With cyclone Marsha drenching Brisbane I thought it was a good time to start a thread so here I go.
A mate of mine Shane decided he wanted to restore a 1974 Mk1 two door but couldn't find one so settled for a 1972 model.
A week or so later after purchasing the 1972 model he came across a 1974 auto shell.  I lent him the money for the second car but when we took it back to his place his wife said one car was enough and so it came home with me and this is how I started my restoration of a 1974 Mk1 two door escort.  
 

 
My first step was to make a rollover jig with plans from the internet and started working on it under the house.
First I stripped the underside of the car with a wire wheel on my grinder.  Noisy and messy but got the job done.
To my amazement I found very little rust.  
 
 

 
 
Working under the house was to noisy for the family so the car was put on hold while I built a shed. 
 
With the shed completed it didn't take long for the car to move in and restoration began again.
Most weekends were taken up with chasing parts at swap meets and working on the car.
Luckily I have a friend who had restored several cars in the past and helped me enormously with this project as this is my first attempt at restoring a car from scratch.  Next step was to finish the underneath by fitting a Mk2 drop tank as well as brackets for tramp rods and coating with KBS coatings system ( AquaKlean and RustBlast and RustSeal).  I then moved on to the inside and did the same - removed the paint and rust with a wire wheel and then KBS coated.  Next I started on the guards but found they were in very poor condition.  I ended up buying new twin cam guards from Rob at the Sunshine Coast who had imported sets manufactured in China and sold out very quickly so I was lucky to get a pair.  Removing the old guards proved to be a task in itself, drilling out spot welds without damaging other panels. I tried drilling out the spot welds using a normal drill but found it drilled through too far.  I ended up buying a specialised drill for drilling out spot welds and this worked well, removing just enough material to prize the guard away from the supporting panel without too much damage.  The new guards I attached using rivnuts and stainless steel screws.  Once the guards were fitted I began the bodywork which took several months of sanding and filling over and over again until I was happy with the final finish ready for spray painting.
As I can only post 5 photos at a time I will post this and update more later.
 
 

lucky **** with a shed like that, doing the underside like that would have been a **** of a job (i`ve still got that to look forward to). Looking forward to future installments
Cheers
Troppo

Thanks for the comment Troppo as you can see its taken a couple of years to get to the stage i am up to now, but I can see the light at the end of the rainbow.
 
With the panel work and seam welding going along well (I did a welding course at the local high school), the car was starting to look like a Escort. The family was starting to get a bit annoyed spending too much time on the car so tried to balance the two to keep everyone happy.
    With the fuel tank in the twin cam guards and new front panel on progress is finally moving along nicely. To save money and gain experience I  decided to paint the car myself with help from a mate or two. I finally decided on ford focus white for roof, boot and bonnet and ford XR6 pearl blue for the bottom half. I was slowly finding parts needed to get the car rolling again capri struts, adjustable coil overs, 27mm sway bar, Mk2 diff, Mk2 reverse eye springs, pedal box with reservoirs, Sierra 5 speed gearbox, twin dellorto 45 carbies, manifold and the list went on. More updates soon

 

Sounds like a great colour combo, i`m thinking of going with the rothmans livery or maybe just the original white, not sure
 

The MK1's coming along very nicely Rod.
The shed must be the perfect spot to spend these rainy days of late :)
 
 

Love to see people getting stuck in and learning as they go.
Looks like it will be worth all the hard work though.

Thanks all for your comments 
With all the hard work done the fun began. I prefer to do mechanical than bodywork but I think I did a fair job of the body and paint for a beginner. Thanks Hayden for the bonnet, mine was beyond repair and got this one from Haydan needed a bit of work but solid and rust free. 
 
 

No worries Rod. I'm glad to know the bonnet worked out for you. Looks great, as does the rest of the panel work.
Have you started installing any glass yet? 

I was supposed to have the front and back windscreens fitted this weekend but with the weather we put it off.
 
I have been busy with the engine, brakes and wheels over the past couple of months. Rebuilt the pinto, had it in at Browns Engineering, specs are - 93mm forged cosworth pistons, C.A.T performance rods, king bearings and new ARP bolts throughout.  Balanced with a billet steel flywheel and excedy heavy duty clutch. After machining and dummy fitting the pistons where sticking out 40 though above the block so I had to have a custom spacer plate and head gasket made, luckily I was put onto Gasket Solutions only about 5 clicks away who did a great job at a reasonable price. The head I picked up from a ex-rally car it was already ported and flowed with big stainless steel valves, I took it in and had stainless steel valve guides fitted, hardened valve seats, crack tested and decked. Also fitted a Burtons 41- 42 cam double valve springs and twin 45 dellortos on a PECO manifold so hopefully I might make good numbers on the dyno when I get it done. Tyres are Kumho ku36 205x50x15 can't remember the brand of wheels got them from a mustang owner who no longer needed them he imported
them from the US. As I said earlier I have been buying parts for the car over several years and the shelves that where full are nearly empty.


 

  

The car looks great, I like the colour combo. Good to see someone giving it a red hot go in their garage
Cheers Drew........