evel

Gidday OS GCs, I've been tasked with getting my bosses grandfather's L200 going after she's sat for a few years. I believe it had abit of a thrashing and developed an engine knock. I've cranked it over with the plugs out and I could hear it knocking so I didn't bother trying to actually get it running. Do these engine have a common oiling problem or a common component that fails? Also any links to manuals or engine info for the impending rebuild would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

Its full steam ahead at the panel beaters, rust being cut out and steel being welded back in Shes even been pulled straight BUT... One of these is not like the other Its looks like when it was originally repaired the inner guard was welded in place with out much thought to measure or even use a spirit level so the LH strut tower is 7mm lower than the right. The solution is to unpick the whole inner guard, tidy everything up and then reattach it in the correct spot.

We've made it on to the chassis machine. The front left strut top is about 30mm out of place but the panel beater isn't worried. He's also very impressed with the quality of the new chassis rails so two thumbs up to Palmside. Floors are all done, and all the random holes are welded up, the heater bowl is off and everything looks pretty under there. Next up is get the engine bay and LHS inner guard sandblasted, a few more patches welded in and then back on the chassis machine to get straightened and the new rails in. The party continues

PROGRESS!!

More news from the panel shop. With the floors out he has now discovered the previous repair wasn't done very well and involved large amount of braze and underseal. Basically when they rejoined the firewall/floor/chassis rail they completely butchered the three sections in the process. We will talk to certifier tomorrow but at the moment it sounds like remove and repair/replace the damaged chassis rail and repair the firewall. ]

Well I guess I better update this with all the latest gossip. The last 6 months have basically been a small crawl forward followed by a few leaps backwards... The car made it to the panel beater to have the floors replaced while I was in Australia for a month. Upon returning I gave him a ring to organise picking the car up, "oh um yeah... I haven't started, my certifier has fallen off the face of the earth and I cant start until hes done his inspection" (The car has to be re-rego'ed and certified for the brakes, suspension, engine etc and replacing the floor needs a repair cert and repair certs need a before, during and after inspection). Then I had a small victory, the seats from the UK turned up. They are Cobra Classic RS's After a few weeks I got a call from the panel beater. He said the certifier had come and had a look and was happy for the floors to get cut out BUT while looking over the car he noticed that the seam where the left hand front inner guard meets the firewall had been re-braised back together and so he suspects its been in a crash and wants it to be checked on a chassis machine before signing it off. Bugger and shit. Up top is a big blob of braze and in the other circles is where its been TIG welded where the right side is spot welded. After a small pep talk from one of the old boys at work I went up to see the panel beater to make a plan. He pointed out all the suspect bits and the plan was hatched. Pull the old guard off, cut the shitty welding out, sandblast the inner guard and engine bay, pull the old girl straight, weld her all back together and put a new guard on. The old guard had abit of bog in it so we deiced just to bin it and start a fresh. Well I was supposed to have the car back early December as Im now in Christchurch for work until March. It never happened. Apparently the Fairlane that's on the panel beaters chassis machine had a few set back so that has pushed the Escort back aswell. Iv been told give him a call in two weeks and he should have an invoice for me, but time will tell. Also during all of this my daily was written off, it got hit outside my house and the only damage was they took the driver wing mirror off, but that's enough to write a car off now days so I thought id treat myself and buy a nice ute.... we this is what I ended up with. So the original goal of driving it to the old Ford factory in Wellington in November for its 50th birthday might be a long shot but we'll see. Cant beat Christchurch on a good day

Moved house last week so the Escort now has a more permanent home. Also picked the carbs up from Hi Tech Motorsport so naturally I had to bolt them on. Off to Christchurch this week to do some hectikk shit in Unimogs.

Always a good day when she doing the deliveries

The photo is of the passengers footwell. The drivers side has similar holes. Iv had a panel beater take a look and he thinks putting new floor panels in will be the go.

Made some headway in the rewire. The back ends all done, and the wires are run to the engine bay. Also got the car up to the panel beater so he could share some wisdom. He said come back at the end of June with some new floors and we will sort them and the heater panel out.

I knew everything was going to well....

Big ups to the Easter Bunny for the long weekend! Iv spent it finding out why it's so expensive to get a car painted well. Most of the black paint in the engine bay came off with the steam cleaner. Gotta love the rattle can matti B. Only found one spot of rust which i'm quite impressed with. Will order up a repair panel from Palmside this week and fix her up next weekend.

Had a nice break in Aussie. Spent 4 days sitting on turn 9 at the Adelaide 500. Gotta love the improved production class in Australia, such an awesome line up of cars. Also stumbled on some gold in a little bookshop in Melbourne. Had some dramas with the engine, so currently on the hunt for another 711m block.

Heaved the old lug out on Saturday, such an easy job! The engine will be off to Hitech Motorsport this week to get a new lease on life. Also shot off to the garage sale at Halliday Racing in Managawai today and managed to score one of their snazzy as rocker covers. Don't know now if I should paint it or leave it raw?

Played with the front brakes today. With max air from the duster gun not one of the four pistons would move, so safe to say they are seized up. Bit of CRC and some freeze and release and I managed to get them all apart. The pistons are in pretty good condition so I gave them a wipe and slammed them all back together. Will get a seal kit this week and do it properly next weekend. Bled the brakes up and WOOHOO it has brakes! I was so excited I drove it to the petrol station, and of course ran out of fuel on the way...