1972 Escort Estate aka Jigsaw

Progress has been slow but it's heading in the right direction.

The front drivers floorpan got trimmed, extended, and the missing corners were fabricated.


Lower bulkhead has been cleaned and the lower edge was rebuilt. The A-post was rebuilt at the bottom and neatly tied into the lower bulkhead.

The new & improved front floorpan was finally put into place yesterday so the car now has new floors front & back on the drivers side   
Most of the edges are finished, some still need to be fettled then fully seam welded but it's getting close to being done.

With the car over the pit it's difficult to work on the bits nearest the garage door so I decided to turn the car around to make access easier to the bit that need to be finished off...

The starter motor I "fixed" last month was dead so I stripped the "scrap" starter, cleaned the commutator and brushes, greased the bushings and tried again.
A (new unused Facet I bought I while ago) electric fuel pump was fitted, ignition and pump were hotwired (so no chance of voltage drop in the suspect wiring) and I was pleasantly surprised when it coughed first time. It caught and ran at the next attempt .
A great result, and the first time the car has been drivable since I got it so I celebrated by doing a 3 point turn outside the garage before putting it back over the ramp ready to seam weld the rest of the drivers floorpans 


The to-do list now look like :
Find a fit an exhaust downpipe (the car runs very happily with no exhaust connected but it's not quiet) 
Finish seam welding the drivers floorpans.
When drivers floorpans are finished, repeat for the passenger front & rear floorpans.
The shabby rear valance was removed and remade a while ago then rewelded in place. It's neat and solid but some bits need to be finished neatly.
A quick patch on the x-member under the radiator, it's out of sight and not bad but a quick patch or cut out and infill is needed.
On my last UK trip I picked up new brake flexi hoses (to go with the new hardlines & brake flare tool I have here to remake the brake lines), and a new propshaft UJ. I'll do nothing yet but I've got the parts ready in case the car fails inspection.
Bits I still needed : fuel filler neck (the rubber elbow to connect the petrol filler to the tank - I think this is specific for the estate, 1 boss to fit the wiper onto - the wiper motor is ok but the shaft should have a boss for the arm to clip onto - PO ripped both boss's off when he removed the wiper arms, I found one, the other is lost).
The gearbox rear oil seal is leaking, finding new seal here won't be easy, and the propshaft end looks to be rough (so will chew up a new seal) and not seated far enough into the gearbox. Needs more investigation 

In the end I put a bulk order in with Burtons, they have a good range of stock at fair (not cheap) prices but I found the ordering part of their website to be one of the worst I've used. In the end it took several days, many hours, and 2 phone calls to their office before my order went through. I've even changed my password on their website to "UnderNoCircumstancesBuyFromBurtons" just in case I forget in the future   

I tried to mig the leaking core plug and made it worse. New bits from Burtons ( coreplug set, new seatbelts etc) are on their way from the UK but my mate is busy with work so is taking his time packing the stuff and posting it out


Things are happening slowly, the good news is that gives me time to do the jobs properly rather than just patch the problems for inspection