oh **** yeah I am. 
 
so is my best mate haha. he runs 2 classic minis, usually i drive whichever mini he isn't. he's hanging out to take take the escort and his mad worked 1360cc Cooper S replica :P 
 
the only thing i am a little unsure about is the rotors. they are dam expensive to replace with new ones, so I've got 2 second handers. 1 of mine is rooted, and 1 of the second handers are a bit average. I'm hoping the brake place will be able to machine up 2 good ones. 

Well today went well. i finished everything i needed to get it driving again. 
all the brakes are in and working...the brakes are awesome in it haha, and they haven't even bed in yet obviously. 


 
now, before i took this photo, i ran into some trouble...
 

 
chop chop 
 

 
 
clearance issues. 
 

 
so i lowered the car, and even with the 13s on, it was grabbing the front corner of the guard. silly design. when Ford released the Lotus Twin Cam Escort, they actually trimmed that corner off. so i had to do some massaging 
 
vvv this is the final result of my home attempt of massaging the guard. Ill get them all rolled properly when its registered, especially if i want to fit the 15s on. I've also discovered that the 13s are actually 24mm oversized diameter, compared to the factory 12" tyre size. so that wouldn't be helping with clearance. 
 

 
anyway, once i got that sorted i put it back in the garage on stands, hooked up the last of the brake hoses and and bled the brakes, then corrected the front end alignment so i could at least drive it (its going in for a front and rear end alignment tomorrow morning) 
 

 

 

 
 
 
 

the old guard rubbing chestnut.....
you could always space out the sway bar a bit and give yourself less caster if you don't want to massage the guard.
 

wow I'm way behind with updates on this. 
 
so much has happened since i last updated. in short, she is now registered :D :D :D 
 
ok i better post some progress photos to fill you all in :P 

Rod came round and got started on the sill repairs. He got the body pulled down pretty close to right, but it wasnt until later in the day we realised how bad the seams where, further in. So, the car is going on a bit of a holiday to Rod's workshop in a couple weeks to have all the repairs done. We discovered a little bit of rust around the damaged sills, so that'll all get cleaned up properly. 
 

 

 
one bent sill trim to be straightened. 
 

 
passenger side before...
 

 
passenger side after
 

 

 
Driver's side after...
 

 
 
This is where we left it, because we soon after realised the problem area was further in. 
 
These seams are what we are concerned about. 
 

 

 
for reference, this is what the seams are supposed to look like. This is a mate's Mk1 4 door. so the seams should be flat, or parallel with the body line of the sills, or close to. 
 

 
 

**from Rod's thread**


The misalignment of the sill on this side was most likely always like this from factory, it has green on the face that should be covered and the spot welds hadn't been tampered with.

Other side