Hi people. A little story about my car, which I bought last week.

I was told about a Diamond White LHD MK3 XR3i by a member of EscortMK3.com which had been off the road for 18 years and sitting in a barn.

So off I trotted from London to Germany to pick it up. The bloke who had it pulled it out of the barn, and this is how I found it.. I'll let the pics take up the story from here.





















It turned out to be one owner from new, with full service history, and equiv of 80k miles on the clock. Stripes are genuine Ford and original, as are the pepperpot wheel trims.

Arches and roof are sound, as is the floor - it just needs a sill (well a patch, but going to get the whole lot done) and a repair to the rear valance. Oh.. and a new offside door.

Absolutely filthy and paint flat as you like, I bought it, and brought it back to sunny (rare) London.





Took it straight round to my pal Rob's house who is a valeter, and we attacked the car with various mops, polishes, cloths and wet vac etc.




and one grille and new pair of bumpers later and we came out with this:
(pictured next to Rob's XR3.)


It's not running properly yet, as it needs a new fuel tank which I'm fitting this week, but I still towed it down to the Dutch House car meet on Tuesday..




And that's the story of my XR3i.

Oh, here's the resto thread:

http://fordescort.myfastforum.org/vi...&t=580&start=0

 

i like it! the stickers are ace.
are you leaving it lhd?

 

Yeah keeping it LHD and keeping the stickers too mate

 

That's the version of the xr3i I like, nice.
Are you uk registering it

 

Lovely motor

 

Thats awesome, good luck with the resto

 

Nice n tidy,

 

i remember them coming out with those stripes and wheels ,showing my age now

 

Thanks peeps, I'm UK registering it yes, and keeping it as original as possible.

 

Love it... Put the grille with the lights back on though...

 

thats well nice, would love graphics like that for my xr3

 

I loving this! It looks perfect! Love the stickers havnt seen one like this before.

Good to see your keeping it standard

 

Didn't like the grille, first thing i changed back to standard

 

Love the graphics! Nice car and good luck with the resto!

 

great story car looks ace mate very nice and oldschool. Good find and nice to see it still happens now and then

 

what a find like a mk 3 escort had a black xr3 years ago did a mini restro on it then sold it when i had to get a sensible family car

 

Cheers for the nice comments everyone.. Just getting bits together, and it'll be up and running.

It's staying as it is, stripes and pepper pots.

 

Nice car! I like it when the steering wheel is on the right side

One advise for a MFI car standing around for a long time:

Get the fuel tank out, empty it and clean it inside. Buy a new fuel filter and new injectors and apply a injection system cleaner to tank full of fresh fuel.