Hi Drewdog , thanks yeah the company who does the anodizing had a slight change of ownership which worried me after 15 yrs between visits, the price and quality was excellent as well.
I seen your little setup for anodizing, if it works the way you intend that's the best part, also the finish you showed looked spot on so can't be bad .

Once again I got in the **** from misso, while she went shopping I decided to whisk off the Focus mk1 headlights and poke them in the oven, not your everyday thing to do but I wanted to pull them apart to paint the chrome around the bezels black . Set the gas mark on 130 deg and wait about 10mins , they hot so use mitts, then pry the lens away from the housing, easy! Except it stinks the house out of molten plastic for a bit , no damage done tho .
I was going to upload pics but my pics are to many pixels, the phone changed to 48mp on me at some point...

Ok, I brought the fone back down to 10mp so the pics will load up, this is the car without lights, grill..

This is the lights after an oven session, the reflectors are removed

This is them painted in Focus black( a color car my sister had) with added 2pk clear


This week I'll be joining them back together using the proper butyl glue .
I must remember to show pics of the van roof lining too

Ok, I'm still working on Adams van which is more of a drinking and chat session.. It's close to being completed, stereo, windscreen and dash to go.
On my last post here I was doing stuff to my Focus 3dr, yes that's still going on as finding worn out parts but while I can swap them for new ones, I swap for better ones which takes a bit more time.
One good thing from this is I got the paint color out to do some brackets on the Focus and decided to spray a bit on the escort to get a reality check. The color is GMH cinnabar red, here is the color


This is the color on the Escort, had a bit left in the gun


I will rub the panel back when I get up to it, just wanted to see it on a panel.
Deano if you want a tub, let me know, or anyone else as I've a few tubs to go ...

Paint roller the duco on sounds a bit yard!

More here's one for the Zetec owners out there, whether it's in a Focus or transplanted into a Escort etc. I'll describe it as best as my low 128iq can translate in , righty, this is a small but essential upgrade worthy of any except ST170/RS Zetec as they already have it done.
Firstly I'm quite sure most if not all USA Zetec blacktop motors have this already.
All this is, is a baby idler pulley 40mm-ish installed just above the button crank pulley, what it does is pushes the belt over past 180° on the crank which is always a good plan . ST170/RS have it standard being performance motors. I had bought a timing belt kit from USA some 15 yrs ago and found it last week wondering what this baby pulley is for until I gave Google a squint to check it out. Why not tighten the tension up more, well it doesn't go far enough especially when the head has been skimmed a bunch.

Pic shows where it is ( about 2oclock) can see how much it deflects the belt. All motors have the pocket and threads to install one, I stole this from a low km zetec Silvertop I've had for 25yrs , shorten the bolt and your good to go.

Lesson over !!

Ok, been a few weeks since I posted on here, just a short one to say I am pushing to get back on this project. I've not ignored the car in the last few months, I have bought a few items for the Escort like Falcon teardrop GT mirrors, Ford Focus mk1 rubber exhaust hangers which twist in a 90deg to lock in and finally found the rear seat hinges but from a Hyundai sonata, very similar but not quite, doesn't matter cause they'll need some chop and change to fit correctly..
Looks like there's a problem loading up pictures, gets to 59% and stops 😤

I've gotta suss then Viet Corona builds out.


Still having troubles loading up pictures here, I'm out of ideas now.
Who else is having problems loading pics ?

Annoying, 🤬

Same here, a bit silly we can't story tell without pics..

only 7 outta 10 Marty.
Everyone knows, cars are like boats, and should have a girls name.
So out with rusty Russell, and in with Rachael.
 
Otherwise, heave ho on a ****ty 2022, cant wait for  the joys of 2023 to roll around.