RS PROJECT CAR

Nice to see some pics of the car Len, keep up the good work.......
Cheers Drew.....

For those who like their escorts unmolested -DONT LOOK!  Yes - I cut slots in the bonnet for the EL vents to get cooling in the engine bay and cut openings in the guards to fit BA side repeaters. Also opened the bars in the grill to increase the airflow to the radiator ( 3 core) for more cooling. Also hooked up a hose from the opening in the front valance to a hole in the engine bay on the D/S inner guard. The heat and humidity up here cooks everything- don't want my engine to be on the list!

Pretty much-brake pipes and clutch cable were changed. The whole car is colour coded white-bumpers, grill etc ...

All the early Falcons of the day, which I was more familiar with ( my brother had an XW GT replica) had all white engine bays and underpinnings. I really couldn't decide on any other color as an alternative. Townsville is the UV capital of the world- the weather bureau here has a scale ( like the Richter scale ) up to 15- daily readings in summer are regularly 13 or 14 and just suck the life out of your paintwork- hence no blackouts on the car, they just fade and go flat. My paintjob is done in 2 pac with clear over with added anti- UV stabilisers.

Very nice , should be a good toy when you are done.
Good luck with it.

The interior was stripped and cleaned, painted and resomat put in. Cabling for stereo run into boot and gauges white faced, checked and tested. Used BA Falcon interior light to replace original.

More interior work going on... Stripped and rebuilt heater fan unit and controls, new decal for it. Bought and fitted clutch fork cover from Peter M had to wrap headers to protect it as well, heatproof sheath for the speedo cable. Fitted carpets with slight mods for the handbrake lever- had to centralize it on the tunnel to suit the twin handbrake system with the focus rear brakes. Had to get a local brake shop to shorten them and refit the ends made up a connector to fit original handbrake attachment. Had the glass tinted and fitted with all new rubbers. More pics soon.  Len

Hi Len,
 
Great work and attention to detail !
Just checking: Have you fitted the guide bush for the clutch cable through the bell housing?
Can't see it in your photos.
Can be seen in Drew's photos at http://www.classic-ford.org/cfp/tm.aspx?m=61523&mpage=4
(it is the yellow bush)
 

 

Hi Drew,
If you're looking to use the BA light you will have to use all the falcon mounting gear- the foam surround and  light mounting  plate as well as adjusting the wiring. I hacked off the original light mount. Takes a bit of jiggery pokery to get it in but is a snug fit and looks neat, This was all planned prior to fitting the headlining. Will take a piccie and post it up , I think I had to make up an alloy bracket to hold it up and screwed it in place of the original.
Remember this is my build in reverse, car is already on the road. Was busy over Xmas anyway, stripping and prepping those door trims you organized for me. My wife had to sweet talk me into buying a sweet pair of Alpine Type R splits for the front doors as my original old set have pretty much given up the ghost. It's amazing you couldn't hear the screams of pain from the West!!  She said with all the money spent on the RS so far why not get something good, she knows I like my music cranking.  Cheers, Len

Continuing on... While interior stuff going on the piece de resistance is going on - the engine. My brother has been building small ford race engines for years so I got his years of experience in the hand built engine in mine. The block carries a 40 thou overbore with a standard bottom end, everything put together with tight tolerances. The magic is in the head - cc'd and standardized the chambers to work out the skim for a 10:1 compression, a full port job with the emphasis on good gas speed as we retained the larger size standard valves as it is a street engine with a mid range cam ( Camtech 236 ) with dual valve springs and carefully specced geometry. The icing on the cake is the drive pulleys - a full set of custom alloy pulleys. He paid a proprietry licence fee for the production of custom re-profiled wider pulleys and a heavy duty belt. A set of these run a roller Pinto spinning at 8500. Crank pulley is an undersized Esslinger alloy unit to underdrive the water pump so it doesn't cavitate at revs. Top pulley is a vernier type. Carbs are twin 45's with air enclosure and cold air feed from nose cone. Should be about 140-150HP at a guess. Pokes along nicely with T9 and 4.11:1 LSD.......

