Popular Post evel Posted August 12, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted August 12, 2017 *YARN THREAD* Walking around the Kumeu car show 2015, the old man was telling how one of his mates at work had two Escorts he wanted to sell, a Mk4 convertible and a Mk1. But seeing as I was knuckle deep into turbocharging my MX5 at the time I merely shrugged it off as I didn't have anywhere to keep another project. Two years down the line I was eating a tuna steak at The Esplanade in Devonport and all of a sudden "Boy, remember that Escort I told you about a few years ago, would you like to go and see it after lunch?" "Sure why not".... you can work out the rest Beatrix is a November build 1969 Ford Escort 1300 Sport assembled in Lower Hutt. When I brought her in March she hadn't run for about 15 years and her rego has lapsed. I got the engine going with a bit of fresh fuel and some new plugs and did a few laps around the block. I then pulled her apart to have a look at what we got and got a few good surprises, Some spring adjustable front shocks 4 pot AP racing front calipers a 711M 1600 block and the biggest surprise apart from the battery tray, no real rust to speak of. The plan at the moment is, rebuild/replace all that's perished over the years of sitting still. Rebuild the engine. Reregister her. Replace the seats with something less offensive. Repaint it back to its stock color, Ford Diamond Blue. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post evel Posted August 12, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 12, 2017 Progress has slowly been made, first step was to sell my GTiR to free up some funds, I only got one picture of all the toys together Turns out the guy I bought the car off had a pile of parts to got with the car, a spare carb, the half bumpers, couple spare boots, and the cars original Rostyles! Sadly the lip on one is very rusted but will be saved later on. I bought another set of wheels, just because Took a photo next to my buddys Datsun and discovered why the engine gets quite hot, quite quick 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted August 13, 2017 Author Share Posted August 13, 2017 Took the diff out And built a little stand for it. Wheels for the stand to come. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post evel Posted August 19, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 19, 2017 Finished the stand Some noise makers turned up 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted October 21, 2017 Author Share Posted October 21, 2017 Beatrix and the Datsun have been looking after themselves for wee while while I finish my apprenticeship and do some track day planning. Today I got into pulling apart the rear end so I can get it all blasted and painted this week With any sort of luck my box from Burtons will turn up this week and the reassembly can begin. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted January 7, 2018 Author Share Posted January 7, 2018 Got some work done over the break. Painted up the diff, front legs and a few bits and pieces. Also brought a Quaife ATB from Palmside and installed that while everything was apart Up next will be trying to work out why the brakes are so horrible. Iv replaced the rear cylinders and shoes so Im guessing the front calipers are all seized up or the master cylinder is the wrong size. Or a combination of the two. Happy New Years all!! 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted January 14, 2018 Author Share Posted January 14, 2018 Played with the front brakes today. With max air from the duster gun not one of the four pistons would move, so safe to say they are seized up. Bit of CRC and some freeze and release and I managed to get them all apart. The pistons are in pretty good condition so I gave them a wipe and slammed them all back together. Will get a seal kit this week and do it properly next weekend. Bled the brakes up and WOOHOO it has brakes! I was so excited I drove it to the petrol station, and of course ran out of fuel on the way... 6 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 Heaved the old lug out on Saturday, such an easy job! The engine will be off to Hitech Motorsport this week to get a new lease on life. Also shot off to the garage sale at Halliday Racing in Managawai today and managed to score one of their snazzy as rocker covers. Don't know now if I should paint it or leave it raw? 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 Had a nice break in Aussie. Spent 4 days sitting on turn 9 at the Adelaide 500. Gotta love the improved production class in Australia, such an awesome line up of cars. Also stumbled on some gold in a little bookshop in Melbourne. Had some dramas with the engine, so currently on the hunt for another 711m block. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted April 1, 2018 Author Share Posted April 1, 2018 Big ups to the Easter Bunny for the long weekend! Iv spent it finding out why it's so expensive to get a car painted well. Most of the black paint in the engine bay came off with the steam cleaner. Gotta love the rattle can matti B. Only found one spot of rust which i'm quite impressed with. Will order up a repair panel from Palmside this week and fix her up next weekend. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted April 17, 2018 Author Share Posted April 17, 2018 I knew everything was going to well.... 