RS Motorsport :: Classic Speed Restored

I thought it proper to upload some pics of my '72 Mk1 Escort 1300XL. I bought it in 2004 (ish) off eBay. It came from Swan Hill and still has a 1300 in it, a very leaky one at that. I bought it to replace a Datsun 1200 sedan that died at the hands of a tour bus.

Over the last few years I have been getting it out of the shed, driving it around for a few months fixing things up here and there. The body is in fairly good shape all things considered. There is some bog around the place. I washed it this morning only to have it rain again 30 minutes later. A few months ago I gave it a good cut and polish and its still looking pretty good from that.

I took these pictures this afternoon after it came back from its wheel alignment (driving in a straight line was more of a suggestion than anything else).

This time I am going to fix a few of the really nagging things as well as do some of the aesthetic things I've been meaning to do for years.

First of all I want to do a round headlight conversion. I have a grille thats in great nick. I'm working out the finer points on how to do that .

I also need a new 4 speed gear box, currently the gear lever is being held in with a few zip ties because the thread on the rear housing is absolutely rooted. I have located a new box at a wreckers but if anyone has one in their shed that is taking up space and they want to rid themselves of it I would be happy to take it off your hands (in Adelaide). I also want to slot in a quick shifter while I'm at it.

I have many other plans but I won't wax lyrical about it here. Finally, can anyone ID the wheels that are on this thing? Perhaps Cortina?

Cheers.

ROH Contessa Wheels.

Nice Car

Great find. It's going to look fantastic with round headlights.

Very sweet. Great to have another Mk1 on the Adelaide streets!

very nice..

awesome! looks great!

How are you going with the headlight conversion?

So I managed to track down Narva 7" semi sealed conversion kit. It came without the headlamp bowls, I got autobarn to order them in for me and they only arrived last night. One had to come from Victoria. So now I have everything I need. I'm going to pull the rectangle headlights out this weekend and make up a cardboard jigg for the metal plates. Hopefully the guys at Simex engineering will have time to cut them for me next week.

Then I can deliver the car to the panel beaters so they can beat out a dent in the grille surround and repaint the black center, align the headlights and such. All things being equal I should have it all done by the following weekend.

Ill take some photos and chuck them on here. Pretty darn excited. I bought the grille in about 2008 so this has been a long time coming. Its been hanging on my wall like some kind of masterpiece.

Realised I never showed off the new round headlight front end. I ended up having the front panel replaced as the original had a fair bit of bog and had caved in slightly. At the same time had a dodgy repair in the wheel arch fixed properly.

I've been slowly putting a few things right on this car.

There was an occasional CLANG coming from the drivers side rear eye bush. That bolt doesn't look all that central to the eye bush.


Knackered


Other side was only marginally better


Spring saddle's looking equally neglected



Everything looking pretty bloody average


Tired old shocks, drivers side had completely collapsed.

Part of the solution

Nasty looking rear shock mounting


All cleaned up, shocks on for a test fit.


In with new superpro bushes.

Everything gets a lick of paint, I'm using VHT Roll Bar & Chassis, I like the finish it gives. If you squint in the right light it looks like its been powder coated (sorta). These springs need to be reset as the drivers side has sagged. That can wait until after the front end is sorted out.

Last of the photos from the rear end.

After this all went back together I noticed that I am picking up the drivers side rear wheel when going around right hand corners. Its a noticeable change from the way it used to handle with the tired old bushes and dud shocks. Its a significant change. The drivers side spring has sagged slightly, could this be responsible? The other theory I had was that the Bilsteins shocks have less travel in them which is causing the wheel to be picked up ,where before the old shock was allowing the body to roll more while still keeping the wheels on the floor?

I'm making this all up as I go along. Anyone got any ideas?

Are the Bilstein's standard length or to suit lowered suspension?

Beautiful car mate

Just watch those blue bushes because there is a good chance that they will do the same as the last ones

I was concerned about that, if the failed ones were superpro bushes the previous owner installed them without the crush tubes. Or maybe the crush tubes were introduced to the product later.

I'll definitely keep my eye on them.