Rusted mk1 Escort coup resto

This 73 mk1 coup is in a sorry state, it's had a decent prang in the front left at some stage, not the best repair but will go with it after I repaired their repair. There's not a lot of good to say about it except it'll keep me welding for a while and keep the posts rolling along ..
As with every resto I start right at the front and work my way to the rear , doing it this way is so I don't get confused and do the easy ones first plus I know where I'm at. At the moment I'm up to the front footwells and sills.
If I can find and load pics from when I done the engine bay that'll make a good start..!

Ok here's the culprit that's going to cause the headaches, blood and sweat for a while..




Stripped and on the rotisserie

Yup, glutton for punishment me !
The car is pre sold as a shell if the guy likes the end product... If not I'll throw in some stuff and sell it later on. It's my last mk1 coup except the bubble archer.
Superann, I've got Bitcoin for that lol , it's going crazy right now..

Hehe yeah it's a hyd handbrake I made from an old rotor, a Anglia handbrake arm, 1300 caliper and Toyota Hilux master n slave, bit of d!cking about with the ratio but works sweet👍.

If you want measurements from my rotisserie I can do that for you, mine is on wheels which helped when van was on it. Due to the vans tall roof I had to lengthen the swing which means when a sedan is on there it's bottom heavy but well balanced for the van

I love Nth Queensland but finding any small classic Fords around here is pretty bad compared to  Southern forum members. Last year was a 2 door MK1 from west of here. Far worse condition than yours started, Marty, and demanded ( and got ) $5k for it. Len

Moving on to the heater area which is nearly always rusty , standard option nowadays is repair it regardless


Here is the lower rad support I needed to cut away to gain access to literally bash the front panel back into line, holes are where I welded washers for the slide hammer, they mostly pulled off. While there was that gap I had a plan to make up a notch for the radiator to sit further forward, mk2 style..


Test fit, trim, test and finally weld

Here's the fully welded and primed rad support

Next I got the urge to buy a grit blast cabinet, a eBay shop was selling them for nearly half price so had to get one..

Fitted wheels for easy moving

A whole bunch of cut off pieces, some to go back on, others go in the bin..
So I got to making a new side rad support as the original one was beyond help , to make the hole I cut a hole in Some wood paneling and clamped the work piece over it and hammered the metal down, pretty simple technique with good results 👍

Hey Marty,
 
Any chance you could give us a link to the grit cabinet on eBay please?
 
Thanks.
 
Chuff

Awesome thread marty!

With the heater area fully sealed inside and out, it should last the life of the car now, I also modify the bubble a little so the water actually does flow out instead of having the water held back by the factory hole. Mine looks a little dog kennel shape but it works !

Bubble back on for fitting alignment as close to factory as possible, as for sealing the welded seams I get 2pk paint and drip it down from the inside top corner and let it seep down till it's all the way out, I do this a couple of times and then spray paint in behind the area as best I can, I usually paint the inside before the bubble goes back on.


After that bit of fun I moved on to the drivers kick panel, I found a set on eBay UK for £30 , they are galvd which was slightly annoying, only needed to linnish where welds will be going so they will prolly out last the car !

Here's the old panel removed and compared, the indents are slightly different but it's fine