Petes mk2

Escort back on the hoist again for its first WOF in approximately 18yrs. Have gone over everything and hope it will pass first time. Well, that went really well. Paperwork completed and sticker on windscreen.  Quick trip home and now cars registartion done. Will feel more at ease driving around now. Tune is the next next thing to get sorted

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Car back on the trailer and off to Christchurch to have exhaust fitted.  Corey from Elite Exhausts has got the job and after discussing what I wanted he sets to work. We are going with a 2" system with standard oval muffler before diff and a Coby after. I really like watching someone working who knows what he is doing. He has it all mapped out in his head. No tape measure, just a piece of wire to help form curves.. He cut off end of headers to start 2"pipe and fitted V-clamp, welding in place.  Next placed muffler in place and bent up pipe for first section. Welded  in place and fitted mounting bracket.

Next put Coby in place and bent up section over axle and welded to first muffler. At this point Corey said we should see how it sounds. While he held Coby in place, I started car. Perfect, has a nice throaty note but not to loud. Welded Coby on place and mounting bracket. Finally put on tip and all done.

Just a few more things to do. Wof, Wheel alignment and tune. Shouldn't take to long ???

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We had great weather in the weekend so decided it was time to take Jenny, my long suffering wife out for a drive in the escort. Things wrer going really well until I noticed a change in the exhuast sound followed by metal scraping on road. Quick stop and inspection shows that they don't make baked bean cans like they use to. Managed to remove exhuast from under car while jen was busy taking photo's and letting family and friends know how her first outing in the escort went. Needless to say it was a very noisy 8km trip home. Lucky we live in the country so left exhuast on the side of the road to be picked up later and booked in to get new exhuast fitted.

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Nearly ready for first startup. Just a couple of jobs to do, one being to attach old exhaust to new headers until i'm able to get a proper system made. Don't laugh but I cut both ends out of a baked bean can, slit it down the side and with the help of some hose clamps, made a sleeve and clamped over both pipes. Should be ok for a while.

Checked all fluid levels and filled radiator with hot water as mechanic suggested as been sitting for a while since build. Removed plugs and cranked motor until oil pressure light went out. Replaced plugs and turned key. Motor started straight up and sounded really good. Ran it up to temp and checked for leaks of which there were none. Time for a trip around town. Goes well but needs a tune. Brakes are good and everything else works except fuel gauge. If anyone has a suggestion of where I could get my 32/32 weber carb tuned  around Christchurch could they leave a message on Project Discussion page. Cheers

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Just slowly picking off jobs as time allows. Fitted the carpet and cut all holes for seats, seeatbelts, gear stick, brake handle.  Installed gearstick and rubber gaiter. Next put in seatbelts and also fitted door cards. All looking pretty good. Next in was the seats which took a while as quite hard to line up holes I had cut in carpet. Starting to look like a new car. Next put badges and number plate on rear also mirrors on doors.

Time to put some petrol in the tank in anticipation of startup but it all ended up on the ground. Didn't see that coming and had to take tank out to find hole. Rust never sleeps. Luckly had another tank which I checked more carefully. Cleaned, painted and installed. No leaks Result

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One of the last things to sort out is the exhaust for car. Started out by cleaning up extractors that came with car but on a 1300 motor.  I think they are coby's and cleaned up really well. Winner I thought until fitted. They are hard up to firewall and very close to washer bottle. Not going to work, so onto the next option. A set of Ashley extractors which were not much better. Not sure why these are not working for me . After a 6 week wait for a set of Pacemakers which are now in place I'm very pleased with alignment and clearances from other componets. Will hookup to old exhaust for startup and get it replaced later. Just have to sort out what size pipe I'm going to use.

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Now for the visors,mirror and interior light. Had located all mounting positions when i put up head linning and also checked interior light worked. Only problem I had was one of the visors wouldn't stay up. Someone suggested that I use some heatskrink on the pins. This works well but you have to be carefull not to split female part in visor. Put new cover on mirror mount and all looks very tidy.

Next onto the floor which has been covered in sound deading and then underfelt, making sure to locate all seat mounting points. Not sure if i should attach this somehow to stop it moving under carpet.

Also got ready to attach door cards by first fitting plastic liner as miosture barrier.

