Panko

thanks mate. it certainly turned out to be a bigger build than originally expected, but yes there has been little expense spared. I figured I’ll never be able to afford to buy another one, so build this into the car I want. best thing is, its all reversible back to 100% stock if i wanted to.

I spent yesterday afternoon making all the engine bay brake lines not bad for a first timer

This is where I am up to. Progress has been really slow, because I am now back at work, and we are smashed at work at the moment now that restrictions have been all but lifted. This is the driver's side strut complete. I had to get the hubs machined down on a lathe, which I knew was the case, to replicate Cortina Mk2/Capri hubs. Very very little space. I potentially will need to get a tad more off yet. But it does clear and run freely.

Hi guys, I have a freshly built crossflow ive purchased for my wagon. I just need to purchase a few bits to finish it off It didnt come with a balancer. What does everyone recommend for a new balancer? Its running a Crow 14892 Camshaft, which is 215 @ .50 for both intake and exhaust, power from 1800 - 4500rpm. ACL pitons balanced Now im aware that if the engine has been balanced, and it hasnt come with a balancer, would that mean I need to rebalance the engine? TIA

Yes we are lucky. but the shed too is a project in itself. currently it is not water tight, so i won’t be parking any cars in there. there is no spouting on it, so water runs off the roof and straight in above the sliding doors and pulls on the floor of the shed. also isnt the most secure door on the laneway side. so for the time being the wagon is at my parent’s place until the shed is ready. same with the Escort, i won’t bring it here until i know the shed is good to go

It is a shame. We stumbled across the original title to the property yesterday morning, from when it was a vacant lot. signed back back in 1932. so its about 90 years old. We also have the original banking book for the guy who built the house, the original title holder. we found the book under the old carpet when we started the renos. As for the shed, it does indeed have a good shed We have a laneway behind us. the shed runs along the back boundary, and has sliding door access from the driveway, then offset on the opposing side has a sliding door out to the laneway. so I can park the wagon and escort side by side, across the width of the shed. one from the drive, and one from the laneway. The shed internally is about 5.2m W x 7.8m L, and clearance is about 2.2m under the doors. the steel roof trusses are lower, but they are between the door access. that means I can fit my Land Rover Discovery straight in from either side too, if i need to work on that. On the driveway side of the shed, there is also a 1.5 car sized carport. long enough to get my Disco and about half of Elise's Corolla under.

No unfortunately, the project has come to a grinding holt for the last 5-6 weeks. Where I left you all, was me chasing a set of Mk2, 1.3 or 1.6L front struts and hubs, to suit my big brakes. I did not want Pinto 2L struts because my adjustable inserts would not fit, so id be up for around $1000, out of budget just to build front suspension all over again. In that time, my partner and I have spent the last few weeks renovating a house owned by her parents, ready for us to move into. Keep in mind, the house is a 100 year old "bungalow" (the name used to describe the style, not an actual bungalow) house in Box Hill. So that has taken priority. We decided to set ourselves a move in date, and work to that, which was last weekend. So our first night in the house was the 29th of October, last Friday night. And we have not finished with the house yet. we still have 2 rooms and the hallway to renovate and paint, but we can do it while living here. So, where is the Escort at now? Today, I FINALLY picked up a set of complete Mk2, 1.6L struts. From here, I have to build them up, with the new brakes, my inserts, struts tops etc, and then I can take it all over to the workshop and drop the subframe and running gear in, and she will be a rolling car again. hopefully in the next few weeks Ill have this done and the car back on its wheels. The only challenging part is I am still using my father's shed in Berwick as the workshop, so all parts and tools, and spray paint i need for the Escort is about 35-40 minutes drive away from where we are now living. If you ignore the apartment buildings either side and office building behind, this little photo that I edited to make it look a bit older, kind of shows the vintage of the house. The outside is pretty rough, but inside has had a complete makeover.

