Mk2 mexico project begins....

[wiggyrs]

Awsome work Adrian, love it

[kas750]

Thanks for the nice comments Chaps.
My 6 year old son Joe and i have put a few miles on the mexico over the past week.
Although they are clearly not the fastest car about the performance is more than enough to keep up with traffic.I am so suprised how quiet and refined it is.There is no howling wind around the doors at speed,it's pretty good over bumps,the diff doesn't howl,the gearchange and steering precision is awesome.I am just so really pleased and it is better than i expected.
This morning we drove the 4 miles to chorley to have the tracking checked at my friends garage.
On the way we saw a red mk2 1600 being trailered behind a vectra and then coming through chorley town centre a white mk1 mexico with bubble arches pulled up alongside and gave us the thumbs up..Unbelievable really.You could go months normally around here and not see another Escort.
Serendipity.

[lee bishop]

Lovely, very well done !!

[Andyc]

Thanks for the nice comments Chaps.
My 6 year old son Joe and i have put a few miles on the mexico over the past week.
Although they are clearly not the fastest car about the performance is more than enough to keep up with traffic.I am so suprised how quiet and refined it is.There is no howling wind around the doors at speed,it's pretty good over bumps,the diff doesn't howl,the gearchange and steering precision is awesome.I am just so really pleased and it is better than i expected.
This morning we drove the 4 miles to chorley to have the tracking checked at my friends garage.
On the way we saw a red mk2 1600 being trailered behind a vectra and then coming through chorley town centre a white mk1 mexico with bubble arches pulled up alongside and gave us the thumbs up..Unbelievable really.You could go months normally around here and not see another Escort.
Serendipity.

Adrian, did you see any Chorley Cakes

[rwdrs]

Thanks for the nice comments Chaps.
My 6 year old son Joe and i have put a few miles on the mexico over the past week.
Although they are clearly not the fastest car about the performance is more than enough to keep up with traffic.I am so suprised how quiet and refined it is.There is no howling wind around the doors at speed,it's pretty good over bumps,the diff doesn't howl,the gearchange and steering precision is awesome.I am just so really pleased and it is better than i expected.
This morning we drove the 4 miles to chorley to have the tracking checked at my friends garage.
On the way we saw a red mk2 1600 being trailered behind a vectra and then coming through chorley town centre a white mk1 mexico with bubble arches pulled up alongside and gave us the thumbs up..Unbelievable really.You could go months normally around here and not see another Escort.
Serendipity.

No they aren't bad cars, although I did have wind noise on a Sport I had once. A howling diff is the result of wear and or abuse and yours looks to have been too cared for to have suffered much of either.
The gearchange is possibly one of the nicest ever made (with the RS spacer) very direct but not harsh. Despite the fact that most of the linkages are direct, not totally decoupled like on modern cars, these were standard production cars and never designed to be harsh, so it's no surprise that your Mex is a pleasant drive.

As regards keeping up with the traffic, that's also no surprise to me.
What does it weigh? 800 kgs? The trouble with modern cars is that they are so laden down with wiring and control units that, for example, the Focus weighs nearly twice that, so to get a power-to-weight ratio equating to that of a pinto powered Escort they need to pushing out at least 180 bhp (well petrol cars do).

I've put a standard Ford two box system on my RS, and now you can barely hear it.
I like using Ford parts when modifying, using fabricated parts only leads to a harsh driving experience and poorer quality gear nine times out of ten. I have fitted Series X front struts, not used Spax etc, cos most of the stuff is just rubbish because let's face it these companies don't test the stuff properly, either it doesn't fit or doesn't do the job they say it will

[Class]

Brilliant Job there, your car looks superb and built in such a quick time, well done. I also like your theory on the black underseal underside, probably what has preserved your car for all these years, so makes sense to leave it on and top it up so you don't have to worry about using the car.

[laney]

Adrian, did you see any Chorley Cakes

I diden't see him Andy I was in down town Chorley today Adrian Im glad you and Joe Like the mex Them escorts ar getting popular in Chorley Ive seen that bubbled arched mk1 it looks nice

[emily]

A truly superb job done . You have done an incredible job in double quick time

[mexicocal]

I have just spent the last hour thrawling through this thread.I rstored a RS2000 myself a good few years ago and until seeing this I thought I done a fairly good job awsome job lad well done

[SHIFTY]

Awesome job, looks like new
You must be over the moon, well done mate

[13sport]

brilliant work mate car looks fantastic, a shame i couldnt afford as good a project as yours was. il get there in the end, still scraping 20years worth of underseal off at the moment!

[pinto48s]

Seeing yours done kind of makes me want to put mine back to standard

[Mark Harper]

woooo, great looking car, reminds me of the first Mexico myself and BarnRS went to look at in 1991. situated in a small village off the A303 close to Andover. It was sat on gold Revo's and Goodyear NCT tyres. One of the few regrets in my life not buying that one!

Regards,
Mark.

[Hairball]

Just gone over whole thred again and copied most photos to use as reference im nearly at paint stage now and you adrian have made me go the extra mile in my build i thought it only fair to my car thanks for a brilliant piece of art youve recreated !

[kas750]

Just a word to say a big thankyou to all the people that i met at the lakes this weekend and all the positive comments that i received about the car.It ran faultlessly and was good fun to drive.Although it was a quick project it also seems epic when i look back through this thread.
The icing on the cake was to receive two awards for my work which really makes me proud as it is awarded by people who know their stuff.
I really enjoyed the weekend and was made to feel welcome by members from this board.Thanks again.See you next year...