Ownership Verified: Kalf's Escort MK3 xr3i cabrio

[kalf]

Today I was finally able to pick up my new toy/hobby car. Got tired of Land Rovers and decided it was time for something completely different, but had no clue what I wanted. After endlessly scrolling through online ads and looking at + test driving a couple of cars I decided to buy this Ford Escort MK3 cabrio. If I don't like it I can still sell it on. In my opinion it's old enough (both in looks and age) to be considered a classic car, but young and undesirable enough to be a bit more affordable. I went to look at a MK4 as well for example, but although the differences aren't all that huge It just doesn't have the (right) classic car look to me.

The state of the car is best described as rough, mechanically it's ok (should be ok enough to pass Belgian inspection to get plates for it I think), it drives, steers and brakes ok (would benefit from some new suspension bushings) and the soft top is less than a year old.
There are however some rust spots (and more will show up in time probably) going from minor surface rust to bubbling paint and simply rotted through. The hardest spots will probably be the ones in corners under the front windscreen, the windscreen will need to be removed in order to fix them. But as part of the deal I got a good condition extra window seal and parts cut out of a wrecked car to weld in so it should be ok.
Biggest problem will be that it's now fall and I don't have any place to park it and work on it inside of even under shelter. Might end up putting a party tent on the driveway for a couple of weekends (oh how the neighbours will love that ).
Apart from rust, the dash is completely cracked, finding a decent used one will probably be impossible so I'll see what I'll do about that. Oh and both doors are missing the button to lock or unlock the car from the inside, which is a bit annoying but shouldn't be too difficult to source the parts and fix it.
Will also go on the hunt for a set of rear seatbelts. They aren't required for cars built prior to 1991, but since it does have the bolt holes in it and I plan on taking my kids with me in the car I'd rather have some.
Also quite high on my to-do list is removing the red vinyl pinstripes on the sides, 'cause I really hate them.

Don't really care about the purists (nor am I one) or keeping it all original, so I'll probably end up doing whatever I can and like to it. And for starters it's already missing the (f-ing ugly) original xr3i wheels, so the first steps to anger the purists have already been taken by a previous owner.

 

[thomas]

You like torturing yourself, don't you?

 

[kalf]

Let's just say I'd rather have a car with some challenges than something too boring. I already have a VW Caddy familycar on my driveway to fill the boring part

 

[public]

Let me just tag @Hemily here

 

[kalf]

Ordered some new filters, spark plugs, spark plug wires, suspension bushings, ... to make sure it's all up to date. Should arrive by the end of this week.
Had some spare time today, enough to do something small so I decided to look at the missing door lock buttons. I was prepared to remove the door cards, but luckily it's just the pins/buttons themselves that were screwed off. I could order a set of new original or aftermarket ones, but I remembered I had a piece of 8mm round aluminium laying around so decided to make my own. After taking some measurement I cut two pieces to length, drilled a hole in the back and lacking a lathe I used an alternative method to add a couple of grooves in them . Put them in the drill and use the dremel with a small cutting disc. Afterwards I rounded of the ends with a file and cleaned it all up with some fine sandpaper.
The result isn't bad if I say so myself.
Didn't have any epoxy glue, so tried hot glueing them on the rods. I'll see if that holds (I doubt it) and otherwise I can still epoxy them after buying some new epoxy glue.

After a good look and some measuring I think the car should fit inside the garage if I do some thorough rummaging and small remodelling. The garage does need a thorough rummaging and cleaning anyway (I've been only saying that for about 4years or so). I'll try to gather the courage to start with that this weekend, it would really make working on it a lot easier (+ it's warmer in there should the temperatures start to drop). Apart from being dry, the extra advantage is I could work on it more easly when I only have a couple of hours of time because I wouldn't constantly be moving my tools around.

 

[Matt2000]

Poor man's lathe, I love it. Nice looking result too. I would've tapped them, which is a good excuse to buy taps if you don't have any.

