Mk 2 Escort RS2000 restoration.

KelvinS1965

I thought I'd revive this thread as I've finally got back round to working on the car again after I injured my face with my angle grinder as mentioned further up this thread.   Luckily it just had a wire brush attachment fitted rather than a cutting disc, but it took a long time to heal and even longer before I felt like picking up the tools again.

I had this week off work so I could get on with it again. Last time I had removed the driver's side wing, done some inner wing repairs and was about to fit a new wing rail when the accident happened.

This was the car at the start of the week:
                                                                               

My autodarkening mask broke, so I had to get a new one from Screwfix. Then my MIG welder broke, so I had a delay while I found a replacement trigger/handset for it. Wasn't 100% exact replacement, so took a bit of time swapping it over and making a few slight changes to get it to work.

Consequently I've only really had 1.5 days proper work on it, but pleased with progress so far. Since these photos I've linished the welds and test fitted the wing after some minor repairs to the flanges.

The grey section was the inner wing repair I did 7 years ago (and will be covered by the RS strut top plate that I will refit soon. Just tacked on at this point:
                                                                               


Seam welded...not my best welding, but it's solid and after linishing I can see it had good penetration:
                                                                               


Going to get on a bit more tomorrow while my wife does some wallpapering (I'm safer out of the way ). I'll zinc prime the seam and do some other cleaning up and make up some small repair patches.

Hopefully more pictures tomorrow.

KelvinS1965

Did some cleaning up under the bonnet, sprayed over the linished welds with a zinc rich primer. I made some small repair patches for the edge of the front wing and front panel, then primed these repairs too.

I've test fitted the wing and it looks good to go back on, but I'm going to order some Bilt Hamber products, including a weld-through primer so I can prime the various flanges before I weld them back up: It helps seal out any corrosion and means the repairs will last a long time.

I think I might clean off the underseal from the inner wing while the outer wing is off. Then I can prime it all with the zinc rich primer: It'll delay me putting the wing back on, but I think the end result will be much better. It's not like the car is going to be used as a daily driver, but modern stone chip on top of modern primers is going to be more durable than the original 1979 stuff.

Pictures from today, wing rail linished and primed:
                                                                               

From the other side:
                                                                               

Close up of the front panel edge after 7 years bare metal in the garage, not too bad considering. I had to cut the spot welded flanges off the panel and the matching wing edge due to access.
                                                                               

Repaired the flange (needs final trimming, but primed it to prevent surface rusting):
                                                                               

I think a lot of the work is going to be cleaning up surface rust, treating it and then using the zinc rich primer to protect it. If you look at the pillar where the rear edge of the wing bolts on, this an example of light surface rust (it's exactly as it was when I took the wing off 7 years ago). Many RS2000s of this age would be completely rotten in these areas, so I'm grateful it's just these two strut top areas that have rusted through.

Same for the bulkhead seen in the back of this photo. This is normally covered by the sound deadening pad (which traps water so the panel is often rusted through):

                                                                       

k17chy

Lad at work has one sitting in his garage and hasn't turned a wheel in 15 year's and it's in a bit of a state. Still worth silly money atm just because is an RS. Good to see your making some progress with yours. Hope you get it back on the roads and get some enjoyment out of it.

KelvinS1965

Had Monday off to recover from a big gig I was playing at this weekend, but managed to put a bit of time in on the car: Cleaned up the strut top plate and got it welded in place.

First had to clean off the zinc primer where I wanted to 'plug' weld (a DIY/MIG version of the original spot welds):
                                                                               

The underside of the plate was cleaned up and zinc primed 7 years ago and left on the garage floor since. Still in perfectly good condition and ready to weld in place after a little gentle bending and tweaking (aka a hammer!):
                                                                               

Got it welded in place, linished, then carefully cleaned off the original black paint and dirt, leaving the chassis number alone (it is as original with just primer over the number). Obviously removed the numbers in photoshop because you can't be too careful these days.
                                                                               

Next job is cleaning up the under-arch area before I refit the outer wing...I might be some time before posting again.