RS Motorsport :: Classic Speed Restored

**from Rod's thread**






The misalignment of the sill on this side was most likely always like this from factory, it has green on the face that should be covered and the spot welds hadn't been tampered with.

**from Rod's thread**



If you track the bottom edge of the seam there you can see it's now essentially straight. I trimmed the excess away so it looks more correct.

On the other side, I had to work a lot harder to get the seam to come down but got there in the end. Also had to add some metal back to the edge of the outer skin with weld to create a straighter line.





This was all filled up and smoothed out. Then primed and painted up in flat black, trims reinstalled.





Did the top lip in flat black too because of some surface rust and paint chips on the edge.

**from Rod's thread**

other side

now, after getting all this sorted, the guy who was doing my RWC decided to go away on holidays until the 12th of december...yet another setback. had to wait 3 weeks then for him to come back and finish the test for me

Before I took it to Rod's workshop to be fixed up, I spent 3 days going over the paint work to bring it up. 1 day of running the clay bar over the entire body. 2nd day, hitting it with a mild cut on an orbital. 3rd day hitting it with a wax on the orbital, then a hand applied Carnauba wax over the top of that. the (bad quality) photos below speak for themselves as to how the paint work came up. so much shine :o

I cleaned it up in and outside to get the photos to lodge with the car club.

I got it registered, and had a bit of a working bee day on the car. It was getting hot sitting on the HWY, so i needed to sort that out.

We had set out to do a list of jobs
-change water pump
-change thermostat
-fit plates
-and if time allowed change oil in diff

Well we did the water pump first, fitted the new pump, then discovered the fan and pulley wouldnt bolt up. Pulley offset was wrong, and bolt thread was wrong, yet the pump was identical. Looked at the box, it was to suit pre-flow kent engines, so early cortinas. So pulled that off and fitted the old pump again.

Because we had to remove the radiator anyway, i decided to fit a better condition, spare i had.

Changed the thermostat.

Fitted plates

Did not get the diff oil done (needs doing though)


Car all back together ready for its first drive






We decided to go fill bith cars up with fuel and go for a short drive. Im happy the cooling system is all good. Even in todays 35 degree heat, it stayed at 85 degrees coolant temp

I had to laugh, Cal made a comment along the lines of, "i think you think the Mini is faster than it actually is" my response being, bull****, the Mini is a rocket.

Tried to keep up with him at the first set of lights, im flat out, and after about 10 seconds he had 100+ meters on me hahaha.

That mini is running a 1330cc (originally 1275 cooper s engine) big cam, big carby, extractors, and weighs about 150kg less than the Escort...i have no chance in hell of keeping up lol.

Boxing Day I took the Escort on its first cruise, with Vic Mini club. we did about 160kms up in the hills, without a single hiccup

It finished in Sunbury, so decided to go past Michael's to fit the 15s and swap them for my 13s.

We had to remove the driver's rear mudflap, because the diff is not sitting straight in the car (driver's wheel too far back) and it grabbed one of the screw heads holding the mudflap on.

Drove it back to Cal's, without it touching too bad. The only spot it light brushed the tyre a few times was the driver's back wheel, on some big dips in the road. So thats again because the diff aint straight.

I also need to sort out a bad wobble in the front. The steering wheel has a bad wobble to it, like having a buckled wheel, but having swapped the wheels i know thats not it.

I had a good look at the Escort to try work out why the diff wasnt straight. After measuring off a number of relevant spots on the car side to side, it turns out the driver's side front leaf spring eye was 10mm further back on the car. Which is welded to the chassis.
I asked around on fb for advice, and pretty much every response i got was basically, never use a tape measure on and Escort, because they were all put together badly haha.

Anyway, Cal and I decided to unbolt the diff, and try moving it anyway, no good. So we come up with another idea, when we installed the 1" blocks, which has appeared to work. It has corrected the rear wheels, and brought the back ride height down perfect.

It just scrubs the rear left arch on big bumps, and turning left turns too fast, from the body rolling sideways onto the tyre.

This is the most recent stuff. Still having issues with this annoying vibration through the steering, i started to think wheel bearings. So thats what I did, i replaced the bearings. still didnt fix the issue, but bearings did need doing.

haha thought id post this, found this funny. i needed something to help get the new bearing cups into the back side of the hubs...50mm tow ball works perfect.

So this is where I am at.

I now know the cause of the vibration, and know how to fix it. More caster. Ive been informed that (you will all know this) by lowering the car, it causes the control arms to go too far backwards, and not run enough caster.

So Im now chasing an adjustable sway bar. if anyone can help me out, i would like one asap.

Warren Heath has said he can supply me with one, but can't get in touch through FB. So Warren if you're on here let me know please :P

Yesterday I went and purchased 2 more tyres the same as the fronts (175/50R15s) to replace the oversized 195/50s that were on the rear and scrubbing my guards.

Also turns out my wheels are Citroen alloys, not Saab. Cool

so I'm pretty happy with the way she's sitting now. just need the sway bar to fix this vibration.

Seems crazy to have to make it better than new (regarding the sill repair)