thats really neat work mate!

Looks like its come up a treat..... Nice to see you went the extra yards to do the blackouts, they don't quite look right otherwise. Bet you're hanging to get the engine back in now

The engine has actually been back in the car for a few months now.
We opened it up for an inspection, as suspected the valve stem seals were knackered so they have been replaced. The cam is showing some signs of wear (which will be sorted when we change to a lumpier cam later on) we did put in some new cam bearings. New water pump, fuel pump, timing belt, oil seals and gaskets all fitted.
The before photo.


The after photo


 
At this stage the engine is basically stock although it does now have a set of extractors and we ditched all the polution gear except for the carbin canistor. The carby is a 32/36 DGV as the original auto choke version was a bit suspect. It was on the Dyno recently and made a healthy 85bhp at the wheels.
 
 

Top job with the front end, looks good in the photos. Don't think id be brave enough to tackle that with no welding experiance.

A bit of biggish update with what's been happening to the car over the last few months. We actually drove the car down from Sydney for the SFS show at the beginning of the year. The car performed okay but we blew an exhaust gasket out so it gave me an excuse to install a set of extractors.

A nice set of Hurricane headers, ceramic coated and with a mandrel bent exhaust system fixed that problem.


The handling wasn't the best either, so we completely stripped the front end to install new shocks, springs, strut tops, etc. We discovered this cross-member. I have never seen a camber bolt kit set up on an Escort before. After  asking around we found that it was an aftermarket Kmac kit which had been installed at some stage.


Unfortunately the lower control arm bushes were so worn the camber bolts were actually bent so they had to be cut out. It also looked like the camber bolts are slightly smaller in diameter than the standard bolts so in case there was too much play we decided to make our own camber bolts.

I made several sets with the bolt hole in a different position so we can adjust the camber as needed.
 
Kmac strut tops were also installed. Along with stiffer springs, Gaz adjustable struts, a new steering rack and tie rod ends all supplied by SMCKA.


Whiteline make a nice heavy duty front sway bar and a strut tower brace so these have been intalled, almost! The strut brace won't clear the down draught carby so we will have to install that when the twin webbers go on.


Another problem we discovered was with the gearbox mount. As the car was originally an automatic, whoever did the manual conversion decided to just cut the original mount in half and just bolt it in. It was pretty dodgy so I had to remake it and weld some stronger bracing in.

 
The electrics had been messed with also. It looked like there was a large sound system installed as there were speaker cables and amp cables running everywhere. This all got redone and tidied up.

 
As the car is being converted into a weekend warrior I added in an isolator switch.

 
The interior has been stripped and a roll cage installed.




A set of race seats have gone in.


And of course some harnesses.

 
The cage and interior will get a lick of paint in the next couple of weeks, but for now the car is ready to hit Marulan  with the Small Ford Car Club at their track day. 
 
 

Great work bud.
 
Where did you get the cage from and was there much involved in fitting it?
 
Cheers
 
Matt

The cage was supplied by Bond Roll bars here in Sydney. It fit really well and wasn't too hard to install. They were very helpful giving plenty of instructions on how to install it.

I did my very first track day last weekend and had a blast. Can't wait to do more.



 

Here's what we've been up to with this over the last couple of months.
After the track day it was decided to pull the interior so the cage could be painted. All the sound deadener was scraped off the floor, it was in good condition and only needed a couple of small rust spots fixed.
 

 
The most time consuming part of painting, masking up!

 
All painted Monza Red

 
More masking and the cage is painted black.

 
The plastic chrome trim around the windows wasn't the best so it was all removed and painted. The rear got some attention too. And more masking!!!



 
I made up some alloy door trims, painted them black too and put it all back together.

Looks great 80ESKY!
The prepwork can sometimes be enough to put you off doing the painting in the first place.
 
Rhys