72' MK1 Four Door Escort

[Anthiron]

Well I bought another car.

 

I finally own a Mk1 Escort. It is a 1972 MK1 XL 4 door.

I purchased it site unseen on Gumtree and flew from Brisbane to Newcastle (Australia) and made the 10 hour journey home in the new purchase.

Luckily the car was as described and apart from a very slow leak in a rear Tyre and a wheel bearing with a bit of a rumble by the 8th hour it didn't miss a beat!

 

The car is a 4 door which some people aren't a fan of, but personally I am pretty happy with the purchase. It is basically rust free (Few bubbles from poor paint prep in the rain channels and a 5c piece sized bubble on a rear wheel arch is about all I could find. The paint is a home job and has some runs as well as a weird sort of reaction on the passenger side front door where there might be some bog that reacted to the paint??? But it is a presentable car and will be driven hard not looked at.

 

2 Litre Pinto engine

4 speed single rail box

Lowered 2 inches on HD front springs and blocks in the rear

MK2 2L front brakes

AutoTechnica Bucket seats which are Mod Plated (These will be going promptly to be replaced by the cobra low backs from my Cortina)

2 Piece Roh 16" wheels (These have already been removed and replaced by the Superlites from my Cortina)

 

The plan is to swap the 45 DCOE's from my Mk2 Cortina and then the Cortina will be for sale (Feel free to make an offer however I am in Australia), Re-make the alloy dash panels which are pretty rough, matching switch gear, put the cobra bucket seats in, fit Speedhut GPS speedo and quad gauge into the stock 2 dial dash, re-locate oil and gen warning lights to the switch panel in big LED's, Paint bumpers black (The qtr bumpers are glass so Chrome is out), De-chrome the wheel arches, fit a bigger more practical steering wheel that allows me to see how fast I am travelling, replace the cheesy led indicators on the front with some stock ones, Convert to round headlights and then pretty much drive the wheels off it!

 

Oh and I also swapped the stereo from the Cortina into it which sounds much better.

 

Anyway here are a few pics.

 

Some from the advertisement.

 

 

I took this one just before we jumped in it for the drive home

 

 

I am quite bad at remembering to take photos but here are a couple when I got it home. Unfortunately I had to travel back to work for 2 weeks so I will have an update when I am back home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nick

[Vista]

Looks good, though I think Australian taste in wheels on Classic Fords is very different from ours.

[Anthiron]

As in the 2 peice ROH wheels or the black superlites?

 

I can't stand the ROH wheels I think they are hideous. Judging by the seats and the wheels I would say it was previously owned by a young boy racer wannabe type.

[Vista]

ROH wheels. Superlights look good

 

Just noticed the chrome trim round the arches. Is that standard on Australian mk1s or has it been added?

[Anthiron]

It looks like it has been added. It is well done though. A bit like an adhesive pinch weld that sits around the lip of the guard with an outer chrome strip.

 

I am going to try to remove them as the rest of the car has been de-chromed.

[Anthiron]

Well I have tracked down

 

- An early round headlight grille which is on its way from the UK

- A second 2 dial dash to cut up and use for the Speed hut gauges

- Crystal 7" headlights

- Headlight buckets

- Heater/Vent control decal

- A set of front indicators to replace the ugly chrome LED ones

- OMP flocked 345mm steering wheel

- a piece of 1.2mm alloy sheet to re-make the dash panels

 

Ordered the Speedhut gauges (2x 4" gauges, 200kph Speedo with an 8k tacho in the same face, 2nd gauge has oil pressure, water temp, fuel level and volts) Not cheap but the speedo runs on GPS so I won't have any variance and they come with wiring and all senders required.

 

 

 

I think I will need to make an S bend or lay-back shifter as when I am sitting back in the seat firmly I cannot reach the shifter currently. Ill wait untill I fit the Cobra seats before I go crazy here though.

 

12 more days of work away before I can come home and get stuck into the Escort.

[Anthiron]

Spent some time on the Escort today.

 

Yesterday I got a pulled a glovebox from a car someone was wrecking. Today I fitted that in my car to replace the under dash tray.

Pulled off the front and rear bumpers and grille and painted them semi-gloss black. I wasnt a fan of the body coloured bumpers.
Made up the pieces for the alloy dash panels. Still need to be polished.

 

Also pulled out the autotechnica seats and measured up the Cobra's to go in. I need to pick up some 50mm x 5mm steel strap tomorrow to adapt them to the escort mounts but it should be a relitively simple job.

 

Once the interior is sorted out I will get stuck into the engine bay.

 

Will get some pictures tomorrow.

[Anthiron]

 

[Anthiron]

These puppies arrived this morning. An hour before i catch a plane back to work for 2 weeks

 

 

They will be mounted into this after a few modifications.

 

[Anthiron]

Ebay International shipping division have decided that the round headlight grille was too big to post. Refunded my money and kept the grille! I couldn't even arrange a way to find different shipping with the owner.

Pretty dissapointed. Ebay Internation shipping won't repond to my query emails.