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Made a start on the interior of car by refurbishing back seat trim. Removed ash tray and lightly sanded panel. Next sprayed with plastic primer filler then lightly sanded again. Finished with vinyl dye which came up really well. Did the same process for clips. Fitted ash trays after spending some time getting them to work properly. Now to install parcel tray and boot divider panel and also vinyl wheel arch trim. Fitted new c-pillar trim after marking seat belt mounting points incase I put seat belts in the rear. Finally put in rear seat back. Looking smart

Next to be put in is the starter motor and alternator which is pretty easy. Most of the loom is in place so hook up everything I can.  Next build a loom for spotlights out of parts I have. Run a fused power feed from battery and earth to chasis. Pretty sure I can activate spotlights to only come on when high beam is on by taking a wire off high beam fuse in engine bay which only has power on high beam. All set to see what has power at this stage. After dinner and grandchildren are in bed we go out and hook up battery. Turn key and nothing, no lights at all. After a night thinking about it and looking at all the picture I had taken, realise I have one wire on wrong terminal. Hey presto we have lights working, fan blowing, indicators flashing. Just hope the next click of the key bring similar results

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Have been a bit slack. Not with working on car but updateing build. So here goes. Spent some time on rebilding carb. Dismantled and then cleaned main body with muriatic acid. Very impressed with how it worked. Had to replace two jets as someone had been trying to reduce hole size with solder. All back together and on car. Ran new fuel lines and connected. Ftted new vacum lines to brake booster and distributor and also fitted old heater hoses. Might have to find some new ones as looking a bit old and out of place. Choke cable on and accelerator cable in place. Engine bay starting to fill up.

Two steps forward, one step back, Finally got new front screen fitted and looks really good. Next was a big step. Bolted gearbox to motor put into car. Ony took two of us an hour. Was quite a steep angle but pleased to say no damage to paint work. Now lots of bits to bolt on.

Now for the step back. Two piece driveshaft needed a universal joint replaced so took apart, measured up and tried to find one. No luck. Apparently they are a special size and not made any more. Looks like I'm going to need one piece driveshaft made. Bugger

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Just a quick update. Cleaned up all the glass and installed most. After cleaning off 15yrs of grime I noticed a whole lot of small air bubbles in front screen. Decided that this would drive me crazy seeing then all the time and thought it might affect wof so are going to replace with a new one. Rest of glass looks really good.

Next was the hardest part I've had to put back. It was the mount for water washer bottle which has a nut  high up in strut tower. No room, fingers not long enough, new it would be hard to do when I took it off. Also fitted spotlight mounts and now only have to sort out relay and wiring

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Got a few more jobs finished this week. Had the old rostyle rims sand blasted, then epoxy primed, then painted outside facing surface black. Next had to mask up areas I wanted to remain black. Made a wooden template and then used this to cut out masking tape which I had stuck to some baking paper. Worked really well and just had to peel off backing and place on rims. Now respayed rims a metalic silver and once masking tape removed they look really good. Small amount of bleeding whiich shouldn't be to hard to fix.

Also found someone to replace mirror glass in wing mirrors. Did a really good job so am pleased to be able to use original mirrors.

Have been putting loom back in and have a few spare wires. If anyone is able to help, have put up picture on Project Discussion page. Cheers

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A few more jobs ticked off. Pedal box and heater unit installed. Brake calipers fitted along with brake booster and brake lines. Next put in petrol tank making sure to get tank breather and fuel return line in right holes. Just a couple of grommets to find. Also replaced steering column coupler and rubber grommet in firewall.

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Have been a bit slack in updating progress on build, so hear goes. Decided to replace headlining that had some damage after rust repairs. Gathered everything I needed and after watching a number of video's made a start. Was a lot harder than I anticipated but finally was happy with result. Now just have to find courage to cut hole for interior light and locate mounting points for visors and mirror.

Also refurbished brake callipers. Sand blasted, dismantled, painted and fitted new seal kits, Ready to be installed

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For a change thought I would sort out my fix for left hand side engine mount. The old one had started to come apart. The hole is quite large so resized a washer and place in hole as a reducer. Will tack in later. The new engine mount rubber is slightly thicker than old one (3mm} and not sure wether this will have any effect when motor is back in. If anyone has experience with using these mounts could you  let me know if I'm on the right track. Cheers Peter

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