Calling in the pro's?

i think its a bad idea mate, simply cos it would sit on your drive for 2 months and then you'd flog it on cos some landy came up on ebay that you cant resist ....

could be a good project if you wanna practice your welding skills tho. Id imagine parts and panels are readily available, and id guess they are cheap (tho i have no idea if thats reality)

go on mate, you can always move on that skoda you bought! ;D

all escorts have wicked scene tax these days .
maybe go for a different retro ford nick, maybe a capri. something mk2 and 1600 would be a good place to start.

or how about something abit more obscure like a corsair.

i reckon either one of those would look great in the saaaarth landan styleee ;D

Before you do Nick, I`d strongly recommend having a look on www.Turbosport.co.uk In the Oldschool "Restorations and Projects" section........

If you want a sound one you are going to pay top Dollar

There are a number of people on there with `scorts and quite a few change hands too

Someone on there was possibly selling a 2 dr Mk2 Tina IIRC ;D

If you have your heart set on a Mk1 Escort, then be prepared to rationalise the fleet and spend some proper money, especially if you cant weld.......

Rev Dick Deluxe
Mk1 Estate......... The amount he`s had to do to that one is not at all uncommon

Would you be confident takling that ;D

Load of people say to me "Ah, you can buy a mint 4-door for £1k". I reply "When you come across one, phone me, come round my house, email me, whatever, just let me know". No-one has, out of about ten people (all of whome are involved with old cars and/or the motor trade), because quite simply 'round here you can't find good Escorts for that money. I look everywhere for them. They ain't there.

That's why I've had several offers of £800 - £1000 for mine which is MOT'd, solid and safe, but certainly not mint!

Pog,

Have you read the "buy the best you can vs fix up a rotter" thread that was floating about over the weekend?

I suspect that a car that needs sills, floopan and chassis sections is very rotten everywhere (inner wings not mentioned?) This means it would take a long time to sort out yourself especially if you're learning on the job. The alternative of paying someone would probably work out very expensive. If it was done cheaply I suspect it would not be done very well (he says, having yesterday found pieces of aluminium sheet glued to the floor of the donor Herald with lots of black mastic - nice!)

Having said all that, in my opinion it would be a prettier decoration to the front of your gaf than a rusty Land Rover.

I think MrStigma's Corsair idea is great. I like Mk1 Escorts, I really do, but I think the money they fetch is over the top. Parting with £1500 and still have to spend all my weekends til next Christmas on my back getting blobs of molten steel down my sleeves doesn't appeal to me all that much! Particularly if it's a 4-dr and you really wanted a 2-dr.

There are blue-oval retros out there that you could buy with full a ticket and sound bodyshell for that sorta money.

...then again, a Corsair ain't a Mk1 Scort. And if you really want one I suppose you're gonna have to pay the going rate.

Oh, and one more thing - I learned to weld by tackling rusty door bottoms. Couple of days work and I saw the finished results and felt great. I think doing floors, sills, inner wings and god knows what else as my first attempt at welding probably would have made me throw the towel in - it's a massive undertaking and progress could be horrifically slow and disheartening. JM2pW

£750 taxed and tested, admitedly it did need some welding when it was rebuilt, but if we had fixed the water leak when we noticed it it would just have been to sort out some bad repairs from its 30 year experience on the road as the floor was solid when we bought it but had developed some air vents over the winter.



looks like this now though.

It was a Very personal Car rebuilt for a very special person