Hey all.

Yesterday I purchased my first classic Ford. A 1972 Escort 1300 GT. I did the regular rust checks to ensure I had a solid shell, which I believe I do. And now it is sat in my garage waiting for the summer to come.

It passed an MOT just last week, so I'm happy it's road worthy. But what do I do to maintain and prepare it over the next few days or weeks? Is there something I need to go and check over, ensure I have a particular part in a particular place? The previous owner has clearly loved and cared for this car, and I want to do the same, so what is there to do except to keep it safe and dry until the weather is better?

Thanks
Dan

 

Very jealous give it to me i will keep it safe for you
no seriously dont put a cover on but if you must get a quality breathable one and put bit extra pressure in tyres while stood and for security i drilled through garage door sides and into frame and put rods through so cant prise open

 

HI Dan, welcome to our Forum. Firstly is the Escort standard? If it is and you say the previous owner looked after it there is really not anything to worry about. Did the previous owner give you any service history with it? Compared to a modern car it has simple electrics and mechanical parts and is not complicated. You can carry out most maintenance on it your self which will be oil and filter changes, air filter clean or change,fuel line filter and at longer periods check plugs, points, distributor cap, rotor arm etc. If you keep it standard it should be a nice classic car. Good luck and enjoy owning it.

 

Not got a cover on it Fjaimo10! Just safely tucked away in a garage. Not a bad idea for security though, may look into that one.

Hi cossynut2. Thanks for the reply. The car has some modifications. I'll list them below.

Lowered Single leaf rear springs
Quaife L.S.D
Front and rear disk brakes
Fast road Cam
Kenlow fan
Webber Carb
Four branch manifold
Stainless steel exhaust
Rev limiter

My biggest concern was the rev limiter, not dealt with anything the like of this before. Looks to a Micro Dynamics rev master. Really not sure what to with this haha.

I unfortunately have no contact with the previous owner. The car was from dealership who could not pass on the details. Though I'm trying to find some contacts.

Quick picture for the sake of it.

 

That is just lovely, very jealous of that.

 

Looks in lovely condition! The modifications are again not really going to make much difference to on going maintenance. I presume its a 1600 crossflow engine ? The rev limiter is the only thing that seems out of place to me , with the limited engine mods there is no way you will ever over rev it to cause any damage.I had a 1968 Cortina 1600E with a bored out to 1650 crossflow engine but with high compression pistons, fast road cam, stage 3 cylinder head, 4 branch exhaust manifold,twin sidedraught 40DCOE Weber carbs etc and it was a quick engine but it did'nt have a rev limiter and although it was driven hard I never had any problems.

Same engine as yours.

 

Looks nice that. I would defo get a rev limiter on it. I learnt the hard way years ago when I had a XR3i. I blew it up ha ha ha.

 

Same here, Orion 1.6i many years ago went for flat out in 4th gear and knocked a big end out

 

Looks similar to the mk1 that Wheeler Dealers built!

 

The older 1600 crossflow engines were around before rev-limiters and I never heard of any over-revving problems.

 

With the limited mods he should,nt have any problems.