most of you have probably seen the feature performance ford mag did a while back, with their 'project bonus' car, a car that evry1 can relate to and any1 could build with limited funds and time.

well thats pretty much exactly what iv dun, altho my project has taken me 4 years of spending as and when i can, and wrking on it around college and uni and a part tiem job.

my car started out pretty much like this:


(i have no pics of wen i got the car, so this wil have to do, just imagine it with 3 doors, and thats exactly wot i started on)

ford escort 1.3 popular, passed dwn to me 4 free from my very generous sister, never any intentions of keeping it, but u know how the story goes.

1 year dwn the line i had it looking like this:



i used up all my funds, all my spare time, and i did all the prep wrk and fitted all the kit, basically did evrything except spray the car, which i managed to get my uncle to do, nice having a relative who sprays range rovers 4 a living!!! lol. not bad 4 a budget cruise car, all show and no go

then whilst waitin 4 the age where i could insure an rs turbo conversion, i occupied myself with a few home built stereo installs:







then as soon as i turned 21, about a month ago, i decided the time was right to get rid of the rattly OHV 1.3 lump, n go for a bit of RS turbo power. i bought most of the parts 4 the conversion off people on here, you all kno who you are, so cheers lads












conversion took a total of 8 days, and iv gotta say im about as chuffed as could be

n heres the car as it stands now, with a few more bits and bobs added, such as full koni adjustables with lower springs, cossie disc conersion with rs calipers, full safety devices cage, etc








well, ok, a bit of a lie, these r the most recent pics, but they r a tad depressing, because within an hour of gettin home frm jamsport after a day of setting up and gettin a proven 200bhp, my m8 sadly drove into the bak of me and did this:



bit of hammer and block of wood and chisel and screwdriver wrk got it lookin a bit nicer:



new back end on the way, and whilst im at it a bit of a freshen up all over really, going 4 a full respray and some subtle tweaks here n there to bring it a bit more up to date

this is all as soon as i get the engine bak in 1 piece, as its currently going thru a headgasket change due to a burst water hose causin havoc 4 me, not good:



overall, like any project its had its ups n dwns, cost me far too much, took far too long, but theres always sumthin to carry on n look 4ward to, n i hope to have the car bak on the road and beta than ever asap. wil get sum more pics up when iv got the engine bak together because im planning on havin a gd session with sum spray paint to freshen the bay up a bit, then its off 4 the prep wrk to the body so its all resprayed and gleaming ready for ford fair.

hope u all like what iv dun, i kno it begs the question why didnt i just buy an rs turbo, but i have no answer 4 that, i just love my car far too damn much i guess!!!! lol

 

 

Looks great .well done

 

well done m8, never to know it's started it's life as a 1.3/1.4 who cares you did, and how?????

 

looks well nice mate well done

 

Looks excellent mate, credit to you, shame about ur mate

 

my m8 drives a toyota starlet turbo, nuff sed!!! lol. i seriously think he was just jealous!!!! lol

cheers for the compliments ppl, much appreciated. iv sunk all my time and limited funds into this car, so im pretty proud of it. like iv sed. got to get the bodywrk tidied up a bit, get the interior sprayed up and sorted, all ready for ford fair and national day, so i can show it off

 

If you've done work of that quality while qa student/part time worker, just imagine what you're going to do with it when you have a real job and real wages.

Just don't chop it in for a fecking Subaru

 

RSandy, top work there mate

 

Big chane eh???

 

Credit to you mate, cars very nice!!!! engine bay looked really good when it was in one piece what did you spray the manifold with?

 

manifold n turbo housing has been sprayed in very high temp aluminium paint, frm halfords, the lovely place i am blessed with working!!!!! lol

i just got bored of standard dirty looking parts in the engine bay, so bought a bag full of paints n got busy, i think it looks quite nice, a bit of a change to the usual chrome engine bling.

cheers 4 the compliments people, it is nice to get some feedback on the car, some purists dont like the idea of building a base spec into an RS because its not original, blah blah blah!!!!

tomorrow is the day the engine goes back together, got a full service kit ready, new felpro grp a gasket, new head bolts, so fingers crossed it runs again

 

Dont worry about the purists mate
Do what you wanna do.
Im gonna be undertaking a similar project in the near future, have just bought a H plate XR3i, it already has full RS body kit and Recaro interior, all it needs is a blown lump!!

 

quik update, iv just spent the whole day refitting my cylinder head and new felpro headgasket and all the other crap you have to remove to do sed job (i realise it was pretty slow progress, but it was my 1st attempt at the task, and i was working in what the thermometer sed was 112 degrees, which was not nice to put it mildly.

stil, she runs agen, just need to put some miles on ehr n see how she behaves, im praying all will b well. just incase im carryin a bottle of oil, a bottle of water, and a bottle of coolant!!!! lol

 

lovin it!!!!