Panko's Mk1 Escort (Round 2)

[deankxf 20,288]

1 hour ago, Panko said:

so for now I am going to say that if I can drive it out my shed under its own steam, for its first test drive by Christmas, it will be the best Christmas present ever.

Great to see an update! definitely good progress and a good plan. 

that cable end kit looks a great idea

 

[Panko 2,480]

Update time

 

Reassembling the the heater box, the last thing i had to do was fit the tiny little circlips that hold the main flap shaft in. Well I snapped the second one, and didn't have another. So I went through my R/C stuff, and ive got loads of body clips. so I mangled one and used it to replace the circlip

 

 

So here is the heater box finished. All new foam. Im pretty sure this thing will work better than it ever has

 

I didn't bother to paint the top lid, because as far as im concerned, now with the new seal once its back in the car it shouldn't leak, shouldn't continue to gather surface rust. plus its not seen. 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, the radiator 

 

I pressure tested, and painted the bigger radiator, and got it installed this afternoon. looks right at home in there. its definitely big. 

 

 

Ive removed the grill again to do a list of things up front. 
I need to install the other headlight, and wire both of them up, paint and install the horn, and fit the front number plate. I use nut and bolt through the front panel, and once the grill is in, I can't install the number plate. 

 

[Panko 2,480]

The heater box is in after a bit of stuffing around, and the cooling system is all hooked up. 

 

I ended up having to add an extra 12mm thick run of neoprene foam to the top of the heater box to seal it against the body of the car. the replacement seal that i bought from the UK, was miles too thin, and when bolted up, there was a decent gap between the heater box and the body of the car. 

 

Heater hoses are all hooked up. 

All the vents tubes are in as well inside the car, so I can start tidying up the wiring under the dash. 

 

Getting close to starting it. 

all thats left is to mount the coil, add water and fuel, and i need some hose for the brake booster and PCV so there are no vac leaks. 
I also know the jetting in the carby is all wrong, because i had it set for the 1300. but i should be able to idle it and run it in. 

I have had the engine running previously, so it will for now 

 

[Panko 2,480]

IT RUNS! 

Thats right, it fired up first go, but did have trouble getting fuel to it to keep it running. *see video below* 

The video below is as I cranked it the first time. 

 

 

Now for the bad news...

The radiator has a major leak. It was fine when I pressure tested it, but I wonder if the pressure test caused a week join to open up  

 

 

 

 

 

[deankxf 20,288]

1 hour ago, Panko said:

IT RUNS! 

Thats right, it fired up first go, but did have trouble getting fuel to it to keep it running. *see video below* 

The video below is as I cranked it the first time. 

Woo! 

radiator leak accessible? might be an easy repair for a radiator shop. 

 

got to love it when it starts easy and runs smooth 

[Panko 2,480]

2 minutes ago, deankxf said:

Woo! 

radiator leak accessible? might be an easy repair for a radiator shop. 

 

got to love it when it starts easy and runs smooth 

 

I haven’t found where its coming from. 

 

the next step will be to remove the radiator and pressure test it again to try in point the leak. 
 

It must be a decent leak, because its leaking without any pressure in the system. Literally filled it with water, came back a few minutes later and water everywhere 

[Panko 2,480]

Well I have the radiator out of the car again, pressure tested, and found the leak. 
The strange part is, that after a few minutes of being under pressure with the pressure tester on, it stopped leaking, and began to hold constant pressure. 
 

So I will pressure test again and go from there. I think unfortunately it will need to be recored. 
 

In other news, I have the car booked in for its exhaust to be made in a couple weeks. 
 

And I also have all the exterior lighting working, and the boot interior light. 
 

The restored and LED retrofitted reverse lights should hopefully be more than bright enough. 
 

The NOS H4 Hella headlights are in and working well. I fitted the globes that came with them, still brand new in their boxes. Old Philips 55/60w globes, that are god knows how old, but new in box. Wonder how long they’ll last. 

 

 

 

Boot light is working also. 
 

[Fingers 463]

The Philips globes should last really well.

Great product.

[Panko 2,480]

well its been a month since the last update  

 

Whats happened in the last month? 

 

I looked into getting the radiator repaired. It will need a complete re-core, which was going to set me back over $600, thanks to the cost of copper at the moment. I just can't quite justify that at the moment, especially after paying $250 for the unit originally. One day I will get it done, but at the moment I think im just going to keep that aside. 

