It's 2....3 years now? How deep in am I?

A younger me wanted a project car, and I happened upon a Ford Escort Mk4. What younger Alex didn’t know, was the headache, frustration, infuriation and immense displeasure fixing a rusty car can be in Barbados. He also didn’t know the immense satisfaction that could be acquired through accomplishment. Whether the satisfaction outweighs the frustration remains to be seen.

A New Hope

The only two articles that I wrote regarding my project car were written with elation. Seeing all that progress happening made me so happy. Unfortunately, my joy was short-lived. The interpersonal relationship between myself and the company that was supposed to be doing the welding and rush repair broke down. Frankly, I’m annoyed with myself for not vetting the business sufficiently. If I had done enough then my car wouldn’t have been left in worse condition than how it was originally. Even now, thinking about how my dream was collapsing still gives me stabs of headache and makes me wonder if my holding on stemmed from hope or from bitterness. Needless to say, my blue Escort MK4 is dead. After brushing the last bits of dirt over the coffin of my dreams, “A New Hope” arose.

Maybe I was being looked after, but a really good friend of mine sent me a message with a picture randomly one afternoon, it was an image of a for sale post on Facebook Marketplace. The picture was of a car on sale and so, of course, the remnants of my lost dream tugged at my heartstrings. Even though I already had a project car, who would’ve known just a week later I would be in need of an entire car for my project? I studied the image and said to myself “get it together!”. So, I took a minute to recompose myself and made a deal with the former owner to make the car my own. It was a late model Escort 1989 and it had definitely seen better days. However, the project was back on and I was back in the game. I was building an escort again and I would learn from the mistakes of the past. I needed to learn from my mistakes and take better steps to make sure things are done the way they needed to be done.

Radio Silence

When the curtain of silence is drawn over a project, sometimes persons may believe that it went quietly into the dark. Alas, that was not the case with this dream! I did realise though, that some things that are so close to the heart are better left out of other peoples ears. Ahead of me was a very difficult journey that needed to be restarted, it even took a whole year before I was able to get the ball properly rolling again. I did my research and then I sent the car off as the engine of my dreams, first to be prepped and then to be repaired. Thankfully, my research paid off and this company handled my fragile dream with the utmost care, taking great interest to do the bodywork the way I wanted it done. I will admit and sometimes I grew quite impatient but like most good things, it took some time. My patience and perseverance paid off and my project felt a little bit heavier and looked a little more colourful.

The car was in dire shape to say the least. Lots of work would have to go into it if it was to go into working condition. I was able to source the replacement panels for the battery tray and a few other parts of the car from on the island. My first attempt, the blue Escort, came to good use and served as the donor car, arming with a variety of parts that helped me push the work onto the car itself. There were also some unexpected events that slowed the progress but the bodywork was able to be completed in about a year of hard work and patience.

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My first Mod.

After getting all the welding and repair work done, it was time to change my mindset. These were now uncharted waters and I was no sailor. I was already feeling overwhelmed and confused so I decided to enlist the help of the island’s Escort specialist, Freddie Mapp. There’s nothing he doesn’t know about these retro Fords, he helped me a lot.

The first item on the agenda was test fitting some Sierra 2wd 4pot callipers to the car, with the new rotors. This was a lot easier said than done because the brakes were incredibly worn out. Surface rust and solid rubber seals seized pistons and fused fittings all needed to be deconstructed. I took my time, put in some elbow grease and things slowly started progressing. The second thing to be done was offering up the part and machining the pointing points so everything fit where it’s supposed to be. Feel free to check out the progress photos in the gallery below, the images are in no specific order but it gives you an idea of the before and after quality.

Major Steps

The images in this article span a number of years. Literally around a year and a half to about 2 years counting from the first image of the car. I had underestimated the length of time it would take for this project to take off. During the waiting periods I was still writing articles on other cars and still doing photography but my fledgeling car was still in the back of my mind.

Right now with a global pandemic overrunning the earth, and countries initiating lockdowns and curfews it is really perhaps the perfect time to spend time at home and work on your car. Maurice was in training for about two years at our island’s polytechnic institution. You would never believe what he was learning to do! Bodywork. So choosing him to do the paint job was a no brainer.

It could be of no surprise to any of you readers that being able to work on my car on my own truly made my year. Having the rust removed, leaving the body shop and then having my friend and partner doing a spectacular job with the paint work. These all contributed to my elation with this project so far. I feel so appreciative to my friends and all the people that I have met while working on this project.

So after a rollercoaster two-year journey, my car is finally home. I guess it’s time to change gears and move on to the next aspect of the project. I will keep you posted, until then, happy motoring!

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Mk 4 Escort Update

Well, its a lot rustier than I thought it would be, but it can still be saved.

Since the last time I posted about The Escort, if you have been following us on Instagram, I've been live streaming the progress of the car. If you haven't seen it, that's okay, you can read it here. The car has been stripped, that took about a day, to get everything out safely. The car is 31 years old, many of the interior's parts have rotted or become excessively brittle, we really need to pay due attention to things.

Trash car will soon have it's time to shine.

