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Panko

Panko's Mk1 Escort (Round 2)

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4 minutes ago, hendrixhc said:

I just use autosol. Cleans them up very quickly.

As for the stripping the paint i wouldnt bother unless it is flaky. I just clean the wheels down with a degreaser and then mask the polished sections and spray withe caliper paint. 2 very light coats to start off. Like a ghost coat, then lay about 4 or 5 thicker, wet coats.

has autosol got a compound to it? or is it just like a thing wax/polish. ive got a Bowens Metal polish which did an amazing job of the chrome bumpers on the car, but its not doing the job i hoped on the wheels. i feel like it needs a slight cutting or polishing compound. 

yeah the paint is flakey. this wheel was the worst for the polished bits, but the best for the painted sections. one of them has nearly no paint left on it. 

ill probably hit them with the pressure cleaner before i go much further to try get rid of the flaky paint. 

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Yeah autosol is a bit like toothpaste and has a really fine grit in it. gets rid of all the sanding scratches.

It does leave a protective film over the metal which you will notice when you go to wash them. Thats why a i used the degreaser and wax and grease remover to remove it before painting.

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has autosol got a compound to it? or is it just like a thing wax/polish. ive got a Bowens Metal polish which did an amazing job of the chrome bumpers on the car, but its not doing the job i hoped on the wheels. i feel like it needs a slight cutting or polishing compound. 
yeah the paint is flakey. this wheel was the worst for the polished bits, but the best for the painted sections. one of them has nearly no paint left on it. 

ill probably hit them with the pressure cleaner before i go much further to try get rid of the flaky paint. 


Is your Bowden's Polish red or blue? They changed it recently and the blue one is much better, and I believe a compound type - it's super fine abrasive according to their website.

Below is what it done on the hose clamps for the air intake on the wagon.
Although it hasn't been able to do much to the snowies on the wagon.1b1771d56b4aa473e49baafaf17ff445.jpg

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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8 minutes ago, Mr Polson said:


Although it hasn't been able to do much to the snowies on the wagon.
 

 

the snowies are clear coated, unless you've stripped them. 

i wondered about clear coating after polishing because i don't want the upkeep of regular polishing.. but how durable is it 

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the snowies are clear coated, unless you've stripped them. 
i wondered about clear coating after polishing because i don't want the upkeep of regular polishing.. but how durable is it 
I've tried stripping them - Ford used damn good clear coat back then.

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

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Ok a little more progress on the wheel(s) 

i wasnt getting quite the result i wanted, so playing with different methods, i decided to go with 1200 dry then 1200 wet before the polish to finish it off. 

The polish, im using autosol as suggested, then buff that, and go over it with the RED (pink) Bowen's metal polish. 

I also discovered working under the fluro lights in the garage is deceiving. They look a lot worse in the garage under the fluros, but in the sun they look much better. 

So they were still looking a little cloudy, which was annoying the crap out of me  

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This is where I got it to yesterday 👌 Nearly perfect. Just going to do a final light sand then polish again, and then paint

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this is from PenLink last weekend. I sure will miss the 15s, but ill get them repaired one day. But ill strip and sell the tyres to cover the cost of the new 13" tyres

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from Small Ford Sunday a few weeks ago 

 

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that wheel is looking really good, i think you'll be happy with the 13s  but keeping the 15s for later is a good idea(i've seen the BMW interceptor style alloys polished on a commodore before, wonder what polished ones look like on the esky)

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Oh yeah i cant wait to paint the black. I blasted all the wherls with the pressure cleaner today to remove the worst of the flakey paint. Im going to have to paint the inside of the wheels also. Originally from factory they are white, the backs of them are in a bad way, so ill need to give them a quick lick of paint also. 

2 of the wheels have previously been painted silver where they are meant to be black. I suspect if they were silver from factory, they have come from a Capri. Makes no difference thankfully. 

I also find kt funny all the build dates are different, like years apart by 1 or 2 years, and they are all early 80s, so mk2 fitment. Considering we only got 16 Mk1 RS2000s here in Australia, I think it's acceptable that these wheels are from a Mk2 (going by build year) 

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So today, being a public holiday, and bored shitless, i decided to go for a bit of a drive in the Escort. 

