road i'll travel considering the '3i

Also been a bit busy finding work... not easy..

But i'm not giving in! Been using her as my daily driver a lot, not really funny with the fuel economy and such... but now i'm sure wut work needs to be done!

first up some pics:



Nice to see her in front of the house now in stead of the parking space at the back... alltough the parking has its own gate, i like the fact that i can see her from my couch and from my own room's window..



The rear box is giving me a hard time... whatever i try, it keeps crawling upwards and rub against the bumper now it allready had some scratches, but enough is enough...
you can see here its not aligned.. think it might be a mk3 back box and the angle might not just lign up with the exhaust slot in the bumper



Driving it on a daily base also made me realize that the power isn't all that... I need to really floor it sometimes just to keep up with traffic... and ever since i took her on the ring, and took on a challenge with this stupid twat in his VW Polo ( wich lost his 3th gear along the way btw ! LOL) i'm hungry for more POWAAH!!! ( not gonna turbo it...)
So thats another point on the list.... performance upgrades..

Then there is the ever ongoing bodywork, rust repair....and the paintjob. I love these cars in Red... but i'm getting really sick of having to polish my fingers to the bone almost every month just to make it shine and stop having to here stupid remarks from my mates bout it being a slitish ''pink' or ''flat red'

ow and does anybody know whats up with this? Does all mk4's have this problem... i wanna replace this so bad with a piece of carbon...



and then like i said... the rust...





and the previous owner wasnt really good at parking...



And i myself wasnt really that good at late braking at the Nurnburgring...



When this get ever fixed... that will be the spot for the ring sticker.. lol..
just for memories



As for now, i'm just happily driving along with it, must get job fixed first to finance everything... also have to decide what i want with the power.. i'd love an RS2000 lump, 2.0 Zetec, 1.8 130bhp lump... just need to even all the pro's and con's... also have to find a RST gearbox...not easy

suspension will be koni's i guess, love to polybush everything.... and i dont know what it is but i can't decide brakes...
Ferodo DS2500 and Rotor Disc's look like an easy upgrade, a lot of you use the big stuff like wilkwoods and brembo's, but can anyone inspire me with what kind of upgrade would be easy and relatively affordable?
Also, I need rear discs... no more drums.. never...
What would be an easy upgrade for rear discs?

Well wheels, intake kits, back boxes are no problem, took my a lot of to start on the covergasket but fixed that didnt I , but would be the first time to start with things like brakes, suspension.... and eventually... a full resto?

Why do we get so attached to a lovely formed peace of metal?

till next time,

Colin

Danster76

iTrader: (2)

Great project!

marky_g

its all there mate just looks like a well used one thats what mine was like be worth all the work

Colin-Tempest

Thanks Danster76 and markey_g for the reply's!

Well I can say that i've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks!

I have finally decided to go full resto with the '3i....

The car is now located at an repair/bodyshop to get the welding done properly!
It wil be a shiny radiant red again with a clear coat to top it off!

I've collected enough bits to upgrade the interior and exterior and now i only need to take care of handling and power.

Have not got a lot of pics but here it goes!!

Here she is in the bodyshop, tucked away between others that need fixing.. ( yes thats an Audi Quattro behind her)



I made a nice agreement that I can visit the bodyshop when I want and I can do some of the work myself. I took most of the interior out to take it home and give it a good clean!

stripping of parts to remove the audio



carpet out:



Isolation mats are fucked and soaked....



all out:



nasty hole....



Got all of this done yesterday...

I almost forgot to mention that I bought myself a new daily driver... now offcourse I dont need to explain that it had to be a Fast Ford... i bet all of you understand... lol



Nice little Fiesta S... Over here its called the ''Sport'' , although i prefer the Zetec-S name... Previous owner had it striped, it has been properly serviced and driven so i was real quick when buying it... it will do for the time being!

Bought it just a day before i took the '3i to the shop, so just a quick one of the two together



And a mate of mine had a waaaaay better camera then I had so let him do his thing..



As I said, i took out the '3i's interior out yesterday and i got pretty late. This morning i went on unloading the fiesta's boot... wich was full off XR3i





My box full of audio.... woofer is definitely going now !



Box full of interior



Wanted to vacuum the carpet but the dog beat me to it... always nice a extra pair of hands... paws...whatever



You see I'm training the dog to recognize the Blue Oval!... its working!!!


So thats about it...
Really happy that i finally made the decision bout the resto... As there has not been any metal work done, i feel like i'm already at the point of no return. I am really confident bout it... hope i can get her done in time!

I'll be tryin to get a update up every week as i'll visit the bodyshop every Wednesday!

Tonight i'm going to pick up some more bits and pieces, try to get them posted asap.

Thanks for visiting and till next time!

Colin-Tempest

Hi everyone!

Two weeks have past and we've been busy! I'll start off with showing some parts that i've aquired:

Finally got some central locking and windows:





Also a never fitted sebring mid-box... wonder how it will sound..



