My '76 RS

[Sepp]

Greetings all, I've owned my 1976 RS Mex/2000 for just over a year now and have done a bit of work to it.
I'll be posting up some timeline shots here eventually.
This car was originally saved by Skids and built as a stage rally car. It was later converted to RS2000 spec and eventually built again to Historic Spec before I bought it.

To start out,
Here's the oldest known photo of the car that I have. Circa 2009?

[Brynmor Pierce]

I recognize that car, was it owned by Mark Francis ?

[Sepp]

That is possible, I bought it from Graeme Powell, whom bought it from Skids That's all I know of it's history.
If you have anything to add, I'd be delighted to learn more.

This picture, just like the previous pic, is taken from the MSA logbook.
It was sprayed yellow for a time (it still has a lot of yellow paint to this day in certain areas)


When Graeme bought the car, (2011 I believe) he added in wide arches..



And had the car sprayed in a Belga themed livery.


It looked very sharp!

[Sepp]

My apologies, I incorrectly dated the piccies of the car, first one is from 1999. And it was redone in the Belga livery in 2003.
Sorry about that!

[Sepp]

To the best of my knowledge, the car went up for sale in either 2011, or 2014 and for some reason was never sold. This is when the car was converted to Historic Spec and had continued to see stage events.





Graeme bought a Chevette HSR and sold this car to me last year.

I had it promptly shipped overseas to its new home in the states.

[Sepp]

It took nearly a month for the car to arrive and I set right in, getting it sorted.



The car started, but ran very very rough, and wanted to stall out on tickover.
I found some issues with the car, and I was surprised that it ran at all!
The cap was missing the conductor pin, so the spark had to jump from the top of the cap, down to the rotor top!


The carbs were in poor shape, in fact one caught on fire.


And the venturi were destroyed, leaving metal fragments imbedded in the filter screen.



I had both carbs rebuilt and after a good while adjusting them to get everything right, all was well. A full tune up and it was running decent again.

[Sepp]

The bonnet was in need of some attention....


So it received a lot of work and some new paint. (2 part epoxy) which closely resembles Diamond White.

It took a bit of wet sanding and more paint to get it to look decent


And when buffed out, looked nice.


The boot had some rusty pots luring underneath the spoiler, so it received the same treatment.





After a weekend of prep/paint, it was back on the car again!

[Sepp]

I had some time during the carb rebuilds to do some more touch up painting of the car, in this case..highlighting the grille.





And doing a bit of a reset in the wheel wells. I started with just the near side front for now..The gravel stages really did some paint damage over the years. Luckily all of the rust was just surface corrosion.
The same 2 part epoxy was used as a top coat.

[Sepp]

Before I even had a chance to wash the car, I spotted some bubbling on the front NS wing.



Being this an old Ford, I wasted no time getting it sorted.

Luckily, it was all just some older body filler coming apart.




And, that prompted a full respray


I used a piccie of a stripe kit for reference and free-taped off the side stripe.






A few coats of black..


followed by a few coats of BRG.

[Sepp]

A full 2 weeks of the car sitting about, letting the paint fully cure.
And then, a full weekend of cut/buff...it all looked sharp.







The car looks transformed with the different paint scheme.


A new set of 8x13's arrived and promptly mounted...and I wasn't too sure about the wheels being silver.



So, a few coats of temporary/peelable gold paint was tried out...I like it better.

[katana]

I wasn't sure the BRG stripe was right for the car ................ but with the gold wheels it sort of works - funny how little things change the big picture!

[Skids]

I had some time during the carb rebuilds to do some more touch up painting of the car, in this case..highlighting the grille.





And doing a bit of a reset in the wheel wells. I started with just the near side front for now..The gravel stages really did some paint damage over the years. Luckily all of the rust was just surface corrosion.
The same 2 part epoxy was used as a top coat.

Hi Sep sorry not dug out the resto pics yet my laptop has died and need a computer to get them off a remote hard drive.
What you found underneath was much better than I did , good to see my welding and plating has held up ok
Will sort you some pics out soon
Cheers Mark

[Sepp]

I wasn't sure the BRG stripe was right for the car ................ but with the gold wheels it sort of works - funny how little things change the big picture!

Thank you!
For sure! I really liked the LoCorts with the white/green..and wanted something like that but not an exact match.
I reckoned it was just paint.
I've never seen another Escort with a BRG stripe.
I'm contemplating a different paint scheme for next year.

[Sepp]

Hi Sep sorry not dug out the resto pics yet my laptop has died and need a computer to get them off a remote hard drive.
What you found underneath was much better than I did , good to see my welding and plating has held up ok
Will sort you some pics out soon
Cheers Mark

Thanks a Million Mark!
She's holding up very well!

[Sepp]

I added a few personal touches to the car...
I resprayed the steering wheel spokes and switch console in satin black..
as well as added in a 12v plug



...reset the NS door, it was a tad droopy.


And (further) customized the door cards...


I filled in the cable grab hole...and wrapped the cards in marine vinyl..


And using the Porsche RS America as an influence, I used some red strapping for an open pull handle.