I am already terrified thinking about putting everything together without scratching it....

I've put a restriction on myself - I have to think about everything for at least 5 minutes before I touch the car . I hope that will keep me on the straight and narrow!

Doing a lot of fitups by myself (definite exception is the doors) I use a lot of masking tape and the heavier cloth tapes.
The philosophy is kind of like measure twice and cut once.

Great news, the cars looks a million bucks. I was always a fan of the navy blue. Out of interest what colour stripes and decals will you be using?
Take your time, reassembly is the fun part (for me anyway). Theres a real buzz putting together clean shiny parts, makes you want to strive even harder for that end product.

I'm guessing Mark will go silver decals as factory had as the blue is so dark you couldn't see black ones ..
I second that about the doors install is to be super cautious , foam and tape is a great help.

Hey Mark are you getting any bits anodised like door strikers, bonnet springs, boot locks etc. I do as much as I can then paint if I change plans. It just makes the car look more new looking and reckon your build deserves it 👍

The stripe colour on the blue cars is one thats always had me wondering. 
Now I know what you're thinking "Geez Drew's got his anorak on today" To that I answer yes, but in my defence it is cold and wet out there this morning
 
 
 
So bare with me its just out of pure interest for the cars that I ask. Over the years I've seen them with both colours, yes, the black is barely identifiable but has been used all the same. I've seen a few with the silver / white decals aswell.
Not knowing the history of any of the cars I've never been able to confidently comment on which is correct. Not that I'm going down that whole 'correct' rabbit hole.
The only reference I can find is the factory parts manual that only shows part numbers for the black stripe kit although showing different stripe combinations available for Sundowner, Fashion pack, Value pack etc of different body colours.
 

 
And after all of that over thinking, who knows, Part time may not even be putting decals back on the car at all
Either way its your car and your choice mate you don't listen to some old crank with ocd on the internet...

Marty is on the money with the silver decals, if I was going the factory route should have black decals on it but I never liked the Aus black decals on the midnight blue. I think if they had went with the UK silver styled decals a lot more of the midnight cars would have sold here.

Also I'm not getting the lower body black done, only around the windows and the outside of the gutter. It's hard to see on the photos but I'll take clearer ones soon. Never did like that it wasn't body color on the cars all the way down.

If I change my mind in future and decide I want to put it back to a "factory" car it's easy enough to either paint the black sections or get vinyl transfers of the black put on the car rather that paint it now and hate it.
 

martymexico
Hey Mark are you getting any bits anodised like door strikers, bonnet springs, boot locks etc. I do as much as I can then paint if I change plans. It just makes the car look more new looking and reckon your build deserves it 👍

 
Yep I have a pile ready to go get done, just needs cleaned up and sent off. Going with the normal zinc style for most of that and already have a bunch of stuff ready for power coat too. Bayswater industrial estate is within reasonable driving distance so I have a plethora of companies to choose from for that stuff.

This is perfect, my decals always looked exactly like this, in black, and I hated it . 
 

 
The UK RS2000 had this option which in my humble opinion looks superior in every way for a midnight blue car. I think the Aus black decals look really smart on other colours just not the midnight, it's an odd colour to begin with so it needs the silver to contrast it and make it pop.
 
 
 
This is Richard Hammonds car that they did a factory resto on for The Smallest Cog. Pretty sure this was a 100% original before they touched it.
 
 
 

Haha it was option 3 all along, no stripes
Yeah agree about the stripes on the Aus midnight cars, silver just looks a bit awkward to my eyes, black, not much point really.
That UK style car looks to be the right balance with the simple, slim, coachline and RS decal.
Should look great.

Part time, I'm quietly glad you're not running the Aus stripes and giving it the proper UK style, that means the rear RS decal goes on the boot and not in the back panel where it looks like a slap n dash job by Ford.
When I owned/built up my RS 20 odd yrs ago from a $500 shell it was a TAFE student repair project and was white on the front to the pillars and midnight to the back . It was a driven show car before the accident and it didn't have stripes or the filler plug, it was all smoothed off. Anyway my point is I resprayed it in a deep Ford laser blue, I did go the UK stripes in gold and rear panel black out as their suppose to have which the logo goes on the boot , I'll try to dig up pics from the album . It was only a few years ago I found the car in NZ up for sale for about 20k , it's now been restored in Eleanor silver and the owner spent nearly $100k getting it done. Crazy story but I'm glad it's still alive and being cared for .

Edit; here's the link when it was on sale, must note tho, I did black the window frames and I think it's a lighter blue than when I did it
https://classicregister.c...ort-mk2-rs2000-coupe-8

Second edit ;
These are the only pics I could find

Funny, I always thought of it the other way around. Having grown up with Australian cars the first time I saw a UK RS on the internet, late naughties I think, the thing that came to my mind when I saw the decal on the bootlid was "This blokes put his sticker in the wrong spot"
Once again all in the eye of the beholder, I used to think cutting up the Escort nameplate to make an extra RS badge looked **** hot. Wouldn't do it to my car now though.