Hello All

I have decided to give the underside of my Escort Cosworth a good freshen up as its seen better days. I tried to fix my broken gear linkage yesterday and looked at it and thought well if im taking that off and that off i may as well do the whole lot, Anyway took some pictures yesterday and started to try and i mean try to remove some of the bits....what have i let myself in for? Some of the bolts are so f@#king tight its untrue! I Have heated them up and they still wont move and to make things worse are starting to round off! , but i suppose its to be expected on a 12 year old car.

Pics below...hopefully in a few months time these will be a thing of the past!

here is where it will be until its done...its warm with plenty of room,huge thanks to David & Sharon for letting me keep my car here and supplying me with food and drink









I cannot believe how bad the coilovers look after just 5 years! Any ideas on how im going to clean these up would be welcome















Did this bit today...was like this before 1 can of gunk and 1hr 40 mins work.....

And now it looks like this!If everything comes up like this i'll be well happy


Also today removed exhaust to front section,drivers side rear coilover,brakes,handbrake cable,which i had to cut....why did ford design that hook and eye thing! Anyway planned to fit a new one so thats no great loss!

Im going for red underside with everything powder coated, zinc'd etc, it will be superb once its done, i know in my head just like when i did my engine bay how i already want it to look.

Will try and keep this updated as often as possible but have a feeling its going to be a slow process, Everything is so hard to undo, but will do this if it kills me!

Any hints or tips welcome guys.
Thanks
Mart

 

Good luck mate.............looks like its a long road ahead

 

you have got some work to do there Mart.

sell the coilovers and buy new ones.

good luck with the work.

 

Good luck with it martin, if you need a hand you know where i am mate

That heat/exhaust shield has come up really good mate

 

Good luck Mart

 

Hope it goes well!

 

Looking at your bay ,this underside will be stunning when done ,would Gaz refurb the coil overs?

 

Well done for taking this on mate.

Im sure it'l be finished to your usual high standard.

Looking forward to following this thread.

Keep up the good work

 

good luck chap a bit of elbo grease and hey presto

 

Cheers all

Im not sure on this one twins...but i have a plan with the one ive got off

 

Wire brush on a grinder will soon shift all that rust & muck

Heat shield came up nice

 

Done the underside of my s2 last year and the best bit of advice is WD40 every last bolt.I used 2 cans and soaked every clip/bolt& screw.
Leave it over night and bobs you uncle.If you have a stubborn bolt,try tighting it first (just to crack the thread)then it should undo easy.

He,s the underside of mine after 2 months of blood,sweat & tears.,

Deffo worth it in the end . GOODLUCK.

 

well done martin... will be worth it mate when she,s done..

i sense a concours logbook being ordered next year??lol..

 

good luck mate,be prepared to spend a fortune though because as you go along youll be thinking i must renew that bit,and that bit and that bit instead of refitting the old bits,if you get stuck,just shout

 

Thanks All

Mercury grey minter: that looks superb mate,i'll spray them all today and each day until i get to them

Radman: i will replace what i can without spending a fortune, i know a powder coater so that will be ok,its just the blasting, i have my chrome place near me who does zincing as well, although i may put some chrome under there the obvious bits i need looking at it in situ are handbrake cable, brake /fuel pipe clips for underneath as there arent any ,if you look in the pic they are zip tied....not my doing may i add new fuel line from pump to filter, brake calipers at rear, exhaust hangers, i need 1 new heat shield clip as i only took 6 off not 7...are these available still? I may but new boots on the shafts too but the clips look a bit special

brooksey :thanks mate,once the bits are off,i can get them in a vice and clean em all up with the drill wheel, then if theyre still bad they will get a vinegar bath for a few days

cheers all, more pics later

 

Definitely not mate. I can guarantee you that.

 

Best of luck mate I shall keep an eye on this, should be stunning when its done!

 

Good luck with it all chap! - I'm sure you'll do yourself proud!



No longer serviced mate - i tried about 6 months ago.....But you're going for a new pump aren't you, so you'll be 'quipng it anyhow?

 

good luck mate, going by the job u done on your engine bay, i just know as well as everyone lese on here does that it will be absolutely spot on by time ya finished with, i dare say, a few jaw dropping little touches. Will be keeping an eye on this thread

oh yea, how u gonna go about doin the underside red? spray paint or brush on?

 

Hey mate, I've been browsing this site for a while and only just getting into posting ... but your car has always been one that I've enjoyed reading about. Good on you for getting stuck into the underside.

