Fingers

often i get  on the number plate website and i thought of doing a yellow ford with the number plate KILBIL😀

Tuuuuuuuuuuuurboooooooooooooooooo....

check how good i shonked the rocker cover keeping the og sticker .

Well the last few days since the last update, have been a pretty wild ride emotionally. 
 
I had the gearbox together, but couldn't get it to change gears. I realised the selector rod was still too long. 
 
We modified it, got the gearbox together in a dry run, had it changing gears and working really well with the new short shifter. Pulled the extension housing off again to fit a new gasket and sealant and put it back together for good. 
Something didn't feel right with the mechanism, so before i bolted it together pulled it apart again, and in doing so accidentally popped 5th gear synchro to bits. 
I didn't want to have to pull the darn thing off the output shaft, because that isn't a simple task, so i tried to put it back together, working against the two spring clips that hold the synchro mechanism together, and I fucked up big time, snapping one of the synchro blocker bars. 
 
I did some asking around the club, and suppliers both here in Aus, and overseas, with everyone coming back with, "no we dont have them as a seperate item". I was so angry at myself, and so worried that id be without a working gearbox until i could get an entire synchro. 
 
Eventually I managed to T something up with a fellow car club, who had a spare 5 speed in bits in his workshop, he met me at work today and gave me the 3 blocker bars that I need. 
I did manage to also order some from Germany, (along with a new reproduction washer bottle), and have told Gerry who gave me the blocker bars, I will give him the new ones when they arrive from Germany. 
 
The blue tape is how much I had to cut off the selector rod, approximately 13mm. 
 

 
Gearbox together and being tested. I love this shifter, and am super excited to drive it. I can guarantee im going to miss a few gear changes though. The distance between 1st and 3rd, is only a matter of mm apart, with the new short shifter. Same with 2nd and 4th. 5th, has a bit more a jump sideways, but im sure there will be a few 1st to 4th changes, or attempts to take off in 3rd haha.  
 

 

 
This is what happens when I try to force the synchro rings back together against the spring clips.  
These little blocks are the things that locate the inner and outer synchro rings, and the things you hear "click" as you change gears
 

 

 
So the gearbox is half pulled apart again. 
 

 
I also delivered the new front windscreen and seals ready to be installed. from the body work point of view, the car is finished. I just have to install the driveline and suspension to get it rolling, bring it home, and assembly can begin. 
 

 
 
 
 

you are braver than Me.. 
 
 
ah, that's interesting, when i Had My transit and was on fordtransit.org forum, there was a Mk2 being built to tow an escort, had all the Masport signage and i didn't understand why(i wasn't even playing with lawn mowers back then)
 

The van reverse lights are worse, literally just a Hella universal clear lamp. 

I must be an Escort train spotter  .
I noticed the lack of reverse lights straight away.
I presumed you had deleted them on purpose.

I must be an Escort train spotter  .
I noticed the lack of reverse lights straight away.
I presumed you had deleted them on purpose.

i agree, annoys me often on  XR XP etc falcons particularly. 

The body colour behind the grille, wheelarches, wherever else shouldn't be body colour has always bugged me (particularly with brighter colours) on many builds in the past. It's like seeing through to the car's internal organs. Good move to black it out.

Sent from my CPH1920 using Tapatalk

I went and visited the car yesterday to confirm we definitely need to black out behind the grill. We held the grill up to the car, and it looked odd seeing the green behind it. 
 
for the trainspotters, you may have also noticed there was no provisions for the reverse lights. 
this was something that Mark and myself completely missed until we saw it in paint  
the new rear panel did not come with holes for the reverse lights, because early cars didn’t have them (the new panel is technically from an early Mk1 not a late Mk1 like mine). Thankfully there is a twin to my car in the workshop at the moment, so they will make a template off that to then drill the holes in the correct locations for my reverse lights. 
 
Mark also had a little surprise for me. He asked his painter to paint the underside side of the car body colour over the stone guard. I was expecting black, and the colour took me by surprise to say the least. He isn’t charging me for the extra paint because he made the call without asking me. 
he did raise a great point. The stone guard itself would be a turd to keep clean, but now it has paint on it, it will be easy to clean and wash under its belly. 
Am I disappointed about this? Not really. It definitely took me by surprise, and its not what i was expecting, but im definitely going to enjoy the extra detail and cleanliness underneath. 

