My Classics..

[VictorMike]

* The corvette specifically is cramped more than an Escort could ever imagine

Sure, but at least in the Vette the roof can come off to negate this.

* Pretty and ugly is subjective

Fair enough. I will admit, OP's silver escort looks much nicer than what I usually see them as. Body panels are straight and everything. I bet its better than when it came off the factory floor! In general cars from the 70's don't do it for me in the design department. There are exceptions of course, but they are few and far between.

* You have no idea how bad the build quality is on a vette. European fords are like Rolls Royce's compared to a Corvette ito build quality. I mean you are sitting inside recycled canoes for crying out loud

I concede this one. I know how bad the build quality on American cars can be.

* Nevermind leaf springs..... On a vette, you only get 1 leaf spring per axle (Note "spring" as in singular noun)

Yeah, nie. You talking shit here. The '60 'Vette had 2 leaf springs in the back. Also the car is almost 8 years older then the Escort, so I think I can give it a pass.

And all these cars : ('59 SL, '59 Cadillac convertible, '64 Mustang, '60 Corvette) are like trying to maneuver the USS Enterprise inside a china shop when you took them to the race track where the Escorts shined

Like I said, before, I do not doubt the racing heritage of the Escorts, and I doubt OP is doing any serious racing in his. Furthermore, I would never take any classic car on track, so this point is quite moot.

So in conclusion: it seems the Escorts are popular because they were amazing little racers that were affordable to the every man. Coolio.

OP, your examples look amazing, especially the Mk.I. I agree with Fordkoppie on one thing, the period correctness (eg wheel size).

 

[Fordkoppie]

* Nevermind leaf springs..... On a vette, you only get 1 leaf spring per axle (Note "spring" as in singular noun)

Yeah, nie. You talking shit here. The '60 'Vette had 2 leaf springs in the back. Also the car is almost 8 years older then the Escort, so I think I can give it a pass.

I have never seen a C1 from under, but every Vette from the C2, The Stingray(which is the one I thought you were referring to) has 1 leaf spring per axle. All up to, excluding the most recent C7

 

[Wes]

Mr Miler,

He is ALREADY DOING what you are still DREAMING OF DOING.

Leave the man to enjoy his cars without judgement because you clearly fail to appreciate what endears these cars to so many of us.

And when your ship/lotto ticket/loan/shooting star comes in, then we can pass judgement on your cars too :=):

 

[Boosted]

Brings back great memories indeed!
:ty:

 

[VictorMike]

Leave the man to enjoy his cars without judgement because you clearly fail to appreciate what endears these cars to so many of us.

Maybe read my posts properly?

 

[Livewire]

Beautiful!

raise:

 

[Xack]

A aah I bet these two classics are in PE...lotsa classics down there, beautiful man....my neighbour in PE had a sport just parked off under covers, and I've got a merc 280ce lhd parking off in PE too

 

[Wes]

I don't get these at all, someone please explain the attraction to me.

What I see:
cramped
ugly (especially the Mk.ll)
bad build quality
LEAF SPRINGS!

Never liked the Ford's as I was young...

The cars are indeed older than me, but I don't think that's a factor.

Escort also has a rich racing heritage for this reason alone there will be fans :rollsmile:

Pretty much this is the only reason I could find to value these cars. They were unbeatable in rallying.

I read them. Your ignorance shines bright like the badly adjusted lights on my first golf.

Others have been more than gentle.

Go build/collect/loan/buy something interesting BEFORE passing judgement on someone else's pride and joy, whatever the model/era, if it doesn't appeal to you.

 

[VictorMike]

I read them. Your ignorance shines bright like the badly adjusted lights on my first golf.

And your lack of reading comprehension is only matched by your bad eyesight:

OP's silver escort looks much nicer than what I usually see them as. Body panels are straight and everything. I bet its better than when it came off the factory floor!

OP, your examples look amazing, especially the Mk.I.

Stop trying to cause shit when there is none Wes, cos you just end up looking like an agressive jackass.

 

[Wes]

I read them. Your ignorance shines bright like the badly adjusted lights on my first golf.

And your lack of reading comprehension is only matched by your bad eyesight:

OP's silver escort looks much nicer than what I usually see them as. Body panels are straight and everything. I bet its better than when it came off the factory floor!

OP, your examples look amazing, especially the Mk.I.

Stop trying to cause shit when there is none Wes, cos you just end up looking like an agressive jackass.

You are the problem with today's internet.

OP's cars didn't appeal to you so instead of backing out of the thread and finding something relevant to your interests, you harped on about what you saw.

And then you got an education.

 

[WyKiD]

Stunning cars bud, do not see many of these around anymore....:coolShake:

The "dog bone" looks epic....:clapper:

 

[VictorMike]

You are the problem with today's internet.

No, you are, by being the judgmental person you mistake me for being.

OP's cars didn't appeal to you so instead of backing out of the thread and finding something relevant to your interests, you harped on about what you saw.

Nope, I presented an opinion, and I was looking for information about something I don't understand, YOU mistook it for something it was not.

And then you got an education.

