street

Hi guys, heres some pics of the Escort thats bieng ressurected!



Looking very sorry for itself!
This was my first car nearly 7 years ago, a 1.3L. i loved this car, it cost me £200 and i was well chuffed as a 17 year old boyracer thrashing it at every given opprtunity!
It had a very hard life, i drove it like it was indestructable, ploughing over kerbs at 30mph (well cloverleaf alloys could be picked up for a fiver back then, you couldnt give em away!) ramming things, driving across fields, and i was the un-desputed handbrake-turn and burnout king amongst me mates
The abuse took its toll on the old girl, and after 1 and a half years it lost second gear, still drove it though! It got re-sprayed from its origional gold to the black you see in the pics after 2 and a half years.
I bent the lower arms on 4 occasions, and bent both hubs twice too! Went through god knows how many wheels, 4 rear bumpers, 2 front bumpers, 2 doors and 5 exhausts!! (Escorts dont like going offroad!) But in 3 years it never once failed to start or drive away from an accident
But the 1300CVH was very tired, smoking very heavily and burning more oil than fuel!
I continued to drive it until the starter motor packed up. As i parked on a hill both at home and work, i continued to drive it, bump-starting every day until the fuel ran out!
Then i drove it into my drive and left it where it stopped, that was 4 years ago!
You always have fond memories of your first car, and im lucky enough to still have mine, so im going to rebuild it into something i can thrash again!
I'll post pics as i go along

street

street

I decided early on that i didnt want a concours machine. It had to be useable, and not too pretty to give someone a nudge if i have to!!
Bieng a 4-door, it was never gonna look like an RS, so the bodywork is going to be pretty much stock, with all the changes bieng subtle.
First job was to replace all the mangled up suspenson with something abit more up to the job:



An RS1600i fully reconditioned with new bushes, nuts n bolts, £90 from an autojumble

The next mangled piece of steel from the front to go is the bumper. I found a nice straight, rust free one and made them into quarter bumpers (partly to let more air in, and partly as a nod to the Mk1's and Mk2's)



I have made a recess for the numberplate on the other side, angled so that the numberplate sits straight, as the bumpers are angled slightly on the edges.



This was welded in, welds ground down and finished in the origional matt black.

Drifty_Cossy

looks like a nice project you got there,keep it updated

street

Cheers milky man! Since the pics ive rebuilt a 1600 (the old 1300 was siezed!!) to give her a bit more umph than she ever had before, this one had 70k miles under its belt and was in fine condition, despite it not turning over for almost a decade! I spruced it up and slotted in a hot cam and a pair of twin 40's with a nice free-flowing ashley exhaust

Adam Ash

MORE PICCIES PLEASE


Cool project m8

Zetec_mk4_XR3i

Nice project mate!

I know what you mean about your first car, my first car was a silver Escort Bonus, absolutely loved it, it went through so much stuff it was unbelievable! Wish I still had it, it would deffo be gettin restored!

Keep the pics coming!

NUTS RuS

iTrader: (35)

vroooom ptssssh

lookin good so far mate, keep them comming wonder if i'll want to re-build my S1 in a few years

luke89

iTrader: (1)

i want 1 as a 1st car but theres none left

BillyCabrio

iTrader: (1)

Keep us updated mate, my first car was also a 1.3GL Mk 3 Escort, lovered to bits - although i drove and treated her like a stock car at times!!

Lee @ Fusion

top work fella , my first car was a A reg orange Mk 1 festa , 950 pop .

Went like shit of a shovel and as far as i rember it was a minter , if i still had it it would have a 2.1 in by now .

street

Thanks for the comments and support everybody! I'll get some more pics of her soon!
Heres some more bits ready to be bolted up:



Escorts have always been plagued with bad brakes, so i uprated the fronts with Sierra XR4x4 front calipers and S2 RSturbo disks.
The rears were not as straight forward.
I always fancied rear disks, so i went and pulled a pair of calipers off a Mk3 granada, baught some sierra cosworth rear disks, and a pair of caliper conversion brackets.
The first problem was that my escort is a poverty model, and as such it has the wrong kind of hubs to bolt the disks up to. No real problem, i just went to the scrappy and pulled a pair of hubs off a 89' orion ghia, as these have the hubs i need.
The second problem was the disks. Sierra cossy 2wd disks are to big to fit behind the 14" cloverleafs, and i really wanted to keep them. So instead i baught a set of sierra XR4x4 rears.
These are 260mm, and in hindsight were a much better choice as the cossy rears were about 20mm bigger than my fronts! Not good!
This caused my third problem. I wasnt able to get hold of a pair of caliper conversion brackets for the new disks anywhere. But to be honest i was a little dissapointed with the quality of these kits anyway, most of them requiring either modifications to the hubs, special bolts or faffing around with machining metal off the heads of the bolts. So i made my own!
I then lifted a servo and master cylinder off a mk6 escort 1.8 zetec, as it is bigger and should eliminate the spongy pedal feel normally associated with rear disk conversions.
This required some mods to the servo brackets, but nothing major to get it bolted up.
I also used a brake bias valve from a fiat uno, so i can fine tune the system to get it just right, and a beetle chrome handbrake!
All that was needed to finish the job was new stainless goodridge flexis and new copper pipes all round. Job jobbed!

