[legendlives]

Managed to scrape together an hour today, and welded up the main parts of the front chassis frame (from back of floor to front of engine bay):

I still have to finish weld the very front (dropped) member, and add-in the gearbox member and front outriggers which I should be able to get to tomorrow

The rear kick-ups will be welded in after the chassis is welded to the cage.

 

[legendlives]

Not much done over the past few days.
Stuck on the front outriggers:

Capped off the exposed end of the front dropped crossmember:

And bent this up which may (or may not) become the rear of the gearbox tunnel:

The next step really is to get the shell ready to accept the chassis. The car will be moving in the next 2-3 weeks to a proper garage (it's currently under my car port) so I'm not sure whether to start hacking now, or leave it for the cars new home.

 

[WB54]

are you not building this on a jig ?

 

[legendlives]

are you not building this on a jig ?

Yes, it's been on and off a flat-plate, but I can't leave it on there as the flat-plate is in use virtually all of the time for my company's customers.
Chassis is remarkably straight!

 

[legendlives]

After stripping the carb down at 11:00 pm last night in the kitchen ("Are you coming to bed?".........."In a minute dear.....") I took the carb into work and through my lunch hour turned this:

Into this:

One of the things I've learned over the years of modifying Holleys is to cut the 'list' number out of the cut-off choke horn and fix it somewhere on the carb. This little tab will be screwed on where the choke mechanism came off:

It helps if in the future if you haven't written down the list number anywhere, or for the new owner if you should ever sell it.

More carby mods soon. Pleased to see it already has nitrophyl floats - essential in a blow-through application.

 

[problem child]

try express panels over here in the uk...... for your bubble arches /doors / and anything else mk1 escort........spencer

 

[Widewhites]

Welcome aboard, it's great to see another JAFA on here!

So will it be ready for the Beach Hop?

Gary

 

[legendlives]

No chance for the beach hop, and as our company has a 'stand' at the hop I've got to man the shop everyday except Sunday
Hopefully I can get it ready for next summer, though it will depend on the finances!

 

[legendlives]

try express panels over here in the uk...... for your bubble arches /doors / and anything else mk1 escort........spencer

Problem is the cost of the shipping. You would not believe how expensive it is to ship from the UK to NZ.

 

[legendlives]

More carb stuff.
I'm in the process of converting the carb to mechanical secondary as VS won't work well with blow-through (turbo) application.
Now I don't know if it's an original idea, and I don't know if it will work, but I fancy the idea of a progressive secondary like the twin-choke Webers.
After a few hours of staring at the linkage, I came up with this:

The 'new' rod now runs from the original (now redundant that the choke has gone) fast-idle linkage to the secondary spindle. The only modification to the original Holley parts is the small retaining tab welded to the secondary slot.

So now, at half-throttle the primaries are open half-way, but the secondaries are closed:

At 3/4 throttle the secondaries are half-open:

And at full throttle, the secondaries are at..... well...... full throttle!

It works very well on the bench. Hopefully it will work well when there's air being blown through it!

On the body front, I've been offered a complete mk1 shell for $300 (about £150) which would give me some of the panels I need, but I haven't been able to see it yet so can't comment on it's usefulness.......

 

[legendlives]

I'd buy that for a dollar!

Just collected the windscreen for the Escort.
This was bought through TradeMe (NZ's answer to EvilBay) for a whole Dollar (that's about 50p!):

I couldn't just give him a dollar, so I handed him a $5, and he then gave me three other windscreens from various 1960's/70's Vauxhalls!

Also went to see the bare Escort shell mentioned above. Rear panels/arches are good enough. Sills are excellent, door pillars are excellent.
Almost a shame to cut it up, but with scrap at the value it is at the moment I'll get my $200 (!) back. Anyone want a Mk1 2-door roof?

Gotta love New Zealand!

 

[justamin]

*muttermutterbloodycheapmk1escortstoofarawaytofetch....*:grr:

 

[legendlives]

Carrying on with the carb mods, I decided that I'd also convert the fuel bowls to dual feed, so pulled out the 'plug' on the secondary:

Turned up this little aluminium doohickey:

Which is pressed and sealed into the bowl (will also be pinned!):

The other thing I did today was take the car to it's new home:

Hopefully now it's in a nice, cosy double garage I can get on with it a bit quicker!

 

[henry's revenge]

Great stuff keep it coming:tup:

 

[legendlives]

Picked up some wheels for the beast yesterday. 15" split rims, 10" wide rears and narrow (probably too narrow) fronts.
Need a polish but otherwise perfect. $80. Man I love New Zealand!!!!!
Pics soon.

 

[legendlives]

Carb all cleaned and polished.
I know this is all bullshit, but it doesn't hurt if the bits look nice!

I can't really build up the carb until I know which power adder (turbo or blower), so I'll leave the final spec/build until I've bought one!

 

[Flamed Cortina]

I've built circuit-race saloon cars, classic and sports cars.
Drag race doorslammers.
Rally cars.
Been involved in professional restorations and produced one or two concours winning cars.
And a few Hot Rods.
Probably the majority of work I've done has been designing/manufacturing components (both from an engineering standpoint), and bespoke laminate work.
My last personal project was a street-legal Escort that ran 9's in full street trim.

Any pictures? PLEASE........

 

[legendlives]

Any pictures? PLEASE........

557ci with a 14-71 blower and still road legal. Built everything - engine, box, axle, brakes, chassis, some of the body mouldings, wiring and plumbing.:

Willys Coupe. Built chassis, narrowed front and rear axles. Lots of clever stuff. (unfinished)

Anglia. 427ci. Built chassis, cage, engine, gearbox, axle, wiring, plumbing, some of the body panels. Paint:

Engine that was destined for the Willys. 472ci with some really nice bits:

Spent a year in group 'C' and did a load of fabrication work on these two:



Built this up from a standard road car into a class winning race car:

Designed and fabricated all of the body mods on this (compare it with a standard one):

Designed and fabricated all of the structure on this. 427ci with Hewland trans-axle. Won it's very first race:

Built this from literally nothing. Fabricated chassis from scratch. Very light and stiff car that (again) won it's very first race:

Built the european chassis test jigs for the Dodge Viper:

Designed the body mods for these two and moulded most of the panels:

There's loads more from a 40 year career....

 

[lowriderneil]

The other thing I did today was take the car to it's new home:

Hopefully now it's in a nice, cosy double garage I can get on with it a bit quicker![/QUOTE]

Shit did you really tow it like that. LOL.

 

[legendlives]

It's been really busy at work over the last couple of weeks, so not a lot worth reporting, but today I got the big scissors out and started cutting away the bits I don't need. So far I've cut away everything forward of the 'A' pillars, and I can't believe how much it weighs! It really will be a whole lot lighter with the new chassis.

On that subject there has been a slight change in direction. I was fortunate enough to score a part-built tube-frame chassis for less than the cost of the materials, so the box chassis is now assigned to the storage unit (for use in a future project no doubt) in favour of (what will be) the new tube chassis. Can't wait!

Also now have all of the front and rear suspension (except for the front shocks and all of the springs), and most of the steering. This thing will have big brakes so should stop on a sixpence.

More pics soon!