I thought itd be a good time to start a thread of my mk4 escort, Im 19 working at pizza hut so its going to a bit of a ongoing project. im on a very limited budget as im also working my way to becoming an electrician.
3 Door 4 speed
I have already done a few modifications to it already as i passed over 8 months ago now.

I'm looking for advice and tips tricks and possibly some wisdom from all you guys.

Right so this is how she looked when i first got her


Ford Burgundy Red


At first i never liked the stripe on the side but now its grown on me as with the stripe its not like every other mk4 i think it gives her some character


no rust on the battery tray which was a bonus


1.3 OHV




Old man interior but i thought it was pretty cool




Now for a few of the bad bits

she had some welding which doesn't look great


A slight hole in the arch


Slight rust down there


But other than these there arent any other problems which is excellent.
I will upload pictures of what mods i have done heres a list for now

Recaro front seats and door cards
Lowered 40mm on GMAX springs
Mondeo si wheels 15"
i will upload pictures when i take some.

Thanks Adz

 

Its a nice base to start your project m8

 

Thanks it really is a nice car ive done pretty much most of the things i want to do to it so far but im just looking for other peoples ideas too. Thanks for your positive comment. Im just about upload a few more from when i first got it.

 

Image pretty explains itself here.


Just a centre console picture really when i put the red cd player in sort goes with the color of the car.

 

Me with my friends mk2 fiesta on they day we picked it up

 

I reckon, rather than making it into an XR3i/RS Turbo look alike, you should go down the Escort Sport route

 

Nice car to start off with.

 

yeah i dont wanna go down the route of a rs lookalike because its clearly not an rs does not have the same power whatsoever so id look like a bit of a nob. its gonna stay a 1.3 untill i can afford the insurance to put something bigger in it as im not gonna start voiding my insurance, but the sport does look pretty cool!

 

This i s how its looking now. I will take pics of all the other bits and upload either today or tomorrow.

 

Looks wicked, I'd love that, leave it as it, keep it clean, save for a 1.8 zetec on carbs .

You could upgrade the brakes to cosworth, polybushes, 5 speed box with LSD (maybe a 1.1 box from a fiesta mk3 and s1 diff for acceleration), 16i roll bar etc. Just leave the looks alone

Edit: out of interest if you don't mind, how much is your insurance, who you with, what's declared etc? Cheers

 

lovely little car that mate. i have one which is basiclly an rs turbo under a base model shell. still has the std bumpers, no bodykit and is fun when some likely lad in a noisy corsa/saxo gets anihalated off the mark. when your premiums come down, id definitly go with either zetec on bike carbs or turbo it. in the meantime get the handling/brakes ect improved. 150hp in one of these is plenty tbh. rst rep is just that, not the real thing like you said. a sleeper is about as cool a thing you can do.

 

Don't rs kit it Lol

Nice base to start with. Personally id cocentrate on getting arches sorted properly and stop rust ruining a good shell

 

Body colour mirrors and a black XR3i spoiler and she is done imo

 

Looks good.
I wouldn't change a thing on the outside and as already said, concentrate on sorting the arches.

 

[quote=jammerrs;5846326]Looks wicked, I'd love that, leave it as it, keep it clean, save for a 1.8 zetec on carbs .

You could upgrade the brakes to cosworth, polybushes, 5 speed box with LSD (maybe a 1.1 box from a fiesta mk3 and s1 diff for acceleration), 16i roll bar etc. Just leave the looks alone

Edit: out of interest if you don't mind, how much is your insurance, who you with, what's declared etc? Cheers[/qu

i am with footman james classic policy and it was 1300. that was with the mods undeclared as at the time i didnt have any. But as soon as it was lowered and the wheels were put on i rang them back up and they explained that they were no longer going to insure under 21 year olds for the classic policy so they would just raise my excess as there wasnt any point charging me anymore. But as from august i will be paying around 2200 with mods declared and thats with elephant

 

Right so the escorts gone and got a bit of a problem ever since its mot the speedo has started to i guess wobble. it never gives me a true indication to what speed im going and sometimes it doesnt go up further that 10mph. i have a video which on my girlfriends camera i will upload when i get around to it just in case i dont make much sense.
Cheers

 

just came across this thread and mate you will love the journey now you've got a bonus! I was in the exact same boat as you not too long ago, have a look at my resto thread in my sig for a bit of inspiration!

