DON'T just cut the wires out without replacing with a fuse!

That looks like fusible-link wire and it's designed to melt if you have a major drama.

The red and red/blue almost certainly feed your positive busbars in the fusebox and the red/blue often supplies only the higher draw electrical options like e/w, heated bits and bobs, etc.

Best bet is to replace the fuse link wire with a ICE-style fuse board screwed to the bulkhead and run a short, very high current cable straight to the battery to solve the current dramas at that end.

*BUT* you need to find out where the overheating problem is coming from - my bet is that you have a small short circuit to earth in one of the unfused circuits before the fusebox, so check the wiring loom as it passes through any metalwork (e.g. at bulkhead pass-through). It could be something as simple as the fusible link wire not being large enough to handle the standard current passing through it, but you should check to make sure you don't have any other dramas on the +ve side of things.

Finally, I'll bet you a tenner that your earths are crusty as fook and they're causing a load of resistance on the car. Make sure all your earth points are minty clean and then sealed against corrosion with a good contact sealant or even paint, and replace any earth straps between chassis, engine, gearbox and battery if you can afford the cost (it's well worth it).

Not sure if charging circuit on a cos goes from alt direct to starter but I'd put money on that being the case; if so, get alternator off, clean up mating faces, clean up electrical contacts, and again consider changing over to fused cables instead of the shat fusible link shit Ford stuck on.

Good luck,

Al (Monkey with 0 qualifications to talk about what I just talked about )