My 1994 Ford Escort aka The Trusty Escort

[87gtVIC]

I soak the stuff, but if you do some research (on their website) I think there is talk of a way to apply it to chassis and stuff, so obviously that would not be soaking it. Check it out.

[87gtVIC]

Yay. Received an MX3 dual lidded center console from ebay Yesterday. Arrived with a broken latch spring and all of the screws were loose and some were missing. I removed the latch mechanism and pulled the pin that the spring would be sprung around. Pulled out a paper clip and twisted it around the pin a couple time and reassembled the latch mechanism. Latches perfectly now. Then I just cut out the holes necessary for the seat belt to be routed though. Washed the thing down heavily with a scrub brush and some ancient tuff stuff spray I had lying around. Doused the thing in 303 aerospace protectant, buffed and installed.
















I was worried that the black finish would make it look out of place...but because the steering wheel and column is all black it fits perfectly.

[87gtVIC]

Installed much needed rear shoes yesterday. Got out on the road and.............pedal to the floor after a couple of hard stops. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUU



So....use the e brake and nurse the car back into the yard. Jack her up and find on of the TWO (yes TWO) lines that feed the rear brakes from the master to the rear blew. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU


Ford had a brilliant idea to install all of the fuel lines and brake lines before the rest of the car was assembled so removing fasteners for the brake lines was a real joy.

We reused all of the old fittings......and made up all new lines from the master to the rear and from the rear (I know the car does not have an actual rear) out to the brake cylinders in the drums.

Amazingly we got everything back into place close to stock.....

Car brakes nice again and should last many years to come.

[86VickyLX]

Yeah, well they do that with every vehicle pretty much.

[gadget73]

Brake line routing is not fun. You should see the mess for the front brakes on my S10 sometime. There are some hellishly tight bends coming out of the ABS brick to feed the front lines. The factory even did those in 2 and 3 sections, with unions in between.

[87gtVIC]

Recently learned about the 1991-93 Mercury Tracer LTS. Noticed they had sweet looking sail panels in black. Did that today.


Panels off



Painted and the weatherstripping reinstalled



And installed onto the vehicle

[sly]

I dunno... If you like it, bonus... but I prefer the color matched panels. The only reason is because of how LOW that sail panel goes. If it ended level with the rear quarter, then I think it would look better.

[87gtVIC]

I liked them both ways.....Think I am gonna shoot the door handles trim black as well..

Both front and rear bumper are getting removed for a repaint. Tops of them are chalky. The upper strip of the front and rear bumper will get shot with undercoating (because the stripe is in horrendous condition......basically way to much work to get looking nice and uniform again), then body colored. Should look good. Body moldings along the side will get the same treatment because they are all cracking to shit as well. Nice textured body colored molding will look good.

The extreme lower portion of the front an rear bumper will get undercoating then shot with trim black paint. So will the rockers. Should look like them newer cars out there today with their black body cladding/moldings running around the entire base of the car.

[87gtVIC]

Yesterday morning (6:30am) I had some time before work started at the USOPEN (1pm) to do some work on the Escort. During Scottfest I pulled a trunk and fuel door release cable from another Escort while Scott B wrestled with an interior of a Grand Marquis.

Yesterday morning I ripped out the front seat of the Escort and installed the cable mechanisms...and to my surprise the car had all of the fasteners for the two cables to run from underneath the drivers side front seat to the rear/trunk of the vehicle....and also to my surprise all I had to do was connect the little ball and collar and everything worked.


After that was complete I took out the Mercury Tracer LTS three piece spoiler I purchased a few weeks back and did whatever body work was necessary (basically feathering out some minor chips) then primed the pieces.

In order for that spoiler to fit on the trunk I had to remove the Ford emblem...Always fun removing old emblem adhesive. Wetsanded and compounded and polished the area afterwords to kinda make all the paint look the same...was nicer looking under the emblem of course.


Next up is maching up that spoiler and drilling out all the holes I need......

[87gtVIC]

Got out of work extra early today...just finished up at the US OPEN.. Got home and ripped the taillights out of the Escort. Sanded them down and applied nite shades and clear coat. I will wet sand out the clear coat tomorrow morning then mask off the yellow reflectors running along the bottom of the taillights and shoot them trim black.

While the taillights were out I wet sanded and buffed all the areas around them and cleaned up behind them on the trunk.

Installed the clear corners as well.

Gotta strip a Mazda mx3 rear chassis stiffener of its paint and make it look pretty as well then install that.


May have courage to drill hole in car for three piece spoiler.... I'll see tomorrow.

[packman]

Funny how even DD's become projects. You got skilz brutha



Packman

[87gtVIC]

Well I got the spoiler mounted...and I painted the yellow reflectors of the taillights trim black.........ONLY to discover the tape left all of its adhesive on the niteshaded taillights. Now I gotta do it over again because the adhesive remover I then used ate up the clear coat.

[SVT98t]

Round two.
FIGHT!

-ryan s.

[sly]

Doh!

[87gtVIC]

I quit for the day.......Tomorrow I will completely strip the lenses again..nite shade and clear coat. God I hope the tape does not blend into the trim black I sprayed on the reflectors. I just cannot win today.