two_days_late

By popular demand....

Cool as, it's about 210mm from the centre of the UJ to the front of the loop based on where I would like to mount it. The Escort floorpan has a corrogated section that wouldn't be great for mounting, but a nice flat section that is the perfect width a little further back. Sounds like this will be fine. Cheers, Matt

Cool that's where I landed as well, though in the drawing it looks like it could be taken as the back or front of the loop... Cheers

Hey guys, Does anyone know if the 250mm from the center of the UJ pivot to the driveshaft loop requirement is based of the front, bac, or center of the loop? i.e. does the 250mm requirement include the 50mm width of the loop itself? Cheers Matt

Thought I'd chuck up a post for these roof racks we just cleaned up for a mates mini (mainly because it's a really cool old mini). We wanted to be able to get 2 full size mountain bikes on the roof but keep it looking old school. We set out to find something to use as a starting point and thankfully @Steelies has just the thing. Racks when I picked them up Just needed a good tickle up with the wire-wheel, a couple coats of satin black rust kill paint, and all new allen head bolt for max style points. Then found online these alloy transport/storage mounts that act as a fake hub so you can just whip the front wheel off the bike, and bolt the fork straight to it using the bike axle. Plus some nice titanium bolts to hold them on And she's all ready to roll Not the most complicated project, but means the old beast can keep doing it's daily duties! Cheers Matt

Awesome cheers man

Cool thanks, I think I'll bolt it all up and see if it moves when I swing off it, then if it's all good I'll run with it. Will be easy enough to replace the inside plates with larger and welded ones down the track if it's no good come cert time. Cheers Matt

Hey Cletus, thanks for the reply. This setup was in the car originally when I got it, and did work fine. Getting some larger top plates and welding in shouldn't be much of a problem though. Do you think the current setup would pass? Or is it not quite that black and white without actually testing it? Cheers, Matt

Hey guys, just looking for some advice on whether my gearbox cross-member setup for the Esky will pass cert. The mount itself is from Palmside and is 3mm steel. The pieces to mount the gearbox mount to the floor are 5mm steel (with the 2 smaller pieces going inside the car on the floor and the 2 larger pieces going underneath). My main area of concern is whether the pieces that go inside the car are large enough (is there a minimum size?), and whether the taper style bolts will be ok? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated, hoping I can just stick with whats here. Cheers, Matt

Welcome (back) to the club! Also in Welly and have a shed full of sporty bits if ya need anything. Cheers Matt

We managed to get the motor back in last night without too much trouble. The engine sits in the right position now with the new engine mounts (so the exhaust and carbs fit nicely). Think I have a slightly bent cross-member, and still need to finish sorting the gearbox cross-member and cut the gearbox hole. At least it's in though and can worry about all that next year!

After a long harsh winter of no progress it's finally back on the ground. New coilovers, steering rack, RS hubs, track arms, RS tie rod ends, sway-bar bushes all fitted in the weekend. Should be able to get it really nice and low once the engines in and the coil-overs are wound down... looks like the tyres are gonna rub though so will likely need to swap them. The alloy RS hubs stick out about an inch further than the standard ones. This means the next step is getting the motor back in... which might even happen before Christmas. Finally more steps forward than back!

Put one in a mates GTT Caldina about 4 years ago to replace the leaking factory one and it hasn't had any problems. From memory one of the fittings was different to the factory one so needed to spend another $50 or so on that. Can't remember the detail on exactly what it was though... may have been for the trans-cooler line that runs through it. Cheers Matt

Or you can use a complete Sierra clutch with the Xflow Flywheel, but you will need to get the flywheel re-doweled to match the Sierra clutch. Cost me about $50 at a local machine shop to get mine done. You'll be finding different answers to the same questions as there are a number of equally good ways to do it

The whole arm was bent (which is possibly why the holes were offset), they've been sent back now anyway, the guy was sweet as about it. Cheers Matt

Hmm good point, I don't have stock ones unfortunately (the Escort ones are just part of the strut), none of the photos of them for sale online are offset though. Think I'll go back to the guy. Cheers Matt

Hey guys, I just got these new steering arms from the UK (Capri arms to go on my Capri struts in the Escort). On one of the arms the hole on both ends is offset and the arm itself is slightly bent. I'm not sure if they are new or have just been refurbed, but do these look like acceptable tolerances or should I be sending them back? Cheers Matt

Bit more progress this week. Starting with getting the old trans tunnel brace drilled out (it must have had a different gearbox in it at some stage and someone had mangled the old one), then the new one welded in and sealed (Cheers Joe). Also Por15'd the cross-member and sway-bar so it's ready for the motor to go back in now. Pile of goodies also turned up from the UK. Cheers Matt

I just brought a brand new single piece out of the UK for mine, got mine from Burton but they're pretty cheap on ebay now. Could prob get postage even cheaper if you use youshop as well. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Escort-Mk1-MK2-Rs2000-Mexico-Single-Piece-Prop-English-/152101261382 Just a thought if you're gonna fork out for a new hanger bearing etc. anyways. Cheers Matt

Haha like away mate. Yea the underseal was a hard slog, but it did come off much easier than I was expecting once I got the heatgun and scraper on to it though. Just hard work laying on the floor for that long. Would be a breeze on a rotisary.

Door Card Clean Up Managed to get hold of some RS2000 door cards a while ago that have been sitting in the shed. They had a chrome strip on them but the chrome had all come off, but were in otherwise good condition. Masked them up and gave them a coat with some satin plastic paint then got stuck into them with some armourall vinyl cleaner and they've come up great. Original Condition: Masked Up: Painted: Ready to Go:

New Bits New Wiring Loom New Loom has finally arrived from the UK. Took a while to get made up and get here, but the end result looks great. Will probably still need a few mods as I go but I'm very happy with the result. Inner Door Bits Have everything I need for the doors now. Combination of new speakers from Hyper, some NOS bits off ebay, and some clips and things from uncle Ali. Burton Order Also finally got my latest Burton Power order with a few nice new bits

Underseal Clean Up The underside of the car was sprayed with a bitumen based underseal a few years ago but it never set properly. It's fine under the guards but under the floors it was really wet to touch and looked pretty average. Made the call to strip it off and do it with a better quality product. I was going to leave under the guards with the old stuff, but looking at the new stuff now and how much better it is, I'm going to do the whole thing. Spent some time doing some research on a product that I'd be happy with and it's worked out really well. It's textured enough to make it look tidy, but goes on quite thin, really nice product to work with. Getting the old stuff off was a pretty terrible job, but a heatgun and a scraper has worked a treat, and although it takes a while was well worth the effort. Old Bitumen stuff: After 8ish hours of scraping: Masked up and ready to go: Product I went with: Finished Result (Haven't done outside chassis rails yet)

Am currently in the process of removing the crappy bitumen based tar like underseal from my car and can confirm it is a terrible job. I would just go for a better quality thin rubberised one to start with. The tar stuff I have on mine hasn't set properly after 3 years and price difference is bugger all. Single worst decision I made restoring my car was using cheap underseal.

Good trick for pinpointing noise in future is to grab a cardboard roll from some paper towels etc and hold it to your ear while moving around components