My life in cars - More new Shite! Mk3 Escort!

[danthecapriman]

That’s come up really well. Who’d have thought that leaving a car indoors for nearly 40 years would have protected it so well😄

Chances are if it hadn’t been it’d been gone a long time ago.

Itll be interesting to see how the engine comes back to life. I had the 1.3 CVH in an early mk2 Fiesta and it was a pretty quick little thing. Not a bad engine at all. It was the bodywork on that car that fell to bits!

[vaughant]

Great thread 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼, loving the old fords and the MK1 golf GTi cab, I've got one myself on an f plate. Not nearly as clean as your one but still pretty solid having stood so many years outside. It's got what many people who don't know call the "clipper kit" but it actually originated on the gti and I think the year mine started as well as I recall them. On d plate still having the smaller bumpers.

Not sure if you ever got near the asking but the value seems to have really shot up on these mk1's.

Glad you're enjoying the mr2, I didn't like the one I had at all back in I think y2kish, just couldn't gel with it at all. And I couldn't sell it either for some reason, mind you I reckon it had more rust then than yours does now 😱😱😱.

We painted up a MK2 turbo version and that was awesome if a bit tail happy 🤣🤣🤣.

Great thread I've really enjoyed it.

[AnthonyG]

I wonder why the Escort has got a Vauxhall/Opel ‘OK’ sticker? 

Love the thought process of the original owner ‘I’m going to save money on this repair, I can fit this shock absorber myself…..oh bugger, well I’ll just abandon this 5 year old car in the garage for the next [few] years’

If he’d spent £30 or so on a dealer - or even local garage - doing the job he would have a working car in less than a day!

Still, I guess it means this one survived in more or less untouched condition!!

Love the Manta BTW. 

[Wibble]

44 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

I wonder why the Escort has got a Vauxhall/Opel ‘OK’ sticker? 

Love the thought process of the original owner ‘I’m going to save money on this repair, I can fit this shock absorber myself…..oh bugger, well I’ll just abandon this 5 year old car in the garage for the next [few] years’

If he’d spent £30 or so on a dealer - or even local garage - doing the job he would have a working car in less than a day!

Still, I guess it means this one survived in more or less untouched condition!!

Love the Manta BTW. 

I’d like to imagine that Vauxhall bought it to evaluate against their Mk2 Astra and, after pissing themselves laughing, chucked it into their approved used scheme.

[Spottedlaurel]

I don't remember many Mk3s, especially lower-spec versions, looking that good after just 4-5 years.

[vaughant]

8 hours ago, Wibble said:

I’d like to imagine that Vauxhall bought it to evaluate against their Mk2 Astra and, after pissing themselves laughing, chucked it into their approved used scheme.

But comparing apples to apples on an x it would have been the MK1 Astra which I would guess wasn't a million worlds apart from the MK3 Escort?

And to be fair it was in the top 3 sold cars for its entire run so they can't have been that bad 🤣🤣🤣.

I'd still take a series 1 turbo or even a rs 1.6i over a mk1 gte. 

Bit harder once the MK2 came out with power steering, 16v engine, better equipment and more modern styling though. 

Both excellent cars IMO.

[M'coli]

Better equipment? Only after the first 5000 were made for homologation into Group A - my uncle's mk2 Astra GTE was one, it had the keep fit windows and no sunroof (and maybe no central locking too) to keep the weight down!

[trigger]

Only a quick one but I ran the mop over the wing and half the bonnet as I couldn't help myself! You can see it has a few blisters under the paint but the difference is unreal

[camryv6]

Are you going to recreate that photo of your wife and the Escort ?

[trigger]

58 minutes ago, camryv6 said:

Are you going to recreate that photo of your wife and the Escort ?

She hates that photo! 🤣 You can have this one again instead!

[camryv6]

I can't wait for her to recreate that one !!

[HMC]

1 hour ago, trigger said:

Only a quick one but I ran the mop over the wing and half the bonnet as I couldn't help myself! You can see it has a few blisters under the paint but the difference is unreal

Looks great! Whats the sticker at the base of the windscreen on the driver’s side about?

[trigger]

13 minutes ago, HMC said:

Looks great! Whats the sticker at the base of the windscreen on the driver’s side about?

This one?

I was hoping someone on here would know! 😂 I'm guessing it's 87/88 but no idea on the NT? I was thinking National Trust but their stickers are different.

Some bonus photos for you, I couldn't just stop there and carried on down the side!

And for anyone interested this is all I use

 

[camryv6]

Could it be Nottingham Transport ?

[beko1987]

Wish I had the balls to use a rotary. I mean tbh I've got the perfect test vehicle for mot giving a shit if I burn through the paint to test... 

@Six-cylinders DA is far more forgiving and safer to use when we're chatting away and it's easy to get distracted. You'd have that being a glossy mirror with a finer step of polish and pad 😍 

 

[hairnet]

more on the manta ta

[wuvvum]

On 14/05/2026 at 16:33, trigger said:

this is what my knob looks like

 

You might want to get that checked out by a doctor.