street

Ive always thaught that the best way to get more speed out of any car is to reduce the weight of it, so this escorts will be losing a few lbs over the next few months!
I started with the fuel tank:





This is a Jaz 4 gallon fuel cell, normally found on drag racing machines.
It weighs a fraction of the old steel tank (which was dinted and peppered with holes anyway!) and i have installed it in the boot, along with a Facet solid-state electric fuel pump.
Next on the agenda was the glass, which weighs alot more than people think!
I found a perspex rear screen on ebay for a tenner, so im putting that on today.
Next week its going to have the rear polycarbonate door glass made, which will be 1 piece rather than having the quarter windows, just to help clean up the lines abit I also sourced a mint S2 RSturbo heated front screen from ebay, complete with wiring loom for £30.
You may have noticed from the shot of the engine bay that the heater and blower have been ripped out. These things weigh quite a bit, especially when you count the weight of the extra water required to flow around the heater matrix! So its staying out. All the hoses were ripped out and blocked off where needed.
But since this is going to be my daily driver, im on the lookout for a nice compact electric heater to to keep things civilized in the cabin. Lighter and probably twice as efficient!
Im also about to order a fibreglass bonnet and boot for the cause, will let you all know how i get on with those.
If im going all out with the weight saving plan, the natural thing to do would be to strip out the interior. But ive driven cars with no trim and the rattles would actually drive me insane on long journeys, so its staying in.
However i have got rid of the heavy tar soundproofing, and the front seat frames have been drilled out to buggery in a bid to shed some weight!
I'll cover the interior later on.

mattysxguy

i had a 1.3l mk3 escort as a first car that was sweet until i crashed it into the back of an astra saloon and turned the astra into a hatchback but the escort was rebuildable

street

Heh cool! Yeah theyre strong old things arent they! This one got hit by a JCB, i clipped its as i overtook and cut it too close as i swerved infront of it, sent me spinning into a parked car on the other side of the road! But the JCB panicked as i hit the front of him, swerved slightly and hooked his digger thing under the wheelarch of the parked car on his left and completely demolished it!
I started it back up and was gone before the JCB driver knew what had happened Happy memories!
Im not proud! Got done for that!

mattysxguy

i was doing 85 at the time i hit the brakes and slid about 800 yds b4 i hit him

Mk3Ghia

Love it matey! comming on a lot faster than mine

alex xr3 modded

looking good mate

Mk3Ghia

Updates matey? Even the mundane stuff get pics up

Got the bonnet yet bud?

Versus_Creations

iTrader: (1)

MORE PICS MAYTEEEEE

street

Yeah more pics are on the way! Ive done plenty of work, bit of one-off interior stuff aswell which is worth showing! i'll get the camera out and update shortly!
Mk3ghia- No i havent got the bonnet yet, but i have just aquired a fibreglass bonnet for a 3-door cossy, and i gotta say, wasnt impressed with the weight of it, or the quality for that matter! So i think i'll have to go to plan B: make an aluminium skinned bonnet from scratch will let you know how that goes when i figure it out myself!
Oddkid- Is that your Mk3 in your sig? That is the bees b*ll*cks! Just about to have a look at your link now!

Cheers guys!
Street

street

Okay guys, heres the first of what ive been up to over the last couple of weeks.
Started to make the interior a slightly better place to be than it was last time i drove it!
They say that the details make the car so i started with the interior mirror:



This is a maltese cross mirror from the states, origionally intended for kustom harley davidson or chopper. Im not into my bikes, but i am into kustom cars and hotrods, so this mirror should represent that nicely
The stalk isnt the origional Escort one. I needed one that i could modify to bolt the mirror to, and i wanted either chrome or polished ally. After a good look round my local scrappy the answer came in the form of a Toyota Crown. It wasnt chrome, but it was aluminium, so i took it home, and after a few hours with a drill and file i had got it to the shape i wanted. All it needed then was the grey paint taking off and a dam good polishing.
To mount it to the roof of the escort i cut out a plate in aluminium which screws in place of the interior light. I covered the plate in headlining material the same as whats on the car and thats that, one cool interior mirror!

street

The only problem now is that i dont have an interior light! Doh! never mind, it was a bit boring anyway, so the hunt was on for something a little more interesting. Another look round my favourite scrappy and i found my new interior lights- they were bolted to the bumper of a 77' Datsun!