Dean is on the money but I can't remember the specifics either. I originally bought an XF boss kit for my Ghia, and it worked but i did not have cancelling indicators because no spacer. I got the correct one which is longer to account for lack of spacer. If you get stuck, send me a message on here. I do have the original one i bought, which is for a GL

The best options for these are either the Atlas Diff, which is out of a Capri, and I believe that is potentially the bigger BW diff, but they need to be shortened to fit an escort, or the English axle (mini 9”) which also have off the shelf LSD centres available

No its smaller i believe. these aren’t very strong. My new engine could easily break it if im not careful

Standard aussie borg warner diff

There you go. there isn’t many early Mk1s in Australia. both of mine have been 1972 and this one is 1975. So both BW diffs. on the flip side, the good thing about BW coming on board is we got the Type E 4 speed (single rail) fitted to our cars from 1100 upwards, but the UK only got them in GTs and upwards. Their standard boxes did not have removable bell housings. So our Type E boxes are quite desirable to the UK folk because they are rare over there

Oh look the standard brakes were up the task once upon a time. And I know Ive "over braked" it now. but nowadays parts are hard to get for the P16 brakes, and expensive compared to what I paid for this entire brake upgrade kit. the discs alone new, are more than 1/3 of the cost of the entire brand new brake upgrade. The way i see it, i would always rather have plenty in reserve than on the limit. As i said above, it will get driven spiritedly on plenty of twist roads. We are not far from plenty of mountain roads, big hills. I have previously run the car out of brakes on those roads. I have always wanted to get the car on the track, just to stretch its legs legally. Ive always been hesitant because of killing the 1300 haha. So, I am happy with the brakes. As for the race, you will have to drive to Melbourne first. Your premier will never let us in, so you can come here instead

strange. My original books, workshop manual and lots of other owners of Mk1s in the car club all say the BW diffs are what were fitted to Aussie Mk1s. the RSs got them, and Mexicos got them. in the UK, all Mk1s had the front loading diffs.

Yep thats my feeling too. Also, this car will get driven in the hills. on the twisty roads. Before lockdown, a few of us would get together in the Escort, a classic Mini, a twin cam AE92 Corolla, and go for drives up over the Reefton Spur, up Mt Baw Baw. places where the brakes get well used.

I did have a bit of a win today finally. I cleaned up and restored my reverse lights. New lenses, new lens seals, polished the frames, the reflectors and the housings. Cleaned the rear rubber gasket.

I mean nearly double HP of the 1300 The 1300 would have been sitting around 40-45kw. On paper with the engine specs of my 1600 (1660 actual capacity) it should be producing between 70 and 80kw at the crank. Yeah I will not lie, everyone ive spoken to in the club said I have over braked the car for street use, but it will be nice for the odd track day, or hillclimb event that the car club runs every year, which ive never run in because too scared, to know that i have ample brakes.

I stand corrected. I have some good news. The front struts and hubs do not need to be 2L. They can be any Mk2. Fingers, you were right. 2L struts are larger diameter, 51mm, whereas all other struts are 48mm, same as my current struts. So i will be able to transfer over all my components, springs, shocks, bump stops. only thing i have to change is my bearings and tie rod ends. So the bill to fix this will be a lot less than first expected

They need to be 2L/Mexico/Twin Cam/Capri Mk1 struts They need the larger hubs and the mounting tabs are further out to accomodate the bigger calliper. The English axle in Australia was only fitted to special cars, like twin cam, Mexico, and RS in the Mk1s i thought. standard in Mk2 Aussie Mk1s generally had BW diffs.

Yeah I hear you. I spoke with Mark today when I realised the issue, and he was great with information. and very sympathetic to my problem. Its been a crazy ride so far. I had a self imposed finish date, basically 12 months since the accident, so December this year, to have it finished. And it is still possible. but there is every chance it will blow out passed that, and thats ok. Yeah the 13s do fit. Minimum wheel size is 13" Yep thats cars. And Fords ridiculous engineering. where they change hub, strut, stub axle, across different models, hence forth why im in this predicament. Its getting to the fiddly and annoying parts, the stressful parts, and I know that it will all pay off the day that I turn the key, and drive it down the street for the first time.