In the meantime, many of the guys from the RSOCV, rave about the cheap eBay alloy radiators. so at this stage I am probably going to take a punt on one, and see how it goes. for about $200 delivered, i could get a few years out of 3 of them before i have spent the some coin on re-coring the copper unit, which given its age could very easily spring a leak elsewhere in 12 months time. 

 

For now, I have the original 1300 radiator in place, just to keep me going, so i can start and move the car around. 

 

Its a little smaller than the upgrade behind it  

 

 

I fitted the original front seat for now just so i can move it around. 

 

 

Got it out of the shed, around into the driveway to wash the 12 months worth of "barn" dust off it, ready to go in for the exhaust 

 

 

Grill back in, number plate on the front, and it looks finished at the front. well it basically is, but i do need to remove the grill to do one more task that i forgot about. 

 

 

 

Next, it was ready for the exhaust. 

 

This was a fair challenge getting the trailer down the driveway. 

I decided to load the car onto the trailer the night before it was going in for the exhaust, because the shop doing the job for me was about 45 minutes drive from home, and they wanted the car by 8am.
The trailer track width was wider than my driveway, so ran down the grass both sides, and bulldozed some of the bushes down the LH side with the mud guards  

 

 

The Escort on the trailer, fits under my carport comfortably, so once the trailer was loaded i backed her up under the carport to keep it out of the rain. 

 

*race tape on to protect my headlights from any rocks coming off my tyres on my Land Rover* 

 

 

The exhaust shop who did the job absolutely nailed it. Exhaust Fix in Lillydale if any Melbourne people are looking for a good exhaust shop. His freshly restored XD ESP maybe a known car, "RAREXD" is its plates. 
Mick did a 2" system from the headers back to a high flow muffler right before the diff, with a flange upon my request before the diff, to a resonator in the tail pipe. The flange is there in case I want to make it a little louder, he will make up a straight pipe at the back for me. 
The workmanship is spot on, and it sounds perfect. 

Has the perfect little raspy crack to it while not being too loud. 

I can not wait to drive it properly on the street to hear it. 

 

 

 

 

Preparing it for cavity wax and rust protection, Ive been trying to wash out what ever is left of the years of dirt built up in the cavities that are hard to get into. 

after all this time, its incredible how much shit is still coming out of the sills and chassis rails. 

 

 

 

 

Ive been having a bit of trouble getting the car in and out of the shed, because of the step down, onto grass/dirt before the laneway. I bought a pair of gutter ramps, but needed to extend these due to clearance underneath. At the moment this is the solution i have, some timber blocks to help reduce the angle of the drop. and so far its been easier to drive it in rather than back it in, due to traction issues on the grass at the bottom of the ramps. nearly impossible to reverse in

Its a work in progress as I come up with a new idea to help. 

 

 

 

Replaced the dash lights with some low output LEDs. including all the warning lights. 

the photo makes the dash look really bright, but its not. that is at full brightness (mine has a dimmer being a 1975 model) 

 

 

The Oil pressure and Alternator charge light (Amber and Red lights at the bottom) are insanely bright now with the LEDs directly behind them. But I am not mad about that, because if i lose oil pressure, I want to bloody know about it

 

 

The upper dash is now all back together. 

I just have to tidy up the wiring under the dash so i can install the centre dash panel back in, which will also give me my choke cable back. 

 

Today I picked up my new kenwood amplifier and 8" sub for the car. I previously was running an amp and sub from a BA falcon with premium sound, because the sub fits in the parcel shelf of the Escort with no mods, but they didn't cut it over the engine noise. 
So I am fitted new Kenwood stuff. The amp goes under the passenger seat, and will power the front door speakers as well as the sub in the parcel shelf. I just have to setup the front door speaker wiring to take signal from an amp instead of the head unit, then tidy the rest of the wiring up and tuck it away, and then the dash will be finished. 

 

 

 

So the car is getting close to being done, but whats left? 

 

Once the wiring and dash it back together, i still have to finish cleaning, rust converting surface rust in any cavity i can get into, and cavity waxing, the inside of the doors, the sills and anywhere else that may be appropriate. 

I have some of the original shitty sound deadening up behind the dash I still have to get out. 

then its clean the floors, install new sound deadening, carpet, seats, and door cards. 