These numberplate lights are nice chrome little units, but im not exactly sure where theyre going yet- in the side of the centre console maybe? Will decide that later.
The interiors colour scheme will be grey and chrome, nothing flash or loud. I think its a classic combination, and one i wont grow tired of after a year or so.
When i baught the car it had a dark brown and beige interior! But that didnt stay in long. After a year of owning her i baught a Mk3 Ghia as a doner car, and it had a lovely grey velour interior which soon found a home in my escort! (its also where the 1600 engine that ive just put in was from). So those seats are going back in- ive never really got on with RS turbo seats somehow!
This may upset a few people, but i cannot stand the barry-bolt-on aluminium interior dress-up crap from the likes of 'foliatec' and 'ripspeed'. The quality is inferior, and i much prefer the feel of a proper chrome or aluminium part than some poxy aluminium 'cover' thats been bolted on over the top of the origional.
But this sort of snobbery has made achieving my chosen colour scheme that little bit more difficult!
Here is something that demonstrates my point perfectly:




On the right- an absolutely laughable attempt at interior styling from 'Max Power'.
This thing was bolted to some boyracer heap in the scrapyard, and it weighs an absolute ton!! On the left, a nice subtle replacement for the origional black escort ones, from a Mk2 Granada. With the 'Lax Power' ones, they've obviously gone for the lightweight rally look, but failed miserably! I took it off the car because the round adapter part of it a useful chunk of aluminium as its almost an inch thick! The rest of it looked like it could be used for something aswell. Infact, the winder part ( which was also a big thick chunk of solid ally) found a home here...



...plugging the now redundant heater pipe, a pefect fit once it had been turned down a few mm!

street

Another interior part to see some polished ally is the dash dials. When i last drove the car it had white dials with red needles, but they just arent in keeping with the new colour scheme. So, black dials with......



...... some home made ally ones!

street

I have loads more interior stuff to add, but i'll do that later when ive fitted the interior back in properly.
Meanwhile, the outside of the car hasnt changed much, its still covered with a thin layer of moss, plenty of dents and scratches (but not alot of rust suprisingly!)
The reason i haven got any more pics of the outside of the car is because it is still blocked in where its been stood for 4 years by another car of mine which has some engine problems! Theres also a couple of engines behind it too, so until i clear that crap out the way i cant get the old girl out and have a proper look at her. When i do i will take some pics so you can actually see what my project car looks like rather than just the parts thats going onto it!
I de-badged the grille about 5 years ago:



It seems to have survived pretty well, with only 1 of the bars cracked from the countless impacts it sustained, so im quite chuffed!
I cut out the sections of the bars where the ford badge goes, then took a complete bottom bar from a doner grille, cut it into sections that fit the gap, and plastic welded them in. A little bit of filler and some matt black was all it needed to finish the job.
I'll plastic weld the crack, then give it another coat of matt black and it should be fine! I am thinking about making a simular grille to replace it out of ally though, when i have the time

street

As mentioned before, this escort is going to be much lighter than when it left the factory, whilst still retaining the comforts of the interior as much as possible.
I baught this perspex rear screen off ebay for a tenner:





It was advertized as a screen to fit mk3/4 escorts, but when i attempted to fit it, it, well, wouldnt!!
It appeared t be too big, and when i measured the old screen and compared the new one, it was 20mm too big. It had definately been in a car before as it was covered in stickers, so maybe the mk4 escorts have bigger rear screens?
Anyway, i took 20mm off the edges and it fitted a treat after that! The weight saving over the rear screen is substantial, so much so that i only need to use one gas strut to support the tailgate!
You can also see in the pic the lightweight fuel cell bieng fitted

All4it

top work there m8 keep it up

street

Cheers for the support! All comments welcome good or bad!
My latest purchase for my car is this:





This is a quickrack, which turns from lock-to-lock in 1.8 turns which means from the steering wheel bieng centred i can have it on full lock in just over half a turn of the steering wheel, great for rallying, even better for street racing The downside is that the steering will be PROPER heavy, but thats how i like it! Power steering is for women and the elderly!!! I have also mounted it on poly bushes too.
For the handling up front i have fitted G-max 60mm lowering springs with G-max uprated and shortened shocks, an OMP strutbrace, an RS1600i alloy crossmember with adjustable anti roll bar, (these are the thickest anti-roll bars available for the mk3) new trackrod ends and lower arms, so with all this lot the handling should be pretty sharp and positive.
The rear suspention has always been a major problem with this car in particular. The back end used to behave like it had shopping trolley wheels and its spun me round on many occasions in the past.
In an attempt to sort the handling i have fitted 60mm springs and uprated shocks to suit the front and also:



These are the origional rear arms, but machined and threaded all the way down to allow adjustment and fine tuning of the rear suspension which have been fitted with new bushes all round. But thats not all, the next thing i need is a rear anti roll bar set-up from an orion ghia, 3i or RS turbo. Still looking for those parts!

