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Oct 17, 2012 15:41:17 GMT
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Last Edit: Oct 17, 2012 15:42:04 GMT by trigger
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OUTRUN
Part of things
13...
Posts: 620
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Oct 17, 2012 16:04:24 GMT
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Same for me Trig. I hear there's another company going now that will make up plates, dealer stickers and tax disc holders. Is this not the case? First one to get an answer from one of those numbers wins!
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I need your help to get back to the year 1985.
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Oct 17, 2012 16:25:20 GMT
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Bruce, DMB graphics make the original spec dealer plates. ;D
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1971 Ford Escort 1997 Peugeot 106 GTI 1998 Peugeot 106 GTI 2014 Ford Fiesta Zetec S
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OUTRUN
Part of things
13...
Posts: 620
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Oct 17, 2012 16:52:20 GMT
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Bruce, DMB graphics make the original spec dealer plates. ;D Are they not the guys that have stopped producing? Apologies for the thread diversion MM, but I was going to post up and ask where I can stull buy this stuff from.
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I need your help to get back to the year 1985.
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Oct 17, 2012 19:42:26 GMT
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I'm currently trying to convince my brother in law to do me a set of number plates. Wondering if there would be much interest ? If I can convince him ill get him to start a thread
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Oct 17, 2012 21:19:03 GMT
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loving this! you need the porker gear know to go with the steering wheel!ive got the original dealer plates, that look like new and dealer sticker on mine, 25 years old, and looks it!
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cars: orion 1600 i ghia mk2 orion 2.2 vtec ghia mk1
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Oct 17, 2012 22:54:46 GMT
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Brilliant, I've been looking forward to a build thread since seeing pictures of this at the Gathering. One incredibly cool daily!
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Smiler
Posted a lot
I no longer own anything FWD! Or with less than 6 cylinders, or 2.5ltrs! :)
Posts: 2,492
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Oct 24, 2012 21:27:40 GMT
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Wow, very cool! After seeing the interior shots I'm really starting to wish that my mk3 Cab still had its original dashboard. Sadly, as with many mk3s (and particularly the cabs) my dash had more crevices than the grand canyon and was binned about 12 years ago in favour of a mk4 dash. Oh the shame!
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www.Auto-tat.co.uk'96 Range Rover P38 DSE (daily driver) '71 Reliant Scimitar SE5 GTE 3.0ltr Jag V6 Conversion '79 Reliant Scimitar SE6A 3.0ltr 24valve Omega Conversion '85 Escort Cabrio 2.0 Zetec - Sold '91 BMW 525i - Sold '82 Cortina 2.9i Ghia Cosworth - Sold '72 VW Campervan - Sold '65 LandRover 88" - Sold
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Oct 28, 2012 16:57:58 GMT
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Wow, very cool! After seeing the interior shots I'm really starting to wish that my mk3 Cab still had its original dashboard. Sadly, as with many mk3s (and particularly the cabs) my dash had more crevices than the grand canyon and was binned about 12 years ago in favour of a mk4 dash. Oh the shame! I'm not going to lie...mine is full of cracks and splits, but I'd rather it looked like that than replace it with the more modern Mk4 style, or even the base spec solid Mk3 dash. I guess it's all part of its character. One of the first major jobs I wanted to tackle with the Escort was the suspension. It had already been lowered on some springs (unknown origin) and I wanted to get it lower. The first thing I did, just to get an idea of the clearances and issues I'd have to work around, was to chop the existing springs. This got me lower, but as expected, I ran out of any kind of sensible suspension travel. The struts were hitting the bump stops and even with the bump stops cut down, I still only had about 1/2" of travel which didn't make for very nice driving. I was going to need more suspension travel. I like cars to be low, but I sure as hell want to be able to use them properly and be comfortable in them. More importantly, I want everything to be safe. I wouldn't drive a car low unless it drives properly. I picked up some spare 'sacrificial' Mk3 front and rear struts as part of a 'job lot' of cheap bits purchased from a guy breaking a Mk3 Escort (day trip to Manchester and back to pull the bits of the car) and immediately started cutting them apart. Because they are sealed units it's difficult to do anything with them to make them shorter. Once I'd cut the fronts open I worked out that very few 'off the shelf' damper inserts would fit into the very slim Escort strut bodies. Especially anything short enough for what I wanted. After some investigation and some help from RobinJI, I worked out Golf Mk1 front inserts 'should' fit into the Escort strut bodies and they are just over 2" shorter than the Escort shocks. Easy peasy! Except it wasn't. Without going into too much detail, it turned out the Golf inserts wouldn't fit wihtout some major work. This was turning into a whole massive headache and a world of pain. To console myslef, I decided to lay out all of my 'spare' suspension parts that I thought might fit. This mainly consisted of some Passat coilovers that I had been given for free, along with all the (now cut open) Escort parts. Something amongst this lot should be able to make me some lower suspension?? Suffice to say, after making some fairly substanstial mods to the spare Escort hubs I had (both front and rear hubs had to be modified) and fabricating some struts out of various Passat, Golf and Escort parts, I now had some much shorter rear strut bodies that gave me a lower ride height WITH plenty of travel. Also a set of 'hybrid' Passat, Golf and Escort front coilovers which would give me all the adjustment I needed and hopefully a good few inches of travel that the original struts didn't allow me. The set-up had removeable inserts (front and rear) more travel and the modified Passat top mounts also fitted nicely into the Escort front wings. Why those top mounts? Because there is a GSF just down the road from my lock-up and Passat ones are available off the shelf should I ever need them. You would not believe the amount of work and puzzle solving it took to get ^^ those ^^ coilovers made, but they cost me a grand total of £33.00 including brand new damper inserts. I've got may more photos going into much more details on my GF's camera which I need to get the pics off sometime soon. I'll do a proper write-up of how I made the coilvers and rear suspension then. Including all the hurdles, headaches and head scratching.
