Escort 1300 Sport rebuild..

[Pete-M]

There is another thread on here I started a couple of years ago about this, but in the spirit of Autoshite I'll tell the story again.

One evening in June 2009 boredom struck and led to me surfing mobile.de for something fun to buy. Hopefully something amusing, but I'm not looking for a big project. I spot a Mk2 Escort 1300 Sport not far from Frankfurt that needs a "little bit of work", it has languished in a lock up for 16 years and it's up for sale at €1800. Which is damn cheap for a Mk2 Escort two door.

In the advert, the car looks like this.

 

Which doesn't look like it'd be the end of the world to fix up. 1300 Sport, Venetian red, tinted glass, looks pretty damn unmolested. Just a bit shabby. I contact the seller who appears to have had it for a year or so but hasn't done anything with it. He bought it up near Hamburg, reckons it needs a bit of welding to the floor.

He sends me a few more pictures - which I can't find right now, but the car looks mainly solid and worth saving. So I arrange to borrow a van off a mate in the Czech Republic, hire a car transporter trailer for 24 hours and drive the 700 odd mile round trip across Czech and Germany to collect it. 

When I arrive at the address and meet Tobias the seller I have a quick look over the Escort. It needs a lot more work than he described. Basically, the shell needs major surgery, the front brake calipers are off because they're seized and although he's told me the engine is 'very good' it turns out that he's come to that conclusion based on the receipt for an engine rebuild and new cylinder block in 1992. He's never actually had it running, but he knows it turns over. I'm a tad furious at this point, and knackered because it's a roasting hot 30° July day and I've been dragging a trailer with a shagged out old Transit for the last seven hours. I get a bit angry with him at this point and send his mate to go and find a gallon of fuel, a pair of jump leads and a charged battery. If the thing runs well, I'll buy it, but there's a large negotiation to be done because A: He's German, and B: He's pissed me right off. Eventually his mate returns and I pour some juice down the carb, connect the leads and turn the key. 

Well bugger me sideways with a barge pole. First turn "Vroom!". It does actually sound sweet as a nut. Exhaust is fubar but the manifold is ok and the auto choke works. I drive it onto the trailer gingerly as the chassis is knackered around the anti roll bar mounts.. which are rather bloody important on a Mk2 Escort. They keep the suspension in place.

So, I haggle somewhat vigorously with Tobias and eventually come to an agreement. I give him the cash and set off back towards Czech, where I arrive at 3 AM after driving for around five hours through the most torrential thunderstorm I've ever experienced. 

This is the Escort how it looked the next day.

 

I also have a mooch through the history file for the car. The original owner was from Hamburg, he had it from March '79 for a couple of years, then his son had it for 12 years when it was sold to another chap who replaced the engine but only had it on the road for a year or so. It has a few choice options. The original radio, tinted opening 1/4 lights, export spec shell and heater, and what appears to be a factory quick shift gear lever - which I didn't expect.

I'm posting this because it has the word "Klangparade"





The radio actually works

Anyway, from there the car is dragged again into the workshop where a proper assessment it made. Lots of swearing follows.

 

 

 

 

[Junkman]

Fuggin gr3.5

[Pete-M]

Lots more cutting of rot ensues.

 

 

It's a bit crusty.

[Mr Lobster]

Wondered what had happened to this, thought you'd given up on it. Pleased to see it coming to somewhere near finished.

[sporty-shite]

Does this new found activity mean this car is eventually making it's way home?

[Pete-M]

Engine doesn't seem too bad, and the gearbox appears sweet, so work continues....

 

 

Engine stripped and checked over, given a good bill of health. This was done without me actually asking for it, but that's another story. Exhaust manifold was blasted and repainted.

 

 

Gearbox checked over then cleaned.

 

 

 

Engine is also cleaned.

 

 

and painted..

 

 

Brake calipers soaked ready for rebuild.

 

 

[Vin]

Crikey, I didn't realise it was that rotten Pete....worth it though :smile:

[Pete-M]

work begins on welding the bloody thing up.

 

[John F]

Ace. I like Mk 2 Escorts.

[Pete-M]

Does this new found activity mean this car is eventually making it's way home?

 

Soon, hopefully.... maybe this year anyway.

[Pete-M]

Some more engine pics. This bit pissed me off as it was always gonna be getting a Zetec...

 

 

Grumble. This being like this means I'll almost feel guilty about ripping it all back out.

[Pete-M]

[Pete-M]

with all the welding at the front end done, it's time to hoik the engine and box back in.

The rear still needs sorting, which is why the rear arches and boot wells haven't been done yet. Looking quite pretty. It's unfortunate that he restored the late 1980s inner wing repair panels... I'll have to sort that when it's here.

 

and time to start relining things up. Trial fitting wings, etc.

 

The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the headlights, grille and wings are just held in place with prayer.