With most of the interior out though, Alvin and I were really able to see where all the rust was at in the chassis. Outside of the rust in the expected places, he spent some time fixing some badly done work made by the previous owner. The car has been through a lot through its time here and it's actually quite refreshing to see it being stripped down and refreshed. 

The project as it stands now.

“Yeah we can still save it, don’t worry.”

— Alvin

The windscreen and sunroof were removed as well, and I finally got some good news, the sunroof rack was not rusty, at least that bit was fine. The rest of the car though, I'd have to leave in his competent hands.

Let's start talking modifications though obviously, this is a bit more than just a full restoration of the machine, it's a build. Being that it's a build, the best time to delete, or reinforce usually is at the stage of bodywork. I have a few things in mind for the car, that gives me personal satisfaction, and a few things the car will need to prepare it for the new heart it will be receiving the coming weeks.

First of all, I am killing those rear triangle things Ford confidently adds to their 4 door models, I hate those things, toss them please, never let them see the light of day. With the rear side window delete and replaced with some sheet metal, it should help give the car a more modern feeling.

I'll be adding some structural mods that are functional as well, The rear shock towers will have a strut bar, and one will be added to the front of the car as well, in order to beef up the feel of the car. The rear strut bar will be a homemade job, so we will be doing some planning in order to make it work.

The interior of the car is clearly in arrears. I'll be doing some cosmetic changes to the door panels. The old door panels have really seen its share of life, so I will be replacing them with some aluminum cuts. I am not sure if this will save weight, but it would definitely look a lot cleaner when it's finished, it should have a nice carpet finish on it. 

The final piece of the puzzle would be finding a new windscreen. The old one started to split with age, and it became opaque around the edges. I am starting to believe that finding a donor car would be correct action to take, but I will see what we can work with first. Surprisingly enough, seeing the entire car broken down is giving me a lot of motivation to get it up again. 

Stay alert for more updates on the build as it continues. Until next time, happy motoring!

-Alex

It's rusty, it's old and it's mine!

It's rusty, it’s old and it's mine! It's not every day we find our dream cars, but when we do, it's well worth the effort to polish the diamond and see what it's truly worth the effort. As car enthusiasts, we can all relate to the idea of not having one specific dream car. Usually, it's a case of having ideal cars in ideal situations or being like Jay Leno and owning them all. The worth of a car can be deeply rooted in its culture.

Who did it influence? Why was it important to car culture? These questions usually cannot be answered immediately, it takes time for the answers to be answered. Fortunately for me, this car is around 31 years old, so I'm sure any questions it has to answer, it has answered them, dropped the mic and walked out the room already.

What car did I find? I found a Ford Escort Mk4 Ghia. If you are an avid reader of this blog, you would've noticed my tendency to hold a special place for Euro Cars, especially old ones. I actually really like regular cars. This car is about as average as they get, the car originally came with a 1.6 carbureted engine, probably didn't even make 100 hp, it was a mass mover.

Taking families to vacations, taking parents to their jobs and dropping children off at school. Why then do we then, associate Escorts with hype, and speed, and racing?

“This the front wheel drive one? Right? I remember they were cool, then they went front wheel drive.”

— Confused Parts dealer

This is where the Escort becomes special, due to the quantity of them, they were likely canidates for modification. Suddenly they were blasting through rally stages, nosing around circuits and burning up the streets at night  Escorts were the car to have here in Barbados back in its heyday. In fact, most sleeper platforms were Escorts. It was quite common for an Escort to be sporting a larger engine either from a Sierra or Granada.

I’ll be honest, when I started hunting for a project car, I really did not expect this car to cross my path. I remember growing up, I saw a few of them on the road, zipping around. They always caught my eye but when I was older they were no longer around. I did always want to own one, but I thought it would have been highly unlikely.

I found this car, being parted out at a yard, and I was fortunate as well, as it just arrived there and not much interest was shown in it. Perhaps the lack of Escorts on the island also accounted for this, but it was really nice to find a running car for really cheap.

Is this Car my dream car? It may be one them. Many persons have fallen in love with the Mk 1 or Mk 2 Escorts. When persons speak about Escorts, they refer to those 2 models specifically. The Mk 4 Escort was a little more thrown to the side, because of its front wheel drive nature. People believe it’s lost its charm because of this but I’d disagree.

This new project car is actually the perfect platform to build a really fun sleeper. With the introduction of the Mk 3 and Mk 4 Escort came the RS Turbo, although the car it was front wheel drive, its 1.6 CVH engine, spat out a decent 133 hp with the T3 Garrett slapped on it. These engines were capable of a lot more though, and have been modified to produce around 600 + hp in recent times, that's a lot for a 4 cylinder 8 valve engine!

I won’t be making crazy numbers like that though, but it should be pretty quick off the line. I’ll be going more in depth in the near future with this car, keeping you guys aware of the ongoing project. I’ve got plenty of work to do getting it ready to drive, but I’m looking forward to stepping into this “project car” life.

Stay tuned for further updates! Until next time, this Alex, Happy Motoring!