hi ford fans, i was browsing the net and came across this forum and had to join, Id just thought id introduce myself, my name is Allan, I live in Portsmouth and im a self confessed car nut, especially old Fords, I am currently restoring a 1968 Mk1 escort van. The original plan was to modernise and speed her up, but after much thought i have decided to keep her completely original.

Its a 1 owner van with a genuine 23,000 miles under her belt, the last owner bought her in march 1968 when they were very first launched. He used it to potter about his farm and sometime in the early 80's just parked it in a barn and left it there. It didnt move until he died about 5 years ago and a local chap rescued it and i bought it. it was very rusty, mainly the bulkhead and front end but amazingly the inner wings were mint.

It is also now believed it may have origionally been a 'pre production' prototpe which was probably stripped back to a bare shell and put back down the production line. it has various odd build features about it and when i stripped the paint on the front end had all sorts of engraved lines, shapes and numbers under the paint. these had to have been there from new because it had never seen any major paint, and had never seen a welding torch in its life. any help on this would be greatly appreciated. i have incuded a few photos, the first of how i bought it, and a couple of its current state.