Which is EXACTLY what I was looking for, hence my statement:

So in conclusion: it seems the Escorts are popular because they were amazing little racers that were affordable to the every man. Coolio.

And then you came along... good job!

 

[Wes]

 

[Imraan]

Escort 1600 sport- what a beauty. I had the pleasure of owni one. 13 inch split ensure mags suite them the best imo.

 

[Philip Foglar]

This is very cool!!! :clapper:

 

[warrenk]

From the beginning...

I just sold my E30 and within a week this one came up for sale.

The day I fetched the car in November 2011. I had to borrow wheels and suspension.
The car was bought with no engine, gearbox or diff. I got some fancy suspension parts in boxes along with the car.

The motor the car had in..

Now at 1st I dropped a 6th generation Toyota 3SGE motor into the car along with the 6 speed box.. Before the conversion was completed I came to my senses and decided to restore the car back to original.

Fast forward to March 2013,
I took the car to a friend to have a replacement transmission tunnel welded in.. I cut the old tunnel to make space for the Toyota box, and instead of keeping it I scrapped it..

The car stood there for 2 months, so in May 2013 the car went straight from there for the bodywork...
All the holes from the Drysumped YB setup had to be closed, I wanted the arches widened by 20mm to accommodate the wider wheels and then of course some rust removal.

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George and Fat Gary at work..

This is where I kakked in my pants.. they didn't remove the trim plate on the firewall where the heater pipes are supposed to come through...

From here the car was painted white 1st.. They didn't want any blue shining through.. I wasn't very happy as I didn't want the car painted too thick but anyway, we tested a panel and the silver looked a lot better over the white than it did just over the primer...

---

With the help of a friend from Durban and many measurements and photos later, I managed to have the proper GT striping made. Mine is slightly different to the original car's but no one has really noticed the difference..

---

The car came home in the last week of July 2013..

 

[Philip Foglar]

Wow, very cool work!!! raise:

 

[warrenk]

Fast forward to January 2014..
I didn't do much on the car since it came back from being painted. Changed almost everything on my father's Escort in this time. I try to work on only one car at a time.. Otherwise you never finish the damn things..

After the paint job I ripped the suspension out again. Sandblasted and powdercoated everything and started the assembly process...

Then the engine build started in February 2014...
Motor build itself took about 2 - 3 weeks, most of that was measuring and cleaning everything 40 times.
The rotating assembly was sent to Dave Ingle for balancing.
Alternator side, I wanted something better than a normal Escort alternator, so I made a 90A Bosch unit fit that originally came from a Mk2 16V GTi. Rebuilt the whole thing with new bearings, regulator and so forth.
I also managed to find a brand new old stock Bosch electronic distributor around that time.

Spec on the motor is as follows:
711M 1600 Kent block
82mm 1300GT Pistons (+1mm oversize)
GT cam
Lightened flyhweel
Electronic distributor (NOS)
Complete bottom end balanced
Ports in the head was cleaned up and matched.
Hardened valve seats
Swirled valves
Kent valve springs
Weber 32/36DVG with K&N filter
Displacement comes in at 1639cc

The wildcat branch in the photo has been aluminium coated, but I felt it was too much for the car, especially the "stockish" under bonnet look I had in my head.

---

22 March 2014 the motor and box went in..

After that I had to make up a new box section for the radiator.. The original panel was cut out for the YB motor..

 

[Ratslaaf]

I'm loving this thread!

 

[warrenk]

Next up...
Ordered some clips for the beading from the other side of the pond

Next up on the list was the brake booster, brake lines, oil catch tank, electronic ignition and started getting the harness into place..

---

Next up on the list..
Suspension
Diff change
Exhaust

When I made the lowering blocks I chucked everything out between the diff and the leaf springs. The locating pin in the springs were removed and replaced with a 12.9 bolt keeping the lowering block attached to the spring, then the diff locates on the turned down bolt head with a pressed in spacer.
Front suspension I opted for 2.5" Coilovers with unknown springs that came out of an oval racecar.
Exhaust system was done by a local chap, Rane Berry, front section from the manifold to the 1st box is 50mm into a 57mm rear silencer ending in a piece of 63mm pipe.

Then move along to 18 August 2014...
I decided to strip the brand new wheels and to change the colour..
after that the car came down to sit on it's own wheels for the 1st time in months.. As is came down is how I left it. Not too high and not too low..

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The car started for the 1st time 14 August 2014...
Only did the live cable and couple of earth straps, all the other wiring is temporary. A friend sorted the wiring out, will neaten all that up next week and get the relays and extra fuses plumbed in. Will also need to make a plan with the rev counter. It's reading too high with the electronic ignition.
Got the motor on TDC, rotor and dizzy pointing to the 1st cylinder, and swung it for oil pressure with the coil disconnected and no plugs,
Had some issues at 1st with the oil not coming up but managed to sort that out quick enough.
Refit the plugs, put the wire back on the coil and swung it..
The car roared into life within the 1st 2 seconds, with the car in the air I put it in 2nd gear and let the gearbox and diff run through as well.
Here's a video after the car ran for about 20 minutes.