I did post back in January with a metro gta that I was converting to a van / vvc engine as a demo car for my restoration business, well that plan went, ahem, a bit bandy
A mixture of a lot more rot than I was expecting coupled with my spraybooth being condemned led to a set of circumstances that ultimately meant my daily transit custom was sold to help pay for a new spraybooth, an escort van being purchased to replace it (as I still need a van of reasonable size to carry random curse word) and the metro project being scrapped as I ultimately had no use for it now
so here we are
ok, so I admit, I forgot to take any pictures of it complete, but you all know what these things look like right? its a 2002 1.8 n/a diesel, had mot, drove ok, bought blind off facebook, mot history didn't look scary so sent my recovery guy to fetch it
anyway, I got reasonably lucky, the shell is a lot better than most, it needs a couple of small repairs on the sills, rear arches and the usual for these rear spring hangers / shocker mounts, but... its never been welded up to now, which is exactly how I like to get em!
where my luck ran out was finding out its a past write off which the seller "forgot" to mention, yes I know I should have hpi'd it, but it was a few hundred quid, I didn't worry too much, its not the end of the world, I deal with salvage all the time, none of my dailys for the past 15 years or so have been straight! all it means to me is ive a little extra work to do replacing the front panel and straightening the back, looks like its been hit from behind in traffic and pushed into another car and bodged back together
My plans are convert it to petrol, I have a choice here, I have a complete escort si cabriolet here which has a 1.8 130bhp spec zetec and all the right bits that go with it, mtx box etc or in another unit I have a focus st170 so may be tempted to try fitting that although the 1.8 would be the easy option and would mean I can fit aircon (out of another donor escort I have)
exterior will be mk5 escort Rs2000 front end, Mondeo 16" 5 spokes, lowered, nice paint job, probably ford magnetic grey to set off my business logo / signwriting (red and cream respectively)
made a start with the welding, n/s rear spring hanger first
so chopped out
mmm crusty
copied and remade all the parts (theres 3 sections to the hanger plus the chassis rail repair) and welded in
I need to cut a bit off and reshape it as its a bit too big but I'm being fussy
N/s rear arch next
Although the outer arch looked fairly solid I had spotted a couple of holes in the inner wheelarch from behind so my initial plan was localised repairs and refit the outer arch sections I had cut out
However it quickly became clear that more work was needed so I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of arch repair panels off ebay and cut some more out..
ended up repairing the visible rot and remaking the entire arch lip
Before replacing the outer arch
even with a slowly slowly catchy monkey spot welding technique to keep the heat down the bloody thing still pulled in a bit at the front with heat distortion (just visible in the pic) and sods law there was ne rear access so this has since been pin pulled with the spot welded and is all in the right place now
O/s hanger next, need to do shock mount on this side too
Ryan
A mixture of a lot more rot than I was expecting coupled with my spraybooth being condemned led to a set of circumstances that ultimately meant my daily transit custom was sold to help pay for a new spraybooth, an escort van being purchased to replace it (as I still need a van of reasonable size to carry random curse word) and the metro project being scrapped as I ultimately had no use for it now
so here we are
ok, so I admit, I forgot to take any pictures of it complete, but you all know what these things look like right? its a 2002 1.8 n/a diesel, had mot, drove ok, bought blind off facebook, mot history didn't look scary so sent my recovery guy to fetch it
anyway, I got reasonably lucky, the shell is a lot better than most, it needs a couple of small repairs on the sills, rear arches and the usual for these rear spring hangers / shocker mounts, but... its never been welded up to now, which is exactly how I like to get em!
where my luck ran out was finding out its a past write off which the seller "forgot" to mention, yes I know I should have hpi'd it, but it was a few hundred quid, I didn't worry too much, its not the end of the world, I deal with salvage all the time, none of my dailys for the past 15 years or so have been straight! all it means to me is ive a little extra work to do replacing the front panel and straightening the back, looks like its been hit from behind in traffic and pushed into another car and bodged back together
My plans are convert it to petrol, I have a choice here, I have a complete escort si cabriolet here which has a 1.8 130bhp spec zetec and all the right bits that go with it, mtx box etc or in another unit I have a focus st170 so may be tempted to try fitting that although the 1.8 would be the easy option and would mean I can fit aircon (out of another donor escort I have)
exterior will be mk5 escort Rs2000 front end, Mondeo 16" 5 spokes, lowered, nice paint job, probably ford magnetic grey to set off my business logo / signwriting (red and cream respectively)
made a start with the welding, n/s rear spring hanger first
so chopped out
mmm crusty
copied and remade all the parts (theres 3 sections to the hanger plus the chassis rail repair) and welded in
I need to cut a bit off and reshape it as its a bit too big but I'm being fussy
N/s rear arch next
Although the outer arch looked fairly solid I had spotted a couple of holes in the inner wheelarch from behind so my initial plan was localised repairs and refit the outer arch sections I had cut out
However it quickly became clear that more work was needed so I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of arch repair panels off ebay and cut some more out..
ended up repairing the visible rot and remaking the entire arch lip
Before replacing the outer arch
even with a slowly slowly catchy monkey spot welding technique to keep the heat down the bloody thing still pulled in a bit at the front with heat distortion (just visible in the pic) and sods law there was ne rear access so this has since been pin pulled with the spot welded and is all in the right place now
O/s hanger next, need to do shock mount on this side too
Ryan
done that myself