If I dont say so myself, i seem to have a knack for finding great driving roads :P 

I started at my place in Berwick, headed to Healesville, via Belgrave, Kallista, Monbulk etc, then onto Marysville from Healesville, then the absolute high light of the drive was the drive from Marysville to Warburton :o by far one of the best roads ive driven. Perfect road for the Escort. 

The route in its entirety 

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and the drive between Marysville and Warburton. 

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so how'd the car go? 
pretty good, but when its up the hills like today, im definitely finding what it needs. 

At Marysville, I got under the car and wound the suspension up, basically to double the stiffness i usually run around town on. 
From there I went up the road towards Lake Mountain, then eventually turn off towards Warburton. The road starts off 60km/h, so i sat at that, but then goes up to 100km/h, going into a steep climb. And there in lies the problem. the road was so steep, the poor car wouldnt go any faster than about 60-65km/h, so i was stuck in 3rd, if i dropped into the top gear id nearly go backwards. so here I was stuck in a situation where it was revving fairly hard, but not going anywhere. 
So yes, i got quite frustrated with the lack of power and torque, which I have to expect, but this climb goes on and on for ages, so it was getting not so enjoyable. Once it levelled out and I got the car up in the speed and momentum, the road got better and better. 

its a really well maintained road being the main road up to Lake Mountain, from both Marysville and Warburton, and the corners are perfect for a light weight, nimble car. i was loving it. for about 45 minutes, i didnt see a straight bit of road. absolutely fantastic road. My arms were actually starting to get tired from constantly steering the car through corners, and good speed.
it was great feeling how the car handled with the stiffened up suspension, and feeling the back wiggle around and bog down in corners, as it pushes the nose round. for the most part i stayed in the lane, some of the corners i could see across i would cut across the other lane, but such a fantastic road. 
The road gets a little boring towards the Warburton end, so next time i drive it, or if anyone goes for a drive that way, I would suggest going from Warburton to Marysville. for 2 reasons, 1 you wont hit the steep ass climb up out of Marysville, and 2, the road will only get better the closer you get to Marysville. 

I tested the brakes out on a long twisty descent. I had to pull up to check something (ill explain in a minute), and had noticed coming down this twisty descent the brakes were starting to fade a little. when i pulled up, they were cooked, and I had smoke coming out the front wheels :o 

now why did i stop? Well you know those roads signs "Falling Rocks", well today I fell victim to road side erosion :( I came round a fast left hand bend, put the boot into it up to about 100km/h, and noticed just ahead on the left, i saw a big rock and tree branch coming down the cliff at an awfully fast rate, i got on the brakes hard, and swerved but it was too late. I heard a mighty big bang as I hit the rock, or vice versa. I suspect the rock was clay, and its shattered as it hit the road, as a result some of it bounced and hit the side of the car. thankfully no damage that i can see, but thats the first time ive seen those signs as being accurate. 

 

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great ocean road in the rain you'll see rocks falling with those signs(they were putting netting up in October),  so it might be a thing of the past there now

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Yarra Ranges are a great place to drive, my favourite road the Acheron Way (the C507, Warburton-Narbethong road) is out that way. It's where I took the first decent photos of my panelvan (of which one survives in my post picture signature, see below). If you need more or a challenge, turn right at the Marysville Road junction and tear through the gravel to Woods Point, or onwards down Walhalla Road to the Thomson Dam, it's a great half-day trip. :D

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10 hours ago, thorne said:

Yarra Ranges are a great place to drive, my favourite road the Acheron Way (the C507, Warburton-Narbethong road) is out that way. It's where I took the first decent photos of my panelvan (of which one survives in my post picture signature, see below). If you need more or a challenge, turn right at the Marysville Road junction and tear through the gravel to Woods Point, or onwards down Walhalla Road to the Thomson Dam, it's a great half-day trip. :D

I know the Acheron Way, I drove passed it, at both ends essentially. But it is gravel. The Escort will never see a gravel road for as long as i can avoid it :P 

if i ever end up buying the daily driver I want, those are the sorts of roads id do in the daily. 