I also got the 1600 down off the workbench and bolted it to the subframe. Looks a little better than the dirty old 1300 in the background 😬 
 

I had the day off work today, so spent the day on the Escort, and it just got better and better as the day went on  
 
I started the day by getting the 1600 bottom end back together. 
 

 

 
Once that was done, I dropped the flywheel off to be machined ready for the new clutch. 
 
Then spent the afternoon with Rod working on the gearbox. 
We nearly finished making up the jig to weld the shifter in its new location. 
 
We have basically set this jig up so that this conversion can be done with or without the need of the entire gearbox, but rather just the extension housing and shifter rod. 
 

 
Now, for the moment we have all been waiting for (or at least i have ).....
 
IT'S IN COLOUR! 
 

 

 

 

 
I haven't seen the car yet in the flesh. these are just photos that Mark has sent me. 
 
The front still needs to be blacked out behind the grill. 

Today was a good day  
 
I got a preview of the car in colour today. I actually had butterflies in my gut as i walked into the prep bay to check the colour out. 
 
No i didn't take any photos, because they have only sprayed the inside of the boot thus far. 
 
The stone guard coating is done on the underside, colour is going onto the body on monday. the days following will be doors, bonnet and boot. 
 
Once they are all painted, the rear suspension will go back in, because they need the rotisserie for another Mk1 Escort going into the spray booth asap. 
The front of my car will just go on a dolly, because I am still a long way from having the front end and driveline ready to go back in the car. 
 
Also today, I finished spraying the engine parts. 
I started bolting the bits back onto the engine, starting with the fuel pump, and im missing that 1 gasket from the "full engine gasket kit" 😕 so thats a bit of a bummer. Im not sure if i have any gasket material either that I could cut one out of. 
 
So instead, I bolted the steering rack onto the crossmember. It looks so amazing. Its going to be way to clean and shiny to want to drive haha BUT, I am super excited to actually drive it, but will be reluctant to drive it in the rain lol. 
 

yeah so someone had painted it green previously, and did a good job of it. the green wouldn't come off, even with paint stripper. 
 
The blue was a s*** rattle can job, so the green is what stripping the blue revealed. 

That idea has been around for years. Proven upgrade.

That idea has been around for years. Proven upgrade.

Getting close. Looks like a quality rebuild happening here. 👌

I really like how this build is going.
Looking forward to seeing it up close.

Ok I have been a bit slow with the updates. but there is progress  
 
 

 

 

 

 
I also have my engine and gearbox, and front crossmember home ready to be cleaned up, and prepped ready to go in the car. 
 
Stripped the 1600 down ready to get a basic freshen up, and a couple go fast bits   
 

 
i was a little surprised to see the baffles inside the stock sump. 3 lots of baffles in total. not bad for a stock sump. 
 

 
I hate the blue paint on the block, so i started hitting it with paint stripper, to find under the horrendous blue paint, horrendous green paint haha. 
The blue is coming off super easy, the green wont budge. so, im going to keep the green as base coat and go over it with engine black  
 

 
 
Ive also ordered a big chunk of parts, which i pick up tomorrow. 
 
All the engine bits needed, such as full gasket kit, GT/Fast Road camshaft, new followers, clutch kit, 2.9 ratio quick steering rack, water pump, timing chain etc etc. all the service parts. 
 
Its the first big chunk of money ive spent on the car so far, and its a little daunting. I haven't even paid for the panel work yet 😬
 
Fun times ahead
 
 
 
 

Spinny spinny
 

 

 
and yes thats a Fox Body mustang in the background. I had a good look over it last time i was there. very nice car

You can tell when an enthusiast does a job... Just keeps getting better.

Cheers Sparky,
Just thought while I was doing mine it might come in handy for others.
Ford On!

Sent from my S21 using Tapatalk

more progress on the car. Back panel is in, but not welded. just getting things all setup before being welded in. 
 

 
more little imperfections being sorted out.
 

 
factory creases from panel and body joins being smoothed. 
 

 
tonight after hours, we made a start on the underside of the car. got most of it done and prepped. (this was after only a short amount of time) 
Awaiting a conclusion as to how far Mark wants me to take the underside. Or rather, how far I think I should go with the underside of the car. given we got so much of it cleaned and back to bare metal tonight, id imagine another solid day and it will be ready to go underneath. 
 

Ah that sucks I appreciate all the help I've got the converter now, on my way home to try figure this out wish me luck fellas

I'm a bit far away, otherwise I would give you a hand.