Mikes Mk1 Escort

Hey,

Well I found a Mk1 got it home last night. This should probably be in the Race/Rally section but its a project so this will do.
ok so the Car;
11/72 Mk1 2door 1300 delux shell
Already has 2L fitted, 4 spd, Banjo style diff.
Has capri struts
thats about it

Its not to bad body wise.
Almost no rust in the firewall
Has typical rust in both A pillars.
Small patch in drivers floor
A bit in the lip of the boot lid, and there is some old repairs here and there that are cracking but on the whole its pretty straight.

Plans are to get it going, just so I can get a feel for the condition of the motor. Then Im going to rip out the Drive line and replace it with mine, and keep the other for 1st reserve. Plate up the rust, get some new tyres, fit a couple of race seats. I have volvo 4 pots for the front, so I'll get some capri vented disks as well. For the moment I think I will just give the old paint a few touch ups and a good buff. then Im going racing.

heres some pics of it atm.

























I'll add more as I go.

Some slow progress, just pulling it down atm exposing the rust etc. Looks like front guards will be coming off too. I bought a spot weld drill bit, great little investment.
heres some pics (hopefuuly, going to try and get them to display in the post)


























hopefully thats right.

Ive done a bit of work on the fire wall, still needs to be cleaned up a little but I have sprayed it black to stop the surface rust, probably should have taken a pick first because you cant see much now its black.


Cut out the rust. Turned out to be a little more than first thought, always is.

Pile of rust



Patch up the top of the fire wall.









All patched up






Im thinking about modding the buble a bit to stop it rusting out again. It a bit hard to explain, but in the image below, if you draw a semi-circle around the extent of the severe rust, I was thinking of welding a bit of rod on there and just cutting the rest out, that way any leaves that get in there can get back out the bottom. an thoughts?

You are doing some good work there Mike, keep it up.

A twisted wire wheel on an angle grinder absolutely rips through the paint.

Make sure you wear face protection and heavy clothing if you do use one though. When a piece of wire does let go, it exits in an almighty hurry and hurts like hell!

And a rotisserie is well worth the effort. You certainly won't regret building one - it just makes life SO much easier.

I have made one half of my rotisserie, Im a bit unsure wheather It will actually work, I have drawn it up in cad and apparently it does, but I think I will have to add some more height into it. Once I finish the other end I guess we will find out.
Any how, here are some pics as it stands. I used I heap of second hand steel from the salvage yard and some old drain pipe I had laying around. It should owe me about $30 -$50 when its done.








You can just see the other one in the back ground sort of half done.

I think I might weld another brace under the front of the head stock too, I got a feeling that isnt going to be strong enough, Ive made the pipe long enough so that I can. I also thought If I brace it up enough I can use them as engine stands once Ive finished with them.

Looks good.. the stands will definately make life alot easier !

Made a bit more progress.

Finished off the A pillar. And I picked up a floor panel from Racetune, the sucker is smaller that the original which is a pain, because mine had rusted right up to the overlap with the fire wall, and about 10mm higher up the inner sill the the panel reached. Just means I have to make up a couple of extra patches. As you may see from the picks, I haven't finished yet but another hour and it should be done.