Announcement

**Dave1800BDA** · 14-08-2010, 22:04

looks nice and shiney when it was cleaned, at least you have everything there, garage looks good too.

good luck with the resto, keep the pics coming

**Chesney** · 14-08-2010, 22:06

keep asking questions on here folks will help you, i bet if someone on here lives near you they will probably come give you a hand!!

looks a very good car, sure it can be sorted just keep at it and don't lose heart when things go a bit wrong.

**vlv991v** · 14-08-2010, 22:45

Thanks guys. I'm sure there will be many many questions to follow.

(can't believe I've been registered on here for 5 years and only posted 12 times, must be a record)

A bit more background for you...

My first car was a 1.1 pop with drums all round (BNA 807T), that was back in 1985 after I passed my test. After that I had various 1.3's and even a 1.6 ghia. Upgraded to a red 1600 Sport (YYW 973T) in about 1986. That was stolen while I was at evening class at college (I heard it wartle off up the road but couldn't leave the lesson). With the insurance cash I bought a white 1600 Sport with bright blue stripes (JEC 773T), absolutely loved that car! I think there's a white RS2 on here a couple of digits away?

Anyway, slummed it for a while after I sold that one as I became a full time student at university. Studies over and in a decent job I was then able to buy a yellow RS2000 (ERW 574T). My stag do (1995) was in fact a week in this car heading as far south as I could get with a couple of mates. We ended up hitting St. Tropez, Nice and Milan, car never missed a beat. Shortly after I was married and took 2 weeks off for the honeymoon, expecting to go for days out in the RS. A couple of days in pulled back the curtains to find no car outside, another one stolen! The joys of living in Manchester!!

Insurance money arrived a few months later and off we trotted to the lakes to buy my present RS (VLV 991V). This car was mint when I bought it. Cleaned and polished at regular intervals. Then in 1998 the little guy (Ewan) arrived and I didn't seem to have enough time to do the good father and the car polishing bit so one of them had to be neglected.

Things went downhill with the RS until my attempt at getting it MOT'd in 2005 resulted in the bloke at the garage telling me it was knackered and basically at the end of its days. It's been in my mother-in-laws garage ever since. Until today!!!! Woo-Hoo!!!!

I really must do a Ruddy style run down of my cars. I really enjoyed reading and looking at that.

**taffr** · 14-08-2010, 22:54

a cut here and a weld there and it'll be good as new, nice reg too, i like that, i find listing the job's and ticking them off keeps the motivation up when it gets cold and wet in the winter, a little bit often is the way to go, don't try and do it all at once, good luck

**vlv991v** · 14-08-2010, 23:06

Thanks Taffr. I know what you mean about the reg. Me and my mates always like to make up words or phrases based on the reg of our cars. My crappy Merc runaround has JSP and so Juicy Steak Pie was born. When my mate first saw my RS though, a millisecond after he saw it, he looked back at me in astonishment, and utter the word, Vulva!

**mk2ddc** · 15-08-2010, 09:40

Heh heh like the number mate. Looks like a good car too. Kepp at it and the pics coming

**mike77cos** · 15-08-2010, 12:20

Looking forward to following this

**south west restorations** · 15-08-2010, 12:59

hi

hi looks a good project .
hope u get stuck in .
just take ur time will and it will fall in to place ..
a have restored a few myself .u cant beat a old ford.
minted cars...........

**vlv991v** · 15-08-2010, 23:07

Cheers guys. Had a few hours pottering about the front end today. I was defeated in the end trying to get the nosecone off. Those bleedin' studs and piddly nuts up at the inside top of the wing are a nightmare. I still have three of them refusing to budge. I can't get my angle grinder up there, I'm guessing I need something like a Dremmel to just cut the things out? I also have three that cease to exist, just disappeared in the pile of rust. The majority of the wing part that is different for the RS2 is pretty much gone on both sides, I think I'm going to have to get a couple of standard wings and modify them accordingly. Anyone done this before?

Defeated by the cone I just spent a couple of hours scraping underneath the front arches. I was fairly impressed with what I found. There was tons of what I can only describe as white rubbery bathroom sealant over all the joints, plus some yellow stuff about 1mm thick everywhere under another 1mm of black underseal.

I finished the day pleased that I found some solid steel under there!

**87cos** · 15-08-2010, 23:17

my mate got wings from express,they look like standard 1`s that have been cut back and a rs section spot welded in.should`nt be hard to do if you can take sizes and templates from your old wings.

good luck with the project,keep the pics coming

**RUDDY** · 16-08-2010, 07:33

If you are going to junk the wings anyway just cut most of it off so that you can get at the nosecone fixings, I speak from much experience.

Secondly if your budget allows go for genuine RS2 wings, they are still about, I used pattern RS's on one car and they were a nightmare, one was too long and one was too short, not worth saving the difference over genuine.

The sealer etc sounds like the genuine article so with luck it should be untouched underneath, always the best starting point for a resto.

All the best, Paul

**graham John** · 16-08-2010, 10:49

good luck with the resto, as said earlier, do a little and often, keeps the motivation going, also plan well ahead for the bits you will need and buy as and when possible

cheeRS

**vlv991v** · 16-08-2010, 12:55

Thanks guys. I'm a long way off buying new stuff just yet. I'm going to be taking the first few months simply taking bits off and scraping at the years of crud. But thanks for the advice - it will be remembered for later.

I have loads of access to the studs and nuts, it's just that they're rusted solid. Saying that, they're not nuts anymore, all the corners have been rounded off during my struggles. I'm going to borrow something a bit more delicate than an angle grinder, or maybe even chisel the things off.

I'll take a load of pictures when I get back in there this evening.

**vlv991v** · 16-08-2010, 22:16

As promised, some pictures. Tell me to stop if it's all getting too boring

.

Passenger side detail showing missing front of wing.

And from the inside, I just managed to get the angle grinder in there but it was bouncing around and I bottled it. Doubt I'll get to the top stud.

Drivers side is pretty much the same.

I actually managed to get the two hardest to reach nuts off. Just the one in the middle that's not co-operating.

So I moved on to scraping the passenger side inner wing. Good bits...

And bad...

And it looks like it's very much the same story on the drivers side. This shows the steel, painted black, the yellow layer??? and then the layer of underseal. Did its job here...

But not here.

Took the sound deadening off the bulkhead top, sure enough, big blob of something put in years ago to stop the water gathering:

Pulled it out of the way to reveal this. Did Ford do this area like this on purpose so that the cars were destined to fall apart?

Finally, had a scrape around the top of the inner wings. When I bought the car in 1995 I was impressed that the wing rails looked to have been done with a neat job, had a little nosey further to find that home made sheets had in fact been lap jointed on using stitch welds and not butt welds. Oh well!

Plenty to do.

Announcement

VLV Black RS2000 Resto/Tidy-Up

VLV Black RS2000 Resto/Tidy-Up

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment