Mk1 Ford Escorts - share the love

[garbaldy 5557]

10 minutes ago, Pete-M said:

I don't know about the fire. 

That's a shame, I got rear 1/4 trim cards, rear lights and front struts for my 1300 Sport from Graham.  Decent enough prices as well. 

He was definatly been the cheapest for all the panels I've bought, and he offered a very good price for the yellow mk1 so he's more than fair to deal with and a no agro sale.

Some of his stock would be irreplaceable and I bet it's took him a long time to recover from it.

[Noel Tidybeard 5111]

nope, no love for them here

an average car at the most- would rather have an ado16

[Pete-M 3281]

14 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

nope, no love for them here

an average car at the most- would rather have an ado16

So start a thread with ADO 16s. 

[Austat 10583]

On 2/21/2021 at 9:59 AM, Dick Longbridge said:

Mk1 with a mk3 registration? Something really weird going on there. No trace of it anywhere, so long gone I assume, despite the huge work involved. 

My eyes still hurt, so here's a rather lovely Dutch more door to restore the balance. 

I think that's a Portuguese plate, but a very nice four door regardless.

[Austat 10583]

Very expensive, but how ace is this MK1 van?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FORD-ESCORT-MK1-VAN/174660248046?hash=item28aa8fe1ee:g:1hAAAOSwVJBgPSZr

[puddlethumper 3667]

Back in the early eighties, 83/4 I think, I had a Mk1 Escrote van on a G plate so quite an early one. It was somewhat basic but got me and my tools to work which was all I wanted. At the time I was living on the south coast in Weymouth and had met and chatted about motors with a surfer type who had made a shorty bay window VW van by chopping the middle third out and adding a Porsche engine. Permanent wheelie bars because, as you can imagine, no weight upfront.

Anyway, we were down the quay having a beer one evening and he said to me, "you've got an Escort do you want a Mk2 RS2000 ?".  "Sure I do but there's no way I can afford one". Says I. "Well I know one for £350" says he. "350 quid? You're havin a giraffe".  Turned out that some young guy had been going a bit too quickly, as one is wont to do at that age, and had rolled it side over  several times and had been brought to a halt by a big tree. Right across the roof at the B pillar. Every panel on both sides were dented, badly, and the only glass left was the rear screen. 

You may be thinking, why didn't he get a shell and swap everything over. Early 80's, Mk2's hadn't been out long enough to get one from a scrappy that was any good and the only other way would be one from Frod.  Worth doing now but not back then.

So we went and had a look. Mistake number one.  Mistake number two was  a 550 quid rebate from the tax man that was heating up alarmingly in my pocket. So, obviously, a deal was done. 

Had a mate who had been a mechanic but  had moved into recovery work. Still had a garage and kept his two trucks there. Got him to drag it over to his place and over the next week or two we swapped everything onto the van. It did go well I will say that. Outwardly a bog standard van, green with a brown tide line. Fun at the lights though.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh 23717]

On 2/23/2021 at 2:27 AM, Noel Tidybeard said:

nope, no love for them here

an average car at the most- would rather have an ado16

When new the ADO16 did in fact outsell the Escort, the difference was that they also seemed to outrot them, when people,were trying to keep old bangers on the road in the late 70’s the Escort was a lot easier to work on and bodge through an MOT. 
Even without the image problems in popular culture Reginald Molehusband vs Roger Clark. Basil Fawlty vs Hannu Mikkola etc etc  The ‘ 1100’ was always seen as a car of the 60’s whereas the Escort was a trendy 70’s car and yes I know the MK1 only outlived the ADO16 by one year.

I would imagine a VdP 1300 was a similar price to a Mexico in about 1972, what a choice and I wonder if anybody ever had both on their shopping list?