tehnzbrad Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 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... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tehnzbrad Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 *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.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tehnzbrad Posted March 6, 2013 Author Share Posted March 6, 2013 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tehnzbrad Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 every one hates a picture-less update but too bad, i rebuilt the pedal box and made the servo rod shorter by 1.5" to match the mk1 pedal box, im getting a decent bottle of Argon gas for my MIG so i can finish all the welding. Now i have decided to get a cert before i put it on the road so im not going to put the 4age in just yet but im going to do a linked rear-end, and fully redo the front suspension... BUT i have been doing some research and cant make my mind up weather to go with a 4 link with a pan-hard/atlas rod or an Anti-tramp bar kit with pan hard/atlas... im trying to keep the cost down but yeah... i dont quite have enough to go full adjustie in the rear with full linkage.. but i just have enough to do a basic linkage kit.. if there are any alternatives it would be awesome if you could throw an idea or two my way. Im looking for a set up that can make my escort handle mint as, dont worry bout the cert with the engine just yet i need to get all the welding/ cutting done before its painted, pictures will be up when the fronts back on the car... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tehnzbrad Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 I just got a 4age in rebuildable condition for $80 hopefully picking that up and some Argon for my welder. in the mean time i have done a rather extensive port and polish job on my other 1600 GT head so will probably upload some pic's of that at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tehnzbrad Posted April 11, 2013 Share Posted April 11, 2013 finished rebuilding the front of the car and did a rough test fit and went to ezitools and got some argon and shiny bits for my mig.. got my 4age back home, pitty its a big port bluetop.... ah well allgood for $80 gives me alot of spares... got quite alot done these past weeks, should be welding the front on this saturday and finish filling the remainder of the holes in the engine bay, there were 76 total and only have about 24 to go... and fill the massive hole left by the heater... should be ordering some stuff from burtons for the rear suspension ( adjustable pan hard, tramp arms and turrets) still need to find a place to make me some single leaf springs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tehnzbrad Posted April 29, 2013 Author Share Posted April 29, 2013 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.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tehnzbrad Posted May 21, 2013 Author Share Posted May 21, 2013 well its been awhile, ive finished the front adjusties and have started to clean the engine xmember hubs and all that shit, from the a pillars forward is done but work on the car has slowed right down due to no $$$ and basic training coming up in august for the army... will do the odd bit to it when i have time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.