Another Escort build

So cage was the first thing to finalise and with the help of a friend who has the bending gear we sorted it as we went into lockdown in August 2021. So the car was stranded in his workshop and I made late night forays to get it done.
We recently added a bar across the dash as once I had the steering sorted I knew where it could be positioned.

Yep Deano, that was part of my reason for hesitating on this. Oh well.
 
Ok I'll keep moving on the posting cause all this was done last year once the cage was finished. First pic is the front under dash bar, that finalises the cage.
 
The other thing I thought I'd do thinking outside the square was to put the intercooler somewhere out of the way as the radiator/thermo takes up all the room in front of the engine and I've still got an 13 row oil cooler to go in!
The radiator is a GRP4 monster which I'll post up fitting details later.
 
I think you've all seen pics of track cars where they cut the crap out of the front of a MK1/2 to fit an intercooler. I just did not want to do this and water/air setup seems like a lot of extra plumbing etc and at the end of the day probably has to be in the cabin anyway? Its good having the RS finished as its a good template for measuring up on this car, and there is absolutely no room under the bonnet of the RS so, why not?
So I got a Skyline unit as it was the most compact (and I've got a mate who has a box of them) I could find whilst still having good capacity and proceeded to try and figure out where to put it.
I always had my eye for under one of the front guards and well I'll let the photos tell the rest.
The first two pics were sent to PWR as they have made me a couple of custom jobs, but I just didn't want to spend a grand plus on something that may or may not not work?
So fabricated some brackets utilising the intercoolers rubber OEM rubber bushings and it fits a treat. The hoses come out together into the engine bay through the vertical panel which is normally at the side of the factory battery position. The only hard bit will be the hose from the turbo will have to travel across the engine to enter the intercooler, but I figured I will worry about it later
Thank god for nutserts.

Looking good Mark
I've a Hilux diff which is a RN25 , just a whisker wider than escort but less than Capri, came with a TruTrac centre to be installed, I've no idea on ratio which is why I've not used it..
My latest think is using a 07ish Triton diff with factory LSD and 3.9:1 for my resto depending on engine choice ... Might be a call to the local engineer soon 🤔