1994 - Ford Escort Cosworth - power steering fluid tank

Very nice. I think the black suits the shape of the mk5. I bought a black RS2000 for the engine, but even though it was rotten it still looked stunning.

i headed out to the garage tonight to check how the paint was hardening and make sure nothing was reacting. All good.

So took the chance to seal up the fuel tank box seams

P1040664 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1040665 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

some of it was a right pain in the backside to get into....

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mainly all the bits inside the holes as I couldnt really get my hand inside.

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Not the prettiest, however all the seams were sealed, so should keep any spilled fuel in.

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I masked off the top flange as well, as i'll be spraying inside the box white so I can see any fluid spills.

Then moved on to masking off the footwells so I can paint them white as well.

P1040669 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

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Things would be easier at times if I didnt do things -about-face...

masked up the inside and outside of the car...

P1040672 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1040673 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

gave everything a light flatting over, a hoover, a dust, and a panel wipe, then threw some white on.

First coat.

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Second

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third

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I'll remove the masking tomorrow and see if any off it failed and I have nice white plumes anywhere....

I need to crack on and paint the wings, bonet, tailgate, bumpers, and skirts, but there isnt enought space.... so I need the car out of the garage.

I gingerly started putting the suspension back in, trying to avoid clouting the fresh paint.

P1040699 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

it'll all come back off for a blast and paint.

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I forgot how ridiculously tight the beam is to the inner sill, mainly due to the soggy bushes letting the beam lean over.

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flipped the car over and fitted the front suspension again.

P1040702 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

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again, all will come back off for a clean and re-build.

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and seeing as the car had the suspension back on. I couldnt help myself.

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to me, that wheel is going to look totes amazeballs with the tyre on and the car on to its final running high.

jiggles it all round and dropped back down onto sill stands.

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which let me get to look at the little paint patches that are needed due to being covered by the body spit.

front end

P1040709 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

inside front chassis legs

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rear

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I'll flat these back next time and spray them in with cans.

Then it'll be back on the wheels and pushed outside to make some space.

If that rear beam is the same as the Sierra/Scorpio, you can get polyurethane bushes for the front mounts

I have solid aluminium beam mounts, and will have a solid diff mount once I buy it.

My intent its to take all compliance out of the suspension with sperical bearings / rod ends in all the joints, so want the beam to be rigid as well to prevent any movement there.

I had some other things on, so it was a slightly shorter day today than normal.

It was also snowing most of the day, so rather than push the car outside, I pushed it to the back of the garage and did the panel prep at the front end of the garage. I covered the car in a sheet to keep as much dust off / out of it as I can, however it will likely need a good blow down outside before I start the build up.

I flatted off the filler, and marked up where the second skim needs to go.

P1040724 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1040725 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

I then moved onto the front wings.

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This wing had a 200mm long scrape in it that I knocked out a while ago, but eh paint / filler had cracked so sanded back to a good surface.

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It turned out the front end had had some other knocks, and they'd just lobbed filler on it, so removed that and tapped it back flatter. It was easy to do, so no idea why the lobbed the filler on last time....

Its had a varied life this wing.

P1040728 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

Not so easy to see due to the flash but it goes:

metal
E coat
Primer
Imperial Blue
Clear Coat
Imperial Blue
Clear Coat
Imperial Blue
Clear Coat
Imperial Blue
Clear Coat
High build primer
Manky Blue colour

I'm going to prep and paint it as it is, however I suspect at a later point I will bare metal the wing to sort this.

The front of the wing then had extras layers of primer,blue, primer blue where they had bodged the repairs, but I forgot to photo that before I sanded it all off.

The layering is fairly visible round the pull handle cut out as well

P1040729 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

then flipped it over to clean the back up. There was a load of the black underseal on it. I gave it a good dose of "tar remover" I got from EBay, which after a wire brush and re application shifted most of it.

P1040730 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

then moved onto the other wing, which is a replacement as it only had, black panel coating, primer imeprial blue paint, clear coat, high build primer, manky blue.

P1040731 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

The reason I say its a replacement is its doesnt have E-coat, just the black coating than replacement panels come with.

its got a few little knock marks

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then flipped the bonnet and started sanding that off

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there are some really awkward to get to bits inside the panel.

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after a good dust down of everything, three runs over with panel wipe, I hung the wings up

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and got the bonnet in position to paint.

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mixed up some black epoxy primer and shot the wings

P1040738 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

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The wet paint shine causes a nice optical illusion then and inverts the image to my eyes, but your looking at the inside of the wings.

and bonnet as well

P1040740 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

P1040741 by jono_misfit, on Flickr

My camera is suffering with dust in the lense again so its going mental with the flash...

I took a couple more with the flash off

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I managed a much smoother application than I had on the escort body. Hopefully I can continue that on to the visible side of the panels.

Lookee here, I turn my back and look how much has been achieved.

Painting in current UK weather? You're a brave man but hell, what a transformation!

what goes in the hole in the wing? where can i get that from?