Not been in the project room for a while, but just got myself a new toy to play with so I thought I would start a new thread, not quite what I was looking for as I was going for an RS2000, but this R plate GTi came up for the right price at the right time so I bought it..













There are a few bits that need doing but it is a generally straight car, I know the owner of the car who had it before the most recent owner and he looked after it money no object, It has been a little abused since but for the price I paid I cant complain, a couple of bits to sort and a quick blow over and we are cooking!?







It already has some modifications

17" RS 7-spoke Softlines
Hi-Spec 4 pot front brake conversion (285 I believe)
Koni Adjustables all round
Magnex Cat back Exhaust

As said I have plans to tidy up the crappy bits, then chip, panel filter, 4 branch manifold and cams, then leave as is for now until I decide what to do next, Zetec Turbo or RS.

 

looks good, good to see something different tbh

 

nice car mate

 

Cheers guys,

Plans are to have the rust tidied up and a quick blowover, then enjoy it for a while, then when I have enough money 2.0litre Zetec, maybe a turbo as well

Oh, that and rear disc conversion as i have all the parts for it already.

 

Gorgeous!

 

Well just a little update,

Lots going on with work and things so not a massive amount done to the car, though some bits planned over the next couple of months.

Ring gear on flywheel has cracked so I will be replacing the engine with a 2.0L asap, got one sourced and should be picking it up at the weekend.

Got front mondeo brake calipers which I will be mating up to grooved and dimpled st170 300mm discs and will be putting on as soon as the seals turn up. (pics to be added)

I believe I have ABS all round so will need to put a ST170 rear brake setup on for discs all round, parts being sourced as we speak.

The car is going in for new arches and sills next month and a full blow over so it will be spotless inside and out.

I will be polybushing throughout and the car already has Koni's, so the handling will be nice and tight.

Plans are for an interior retrim along the lines of darker grey leather with blue alcantara seat and door cards.

All lights are being converted to LED including blue Dash lights, have already converted the indicators and clocks. (pics to be added soon).

Finally, underside is lookign pretty strong but you can never bee too careful when it comes to our mortal enemy, the dreaded tin worm, which last year claimed my previous Escort So in light of this, I will be removing most of the underneath, grinding it back and re-coating.

I have been crap with pics lately but have got a few to put up asap.

WATCH THIS SPACE.......

I will be doing most of the work myself keeping costs down, the only thing I wont be doing is the respray and welding.

 

Nice mate, love seeing gti's done, go on escortevolution.co.uk that's a great forum for mark six owners, let me know if u need any advice as I've done alot to mine

 

Okay, lots to update!!!

Been doing loads of work to the car over the last 8 weeks, getting parts in, trying to tidy things up and get it ready for a respray.

Got all the parts to convert it over to rear discs, and have mondeo fronts ready to bolt up to the focus 300mm discs.

Drove to great Yarmouth to buy a 2ltr Zetec from 'Massivewangers' which was a bitch of a drive from swansea, but well worth it, big up to Jon who is a really nice chap, friendly and helpful. Though it didnt help that my car wasnt staring on the key at the time, the fault being wrongly diagnosed as a cracked ring gear around the flywheel. So after the 10hr round trip the engine was in my boot for a week until I went back to Exeter ready to fit it with my good friend Ben's help.

So, engine out:

















Me in the 'bay':



New engine in:






Bit of a bitch when fitting due to having trouble getting the engine back on it mounts, but after a hard slog at it it finally sat in the bay and was all connected back up ready for its inaugural start up, but no cigar, back to the drawing board, but being able to bump start it, it barked into life for the first time. Smoking away as the residual fluids burnt off it was ready for its drive back to swansea. Two issues to sort were lack of travel on the clutch and somewhere along the lines I must have connected the gear linkage up slightly out of line.

Cack in swansea I sorted the 2 issues no problems and was having a great time hooning about whist saving to have the bodywork sorted out, as you can all see from the pics in my first post, there was alot of rust on the arches and abit on the boot, as well as the usual scuffs and dings associated with a car of its age.

With the car booked in for paint and two weeks to try and get other bits ready I decided to take the interior out allowing me to give it a good spruce up whilst I would have good access. This also allowing me to remove the 10p piece from the mechanism on the passenger seat which had stopped it moving forward on the latch.

