Hi Len,
 
Great work and attention to detail !
Just checking: Have you fitted the guide bush for the clutch cable through the bell housing?
Can't see it in your photos.
Can be seen in Drew's photos at http://www.classic-ford.org/cfp/tm.aspx?m=61523&mpage=4
(it is the yellow bush)
 

 

Hi Drew,
If you're looking to use the BA light you will have to use all the falcon mounting gear- the foam surround and  light mounting  plate as well as adjusting the wiring. I hacked off the original light mount. Takes a bit of jiggery pokery to get it in but is a snug fit and looks neat, This was all planned prior to fitting the headlining. Will take a piccie and post it up , I think I had to make up an alloy bracket to hold it up and screwed it in place of the original.
Remember this is my build in reverse, car is already on the road. Was busy over Xmas anyway, stripping and prepping those door trims you organized for me. My wife had to sweet talk me into buying a sweet pair of Alpine Type R splits for the front doors as my original old set have pretty much given up the ghost. It's amazing you couldn't hear the screams of pain from the West!!  She said with all the money spent on the RS so far why not get something good, she knows I like my music cranking.  Cheers, Len

Continuing on... While interior stuff going on the piece de resistance is going on - the engine. My brother has been building small ford race engines for years so I got his years of experience in the hand built engine in mine. The block carries a 40 thou overbore with a standard bottom end, everything put together with tight tolerances. The magic is in the head - cc'd and standardized the chambers to work out the skim for a 10:1 compression, a full port job with the emphasis on good gas speed as we retained the larger size standard valves as it is a street engine with a mid range cam ( Camtech 236 ) with dual valve springs and carefully specced geometry. The icing on the cake is the drive pulleys - a full set of custom alloy pulleys. He paid a proprietry licence fee for the production of custom re-profiled wider pulleys and a heavy duty belt. A set of these run a roller Pinto spinning at 8500. Crank pulley is an undersized Esslinger alloy unit to underdrive the water pump so it doesn't cavitate at revs. Top pulley is a vernier type. Carbs are twin 45's with air enclosure and cold air feed from nose cone. Should be about 140-150HP at a guess. Pokes along nicely with T9 and 4.11:1 LSD.......

Hi Ross,
I will have to make up some pics for you. Didn't take many during the installation. Got my brother to take the measurements of calipers etc and got his mate to make a CAD drawing of the caliper mounts. The boily at work plasma cut them for me out of 10mm plate and also some spacers. To some people probably over engineered these as the main body also acts as the bearing retainer for the axles, meaning they replace the light pressed tin one. Once I had the plate set in the place I wanted it marked the axle flanges and drilled out so plate was bolted into the original position. Made sure I got the hubs off the focus as well as I needed the longer studs to mount the discs. PCD is identical to Escort so fit straight on to axle flange. Because of the way the handbrake levers on the calipers are facing I had to use the twin handbrake cable system which I bought with all the gear from the wreckers. I had calipers refurbished which my brake specialist said was a must. I got another brake place to shorten the cables and refit the nipples so I could use the original retainer and made up a small bracket to connect to the original handbrake lever. The cables run down each side of the trans tunnel, held in place by saddle  clamps. Should be under the car on another job in a few days so will have camera handy and get a couple of shots.
 Cheers,Len

Hi All,
Have had to revisit my rear brakes as the discs are glazed and the pads have been contaminated with a little oil- minor axle seal leak. Fixed that and got the discs skimmed.  Ross157- here are some more pics of the focus rear disc conversion. Discs are 250mm and the correct PCD- no drilling required and the centre fits straight on to the axle spigot. The boomerang shaped spacer is 3mm steel and has a washer to pack so the caliper is nicely centred on the disc.  I used the longer studs off the focus hubs to give the length I needed to mount the discs. 
 Will have to get back under again and fix mountings for outer handbrake cables- only used half saddles which have allowed them to move about and reduce the tension for the handbrake. Will pad them out a bit with rubber and pop rivet full saddle clamps to keep them inn place. Also took the opportunity to adjust the clutch. I also had my rear springs reset to standard height. They were lowered ones but with the offset on my wheels found they were scrubbing on short bumps as the shockies had little travel.   Spax rear shocks adjusted down to medium and car not banging about in the rear. Next project is gas struts for bonnet....

Another job done was getting my chrome gutter strips fitted. These are chrome plastic ones and came in a coil. Required gentle heat and a lot of patience to straighten out the roll then more of the same to get the curves moulded to fit to the gutters. The mouldings are not a snug fit on the gutter so had to sikaflex them in place. Came out reasonable and helps break up the overall white of the car and matches the chrome door handles. Also some interior shots after fitting my door trims. I was lucky in that seats had been retrimmed and required no work. Done in black cloth but don't know if its genuine beta cloth.  Think my scheels came from an ESP falcon as I got some mountings made up to fit the genuine seat rails to the bottom. These are RS spacers which give me a good viewing driving height as I'm a shorty!

G'day Len,
The parcel tray looks good, hard to find a nice straight one I think the bulkheads leaked water on them from new haha.
My heater resister was looking a bit suspect when I put it together, I'll be in touch if I have the same drama....
Cheers Drew....