At that point, the car will be complete, but not finished. 

 

I still have to find the jets for the carby which have gone MIA, and jet the carby for a 1600 again, at present its set for the 1300. 

I still have to mount the rear number plate. 

Replace the interior light

Replace the number plate light

Put clear protective film on the headlights

Order, and fit new radiator that will keep the engine cool. (and paint it black. they alloy ones all come polished )

I still have to remove the headers and get them ceramic coated

And, the last biggish one, is i have to get the dizzy regraphed. 

[deankxf 20,288]

great to hear the exhaust went well, and sounds how you like it, i'm always nervous getting something new on that i hadn't heard before. 

 

can you chuck some rubber backed carpet on the grass/gravel for better traction and roll it up afterwards (use it in the garage for comfort even?) 

[Panko 2,480]

2 minutes ago, deankxf said:

great to hear the exhaust went well, and sounds how you like it, i'm always nervous getting something new on that i hadn't heard before. 

 

can you chuck some rubber backed carpet on the grass/gravel for better traction and roll it up afterwards (use it in the garage for comfort even?) 

 

rubber mats even may help. thats not a bad idea. 

 

Im also considering welding up a ramp of some sort that bridges the entire gap from the shed slab to the laneway, which is about 1.3m. at least then it would be a gradual and linear ramp down the entire way. 

[Panko 2,480]

Something else I forgot about was the front corner bumpers. 

These are reproduction units, and they are already pitting and starting to rust from under the chrome plating. I have spoken to the local supplier, and he is happy to help me sort something out, but so bloody annoying, that these were brand new, and only been on the car, in dry storage for less than a year. 

 

 

[hendrixhc 10,920]

The ebay alloy radiators work fine. Ive had one in Lucy Lu for over 5 years without any issues.

[gerg 10,871]

The ebay alloy radiators work fine. Ive had one in Lucy Lu for over 5 years without any issues.

Yep +1 on this. I could have bought 3 of them for how much it would cost to re-core my factory one

Sent from my CPH2273 using Tapatalk

[Panko 2,480]

Well Today marks 3 years since the Escort was written off. 
 

So where is the car at? 
 

I’ve actually gone backwards a bit. 
The front bumpers are off again, because of rust that was coming up from under the terrible chinese chrome plating. The supplier is looking at getting them done again locally for me at his expense. 
 

The extractors are off getting ceramic coated, I should have them back in a week or so. So at present the car is not running and on stands with the exhaust also on a stand so the car isn’t going far any time soon. 
 

On the flip side, I went and spent a good chunk of money on it during the week, picking up new underlay come sound deadener. 
I went to Car Builders, with the intention of grabbing the adhesive stuff, but having a good chat with someone I know who runs Car Builders, what I wanted is a new product they have released only in the last 12 months, which is a carpet underlay which is hard backed on one side, and then the other side is about 20mm thick acoustic/deadening foam. It just has to be cut to shape, and lay it in. The underlay weighs about 4kg, so won’t need to be stuck down, its own weight is enough to stay in place, plus the carpet on top. 
Its nice having contacts within a company such as Car Builders. Andrew is a hell of a nice guy. Rod and I helped him with a gearbox for his Mk1 Escort, and in return gave me a mad discount on the underlay, and threw the templating sheet in for nothing. 
 

I also got a full set of bailey channel for the door glass. 
 

So with today being a bad omen for me, I refuse to go anywhere on this day every year. I’m not kidding, I have previously even taken a day off work if its during the week so I don’t need to leave the house. 
 

Today I intend to set myself up in the shed, finish the rust protection in the bottoms of the doors, hopefully get the bailey channels in, and come up with a plan to mark out the floor pan onto the template sheet supplied by Car Builders, to then transfer over to the underlay and cut it out to be installed in the car. 

[bear351c 10,270]

Progress is still going forward, not backwards, mate.  Will be interested to hear how you get on with the Car Builders underlay, could you put up some pics/info when you get around to it.?  Thinking of getting some for the XA, (which is going real slow too.!)  Sorry to hear the bumpers have crapped out.!  Chinesium chrome plating I'm guessing....