two very good points. 1st point. Yes I definitely could put the original stuff in to get the car rolling. I would not hook the brakes up, because i have to custom make the hard brake line on the strut anyway for the metric calliper fitting. But i could get it rolling yes 2nd point. Thats a very good question. What would have I done, if? I would probably have kept the original equipment for now. I would have kicked myself for not working it out earlier. Id have just done it in stages. got the struts sorts, then the brakes. In saying that, id not want to do it twice. The car is being built, ground up built, so what is the point in doing things twice? do it once, do it right. I do have to laugh as i say that...because the rear end will still be stock standard, and in due time, it will, get an upgraded "english" axle (Australian Mk2 Escort diff). This is because they are basically a smaller version of the Ford 9", and ratios and LSD centres are readily available.

Bloody cars hey *rant warning* This post doesn't start with a rant straight away. So yesterday, I had enough, I was a bit naughty, I went and visited Mark and the car, and grabbed my front struts to bring them home and clean up, and fit my new brakes. All was going well today, until it was not Firstly, I pressed the spherical bearings out of my strut tops, because they were worn and had a bit of slop, time to replace. I called the local bearing wholesaler, and perfect timing they were just placing an order, so I had them by lunch time...only I didn't. They did get 2 x 20mm spherical bearings, but they didn't get the right ones. So the fella was going to investigate more and get back to me. This one originally being from Germany, it isn't a common type, in the sense it is a very high rated bearing. 240kn load rating. apparently that is the hard bit. So I currently don't have useable strut tops until they are sorted. In the meantime, I gave the strut tops a nice polish up. Definitely no pro job, but I am happy with the results. *they speak for themselves * Once I had done that, I started playing with the new brakes, getting them fitted. this is when my day turned to crap So they are big. I dont think I fully comprehend how big they are over the stock brakes... And here comes the rant. I bought these, after being told by, 2 guys who are very well known in the small Ford community here in Melbourne, and abroad, 1 of which owns and runs arguably the biggest parts supplier for English small Fords, in Australia, that this brake upgrade kit would fit standard Escort struts. I questioned it, and they both said yep they see no reason why not. Now, I have been dealing with these guys, and will recommend them to anyone. But I went and spent a good amount of money, on this brake kit, admittedly from a different supplier, also very reputable, for cost reasons, to find out today, first hand, the (bad) intel I was given by two guys who should know better than anyone else, was completely wrong. What does this mean? I NOW HAVE TO SPEND ALMOST AN EXTRA $1000 TO UPGRADE MY STRUTS! Ok, yes, the obvious fix for this is not use the brakes, send them back, keep the stock brakes. But I am not comfortable with that. The original discs, are below minimum thickness, they were not fantastic with the 1300 in there. they certainly are not going to be confident inspiring with a warm, heavier, 1600 in there, with near double the power. Can i replace the original discs? Yes I can. For some STUPID reason, these little, solid rotors, are crazy expensive to buy. like more than 1/3 of this brake upgrade kit, just for 2 solid discs. And for the benefits of these brakes, it was money well spent, but on TERRIBLE BLOODY INTEL So you can hopefully understand I am dam furious. Because to setup a set of struts to suit the brakes, I have purchase the following; - 2L struts including hubs - new inserts. Ill go with Gaz adjustable again to match what ive been running in the 1300 struts. no they are not interchangeable - bearings - tie rod ends to suit the metric taper of the 2L struts - paint to make clean them up So I am angry, and I am still coming to grips with it. Progress had stopped due to lockdown, now it has stopped because I haven't got a functioning front suspension to get the car rolling and out of Mark's shop.

I dont think i have to ask. i can picture it now. and the look on the misses face when she found them in the dishwasher i used rubbing alcohol and giant cotton buds. You know, the type they use for anal swabs

I spent today cleaning up the inside of my NOS Hella replacement headlights. For reference, this is what they looked like before cleaning. This is the second set ive managed to find. I sold the first set (pictured below) onto a mate. For some reason they go white hazy inside when stored their entire life in their boxes. My old orange beast. I do miss that colour sometimes

The brakes are from Smcka Performance. Yes the business name is spelt like that without the A