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bmxnz11's Ford Escort MK2 Van


bmxnz11

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2 nights of careful painfully slow welding and grinding and i have a warpfree panel in place. Welded it on the inside as its a flat surface compared to the channel on the outside, this made for easier grinding. Hit it with the flap disk, quite stoked with the result. Patience paid off. Will give it a coat of 2k primer and a skim of nuetech tomorrow

 

welded from the inside

 

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Outside

 

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Skim of filler and 2k primer

 

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Just been cleaning up the little bits on the drivers side. lining up the door and guard. Took the guard off to do rust repairs earlier, will be bolting this back on instead of welding. Soon to start work on the passenger side with the flare and replacing the side windows

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Popped out the passenger windows, expected some rust behind the rubber but not that much. Cut the surround out, tacked in the new panel then fully welded in. Alot of hours spent cutting the panel, sizing it up and re positioning the panel til i was happy with it 

 

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Sand, prime and start work on the passenger flare

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sanded and primed the passenger side panel inside and out. Pretty happy with the result. May leave the inside as is for that authentic rapey panel van spec

 

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Will start mocking up the flare on the passenger side. The inside blue is the original colour, i like the idea of original colours but i think that blue is going to be too much to look at

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Have been doing alot of rust repairing and prepping for the flare. Tidied up the ends of the sill, the under skin, cut to suit, gave as much clearance underneath as possible

 

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An age was spent cutting and welding, and re cutting and re welding. Turning this shit...

 

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into this..

 

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Makes it worthwhile but still not 100% happy with it

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  • 2 weeks later...

It just didnt look correct so after alot of measuring i decided the passenger flare didnt match the drivers side and stuck out 5mm too much in the centre. Decision was made to cut the edge off and move it back.

 

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Wasnt too much hassle, just disheartening. Finished the rust work in the corners under the flare while i was there

 

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Took away the supports and sat it down on the reset leafs to see how low it sits. Bonners all round. 

 

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99% happy with it now, need to cut another small section of the flare out and move it back in. 2 steps forward, one step back it seems

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  • 2 months later...

Always had the idea of utilizing the floor space under the rear of the van. I wanted to put a box in for tools etc but without chopping/relocating too many things underneath. Found a spot between the leaf springs and side side of the van. Plan was to make it subtle on top

 

Cut a hole. Replaced some metal behind the wheel well

 

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Used angle line on the long end for strength and something to drill into for the lid. Made some folded edges for the box to sit onto

 

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Made the lid out of the original floor section and another floor section cut from the parts van. Strengthened up the lid with lengths of thick steel welded into the channels and more angle line around the edging.

 

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Countersunk the hole for the lock because its a simple push and turn lock with a key. This is how it sits when its locked in place. This way i can lock things in there and open it using the key, save adding a handle or strap

 

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Cleaned it all up and put it together. All this did take the better part of a month. Will clean up the hinge and put in countersunk screws

 

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The box that sits in it. Sits parallel to the sill so its not seen from the side or behind. All this is screwed into the van can be taken out in a couple of minutes for ease of changing bushes and leafs

 

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This was the original floor before i cut into it

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Have been stripping this down to bare metal. primer, filler and block sanding when i can. Didn't take long before i needed a break so i started the motor strip down. I have the 711M 1600 and it also appears i have the GT head with '37' cast into it. Also measured the valves to double check and yip they're bigger. Original ford flogged valves but bigger. So the heads sent away to get new valves, valve guides and cut in.

 

Has also been bored out 0.50mm/20thou and the bore looks to be in great condition. Bearings, crank and cam (GT) all seem to look great. No marks or any signs or wear. I get the impression someone has freshened up the bottom end but not the top. May have saved a few pennies here.

 

Thinking about doing the usual 234 cam and twin sidies. Does anyone know if 1300 sumps fit straight onto the 1600?

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Clutch and what not look pretty new, still have evidence of yellow marker pen on the plate. Appears i have a sports gearbox too, full cast alloy tail housing. Huge bonus there. Not bad for a purchase unseen from Alexandra. Bought a reconditioned sport 3.5 diff to run as well. Including the 9inch drums it now has the full sports running gear. Should be a bit nicer on the open road.

 

Actually after cleaning it up i think its a std gearbox

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Had an engine guy look at the engine in bits. Someone has rebuilt it but that was a long time ago and had a bit of a hard life. Looks like i'm in for a full rebuild now so if anyone knows where to source cheap goodies for a 711M 1600 id like to hear your opinions

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/43995-bmxnz11s-mk2-escort-van/?hl=escort

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  • 1 month later...

Had a look at the rear doors, always prone to rust because of the skin wrapping over frame at the bottom, effectively making it a triple skin and trapping the water. Sure enough rust in the skin and bottom of the frame

 

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The repairs to the frame in the corner

 

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Patch made up for the door skin (took me way too long to make it)

 

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Door skin patch welded on

 

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Back of the door skin along the bottom wrapped over the frame, was very happy to see this go on and line up so well. Before it was squashed together and welded.

 

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The drivers rear door was more or less the same, but instead i made the door skin in two patches to help keep the strength in the skin

 

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Patch to the bottom corner door frame

 

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Inside corner of the door with the new door skin patch. Much better. Should be good for a few more years.

 

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The door had a high spot/was a bit warped before i started so i ended up slitting the door skin and pulling it together nice and tight

 

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Door on van

 

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Have 2 pot primed it and will pour some sealant stuff throughout the doors soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A few weeks ago we had a look at the rear panel, below the rear doors. Surprise surprise it was filled with filler and lead, hiding the rust/dents. Wire wheeled the filler off and burnt off the lead. It was like this the whole way across

 

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Cut the patch out, bit bigger then i was hoping

 

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Made up a replacement panel on the folder on Friday night. Old vs New

 

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Took me most of Saturday and half a Sunday to weld the piece in but very satisfying seeing the progress

 

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Something had obviously been dropped and bashed into this area. It was rough. We panel beated the top section as much as possible before cutting the patch out.

 

Before

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After

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Hugely rewarding getting all the rust done. First time picking up a welder, cross ping hammer or playing with steel was on this van. Very happy/relieved to get to this point.

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  • 2 months later...

Got busy in the engine bay on Sunday and primed it this evening. First time doing an engine bay, couple of runs, not really bothered at this stage. Was tighter then your mum in there.

 

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Picture before i pulled it apart for engine spray. Most complete its looked for a long time.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

More work on aligning panels. Ended up making a new inner wing piece on the drivers guard that hugs the pillar. Have finally got it to a point i'm happy with where its parallel to the pillar and lines up very well with the door. No too many photos but lots of tweaking going on.

 

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