My Mk 1 Escort

My car started life as a 1.3 Super and was registered in early 1968 so could be one of the oldest left.  It came with 30 MOT certificates and the original hand written log book.  I managed to haggle the owner down to £175 and I have made that money back (and more) buy selling the parts I didn't need.

The first stage was to replace the sills and front floor pans which took me a while as this is my first restoration and I have had to teach myslef to weld with a bit of help from some friends and Tim from TJ Motorsport.

The next job was the front panel which didn't really need replacing, but was a square headlight type, and I wanted round headlights.  I wrongly thought that changing the front panel would have been quicker than cleaning off all the surface rust (the panel was not very old and had obviously been replaced, but poorly painted) from the old front panel.  In the end I am very happy with the new front panel so I can't grumble.

It was then on to the usual strut top rust and wing rails.  The drivers side strut top was very rotten, but was still the original as it had the chasis numbers on it.

It was then onto the bubble arches (covered in it's own page).

Many other repair have been done

Drivers strut top was the plated original, but had to go.

Both front floor pans were rotten and replaced

A few plates were needed and the new sills were eventually capped off.

The engine bay slowly starting to take shape.  Note the strengthening gusset by the bulkhead and the battery tray has been removed.

All in all the shell is a good one and many people have to do a lot more to restore their cars.  The car had been painted with red oxide all over that had done a good job for 30+ years.  The crossflow was leaky (as always) but the oil had help preserve the engine bay and underside.  The car was also quite well undersealed which had done a good job, but is a pig to remove!

More to follow