Funny story Mark.
In one of my old MK1 escorts (1969 so no rear seatbelts). But I got my first Pinto into it.
Had my girlfriends sister in the back seat and went for a belt through the Royal National Park (southern edge of Sydney). Its really winding. Funniest thing was watching her slide from one side of the car to the other through the rear vision mirror. So NO, I would never use Armour all again as the guys above have said.
 
I actually use a couple of Mothers products and always like the results.
 
Couple of my more recent RS's I have experimented when spraying the grill and the headlight surrounds. Its a personal choice. I know some guys in the Small Ford Car Club (NSW) don't like my artistic attempts

I've seen that orange one before in the flesh! I can't remember where though. Hey at the end of the day it's your vehicle and your choice the direction you take - beauty and beholder and all that!

Last few weeks have been mental, lots of travel for work and I picked up a new to me car - a 2011 Amarok, the good news is its had the EGR and DPF deleted  - the bad news is the red GTI is gone, did a swap plus a little cash their way to do the deal. It was a good little car but i need something to tow and to lug parts around and this came up and I couldn't say no.

On the escort front I've been in the garage tonight and decided to make a start on the type 9 tail housing mod. I figure there is always the option to order the shortened one from the UK if I mess it up. If I nail it though I've save myself almost 2 grand so why the hell not.

Tell you what though, I NEVER want to cut one of these things up ever again, it was a massive pain in the backside! 


 
I managed to get it off mostly in one piece, which is great - but my hands are absolutely wrecked doing that by hand with a hack saw blade. You can see the 70 mm section I removed on the bench.


 
The cool thing is that since I did it by hand i've been able to save a lot of the material on the cast which will allow me to tie it all together a lot easier. 
 

 
I need to remove a little material from the bottom of the shifter housing and the top of the extension housing so that everything lines up. Then I can remove 70mm from the shifter shaft and line up the hole for role pin and drill it out.
 

 
Ill round off / clean up the rear casting with a file and braise some material to the rear seal housing here to strengthen it a little and give me something to shape it so the mod looks good.
 

 
Need to run to the shops and get myself some filler material tomorrow and a new map torch bottle. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes together!

Mark I think I missed the prelude to this project. Is it to keep the shifter in the standard (4 speed) position?

MarkA
Mark I think I missed the prelude to this project. Is it to keep the shifter in the standard (4 speed) position?

Yep 100%, instead of cutting the body and moving the shifter hole, the shifter moves forward on the gearbox and comes out of the original hole. I've seen it done a lot in the UK and thought I'd give it a crack!
 

Here is a side by side of two boxes, one original, one with a shorter shift position.

Wait wait wait.... when you said there was a kit that does this I was thinking a bought UK high expensive method not a home remedy lol. Credits to you mate, nice mod , what welding type are you using?

martymexico
Wait wait wait.... when you said there was a kit that does this I was thinking a bought UK high expensive method not a home remedy lol.

Yeah its a completely new custom cast housing and shortened selector rail, it's a really nice bit of kit - but landed it will cost close to if not over 2 grand.. thats why I thought id give it a grand old crack.

 
 
Here is a photo of what the new cast ones look like and a closer look at a modified one - type 9 world facebook page is awesome for information.


 
As for welding, I'm going to braise it together with a few tacks so its aligned then I'm taking it to a local guy that does a lot of custom aluminum stuff to get it tig welded properly.

Ok didnt manage to get down to the tool shop before close today so I'll duck down tomorrow. I did however get to mock up the shifter housing properly, now all that's left is to fillet the joins and drop in some filler to tack it all together. 
 

 

 
Where it sits there doesn't feel like there is any pressure on the shaft, so I think I've got it pretty close.  
 

 
There will need to be a repair done with a bit of aluminum added to the bottom of the shifter housing, I didn't want to compromise the extension housing seal area so figured this was the lesser of the two evils.


 
Then it will be time to move the roll pin hole 70mm forwards and then shorten the shaft by 70mm, I'll do that last because I want to make sure the box shifts nicely after the shifter housing is welded on.

So many questions to ask as curious with this mod , it's interesting what your doing..

Filleting the joins yes, I'm not sure how much area will get welded. Maybe for extra support add in a couple of triangle gussets as like the MK2 4spd box has?

I'm guessing here, the top of the gear stick machined face should be level with the gear cluster top? This could help line the part up better .

I think you'll have this sorted, you know what's needing to be done , hope it goes without a drama 👍

martymexico

Filleting the joins yes, I'm not sure how much area will get welded. Maybe for extra support add in a couple of triangle gussets as like the MK2 4spd box has?

I'm guessing here, the top of the gear stick machined face should be level with the gear cluster top? This could help line the part up better .

100% needs a few gussets, I have an idea on where to put them once its tacked together. I'm thinking I'll also tie in a gusset from the rear of the shift housing to the extension housing seal area.
 
Using the gear stick to help line it all up is actually genius, so I'll have the shaft through the housing at the front and the gear stick holding it in the place it needs to be at the back before tacking it up - great idea!