Cazza Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Okay-bit of a background on my car. I bought my "kermit/kawasaki" green escort back in 2001 as a progression from my mint '79 Mini 1000. It served me very well running back and forth between palmy and napier while I was at uni...but the year I moved back to napier I unfortunately had a little accident..... which turned out to have made a BIG mess of the front of my car... Upon a little investigation into the history of my car I tracked down one of the previous owners who admitted that it had been crashed into a powerpole- he had straightened the front and rebuilt it with bog and fibreglass! Then repainted it and on-sold it. That was two owners before me. The front of my kermit escort.....what happens when your front end is not really made of metal at all! (the scary thing is that this picture is taken AFTER dad had already attacked the front with a hammer to straighten it enough to get the engine out! Unfortunately I was too upset at the time to take a picture straight after the accident..) Very glad I was not going very fast at the time of impact.... After buying (and on-selling) 2 more Mk1 shells I finally found this one which wasnt in great condition but was the best one I was able to find! The inevitable stripping of the shell.........Thankyou sooo much to all my mates that came to help me lift the cars to drop the engines out! Dad and I did the stripping and sanding of the shell ourselves-with the occasional mate dragged in to help on a saturday morning (usually had to bribe them with the promise of beer afterwards!)We were going to do the paintjob ourselves too after ringing around and finding that no-one was willing to take on a silver paintjob for anything less than $2000!!! I hit a brick wall for a while but then a mate at AZTECH panelbeaters said that he would give it a go..and he did a mint job !! Collecting my pride and joy from the panelbeaters to take it home! Dad and a mate dropping the engine back in... the engine is just a straight 1600 (Kent), Weber carb, pretty standard-but it goes so well I dont have the heart to change it ! Also has a big-bore system on it (but not over the top-no rice cannons for me thanks!) and a good set of seats out of an integra-the closest you can get to Recaro shape without paying the horrendous Recaro price! Still a 4spd manual too. Yeah okay so its a bit noisy on a long run but thats what the "UP" button on your stereo was invented for if you ever get tired of listening to the engine! Low-ratio diff so good acceleration. Gas-shocks and sport springs....the aim is to eventually enter it into the local hill-climb comp (Te-Onepu) and then just see where we go from there! But for now it is my daily driver so no cages or race-harnesses yet! My car- the day it all got certified and WOF'd and REG'd....I wasted a whole tank of gas just driving for the hell of it........- well it had been over two years off the road!! I missed it! My car as it is now! The wheels were my xmas/dbay pressie from dad (THANKYOU DAD!) -the only catch was I had to sand them and repaint them .... handpainting in all the black bits is a nasty job....! All finished........except now I want to start tidying up the interior...but thats expensive stuff so will have to wait for a while! UPDATE TIME: Have installed new stereo/speakers/ recoloured interior seats/door cards/trims etc. Still trying to find decent matching set of door handles/window winders but this is proving to be difficult! Needed little spring for carb but dad ended up with a whole cortina engine from the wreckers after asking for the carbie on top of the engine! Whipped off the drive shaft and got all 3 bearings replaced before going to nats...not a cheap exercise but cleared up a number of annoying squeaking noises that had been bugging me for months... Have just bought a back sway bar since I dont currently have one! looking for a fatter one for the front and saving to buy new shocks (my springs are ok!) Big Thanks to my Dad for all his time and help- basically he knows how to fix anything that goes wrong! Dont know what I would do without ya Dad! Sept 07 Update. Crash time. For those who havent heard...I got rear-ended. Sitting at an intersection minding my own business and had a mitsi mirage run right up my boot. Guy driving was unlicensed and in his own words "Man I didnt even see you man-oh sh*t". Hit me without even having time to brake at all before impact so no skid marks for cops to measure to guess his speed. So. Esky is now at panelbeaters awaiting insurance assessors decision (ie. are they gonna write it off or not....). Pics of damage. (almost makes me cry to look at....) Oct 07 Update Esky made it into the paint shop yesterday- Ross has done an awesome job straigtening the back end! Should get car back tommorow just in time to take it to the MTA Parade in Feilding this wknd! Big ups to Ross at Aztech Panelbeaters in Napier, and again to Dad for all his help again too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazza Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 Not good at updating. over the last year we have: Replaced manifold with brand new one. Replaced all gaskets. Replaced ignition coil, replaced ignition leads, all points and plugs and tested compression numerous times. have repaired the carb twice, wired the exhaust back on three times, given up on dodgy amp for stereo (sometimes it works...sometimes it dont...but its not a priorty) replaced brake master cylinder replaced carb got upset when i looked at all the rust that is creeping through in a number of spots round the body... replaced radiator cap and most recently - have removed radiator for back-flush to remove rubbish/ascertain if it is blocked after its nonsense over the weekend at nats. will have to get it rodded if back flush is insufficient. there has probably been ALOT more that has been fixed over the year but as it is my daily i tend to just sort stuff and carry on and forget to note it all... after a long hard look at its performance over the last couple of years i will be biting the bullet and finding a way to get it a professional rebuild including valve grind etc. Esky has not been truly running happy for a very long time and is used/abused as the daily so bout time i showed it some proper love. will also be returning to Aztech panelbeaters in the near future to get JasonK/Rossco to have a look at the rust/floorpan and find out what kind of wallet damage i am looking at for that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazza Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 right - the radiator was totally blocked so got it rodded and back into the car last night (thankyou Dad and Duddley) car much happier now but am using our back-up car till the weekend as i want to finish the job properly and get some engine flush/radiator flush through it before she goes back to dailying. still intending to take it for quotes for engine rebuild/rust removal though. (might be time to start investigating flares...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazza Posted October 18, 2012 Author Share Posted October 18, 2012 Esky has been off the road for some time due to brake issues but those have now been sorted after the installation of a new brake master cylinder, and machining my very old drums back into shape as they had distorted somewhat after many years of wear! Esky is now away from home, sitting at mechanics awaiting the much anticipated valve grind! hope this will be worth the dollars! when it comes back it will then be heading to panelbeater to get the ding under the drivers door sorted. im then looking forward to being able to drive it for abit whilst I'm saving to take it back to Aztech to remove all its appearing rust! will probably be driving it with great huge panels of primer on it for the foreseeable future ...might be able to afford a new top coat for her by end of next year...maybe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazza Posted December 2, 2012 Author Share Posted December 2, 2012 Esky finally came home from mechanics yesterday. but by no means finished. still wont run smooth at 50km/h (although it now accelerates beautifully and roars like it should again so SOME progress has been made from the valve grind), brakes still being a pain so will have to look further into that... still have a tappet tick but need to give new head gasket time to settle before investigating that further...spoke to senior mechanic yesterday and further options we suspect will be replane-ing the header, and if that isn't the noise maker then it looks like will have to enter the painfully expensive world of cam shaft rebuild ...oh bugger. bit disapointing, long road still ahead of us to get her running sweet but will be worth it in the end... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazza Posted February 27, 2013 Author Share Posted February 27, 2013 I GET MY CAR BACK TOMORROW! not finished but I can have it to run around and play with for 3 weeks till mechanic mate comes back from holiday... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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