 

Flattened, bad welding sorted, resprayed Magenta, decked on s2 dog legs, bumpers shined up, rs accessory rubber spoiler and a zvh turbo. Then it would be the ticket. Dont put a kit on it. Cleaned base models are the way forward!

 

I think your escort is quality, i think i might have to change the gaskets and stuff on my engine as mine has its days. congratulations on the spraying i know its a few years ago now but still awesome i wish i could have a go at respraying mine but i just odnt hvae anywhere to do it so once everythings up to scratch ill have to find someone to do it

Thanks for the positive comment any advice you could spare im all ears man!

CheeRS Adz

 

What do you mean by flattened? Yeah i really wanna get the welding sorted as its a real eyesore! and lets the car down unfortunately. im not gonna put a kit on it gonna keep it a basemodel as i really like it!

How much is a respray? have you any pictures of a magenta one?

Thanks
Adz

 

Well the first thing I would think about doing is upgrading the front brakes on there, as the standard bonus ones are completely shit! that was the first thing i did on mine. Very easy to do! You can pick up RS turbo calipers and disks for around Ł60. Think about doing a service to your engine too.. If you look after the engine it will last! I might have some spare ovh parts if your interested so let me know.

As for painting it, dont worry about that too much for now. its really not that hard.. Since spraying my car me and my mate have done a lot of paint jobs. I had the space so it was easy for me, but dont worry mate, all in good time!

 

Flattened as in the paint work rubbed down!! I have no pictures of a magenta one. But Magenta being a cosworth colour, your car being maroon and in need of the paint work, i think that Magenta....or maybe Noveau Red would be awesome colours to re-do that car snd have it looking great. And might i add im glad you are not putting a kit on . Top work!!

Ps. My friend ("Bernstein" off the site) has a 1990 silver Bonus lowered on s2 dog legs and it looks fab!!

Here is pics of it for inspiration:

 

Nice looking project

 

Yeah i agree the brakes arent great!! All my money at the moment is being saved so i can pay off my insurance in one go so i can get on with these mods.
I gave the engine a service when i got the car as it was sitting around for 3 months not doing anything,
What parts have you got ? i cant think of anything i need off hand but itd be good to know if you do end up having anything.

Not too worried about the spraying at the moment wanna get the body work sorted. ill take some pictures of all the random paint scratches. Whoever had it before thought itd be a good idea to make it better with welll it looks like bloody nail varnish!

 

Thanks man. I love your car!

 

Right so finally i managed to get a hold of my girlfriends camera so heres the video of my dodgey speedo

 

cable shagged by the looks, i had this on a ldv van before and to sort that i just removed the cable from the gearbox and clock and greased them as much as possible and tightened them properly when refitting and it did the trick but dont know if it will on yours always worth a try though

 

Nice escort. Are they wheels 15's or 16's?

 

Thanks They are 15's

 

Right so this is my arch as of now.
Whats the best way to tackle this guys ?
Cheers

 

what spoiler is that ?

 

leave it as it is mate, just tidy it up, cool ride

 

nice car, when you put the alloys on, what wheelbolts did you use if you dont mind me asking

 

Ive still got my standard ones on there.

 

Guess i must have smaller wheel bolts as when i tried to fit the same type of wheels to my 5 door the bolts were too small for the holes

 

that looks a good base, id drop it, whack some black pepper pots on it and sort the rust out, IMO

 

i had the same problem when i try to fit the same wheels to my orion i need wheel nuts with collars nice car tho lad

 

i had the same problem when i try to fit the 16 inch wheels to my orion i had to get wheel nuts with collers

 

car looks nice and tidy,get somewhere to press off the washer things off your wheel nuts and get mk6 escort/mk3 fiesta pressed in there place.i had the same prob on my old mk4 and puma wheels,also of u wanna buy any parts iv got quite a lot kicking about and cheap coz its all gotta go,im not far from you either,

 

wat part have u got mate