Here's the car as she was when I bought her. A one family owned from new 1.6 Ghia. (1983)



Since then i've sanded the remaining laquer off the bonnet ready for respray, and removed the bumper to sand and respray too. The dash is also nearly out to see if the cracks are repairable. If not i'm already on the lookout for a replacement one.



Still to do:

repair rust hole next to rear n/s light (about the size of a 50p)
Finish the bonnet
Finish the bumper
Clean the interior
respray the steelies
Fix temp gauge / thermostat
Full service

 

 

good luck mate, is it your daily driver?

 

not my daily driver. Just a project for the year to take to a couple of shows, then try to sell and put towards the next one. Hope to get an S1 one day, or even an RS1600, but would be quite happy with a XR3i. I just love the mk3 shape and look.

 

Love it ,is it a low milage car

 

83,000 miles, so relitively low for the age. it's got all the old MOTs with it too. Original dealer number plates and sales invoice aswell.

 

looks good mate

 

good luck with it mate look forward to seeing her finished

 

today I got the bonnet and upper wings primed and ready for paint. Just need to get some Caspian Blue paint for it.

 

top stuff

 

Love it, havent seen a mk3 ghia for a long time

 

got a few layers of paint on yesterday, and should look great when it dries. Still has some darker lines at the minute where the paint went on thicker.
Just needs touching up in places then it's ready to blend in the edges and laquer to go on at the weekend if I get the time.

 

Haven't updated this in a while, but i've still been busy on the car. I've mainly been trying to get a good finish on the bonnet, but i've found it's not too easy with metallic paint and the aerosol spray cans. In between spraying, and then sanding back for another go, i've been fixing the 'small' hole in the boot.
It looked like this when I bought it


but after removing the light and the rubber trim it looked like this. So I ground it back and treated it with good old Kurust. I gave the bumper a respray while it was off too.



Not a great photo, but it's been filled, primed and coloured.

 

filler dont seem to have a very nice straight bottem edge but good effort and keep at it oh and the paint on the bonnet will be a pain in the ass with spray cans its bad enough witha gun! keep at it tho will be worth it in the end

 

you're right about the bottom edge not being very straght, but for a first attempt i'm fairly pleased. When I get some time i'll have a go at sorting it out. here's some more pics of the progress:

original steel wheel condition


then after being sprayed silver



Here is one on the car. I got some ford badges from ebay for the centres as one of the original silver ones was missing and I couldn't get a direct replacement, so I went for some blue ones and I think they look great



One with the bumper finally back on



I got some laquer on the bonnet today too, but could do with another coat I think.

 

u intrested in parting with it pete ??

 

yes mate. My plan is to show it at the Classic Ford show next weekend with Passionford, and then at FordFair in August with another Escort site i've been on for a couple of years, and then sell it afterwards as I want to get an MGB Roadster in the winter, but if you know someone interested in the meantime then let me know. I don't know what to ask for it though.

 

Serviced today. The condition of the old air filter and oil show I did it just in time


when up on the stands I couldn't believe what good condition it was in underneath too. The records show the exhaust has only covered about 3000 miles


Tried to get the brakes off to check and clean but couldn't find the right allen key. I'll have to get one tomorrow and get it done in the evening.

 

Drove her out of the garage for first time today since getting her, took a photo, then drove to the MOT centre. It failed unfortunately on emissions, due to only running on 3 cylinders. Only when I got her home I found that one of the leads was hanging off the distributor. Now it's back on it seems fine again. Also an advisory on one of the spot lamps not working, but that's now fixed too. I'll go back Thursday for them to check.

just needs the bonnet lacquer rubbing down, a wash and a wax, then were ready for Sunday.

 

MOT passed today. New pic

 

Looks smart


Brian

 

 

Nice one mate!

Looked good yesterday.

 

Looks a good'un!

 

 

nice looking car, im restoring an 82 mk3 escort 5 dr ghia at the moment, i will be adding pics soon.neil

 

looks good if you havent sorted that filler to make it straight yet use a flat piece of wood with sand paper wrapped round and it will make it a nice straight line

 

Is she still about?