Group Buy: 1982 Ford Escort bASe. Purchased.

[SiC]

Could this be the same company? Probably is and they've just moved location down to Wellington (not that far from W-S-M). 

http://www.mjmotorsonline.co.uk/

M J Motors of Wellington is a family owned and operated business, established by Marvin Jennings over the last 30 years. We pride ourselves on having built up a reputation for our specialist knowledge and experience in sales and servicing Used Ford Vans. Any Commercial Vehicle up to 3500kg, including Transit Vans, Tippers, Pickups, Minibuses, Escort vans and Connects can be supplied and maintained.

[R1152]

Likewise, if the radio doesn't work and no other Shiters want to repair it, I would give it a go; and no, I won't make it into a poxy Bluetooth speaker.

[bezzabsa]

1300!!! shirley it needs to be the wheezy 1100 rattler for the full on bASe experience...AND this has wheel trims...such decadence !!

rear window rubber looks to be in good nick tho!!

and is that a racing stripe on the passenger seat ???

Good purchase though...so who's names going on the sunstrip???

[Bren]

Something wonderful about saving an old car.

However I have been wondering about what lies under the rocker cover given it has  CVH. They can be a sludge factory.

[Split_Pin]

DID NOT EXPECT A BUY

I have loved these since I got the grille and Serck  plate  from a very abandoned  A997HLS in 1995 from a garage business that was being cleared in my friends dad's land. Quite a short life for it really.

The more base the better and this is just how I recall them from that period in time.

Well played 110%

[Wilko220]

Just like my grandparents' old one (except that was beige), so I have happy memories as a passenger in one of these even if I've never had the driving experience.

Congratulations on the buyage!

[spartacus]

Good news, well done to the purchasers.

[wuvvum]

I'm mildly jealous - my first ever four-wheeled vehicle was one of these in van form, with the same CVH engine, four-speed 'box and bASe dashboard.  Mine did have XR3 seats fitted though rather than the original vinyl.

Very much looking forward to seeing this in the metal / wob when we're allowed out to play again.

[sutty2006]

Top job guys! 

[adw1977]

Excellent purchase. 

A Mark 3 with vinyl seats must be incredibly rare now, even the brochures always showed the optional fabric trim on interior shots.  This is the July 1982 edition:

Here's the features and options list. 

Clearly the original buyer was prepared to part with £12.71 for a passenger side door mirror, but not £45.28 for fabric trim.

[GeordieInExile]

Excellent work. Three door estates are for winners. 

 

Shame it's not a 1.1 but you can't have everything eh. What would those have been putting out new, about 45bhp?

[Timewaster]

3dr Mk3 Estates always make me think of TV rental firms. 

 

And not simply that you don't see them anymore. 

[Isaac Hunt]

Proper poverty spec is that.  

I seem to recall a mate of mine getting a job as a photocopier salesman back in the early 80's.  He was mighty pissed off when they gave him one of these as his company car.

[Richard_FM]

I imagine a lot of 3 door estate Mk3s were used as light vans, especially in base trim.

A few years later a lot of Mk2 Astra estates seemed popular with self employed tradesmen, who seemed to run most of them into the ground even when the hatchbacks were still common.

[Dave_Q]

Not a tradesman but a vaguely related tale, when I was a kid in the mid 90s my mum was moaning to me about a family friend and what a total tightarse he was.

The proof of the gentlemans mingebagness?

He drove a 3 door estate Astra BASE - at that time the 3 door was less common so he had gone out of his way to purchase a 3 door estate and had to wait for one to be special ordered in order to save £300 or whatever vs the 5 door version.

Ultrabase.

[BL Bloke]

Good to see that this has come into the fold, well bought. 😃 I can't remember the last time I saw a Mk3 Escort of any description, let alone a base spec, terracotta 3 door estate.  🙂

[Craig the Princess]

9 hours ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Proper poverty spec is that.  

I seem to recall a mate of mine getting a job as a photocopier salesman back in the early 80's.  He was mighty pissed off when they gave him one of these as his company car.

He should think himself lucky that it wasn't a blue diesel Maestro.

[plasticvandan]

I'm not a Ford fan but back in 1996 my dad swapped his incredibly crusty 1986 Fiat Fiorino (127 type) for an identical Escort Estate in the same colour,as I loved the van as a child I wasn't happy about it! 

[BorniteIdentity]

10 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

Excellent work. Three door estates are for winners. 

 

Shame it's not a 1.1 but you can't have everything eh. What would those have been putting out new, about 45bhp?

