RS Motorsport :: Classic Speed Restored

Hey guys,

It's been a very long time since I've had anything to post on my Mk1 Escort project. So long in fact, that I haven't even started my own thread about it since RS Motorsport has been up and running! That's a little depressing. I'm hoping to be a little more active in working on the car and the aim of this thread is to encourage me to keep going!

Apparently I've owned the shell for nearly ten years now. It's destined to be primarily a track car, but if I can get it road registered or onto club plates, then great. I'm not building it to run in any particular class, but rather just the way I want it. But I think Sports Sedans would be the only class it'll be eligible for.

Some of these photos are pretty old and I've seen a couple of them pop up here and there on the net, but I'll group them together here.





Some lightened bits:





Enlarged diff tunnel for an RN20 Hilux diff:



The beginnings of seam welding (I have progressed a lot further from this point and will post new photos soon). One quick question though: my shell has the large bash plate on the driver's side chassis rail. Is this worth keeping on a track car?



I picked these up on eBay for next to nothing. The pistons are 2 inches in diameter! Does anyone know much about JFZ? I believe they were bought out by another US company and still produce calipers based on the older designs, so I can only assume that pads are still available to suit. I think these were on a speedway car at one point.



And this arrived last week. Thanks to Paul at Pozformance for all of his assistance:



More updates as they arrise.

LOVE IT! solid ideas coming to shape, keep us updated!

Quick update. The seam welding of the chassis rails and strut tops is just about done. I just need to finish off a few tight areas I haven't been able to get the wire brush into to clean back the paint/sealer/surface rust.

Section of the driver's side chassis rail:



Underside of driver's side strut top:



Engine bay:



Strut top:



Hopefully more to come after the weekend.

Thanks, Simon.

Managed to paint strip the engine bay over the weekend. It's a bit of a mess and there's a fair amount of work to do, but at least I can see what I'm dealing with. It was a little alarming finding surface rust under the factory paint though!? It'd be nice to just have the whole lot media blasted, but unfortunately the budget doesn't allow for it at the moment. Hopefully once everything is done I can have the shell blasted before paint.

Quick update, although admittedly not a whole lot to report. I've made a start on repairing the heater plenum, as well as modifying the radiator support panel. I plan to use an aftermarket alloy radiator intended for use in a Mk2 16V VW Golf, which is quite a bit wider than than the standard Escort radiator, so the whole lot has to come out - not that I really mind. In this pic I had started cutting out the rust in the heater plenum area.



Given I will be using a fibreglass bonnet secured with bonnet pins, the standard bonnet catch on the slam panel will become obsolete, so rather than unpick spot welds, grind back brazed joints, then weld up all unwanted holes, I thought I'd just replace the section with new sheet.



I'm just waiting for my radiator to arrive before I weld in the new section, just to be sure!

And here's the first rust repair on the heater plenum.



Plus an 'action shot' taken by a mate on his camera phone.

A little more progress today.

I dressed the welds on the first heater plenum repair. In the photo it sort of looks like I've welded it to a crummy bit of steel, but it is solid, albeit a little pitted. The raised inlet for the heater fan is still to be cut out and welded up.



I also unpicked the transmission tunnel spot welds from the firewall and cut out the rusty mid section.



It probably sounds nuts, but I'm going to try and repair/remake this section so it can go back in.



And finally, I put my home made sheet metal folder to use and folded the lip on the new slam panel top section.

Did you lighten those hinges yourself or buy them from somewhere?

Thanks guys.

As Kieran mentioned, I will be using bonnet pins to secure the fibreglass bonnet so no need for the factory lock down. That's largely why I removed so much of the original panel.

And don't worry, the X Pack is tucked up in its pyjamas and will have its day when (if?) the Mk1 is finished.

Simon what class do you plan on using the car for


Danny

Not I.P.!

I'll just be using it for sprints/hillclimbs etc., so I'm just building the car how I want it. Most sprint events down here usually run a Standard, Improved, Modified and Closed Racing type classing system, where entrants select which one they enter into. It's up to the scrutineer to then decide whether or not the vehicle is eligible for that class.

Of the events I have run at to date, rarely have there been any hard fast rules about what is and isn't allowed. For example, if I managed to get the car on full reg with a legit roadworthy certificate, technically I would be able to run in the Under 2 Litre Road Registered class of the Winton Sprint Series. But some clubs just lump any 'non associate' members into a "Guest - Under 2 Litre" class anyway.

For hillclimb events I imagine it will have to be entered as a Sports Sedan, but that's fine.

My new radiator arrived today. It may not be quite as pretty as a PWR unit, but for the price it's not too bad and it's almost a perfect fit. I just hope it works! In my case it doesn't really matter how it looks as the plan is to sit it under the new slam panel, which really only leaves the core visible.

One of the problems with sitting it so far forward is that it doesn't really leave me much space to fit an oil cooler, as the radiator sits very close to the front panel. The other concern I have is whether it will get enough airflow through it sitting so close to the front panel, but I guess people stick intercoolers in there with no issues, so with a decent thermo fan hopefully it should be O.K. I really don't want to start cutting holes in the front panel.

Any thoughts are welcome.







I just need to trim a little more off the support panel for it to fit properly, then I'll weld in some vertical strenghening ribs down either side of the radiator and sort out some mounts. Once that's done I can weld in the new slam panel.

Almost a month since the last update but unfortunately not much to report. But to keep things kicking along, I did paint strip the remainder of the heater plenum area up to the windscreen aperture, then hit the entire engine bay with phosphoric acid. Now it looks rustier than ever as it turns everything yellow!

I also managed to weld up the heater fan opening in the plenum which just needs to be ground back and tidied up.



And last weekend I took the front of the shell of the rotisserie and peeled the Mk1's face off.



I've also trimmed the radiator support some more, so my next task is to make templates for the vertical strengtheners that will be welded in on either side of the radiator - which means those flared holes in the lower panel will also need to be welded up.

So it's been a while since this was updated. Not a whole lot has happened as a few projects around the house have been a priority since selling my X Pack Mk2, but the sale did provide me with a bit of a cash injection and has allowed me to keep collecting bits and pieces for the car.


This was the last lot of work I did before the Mk1 was put on hold again. Radiator support panel trimmed some more and the holes in lower panel have been welded up.





Oil cooler and filter relocation kit. Yes, it's an eBay jobbie but I took the approach of, "how bad can it be?!" For the price, I was happy to just buy it for the cooler core (19 row) and relocation blocks, but the fittings and hoses don't look too bad. So we'll see.



I decided that I wanted to fit steel rear forest arches to the shell intstead of the fibreglass verisons I have. It wasn't going to be cost effective ordering a rear pair on their own from the U.K., so I took the option of buying a complete set locally.



The front pair are now for sale as my fibreglass front guards from Smith & Deakin turned up today...



At this point I must send out a big thank you to PaulMk1. When I spotted in his thread that he had ordered a set recently, I immediately bombarded him with a whole host of questions which he has been kind enough to answer. It made ordering a set for myself very easy and I am really happy with them. So thank you Paul!

Looks good mate.

I am looking at glass gards with bubble arches. Why did you go with English gards when you can get them here?

Hi there, thanks for that.

I only know of one place in Oz that stocks Smith & Deakin guards, and it was cheaper to get them direct out of the U.K. I organised the freight through a separate company though, thanks to Paul.

Also, I've spoken to at least three people who purchased locally made guards (i.e. not S&D items) and all claimed they were an absolute nighmare to fit. Lots of cutting and re-glassing to get them to sit right. So it was a no brainer really and as I mentioned, I'm really happy with the quality of them.