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Oct 28, 2012 17:49:42 GMT
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alright mate just joined saw your thread on series one turbo
I'm jon with the beige 5 door
loving the steering wheel mod and never knew about the boss
spot on
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Oct 28, 2012 18:45:32 GMT
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I look forward to your updates Bruce about the coil overs. I have had really hard problems getting coils over for my MK3 Cabriolet. It was either GAZ gold, or HOT Tuning Coil overs, but they only come up every now and again for my car. And the GAZ's only go 60mm low, I can get -60mm springs and matched shortened springs for less. The extra problem with having a Cabriolet is the extra strengthening "spar / strut" along the sill area, that means I am always running about 20-30 lower at the sills than a counter part "tin top"
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Smiler
Posted a lot
I no longer own anything FWD! Or with less than 6 cylinders, or 2.5ltrs! :)
Posts: 2,492
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Oct 28, 2012 19:32:03 GMT
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Fantastic work, puts my efforts to shame!
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www.Auto-tat.co.uk'96 Range Rover P38 DSE (daily driver) '71 Reliant Scimitar SE5 GTE 3.0ltr Jag V6 Conversion '79 Reliant Scimitar SE6A 3.0ltr 24valve Omega Conversion '85 Escort Cabrio 2.0 Zetec - Sold '91 BMW 525i - Sold '82 Cortina 2.9i Ghia Cosworth - Sold '72 VW Campervan - Sold '65 LandRover 88" - Sold
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Oct 28, 2012 19:34:54 GMT
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Look forward to reading more detail about how you built the coilovers. I'm aiming to cobble together some combo of mk4 golf and sierra bits to get coilovers on the front of my sierra so I'm sure I can take some pointers if machining out my hubs a little is deemed too much.
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Oct 28, 2012 21:11:50 GMT
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I'm jon with the beige 5 door loving the steering wheel mod and never knew about the boss spot on Hi Jon, welcome across...I think you'll like it here The steering boss thing was quite a surprise but in a good way! Finding a free boss is always going to be a winner. I look forward to your updates Bruce about the coil overs. Fantastic work, puts my efforts to shame! Look forward to reading more detail about how you built the coilovers. Thanks guys. There was quite a bit to making the coilovers (as anyone who was at Area 52 while I was making them will testify) but when I get chance I'll try and do a full write up of what was involved. It certainly wasn't simple, but then now that I know what works and what doesn't (the learning curve/problem solving took up a lot of the time) I could make another set a lot more easily. I'll sort though the photos when I get chance and put something together at a later date.
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Oct 28, 2012 21:27:58 GMT
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The next job on my list of things to do was to roll the arches in order to give the proposed wheels some chance of clearing. I borrowed an arch roller from Pickmeup (Gaz) but as soon as I offered it up in the arch I noticed it wouldn't actually work on my car, the damn thing was too long/tall! I rang Gaz to ask if I was missing anything obvious and he said he'd found it too tall when he came to roll the arches on his MX5 (the reason for him buying the roller in the first place) and he'd resorted to using a hammer in the end! Not wanting to take such arable methods to my arches I decided to break out the grinder and modify the arch roller. Before I knew it, I had a pile of chopped up bits! A short while later I'd melted some of the bits back together and now had an arch roller that you bend those arch lips into a more vertical plane. Happy days! Gaz was absolutely fine when I rang him and asked him if I could chop up his roller. It's good to have understanding mates. With the arches now rolled it was time to fit all the 'new' suspension along with the modified front and rear hubs. It's times like this that having the two post lift in the unit is a real godsend and probably one of my fave tools....certainly up there with my welder and an angle grinder. Car in the air...and old suspension & hubs coming out corner by corner. Working on your own into the early hours is so enjoyable. While all this was going on, I'd dropped the wheels around to a local engineering company to have some machining done. Anyone who has read my Land Rover thread will know my love of Rank engineering and their attitude to helping out with one off jobs...for not a lot of money. These wheels never came in 4x108 PCD and were nearly all made in 4x114.3 with a few 4x120 (as well as some 5 stud fitments). I'd arranged to have new holes machined between the existing ones in 4xFord flavour which would also allow me to swap the original steel inserts over too. The machining work was not only pretty damn cheap, it was absolutely spot on! All I needed to do was press the inserts out of the old holes and press them into the new ones. The wheels are GENUINE, rare and pretty valuable Hayashi Racing 'Street' - not the cheap Rota copy-a-likes. Pretty sought after in the Japanese scene and here was me chopping a set about to fit a Ford 5 door estate! I love going against the grain sometimes. I'd been hording them in my 'to be saved for the right car' wheel collection for a number of years and suddenly this felt like the right car for them. Graham at Rank was a legend for machining them at the 11th hours for me.
