I needed a sensible modern daily driver...

[Lopéz]

So I bought this

Saw it for sale, he wanted more, I offered less, did a firm deal over email, got the train up to meet the seller, picked me up from the station, took him home, paid him, signed paperwork, drove home.

Bish bash bosh!

It's slow, it's old fashioned, the wind noise has to be heard to be believed, it's not economical, it doesn't ride well, it makes an assortment of noises and I couldn't be happier with it.

 

[Lopéz]

How much was it?
About ballpark for one of these. Too much for what the car actually is on paper.

RWD?
No, these were the first FWD Escorts

LHD?
Yep, it's from France. It was a genuine barn find. LHD is a non-issue to be honest.
Here it is when it was pulled out of storage in France, sorry about the rubbish pic:

Travel far?
About 200 miles. No qualms about driving it back. It didn't miss a beat. I stopped twice on the way home for food and fuel, both times I had people approach me to talk about it, second bloke offered me near enough 3 grand more than I just paid for it.

No test drive?
Nope, sometimes when you buy from an enthusiast you can get a mutual sense of trust on a long distance deal like this. I could have backed out and took the next train home.

Pink?
Nah, Sunburst Red Fords last pretty well, they go a bit orange if anything. This one was painted in 2015.

No "i"
Oh yes! Late enough to have the revised front suspension and 5 speed gearbox, early enough to be fitted with a twin choke Weber and the nice seats with the red stripes

 

[Lopéz]

DP

 

[Lopéz]

Ah, so it's had a full resto... bit different than the picture you painted in the OP.

No, it's had an outside respray. What picture did I paint in the OP?!

 

[Lopéz]

It's had new dampers at the front recently, top mounts and tyres. I would imagine it has had some bushes replaced during it's life, they are service items.

 

[Lopéz]

The outer body has no rust at all.

I can see small amounts of corrosion in the spare wheel well, and the battery tray. Other than that I'll just replace the engine mounts and bushes over time to tighten it up.

 

[Lopéz]

Yep, apparently when it came in from France and they scraped all the moss off, there was almost no corrosion, just abused paint. So it was resprayed and probably sold on for a fat profit.

The previous owner fitted the RS1600 front splitter (which is a huge improvement on the standard item IMO), spotlights, cloverleaf wheels and a few other bits.

The battery tray isn't perfect, I can see corrosion under the tray which to be honest is pretty much par for the course on these. I need to get the correct LHD panel and probably do the job in the summer. I'll get the door shuts done at the same time as they are beginning to show primer.

Interior is perfect other than the dash, which is utterly ruined like most of these. I'll need to find a replacement from the continent as this one is beyond repair really and lets down what is otherwise a very nice car.

Cambelt on this one has just been done - the CVH likes it's oil and belt changes so I will need to keep on top of that.

 

[Lopéz]

1.3 CVH Mk2 Fiesta Housey? Very rare!

CVH is an interference engine and the belt was done about a month ago.

It's interesting - the XR3 (and associated models) are pretty divisive. What you have to remember is where they were in the market at the time.
You had the Golf GTI, and that was pretty much it. There was the Alfasud but that wasn't a hatch. Things like the Sunbeam Ti were considered very old hat.

When road tested, there wasn't a lot in it.
The XR3 made the Golf look like it was standing still from a styling perspective. Ford absolutely nailed the XR3 look, the Golf looked like a grandadmobile in comparison.
The XR3 had a higher top speed but a lower 0-60.
The Golf rode better but the XR3 gripped better and the two were considered about equal handling.
The Golf engine was more tractable and less harsh, but the brakes were terrible and the XR3 shone in that area.
Interior and seats were judged to be about the same, and the Escort had more interior space.

The XR3 is far from perfect, I'm the last person to think that - but at the time, it was exactly what the market demanded. When they tweaked the ride and gave it injection it was considered even better, but by then all sorts of other stuff was waiting in the wings and by the time we hit the Mk4 it was basically outclassed, albeit still good fun.

 

[Lopéz]

Ordered:
New Track Control Arms
New Track Rod Ends
Poly TCA Outer Bushes
Poly TCA Inner Bushes
Poly Top Mount Bushes
Poly ARB Bushes

That should sort out any front end clunks and tighten it up. Then we can get the back end in order (ooh err ) and lastly the engine mounts - Vibratech stuff looks good but it isn't cheap!

Interior shot for anyone interested. Wish these came with red carpets or seatbelts like some of the competition did. I haven't decided if I like the white dials yet, they were already in there...

 

[Lopéz]

Yeah electric windows, central locking, tilt and slide sunroof that miraculously still works.

I think the car is from Southern France so the dashboard has just baked in the sun - now it's badly cracked and warped. Really lets it down as otherwise it looks great inside.

 

[Lopéz]

Nice. Looks in decent nick.

Enjoys setting the tappets every 3000 miles. Rule of nine.

I hope not, the XR3 has hydraulic self adjusting lifters.

 

[Lopéz]

XR3 and XR3i are both CVH.
RS1600i is also CVH but has solid lifters. They do need adjusting.

 

[Lopéz]

After 6 weeks out of the country I got back yesterday unsure if the old beast would start. It did!

