Hello everybody. ;D I have resisted the urge to start a thread of my own until now as I was unsure of my cars status on the retro scene. Having owned several of these mk3 Escorts since the late 80's I forget how old they actually are.... . until I try buying spares or them. 
Right the car, bough off good old ebay a few months back as it was close enough to trailer home without taking up too much of my mate's time and the shell really is as good as the seller said it was.
3 owners from new until he bought it.
White one on the right if you are unfamiliar with them.
Having spent many, many, many hours welding my RS1600i above, this car appealed to me as it means I don't have it all to do again. I'm not a welder by trade and my neighbours are getting a bit annoyed with all my car repair type noises so everyone's happy I supose ?
I can't believe how solid this car is, front to back, chassis, front cross-member, boot floor, sills, the lot ! Only bit of rust worth mentioning is this around the heater motor hole.
But as it probably wont even have a heater I will have to plug this any road.
I should mention my plans for this car are to weld in a cage (ok so there is some welding to do), lower it as far as I dare, fit perspex windows in all but the windscreen holes and drop one of the many 1.6 cvh lumps I have dotted around in it.
I have soooooooo many spares kicking about for mk3 escorts I could almost build a complete car and I've had my eye out for a cheap & cheerful track toy for a while now so this seemed like a logical choice to me.
My 16i was restored by myself a few years ago but I'm not used to having a car that's worth more than a few hundred quid and it's a massive pain in the rear end for me having to think about where I park it, what I can store on the roof when it's parked in the garage, how much food the kids are getting all over the seats etc so this white car should suit me much better.
Already started gathering bits to go in or on it but as I say, I've got bonnet & tailgate for it "in stock", the doors weren't part of the deal so I got to take them off for the bloke I bought the car off to collect but I've got a pair for it somewhere so not a problem. Scrounged a manky dash off a mate, got a set of 7 spoke alloys to go on, 4 spoke leather steering wheel and I had the best bargain ever on ebay on the day I went to collect the car, a carbon looking bucket seat thing which I'm sure is a Cobra jobby for 40 notes !
I want to keep it simple (light) so 1 seat, no interior at all, half a dash for the clocks only that sort of thing.
It "should" just be a case of throwing all the bits on it I've got, buying a few bits I haven't got (needs 4 shocks), making the bits I can't or am too tight to buy, dropping an engine in it and away I go but I know it won't work like that.
I will post pics of the seat errmmmmm... . when I take some and the roll cage which I will be making myself too so that should be interesting.
Cheers for reading, I will keep you posted with my progress as & when it happens. ;D
Right the car, bough off good old ebay a few months back as it was close enough to trailer home without taking up too much of my mate's time and the shell really is as good as the seller said it was.
3 owners from new until he bought it.White one on the right if you are unfamiliar with them.
Having spent many, many, many hours welding my RS1600i above, this car appealed to me as it means I don't have it all to do again. I'm not a welder by trade and my neighbours are getting a bit annoyed with all my car repair type noises so everyone's happy I supose ?
I can't believe how solid this car is, front to back, chassis, front cross-member, boot floor, sills, the lot ! Only bit of rust worth mentioning is this around the heater motor hole.
But as it probably wont even have a heater I will have to plug this any road.
I should mention my plans for this car are to weld in a cage (ok so there is some welding to do), lower it as far as I dare, fit perspex windows in all but the windscreen holes and drop one of the many 1.6 cvh lumps I have dotted around in it. I have soooooooo many spares kicking about for mk3 escorts I could almost build a complete car and I've had my eye out for a cheap & cheerful track toy for a while now so this seemed like a logical choice to me.
My 16i was restored by myself a few years ago but I'm not used to having a car that's worth more than a few hundred quid and it's a massive pain in the rear end for me having to think about where I park it, what I can store on the roof when it's parked in the garage, how much food the kids are getting all over the seats etc so this white car should suit me much better.
Already started gathering bits to go in or on it but as I say, I've got bonnet & tailgate for it "in stock", the doors weren't part of the deal so I got to take them off for the bloke I bought the car off to collect but I've got a pair for it somewhere so not a problem. Scrounged a manky dash off a mate, got a set of 7 spoke alloys to go on, 4 spoke leather steering wheel and I had the best bargain ever on ebay on the day I went to collect the car, a carbon looking bucket seat thing which I'm sure is a Cobra jobby for 40 notes !
I want to keep it simple (light) so 1 seat, no interior at all, half a dash for the clocks only that sort of thing.
It "should" just be a case of throwing all the bits on it I've got, buying a few bits I haven't got (needs 4 shocks), making the bits I can't or am too tight to buy, dropping an engine in it and away I go but I know it won't work like that.
I will post pics of the seat errmmmmm... . when I take some and the roll cage which I will be making myself too so that should be interesting.
Cheers for reading, I will keep you posted with my progress as & when it happens. ;D
