tehnzbrad

that actually looks pretty simple to make aye, i suppose it works with the thicker sway bar? does that lower the sway bar much more than factory or does it just provide more clamp points?

looking basicly to improve handling as much as i can for low $$$, ill look into the kmac/ whiteline sway bars, cheers

haha yeah that diff Roll bar look interesting, you could get fully insane and set the entire suspension up like a V8 touring car fully adjustable roll centres and stuff, have it set up like the metal man escort the running gear and suspension in this thing is insane, saw it in one of my classic car mags...

http://www.classiccar.co.nz/articles/ford-escort-mk-i-metalman-monster-227

but for me i like things real simple i wouldnt get too far into super outrageous space age mega ownage suspension setups unless it helped handling so much of factory it would be like driving a go kart... which can be achieved by simple methods im sure... but hey i guess every one has their own opinion

oh im not eventually going compression struts its one or the other... nah not of the anti dive kit.. heres one of compression sturts

apparently you have to use real stiff springs like in excess of 500lb for it to work properly because all it does is locate the struts to a positive position and doesnt do as much as a ARB would in terms of stopping body roll.... ( after reading sheens on turbosport )

but you can also use a drop link so you can use the sway bar AND comp struts...

but i cant see all that helping an awful lot over an anti dive kit so thats why im asking you guys to see what you think..?

is it worth getting a Anti-Drive kit for the sway bar? about to make an order from burtons.. ill be running adjusties and adjustable TCA's... or i could wait and get compression strut kit when i order my big brakes later on... opinions?

Hasnt been too long but here is some pics of some progress... im currently seam welding the chassis from the a pillars forward and progress doing them as i move back through the car... the front is on and the engine bay is almost ready for primer filler. Ive dropped the entire front end out and are converting the struts to adjustable coilovers while adding adjustable TCA's and an anti drive kit...

After etch prime

took it back to bare metal

Dropped the front end out... time to bring it up to standard with adjusties and all that other expensive crap

the front is finally on and it now resembles an escort....sort of

more of the engine bay..

so a mk2 golf shock will fit in a escort strut? whats the minimum shock travel that would be all good... if i put the sleeve down lower it can give me upto 4"s of sackage but only 3" of shock travel... more shock travel is better but i want it low...

yeah true that,,, crossflow for now then 4 age in a couple of months after its finished

might end up going lower then and a guess id say around 825kg max, fast road with some abuse plus trackdays..... looked at the turbosport forums and found set ups with springs at the 350 pound mark... so will probably make up my mind after some more research.. what poundage would be best ?

ok sweet as, ill stick with that much travel, i always thought it was for an escort? so im guessing 275lbs + ??

hhmm i could do that, 105mm seems pretty small compared to the standard of about 180mm... i could move the stub axle up slitghly but way to much work to drop it 3" ( " = inches ) so getting the shocks shortened and spaced should be fine? dont want to have to pull it apart and change it after the cert guy comes... haha

im going to make my own adjustable coilovers (with the threaded sleeve kit ) but have found a problem... when i set it at the lowest height it only has a total shock travel of about 4.2" ill be using a stiff spring (225lbs-250lbs) im thinking the cert fullas wont be happy with this because of the limited shock travel?

if any one has made some escort coilovers that can shed some light on what you did? im looking for the max amount of travel between just above stock height and maximum lowness aswell as dropping the front of the car 2 to 3"...

cheers,

got home from school, finished eating my pie and got straight into it.... i got the left side done on the bulk head but i thought it was getting abit late to grind down the last 2 welds so will do that at some point tomorrow..

and all the new panels and shit got here.. cost me $650ish for everything

Next thing to do is weld up the rest of the holes in the engine bay, weld the heater bowl hole up, take all the surface rust out from under the dash and then its off to get the new front welded up at the panel shop.

hhmm i see, was gona try get it on the road without a cert first then go with the 4age, damn will see what my options are then.

thanks for the support guys, i did think about going pinto power but wanted something more like a BDA or BDG but with out the massive funds, the 4AGE (16v) is toyotas version of the BDA and anyone could pick one up for cheap so kind of hung out on getting one and staying high comp N/A. Also does any one know if i need a cert to move my seats mounts back a couple of inches ????... bolted my front seat in when i got towed to the panel shop and its so crammed.

