Guest username Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Dammit, wrote a reply last night but then computer farted and lost it! anyway yeh, nice & easy to clean behind the arch liner now at least haha, scooped a load of mud/sand/salt out of there already! The wings are good on the whole so will just be cutting the bottoms off behind the trim line and either patching or chopping sections from solid wings. Can't believe how clean the car is generally, the only visible damage in the interior is a small stain on the driver's carpet and the rubber mat is worn out (Genuine Ford and been fitted from new though so the carpets are as you would imagine, fresh underneath). Also the rear side trims, like I've seen on a few, the board behind the cloth part has blown and started to push the cloth out slightly at the top. Off to grab my welding gear later today and hoping to have the car MoT prepped by weekend (i'm as shocked as you probably will be with that statement, I was expecting lots of perished rubber and months of engine work too haha). Cheers, Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 (edited) won't let me edit in this bit now!... Engine bay is ridiculous, mainly thanks to the CVH rustproofing system, errr, I mean breather system haha and all I can see it needing in there cosmetically is a good clean and paint of the manifold/heat shield/PAS pump/fan shroud and brake servo, a good thorough clean of everything else and a new retaining lanyard for the oil filler. the Bosch wiper blades, Mahle air filter etc all point out (to my mind) an owner who loved and maintained their car at any cost and with the best they could find. Well happy so far. Edited March 15, 2016 by username Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian71 Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Rear door cards always shoddy,nothing new there ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted March 16, 2016 Share Posted March 16, 2016 Yeh not complaining, seen a lot worse than these. Nearly had a heart attack yesterday when I opened the bootlid to check the spare tyre had stayed up. The alarm definitely works! Poor Ryan (our youngest, 6, who was helping out) ran back inside, I nearly did too but thankfully managed to snatch the key out of the boot and unlock the drivers door before any bricks were thrown by the neighbours After that incident, decided as everyone in the street was already awake I may as well test the immobiliser, so drivers window down & door locked, turn the ignition & nothing... except the alarm again haha so that works too. Speaking of the security system, I seem to remember some sort of "learning mode" on later PATS cars where you tap the bonnet switch until the alarm does a double "pip-pip" and the immob light comes on. Can't for the life of me recall what it was for though, anyway our car has this setup too. Anyone able to tell us what this mode is for? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted March 23, 2016 Share Posted March 23, 2016 Not much to report this week, lack of time & funds is all that's in the way (seems to have got in the way of our club membership for the moment too as the payment never cleared lol.) All I've done is patched the small hole in the N/S sill & resprayed the wiper arms satin black. Got all the cambelt & service gubbins ordered at least and should be ready to book in for MoT sometime next week . Total outlay so far roughly £350. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 New tyres sorted and booked in for MoT tomorrow morning, fingers crossed lol will she be road legal by sundown (if the post office is open, then there's a fighting chance at least.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Well we're back from the MoT with a small failure list. The rear left seatbelt jammed for some reason, suspect a bit of crap in it, and rear brakes were below par, suspect seized wheel cylinders as handbrake is fine and pedal is very firm. Also one part of the load sensing valve was seized but freed off, and OSR pipe from valve to flexi is corroded. Other than that, the tester remarked on how solid the car is generally & hopefully we'll have the retest arranged sometime this week Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian71 Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Not bad,I had three pages on mine lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 Rear wheel cylinders and brake pipe done, offside was seized solid but nearside low braking effort was down to sticky compensator valve. Seatbelt is working to MoT standard (locks on sharp pull) but I had to remove the inertia ball and mechanism (the bit that tries to strangle you during "spirited" driving) as it somehow got chewed up and was causing the mechanism to jam. Will be replacing that as soon as a suitable unit is found. No retest until at least Tuesday though as funds and time are tight. Hoping to get time to change the cambelt for a Dayco one I picked up for 6 quid sometime this weekend, also got a full Dayco kit & Fahren water pump to get fitted to the better half's 206 HDi soon as possible as well (like 7months ago soon!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Had an hour or so free this afternoon so gave the brake fluid an extra flush-through and bleed just to make sure there's no crap left in there, was thinking about starting the cambelt but got into a potato vs jack handle "cricket match" with the boys lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 In for the retest this afternoon, waiting on a phone call from the garage now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 (edited) Finally got some good news after the garage being really busy yesterday, she's scraped through (according to the tester, by the skin of her teeth) with a reading of about 80 for both rear wheels... Tax & insurance (£155 with Lancaster, not too shabby ) sorted and we've had a tentative run round of about 21miles this afternoon. It's becoming more and more apparent how well cared for this car was before being laid up, despite the long enforced rest she drives like a new one with the roof down. A good few rattles & whistles with it up mind, but a new roof skin and a thorough going over of the mechanism/seals is the next major job after rebleeding the brakes yet again... All in all well happy, should've been typing this yesterday really but I guess a good garage can't help being busy. (Saying that, one of the lads is a real know it all, when I asked for the CO to be adjusted he stated that no electronic injection car can have it adjusted without a computer... I smiled and said OK. He also was adamant our ABS is on all 4 wheels though so guess he's just the type). Happy days... Hope to see some of you at a show or two later in the year with a bit of luck. Edited April 6, 2016 by username Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian71 Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 Yea,some of these guys think they know it all lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 Just glad to finally have a year's ticket sorted and have a run round to see how good it is... Can't wait to get some good weather now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest nicholas huntley Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 Great to see such wonderful pictures, inspirational to me to get stuck in! Can we see the interior and the power house? I just bought a Spanish left hander so hoping rust will be non existent, has leaky rad problem but otherwise seems OK. It's a 1.8 CLX, just wondering what is a CLX? Also as