Versus_Creations

iTrader: (1)

Quality bit of work dude. I have the rear rollbar's off a RS if you want them but it would need the lugs for the rollbar clams welded on or swap the rear arms over as well.

street

cheers jano, yeah i'll probably go for the whole thing rather than weld lugs on my rear arms. I'll talk to you about it on your forum

street

street

Nearly dug this car out of the 4 years worth of crap thats blocking it in! So
PICS OF THE CAR COMING SOON!!!
In the meantime, the ebay gods have given me a new pair of headlights:



Only £14 for the pair, still boxed! Just need a new/decent pair of amber indicators now, ive gone off my clear ones! So if anyone has a pair of very mint AMBER indicators, i'll swap em for my clears!

Disqaulifed driver

Very nice will be checking in on this i love mk3 escorts

I used to have one just like that a white mk3 4 door RS1600i rep
it was well cool

Dazzi_S2

more pics needed

tony yayo

cool as mate



keep us up dated

street

Thanx guys, very much appreciated!
Update: Escort has been dragged out onto the drive so i can actually see the rest of the car! Pics will follow in a couple of days, so keep checking in!

I thaught at this stage it might be good to draw up a list of the parts ive put on my project and how much they cost, partly for you to see its spec so far, and partly so i can see how much money ive sunk into the project so far!!!
So here goes:

BRAKES:

XR4x4 front calipers £10 pr
granada rear calipers £10 pr
S2 RST disks £42
XR4x4 rear disks £48
rear disk conversion brackets £20
mk6 escort 1.8 zetec m.cylinder + servo £10
goodridge braided hoses £25
fiat uno bias valve £1
vw beetle 'empi' chrome handbrake £14
RS2000 h.brake cable £15
new pads f+r £45

SUSPENSION + STEERING:

G-max 60mm lowering kit £220
RS1600i adjustable anti roll bar £90
adjustable rear tie bars £25
'tec-rac' quickrack £40
new track control arms £30 pr
new track rod ends £9 pr
OMP strutbrace £25
XR3i mk4 front hubs £15 pr

ENGINE + GEARBOX

1.6 CVH engine £doner escort
orion 5 speed gearbox and linkage £doner orion
dellorto twin 40's £60 pr
dellorto jets £145
kent vernier pulley £24
ashley competition exhaust £100
facet electric fuel pump £25
facet fuel pressure regulator £25
jaz fuel cell £120
braided in-car fuel lines £25
metro oil cooler £5

INTERIOR:

grey velour interior £doner escort
grey deep pile carpet £doner orion
RS turbo centre console £5
astra GTE digital dash £5 (!)
funky maltese cross interior mirror £45
new mats £25
boot carpet + all trim £3

BODYWORK:

new headlights £14 pr
new amber indicators £6 pr
new rear lights £10 pr
front bumper £5
perspex rear screen £10
full respray in ICI jet black £100 (!)

thats about all i can think of at the minuite, probably missed loads so i will keep editing as i remember stuff!
Adding that lot up so far ive spent £2441!!!
I could have baught a nice series one for that, lol!!! to be fair ive had it 7 years now, and some of that like the respray and stuff were done about 5 years ago so im not too fussed. Still, i wouldnt swap it for anything, its my baby!

Disqaulifed driver

£2441!!!

get them pics up mate cant wait to see it

street

Okay here are some pics of how she looks after 4 years lying under a pile of junk in my garden!



Note the return to amber indicators. Ive gone right off clears now, i wanted it to look old skool again!
You can only just make out the front home made quarter bumpers. You can also see the RS1600i anti roll bar without a front spoiler they are clearly visible from the front of the car.... i kinda like it!
Note also the de-badged grille and big old spotlights! Keeping it old skool!

street

The paint doesnt look to bad from the front, its survived quite well to say it hasnt been cleaned yet!



Back end still looks high despite a 60mm drop! Think it should settle after a bit of a drive around.

IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/streets/Escort-Rear-34.jpg[/IMG]



Still has plenty of battlescars!

street

street

Not looking to pretty from this angle, lol! The pics dont show the four big dents in the drivers side doors and wings but i like a few dents! When you upset someone in a nice new pristine motor you know they arent gonna do anything, but an old car with a lot of dents? You get worried when this thing is a foot from your back bumper!!



Took off the rear spoiler too (well have you weighed one of those things?!?!) It did look better with a spoiler admittedly, but this car aint about looking pretty, an so anything that doesnt help me go faster gets binned!