Rich1880

Hi All

Although I'm pretty new here I thought i would start a restoration thread in the hope it may be of some use to people. I'll start off that what I lack in skills I make up for in enthusiasm, I'll be tackling this with the help from my brothers who's a mechanic and from a friends who will do the welding etc.

I bought the XR3i mainly because it looked pretty sturdy and has a great history, only done 53k and 1 previous owner, totally standard.

I would love to strip it down to just the shell, however money and knowledge may limit me, but its still an option at the moment.

Anyway enough of my jibba jabba, heres the first installment



Interior was the first thing to come out, I wanted to see what was causing the passenger footwell to be wet, I wasnt looking forward to seeing what the problem was, also the interior is in great condition so wanted to get it removed and stored in the loft in the garage.







The hole in the floor wasnt as bad as I had initially thought it would be.

My first job is to get the holes in the floor welded up, I have a mate who is hopefully going to get this sorted for me this week, so Ill get some photos posted.

Twins

iTrader: (18)

Must say that floor is very clean compered with some ive seen

gouch1

looks like you found a fairly good one there

Colin-Tempest

Nice one you got there!!

Rich1880

Well the escort has gone to get the holes in the floor sorted out, will hopefully have it back at the end of the week, so the hunt for some wings and inner roof skin begins

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Love these cars i have had 2 of them in the past.

Rich1880

Slight update on the XR3i. The car has now left the garage and headed to a friends bodyshop to assess which panels need replacing and for me to then get them ordered ready for him to drop onto next week sometime. I also managed to get a replacement inner roof panel to replace the rusty one which I had.

The one I bought did have a small amount of rust on it so spend a day treating it, filling it and giving it a coat of paint to protect it for the future, just needs another good rub down and a final couple of coats of hammerite adding.

xrmalin

It seems youve stumbled across a good base to start with keep at it pal

mark.

P.s nice dog too

STAFFY OWNER

Good luck buddy. Looks like you've got off to a good start.

Twins

iTrader: (18)

Good progress

Rich1880

Ill get some more pics up today but the welding has now been completed, every last bit of rust has been removed!! Next is to prepare it for painting, I'm getting a quote at the moment and it was my intention to get it painted in the original flat black paint, however he has asked if I wanted to go with a Pearl or Metallic finish, my initial thoughts are to keep it flat black but is there any pmerit in considering a pearl finish, I'm trying to achiece a standard look but also need the paint to look its best!

phil_rs

iTrader: (3)

Keep it gloss black mate, nice progress so far

Rich1880

Yeah I'm thinking along the lines of gloss black, its nice to have metallic but edging towards the flat gloss black. Anyone else been in a similar situation?

Rich1880

So would people agree with flat black?

rostill2007

gloss black all the way

Colin-Tempest

Gloss black mate, black is enough buffing and polishing but when you want flat keep in mind that you'll need to be extra carefull with washing, otherwise the flat will turn into gloss into now time... keep it gloss mate, extra layer of clear will make things nice!!

Rich1880

Getting the prices in as we speak, I am going for the standard non metallic black but adding a laquer coat to the top for extra protection and shine, would people agree thats the best option?

-beefy-

iTrader: (6)

standard 2 k black would be fine mate ,


you leaving it stock xr3 , or you have plans for it ,

Rich1880

My plans are to keep it totally standard, just ordering some plates etc frm Chris Latham as I think he gets decent reviews of his stuff. Was thinking of having a play with it but because of the history it lends itself to a complete restoration, the guy who owned it from new has recorded in a book every mile that car has ever done!!

Rich1880

Apologies for the lack of an update, anyway since my last post the car has been at the bodyshop where they completed all of the welding that was required, the next stage was to smooth in the new panels and prepare it.



The arches were replaced as they had been 'bodged' up at some point, new arches had been glued to the old rusted arches and not smoothed in well at all.

The paintwork was very poor and to get the best results the paint was removed to get back to the bare metal, the body shop knew I wanted a great finish so no corners were cut.



That rusted sunroof tray was then removed, it took hours to get it totally out before the new one was fitted into place.



I'm downloading more photos and will get some posted up,

turbochild

nice one mate

xrmalin

Im glad to see your still cracking on with it

Rich1880

All looking good so into the spray booth we go







The doors etc then go

Rich1880

Heres a few more:

orion turbo

good mate i just started a 3i resto but mines a lot worse than your was. same mileage same year and same colour lol. mine not being restored standard tho

Rich1880

Its always the case with these things, when I got it I thought it looked pretty solid, I have some pics on my oter camera of the welding, it ended up around 9 full days of cutting and welding. A quick respray has turned into a labour of love!

Rich1880

The cars been getting some paint on so I'll ill get a few pics posted up lateer today

Rich1880

Okay as promised heres a few pics of the car getting a bit of colour

Rich1880

And finishing it off, this is where I got the biggest shock when I got a message to call through he needed to see me, I thought something was up so headed straight dowm however I was greated with this















As you can imagine I had an idea on what it might look like but didnt expect it to look this good and now all that time and money seems worth it. The next stage is putting it back together, it still needs a good machine polish yet so will look even better once finished!!

orion turbo

looking lovely mate wish i had time to do more to mine

trusty xr

looking good followed your thread on xroc

Rich1880

Yeah its coming together nicely, just had some new plates from Chris Latham and dealer sticker/tax disk holder. Im heading back through to the body shop tomorrow to drop my new headlights off so he can pop them back in.

Rich1880

Just after a little advice, the car gets delivered back to me tomorrow so my next plan was to get it on some stands and to start tidying up the underneath. Its got underseal on at the moment. Ideally i would like to show the car eventually so I think I have 2 options:

1. Scrape off the underseal and then etch prime where required and give it a coat of paint, finishing it with some waxoil.
2. Leave the underseal in place and give it another coat of underseal to fully protect it as its a bit patchy at the moment.

Any advice?

Jamie_EscortSport

looks awesome so far! keep it up

Rich1880

Cheers mate, now the top looks good its getting the underneath to look good next.

Turbo Al

iTrader: (1)

that looks well that, my mate is doin a black 3i resto, he has lots of welding to do before paint tho.

keep the updates coming

PETEDUDE007

very nice

nathansRS

Hey Rich - car looks excellent - really nice job there.
What's the latest?
Do you think you will have time to strip the underseal off and repaint in factory black so you can show it? Think it would look real nice if you did.

Keep up the good work

Cheers for your help before BTW.

Fordmad!

Keep the updates coming just had mine sparyed aswell!

Heres mine,

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

stuboy

good work