I'm a bit new to Escorts, I'm unsure what Mk it is, its 1991/1992 Next time I'm in Spain I'll get started and take pics. please keep us updated on your progress, I'm well impressed! Nick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 (edited) Thanks *blush* lol yep with luck you'll not have the rust to contend with at least. Not heard of the term CLX before so maybe it's a European mainland designation, I would hazard a guess that it means Convertible in LX trim level. There's some photos on page 2 of this thread, but they don't always load for some reason so sometimes have to click refresh on your browser to make them show up. Thanks again for the feedback, not done much lately other than servicing, drive and clean muck out from behind the wheelarch liners but keep an eye out the next few weeks as We'll be changing the roof skin at some point in the near future. Looks easy enough from the pics and guides I've seen but time will tell I guess. Edited April 12, 2016 by username Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Small update, our £15 amp arrived the other day. Installed it and now we have music to some degree (speaker rubbers have turned to chewing gum like they do, so that's on the list in future, works well enough for now though). 260-odd trouble free miles down now and she's still improving, cold starts seem to be better since fiddling with the CTS connector and the roof hasn't suffered much more with the sun warming it before we put it down lately. Still high on the list though for saving money to replace it, as it is embarrassing to be seen with it up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 Oooh, fingers crossed we *may* just have a parts car. Just waiting to see if we can get a trailer in time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Well, trailer and tow car are sorted, just waiting on seller now as they haven't got back to me for days :/ maybe he wants to keep it haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted May 4, 2016 Share Posted May 4, 2016 Not updated for a while, seller of the Ebay one turned out to be a turd who enjoys messing people about so not bothering now, just been to the local steel stockholder and instead of buying some sheet to make new wing bottoms and patch the rear quarter we ended up being given a couple of old electric heaters with more than enough material to be going on with so a small win there. Also today I've had a bit of a faff with the dodgy lacquer on the rear quarter to try make it less of an eyesore. Can honestly say it's the only time I've taken a Stanley blade to a cars paintwork with the end result being prettier than the start! (come to think, it's the only time I've ever taken a blade to paintwork full stop). Managed to scrape a lot of the bodged on coat off and gave the whole lot a quick cut & polish. it's not perfect but it's nicer to look at till the welding commences. Otherwise, we've just been enjoying the cabby in all sorts of weather including a Bank Holiday trip to Matlock Bath when it hailed, blew and sleeted with a vengeance on the way back over the 537 showing up a couple of annoying drips from the driver's door mirror area that kept getting my hand. Apart from a slight issue on the first start-up of the day, where we sometimes don't seem to get an ignition pulse until we switch off/on a few times, the car has still barely missed a beat since it's return to the road. Not bad so far after an 8-yr lay up with minimal recomissioning work. Now for the cosmetics at last Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingergman Posted May 5, 2016 Share Posted May 5, 2016 Keep up the good work mate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted May 24, 2016 Share Posted May 24, 2016 Not a huge amount to update, been spending more time/money on the kids at the moment faffing round with Chinese knock-offs of the Blata midi quadard type bikes. Have to say they're great fun and with a decent pullstart and ignition advancer they're plenty fast enough even with my 15st + on board. That said, I did have a look into the CTS connector on the cabby the other day & cleaned it all up. Time will tell if it's fixed the occasional random stalling for good. Crank sensor's been behaving after a clean up fingers crossed and when the other toys allow I'll get my finger out and sort the wing bottoms... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 (edited) Wow, nearly a month with no news. I am ashamed, specially as it's now mid-summer! Thankfully there is some good news to report. Found a couple of 3dr Mk5B's in a local yard and one has yielded the ever elusive clock whilst the other, although it's back end is rotten to the point of the bumper falling off, has given up a pair of useable wing bottoms and when we get back round there with some better cutting tools, possibly fuel filler surround as well. Work continues I think the tintop wings must survive better because of the extra sill-cover part that's omitted on the cabby, so the crap buildup and hence the rot starts lower down and takes longer to make the wing unusable for a cabby. all we need to do is zip the excess off and seal back up in the original way... Plenty of underseal being gooped in the recess before we refit of course, to prevent a repeat performance! Edited June 21, 2016 by username Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 More progress and a bit of a biggy too, new roof skin arrived the other day so this afternoon having a bit of time spare I dug out skelly9134's guide downloaded from this site months ago & set about making a big hole in the top of our pride & joy! The job seems to be going smoothly enough at the moment. The rear window popped out of it's frame a lot easier than some people's experiences, probably because it was not slathered in unnecessary sealant/bonding, and the complete roof came off easy enough after stripping the rear interior (good excuse to do something more permanent with those "door" cards too). There were, though, about 50,000 staples to remove to free the window frame so that took a little while but otherwise the old skin put up little resistance and I "tested" how rotten it really was... Wow, hardly any effort required to tear it right the way across the front edge. would only have taken a good gust getting under the side with snapped tension cable and it'd have been off! Gave everything a good clean up and that's how I've left it for today, car is now hiding under a big sheet of PVC and the remains of the old roof skin and it's off to the shop tomorrow to grab a riveter that works, some contact adhesive and about 85" of bicycle gear cable (my intention is to make new tension cables and see how they last, gear cable is very slightly thicker than original so we shall see). No photos sorry, was a bit preoccupied as you might imagine but will try and rope the missus in to document at least a little bit of the refitting provided the weather plays ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest username Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 Oh, a little tip/dodge I forgot to add for anyone doing their own roof. If the little plastic guides that the tension cables run through near the back have worn through as ours had, allowing the cable to wear away against the metal frame, rather than possibly struggling trying to find new ones you can just pop the old ones out and swap them left for right & vice versa to present an unused surface for the cable to bear against. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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