two_days_late

Paint work's nearly done and it'll be off to the upholsterer this week. Have also got a full rubber kit, new headlining, and a brand new windscreen to go in. Should look bloody good. Boot's been sealed off with a 3M texture coat and painted white.

Another day in on the car today. Joe and I finished prepping it for the paint shop on Thursday and I dropped it off this afternoon. List of jobs to do are: - Clean up White Paint Front Screen Surround Rear Screen Surround Sunroof Hole Parcel Shelf Boot Spotlight brackets Wiper Holes - Paint all trim bits Satin Black Front Panel Around Side Windows Tops of Doors Dash and inside A Pillar Bumpers & Handles Fuel Tank & Cap It should all be done by next weekend so fingers crossed... Once that was done, we spent a couple of hours this afternoon cleaning up all the glass so it's ready to go with the new headlining and complete rubber kit. Method was: 1.) Scraper to remove Silicone / Black Paint over-spray / General Crap 2.) Meths to remove sticky crap left from tints and more general crap 3.) Glass cleaner and news paper All screens came up looking mint, very happy.

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20160502134144&SearchText=bluetooth+preamp Something in there that you could make work?

Another productive night last night. Got the starter mounted up and turning the engine over (Cheers Joe). I was expecting this to cause a bit more grief as it's a honda starter with an adapter plate and has also had the ring gear on the flywheel replaced to suit and notched to help the starter engage. All seems to engage very nicely and turned over the engine for the first time since it was assembled. https://youtu.be/p9ecmp-AupM And also mounted the carbs

Floor is now painted with 2 coats of CRC Zinc Rust kill paint. Have also got a box of Dynamat on the way, and some new rubber bungs from Aliexpress. A couple of spots to fix up with the welder, then time to paint the boot and move on to getting the engine running. Cheers Matt

After not working on the car for a good year or so there has finally been some progress. First job is to tidy up the rest of the inside of the car, so I can paint it all up and then start thinking about wiring. Joe was awesome enough to donate some time and give me a hand with the long shitty job of stripping out the entire inside of the car. This includes stripping out the underseal in the boot as it never quite went off properly and I've decided to keep the boot white now. Anyway, pics: Stay tuned for more updates. Matt

Nice Esky mate.You can buy whole new rear panels from Palmside: http://www.palmside.co.nz/product_pcid_17508.html There's also a few pics in my build thread around pumping out the rear guards if you're looking to make some space Cheers Matt

Just seen this update now man, if you give Palmside a call they sell the conversion kits and are generally quite helpful

If you want one quickly, Palmside have them: http://www.palmside.co.nz/product_cid_10824.html Otherwise I'd buy out of the Uk

Or fixing it up and selling to recover some costs of the new one

Or a full referb kit: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LUCAS-ALTERNATOR-ACR-REPAIR-KIT-15-16-17-18-LRA100-RECTIFIER-REGULATOR-BRUSHES-/181025062176 With instructions on how to fit: http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4513

It's more than likely the alternator brushes. You can get new ones from Repco etc for around $20 the last time I did them... pretty sure you don't need to solder anything in the escort ones too. They just slot in, very easy swap and saves getting a new alternator.

http://www.burtonpower.com/tuning-guides/tuning-guide-pages/ford-kent-crossflow-tuning-guide.html Good crash course on tuning the xflow.

Thank's for all the info guys. Have done a bit of thinking and as a starting point I'm just gonna go with something like this: http://www.simonbbc.com/bundle-deals/high-energy-distributor/ford-x-flow-crossflow-performance-ht-leads-10mm-red-escort-fiesta-capri-cortina Simple / Reliable / Cheap to start with. Cheers Matt

Cheers for the feedback! Have already donated the stock dizzy to a mates project but have heard those are good kits. Would also require the hassle and cost of someone explaining to me how it all works and probably help wiring it all up. Am i likely to see major performance/reliability gains by going the megasquirt route? With the stealth box, I like the idea of being able to hide that and having the engine bay electrics looking pretty much factory. Cheers Matt

Currently have a new electronic dizzy but has vacuum advance so looking to swap it out for a non vac one. Have you guys got links to any build threads with a mega squirt and individual coils?

Haha don't think i'll ever be injecting the crossflow.... Think a new engine would be before that! Cool cheers, quite probably did but engine bay had been resprayed by the time I got my hands on it

Hey guys, Looking to start sorting the ignition etc on my Escort and thinking about getting a kit like this (but the crossflow version) so its nice and simple for me... http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-accessories/ford/electrics/auction-837777743.htm Has anyone had any experience with these and would recommend for or against them? Also it says will only work with negative earth. All Mk2 Escorts are negative earth right? I'm also thinking i'll want a dizzy without vacuum advance (also available) as i'm going to be running twin DCOE 40s. Should I bother trying to run any advance? Can't seem to find a solid answer either way. Cheers Matt

Long shot but its not some dodgy wiring somewhere else under the dash? From memory nothing runs if the hazard light switch isn't plugged in. Not something somewhere random like that?

Think I have a spare radiator in the Hutt if you wanna borrow it to try out

Electronic Dizzy is probably a good option too if you're looking for better drivability

I had the same issue in my 1990 GTO. Was quoted around $500 just for the clock spring itself from Mitsi. I just ended up taking it somewhere else for a WOF and they didn't notice. Sounds like the wires get mangled / perish in them so if you know what you're doing you might just be able to repair the wiring on it?

I have these 16s for sale....

Ahh, I'm pretty sure the 711m is the longer one? Escorto and I both have the 711m ones and they are too long... Here are both of them on Burton... http://www.burtonpower.com/parts-by-fitment-type/parts-by-engine-ford/ford-cross-flow-kent/qh-water-pump-x-flow-rwd-711m-qcp730.html http://www.burtonpower.com/parts-by-fitment-type/parts-by-engine-ford/ford-cross-flow-kent/qh-water-pump-x-flow-681f-1967-70-qcp181.html

Wicked. Cheers guys