Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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1997 escort van. Anti-Scene.Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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yes it quite a late model vehicle, and yes, in stock form, its quite sh!T, and yes, they're everywhere. but not ones that look like this has ended up it was kinda built to prove a point. rmad put it better than I can yesterday- it's also a mighty fine bit of anti-scenery in the best sense of the word. so there you go, anti-scene. take a vehicle that would usually have one set of things done to it, but deliberately don't do them, and do something else instead. in other words, an escort van with no bits of RS or cosworth escorts nailed onto it! it all started out so innocently- a bone stock 1997 escort '75' van, 1.8 diesel ex council van. I cent remember which council it was now, somewhere in london, but you can see where it said 'housing and regeneration' down the side, so obviously one of the sh1t ones. nice! as such, it was in pretty good condition, as it had been meticulously maintained as part of the fleet until it retired, and even then appeared to have been looked after. its got a few dings and dents as youd expect, the bonnet isnt original, its done 200k, and is generally an escort van. but, its only ever had two bits of welding (one on each sill for this latest MOT, which werent done very well so ile redo them) and is on the whole very clean and tidy. came with a nice laod liner and a half bulkhead that came out straight away so the seat could go far enough back for me to drive it!! it was moted 3 days before I got it, had 2 weeks tax left, the glowplugs, alt, and timing belt were all done 6k ago, and in the deal I wangled it basically stood me in at 225 quid. bargain!!
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Last Edit: Nov 5, 2010 23:20:52 GMT by Dez
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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1997 escort van. Anti-Scene.Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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first job, bin the standard tape deck and fit a Cd player. £6 delivered for the adapter palte thingy and we were good to go. it where looking on ebay for this it struck me how damn cheap stuff for these is compared to say, VW parts!! then, after a week of constant nosebleeds, enough was enough and I had to bring it down a peg or two. so, time for an axle flip, just like on a say, VW caddy rolled it into the workshop at 7.30pm. got it up in the air- as you can see, axle below spring. we'll soon sort that undid bits til the rear axle fell off. everything was suprisingly clean, no corrosion, and nothing siezed up. I removed the wheels, shocks, U-bolts, handbrake cables, brake lines and brake compensator in about 20 mins. the front section of handbrake cable snapped when I tried to undo it though. well, better it went now than in use! it was a whole £7.20 for a new bit, remember what I said about bits being cheap?! axleless- and the offending item- so, I removed the first spring saddle with a bit of cutting, and a lot of hammering, sweating and swearing!! seems ford stick these on much better than other manufacturers, so much so I even shattered a chisel doing it! not really any pics as I was too busy doing it. don't grind off the old welds that held it on yet either. notice I said I only removed one. heres why. set the axle up level the right way up, using a level on the original unmoved seat- then, use another level and the old welds to position the one you've just removed in its new location- no need to mess about measuring anything that way. stick it on with the welder, grind off the old welds so its all nice and smooth, job done (bar for a lick of paint to stop it rusting. then, do the other one, using the one youve just done to allign that one. easy!! ta daa, a bit of paint and its all done. I'm not too bothered about cosmetics so I didnt paint all of it, just the bare metal id exposed. then, go and bolt it back on. youll need to unbolt the back end of at least one of the rear springs to get it back on though. once the handbrake was reconnected, the only other job was to remove the break compensator and connect it straight through with a couple of unions. doing all this including fitting the new handbrake cable the next day only took about 3 hours, but I was rushing a bit (lot!)
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Last Edit: Nov 5, 2010 22:44:07 GMT by Dez
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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1997 escort van. Anti-Scene.Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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doing the above dropped the back end pretty much exactly 5". so weve got some catching up to do at the front to get that looking as good. cue one order to rally design, for a pile of coilover bits. 2x spring seat conversion sets, and a pair of 7" 350lb springs. remove front struts, throw away old springs, bumpstops, top spring cups, dust guards, some funny plastic cap things, and finally chop off the lower spring cups too. don't grind all the weld off though, as the struts are 45mm and the coilover sleves 50mm, so it helps to centre them, as does a strip of 2mm steel slipped in at each end as a packer before welding. i just welded them on as low as possible, down to the ARB bracket. then, drilled out the new top caps, fitted a washer between them and the top strut bearing so they still pivited nicely, as it was about job done. I'm sure i took more pics, but god knows where theyve gone?! finished article- then, straight onto the van with them. only other mod i did in the end was entirely remove the ARB as it was getting in the way, and the springs are so stiff its useless now really. again, i took a pic of this too and ive lost that as well?