None of your Valencia engined nonsense here.

TBH it’s the exact spec I would have bought. 1.3 engine is a sensible move, but no other ostentatious embellishment (door mirror aside). 

Thanks @vulgalour- I will give you every measurement possible for the seat covers. It will look absolutely perfect with a pair for the front seats! 

[treehugger]

Needs a fat exhaust fitting. 

And go faster stripes. 

You paid HOW MUCH? 

😄

[Essex V6]

This is the pure essence of Autoshite for me! Get the wheel trims off and rid of the rubber duck aerial and jobs a good un!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

The three-door option makes this for me.  1.3 opulence.  Still faster than our 1.4 Focus, I guarantee....

[Rod/b]

10 hours ago, Timewaster said:

3dr Mk3 Estates always make me think of TV rental firms. 

 

And not simply that you don't see them anymore. 

Funnily enough I used to work for a TV Rental place and the service managers had these. And then later on, Mk IV 5 doors. 

[Rod/b]

Can’t wait to see what is left of the rear arches after all the plop is knocked out. 

[Unlucky Alf]

10 hours ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Proper poverty spec is that.  

I seem to recall a mate of mine getting a job as a photocopier salesman back in the early 80's.  He was mighty pissed off when they gave him one of these as his company car.

Amazing work guys!  I’m a long term lurker - but I had to post on this thread.  

My first ever company car was an escort estate, it was a B reg, but not poverty spec, I got a hand me down from the boss  who went for an Astra, I got his 1.4GL estate.   As you can see in the images, it was sign written. Unlike your photocopier mate, I loved this car... well I would wouldn’t I

I sold my T reg 1.6 Escort Mk2, pocketed the cash and started a long series of Ford company cars.  I loved it! Free petrol, I was earning 8k a year and was given a car and a petrol card... awesome!

When this one went back I got an E Reg two door estate 1.4L replacement  -  which was later replaced with a GReg 1.6GL 4 Door (estate again).

Well played, an amazing purchase.   I’m gonna follow this thread with interest!

 

[ProgRocker]

Well done on buying this, chaps! 

All you need now is a Fiesta 950 Popular and Granada 2000 L / diesel Taxi spec for complete BASE Ford experience! 

Anecdotal about a base Escort estate. The (ex) council house I grew up in was adjacent to a row of 6 shops (you might have noticed in a few of my old family car pics I uploaded) .

The third shop along was a newsagents that had probably been there since the 1950s ran by a husband and wife, who conveniently lived in the council maisonette directly above it. They had a son called Nigel. The parents bought Nigel a base Escort estate in doom blue, might have been an X reg. Estate for presumably  'cash and carry' runs. I would have been about 4 years old at the time but he had it throughout the 1980s. It was always barked behind the shop by the loading bay door, near our house. I used to look inside peoples' cars (never touched them in fear of getting a telling off) and this Escort I distinctly remember having vinyl seats. No clue what engine it was, it just read 'Escort' on the back. I think it was replaced by a secondhand white Montego HL estate which he ran until his parents retired in 1991. I was doing a paper round for them at that time. 

[adw1977]

54 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

The three-door option makes this for me.

Three door was the only option for Escort estates in 1982. 

The five door was added in April 1983, the brochure for that month is quite interesting because it talks about how they used as many parts as possible from the existing three door estate and five door hatch to keep costs down.  Hard to imagine a manufacturer publicising such things today!

Even with the option of five doors, the choice of a three door estate isn't necessarily penny pinching.  A three door will have much longer side doors, which could be useful, depending on what you're using it for.

[Cheggers]

Can’t wait to see what is left of the rear arches after all the plop is knocked out. 

"Superleggera"

[BorniteIdentity]

1 hour ago, Rod/b said:

Can’t wait to see what is left of the rear arches after all the plop is knocked out. 

I’m going to go over it with a magnet, but I don’t *think* it’s as bad as first feared. I think he just had a load of pudding and was larding it on here and there whilst he had it out. 

[greengartside]

I’ve just unlocked a fantastic memory of riding in one of these when I was younger.

It was a Silver 1300 GL estate, EBJ ***Y (I knew it was EBJ as it was fairly locally sold) with the attractive steel wheels and no seatbelts in the back - it belonged to a friend’s mum at primary school, and I went over to theirs one night right after school.

I remember being driven along the skinny Norfolk roads past the harvested fields and it was a lovely hot and sunny day back in 1989, all the windows down and marvelling in how different this Escort was from our family Peugeot 504. Life was awesome.