Ignoring the Mk1 and 2 (they're in a RWD league of their own), the Mk3 is my favourite Escort generation. My grandad had a really rough red-brown one with overspray on the rear windows. My other grandad had several Mk4s and a Mk6 but the Mk3 is my favourite. I have a strange desire for a 3-door estate, I don't understand why they made the boot opening on these cabrios wider and used the estate tail lights but I really like the ridged lights on Mk3s.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with it. I am a bit of a purist but will keep any objections to myself. I can hardly talk, owning a butchered 2-door D1.

 

[kalf]

When working as a technician/mechanic at one of my previous jobs I was able to buy tools with a rather nice discount so there is no shortage of tools in my garage .
I considered tapping them but the problem is that it's a course thread, more like a screw than a bolt. The original pins are plastic, so I don't think they aren't threaded either but just screw on.
Tried to get the hole tight enough so it would screw into the aluminium, but even with 0,2-0,3mm increments it went from "it's too tight, I'll for sure twist the rod" to "damn it's too loose, I'll have to glue them on". I didn't want to remove the door cards if I could avoid it, but it would probably have been easier 'cause then I had been able to remove the rod and trie fitting them on the bench.
On the other hand since the pin is 8mm and the hole is 10mm the door cards can be lifted over the pin so there is no real need for them to be removable.

 

[kalf]

Some rummaging in the garage ended up taking a couple of month (with life happening and other priorities also taking up a lot of spare time). At least my tools are more or less sorted now and it does save me quite a lot of time simply pulling open the correct drawer and taking out my tools.

Anyway, last week I finally pushed the car inside (dead battery) to let it dry out. Apart from not being 100% watertight I apparently left one of the windows partially open so with the rain of the last weeks/months the interior was soaking wet.
The original plan of simply patching up the worst stuff to get it through inspection to get it on the road has already sailed (as usual). It's just not in my nature I guess, I either try to do things right or I don't do them at all, not a big fan of anything in between.

Put it on some dolly's I had laying in the shed from moving some heavy furniture around during remodelling. They're probably to light for supporting and moving a car, but since my garage isn't really big enough it's nice to be able to push the car around.

Today my online class ended early because the teacher had technical problems, so it gave me time to start inspecting the car. Removed the seats, carpet and anything else that needed to be removed along the way expecting the worst. But given its age, the fact that it's a convertible and the rust on the exterior it actually isn't that bad. At first glance I might have to weld a small patch in the boot space and most of the other rust should be superficial enough to sand/grind away and paint.

I however did find a lovely hack job from a GDPO, who I presume was trying to reach the antenna or something. Doesn't bother me too much, structurally it shouldn't make that much of a difference and it's hidden behind the interior trim.

Also discovered a little fuel leak in the back, only a couple of drops on the floor in a week time but enough for a fuel smell in the garage. After cleaning and inspecting the wet spot on the fuel tank it became clear a GDPO already tried welding a couple of spots. I guess the best way forward would be replacing the fuel tank. Whatever I do, it might be wise to tackle that before starting the grinding and welding on the body .

Looks like I time to work on it will be rare in the next couple of weeks, but now that it is inside it will be easier to work on it in between other stuff so we'll see.

 

[public]

The condition certainly doesn't look too bad for an old convertible. With a Kadett Cabrio you would probably be stepping straight through the floor

 

[kalf]

The condition certainly doesn't look too bad for an old convertible. With a Kadett Cabrio you would probably be stepping straight through the floor

Indeed it could have been a whole lot worse. On the other hand most spots that will require welding are in the more challenging locations and have rather challenging shapes so that compensates for the amount of rust .

Got the interior completely stripped and the windscreen and dash removed so apart from under the bonnet I have a good idea of the state of the car and still deem it manageable (although it always gets worse quite rapidly once you actually start cutting, sanding and grinding).
I'll upload some more pictures later today or this week.

On the very rare occasion I gave half-assing something a chance I was soon reminded why cutting corners is a bad idea. The couple of drops per week the fuel tank leaked was enough to give the garage a (not so) lovely petrol smell. I didn't really mind, but my wife started complaining about it because the garage is where she puts her bicycle she uses to go to work.
I had both epoxy glue and epoxy putty laying around so I thought I'd apply some of that to temporarily fix the fuel leak. When I discovered the welds I only used a rag and some brake cleaner to remove the grime to get a better look but this time I thought it would be a better idea to gently clean the bad spot with a wire brush before applying the epoxy. Well that turned the small leak into this:

On the bright side: it did (eventually) solve the leaking problem . And as a bonus filling and emptying my oil catch can multiple times with petrol cleaned it rather well . The downside is that I had no clean container that would fit under the car so that's roughly 15liters of 2euro/litre fuel I cant use anymore.