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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1997 escort van. Anti-Scene.Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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anyway, heres the result, still on the stock wheels- instant 150mm drop amazingly, you can still go lock to lock without the tyres catching anything, even with those balloons on there. after a cursory drive, i did raise the front about an inch on the adjustment(but some of that came out as preload) to stop them bottoming out, and added a slice of bumpstop in there too. it now rides pretty nice, esily as good as my passat did if not better. if i did it again id probly go one step heavier on the springs though, maybe even up to 400s, just to firm the ride up a little more.
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,784
Club RR Member Number: 34
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1997 escort van. Anti-Scene.Dez
@dez
Club Retro Rides Member 34
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then, the van steels with 165s were replaced with a set of 8.5x13 bandeds I bought. a bit of a saga theyve turned out to be, (see here) but they do suit the van perfectly. hopefully theyll all be sorted soon enough. here they are pre- refurb- they're now running 185/60 on the back with 175/65 on the front, tubed. these sizes were chosen as I wanted what I would call 'old school stretch', quite tall/round looking tyres on there, not square low profiles. this is much more of a JDM influence than euro/VW scene stuff, as its what they tent to run on the shakotan styled cars. rims were treated to a clean up then some rattle can dark silver for the dishes, and black smoothrite for the centres (as it was easier to brush them than spray and it hid some pitting better!) they were then bolted on, and to continue the JDM theme a set of rangerbob bolt-on arches fitted to cover them, not even painted just in the dark grey gellcoat they came in, which actually really suits it as it kinda matches the bumpers. they're held on with rivnuts and stainless allen bolts. the fronts required a bit of trimming to go around the bulge of the bumper, otherwise they were very straightforward to fit. they're a bit flimsy and thin in places, the mounting areas could definately do with being thicker, but they're suprisingly solid once bolted on. finishing touches were a little debadging, and a set of clear side repeaters. I then took it for a bit of a razz, and the front downpipe section of the exhaust lasted less than 5 miles it had been blowing slightly since I got it, but obviously the severe stiffening of the sus has finished it off. it cost £41 for a new one, not bad for a section containing 2 flexis and the mid box with a 2yr warranty and the fittings included. did I mention parts for these are cheap?! then, a bit of a photoshoot in a cool local location- and thats it so far, about 12 hours and 600 quid all in. more to come soon though, I'm currently waiting on some parts to progress further plus ive now got to spend out to sort out the wheel issues
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Last Edit: Nov 5, 2010 23:16:38 GMT by Dez
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conrad
Posted a lot
Here to fix your cabin.......
Posts: 1,678
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that's feckin great. Now put a turbo dizzle in there when you get a chance. Yeah escort vans are sh!t and slow and common, but i love them, they've dome great work for me over the years.
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MattW
Part of things
Posts: 841
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Love it!
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will
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,023
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This looks great, impressive (+made to look easy) work as ever. Could be ex Lewisham council in that colour, shame the build on those bands was council spec though I'm sure you'll have that sorted soon.
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Excellent work as ever. I like your thinking-outside-of-the-box-for-cheap-coolness
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...proper medallion man chest wig motoring.
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I like it, but is it "anti scene"? Slam'd, banded steels, stretch
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conrad
Posted a lot
Here to fix your cabin.......
Posts: 1,678
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it's anti "VW scene inspired scene" (yes scene is in there twice, but there really does seem to be a VW "scene", then the one that copies that one right down to that last cliche on other stuff).
That van has japanese style arches, big-ish tyres, nothing rusted on purpose, not plastered with stickers, not got bits of it randomly painted different colours etc.
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bortaf
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,549
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The JDM arches are certainly fresh on an escort van, not really into any scene let aloan the anti scene scene, whatever the fook that is cos surely your following the anti scene scene, which if thats an ironic way of not following a scene but starting an anti, anti scene scene then cool. Ha! way more "scenes" than you managed (possably a mite more confusing as well) ;D either way i likes it
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R.I.P photobucket
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,555
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Cheap, cool fun. I like this concept a LOT. (am I wrong for having visions of doing something similar to a 3dr pov-spec pre-facelift Hyundai Accent? )
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3idave
Part of things
Posts: 37
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great great great nice one
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Plastic load liner. You flash git lol. looks great
Had one for a works van for a couple of years. Slow and was knackered at 250k, but never let me down. even when my mate dropped it in 2nd at 80MPH...
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I really do like this :-)
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conrad
Posted a lot
Here to fix your cabin.......
Posts: 1,678
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The JDM arches are certainly fresh on an escort van, not really into any scene let aloan the anti scene scene, whatever the fook that is cos surely your following the anti scene scene, which if thats an ironic way of not following a scene but starting an anti, anti scene scene then cool. Ha! way more "scenes" than you managed (possably a mite more confusing as well) ;D either way I likes it Hard to talk about scenes without saying scene alot isn't it? scene scene scene scene scene. ok i'll stop
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