Its had its fair share of welding but i have seen worse ones. I think that it i less work to repair as much of the origional panels (in his case ALL the panells) rather than replacing them as if its not completely broken why dismantle it further?

Its got 5 years of dirt on it but it starts and drives nice from what ive seen and i am brining it back to a state that is never going to be a perfect off the factory quality but it will be presentable and it is what it is. I have some pictures which i will upload depending on wether or not i can do it from my phone lemme know what you think

 

I am currently uploading some photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck with it, some hard work ahead of you, but worth it I'm sure.

 

Thanks !!! Tbh it's nearly there, the paint seems to have been protected by whatever this tree crap is and all that needs welding now are the rear bottom quarters!!! Dad has it in his head he will be driving it until I'm old enough to drive, I agreed on every Saturday to work and back to keep the old girl going. I'll keep it updated with photos as and when

 

i have a '86 xr3i too, mine is similar in that its rotten in the bumper mounts and the chassis at the cross member
i can cut a section from another car because its pretty serious on mine but they are cool old things huh
i want mine std so off comes the rs kit, 1/2 leather recaros and rs wheels if original parts appear

 

Yeah too many people have said put a turbo on it and keep it xr spec but I think it will be best if I leave it standard mainly because there are less and less xr's around. There all rs turbo reps.

On mine the bumper locator bolt on the left side rusted into the mount and the other snapped off, I dont think that starting the basic tear down in jan-feb helped but it's all repairable one way or another , hope your xr goes well mate !

 

Stick with it mate !

 

It take broken bones to keep me away from it and I'd never sell it either !

 

Did a Mk5 RS2000 that was in a state ,but taught me how to weld

 

good luck with it

 

good looking project ,welcome to the site

 

Given me some motivation to carry on with my mk4 escort lol.

Good luck

 

Glad to help might be able to find some old pics of when i first got it

 

keep up the good work you get there in the end

 

Gave the roof a quick wash today as i had to leave it under the ramp overnight and the car above leaked brake fluid onto it :O . No harm done though thank god

 

Welding all done , car back together mot'd today.

 

nice xr3i, keep up the good work

 

Thought I saw this this afternoon, coming up from Fraser Road

 

Fair play to you. I've seen people scrap far better than that. Nice to see another one saved.

Some tidy looking welding as well there

 

Yeah that was me :P

 

Very cool matey.I had 2 of these years ago.I had a black one a white one.

 

Good to see it saved mate fair play!

 

Gave the car the polish of it life yesterday!! Could do with another good wash over cos there is still some faint tree sap on places like the roof and bonnet.

 

Looking at replacing the speakers as they are showing their age. But I want to keep e covers over them so they still look standard. Also I would prefer not to change the stereo itself because I want to keep that standard look so I might consider one in the glovebox? Anyone done this?

 

Get a clay bar bought that will get the dirt out of the paint.

 

Small update I spose, been scratching my head as to how water seems to find its way into my car overnight and then condensate only on the sunroof and ont and rear windscreens. I tried cleaning the rear light seals and I vaselined all the seals to no avail. Sitting in the passenger seat one day with all the windows open letting it air out while browsing the web and I look up and see light through the gap between the top of the passenger door and the door seal, that's that sorted then

Took the car out to do present runs on the 23rd, weren't tearing it because it was raining a tad and was in stop start traffic when all of a sudden started knocking from the bottom end and pulled over, as stopped it cut out and didn't want to start again so I have a New Years rebuild to attend to :/ my dad says its probably spun a shell but I won't know until I get it to my dads garage.

When it was running it didn't seem to pull that we'll, on the straight it managed like 85, as I'm not old enough to drive and also have never been ions before I don't know if that's all it's got, changed the plugs and distributor cap and delimited the rotor arm so I'm thinking ht leads?

Went to the local scrap yard and found a not too bad looking mk4 van shell which unfortunately had another car dumped on top so that was that consideration done with, but I managed to get a clock surround for a fiver so no complaints

 

+1... That'll remove all the contaminants on the paint.

In regards to the speakers, I've fitted them in my popular and still manage to keep the OEM grills. Had to remove the old speakers from the metal frames, then cut a little bit out to allow for the speaker circuit board (male terminals) and create four holes where I used self tapers..

I also fitted rear speaker pods and ran wiring to the front. Contemplated using components at the front and tweets above the dash but haven't got round to it yet.

 

Thanks not going to buy anything else for the old girl until I know the damage done to the engine. The other day one of the cables that pulls the catches to let the front seats fall forward snapped and until I find the time to get the seats refoamed I used some garden twine stuff to hold the catch up as one still works.

Also need to think of ways to prevent theft because I have a disklok but that won't stop it getting towed off, ideas welcome

Once the engines done I'm going to hopefully get the bumpers wings and the bottom half of the doors and quarters painted as the drivers side quarter has had an arch repair that has been painted over with stone chip near the sill and the bumpers are a little battered after being driven in and out of a garage for around 4 years.

I could and probably should make a list of EVERYTHING that I want to get / fix or do t the car but no point until the engines done.

 

mine was leaking in water took my head lining out and the roof was rotten id double check your.. costing me a few quid too get carbon roof replacement.. shame too here about engine car looks awsome.. keep up the good work

 

Nice advice thanks man if it is rusty then how much trouble is a replacement? Really happy with how the paintwork was protected from all the crap ont of it meh everything is repairable when time is not a factor so not too worried about the engine but only time will tell I guess

 

Replaced the shells but the end cap had been worn so it still knocks so bought an engine with approx 50 thousand odd miles for £100 so that will hopefully get fitted this week and will end up with a skip full of spares