Ev's Mk1 Project
Its been a while coming, and I've been drooling in envy over some of the builds on this site and a couple others.
But here it is..
Little history about myself and the car(s).
I originally owned a quick Pinto powered Mk1 escort following completing my high school years. I basically bought the car like this and was a brilliant little car. ( there may even be a couple of you who knew the original owner?) Everything was done well and was a great little immaculate car, decent tune 2litre, twin 40's, complete basic suspension upgrade with Koni's, Kmac sway bar, King springs etc. Regrettably i ended up selling the car as I was based in the country, but moved in the city about a year after i bought it and wasn't the best car for city life.
Following that i always wanted to get another Mk1 and go that one step better. It would be a weekend road car with the occasional club track day for some fun. And something id keep for a long time.
My dad had bought a Mk1 1300gt shell with a heap of parts to also restore once he had the time. Id done a heap of body work on it fixing up little bits and pieces and is nearly at the stage to get it to someone decent to run over it before spraying.
Id also bought a 60thou km stock as a rock original Mk1 2dr (which a keen eye will spot in the pics below) as a run around which i put a 1600kent motor, a twin cam sway bar on, some perfect condition mk2 seats we had and some lotus steel wheels with period lotus hubcaps. I ran it for a couple of years as my cheap runabout but then took it off the road and into the shed hoping to now start my new build. Had a couple very minor spots of rust which i patched u but was a very straight rot free shell. Unfortunately time gets away, new job, new city (interstate), new priorities, started racing bikes again etc etc.. So the car got put on the back burner.
The cars have sat in our family garage for a number of years now.. Since 2001. So around 10yrs.
Ive slowly been collecting certain parts and knowledge. And now I'm living back locally (well still 2hrs away) the time has come to do what i set out to do.
Ive ended up going to use the 1300gt shell as it has been modified before, and for what i want to do will be the best base. My dads is more after a totally original Mk1 with a 1600gt kent motor on twin webbers.
So.. onto the build.
The car has a few things done. Main things are it had a Pinto motor installed (original 1300gt engine i still have). Ive since removed this as although it had done some work done to it, as i mentioned above with my ex blue mk1 the next car was going to be an even bigger step up in performance. So out it came.
The guards are fiberglass rs guards which are double skinned. Underneath of the car the front has heavily lowered firm springs on 2ltr struts, standard 2ltr brakes and a very thick adj. sway bar (27mm!!!) installed. Poly bushed throughout. Rear lies a standard 2ltr diff with RS2000 sway bar and a pan hard rod. This i all going to be removed and given to my dad for his car.
The car ill be using.. Dad decided to use my bonnet as test for an old spray gun and decided to spray it with this horrible thick primer.. Cheers Dad..
We don't exactly have much room back home unfortunately. And the parents doing the slowest house renovation possible really doesn't help.. So it does limit things to some extent. But I'm sure some would have it worse and it doesn't bother them.
So out with the 2litre..
Id always wanted this car to have 15's. Slightly larger tougher look without looking silly, and decent tyres actually easier to get than 13's. So i was on the look out for some wheels. Always like 15" Compomotive mini lights but obviously getting them in Aus costs a heap.
Funnily enough, some nice looking wheels came up on ebay from a guy just down the road from me. Bid away and won!! Woohoo!
Lucky for me a mate owns a tyre/wheel and mechanic shop.
Free plug for Rob @ Prestige Tyre/Auto in Marrickville. He's excellent with top end tyres and race rubber! And a really good guy to boot. Give him a try!
www.prestigetyreandauto.com.au Pics show fitting of the tyres on my new wheels 15x6 wheels and 195/50/15 Achillies 123R intermediate tyres. Which fitted pretty tight but will be fine once i roll the guards a touch. Wheels turned out nice i think?
What i had planned to do to the car was a modern twincam engine upgrade on itb's. Uprated brakes and a simple rear suspension upgrade using angled tramp rods. All polybushed and decent shocks etc. Id started to build up a heap of bits there I've collected, bucket seats, half cage, and other assorted bits and pieces.
So i decided on Duratec which was the latest and greatest. So I now have a 2.3ltr Mazda Duratec engine which i picked up from a wrecked Mazda6 to get the ball rolling. Now parts for this conversion have gotten more popular, and even with people here in Australia i thought it would be a good start and give the kind of power and performance i was after. Which is around the 220ish hp to start.
Parts i was planning to use are some quad throttle bodies, RX7 gearbox or even a MX5 6-speed if i can find one, and a nice big set of extractors. A decent LSD is also in the plans whether i keep the standard diff or use the hilux diff i have stored away.
So its all started to come into a plan of what the car was looking to end up.
Im getting one of Paul's great peddle boxes. And ordering new billies and leaf springs for the rear very shortly. And hoping to do a similar thing to a few of you out there and add a watts linkage with adjustable roll centre.
However.. since reading one of the recent Classic Ford mags on my iPad.. Ive come across this: the Honda S2000 motor/gearbox conversion!!
Now id always wanted to stay all ford-ish.. but I'm now thinking putting in the F20C engine and 6 speed gearbox (still with those sexy itb's!!). Its seems the effort is the same, if not easier as the motor is with the gearbox already, and no need for water rails, bellhousings etc.. only thing is you really need to use a dry sump setup. There a couple of people who i believe have done it with a wet sump, but I'm yet to see who it was done. I actually see it being easier project than converting a Duratec (which was originally a east/west engine).
So although its not a ford based engine.. its a very worthy contender. And ticks all the boxes with power etc. Torque is lower than an equivalent 2.3 Duratec.. however i don't really mind this as it may mean it will be a bit kinder on the drivetrain so i may be able to get away with the English axle? Who knows.. Of course id change the ratio most likely to a 4.4 or 4.7 (Standard s2000 use a 4.1).
Some other considerable parts I've collected..
Some nice front billies.
Rx7 & R31 Calipers all painted up
Some nice big vented discs for the front, and discs for the rear..
So thats where I'm at, at the moment. Im about to purchase a F20c engine/box very shortly. And currently piecing together all the new suspension and brakes.
Following that ill be hoping to start on the engine conversion.
Hopefully have more time to get things rolling now as well. Its a still a long long road to go but i have a decent plan now of where I'm headed.
I have a heap of ideas of what I'm going to use as well... Basically everything is now decided, but you'll all have to stay tuned as to what they are
post edited by evobda2 - 2012/07/09 16:30:22