Bam's 1980 Mk2 Escort 1600 Sport

[Bam]

OK team, it all starts this weekend and I thought I would kick off my first build thread post. 

I got my first car when I was 16. A poo brown 1979 Mk2 1300 4 door. This was alright for a while but it wasn't long before I managed to find a red 1980 Mk2 1600 Sport. This was purchased for $1000 and had a wof and everything. I put in my race motor and raced round the streets of Wellington. I think it was the loudest car around. Unfortunately rust was ripe in the Sport and I figured, being an apprentice mechanic, I would strip it down, fix the rust and rebuild. Well stripping it down I found it way worse than I imagined and it got brushed to the side while I found myself a new toy. The car got sold as it was and that was it. 

What an idiot I was. I always regretted selling it and when I finally decided to try and get my hands on another, prices had skyrocketed and I have spent the last 17 years always keeping my eye out but the dollars asked for anything close to what I want was well out of reach. 

In December, my wife was dropping a colleague home and spotted something red with a Ford badge in the corner of their garage. She asked what it was and it turned out to be the husbands 1980 Mk2 1600 Sport which had sat there for around 10 years. She came home and told me about it. I had her arrange a visit for me despite the car not being for sale or anything and a week later he had pulled it out of the corner and I was looking over this thing. It was stunning. It had a pretty average respray on the exterior which was starting to bubble but all the usual rust spots were incredible. Then, he asked if I wanted to buy it, things fell into place and it now has a new owner. 

The idea is to take it back to showroom condition. The photo of the paperwork it has is pretty much a testimate to just how good this car is. I will build a bit of a build list but will pull everything out, start a shopping list, freshen the motor, rebuild brakes and do a respray and see where we end up. 

 

I will keep this as up to date as possible but I can not wait to be out cruising the streets of Wellington with my wife and daughter in what is pretty much my dream car. 

 

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/58013-bams-1980-mk2-escort-1600-sport-discussion/

 

 

 

[Bam]

Got her home last night thanks to a good mate Tony. Pretty much spent the night sititng in her and making car noises while remembering all the stuff I used to get up to in my last one. 

 

Leaving the garage she sat in for over 10 years.

[Bam]

Unloaded and sitting in her new driveway.

[Bam]

[Bam]

[Bam]

Today was a great day. Thought I would go and see if the engine would turn over. I removed the spark plugs, checked oil and connected up a battery. A few taps on the starter and solenoid got the engine turning over nicely. I could hear it picking up speed and knew oil was starting to get around the engine and then the oil pressure light went out. Excellent. 

Well if that went well, let's try and fire her up... 

Back in went the plugs, some fresh fuel in the tank and I was flicking the key. Cranked with good, even compression but no start. I had fuel at the carb, but no spark. I have spent the last 16 years working on things with fuel injection/electronic ignitions so it took a little while to remember how a points ignition system worked. 

A bit of fault finding and found the points needed a good clean and adjustment. We have spark. Put the cap on the distributor, turned the key and she fired into life. 

Next test she passed with flying colours too, it moves. Brakes will want a bit of work to them and a new clutch but I am beyond happy!!!

 

While she was out in the drive I gave her a quick wash. 

Video Proof

 

 

 

 

[Bam]

Well, started giving the interior a bit of a clean while I decide what's going to be done first.

 

Have a look at what I found!!!

A photo of another Sport being worked on. 

[Bam]

Almost 6 years since I last posted a build update... A lot has changed in those 6 years. Let me try and do some updates over the coming days.

 

The car had a bunch of surface rust under the factory paint. It had been resprayed at some point but just thrown on over top of everything else. My good friend Zac Haar from Carboglass in Wellington called around. He suggested taking the bonnet off, taking it down to his shop and stripping the paint off, treating the rust and getting it looking new. If i liked the process, then I could do the entire car, if I hated it, I could put it back on and save to pay someone else to do it.

 

I am the type of person who hates paying for things and would much rather have a go and fail, than to fork out hard earned dollars for something. This will definitely bite me later in the build, but you now know the type of person I am.

Here are some more pics of her the day I got her, and some of the bonnet work. I am not sure I really enjoyed this work but please I was giving it a go.

[Bam]

After the bonnet and a good number of months rest, we did the same thing to the boot. 

[Bam]

Once I realized that we had to actually do this to the entire car, we took the car to Prestige Tuning and Motorsport where Chris and I quickly pulled the car apart. We were critical in our bagging and tagging of parts and screws. It was cool to see a bare rolling shell at the end of the day. I rented a small bit of workshop space from Ash at Kaizen Works and the car went there to be stripped even further.

 

 

[Bam]

Once in its little corner of the shop I removed the suspension and got her entirely in the nud. There wasn't a screw, bolt or nut left on it. I built a little rotisserie for it and was able to work on the underside nice and easy. The engine I pulled a few things off which quickly became everything. Everything looked great apart from a broken ring.

 

 

After looking at all different options, I settled on going down the sandblasting route. Mainly because I didn't want to acid dip and remove all of the glues and sealants and also be unable to paint the areas that weren't accessible. 

Shaun at Plateau Sand & Soda Blasting in Upper Hutt was amazing. The car eventually went up to him where he carefully took the car back to bare metal, cleaned and etch primed her straight away. I got back a black shell and very thankful there were very few surprises. We blasted the exterior, engine bay and underside and left the interior as this wasn't suffering from surface rust hidden under the paint. 

[Bam]

While I was going through these bits of work, I managed to track down the original owner of the car. He still lived locally and managed to find me some photos of the car from when he had it. He sold it in 1996 as they had their first kid and were realizing how bad of an idea a two door car was for baby seats.

[Bam]

The next bit was sorting the paint and dealing to the underside. Good ol Brigade Red was actually a pain to get correct but well worth the effort. Thanks to the budget rotisserie it made life much easier. We managed to prime and paint the underside over a long weekend. Once this was done the car came back home where it sat for some time. As we went into lock downs, I got busy on the panel beating. With only the bonnet and boot lid under my belt previously, I did what I thought was right and it came up pretty bloody well.