This video just came up the other day and Thort to share.
With some of the best known drivers in rallying in the business at the time and possibly the best car for the job , this vid is a nice insight to its rise to fame and history books . Ok I'm a little biased towards the mk1 Focus 3dr as I own a silver zetec like in the front vid....
https://youtu.be/CxrAK6_Nc54?si=t6fT9nDp2_9n-P9H

Looks good, Merry Xmas and all that - one step closer to laying paint on!

I think I need to tweak the body hinge forward a few mm as the back gap is rather tight , last time I did this I used a pipe wrench and pipe for leverage !
Yeah the doors are quite solid, just the usual wear n tear of door life, minimal rust considering the thickness of filler that came off . I did test a door from another mk1 when these were getting blasted..and it was not liking the car at all ..

Marty Pro tip here : use new Holden Commodore VT- VZ door roll pins , they are better than Ford Escort ones and have a flare to ease removal.

Fishing, argh lol ain't done that since teenage years, nothing against it but I rather be constructive elsewhere..
Counting hrs up on the car, if I say only 1hr a day on average over 3yrs it's well over 1000hrs so far, but I do halt for the obligatory beer break for a think session as this car is doing my head in !!

Looking at the guard from the front , I've removed what's left of the mounting strap and made sure it was the correct height measured from an original one.

This pic is the new mounting strap with a return edge to be plug welded to the guard. Using a stretcher shrinker to get the curve correct.. And to make Deano happy I used gasless MIG lol, had the settings set right down low and it actually works quite well !

Here it is welded to the guard , yes I know it's plenty wide, this is for the fibreglass mold and will make a stronger part which can be trimmed back as necessary

I hope to be adding the strengthening rod supports tomorrow so the guard won't change shape while being fglassed . This pic shows how rusty the guard is and the reason is being a mule for a mold


Marking up the arch to be cut and folded to accept the twink flare.. the top line is where the arch will sit and the one below is the fold line , there till be a full post on this later on..

Close enough Robbie..Grit blasting technologies, 👍. Yeah mate do it, I'll be taking the kit car chassis there next year to be blasted and coated. Also if you pay in cash you get a slight discount but be upfront at the start..

Here's the rods from a piece of concrete Reo, it looks a mess, it is a mess but it stopped the guard from flexing..

Back to the twink arch, once it's removed it's time to make the slops, polyester resin +hardener with talc added to thicken it up to an icing sugar texture, not too wet and not dry

Grab a auto body applicator and flood the arch

Now there is a time window here to get everything done, it's about 5min before the resin starts to harden so it's get the screws and drill at hand then apply the arch and screw it to the guard but not tight as this causes low spots

Once it's all screwed down, check the edge and add more resin to fill any gaps and clean up the underside as good as possible

Wait a day for it to set hard enough to remove the screws then sand and filler as needed to blend in

Had a few stress beers after that !!

Today was a square the door up and attempt to push it forward a smidge, out came the pipe wrench to lever the top hinge forward a tiny bit, it was about 1mm which equates to 3mm at the top rear door. Next was to flex the door to match up with the rear panel, the bottom back was poking out so I placed a wooden block at the top and pushed the bottom in to twist the doors frame to line up , did this a few times to get it as good as Ford intended. Removed the door for later on.

Next was to start body filler on the guard and blend in the arch

Looking good.