Hey guys, sure do have alot of updates for this car.
First thing to happen this year was to get the 2006 CAMS MotorSport manual to work out what was required so I wasn't doing jobs twice.
It was time to get down to building the car up to what I wanted!
I had some flat aluminium sheets, so I went about making templates in cardboard first for the interior trims, which we will then cut out of the sheet metal.
We're doing the doors, rear quarter interior trims, and the rear firewall (as the fuel cell is in the boot, this last one is both a CAMS requirement and also will look nice).
The panels are being cut this week. It was at this point in time that I had a knee operation, so while I was laid up on my butt, I got into the small jobs that needed to be done. I had a set of round headlight buckets and mounting plates, but they were deteriorated. I also had a rocker cover from my RS2000 which I needed to restore, so I got stuck into those. I rubbed the existing paint and rust off as much as I could, then took them to work and sand blasted them.
One of the headlight mounting brackets was missing one of its tabs, so we manufactured one of those and spot welded it in place. Then I washed them down with MEK and primed them, ready for painting. They came up as good as new.
While I had both the oil spray bars from the RS2000 and the rally car out of the engines, I took them to work and checked they were not blocked or full of contamination.
I then bought some new headlights for the rally car, as I had square ones but no round 7 inchers (well, they were fitted to the RS2000 and not about to be yoinked). Also bought some polish to get the chrome rings around the headlights back to shiny. The polish also came in handy for the chrome on the grill. The grills silver paint was very average to missing, so I masked up the grill and repainted the silver and polished the chrome.
The suspension was set differently left to right when the adjustable coilovers were installed, so I had the car on stands and adjusted those to the same height. Also I rotated the wheels from left to right, in all the photos I have ever posted of the car, noone had pointed out to me that the tyres were on the wrong direction, but I just hadn't gotten around to changing them. They were just thrown on to tow the car to my house. After that, I got the front rubber spoiler, and rubbed it back. It seemed to be half painted, had overspray on it, was looking pretty ugly. So I rubbed that back and am hitting it with matt black paint, that way if it gets any stone chips, they won't be noticeable.
Finding bumpers for this car was proving difficult. I ideally wanted the black rear bumper and the black half bumpers for the front from the rally pack Escorts. I was pelasantly suprised when a set became available, so now I am waiting on those to arrive. In the mean time, I installed the bonnet, and then spent some time installing a bonnet pin set as I don't trust Escort bonnet catches in the slightest! My RS2000 has bonnet pins also coz the bonnet catch has let that bonnet go before. Also installed the headlights and grill.
I love the round headlight look. Not sure I am a fan of the white paint you can see between the grill and the bonnet, might have to paint that part of the engine bay black. Anyways, that's where it's at right now, still alot more to go of course. Front spoiler and bumpers to be added, rollcage to be completed, interior panels to be installed, and that's just the cosmetic stuff (well, rollcage is a lot more than cosmetic but as opposed to mechanical).
But, I'm getting there, working hard towards the goal of getting the car completed.
Regards, Timmeh!