hi mate, welcome to the forum
you need to get some pics up of how the car is now to see what we think.
I was in the same position as you a few years back, i wanted a cosworth but couldnt afford insurance. I spent about 8months looking for the best replica i could possibly find untill i came accross a fast ford featured escos rep from back in 2002.
As it was featured as one of the best replicas about i knew i couldnt find any other replica that had been exicuted as well as that one was. So i went and bought it to find that its been neglected by previous owners. Who ever fitted the kit orignaly did a good job of making it look nice from the outside but they took no precautions against rust and water behind the fiberglass extentions so i found a hell of alot of rust from where water had been trapped between the kit or whatever. In the end i scrapped that shell as i can do a better job myself.
I have now bought a new shell and a set of WRC carbon and kevlar body pannels and im going to continue to build it from scratch myself so i can make sure its done right.
To cut a long story short, i didnt have much luck with my rep, most of the reps ive seen arnt amazing, yes theres a few exceptions but at the end of the day 90% of replicas are built to a budget from day one as the builder obviously cannot afford a real escort cosworth so there deffinaitaly not going to have the money to rebuild a car which needs wing extentions or wing replacements properly.
i dont want you to make the same mistake as i did, by fixing all the rust and engine side of things to find that the orignal ford pannels have rusted behind the new fiberglass extentions.
Like i say ive moved on from my replica and bought a new shell
ill be starting a new project thread once ive made my garage into my workshop
check my link below for pics of my replica
matty