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Oct 28, 2012 21:44:09 GMT
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You still got the arch roller thinking about doing mine ?
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Oct 29, 2012 10:46:50 GMT
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You still got the arch roller thinking about doing mine ? It's still at the unit but I'd have to check with Gaz first because it's his, and not mine to lend out. Once I'd picked the wheels up from the engineering company, I pressed out the steel inserts from the original bolt holes and pressed them into the new PCD holes. This meant I could trial fit the wheels at last! I got some tyres fitted pronto from the part worn place over the road from Area 52 and stuck them on the car, dropped the car off the lift and was pretty happy with the look. Then disaster! I think I mentioned earlier that I did everything on the car over a three week period...from start to finish. I had set myself a deadline to get everything done in time for the Retro Rides Gathering at Prescott. I was originally planning to take the Land Rover but had realised I wouldn't have the current work finished in time for the Gathering without cutting corners or not finishing things properly. I don't cut corners when it comes to cars and everything has to be 'just right' so I made the decision to put the Land Rover on hold and get stuck into the Escort. Partly so I could turn up at the show in something no one was expecting but also because I wanted to press the car into daily service straight after the Gathering. Setting the deadline of the Gathering meant I would hopefully get everything done in one hit and then I could get on and enjoy the car straight after. With the bodywork taking a whole week, that left me two weeks to get the suspension thought out, designed, made and fitted...along with getting the wheels to fit and LOTS of other little things I was planning (details of which to come) The suspension took most of a week to sort once I'd got my head around a way to make it work - this included sourcing the shortest possible inserts for the Ford struts, modifying all the hubs, lots of measuring, trial fitting, welding etc.... All the meantime the wheels were in the engineering company being machined. So this leads to me 5am on a Sunday night/Monday morning with only four days to go before my deadline, I've just lowered the car off the lift knowing the suspension was finally done and the wheels were on (the two main elements) only to find that there wasn't any travel on the front despite the front struts being two and half inches shorter! I guess my quest to make shorter struts didn't quite match my quest for a lower ride height. The rear suspension was absolutely fine....plenty of travel there and a ride height I was happy with. However, I was completely devestated because the front end, despite being a real challenge that I'd overcome, just didn't give me travel I wanted at the ride height I was hoping for. I just couldn't see how I could address this issue in the time I had left and I was sat there, completely knackered and totally gutted. Time to head home for some sleep and get up early to make a phonecall and hope that someone could possibly come to the rescue in a completely unrealistic timescale! To coin a phrase often used at times like this, it was sh*t or bust. I had four days left and I was suddenly without a schedule any more, let alone behind it.
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Oct 29, 2012 12:46:37 GMT
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This little wagon looks so darn'right'... The details are beyond belief sir (the 924 steering wheel blew my mind)...!!! Absolutely spot on, and then some
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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Oct 29, 2012 14:29:16 GMT
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I must say I LOL’d at the Porsche steering wheel,
“How TF am i going to fit a Porsche steering wheel to a Ford steering column? This is gonna be a right war.”
“Oh hang on.... actually i’ll just use these hidden bolts that Ford has provided for exactly this purpose, and complete the job to a high standard in a matter of minutes.”
Beautiful! Love the dealer sticker too, really great attention to detail, I love it.
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1974 Lancia Beta Saloon 1975 Mazda 929 Coupé 1986 Mazda 929 Wagon 1979 Mazda 929 Hardtop 1982 Fiat Argenta 2.0 iniezione elettronica 1977 Toyota Carina TA14 1989 Subaru 1800 Wagon 1982 Hyundai Pony 1200TL 2-dr 1985 Hyundai Pony 1200 GL 1986 Maserati 425 Biturbo 1992 Rover 214 SEi 5-dr 2000 Rover 45 V6 Club 1994 Peugeot 205 'Junior' Diesel 1988 Volvo 760 Turbodiesel Saloon 1992 Talbot Express Autosleeper Rambler 2003 Renault Laguna SPEARS OR REAPERS
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nofrills
Posted a lot
my wings are made of Steeeeeeeel!!!
Posts: 1,243
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Oct 29, 2012 17:09:33 GMT
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this is one of my fave threads on here buddy, love it
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