 

[kalf]

Although it is far from what I had in mind at the start I'm planning to strip out everything except the drive train and suspension (or that's what I'm saying at this moment at least ) but leave the doors and bonnet attached as long as they're not in my way.
It looks like most of the welding and rust removal should be doable in a couple of weekends, but having even more than a couple of hours of spare time is rather rare at the moment. And before I going to start with that I will probably need half a day to first remove the last pieces of trim, insulation , seals, side windows, wiring harness and other bits (and probably the bumpers).

I really didn't plan on a full respray but after rust removal+repair and removing the flaky paint I'm quite sure spot repairs on the paint won't be a viable option. And since pretty much everything that would need to be removed for paint will come of anyway, it is stupid to half ass the paint and probably do it all over again at a later time.
I've (partially) painted a couple of my previous project cars with a roller, but those were 4x4's mostly for off road use and it really wouldn't suit this car (and wouldn't help whenever I decide to sell it either). I would be perfectly fine with an "ok" paint job and don't require it to be perfect, so I'm still thinking about a solution that would result in a consensus between budget and quality.
I'll probably use the Raptor liner I planned to use on the interior of the Discovery, it will get covered anyway and otherwise it will stay on a shelve somewhere until I finally have to throw it away.

As I've said in my previous post, before my skiing trip I removed the windscreen, the dash and the folding roof. Haven't done anything since.
When I bought the car, the GDPO was very proud that he helped installing the new soft top about a year before I bought the car. The rust under the roof can't have not been there when he did that, I really don't understand how anyone can install a brand new soft top on something looking like this (minus 1year worth of rusting). I could imagine someone half assing it by sanding/grinding/wire brushing the rust and applying some paint, but installing a new roof on this?

As I said before in general there isn't that much rust that will require welding in new parts, but most parts that will are going to be quite challenging.

Apart from what's on these pictures there are two spots in the engine bay and probably one small spot in the boot that will require some cutting and welding, but at least those don't have any bends or curves.

 

[kalf]

I'm continuing to strip the car in between life, so not much has happened so far. Offcourse the more I strip and dig, the more rust and surprises I keep discovering but that was to be expected.
Decided to buy a new fuel tank instead of gambling with a used one for 25% of the price of a new one. The half-assing option is now completely out, going to remove every rusty or bad looking bracket and get it sandblasted. The car itself will be limited to sanding and grinding, but there shouldn't be too much rust left when I'm finished.

While looking for some parts I was offered a complete (running) cabrio for the whopping price of 350euro, which is basically less than I would pay for all the loose parts. It is a mk4 instead of a mk3, but most parts I need should fit. The car is complete except for some interior trim and the exterior is rough (looks al lot better on the picture than it actually is), but I think overall it is in better condition than my mk3 with a lot of new looking parts on it. Almost a waste to break it, but I prefer the looks of the mk3 over the mk4.

Having a second engine also gives me the option to overhaul one of them after I've got the car fixed up and registered. The engine in the mk4 has a carb and the mk3 is injection but since it's MFI and not EFI I should be able to just put the MFI parts on this engine.

A PO had put on another carb with manual choke but there was no cable installed, so the roll of electrical tape I had lying around in my car came in handy for driving it on and off the trailer.

While removing the radio I discovered the parts of this mk4 will feel right at home in my mk3 .

The plan is to continue stripping the mk3 and step by step strip the mk4 of the parts I need, will probably cut out some pieces of the body to use as patch panels for the mk3. I'm also chasing after some "I know I guy who knows a guy" leads to get some estimates for a complete respray.
Once I have them both stripped to the point I can start cutting and welding I'll probably take a week of from work to do as much bodywork as I can 'cause otherwise it will take forever.