Hi Ross,
I will have to make up some pics for you. Didn't take many during the installation. Got my brother to take the measurements of calipers etc and got his mate to make a CAD drawing of the caliper mounts. The boily at work plasma cut them for me out of 10mm plate and also some spacers. To some people probably over engineered these as the main body also acts as the bearing retainer for the axles, meaning they replace the light pressed tin one. Once I had the plate set in the place I wanted it marked the axle flanges and drilled out so plate was bolted into the original position. Made sure I got the hubs off the focus as well as I needed the longer studs to mount the discs. PCD is identical to Escort so fit straight on to axle flange. Because of the way the handbrake levers on the calipers are facing I had to use the twin handbrake cable system which I bought with all the gear from the wreckers. I had calipers refurbished which my brake specialist said was a must. I got another brake place to shorten the cables and refit the nipples so I could use the original retainer and made up a small bracket to connect to the original handbrake lever. The cables run down each side of the trans tunnel, held in place by saddle  clamps. Should be under the car on another job in a few days so will have camera handy and get a couple of shots.
 Cheers,Len

Hi All,
Have had to revisit my rear brakes as the discs are glazed and the pads have been contaminated with a little oil- minor axle seal leak. Fixed that and got the discs skimmed.  Ross157- here are some more pics of the focus rear disc conversion. Discs are 250mm and the correct PCD- no drilling required and the centre fits straight on to the axle spigot. The boomerang shaped spacer is 3mm steel and has a washer to pack so the caliper is nicely centred on the disc.  I used the longer studs off the focus hubs to give the length I needed to mount the discs. 
 Will have to get back under again and fix mountings for outer handbrake cables- only used half saddles which have allowed them to move about and reduce the tension for the handbrake. Will pad them out a bit with rubber and pop rivet full saddle clamps to keep them inn place. Also took the opportunity to adjust the clutch. I also had my rear springs reset to standard height. They were lowered ones but with the offset on my wheels found they were scrubbing on short bumps as the shockies had little travel.   Spax rear shocks adjusted down to medium and car not banging about in the rear. Next project is gas struts for bonnet....

Another job done was getting my chrome gutter strips fitted. These are chrome plastic ones and came in a coil. Required gentle heat and a lot of patience to straighten out the roll then more of the same to get the curves moulded to fit to the gutters. The mouldings are not a snug fit on the gutter so had to sikaflex them in place. Came out reasonable and helps break up the overall white of the car and matches the chrome door handles. Also some interior shots after fitting my door trims. I was lucky in that seats had been retrimmed and required no work. Done in black cloth but don't know if its genuine beta cloth.  Think my scheels came from an ESP falcon as I got some mountings made up to fit the genuine seat rails to the bottom. These are RS spacers which give me a good viewing driving height as I'm a shorty!

G'day Len,
The parcel tray looks good, hard to find a nice straight one I think the bulkheads leaked water on them from new haha.
My heater resister was looking a bit suspect when I put it together, I'll be in touch if I have the same drama....
Cheers Drew.... 

My Capri had no fan speed resistor in it when it arrived. The fan was wired so no matter which way you put the switch it was full speed. I called in to an auto electrician one Saturday morning and asked him what he could do , he sat down and worked out a resistor that would drop the voltage to around 9 volts(3 ohm 5 watt ceramic coated resistor apparently the watts are more important then the  ohms I think I ended up with 3.2 ohms 5 watts) he told me to go to Jaycar, it cost something like 44 cents it worked for me. I pulled a wreck apart recently and it had the original resistor in it which looked similar.  
 

Woe is Me !! he exclaims.  It's been a couple of years since paint was done on the car and the other day I had to get out grinder and flap disc and attack my paintwork to eliminate some rust bubbles in the lip of the rear passenger side arch. When cleaned back to bare metal found only minor pitting of the steel, hit it with chemical neutraliser and a lick of primer at the moment. Have now got some filler so will rub back and fill and smooth. Will have to get a proper painter  to rub down section and blend for new paint and clear. Just goes to show no matter how much care and prep goes into bodywork it can still come back and bite you. Will chuck up a couple of pics in a couple of days. Len

Thanks Drew, certainly worth a look. Any recommendations on brand etc ? Also any other forum members got any tips on type/ brand.
Cheers,
Len

sorry, cant download previous rust pics , only finished product

Great looking car. I have often considered the repeater in the guard and only just noticed you have done it 👍

True Whooligan, I have always been a big fan of " street machines " mods, hence the bonnet vents, bonnet mounted windscreen washers, deletion of the false fuel cap and some other minor mods, though it doesn't seem to be such a big issue with mechanical upgrades- out of sight, out of mind! Also I just like my cars to be different! Len

Looks good Len, I just read a street machine article about the 90's graphics style cars, spot on there with yours mate...
Cheers Drew...