Im looking at C5 Audi Allroads, early 2000s. They have a fantastic twin turbo diesel V6, factory 4 stage airbag suspension, and front and rear LSDs, incredible offroad for a wagon based vehicle. And they have good tow capacity. Having test driven a couple, they are a great car, but hard to find one without problems 

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41 minutes ago, deankdx said:

meaning of car life right there

yeah but the difference is, all the common problems with these Audis, are big dollar jobs to fix :( im fine buying a car with a few problems i can fix, but when it means spending the same amount i have purchased the car, to fix issues, no thanks. 
issues like leaky head gaskets onto the turbos. leaky air suspension bags in the front, which are bloody expensive to fix. 

there are a few good ones that come up for sale where the private seller has done all the expensive work like the head gaskets etc. they are the ones to look out for :P 

the only upsetting thing about the Allroads, is the manuals were special order only in Australia. and the manuals had high/low range transfer box with centre diff lock. overseas the manuals were standard, autos were the option :( 

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1 hour ago, SPArKy_Dave said:

fixed! :P

like My mates 2004 volvo XC70 . transmission stuffed $4000 min.. he's in Tassie though.. so no one can do it = garden ornament still on finance (Low Klms though... remind you of any XGs)

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ok, today i polished wheel number 2. I had said the first wheel i did was the worst of the 4. and it was in many ways, but this wheel was a challenge. the general pitting was much worse than the first wheel. unfortunately you dont see the pitting until you have sanded and cleaned the corrosion filling the pits. it wasnt until I hit it with 1200 grit sanding disc that it started to really hide the pitting. if you look close up in person, its well and truely visible, but it shows up nice in the sun and from a distance, so im happy with it for now. 

This is what i was starting with 2nd time round...

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with lots of gutter rash :( 

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I didnt completely get rid of the gutter rash, because most of it was so deep I wouldve had to take mm of material out, so i just smoothed the worst of it off, and polished it up. 

 

This is after the first hit of 600 grit, dry on the drill...

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1200 grit on the drill (lip) and 1200 by hand on the dish. 

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first round of polish done

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second round of polish done, and sitting next to wheel number 1 (right) number 2 on left.
It hasnt come up quite as well as the first wheel, but i feel its down to just polishing now. When all 4 wheels have been done, I will try a foam polishing ball or pad in the drill to do the final polish, these have been done all by hand so far. 

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Ok so whats been happening here? well to be honest, not a lot. 
Life has just been getting in the way. Been having a rough few weeks with personal stuff, and just havent had a lot of motivation to do anything at the moment. Ive started a new job, which has taken over my life at the moment. Im loving it, but its full on. 

I have started pulling apart the escort and fixing the next round of shit that needs fixing. 

Yesterday was the cars last hoorah for a bit. I went on a bit of a (average) cruise yesterday up Mt Maciden and beyond. The entire cruise went all the way to Daylesford, but I was getting a little bit sick of the way it was going, because there were a few stanced out cars that didnt like the rough country roads, so i gave up after lunch stop and went home. 
I got home, washed the car, first time in about 6 weeks, then decided to head to PenLink. turns out a couple RSOCV members had organised a group to go down, so it was good to see some of the guys. 
I left PenLink at about 8pm last night, and decided i wasnt ready to go home, so headed further down the Peninsular, via Mornington, to Dromana, up and down Arthur's seat, then the reverse and home. In total yesterday, i drive the Escort about 410km. big big day for the car, and it for the most part ran like a dream. it got its best EVER fuel consumption of 8.4L/100km, which I am blown away by, considering the cruise in the morning was on a lot of hilly and windy roads, especially going up Mt Maciden. 

heading home last night, the car was starting to get a bit of a missfire, or like it was starving for fuel at part throttle cruising along. give it full throttle it would cough for a split second then roar into life. Im thinking its got a blocked jet in the carby, which I plan to rebuild soon anyway. 

Anyway, today, the car is now off the road. I pulled the culprit of the starting issue out of the car, and I wont have the new one until the end of the next week. so while its off the road, I have a list of stuff to sort out. from front brakes, to rear suspension and anything in between. yeah its starting to need some work. 

 

SO this little prick of a thing, it whats causing the car to struggle to cold start. i managed to pull it apart, and yeah its too hard to repair. so ive ordered a new one. so for the time being the car is sitting out the back under the carport not running. 

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