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Panko

Panko's Mk1 Escort (Round 2)

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Woo. 

Tomorrow I will have some progress photos. I am going to see the car in the morning before work. 
What I know is the back panel has been cut out, so that will be interesting to see, and the front left ¼ panel they ended up repairing instead of replacing. apparently spent a solid days work on it to get it properly straight, all the bog removed and currently in bare metal. 

 

There has been phone calls back and forth over the past couple weeks just figuring out more and more details. I think my bill from the panel shop is going to be higher than i originally intended, but i cant help myself, asking them to do extra stuff 😬

 

They are going to roll the guards, so my 13x6 steel rims will hopefully fit. they have a lower offset than my alloys, so they are going to stick out about 10mm further. by rolling the guards i should have no issues with clearance. 

 

They have also inspected the chassis, on the driver's side where my front leaf spring eye is on the chassis. Its always been in the wrong spot, appears to have been welded in the wrong spot from factory. 10mm further back, hence i have always run offset pinned lowering blocks. well, they are going to fix that also, and get the eye mount in the correct spot :D 

 

Mark has given me free rain of the workshop, so i can come and go whenever i like if there is anything id like to do underneath the car, especially now while its in the air. He suggested i spend some time over there getting the underside cleaned up and body deadened/stone guarded. 

 

On the gearbox front, Rod ( @2redrovers) helped me finished cutting the extension housing. I have spent some time getting it ready to be welded, but since then, I have been flat stick at work. I am temporarily filling a management role at work until march, so in an office from around 10am until about 5pm every day. makes progress very very slow :(

 

In the mean time, I have also had the alternator on my LR Discovery 2 spit the dummy, so have spent the last couple nights after work getting that ripped out, and hopefully will have the new unit in, and car running again tomorrow night. So i have been without my daily driver too. 

 

Anyway, ill grab some photos of the car tomorrow to share with you guys. Im kind of excited to see the progress, but super nervous about it too 😬

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2 minutes ago, Fingers said:

It's one of those situations where you are better off going the extra mile

 

 

absolutely. and I am keen to continue to approve more work on it. 

 

at the end of the day, as long as the shell is in perfect condition, if that is where all my budget goes, just into the shell, im fine with that. the extra stuff like engine upgrade, steering rack, brakes etc, can be out of pocket in the future. 

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I went and saw the car today. It was pretty surreal to see it stripped down now with glass out, the rear panel been cut out, and see some bare metal. 

 

to put a bit more pressure on me, i said to Mark im not sure how i will go fitting the engine and gearbox without scratching the new paint in the engine bay, to which he said, HE would much prefer me to fit the driveline there at his workshop, with the use of his hoist, by dropped the subframe out, putting the engine and box on that, and lowering the car down onto the subframe, how they were built from factory. BUT, that means I have to find a 1600 before the car leaves the shop 😕 

I have also been given free run of the workshop. I am picking up a key and alarm code from Mark on friday night, and a couple of us are going in on saturday to clean up the underside of the car, to get ride of all the oil, dirt and surface rust, so they can spray the underside in subframe black. filthy work, but it needs to be done. 

 

¼ panel repaired. The reason it was so full of bog was because when it was repaired previously, the shop that did it had use a slide hammer, then never bothered to fix up the spots the slide hammer attached to, so just used bog to smooth it all over. 

 

ifvnUVH.jpg

 

antenna hole is filled. I had told them not to put an antenna into the new guard. when mark told me they had ended up repairing the original guard, i figured they'd leave the antenna hole...nope. 🤣😬

 

S3toFvP.jpg

 

rear panel gone and floor all straightened out again. 

 

jCoi5Q2.jpg

 

0vlBaqC.jpg

 

the one spot of rust in the entire car. the spare wheel well. i thought that would be the case. someone had done a pretty bad backyard repair job in there to try stop it. now its been stripped its brought it right out. 

 

Dzw9tCy.jpg

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you can tell it's not a gemini.. because there is a boot floor that doesn't look like your spare wheel well..

the repairs are coming along fast, guessing you will have to get a move on finding a 1600 with how fast it's moving along. what was the estimate of when it will be finished?

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2 minutes ago, deankdx said:

you can tell it's not a gemini.. because there is a boot floor that doesn't look like your spare wheel well..

the repairs are coming along fast, guessing you will have to get a move on finding a 1600 with how fast it's moving along. what was the estimate of when it will be finished?

 

 

They are expecting they will be ready to paint the outside at the end of the month. 

 

I still have to get a block and the gearbox over there, which is fine, to mod the crossmember mounts right. 

 

As long as Mark is ok keeping the car, i can delay some of the work until i have the bits needed. 