Took it for a blast to Aldi, it's amusing how dainty and angular it looks next to modern traffic:

Noticed that when it was resprayed they didn't bother with the bumpers which is now annoying me because they don't quite match the new paint - I want to get them done soon.

I also need to take off the RS1600i splitter, the rear wheel spats, and the bumper end caps and paint them with black bumper texture paint to even the finish out - the PU rear spoiler can stay as it is.

The bumper overriders are all a bit tatty and at around £100 each if you can find used ones I won't be replacing them. The recommendation is to fill and sand them like conventional metal/plastic and paint them with the same texture paint to match the bumper trim and end caps, so that will keep me occupied for a weekend.

Took it home and gave it a wipe down with some quick detailer as it was too cold for a proper wash. Wheels are filthy!

Then I decided to replace the front TCAs. This isn't a particularly hard job but the various nuts and bolts were all seized solid and took a lot more effort to free off than I'd have liked.

Here are the new and old arms:

The old ones weren't totally knackered but definitely worse for wear:

The car drives better on the new arms, but still knocks and donks a bit. ARB bushes and top mounts next, but I was out of power and it was starting to rain!


I also managed to uncover a bit about the car's history.

It was abandoned in France for 12 years and brought back to life in 2013 with no real work other than a clean. No welding, bodywork etc.
It was then imported to the UK and sold to a garage who painted it. All the panels, arches, sills etc are completely original, the only welding it's had is a replacement front crossmember at some point in the UK.

Next steps:
Replace the puny spotlights with correct sized ones (I can't justify the mental cost of Carello 640s so it will get a pair of Hellas)
Lower spotlights
ARB Bushes
Green dashboard lights to replace the horrible blue ones

 

[Lopéz]

Next job - dashboard lights.

The car is fitted with white dials. Not for boy racer styling reasons, but because it's the cheapest and easiest way of converting MPH clocks to KMH. Obviously doesn't fix the odometer.... so I will look out for a set of MPH clocks in the future but for now this is what I am stuck with.

Previous owner fitted blue LED bulbs (the standard bulbs are extremely dull) but I thought they looked horrible.

80's Fords should have green illumination, so 4 2000 MEGAWATT 900SMD LED bulbs later, I was in business.

They are also bright enough to be seen in daylight which is nice.

I might also repaint the speedo needles. They are supposed to be a sort of dayglo orange and have faded in the sun. They are brittle though, so I might not risk taking them off until I've acquired a RHD clock set.

Little bits but I enjoy stuff like this

 

[Lopéz]

Would love a sorted Mk2, but don't really have the garage space for one sadly.

I'd love a sorted Mk2, but I don't have the bank balance for one

Next job. I want to tidy up the engine bay a bit at a time, everything is dull/corroded/rusty as is normal with these things.

First I tackled the coil:

Typically scabby but fun to tidy up. The inner wing holes are from the air horns it had in France.

Some aluminium and black later, along with some new screws and some loom conduit, much better

Then the scabby air filter brackets:

And after a quick refurb:

It's hardly going to trouble the concours boys, but it keeps me occupied.

More thrilling tales to follow.

 

[Lopéz]

Today's delights:

Dirty milky fuse box cover

Clean(er) shiny(ish) fuse box cover

Manky distributor

Clean distributor (the marks are physical damage to the casing, not surprising after nearly 40 years)

Tired wiper motor cover

Slightly fresher wiper motor cover

Getting there slowly. Cam cover will make a big difference, as will painting the manifold.

 

[Lopéz]

Haha, not seen a physical Autodata manual in a very long time!

Following a truck on the A46 this week and it had a blowout - the tyre carcass hit me and smashed the grille, cracked the number plate, and the broken grille stabbed through the radiator, so I had to limp to work and get the car recovered.

Amazingly there seems to be no other damage.

After sourcing a new radiator I decided to do some other stuff while I was changing it over.

Fan shroud & motor

Intermittent sticky starter which has annoyed me since I got it

Replaced with a Transit Connect one, what a difference! Awesome starter compared to the lethargic CVH unit

Exhaust manifold

I used Stove paint, wanted something a bit more textured really, but it will do

New distributor cap

Replacement expansion tank decal and painted the cap

Refreshed the air inlet

Also a new oil cap and a few other bits cleaned up, and of course the new rad.

So this is the engine bay a few weeks ago

And this is now

Not perfect but an improvement!

 

[Lopéz]

At this age they were plain silver, changed to a horrible grey later and then some sort of beige. I just want smooth silver and a new 1.6 decal. Some people polish them but I'm really not a fan of heavily chromed and polished under bonnet stuff.

 

[Lopéz]

It was a hell of a shock, that much I can tell you! I've seen them blow out before but as you say just bad luck to hit one - I think it bounced off the barrier then straight into me. I was convinced it had taken the splitter off, but the noise was just the tyre carcass dragging on the floor, so that was a relief!

I've got all the underbonnet decals in really good quality but I might need the headlight ones doing - cheers for the link!

Top mounts and ARB bushes this weekend, depending on the weather.

I've also done a few mileage checks and if driven very gently (ie never using the second choke) it returns 33mpg on a combined run, which I don't actually think is that bad.

 

[Lopéz]

Splitter is staying - it's been on there since new apparently, dealer fit when the car was new!