I thought I better start a thread on this...

This was my first RS many years ago. Yes, it had a badboy bonnet and a cut-out bumper! But I thought it was cool back then...



So 12 years after selling it I find it only 5 miles-ish away from where I live now! The same bloke had it too. I persuded him to let me take it home. The wife was none too happy when this turned up on the drive when we are in the middle of a big building extension. Whoops.
It is in a little bit of a state, having had various wild life taking refuge in her for those winter hibernations.
The rust bug has hit it quite hard too... This is what she looks like now...







Plan is to strip her down and see how bad the rust has really hit it. I want to take it back to as standard as possible.
It was sat in a gravel driveway covered with a tarpaulin, so hopefully it will be ok.
From what I've seen it needs...

Battery tray
Both front inner and outer wings
Front slam panel
Inner and outer cills
Rear panel

The floorpan and under neath dont look too bad. We will know more when I strip the interior out. The roof panel is nailed! Has a hole the size of at least a golf ball that you can see through. Anybody tried to repair these before?

 

Nice one, I love these kind of stories!

Not a massive job to cut another roof of a scrap escort and swap the skin over or even put a carbon roof on it if you decide to mod it.



I found my mint focus rs mk1 in my mates garage 4 years after I sold it to him now with 10mm of dust on it and he won't sell it back to me! Lol

 

Sorry to disagree mate but its a pretty big and fairly hard to get it to sit right but totally doable,
I'll look for the thread of my mates fiesta from when we done his, if you take your time you will be fine with it good luck mate

 

Here you go mate here's how we done my mates fiesta

https://passionford.com/forum/restor...vy-thread.html

 

Jesus! Some work went into that roof!

Think I may be going down the carbon roof way, but that means a modded look which I don't want ideally. Hmmm...

Don't really want to reshell it but it's looking more and more likely...

 

Carbon can also be painted matey, keep it looking standard.
For the reason you've bought the car it would be a shame to reshell it! Wouldn't be the car you had anymore!

 

edited as posted twice

 

Yeah it was a pretty long job but not overly difficult as long as you dont rush and dont panic, im only a phone call away if you need advise, you could go the carbon roof way but you will loose the sunroof and originality and will still need to cut the old skin off, hope you decide to restore to standard

 

Hopefully it wont be too bad, looks like its going to need the same as my RST,..do it!
Carbon roof and paint it!!

Wil be keepin my eye on this bud

 

Thanks mate. That's good to know. I may well be buzzing you up soon!

I have a mate who is a panel beater by trade. He's going to pop over the weekend to see what the best route with the roof is.

Like it's been said before, if I reshell it or carbon roof it, it won't be original or my old car... Now to try and track down a good roof I suppose...

 

Look on eBay for someone close breaking an escort an go chop the roof off

 

Wikid little project. Bet it feels good to get your rs back mate! Keep it coming as its always nice to see an rs turbo getting restored! Good luck

 

Carbon roof aint to bad, im having my sunroof plated, oř going carbon roof (painted) !
Not a sunroof fan im afraid, obviously reshelling takes it away!

But considering you may be replacing panels,sure thats the kinda the same as the roof

 

Any joy on your roof Sy??

 

Yes mate! Sorted it today actually. A lad on here has a whole roof chopped off at the pillars which I am going to use. It's a non sunroof type, but I don't care as it's less hassle for me!

We have just got to get around to sorting collection of it.

You got any further with yours? I'm working at Steve's Tuesday 29th so pop round and say hello. (I'll even get him to put the kettle on!)

 

best of luck with the rebuild mate ,my first rs was a white s2 and is the only rs the wife ever liked

 

Good luck with the project mate

 

Thanks chaps! Can't wait to get stuck into it. Work is busy and my house is a mess at the moment, so this is sat hiding away for the time being.
Collecting parts like crazy at the moment. As soon as We have finished our extension, the resto will start!

 

Spot on mate yeaa i saw the post actually just after i posted here!

Well i spoke to my mate today and he said work should be starting on the car next week having everything fitted etc, so ill be trying to book some time off work soon to get the cage etc fitted in whilst its there

yea will do mate for sure

 

Finally, update time.

So... Now my bodyshop man has his workshop ready, we moved the car in to strip it down and see what we've got to work with...



First thing was to chop the rotten roof out...









Things are not looking good. Roof really is in bad shape. Along with sills, rear panel, scuttle, front panel, chassis rails, arches, bonnet, doors and tailgate! The rear panel is attached by the rubber seal, it's that bad.

So I have decided to reshell. Luckly, Mattseries2 was only down the road with a very mint shell. (Thanks mate)







Now to get it up in the air ready for prep for respray.









More to follow...

 

Keep the pics coming!!

 

Love it! Keep us updated! Love radiant red. You keeping it that or white?

 

I was going to make it white, but changed my mind as I really likew the red too!

 

nice one mate ,that looks a proper nice shell

 

It is a really nice shell mate. I was very lucky to find it on my doorstep!

Here's the link to Matt's build on it.

https://passionford.com/forum/restor...pedal-box.html

 

Very nice look forward to the project

 

Shame the white one is rotton.
Good luck with the reshell.

 

Keep em comin sy!

Will have to try and pop up and have a look sometime

 

Do it mate.

We are in ther most nights/weekends playing around with it. How's yours coming along?

 

good project mate

 

Defo once the heads back on the sport n shes back running ill come over

slow lol, still in bodyshop but cant complain too much because the deal im getting :-D

 

Nice one mate. Keep us uptaded

 

how's she coming along ?

 

The reds good nice colour gonna be a nice car

 

Cheers for the comments.

She's coming along well. Both rear arches are done and new sunroof tray bonded in.
Photos will be uploaded soon enough.

No more progress to report though as We've been moving a bolt together concrete garage today in the rain to store more bits!!

 

Update time...

Got my seats out of the loft this week. They were really grubby when they went up there. So I decided to pull all the cloth off and stick it in the washing machine. Much to the wifes delight!



Whilst stripping them, found this inside! An old German 50 Pfennig coin...



I'll put the pics up when they have dried to see the before and after pics.

Also been working on the new sunroof tray. Cut another one out of a mint shell that was in our local scrappy.



Spent a fortune on paint this week too, so not alot of other bits to be bought for a while.

 

REAL money! I miss it so much!!!