Thanks haha, well we think because theres like no rust in it and apart from whats there that its either really well stored or low kms.... like even under the car the seal looks like new and its from ford because from factory they just plastered it on under the guards peeled like inch thick seal off in places...... im sure if its been clocked it would be pretty mucky under there , and yeah i got the full Carjam report it only goes back to 95 at it says its only done 5k... even so the odo is'nt inconsistent so im sure thats a plus if some one runs the plates if i end up selling it....and once its on the road probably a nice high compression carby 4age and im painting it a real clean white gloss enamel because im trying to do it all my self for minimum cost because countdown sucks... haha

*Did a full car jam plate search and found out it has only done 25,263km since new...genuine kms odo hasnt been wound back or anything...and its only had 6 owners since new... some one had it for more than 32 years so pretty stoked about the really low kms..

Discussion:

Had this escort for about 1 year, got it for $1000 off trade me, some fulla must have gone side ways into a light pole or something and gave the front a mad beating....anyway... it had a 1300 stuck in the boot, the rear window shot out by some young ones and a .22.... but apart from all that it has like NO RUST!.. so towed it back and got my local panel guy to come and have a look see.... gave me a quote to get it straight which was lets just say under $550... so i started work on it straight away in between school, work and the girlfriend... i am doing all the work my self apart from big shit like getting it straight....

Discussion: http://oldschool.co....-mk1-escort-68/

The day after i got it me and my dad whos helping me sorta ( ex rally grease monkey who worked on his mates mk1 escort rally car his name was Alan Lewis will probably ring a bell to some of you...) stripped the entire shell pretty much...

dug some bog out of the rear end to see if anything major needs doing... turns out full of bog and thats it...

any way... maybe 1 month after letting it dry out in the garage i decided to take out all the surface rust in the boot because it was about to get bad as there was no rear window...

the inside..pretty all good will tend to this last..

the very worst of the rust:

heres the only rust on the bottom end of the car..

at this point i sorta stopped work on the car as dad got me 2 more engines... a 1300 xflow ( rally spec) and a 1600 GT engine.... i pulled each one apart and found one of the 1300s had race pistons a 4 puck clutch and all this other shit in it.....so reading online about 1600 with 1300 pistons etc so after about a week of talking about it i finally had time after exams to pull the 1600 apart and rebuild it... just needed some extractors....

coby extractors i got for $50

made them nice and new:

ok now i finally start spending heaps of time on the engine...im using all the parts from the other engines i got... i did all the stuff to the engine for FREE ( apart from oil, gaskets and shit which cost all up about $130)

taking valves out using west Auckland method:

spent about 12 hours total port and polishing the head and valve grinding:

1600 xflow: 1300 race pistons, GT cam, Port and polished head...did all i could with like no $$$

rebuilt all the rockers and shit

final assembly:

time to see if it runs! did a compression test..got 220psi on every cylinder ( +/- 5psi)

video:

http://www.facebook....&type=3

once that was all running i got the car straight and started spending more time on it...

as you can see the chassis rail is repaired no rust!!

rotten front end:

i cut the front off and started reconstructing the front of both bulk heads...

left side before:

left side after:

got a new front panel and drilled some holes

up to this stage right now:

patched up the large square that was full of rust...and now the only rust left is in under the dash!

* I ordered some panels and shit yesterday ( Monday 4th March ) i got: New slam pane, left/right radiator supports, AVO strut top plates, bulk head gussets... now i just need to weld up all the holes in the engine bay, take care of the rust under the dash and send it off to get the front and shit welded up... then paint time!!

total cost so far is about $4000 including car and all the parts to put it back together... still need another 3 or 4k to get it fully done and on the road.... will update when i can...