[Panko 2,480]

17 minutes ago, bear351c said:

Progress is still going forward, not backwards, mate.  Will be interested to hear how you get on with the Car Builders underlay, could you put up some pics/info when you get around to it.?  Thinking of getting some for the XA, (which is going real slow too.!)  Sorry to hear the bumpers have crapped out.!  Chinesium chrome plating I'm guessing....

Oh yeah ill definitely put photos up. 
Apparently it cuts easy and is easy to work with. And being underlay, it doesn’t matter if a small mistake is made because its hidden. 
 

Yep the bumpers are manufactured in china. Been on the car 6-8 months, prior to that they were in their sealed boxes. And yeah already rusted. 

[deankxf 20,288]

2 hours ago, Panko said:

So with today being a bad omen for me, I refuse to go anywhere on this day every year. I’m not kidding, I have previously even taken a day off work if its during the week so I don’t need to leave the house. 

that's what My cousin did, had an near death car and motorbike accident a year apart on the same date or very close to it, didn't go anywhere that week the following years. (i wonder what that date was, it was around this time of year)

 

 

2 hours ago, Panko said:

On the flip side, I went and spent a good chunk of money on it during the week, picking up new underlay come sound deadener. 

that sounds like what the LTD/Ghias etc had back in the day, 

 

as bear said, any progress is progress. doing well just getting out in the shed even. 
who's doing the re chroming? any idea what that would cost assuming they don't need to fix dents etc. 
i wonder if the company would be better off shipping the un finished chromed stuff from china and finishing them here. 

[Panko 2,480]

I’m not actually sure who the supplier has lined up to do it. 
 

Taking a wild stab, being only small bumperettes, id imagine $100-$150 a piece. 
 

I’m sure they could ship the bare bumpers here to be chromed, however it has to be a cost of thing. All about making as much profit as possible, over making a quality product. Sad world we live in, but its reality  

[Panko 2,480]

I got the extractors back from the ceramic coaters. 

 

They come up awesome. 

 

 

 

I ordered a new radiator from eBay. 2  core alloy, equivalent size to the Cortina copper one that i got that leaked. Fitted perfect other than 1 little mod. 

 

 

 

 

Its actually a little tighter fit than the Cortina radiator. 

 

 

 

It looks alright, but I have decided to spray it black, so it takes less attention away from the engine. 

 

 

Passenger doors are finished. 

New bailey channels, rust protected. 

 

I just mucked up the positioning of the rear door handle. It should be at roughly 2 o'clock, not 6 o'clock like i put it  

 

 

 

 

Next thing to do will be the driver's side doors. they are rust protected, just need to fit the new bailey channel, then fit the door cards. 

 

 

[Panko 2,480]

I got the driver's side doors finished

 

 

 

 

I needed to make a bracket for the overflow bottle. 

the engine bay is getting pretty tight, so trying to find a spot for it is a bit of a challenge. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible. Below is what I came up with. 

 

It has a "U" shape in the bottom for the bottle to sit in, and it bolts to an existing Horn bolt. Neither the bracket or bottle touch the body of the car anywhere, except for where the bracket is bolted in at the top. 

 

 

 

 

And to hold the bottle still, i used a velcro strap. simple. 

 

 

Painted the radiator black and reinstalled. Im much happier with it being painted black, really suits the car. 

 

 

 

I got the chance to paint the battery clamp today, so for the first time since its been off the road, the battery is clamped back in the car properly. 

 

I've come to the realisation that, the car is very close to being able to be driven on its proper maiden drive. So, while I have this week off work, I am actually planning to have the car out for its maiden drive by New Years Eve on Sunday. 

 

To make it legal to drive, i have to do the following;

 

- rear rego plate

- rear view mirror 

- wiper arms

- driver's seat belt. 

 

the things i WANT to get done before i drive it, to stop double handling; 

- dash wiring tidy up

- install centre dash panel, which includes my gauges and choke cable and wiper switch

 

I will be over the moon if I can take it for a drive beyond the end of my street, by the end of this weekend 

 

Watch this space. 

[deankxf 20,288]

somehow missed last weeks update, 

radiator looks much better in black, you've been doing very well to get all the little things sorted and back on the car, well done indeed!

 

good luck on the first drive, make sure the simple things are done prior (i've driven off with radiator hoses loose, and loose wheel nuts etc before after a long time project. )

 

 

[Panko 2,480]

Well the car is running again. 
Why was it not running?….

