Nice Pete mine is late 1979 too, built in December! I'll be putting in LEDS to the cluster before i put it back in the car. I will be making a few mods to the car but as I said earlier I want to be able to switch it all back to "factory" If I wanted to.

I am lucky to still have the original owners manual with date of sale stamped in it from the dealer  I will get a certificate though from ford cause that sounds pretty cool.

Not much happened on the car this weekend - just stripped down the doors and labeled everything and boxed it up. Next on the list is getting the engine out and that will happen after X-mas. I'll still be plodding away on some bits and bobs between now and then but nothing super interesting - more house keeping.

Catching up on this post. Those tramp rod brackets look nice and solid. Never heard of chassis adhesive?
 
I have gotten a few of those verification letters from Ford over the years but have heard through the grapevine they no longer do this? below is their details, from their last reply to a verification request in 2017.
 
Ford Motor Company of Australia Ltd
Telephone: 13 36 73 (13 FORD) (Local Call)
Fax: +61 3 8301 3899
Email: foacust1@ford.com

Some manufacturers use it solely on there cars like TVR to bond the floor to the chassis and side panels together..
I have used it on my fglass panels to bond the inner frame to the inner skin, never any problems with it seperating ever.
Tramp bar kit, I make my own as I've got enough steel and tools to make them.
When welding(not you personally) they should be stitched on, might suggest a plug weld at the floor panel too , not fully welded then use your sika seal the gaps . Sway bkt is a pain in the ar5e . Just a heads-up, you might know this.. When you do the axle bracket, make sure the car is at the ride height your planning (or close to) so the bars/bushes aren't binding .

My dad found an old photo of the car parked in his driveway when I was on my P Plates and it had just had a fresh coat of paint. 

I still have those wheels - they rubbed on the inner guard and the outer guard at full lock , plus my tastes have changed since I was 18 so I'll be getting a nice set of 13x7s to go on it once it's road ready. Not sure what style yet!
 

Found them - MiniSport
 
https://minisport.com.au/products/13x7-rs4-for-escort-rim-et6-pcd-4x108-set-of-5?variant=45582327972150
 
Will probably need to call them though as they're out of stock. It'll be a while till i need them though so I'll file them away in the escort folder for now. 

Thanks Robbie! The family over in the UK keep asking me if I want to sell it to them 

Been out in the garage but forgot to take photos sorry! The diff has been in and out like 5 times to grind off the sway bar brackets, line up and mark the new brackets position, weld on the tramp rod brackets, mock fit up and then back out again to be stripped and painted. 

It all fit first time which was nice - I had a go at welding in the chassis brackets under the car I'm not happy with the results so I'll fall on my sword and get the body shop to fix them up. Nothing ventured nothing gained as the saying goes.

My main concern is floor pan flex TBH - the pan is so thin and one of the attachments is welded straight to the floor with no other support, it seems to me it could crack over time. I'm considering putting in a reinforcement plate in the interior to spread the load out and make to whole thing a bit more sturdy.

I did a massive clean up today and took the diff out the housing - speaking of making life easier I should have done that first TBH , at least i got a good workout yesterday.


 
It's a lot cleaner now, it was a mess after all the grinding and welding. Back in the day I blew the diff doing a traction test and had to replace the center, I forgot what the ratio of the new center was - turns out it's a 3.9 which is a spot of luck and will marry up to a 5 speed quite well. It'll be sent off to a bloke here in Melbourne for a rebuild and a LSD center, will probably go with Helical.   


 
Here is a shot of the housing with the tramp rod brackets on, it bugs me that they aren't symmetrical but that's where the rods wanted to sit at ride height with everything nipped up. I'm sure once its all painted and together I'll lay awake at night thinking about it .