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General Car Related Discussion.To discuss anything that is related to cars and automotive technology that doesnt naturally fit into another forum catagory.
Looked like a tidy car
Bought me an Escort rs turbo this time last year , looked like a real tidy car , planned to give it a quick respray in time for the summer... NOW BALLS DEEP IN A TOTAL RESTORATION. Starting to lose the will , thought I might share some of the journey with The Ford community for a bit of an offload . First time on trying to learn how to upload pics?
Regards Steve
Last edited by Steviedavysammy; Mar 18, 2019 at 09:02 PM.
Planning to paint the car so I Removed bumpers and body kit , starting to see theres a hidden world beneath. Body kit had been bonded on and the front bumper covered some crappy body Shultz job on front panel , decided there and then to strip her out completely and see what was what
so sent her to a friend to have the engine out. This was February last year
Hit a wet coat of acid based anti corrosion etch primer over all the blasted metal before setting the car in the work shop . Pretty much forgot about the shell then for a while concentrated on all the other removed bits
Had all the suspension parts blasted and then sent them and every other possible part to be dipped and coated Really pleased with the master cylinder I got the coatings guys to treat the suspension the same as the bolts then rubbed the coating off and primed them in acid and then black high build primer
Drums to bare metal Then acid prime Then high build black primer And fk me no image recorded after I painted them but they are semi Matt two pk black Front brakes are refurbished as well
Bare metal refurbs all round Theres those drums in paint Steering rack stripped and cleaned new arms and ends but was in good order Wiper motor and mech its really nice
Once all the suspension and running gear was finished wrapped up and stored I stripped all the plastics to bare fixed any imperfections and primed them up
Just literally sanded the paint and undercoat off with a Festo and p180 disc , laborious but does a good job The door you see in this image was scrapped , it was the original drivers door but it was rotting in the upper from the mirror corner across to the middle of the door .We cut out the section and welded in a metal strengthener that we made welded the repair piece in and repaired the door but after I primed it we just were not happy wit it it was swelly looking slightly bowed , so I set about looking for new doors
We set small sections of new metal in to patch the tailgate. Each panel was primed and cured for around about 8 weeks the blocked and reprimed a second time to ensure perfection
Plastics all in primer I turned to the panels , we scrapped both the original doors, although the drivers wasnt the worst , it still was always going to go tits up again a few years down the line so we had the bonnet and the tailgate to get on with . Tailgate had minor rust at the point where the spoiler bolts on , easy peasy, and the bonnet was rust free but had a couple of dents to repair . I stripped both panels to bare metal and did the repairs and anti corrosion and high build primed both panels.
One new one second hand Each panel was cured and blocked down and re primed just to be sure its perfect
I know a guy in Antrim has a fair eBay shop selling only genuine Nos ford parts , almost anything you need he seems to have it , goes by the seller name Clomoco, I gave him a shout and bought two doors, one brand new old stock drivers door and one second hand passenger door. The second hand door was better than the new door! It was completely rust free , stone mint! The new door was in that black factory primer and it was failing in spots here and there but little buns to fix , both panels were completely stripped to metal anti corrosion primed and high build primed,
Closed my workshop for st Patricks day on Monday, I spent a solid seven hours cleaning metal and doing filler repairs , had lost the will to live but after starting this thread and seeing a bit of enthusiasm from you lads Im feeling a bit like Rocky and Im up for another round, most all this work is either holiday or Wednesday nights , Ive agreed with the wife on a one night a week, lol She knows Id spend every waking second working at it if she let me 😂😂
Added these images again, just to highlight what it looked like , I mean it needs floors ,sills ,inner and outer arches , 2 Chassis legs , rear inner 1/4s front panel and cross member . SERIOUSLY
Some bollox had covered all the trouble with crappy patches , isopon and under Shultz, it was just MOTd paint job was average but ok , Engine went well it is fast. sounded ok , so I bought it . Im not sure you can get much better for 5k but Ive definitely spent more than that again since and the car isnt painted lol
Must say the interior is magnificent , one real big plus, but Im still going to repaint the backs of the rear seats , I did them on my fiesta , it takes years of the car , you know when you open the boot and the backs of the seats are tired and marky, lift them out quick sand mask off the material and paint 2k satin 25 / 30% gloss , makes them just class
The screen and some deft sealer work hid this problem We just had a night where we cut the shit out, front panel and wigs are great so I decided to keep them in , I bought a new front pane and x member, but we only fitted from the headlights down . Ill show a pic of that job later Inner and outer arches cut off Sills cut off Inner silk out We cut about an inch off the floor and got a folded length of steel right angle the full length to make a new floor outer edge, recommended for spot welding outer sill back on
This is the inner sill being tried in , the new floor edge is fitted , see how the new inner sill sits on it , when the outer sill goes on the two lips are clamped and spot welded, like factory. Its the only way to do sills, any metal shop will fold two lengths for a few quid Managed to fit the floor edge and not annoy the chassis number
We tried everything in and out several times until we were sure it was all sized and cut perfectly, nothing was welded until every piece was ready to be welded then put it all in like a jigsaw
Started bare metal inspection, Piece by piece, panel by panel Im working my way through the entire car We hand made this section of the inner guard Under the left front arch Once bare and checked always etched in anti corrosion primer straight away
Talked about putting her on a spit , but decided against it, we felt she was always being weakened then re welded then cut and weakened again and worried about her flexing on a spit, might be wrong but that was my decision, so we lifted her up and turned her on her side and set her on tyres The tyres are in under the inner guards front and rear , she is fully off the ground on the tyres it was a bit scary at first but she never budged once and we flipped her from side to side at will , took 6 guys to lift her each time
Doing up my RST the hard way
