Hey guys and girls. Last week i found a 1972 Mk1 Escort, XL 1300 Auto for sale on ebay. that arvo i went and had a look at it, and by friday put a deposit on. I went today and picked her up and dropped it at my mates place, which is where she will live until i get her registered. My plans are to just get it registered, and start driving it. I will clean it up. 
List of things i want to do:
4spd manual conversion
new door cards
new headlights
Cibie Oscar driving lights
 new carpet
Minilite wheels. 
 
Any help i can get would be really good. I will be trying to chase parts for the manual conversion. I also need new tail lights, reverse lights as they are all cracked. I also need some dash switches, but i will find out exactly which ones i am missing when i go over the car this weekend. 
just picked her up, about to head back across to the west of the city



at my mates place where it will stay until its got rego


the little 1300CC power plant :)

After I gave her a polish last week. needs a wash again now though :( 

Max Photobombing...at his best :P

Finally some interior shots
Front seats with sheep skins off...MINT!

The dash in its current state...still has a long way to go

the original dash. needs to be pulled apart and cleaned up...although I'm thinking about doing the RS conversion


rear seats. also MINT!

Now for the rust :( 

Look like you'll have your hands full.
 
Great work, just don't slow down and then 2 years later your still going. 
 
Cheers
 
Matt

Yer ill definitely have my hands full. 
My mate who's house its living at, and who is also helping me, his and my birthdays are both in June, so i told him i wanted to have it ready by June...unfortunately i don't think that is going to happen now :( but i am going to try my hardest to get it done by then. 
I still haven't stuck my head under the car to look how good or bad the front suspension is in regards to bushes etc etc. 

Good luck with it.
 
If you need anything jusat put it up in the wanted section.  Someone usually has what you are after.
 
Cheers
 
Matt

well today i put the car up on stands so i could get ready to start re bushing the suspension. I decided while i was there i would try the one original 12" wheel i had, on the front, as it has only been on the back...while i had the front wheel off, my mate says to me "those brake callipers looks pretty big" and without thinking about it, tried to put the 12" wheel on the front, with no luck. The wheel did not fit over the callipers. so at some point (i think) someone has fitted bigger brakes to the front of the car. i had a look at the rotors, and although they are rusty, there is loads of meat left on them, and same with the Pads. they look new...anyway here is a couple pics of the callipers if someone could tell me what they are off that would be good :) 
 

 

FINALLY! some progress. I finally got the ball joints to crack, thanks to the splitter i bought from Repco. Made a fkn big bang with they cracked, but at long last i got em. that was the drivers side, i haven't done the other side yet, but the passenger side doesn't look as bad, so hopefully i will get them out no worries. Then the new control arms go in, tie rod ends, sway bar D bushes, and the front end is finished...(apart from brakes which i can do later, i just want to get it off the stands ASAP)
now for bad news :(my mate has been living in his deceased grandmother's house since she passed last year, and when i spoke to him today, his uncle (dad's side of family...) has decided to get the house valued. This means very shortly, its very possible that the house is going to put on the market. Unfortunately my mate is going to have to move out obviously, and if the Escort isn't finished and registered, that will need to be moved to somewhere else as well :(i know there is no way i can bring it home while it is still being done up, because my olds will shoot me. they would understand (hopefully) if it was registered etc. So if it comes to it, I may end up having to sell the escort :( so until the decision is made on what is happening to the house, I will just keep working on the escort, and if it has to go, i will be shattered, but so be it

WELL, there has no news on the house as yet, but it turns out that my mates uncle had organised the real estate agent to come around to value the house without, talking to my mate. He basically called Gareth one morning, and said, can you please clean the house up, there is a agent coming to value the house. Basically was given 6 hours notice. Anyway, Gareth had been on the phone to his father and his uncle, and is fighting to keep it. 
As for the car, I finally got the last ball joint to crack, after heating it up, hitting it, breaking a ball joint splitter, hitting the back of my hand with a hammer which bled quit badly. it was actually Gareth that got it for me.SO now the whole front suspension is out of the car, sway bar included. I have all the new parts ready to go back in (bar the tie rod ends). Tomoro I'm going to clean all the sway bar brackets and washes up on the wire brush. The sway bar is getting cleaned up and getting sprayed red. 
once i have the front finished, the back will be pulled apart, and all the bushes replaced up back. plus a set of lowering blocks. 
when i finish the suspension, the car will be taken down to Geelong to get the rusted floor replaced. basically once the floor is done, its a matter of rewiring it, putting the interior back in, doing up all the tail lights etc etc, the car will be just about done. 
As for the engine, i need to replace the front and rear mains, do the timing gear up, plus a few other bits and pieces. I am pretty keen on keeping it with the original 1300 engine, but a lot of people have told me that i should put at lead a 1600 in, just for the extra oomph. i would also love to go manual, but a new engine and a manual conversion maybe out of my budget. I have a 32/36 carb ready to go on the engine, plus some extractors. is it worth going up to a bigger engine if I'm driving it as a daily? or should i keep it an original?

A 1600 motor, clutch & manual box should not cost more than $250. If you need to change front and rear crank seals on your 1.3 I would just put a 1600 in there. 
You'll need a shorter engine mount (passenger side I think) because the 1.6 block is a little wider, a MK1 pedal box (with pivot pins and spring clips if possible), clutch cable, modify the auto gearbox xmember (mount brought forward by 45mm), Mk2 1.6 single piece tail shaft.
The 1.6 will respond very well to your 32/36 & extractors even if it's a  low compression motor.
 
I sourced the new parts I needed through Mike at Yesterford. He's super helpful and has a wealth of knowledge regarding everything small ford. Ask to be sent a catalogue, it's awesome. 
 
The other option is a pinto. Compare costs between the 1.6 and 2L conversions there might not be that much difference.

just a couple questions....
 
1, why the single piece tail shaft? 
 
2, the radiator, is it just larger? The one in the car looks nearly new, i know the coolant inside it brand new, plus a new thermostat and housing on the engine. Is there a way to tell the difference between radiators? 
 
3, how do u go about putting the hole through the firewall for the clutch cable? 
 
Ive already been sourcing a lot of stuff through Mike, he is very good. Im heading back there this week hopefully to get my tie rod ends, so might need to talk to him then.