 

I did a whoopsie. I blew up my electronic distributor  

 

So in the process of making the bracket for the washer bottle, subsequently removing the coil to make way for the washer bottle, then when reinstalling it, I mounted it rotated differently to clear the brake booster, and when I wired the distributor up, I wired it backwards, flicked the key to start the car, no spark 

 

After doing some testing, sure enough I worked out I killed it  

 

So I’ve reinstalled the original Lucas points distributor, and original Bosch coil from the XF to make it work. 
 

I didn’t set the points gap, fluked the timing, and I believe the last time the points were replaced was when I replaced them on the side of the road when it broke down the day i bought it. 
 

I turned the key, and it started instantly! Like barely cranked, and it came to life. Keep in mind it doesn’t have the choke hooked up either. I’m now thinking the electronic distributor was dying or not doing so well for a while, because it started better than it ever has with the points ignition back in. 
 

 

 

 

 

On an unrelated topic, but bloody funny. 
Ever since ive had the car, the high beam flash feature has never worked, even though the stalk has the movement. Someone told me years ago, that at the time it was some ADR thing that meant the flash didn’t operate in Aus cars, because the wire was disconnected in the stalk. 
well that is a load of shit, because tonight I randomly tried the flash tonight, and it bloody worked  

[Panko 2,480]

Well I did it. 

 

I had an aim to get the Escort out and driving by NYE, during my week off work. 

 

It is not without its teething issues, but all i can say is, wow. 

 

The 1660 with 5 speed drives incredible. the power and torque delivery is really nice and mostly linear. Obviously im comparing to a tired 1300 that was in there. 

 

Giving the car a run onto the freeway, it gets there to 100km/h quicker than it ever has, and with still 2 more gears to go. 

 

The engine has good torque right throughout the rev range, so much so that at 60km/h it will still pull in 5th gear, which is about 2000rpm. at 70km/h, 2100rpm, it will pull up hill in 5th comfortably. At 100km/h, its sitting on 3100rpm in 5th, and cruises just nicely. 

 

Steering 

The new 2.9 ratio steering rack is fantastic. im super happy i did it. the little extra weight at low speeds is so worth it for how much better the car drives now. going round corners, going round roundabouts, it is better in every way. 

 

Brakes

They still need time to bed in properly, but they pull up really good. can't wait to have them bedded in properly. 

 

Radiator is doing a dam good job. i haven't seen it climb to half (normal) temp at all. its keeping the temp perfect. even on the freeway at prolonged higher revs, no problem. 

 

 

 

Now for the BAD

As you will see in a photo of the dash below, the oil pressure is leading low, way too low. 20psi. and it does not move. 

I managed to find a record i took from when I started the engine for the first time about 18 months ago, where I had hooked up my oil pressure gauge. at the time it was holding a solid 38psi. so now why does it only hold 20psi? 

Potentially one of two things;

1 - the relief valve on the oil pump is stuck open and is not allowing it to build oil pressure, or 

2 - the oil pressure is fine, and the sender for the gauge is faulty. 

 

 

Fuelling - 

The car obviously needs a tune. it drives great, but does have a bit of hesitation at certain RPM and part throttle positions. at WOT, its fine just pulls. 

 

I also feel like im missing the last 1000-1500rpm in the engine. winding it up onto the freeway, going through the gears, as soon as it hits 5000rpm, the sound changes, the engine gets louder and more "rattly"? This adds to the concern of the low oil pressure, that perhaps that i can't use the top end of the RPM due to low oil pressure. at the moment this is not too much of a concern because it will be rarely driven up there. 

 

Ignition - 

Obviously as you saw in a previous post, I blew my electronic distributor up, so I went back to running the Lucas points ignition setup. it works, but I will be replacing it with something more substantial to keep up with the demands of the larger capacity engine and cam. 

 

 

Enjoy the few pics below. 

I still have a bit of work ahead of me, but I am loving having it driving, and to be honest, it is dangerous how quickly it gets up to speed. i could definitely get myself into trouble

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deankxf 20,288]

1 hour ago, Panko said:

The 1660 with 5 speed drives incredible.

certainly looks amazing with the all the detailing. 

 

i'd definitely be trying another oil pressure gauge asap, stuck on 20 max seems like a gauge needle fouling on something inside?

 

has it got decent valve springs? could it be the 5000rpm valve spring bouncing?