Mk1 Escort Resto... Covid Killer :)

So after that i sold the car to another guy from the UK and he took it away and started the restoration on it...

A few pics after the paint in Ermine White. And 13x7 Enkie wheels with 195/50/13 tyres.

During the restoration an AE86 axle was also fitted and Toyota DX leaf springs (i think) fitted. The gearbox tunnel was made bigger to hopefully be big enough for a bigger engine at a later date. The front end was poly bushed. The original 1300cc xflow engine was fitted back into the car after the paint work. I know this engine runs because i had it running when i was the owner.











A set of coilovers were also made.

Then the car was sent to the shop to have the interior done

So after about 2 years i was in a position to do something with it and had a slide bring it to the new house.



It's a wee bit dirty. First job, get some air in the tyres and give it a clean.







First job after the clean (don't ask why) was to fit the chin spoiler.



And then take a look at what we've got...







I decided to tackle the brakes first. I removed the master cylinder which was completely rusted and checked the remote servo. The rubbers inside were all perished so that was removed and binned and a new master cylinder was fitted from a Japanese car after i went to the spare parts shop and tried to get something as similar to the one fitted as possible.







Also fitted at the time were new fuel lines, fuel filter and a new accelerator cable and cleaned up the throttle linkage. Also new radiator hoses and i remember flushing the rad a few times to clean out the rust.

At the same time i decided to sort out those rusty discs...





Front discs 250mm... These are the biggest i can fit under there wheels with these calipers. Discs and calipers from Nissan Sylvia (200sx) S13 non turbo.
Rear discs 230mm standard sized AE86 discs

A bit of axle oil and gearbox oil in... I had these 2 different oils sitting around half full so i decided to mix them both up and put it in. The rear axle has a plated LSD with 4.3 ratio CWP. The 1300 crossflow will never make full use of the LSD but it's there for future if i decide to swap out the engine.



A bit more wiring. The standard indicator stalk was broken and had been bypassed for a series of other switches to get the indicators and main beam to work, so i put the wiring back to standard when i fitted the new stalk.



I was never a big fan of the coilovers on the car and when i came to lower it down to the height i wanted to run it at i found that the coilovers had been made too long and wouldn't be anywhere near the height i wanted to run at. So i decided to take them off and make some more. These are the ones i run on all the cars i build. Made from Nissan Sylvia S13 hubs. The use the standard TCA/ARB and steering rack. The good thing about these is that the bearing carrier is bigger, it is also raised up, i make the steering arms to the right length for plenty of lock and the top mount and ARB mount at not in line with each other which means they have KPI (king pin inclination) built into them, which is a serious advantage over the the standard struts. Turn in is a lot nicer and you don't need to run as much static camber and even wheels that go out of balance do not shake the steering wheel.



You can also see in this picture i had some camber adjustable top mounts made for them too.

With the wheels sitting 40mm per side further in the 7x13s were now lost under the arches, so i either need to get some spacers or get some new wheels... I had my eye on some 13 x 8s which i calculated should fit under the back and front nicely... I still like the look of these Enkies, it would be a shame to take them off after all the hard work of polishing and painting.







The front wheels were also sitting too far back and the caster was miles away from where i wanted it...



There were so many holes in the dash from fitting a radio to drilling holes for aftermarket switches that should have been welded up when the resto was done but weren't, so i decided to make something to cover them up.







When i removed the steering wheel i lost the nut (i think it was buggered and i saw it on the floor not realising what it was and i threw it away)



The threads looked pretty gash anyway and i couldn't find another nut to fit, so i rethreaded the shaft.





And fitted a new steering wheel. The light switch is not original, but the hole it needs to fit in the dash is smaller than the original and it's in the same place, so if i can find an original switch, it should be easy enough to fit it in there.

The first drive out... To the petrol station... 20.00 (baht) is about 50p for a liter of 95 octane...





Then i had to take the car to the ministry of transport to get them to change the colour on the paperwork and tax the car.





It drove there and back without any problems although the throttle pedal was not giving a full pull and the carb was not openening fully...

It was done on a milling machine at the engineering shop. Mill, turn, mill, turn. Some people have said they have done it with a grinder and a file to finish it off.

Time to go and look at those wheels... And look at what the owner of the tyre shop has... lol



I tried the wheels on the car to start with and made sure they weren't catching on the arches or when turning, when everything was cleared he swapped the tyres from the 7 inch rims over to the 8s and fitted the wheels...



And i stopped off at the park on the way home to take a few pics...















I liked the gold centers on the old wheels better, but the deeper dish on the new wheels in nice Maybe we'll paint the centres at a later date.