Hi All,
Little project I have been working on to neaten up my boot space which is pretty rough in spots, so boxing it up to hide battery etc. Didn't want to custom- make sheeting for under parcel tray section so a quick trip to the wreckers got me moulded sheet from a Falcon boot. Take some measurements, trim to size, a coat of vinyl spray to change from charcoal to black. Got a bit of alloy mesh spare so cut to shape and make a couple of infill panels and sit a LED lamp in place as a boot light. The holes predrilled in the underside of the parcel shelf lip are too big for push in plugs so bulked up some inserts to take them.  The hardest part will be to put some packing on the underside of the shelf to level it out and give me a flat surface to mount the underside tray to, probably with Velcro. Pics so far. Have just about sorted templates for the side and rear panels.  Plan is to fit some foam to sheeting and cover in vinyl, hold in place with push in plugs or Velcro.  Cyclone Debbie was a non event for me, just took time to prep the house and yard and then put everything back again. Had a day off but couldn't work on the car with the stuff stored in the carport.  Glad I kept my car cover on as I was looking after my daughters dogs, both ditzy small dogs who both decided to jump on the bonnet of the RS to look around . Told my daughter she was lucky to get them back in one piece!!  Len

That's a great idea Len, I'm gonna add that to the 'to do list'.
 
My cars previous owner added some 6x 9' into the parcel tray.
They sound great actually, but he did it using a can opener and it looks shocking every time you open the boot.
 

Got some pics of my boot install, some tweaks to make it fit a bit better, got some tips  on how from a guy at a car show this morning.  Doing a fill-in panel for around the fuel inlet cover and latch is a pain!  Len

Hi All,
Well, I've finally done it- my C pillar trims finally finished and installed.  Some of you may remember that I've been holding on to them for a while as regards getting fibreglass moulds done, which proved to be not financially viable.  I decided to try and incorporate the rear OEM mounting lugs, so after careful measuring cutting and and bonding did a trial fit in the RS.  After several fruitless attempts I gave up.  Either the thickness of the material, a slightly different shape and the inflexibility of the 'glass all combined, I couldn't get the lugs and mounting holes to mate up.  So back to mounting as motor sport ones.  I decided to upholster the trims in the same vinyl used for my hood lining, so off to the trimmer who luckily managed to find the last remnant of this material in his scrap heap , as he was changing suppliers, and got it for nix  If you decide to trim in material, much easier, stretching the vinyl around the tight little curves where it fits against the parcel shelf was a paaaaain!.  Anyhow, the holes drilled for the seatbelt mounting plates and the top fixing screw and prise open the window rubbers to insert the leading edge of the trim, push into place and bolt in seatbelt plate and everything is held snugly in place.  Paul, of you're still wanting trims, Google Gumtree for  " Escort " in the Brisbane area +250KM and you will see adds for glass bonnets, arches, etc. _ the company is Repliglass, I'm pretty sure - they do 2 door Mk2 Escort C pillar trims but a bit xxsc- about $180- the same as getting the ones from Ireland and probably motor sport ones- they didnt have a picture. Cheers, Len

Looks good Len. I have a genuine pair which I will either paint or trim so all good 👍

Hi All,
For those who have read my thread you will have heard me mention about gas struts for the bonnet - well, they are finaaaaally a reality.  After turning one set of hinges into swiss cheese trying to get a setup to work and and scouring the internet looking at different designs- found a setup on- dare I say it- an EH Holden which looked like it would work.  Using holey hinges with a mock up set of brackets ( Cardboard Aid Design, of course ) got the local gas strut guy to come and check it out and got confirmation it would work. Club car show is 2 weeks away so pressure is on to get brackets made- me and a grinder ?? 3 modifications to get around the ribs and offset angle of the bottom hinge plate, a little more tweaking on the final fit , some paint and installed, along with finishing the boot install 1 day before the show. I dunno, always seem to get these silly schedules to meet..

Can't wait to see how it turns out. 

