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Now that is clever! Ta for the tip - Though I think my old dog mind is rather a lot lazier than yours

Aye that's the problem when TG lot are right about something, hate to have to admit they're right!

Actually found time for some input into this for once! Though I don't seem to be involved enough to give nominations for everything.

Retro car Of The Year 2014 - the tikimobile because it just pulls it's look off so well retrorides.proboards.com/thread/36490/1967-super-imp-tiki-mobile?page=10

Community/Forum person of the year 2014 - All the mods and RRG support team - thank you for given us all somewhere to share our passion

New Thread Of The Year 2014 - mwggriffiths - retrorides.proboards.com/thread/168456 - such a good write up for a jealousy inducing trip

Best Media Of The Year 2014 - don't read much other than on here, but Motorpunk is always worth a read

Readers Other Mods 2014 - Grizz's fuel pump replica, cos it's simply brill retrorides.proboards.com/thread/163806/star-brand-replica-retro-build?page=4

Show/Event of the year 2014 - As usual I've not got to enough to really say, but I always enjoy to Butty Run at Long Itch diner - very good for a smallish meet

Most Anticipated Car 2015 - Well this just blows most of us building stuff away really doesn't it retrorides.proboards.com/thread/157335/next-scratchbuilt-mid-engine-sports?page=12


Happy Snapper - luckyseven or mwggriffiths - both because of the number of good quality shots from a lot of different shows/meets

Great Contributor - Colonelk

Great Build - Herald V8 becuase it's just the right amount of crazy! retrorides.proboards.com/thread/80741/triumph-herald-sprintex-blown-rover?page=15

Picture Hunter - dbizzle - because there are some many good pics on here thanks to him

Technical Help -

Community Spirit - kevfromwales - for obvious reasons

Community Organiser - RetroWarwick for all the time he puts into orgainising various shows/meets

Ebay Bloodhound -

Emailed

And yes I will - about time I start using it for what it was built for!

I'd be up for an RR area, also if you need marshals

They really aren't structural. And if they become structural then the chassis rails/inner wings must be missing!

The escort design is very similar to Capris. We've used fibreglass ones on Laurens Capri because of the price of steel ones.

However there are a couple of drawbacks to the cost save.

Fitting them is not quick or simple. You will have to fettle them a lot to get nice shut lines (add remove material), and you have to make sure you don't bolt them on with stress in them (i.e. force them to take a slightly different shape) as they'll start to fret and crack.

Bolting them on is pretty easy, either just use std bolts or go more permanent and use weld nuts or riv-nuts.

The tricky bit is prepping for paint to get a nice, wave free, finish. They will need some sort of skim of filler to get rid of the worse of any depressions, then they'll need priming with etch primer to make sure you get good adhesion. Then you'll need a couple of coats of pucker (2-pack) filler primer - this it to ensure you get rid of any pin holes/waviness. Once that's flatted back, just paint as normal.

Finally you need to give the insides of them a heavy coating of anti stone chip paint to make sure you don't get any cracks forming from the inside of the panel - I cannot stress this bit enough!

The best place to get them is either www.smithanddeakin.co.uk/ or www.honeybournemouldings.co.uk/ We used Honeybourne as they're up the road from us, but heard good things about S&D too. They're well made, but like I said, don't expect them to fit perfectly.

Basically it comes down to how much you want to spend - if good steel panels (bad ones will need just as much work as fibreglass - be careful there are very few good steel wings left for mk1 Escorts, hence the price. I've had some re-pro Mk2 ones that needed cutting and re-welding they were that bad!) are expensive then the extra fitting and prep time of the fibreglass ones might be worth it - but don't under estimate how much time it takes to get them to fit/look right (I did!)

Have a piccy of them on Laurens - not perfect (still think a bit more filler primer would help) but you only notice the waviness under artificial light so good enough.

As title, selling as I'm seemingly never going to get around to using it.

m.ebay.co.uk/itm/141485018040

Cheers
Andy

Wow, just wow that bonnet is beautiful - definitely added to the inspiration folder that one.

Nothing else to add really!

We built Lauren's Capri to be used daily, hence a fancy stereo, electric power steering, uprated brakes, central locking etc. Whilst it really only gets used in the summer because of how much effort we put in, but there's no reason you couldn't use one every day, they're very durable just need to be given some TLC and regular servicing/checks. I used to use my old Mk2 Escort everyday and it stood up to 50,000 miles in 4 years really well.

They even make surprisingly good camping cars - nearly 1000 miles in a week and not a problem