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4 hours ago, gerg said:

Zetec swap here we come emoji12.png

Sent from my CPH1920 using Tapatalk
 

Tempting. I could pick up a Zetec for about $200 from a wreckers. Its all the supporting shit thats expensive. 
 

then again, a built 1600 is well into the thousands 

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Tempting. I could pick up a Zetec for about $200 from a wreckers. Its all the supporting shit thats expensive. 
 
then again, a built 1600 is well into the thousands 

Does the gearbox still work with zetec?

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9 hours ago, 2redrovers said:


Does the gearbox still work with zetec?

 

yep. the bolt pattern is the same from Kent (my 1300) through to zetec. the block is basically the same block, but alloy, and OHC 

 

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yep. the bolt pattern is the same from Kent (my 1300) through to zetec. the block is basically the same block, but alloy, and OHC 
 

What's the cost of supporting systems? Is there a cheaper "stock" way to get it running that you could upgrade later and spread the cost out a bit?

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1 minute ago, 2redrovers said:


What's the cost of supporting systems? Is there a cheaper "stock" way to get it running that you could upgrade later and spread the cost out a bit?

I havent really looked into it in depth. 

 

But I would need a sump from the UK, which are expensive, coolant pipe to suit RWD applications, either individual throttle bodies, twin carbies or a forward facing plenum with single throttle body, ECU. 

 

Mark has just done it to his Mk1 panelvan. 

 

Like i said, engine is cheap. but then there is probably upwards of $2k in parts to make it happen 

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2-2.5k for an engine conversion is reasonably cheap compared to other swaps and the build of a 1600 would take that much easily yes? If you really want to run down that road you just have to supply the engine and gearbox for any mods pre paint and then it goes home on a truck to finish the set up... Just a thought you've probably already had. Question is which block do you actually want?

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2 minutes ago, 2redrovers said:

2-2.5k for an engine conversion is reasonably cheap compared to other swaps and the build of a 1600 would take that much easily yes? If you really want to run down that road you just have to supply the engine and gearbox for any mods pre paint and then it goes home on a truck to finish the set up... Just a thought you've probably already had. Question is which block do you actually want?

 

I love the idea of a Zetec, but i think i do want to keep the 1600 pushrod engine in this car. i am intending to fuel inject it one day, using an injected carby, but for now a carby fed 1600, tuned right is the way i will go. 

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1 minute ago, 2redrovers said:

Probably will.....

 

hmm maybe I see a future build coming on :P 

 

My original (gold) Mk1 which i never finished, was always meant to be a daily driver, and i stupidly didnt jump on an MX5 driveline into escort conversion when I had the chance, to turn the gold nugget into a reliable modern daily. 

 

 

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It will probably have less rust by then too. No one wants it looking the way it is (too scary) and I'm not desperate to get rid of it, just a bit impractical having so many cars crammed in the shop. That won't last forever and I'll eventually tinker with the bodywork. I've had silly half thoughts about replicating the chassis in thicker stock so it still looks original but is way stiffer.

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fecking cars...or should i say, fecking english cars 

 

DcywFuw.jpg

 

quick connector for return fuel line broke and popped off...thankfully low pressure, but diesel everywhere 😕 

 

Hijj69h.jpg

 

9HDXOyw.jpg

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yep. the bolt pattern is the same from Kent (my 1300) through to zetec. the block is basically the same block, but alloy, and OHC 
 


I remember my brother had a Ford Ka for a while, they basically run an injected Kent motor from I found about it. Wasn't a particularly fast car but was great on fuel


I havent really looked into it in depth. 
 
But I would need a sump from the UK, which are expensive, coolant pipe to suit RWD applications, either individual throttle bodies, twin carbies or a forward facing plenum with single throttle body, ECU. 
 
Mark has just done it to his Mk1 panelvan. 
 
Like i said, engine is cheap. but then there is probably upwards of $2k in parts to make it happen 


$2k in parts is cheap
I paid almost that just for the ZF6 to LandCruiser transfer adapter

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10 minutes ago, Mr Polson said:


 

 


I remember my brother had a Ford Ka for a while, they basically run an injected Kent motor from I found about it. Wasn't a particularly fast car but was great on fuel emoji23.png




$2k in parts is cheap emoji23.png
I paid almost that just for the ZF6 to LandCruiser transfer adapter

 

Correct. The KA runs a Kent engine. Sadly produced less power and torque in the KA than in stock form in a Mk1 Escort 😂 

in the UK they used the Kents also in the original Mk1 Fiestas. I wish we had them here. 
 

yeah well some of us dont work full time. And had 8 months of no income last year :P 

 

i know $2k is cheap. 
im looking at the prospect of $5k for transmission, transfer box and clutch rebuild in the Disco 

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