Before I took it to Rod's workshop to be fixed up, I spent 3 days going over the paint work to bring it up. 1 day of running the clay bar over the entire body. 2nd day, hitting it with a mild cut on an orbital. 3rd day hitting it with a wax on the orbital, then a hand applied Carnauba wax over the top of that. the (bad quality) photos below speak for themselves as to how the paint work came up. so much shine :o 

I cleaned it up in and outside to get the photos to lodge with the car club.  

I got it registered, and had a bit of a working bee day on the car. It was getting hot sitting on the HWY, so i needed to sort that out. 

We had set out to do a list of jobs
-change water pump
-change thermostat
-fit plates
-and if time allowed change oil in diff

Well we did the water pump first, fitted the new pump, then discovered the fan and pulley wouldnt bolt up. Pulley offset was wrong, and bolt thread was wrong, yet the pump was identical. Looked at the box, it was to suit pre-flow kent engines, so early cortinas. So pulled that off and fitted the old pump again. 

Because we had to remove the radiator anyway, i decided to fit a better condition, spare i had. 

Changed the thermostat. 

Fitted plates

Did not get the diff oil done (needs doing though) 


Car all back together ready for its first drive





We decided to go fill bith cars up with fuel and go for a short drive. Im happy the cooling system is all good. Even in todays 35 degree heat, it stayed at 85 degrees coolant temp  

I had to laugh, Cal made a comment along the lines of, "i think you think the Mini is faster than it actually is" my response being, bull****, the Mini is a rocket. 

Tried to keep up with him at the first set of lights, im flat out, and after about 10 seconds he had 100+ meters on me hahaha. 

That mini is running a 1330cc (originally 1275 cooper s engine) big cam, big carby, extractors, and weighs about 150kg less than the Escort...i have no chance in hell of keeping up lol. 

Boxing Day I took the Escort on its first cruise, with Vic Mini club. we did about 160kms up in the hills, without a single hiccup 

It finished in Sunbury, so decided to go past Michael's to fit the 15s and swap them for my 13s. 

We had to remove the driver's rear mudflap, because the diff is not sitting straight in the car (driver's wheel too far back) and it grabbed one of the screw heads holding the mudflap on. 

Drove it back to Cal's, without it touching too bad. The only spot it light brushed the tyre a few times was the driver's back wheel, on some big dips in the road. So thats again because the diff aint straight. 

I also need to sort out a bad wobble in the front. The steering wheel has a bad wobble to it, like having a buckled wheel, but having swapped the wheels i know thats not it. 







 

I had a good look at the Escort to try work out why the diff wasnt straight. After measuring off a number of relevant spots on the car side to side, it turns out the driver's side front leaf spring eye was 10mm further back on the car. Which is welded to the chassis. 
I asked around on fb for advice, and pretty much every response i got was basically, never use a tape measure on and Escort, because they were all put together badly haha. 

Anyway, Cal and I decided to unbolt the diff, and try moving it anyway, no good. So we come up with another idea, when we installed the 1" blocks, which has appeared to work. It has corrected the rear wheels, and brought the back ride height down perfect. 

It just scrubs the rear left arch on big bumps, and turning left turns too fast, from the body rolling sideways onto the tyre. 

This is the most recent stuff. Still having issues with this annoying vibration through the steering, i started to think wheel bearings. So thats what I did, i replaced the bearings. still didnt fix the issue, but bearings did need doing. 

haha thought id post this, found this funny. i needed something to help get the new bearing cups into the back side of the hubs...50mm tow ball works perfect. 
 

So this is where I am at. 

I now know the cause of the vibration, and know how to fix it. More caster. Ive been informed that (you will all know this) by lowering the car, it causes the control arms to go too far backwards, and not run enough caster. 
 
So Im now chasing an adjustable sway bar. if anyone can help me out, i would like one asap. 

Warren Heath has said he can supply me with one, but can't get in touch through FB. So Warren if you're on here let me know please :P 
 

Yesterday I went and purchased 2 more tyres the same as the fronts (175/50R15s) to replace the oversized 195/50s that were on the rear and scrubbing my guards. 

Also turns out my wheels are Citroen alloys, not Saab. Cool 
 
so I'm pretty happy with the way she's sitting now. just need the sway bar to fix this vibration. 


 

 

I absolutely love your little mk1. Cracking work on it, its looking fantastic. Great news its registered, and even better that you're out bombing about in it. Keep the updates coming!
 
Especially interested in the sill repairs. My 4door mk1 has the same "fallen off the jack" look that yours did.

Im wrapped with it. Obviously I'm still sorting out some niggly annoying things, i.e. the steering wobble thing, due to the lack of caster. but that will be sorted soon hopefully. 
 
There wasnt really any description of the process to fix the damage, but he explained to me roughly what had to happen. 
 
He had to split the 2 layers of metal along the seam, and pull each layer down independent of the other, then re-spot weld them back together. He cut the layers to the same height so the seams are now even, rather than seeing 1 layer hang lower than the other. 

The only time my Escort (my daily) develops a steering wobble is when something is starting to wear.
If a steering wobble is not corrected it may develop into a safety issue.