Type49’s Mk1 Escort Rally Car Rebuild

[Type49]

Hi all . 

Back in 1992 i built myself a Mk1 Escort rally car, i used this car for a couple of years before barrel rolling it in Woodhill forest at a rallysprint. After sourcing another shell i reshelled the car and did events in it till '99 when i parked it in container while i went on my OE. Fast forward 20 or so years...

So after a gentle nudge from my partner that went along the lines of " You should do another rally before you're 50.."  So i started to unearth my Escort ( it has been out of the container for about 10 years ).

I will try to up load some progress shots as we go. 

Cheers for following!

 

 

 

[Type49]

Here is a pic of one of it's last events before i parked it up . 

[Type49]

Brief spec on the car before the rebuild was 1600cc Xflow, Kent 244 cam, big valve head with double springs and steel rocker posts and solid spacers. Datsun pistons and twin 45mm Webers.  4 speed Straight cut , close ratio Tran-x gear kit. English axle with a steel plate type LSD 4.9:1 Ratio.  Two link rear end. 4 wheel vented discs and bilstein shocks all round. Quick rack and a world cup cross member. All pretty normal for a rally car of that era. 

Plans for the rebuild are making it look more like a period works escort of the 70's, ie. Satin black interior with correct works twin cowl dash and centre console, correct smiths gauges etc etc. Improving the rear suspension travel by adding mini tubs and a diff tunnel. Adding a panhard rod, proper seat rails and sill mounted jacking points. 

I will still use the Tran-x 4 speed and same rear axle, i may have to change to a 5:1 diff ratio tho with the new engine. 

[Type49]

Car uncovered and looking a bit sorry for itself.

[Type49]

Car stripped and mounted on spit to start the paint stripping and mods. 

[Type49]

27 years of paint coming off... slowly but surely

[Type49]

Several hours and tins of paint stripper later !

[Type49]

Here are some before pics of the inside floor before stripping and fabricating of the new seat rails and sill jacking points. 

[Type49]

[Type49]

More progress of floor bare metaled  and seat rails welded in.

[Type49]

Finally rust treated and etch primed.

[Type49]

Working out where i needed to make some clearance to get the most travel in the rear. After cutting out the original diff tunnel the axle tubes now sit on the chassis rails and the tops of the tyres are just touching the tops of the wheel tubs. Here's a pic of what the maximum bump travel would look like. This is the most i can do without raising the chassis rails and wheel tubs which would involve changing the rear of the rollcage as well..... Too much work !

[Type49]

Note the new sill mount jacking point in the pic too..

[Type49]

Just found and old pic of my original car on it's last event. 

[Type49]

In keeping with the " works spec" twin cowl dash and "Mada" centre console i thought i'd make a start on the dash. As with the works cars they started with a genuine 6 dial dash as the starting point. Now i happened to have one of these that i kept as a spare even tho someone had decided it looked good painted pink! 

[Type49]

The first step was to cut out the centre as i only need the outer shell. 

[Type49]

Then i drew up how the dash layout was going to look and had a mate laser cut it out of some 3mm MDF as a trial run before cutting it out of the proper laminate. 

[Type49]

I painted it black and offered up all the gauges and lamps to make sure the layout was correct and was going to work in the dash surround. Very happy with the result , then i just had to finalise the wording i wanted and get it cut out in laminate. Happy days!

[Type49]

Then this happened !

[Type49]

Then i assembled it all together in the dash, although the speedo needs rebuilding everything else can stay.  Now onto the centre console....