1994 - Ford Escort Cosworth - power steering fluid tank

I'm determined to get this spit finished so i can get back onto the morris!

Tie bar for between the spits

length of box



cut some weld hole in one end



weld on tabs



clamped in



weld



and the other end



One set is internal and the other external so i can slot it into place without splitting the jig. Assembling the jig then attaching the car is more difficult, so this way I can do each end then tie it together.

starting to put it in position



foot drilled



bar drilled



bolted up







this nicely links the two end and it feels a lot more stable when moving it round

Start stripping all the bits off the car

Doors, which must weight 30kg each! I shall be looking at reducing the weight on these.




rear suspension



front part way through



forget to take pics for a while.....

And upside down escort



I took the opportunity to inspect some of the rusty points

Pass Rear chassis leg and the panel join



pass side rear beam mount (a very common sierra / escort rust point)



drivers is equally rusty



drivers rear leg





Pass floor behind drivers seat, where the cage main hoop is. Looking at it someone has jacked in the wrong place, and also failed to re-seam this when the cage was welded.



Bottom of the sill at the front



bottom of the front wing has pin holed



Gearbox mount piece of the tunnel doesnt look to have rusted (at least from this view point)



front end needs a clean bit looks solid



A completely crushed front outrigger



front to rear sill seam (a traditional escort cosworth rust point)



rear of this sill is solid




I then did some more digging.

The seam behind the outrigger box has rusted through, but as i need to take it off to straighten / remake it'll be easy to get in and repair.



and a few more bits of sill have pin holed.





back end of the diff mount looks like repairs are needed



As expected it needs a number of repairs (and repairs to badly done repairs) but generally i'm happy with the condition.

Getting the underseal (both Ford factory and the manky tar like stuff someone else has tried to hide the rust with) will be a nasty smelly, dirty, and loooooong job.

Other than a few things i'm going to look at now, the escort will be moth balled again so I can get back on with the morris.

Thanks Peter.

A good idea that I may well incorporate.

I took care to only raise each side only slightly for exactly that reason. There is a fair bit of movement at the bolted joints so it helps. Some hinges in there would work better and I can likely incorporate into the cross bar to body joints. I can then also shim out the movement at the joints as well.

I had been thinking about a cross link bar so jacking at one point operates both jacks but I think the hinges would be better.

Looks a great jig. I had thought about that style as well.

There may well be a mk2 jig at some point. :-)

Having been there many, many times with the paint & especially the underseal removal I would seriously consider having the escort shell dipped - it will save you no end of time in the long run - you have to be careful which company you use - all my stuff goes to Envirostrip at Tamworth who I can highly recommend - I appreciate that there is a cost to this and then the problem of getting the shell there and back (but most body shells go into the back of a hired transit luton body with a tail lift (in fact I am collecting a body shell on Tuesday using this very method) - probably see how easy the underseal comes off first whilst also taking into consideration how many coats of paint it has on the outer shell.

There has been a lot of bad press with this process but has originally stated you need to go to the right company who has a proven process so Envirostrip initially bake the panels / shells through a multi staged process carefully bringing the oven up to temperature in order to avoid any distortion then carefully cooling prior to pressure washing - the parts / shells are then fully immersed in phosphoric acid for timed periods - once all paint, sealer, underseal & rust is removed the parts / shells are oven dried - you then have a choice - they can leave the parts / shell in bare metal and spray with a clear inhibitor (only lasts a few weeks but enough to get the parts / shell home) or they can apply a etch primer / weld through primer

Some companies utilise a different process and there are horrific stories out there where owners have completely restored their cars only to find acid from the process burning out of the seams - creating rust ingress and ruining the paintwork - Envirostrip have done several jobs for me and I have not had any issues - obviously its critical that seams are sealed, cavities treated with a cavity wax and undersides protected with a underbody wax has part of the restoration process but starting with a bare metal bodyshell & panels makes life just so much easier

Two things at fault here - firstly whoever dipped the shell / panels have not dried them sufficiently (if at all) after the dipping process - secondly you cannot just rely on the e coating & paint no matter how good or shiny it is - has your rust protection - all cavities and seams require a good dose of a proven cavity wax treatment - something that creeps into every seam & crevice - under floor / under wing areas require again a proven underbody wax treatment - it's pointless putting shiny paint in these areas unless you are building a completely impractical trailer queen of a motor - (pointless exercise in my book) but to just rely on a fancy primer and some paint to prevent rust forming in seams & cavities is again pointless.

I'm just in the process of building a rollover jig, I just love the self lifting ability, i cant copy it as I don't have the room in my garage

Ovens burn all the sealers and internal protection out in the same way as dipping, so it will still need something which creeps like cavity wax afterwards.

I may do some floor replacement.

Ex press panels do half Sierra floor pans, inner and middle sills, and outriggers. There's a price to it though, and they are not 4x4 floor pans.

Probably about £1000 of panels.

But would give a good floor. I already have 1 rear leg and am thinking about buying escort sills to sort the front.