 

 

Bloody awful reg plate holder is a Czech thing. It's not staying... 

[Pete-M]

The man himself sent me this pic of him studiously repainting the wheels.

 

 

I got there a couple of months later to discover he had in fact only painted one. I did the rest while I was there.

 

I'll post more pics when I find them.... there's plenty more somewhere on this hard drive..

[Pete-M]

So, so far in this mission I've discovered a few things.

 

1: Germans lie to make you buy their stuff..

2: but it's possible to haggle if you're large, Scouse, and seriously pissed off.

3: German built Mk2 Escorts rot at least as badly as the Halewood ones.

4: Never expect a three week job to take three weeks. I'm four years into this next week, but it has had large breaks of months at a time where nothing happened.

5: Anyone who thinks every Mk2 is subject to "scene tax" obviously hasn't restored one of the bloody things. There ain't much metal, but it knows how to rot..

[cort16]

Shitting hell that looked rotten. I like the decals on the sport. Very cool.

[retrogeezer]

I like the front number plate thingamajig...   

 

 

Great update Pete, must have taken ages copying and pasting etc so cheers for doing it.

[Pete-M]

It was rotten as a pear, but that's the joys of old cars.

 

Took longer getting the pics into vaguely chronological order.. I've got plenty more somewhere. Need to find them.

 

It will get a fresh set of 1300 Sport decals, even if it ends up with a 2.0 Zetec it'll always look like a 1.3 Sport.

[Wilko220]

I hope the perseverance pays off in the end. Looks like it's going to be ace.

[Pete-M]

It's very nearly finished. Not a huge amount left to do before it goes for it's first MOT type test in 20 years.

 

Currently, it looks like this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf-dlXuiTyw&feature=youtu.be

[Wilko220]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but what made you get the resto work done in the Czech Republic rather than here? Did you live there at the time?

[Pete-M]

It was easier to take it to Czech at the time. That's where the tow van belonged, and where I'd rented the trailer.  The mechanic is a friend and I gave him a hand setting up in business.

 

It was originally going to be cheaper, but mysteriously once his garage was on its feet the labour rate doubled..

Things just went Mad... there's a long, long story which even I'm not 100% about.

[face]

Great stuff!

 

I had a white 1300 Sport back in the early 90s. Mine had a skimmed head, Janspeed, K'n'N and was lowered sitting on RS alloys.

It too was fairly rotten, but went like stink and handled brilliantly.

 

I think I sold it for about £500. Really wish I had just stuffed it away somewhere until now.

[Pete-M]

I don't even want to think about what this has cost.

 

In the 90s I regularly bought Mk2 RSs for a few hundred quid a pop. A grand won't even be enough to collect this From where it is.

 

Still. It'll be fun when it's properly sorted. Other than tramp bars on the rear axle every mod it gets will be reversible, so if I want to put it back to standard it'll be a weekend with spanners to put all the original bits on.

 

When it finally is finished in Czech is when the hunt for proper bits begins.

 

I'll be wanting a complete 2.0 Zetec engine, Sierra 2.0S 5 speed box, RS2000 Propshaft, 3.54:1 diff and Bell housing, Mondeo calipers, RS2000 carpet, single leaf springs, roller top mounts, double width kit, RS1800 anti roll bar.

 

It's all reversible, but every mechanical mod will make a huge improvement to how it drives.

 

It will be used in standard form for a while first.

[hairnet]

unbelieveable - philbusmo will be jealous (was yours worse?)

 

respec

[trigger]

Excellent, I've been following this since the start and I've watched your ups and downs with it on here and Facebook, Fantastic to hear it's nearing some kind of completion at last, I bet you can't wait to get behind the wheel!

[Pete-M]

I'm looking forward to it, but dreading it in some ways. It's still a 1300 Sport so 71 bhp is going to be mindnumbingly tedious, but that's easy enough to rectify.

 

I am looking forward to giving it some proper stick though..

[Bren]

Glad you have stuck with - they are very rare now, and were the weapon of choice when I learned to drive.

 

Everybody had the 1100, if you had a 1300 you were a bit of a geezer, 1600 meant you were the Don Juan of the local estate.

[Pete-M]

It's the fact I did most of my learning to drive in Mk2 Escorts after passing my test.

Every weekend used to involve going across North Wales, like a tit, in various Mk2s. They just amuse me, and they're such good fun to chuck about. 

 

LHD won't be a problem as I'm planning on moving to Europe at some time anyway, and this is quite probably going to go with me. 

[wackywacerwill]

Glad to hear this is moving forward again, it'll be a hoot when done.

 

I've a 98 mondy estate with nice running a 2 litre blacktop barely run in at 162k outside at the minute, I'd thought about chucking it in my cortina though now have the thing advertised complete as there's plenty of other stuff I need to do first. Just saying like.