Finally the front calipers arrived so now I can get enthusiastic about making adaptor plates. These calipers are identical to MK2/3/4/5 Focus, Fiesta ST and Focus ST170 plus those Kuga SUVs . These are brand new reman parts but have the fomoco stampings, sneaky Mexicans! At $80 ea all inclusive with extra pad clips and pipe bolts.
Once the brakes are mounted etc I can sort to install but won't know the height till the car is all connected with motor etc




On a sad note I pranged my daily on the way home yesterday, it's not a big hit but lots of plastic is rearranged in shape, had the car 14yrs and still going strong, hope it's a fixer as these cars are getting scarce on the ground now.
Last time I called Shannon's they said my model and colour ( Focus LT XR5 in sea grey) there was 3 cruising Adelaide a few years ago and mine the only one with leather seats. It's getting assessed today so will know next week what's the plan ..

Today I had another go with the pass side rear quarter window install, things went well once I knew it sat in the frame tight like the other side I had it slide in easy with a few thumps to persuade the glass in place.


My other fill in job was to stick an electric motor to my bead roller , the small motor I used was not quite up to turning when a sheet was in so back to the drawing board and might use the old (but new) roller door motor, my power source is 24v and so is the motor. More on that later..

Righto
Here's my plan with bead roller now, as said, the door opener motor should have enough grunt, if it can lift up a 4mtr wide door it should do fine on bead roller. Luck has it when I pulled the roller door assembly apart there's a steel cog which runs against the inside of the barrel, that cog has the same pitch as the bead roller cogs and the ratio drops about 30% in speed due to the smaller pinion, this also helps as about 5rpm is ideal for shaping. I have a potentiometer adjuster from zero to 100% . Anyways I've only set it up with wiring so far and need to disassemble the smaller less torque motor ($14) .

Clever!
But for bonus points, can you use the remotes too?
Remote operate would be good if you were working with longer lengths, or you set it with a foot peddle.

I'll design a foot pedal, simply cause the dial has about 7 wires feeding in and out of it, possibly a 3d print design coming up!
The remote part is in the other box that's bolted to the wall next to the roller door itself so unfortunately a remote motor can't work unless I buy the stuff and adapt, good thought though 😄.
Here's the first generation motor I had on there for a week until testing revealed it's lacking a lot. All my mega magnets had caught loads of swarfe from drilling haha.



I've ordered a more grunty 24v power block as well 17amp and 400w that should get the new motor powered up

Moving along to the mk1 Escort I knew the door latch didn't close unless the handle button was pressed so I pulled it from the door and done some scientific investigation into why is it so. The striker mechanism was anodized with the rest of the stuff way back when and in the bag was a flat coil spring (mozzie coil shape but way small) , finding it went on the latch I somehow fitted it on backwards so when the door is slammed shut it just bounces back out. It was a super simple mistake but had me stumped for a while, it's so fixed now and the door shuts as it should. Time permitting tomorrow rvo I'll start to reinstall the glass and seals etc to get that done, another tick to the list !!

Done a little more to the mk1 passenger door, installed the bailey felt and glass, the drop glass was a mess with paint overspray on both sides so I razor bladed it smooth. Don't worry about all the marks, that's rp7 and hand prints !

Jobs not finished as need to rivet in the rail and fit those Amazon clips so the blade felts can be fitted

Almost looks like a car again


Thinking way ahead with brakes , I was going to use a Ford laser master cylinder which is identical in bore to Escort but I'm not using escort calipers. I'm using Focus mk2 calipers and the focus master is 15/16 bore (23.81mm) , luckily there plenty of cars, utes and 4x4s which run the same size, it's just a choice as to which looks more Escort type. I won't be doing a bias pedalbox as they are a pain in the posterior to install, plus are illegal unless they are locked, so it's easiest to run as standard and fit a bias tap to the rear line which is fully legal and more simple . And yes there will be a vac booster as standard tho it'll be a hotrod one which I mentioned to Mark a while back.

did you want to comment on the red thing in the background?
May as well have 3 build threads on the go.......

You on about the red van in behind the orange van. Mark will get real upset when he gets back.!!
This van came from a mate I've known about 20yrs and he's recently created a YouTube channel on his cars and this van was a feature for a good year on there, he's swapped it for some parts to get other cars up and running or just hoarding for future..
Head over to Skidz Garage, the most recent vid shows the van in it's entirety.

I will say the van is very rotted, though I reckon I can bring it back to it's former glory with more go fast bits, as it's rego, I can accidentally drop a zetec or duratorque in there, but this is a good few years away

thats the one!. One lady owner, church on Sundays etc.