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted May 6, 2018 Author Share Posted May 6, 2018 Made some headway in the rewire. The back ends all done, and the wires are run to the engine bay. Also got the car up to the panel beater so he could share some wisdom. He said come back at the end of June with some new floors and we will sort them and the heater panel out. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post evel Posted June 17, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 17, 2018 Moved house last week so the Escort now has a more permanent home. Also picked the carbs up from Hi Tech Motorsport so naturally I had to bolt them on. Off to Christchurch this week to do some hectikk shit in Unimogs. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted January 19, 2019 Author Share Posted January 19, 2019 Well I guess I better update this with all the latest gossip. The last 6 months have basically been a small crawl forward followed by a few leaps backwards... The car made it to the panel beater to have the floors replaced while I was in Australia for a month. Upon returning I gave him a ring to organise picking the car up, "oh um yeah... I haven't started, my certifier has fallen off the face of the earth and I cant start until hes done his inspection" (The car has to be re-rego'ed and certified for the brakes, suspension, engine etc and replacing the floor needs a repair cert and repair certs need a before, during and after inspection). Then I had a small victory, the seats from the UK turned up. They are Cobra Classic RS's After a few weeks I got a call from the panel beater. He said the certifier had come and had a look and was happy for the floors to get cut out BUT while looking over the car he noticed that the seam where the left hand front inner guard meets the firewall had been re-braised back together and so he suspects its been in a crash and wants it to be checked on a chassis machine before signing it off. Bugger and shit. Up top is a big blob of braze and in the other circles is where its been TIG welded where the right side is spot welded. After a small pep talk from one of the old boys at work I went up to see the panel beater to make a plan. He pointed out all the suspect bits and the plan was hatched. Pull the old guard off, cut the shitty welding out, sandblast the inner guard and engine bay, pull the old girl straight, weld her all back together and put a new guard on. The old guard had abit of bog in it so we deiced just to bin it and start a fresh. Well I was supposed to have the car back early December as Im now in Christchurch for work until March. It never happened. Apparently the Fairlane that's on the panel beaters chassis machine had a few set back so that has pushed the Escort back aswell. Iv been told give him a call in two weeks and he should have an invoice for me, but time will tell. Also during all of this my daily was written off, it got hit outside my house and the only damage was they took the driver wing mirror off, but that's enough to write a car off now days so I thought id treat myself and buy a nice ute.... we this is what I ended up with. So the original goal of driving it to the old Ford factory in Wellington in November for its 50th birthday might be a long shot but we'll see. Cant beat Christchurch on a good day 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted January 22, 2019 Author Share Posted January 22, 2019 More news from the panel shop. With the floors out he has now discovered the previous repair wasn't done very well and involved large amount of braze and underseal. Basically when they rejoined the firewall/floor/chassis rail they completely butchered the three sections in the process. We will talk to certifier tomorrow but at the moment it sounds like remove and repair/replace the damaged chassis rail and repair the firewall. ] 1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post evel Posted January 26, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 26, 2019 PROGRESS!! 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post evel Posted May 15, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 15, 2019 We've made it on to the chassis machine. The front left strut top is about 30mm out of place but the panel beater isn't worried. He's also very impressed with the quality of the new chassis rails so two thumbs up to Palmside. Floors are all done, and all the random holes are welded up, the heater bowl is off and everything looks pretty under there. Next up is get the engine bay and LHS inner guard sandblasted, a few more patches welded in and then back on the chassis machine to get straightened and the new rails in. The party continues 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evel Posted May 22, 2019 Author Share Posted May 22, 2019 Its full steam ahead at the panel beaters, rust being cut out and steel being welded back in Shes even been pulled straight BUT... One of these is not like the other Its looks like when it was originally repaired the inner guard was welded in place with out much thought to measure or even use a spirit level so the LH strut tower is 7mm lower than the right. The solution is to unpick the whole inner guard, tidy everything up and then reattach it in the correct spot. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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