[Anthiron]

So I just finished relocating the battery into the boot, fitting an oil catch can, malpassi filter king regulator/filter and twin 45DCOE's however once I got it all back together (Minus the throttle cable which I will have to sort out) the thing won't turn over

 

I've run positive (Thick battery cable) directly to the starter and earthed the negative to the body in the boot. I've got the engine block earthed to the body and also run a second earth from one of the starter bolts to the gearbox cradle mount to the chassis. I didnt change any other wiring, just shortened things one at a time to neaten things up.

 

Ive got the same voltage at the starter and engine block earth as I do accross the terminals on the battery

Battery is the same 330cca battery that was under the bonnet.

 

I don't even get a solinoid click. nothing, nada. Stereo, lights etc. all working great with no issues.

 

Anyone have an idea?

[luckyjim]

I would check the starter motor before pulling the wiring apart,it could be coincidence that it has decided now is the time to stop working.

[Anthiron]

Hi luckyjim

 

It ended up being a dodgy earth on the starter relay. I moved the relay with the rest of the wiring and hadnt fastened it down tight enough on the earth.

 

Carbies are on and it is running. Needs some tuning and I'm not sure about the heater hose routes.

[Anthiron]

Updates on the engine bay.

 

[Anthiron]

Can anyone steer me in the right direction with suspension?

 

It is just a fast road car, it may see a track day or 2 but they will be few and far between. Trying to keep it to a budget.

 

I already have some GAZ eccentric top mounts for the struts so they will be going in. Then I was going to fit some better rear dampners (GAZ?) and 190lb springs up front. Poly flex bushes all round.

 

Does this sound like a decent setup?

 

The springs I see on BurtonPower all say to suit RS2000, will these work on mk1 struts?

 

Also can anyone tell me what kind of quick rack I need for this car? Short or long stem? I was thinking 2.4 or is this too quick for a road car?

 

Should I change the sway bar?

[Anthiron]

Gaz rear shocks are in, Eccentric top mounts are in, 190lb front springs are in and strut bar fitted. I have a polyflex bush kit to go in but haven't got that far yet.

 

[Anthiron]

Got the gauges in a couple of days ago.

Basically I removed the actual gauge assembly from the fascia. The I widened the holes to suit the Speed Hut gauges. The skirt around the rear of the fascia had to be trimmed away to let the screw clamps do up tightly and lock the gauges in. Then Filled the old indicator/high beam/warning light holes with araldite and sanded and painted.

I think it came up OK. They have a lot of features like standing 1/4 mile timer, peak speed recall, high and low warning lights for the secondary gauges. Everything is programmable its fantastic. Best thing is I can now see clearly how fast I am traveling at night time!




A before and after pic.






Also the passenger side door got fixed up. There was a fair bit of humidity bubbling in the paint which turned out to be the result of a spray job done over poor quality enamel. Looks great now. Also got the panel shop to fit a passenger side mirror I had.




Have a 2.4 turn quick rack ready to go in too but I ran out of time so it will have to wait for now.

 

EDIT: Type 9 box also in the car now with a quickshifter

[irishtorag]

coming along great

have to say I like the arch trims and im not a fan of chrome

its very subtle looking

[Anthiron]

Thanks mate

I'm not sold on the arch trims, but I don't hate them so much that I have removed them I guess so they may stay yet.

[Anthiron]

Did a bit of work on the Escort last week.

- 2.4 turn quick rack is in
- Oil pressure sender T piece added so I can still run the warning light on the dash (Relocated to the centre panel)
- Round headlight conversion

- Drilled and tapped the bearing housing in the quick shifter and fitted bolts with lock nuts to take up the play and stop the rattle. (Worked well )

Also the car is fully poly bushed (Happened a couple of months ago but didn't update.)





Also gave it a bit of a wash and drove the pants off it. Went through 4 tanks of fuel in a week. Love driving this thing.

[dalmarshall]

Great stuff, you've made some great improvements there mate!

[Anthiron]

Thanks Dalmarshall

The "To Do" list is getting smaller:

 

- Connect hidden radio antenna to 12v power

- Dynamat under dash and inside doors (Already done floors and boot)

- Deeper steering wheel so I can put the seat back another inch

- Fit front speakers

- Vented Capri style front rotors and space the M16 calipers out to suit

- New strut inserts

- New upholstery for rear seat (some sun damage on top of the backrest)

- Down another inch on the front

- Engine rebuild with bigger cam etc. (Current motor uses a little oil and blows some smoke, could use a freshen up)

 

I would also like to fit an LSD but the Aussie Borgwarner diff doesnt really leave any options for this so ill probobly leave this till last as it will mean a rear axle swap.

[Audio Addict]

Looking good some definite improvements there 

[Anthiron]

Haven't posted here in a while.

- Front is now a little lower still. Much better stance now.
- Had an oil pressure problem (pump drive shaft spun resulting in a scored big end.) Cheers to Pete @ Performance Thumpers for getting me back on the road with a days turn around to make a cruise the next day! Between the two us we had the motor out, apart, new bearings and pump drive in, reassembled, back in the car and on the road in a few hours.
- Nothing much too new has happened on the car really. Not too much left to go really (Coil over front, Vented front discs and MK2 rear drums, engine rebuild, rear seat recover, wrap the headers so my left leg doesnt get so hot when driving it hard on a hot day) but putting the eski on the backburning a little atm to get a few things done on my Chevy Luv.

Some pics of our local group.