The carpet was then meticulously vacuumed, in small concentric circles until it was OCD clean:



I moved onto cleaning the material and treating the leather on the rest of the interior.
before moving onto the back of the rear seats, as can be seen, they were abit worse for wear after years of abuse:







But a little sand down and a quick coat of Hammerite satin black and look at the difference:



Next a quick and cheap way of doing something with the dash to cover the scratches and bring it upto date a little was to wrap the surround and the gear surround with carbon effect, bought for about a Ł7 off of ebay I atempted it with the use of my mates heat gun:

























Back in place:









then on to Some LEDs to bring the lighting upto date:





The sidelights (originals to LED):









and finally the rear numberplate light:



With the spray job looming, I turned my attention to the inside of the car,namely the small spots of rust begining to appear on the inside of the car, a brush and sand back then a coat of hammerite to protect it:













As you can see only had time to sort out the passenger footwell before it went in for the spray job, but once back and time permitting, I will be doing the whole floor.

THE SPRAY JOB

So I left my car with the sprayer and looked forward to a couple of weeks walking back and forth everywhere.

I had a call after a couple of weeks from the sprayer explaining that he was having difficulty obtaining the parts as I wanted new sills and rear arches on both sides.

The next week and a trip up there to have a look at how things were progressing showed the progress:















As can be seen, alot of work going on.

Then D-day, the morning I went to pick it up:







And some picks in a better location:



























Wiper arm has been removed as well, but have no pictures currently.
Fair bit left to do to it like any project car I guess, but extremely happy with the finish, just need to sort out the plastincs and get them looking new, new numberplates, respray the front wipers, refurb the alloys, piano black the front grilles....... oh the list goes on, lol.

 

Good work on the car the 17 inch RS softlines really are an awesome set of wheels

 

U got a link to where to bought the carbon wrap dude? Looks spot on

 

really like this iam currently saving for a mk6 escort for my second car.
my first car renault megane 1.6 16v died.
always been a ford fan carnt help it tried reading other mags and going to different shows but always end up looking at fords again.

 

Can't beat a mk6 lol

 

Hi s23rta, this is the guy I bought it from, he does different sizes and it was a good price too: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/carbon-fibre

 

looks great, most people would've left it to rot!

 

Small Update,

Been working loads lately but unfortunately not on the car but after all that work it failed the MOT on a rear damper leaking and a patch of rust on the rear chassis leg, I have decided to get new chassis legs from t'internet as it is previous welding that has gone through and feel it is a better long term fix to just replace both side as it will be cheaper in the long term, as I am planning to keep the car for the next 5 years.

With this issue sorted and a new MOT on the car I will be looking to sort the rest of the underside once and for all, so I will attack it with the old petrol and rag act to clean it up and I will grind back any remaining surface rust as the rest us pretty solid, hbut does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can use to protect it in future? as I dont have a clue what to use.

Finally I will be looking to lose some weight from the car without losing too much of the creature comforts, I reckon I can get it down to 1050kg and if I can aim for circa 170BHP then I will be looking at a power to weight of 161.90BHP/Tonne.

 

Well, little update, new chassis legs on and MOT passed!!!

Floor inside painted hammerite smooth black, including the boot floor:















Interior back in, staring with the carpet:







Seats (with refurbed backs) and boot:











New Number plates:









old manky ones:

.

Whilst the interior was out I also Waxyoiled anything I could get to for added protection, next up will be the underside, anyone with any suggestions on the easiest thing to paint it up with then let me know.

Just need to sort out the alloys next and maybe new headlights. Use it for a bit and maybe add some more power, but liking the idea of a nice saph next so gonna start saving up.

 

good work

 

What u mean by chassis legs? The rails at the back? If so where did u get them and how much were they? Looking very clean mate

 

Yeah the rails at the back, got them from germany and had a mate do the welding, they are not the most amazing quality, but do the job nicely, MOT tester was happy with them and with a nice coat of underseal when I get chance they should last the lifetime of the car, well certainly my ownership of it anyways:

http://seekpart24.com/ford/escort-vi...-member-100155.

took less than a week to arrive and a fair bit cheaper than the same parts here, infact I think both sides and postage were cheaper than one side over here.

Thanks for the comments, as said, just a couple of bits to do and I will be happy with it.

 

very nice mate ,


perfect daily drive and summer toy !