I thought I had some tips for you as at work I often deal with tight hardware (otfen smaller diameters) but mercury grey minter beat me to the punch. Man you gotta lube up.

Here's a snapshot of some of the gear I use.



WD40 is spot on ... CRC5.56 is a little better but ZEP45 is the tits! It has teflon (ultimate lube) particles in it and awesome penetrating abilities (even better if you can get to both sides of the bolt). Good luck finding it though ... its hard enough in AUS and costs $25AU. Spray them on but give them time to soak.

My advise is ... use good tools. Cheap tools will round the head off a loose bolt. Mercury grey is spot on if it is tight (with a proper fitting socket) tighten it up a little before you loosen it ... (or if it is a screw fit the tip in and smack it with your hammer) Ye old shock treatment works.

Good luck ... I look forward to seeing the results.

 

good going martin, should be a true minter when you have finshed,

if you need a hand with ought feel free to give me a shout

 

Martin the clips come with the new cv boots mate

 

Cheers to All who have posted

thanks Essexmike! yes i have little touches in mind and i am confident it will be superb. The red will be very carefully brushed on until im happy with it,Im going to clean the existing waxoyl the stone chip itand then im going to do it in 1 pack exactly the same colour as the car.

thanks rudeboy! Thanks for the comments on my car ive got plenty of WD-40 i just hope it helps me out!

Small update from today

I sprayed all nuts and bolts with lots of WD-40 on items yet to be removed.

I decided to polish the exhaust up a bit as some of it looked quite miscoloured The tubing was quite bad and had gone a brown stained, has anybody elses gone like this colour???.......but with a bit of buftyness 3 hours later its nice and shiny again

pic of exhaust before i started

pic of exhaust when cleaned up

Close up of one section before

Close up of section after

Close up of another section before

Same section after

Tail pipe before

Tail pipe after


then continued to try and remove hubs....This little blighter is stuck solid and rounded off too I'll get it off somehow



Also can anybody tell me what this is

it looks like some sort of sensor that may count the splines on the shafts, but both sides of the car are split open and not much good to put back.....just hope they are still available

I cannot believe how bad one of the coilovers is Im sure i'll get them back to looking superb again somehow


Anyway thats it for now until i do a bit more, i'll be attempting to clean the shockers up here at my house, but not sure when i'll get to car again now.

Next visits plan of action is rear bumper off and fuel tank down

Thanks
Mart

 

Good work Ian Rush

 

Good luck mate

Will look mint when you have finished


Brian

 

eh ...wheres that come from

 

Thanks Brian...im sure it will, i have long Autumn and Winter i think

 

Your not hanging about mate, well done on the exhaust.

Lookin good already

 

rear abs sensors around Ł90+ each try and reuse them martin,i assume theyve been working ok? just need a big washer to hold them in place, as long as theyre secure,told you it would cost you a fortune,thats Ł200 already,lol some granadas used the same ones,problem is that they will prob be worse than yours,might be worth a trip to the scrappys though?

 

Been working fine Nick No dash lights or anything so yes. i will try and make them fit in again, but improve the way they look too . the diva reckons he may/may not source some so will see. Do you know whether these connect to the device that looks like an ecu in the left hand side of the boot behind the deadening? the wiring looks like it goes up into the body somewhere just not sure where

Not a fortune just yet mate Its Only cost me Ł12 so far and thats cleaning gear.

 

Take your time and do it the way you want Mart.

will look as lovely underneath when finished as it does on top.

See you next week matey

 

Will keep an eye on this

Well worth the effort m8

Surprised really how much surface rust is on your suspension etc,car has seen alot of winter use

Link to my Saph underbody resto:

https://passionford.com/forum/viewto...=asc&start=114

 

Under the rear seat mate!

 

as rolls says, just remove lower section of rear seat and they just plug in to a connection,dead easy

 

Matey, if you don't mind non-originals, I can get you some very nice clips to sort out your pipelines

 

the clips to hold the pipes on are still available, I bought some recently quite cheap aswell which makes a nice change!!

steve

 

Looking at your Engine Bay & the Rest of the car i just know this will be quite a good thread

 

You need help you big bufty

Good luck with it all Mart

 

Your a Brave man Martin, taking on that, but it will be peace of mind when you know its all new again underneath mate, was shocked at how rusty bits were but some hard graft and will look the dogs thats for sure. i hope this doesn't mean it will only come out to play on days above 25 and no clouds in the sky mine Bufty boy! Ha Ha top work fella, Mark

 

He was the only Liverpool person I could remember from my youth
and I know you love the 'Pool'
My bad attempt at humour no offence meant mate