Hi Len,
I added a leather rim to by boat stainless steering wheel, I'll see if I can find some photos.
Not the same exactly, but similar theory. I got some 'second' leather hide from a local tanner, and needed a strip around 80mm x a good 1.5M. If you have a decent sewing machine ( I have an industrial mc), you can fold the hide lengthwise and sew it without any thread, using the largest needle you have, just to put in the matching needle holes down each side. Use some nylon upholsteres thread, sew both ends together, making it tight to stretch over the circumfrence. Then stitch it using 2 needles in the cross pattern (plenty of youtubes on stitching this).I used red thread which looked good, very bling. Since my wheel was stainless, the hide would move around, so some thin doubled sided tape was useful to hold it in place first.
A bit of time and she'll come up a treat.
Let me know if you have a spare 3 spoke wheel taking up too much time in your shed that you dont need

Hi all,
Got lucky yesterday and found some leather at a good price. I had heard nothing from the Brisbane supplier so took a chance and contacted the local upholsterer who did my hood lining and other trim pieces and he had exactly what I needed- $25 and just enough I think to trim the steering wheel boss over the original rubberised  sheath. I have only the wife's sewing machine so will see if I can sew a small hem along the edge then use a punch to make the holes. Leather is 1.2mm so don't know how well it will handle it. Not sure if I will use thread or thin leather lacing to sew it up.  I am making a vinyl template first before tackling the leather version. Sorry, Deano- only the one 3 spoker.  Will have a SAAS wheel spare though when I change it over!
Cheers,

I spoke to the wife today about doing the template for the leather cover but looks like I will have to get it done by an upholsterer, far more technical to do, with the different inner and outer diameters and her machine probably won't be able to sew it, even if I could get the dimensions right. thought I would just get a strip and join it together but would end up with lumps and pleats on the inside because it needs to be stretched while being stitched.  Bummer not being able to get a ready made kit but can't find one to suit. Len

NQRS
Hi All,
For those who have read my thread you will have heard me mention about gas struts for the bonnet - well, they are finaaaaally a reality. 

Hey NQRS,
 
How'd the gas bonnet struts work out?
 
Which struts did you end up going with?
 
Chuff

Hi Chuff,
I got my local gas strut guys to come by and we took some measurements and found a size to suit the bracket installation I had come up with. I have an RS so the bonnet configuration is very different to the standard Mark 2 Escort.  I took inspiration from a search on Google for struts for ( dare I say it ?) an  EH Holden.  Len

looks great Len.
How did you get on with the wheel?

Looks better than new.
Make sure you add your restored steering wheel to the insurance policy Len!
 

Hi all,
As indicated in a previous post, refurbished my switches and refitted the original switch panel, so had to find a home for my VDO gauges I had fitted there. I have an original Ghia aircon switch panel which is fitted into the front of the console so was able to use the shape to make up a template for the insert for the gauges. Had a try at carving a shape out of foam and glassed it but not strong enough, didn't like my holesaw when came time to cut out the holes. Back to the drawing board- timber version. got the face shape ok but was a bit stumped on making the side pieces- curved in 3 directions to follow the profile on the front of the console.
Again, carved out a foam template then cut out of timber, split in half to follow the 2 different angles. Thin foam and vinyl glued onto the face and gauge holes cut out. Refitted the gauges, only  had to add to the wiring a bit due to the different configuration, one set of leads needed extension and the wiring for the plug the same .  Fitted the new stereo and back into the car. 
All I want to do now is to make up a small infill panel with a clock to fill in the gap between the top of the console and the bottom of the switch panel which will hide the wiring, having a 5 speed puts the console further back on the tunnel. Interior mods should just about be finished then, Hooray!

sorry to hear shes for sale Len, but best of luck.
Hopefully you'll find someone who can appreciate all of the graft you put in over the years.

Congrats Len

Bit bitter sweet to see it go? I cant help on a lead of the TE/TS but i hope you find a nice one. I think long term it will be a great investment. Ive always said i should at least own one V8 in my lifetime (Yet to own any) so im excited for you to put one in your garage.

Nice one Len, congrats.
Especially as they got where you were coming from with the mods.
Good luck finding a new money pit, I'll watch the local sites, I'm sure we can help spend your $$'s 

Hi Marty,
Thanks for that, bit of a pain in the arse with the on-again off-again side of the sale but looks like it's going to a good home, put it on the truck yesterday.  Good on you for looking after the car- losing your pride and joy to a fire must be heart breaking. Cheers , Len