Escort Mk2 RS2000 Custom resto

[Oldbloke]

Astonishing work. Great respect for your workmanship. Please feel free to come and give me a hand ....

[jimmer]

Thanks very much for uploading all the photo's. Some highly skilled work there, agreat job being done!

[wetandwindy2]

got to agree thats some serious but very neat work going on there

[prs]

Wow

You have done beautiful work so far, very neat sheet metal & welding.
The only one thing Ford were consistent in was rust! ,all rotted in the same places.

I thought my resto was bad before I started but thats taking some work. I took the easier option & replaced the front end.

Keep up the work and keep us posted. look forward to this progress.

Robert

[lynx]

Fantastic work more please!!

[redwizz]

Quick update on the RS2000 resto. This week I have been concentrating on getting the metal work finished on the bonnet, boot and doors. The boot has been replaced with a good second hand part, which only needed a small dent removing and a quick DA down. The bonnet need a bit more work mainly around the inner frame and the underside of the bonnet skin. The driver’s door has been replaced with a second hand part, which needed the bottom corners repairing, and a new door skin fitted (forgot to take any pictures). The passenger door has been replaced the second hand part also but needed a little more TLC.




Seems this door had a nice coat of white paint on it but unfortunately it was the kind of paint you would put on your skirting boards not on your car!









The repairs..
















Put the car on the rollover jig so will be starting the underside next week…

[redwizz]

Took a few weeks off from the Mk2 resto to catch up with some other work I needed to finish so now that’s all done lets get this Mk2 back on the road.

Finished of the n/s/f suspension strut and completes the work on that side of the engine bay.




Now for the other side. I cut out some sections of rust in the inner wing and found the inner chassis rail strengthening was in poor condition so all this had to be replaced.

I made the replacement strengtheners from 16 SWG steel, bent a flange on each edge and welded it in.







then repaired the inner wing.





The body strengthening kit turned up in the post so I made a start fitting the parts.




The old girl is really coming together now and the shell has regained its structural strength so the next job will be to weld the front end on and mount the shell on the rollover jig so I can start on the floors.

The primer, etch primer, stone guard etc has been ordered together with 5 litres of midnight blue. I am really looking forward to seeing the car in paint.

[redwizz]

Had a bit of a mission fitting the new struts and reinforcement angles today so its been a long day. First thing was to tidy up the struts themselves i.e getting rid of the ripples on the flanges.




Then getting the struts to fit the profile of the inner wing and making the reinforcement angles to fit the struts.





Then spot weld the whole assembly together.






Then fitted into place ready to weld to the car.

[redwizz]

Bit more done to the old girl.

A bit of a rethink on the near side inner wing. On first inspection of the near side suspension struts all seemed salvageable but after dressing the inner wing to remove some dents it was found that the reinforcing plates fitted to the bottom of the struts had rusted beyond repair and sections of the inner wing needed attention so quickest way would be to remove the lot and replace with new steel.



I decided to remove a large section of the inner which got rid of most of the rust and a load of unwanted holes someone had drilled to mount an alarm system. Luckily the chassis rail and all its inner strengtheners were in good shape.



Rust treatment



More patches…




Had to put a bit a form into the next patch to match the inner wing profile.




Finished of by drilling the holes of the brake lines and a little paint to stop the rust before spot welding.





Finally tack welded in place.



Tomorrows job is to fit the new struts…

[redwizz]

Bit more done…

One more hole to fill in the passenger floor


Template made


Patch cut out



Angle of the floor section checked


Bending to suit



Trimmed and welded in place

[redwizz]

Bit more rust replacement management…

Fitted the corner patch for the passenger floor. Still needs a bit of grinding..



More patch work. The passenger side of the bulkhead was really bad.






Couldn’t find anyone supplying the ‘Z’ section reinforcing brackets that attach to the bulkhead splash shields so made my own…

Old one


New one


Spot-welded to the panel


Panel cut in and tack welded into position




one more patch to make tomorrow to finish the passenger side.

[redwizz]

Bit more done today.

The bulkhead supplied was cut from a donor so some repair work was need on the edges and then it was welded into place.










Test fitted the bulkhead splash panels a found that one was shorter than the other! More work…




Lucky the donor bulkhead supplied had a dashboard in good condition still attached but because it was out of a ‘lesser’ Mk2 I had to cut out a hole for the glove box. lol



Finished of by making a corner patch for the passenger floor.





more tomorrow…

[redwizz]

Next was to remove the bulkhead top panel and start patching the bulkhead and gearbox tunnel. I wanted to make it look as original as possible and not like a patchwork quilt.












A goodish bulkhead top panel was found but needed a lot of prep work to fit.





Then a test fit of the outer panels just to make sure everything is still straight.

[redwizz]

Some more pictures...









A second hand A post was supplied. Not in the best condition but I’ve got a welder and a big hammer.







Now get graft it in to the car

[redwizz]

Hi,
After being made redundant in 2009 in decided to start working for myself. Lucky I already had a workshop that I used to tinker about in doing my own projects so I was all set. I rebuilt a few engines for people and done the odd service here and there then In August 2010 I was asked to restore an Mk2 Escort RS2000 custom, which was described as being one step away from being broken for spares.

This particular vehicle had been brought as a project to restore by the pervious owner but unfortunately due to other commitments he never found the time to give it the attention it needed. So for some fourteen years this car stood under a lean-to with the passenger side exposed to the elements before the current owner stumbled across it and decided to bring it back to its former glory.

I hope you enjoy the pictures

Arrival

I took delivery of the RS2000 Custom. It arrived on the back of a transporters and at first glance didn’t look to bad so it was pushed into the workshop for a closer inspection.






Initial inspection

Once under the lights of the workshop it was easy to see which side of the car had seen fourteen winters and fourteen summers. I removed some of the outer panels to find the shell was in bad shape with the worst of the rust on the passenger side but lucky the chassis rails were in surprisingly good condition. After I report my findings I was given the go a head to start work but I could see that this was going to be a major restoration inside and out.













Strip out

The vehicle arrived at the workshop has a complete car and with a boot full of spare parts the pervious owner had collected over the years but had never fitted. The escort was stripped down to a bare shell and a list of replacement panels and parts was made.







Engine Bay

It was decided that the engine bay was the worst part of the vehicle so that’s where I started. Due to the availability/lead time of some panels I would have to replace what I could with new panels and fabricate the rest. I removed the wings, front panel, slam panel, battery tray, radiator mounts and front cross member. Apart from the tops and front edges the inner wings seemed to be in good condition so replacement tops panels were ordered.




The front suspension mounts and chassis rails also looked serviceable but sadly this could not be said for the bulkhead. The top of the bulkhead on the passenger side had rusted through and the drivers side had some poor repair work carried out at some stage this will require and new or second-hand panel.






Once all the old panels where removed a jig was made to relocate all the new panels and hold everything square.











Front bumper mounting lugs and front edges patterns were produce using my CAD system. The patterns were transferred to mild steel cut out, formed and welded into position.










more to follow...