As mentioned earlier, a new set of mk3 xr3 wheels, i've compared them to the set i had, checked all 8 of them and selected the best to have them sanded.



and as always, some help of the dog.. she didnt approved this one..



Finally, after two years, I found my 'smoke-look' rear lights!!! me so happpppy!!





Next day, loaded up the Fiesta and went off to the get the wheels blasted.



And this is how they look now:



sweet







Think i got the right color for them, anyone know Mystique Silver? Its the color Ford uses one the 17-18 inch wheels on Mondeo's, S-Max and Galaxy, its a dark anthracite shade...

Also worked on the car... i'll let pics do the talking:

















Yeah.... we got rust...

Ah well, at least NOW i'am at the point of no return, lol

All interior is out now, apart of the headliner and dashboard. Will try to take this out next visit to reveal the part of the bulkhead/battery try..
We've got some chopping to do.... bloody hell

And i'm still job-hunting, hope to succeed... I've been home long enough, want to work again, and i need to work if i want to keep the resto going..

Thanks for viewing and till next time!

Silver'Scort

Really good read this is, i'm keeping an eye on it.
I've got a set of those red-and-smoke rear lights on the back of my Escort, in my opinion a really effective simple change, they give it a modern lift, will go well with the clear indicator lenses on the front. Keep up the good work! Good luck with the job hunting as well
On a different note, earlier on it the thread when i said you looked very very similar to a mate of mine, well, i showed him this thread, the first thing he said was along the lines of 'Jesus Christ, he could be my brother!'

Colin-Tempest

Thanks mate! I'm so glad i finally got some smoked rears!

You know, they say everyone's got to have an identical twin, maybe we get a chance to meet as i'm planning to have the car finished this summer, get her ready for Ford Fair!!

Cheers!

History

looking nice.
Think i prefer s2 alloys though. mk3 rims for mk3's but each to his own.
had a red mk4 xr3i myself. got a soft spot for them still.
Rust don't look that bad to fair, think i had to weld new floor in mine.

martin27

s2 wheels are well better m8 keep up good work

fury556

Very nice motor shame about the rust but that's unfortunately the way these cars go.

I'd love to get a 3i for a runabout but I know I wouldn't be able to deal with all the rusting issues.

Hope it doesn't cost you too much money

Colin-Tempest

I think of wheels like the final part of your own styling or personalisation, I agree you should be using MK3 wheels for a mk3 escort, mk4 visa versa, but I really like the overall look of the 7 spoke motorsports, and the mk3 XR3 wheels give it that nostalgia because after all, its still an XR3i !

I dont really like the styling of the S2 wheels, sorry mate

Knowing that all that rust is about to go makes it easier for me!
And about the money... I stopt counting, makes that part a lot easier too!

History

lol, never count how much you spend,
secret slush funds the wife never knows about,
and "i got it really cheap, i had it that part for years"

My rebuild.

https://passionford.com/forum/restor...p-rebuild.html

Wife's Starting to notice how many package's are showing up, and all the new shiney bits. why i keep telling her were broke. pmsl

Colin-Tempest

So i'm almost ready with taking out the interior. At first I wasnt al that confident bout taking out the dashboard... but it wasnt al that difficult, I do hope i remember what screw i need to put where cause there has to be like a hundred of them...

Pictures:

The car looking sorry for itself... notice the flat tyre?



Collection of parts in the boot:



Then started on the dash



CHAOS





Bloody hell...








Now I had access to the battery tray...

Oh hello'







yummy....



Think i'm going back this saturday, the faster i got the interior out the sooner i can begin taking off the rear suspension... and then... the old bodyshutz...

Tonyt1t

i want one !!!

Colin-Tempest

Hey guys,

Just got back from the workshop, let me give you the sitrep:

Started on the front end... i must be mechanical noob.. it took me forever to get one freaking headlamp out... I thought these were easy? Two bolts and then prise it of the Baljoint.... fuck the manual damaged my bloody indicator!





plant growin in there



Bumper off:



Actually looks pretty good, just on rusty spot



The wings on the other hand... bumper brackets rotted to hell





Does anybody know what this is? Couldnt think off a name for it..



Also, started sanding this, its in primer now, forgot the take picture of that.. will be semi-gloss black when finished..



If all goes well, the rest of the exterior will be off the car and it will be lifted up so I can start on the suspension, brakes and fuel system... after that... removing the old bitumen..

see you next week!

Fordmad!

Keep going and if you start a job go the distance, it will be worth it!

Good to see someone taking an interest in an XR3i aswell

Heres mine https://passionford.com/forum/restor...steration.html

(Lose the strips on the zetec s :P)

m4tt274

iTrader: (2)

good progress the car looks good

xrmalin

Looks like your making good progress so far mine was rusted in exactly the same places as yours has keep at it and it'll be back on the road before you know it

mark.

GranaDavey

Great work man, have seen your car several times.
Nice project !

Good to see another 3i gettin` restored.
If your looking for some Mk4 Escort parts, you can mail of PM me.
Im from Breda, close to you i believe ?