Alan Mann Ford Escort tin top.

Using this kit....



..... together with this Trans Kit....




..... and these decals....



..... to turn it into this:

Great to see this started Al.

Made a start on cutting out the original bonnet:

And it's removed. Needs a bit more cleanup then I can move on to fitting the engine campartment.

The trans kit engine compartment and bonnet are going to need a bit of fettleing to get a better fit, The black outline on the chassis will be removed in order for the kit sump and gearbox to mate with the trans kit engine. But I'll need to mockup the front suspension first.

Nice bit of razor saw work Al.

Is the new bonnet a tiny bit bigger to make up for the small bit of plastic that gets removed when sawing stuff out?

Keep going!

Thanks Shay.

No, you just have to cut away carefully.

More butchery in prep for the engine installation:

That must have been a pain in the jacksie. lol

I assume you drilled a series of holes around the marker line first?

Bit of filing and you should be grand.

Always love converting a curb-side into one with an engine. The conversion parts work well with the kit.

dublin boy wrote:That must have been a pain in the jacksie. lol

I assume you drilled a series of holes around the marker line first?

Bit of filing and you should be grand.

Actually Shay, the scribing out of the bonnet was harder, more nerve wrackiing and time consuming. Being able to drill the holes made it much easier. Should''ve done the same with the bonnet methinks.

"Always love converting a curb-side into one with an engine. The conversion parts work well with the kit"

It does Chris but the inner wings and bulkhead etc is going to be a little tricky to glue in place, due to not being a lot of contact area with the body.

Here's where I am at now:

Looking good, you seem to have it sorted.

The twin 40's look great, it wold be a shame to cover the up with a big air filter thingy.

I think the word you are looking for Shay is 'Airbox'.

No, they won't 'cos they diddn't use em"

I didn't want to get all technical and confuse you!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0wK0bqMS2U

Got it moccked up with the rally wheels and tyres. Same width all round as per the winning Roger Clark 1972 RAC rally car.



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The AMR racers used wider wheels and tyres at the rear and were lower set on the suspension, SO........

I have these arriving in a couple of days:



They are the correct Electron Minilites for the AMR racer with the correct track tyres on 13" rims 4.47 front/9.40 rear.

Going to take a little bit of jiggery pokery to get the cat down to track height and get those fat tyres under the rear bubble arches.

Can't wait to see them mocked up. The rally spec wheels are far too narrow.

They arrived to-day and have the correct period pattern tread. Just have to figure out how to get them under the bubble arches now.

A little more cleanup and when painted, they should look the Biz.

Going to take a fair bit of jiggery pokery to get them under the arches and lowered a tad though.  

You're not going to be displaying it upside down.

You know what I'm saying...

Are the tyres soft resin? Not much danger getting them under the Datsun then. lol

With a lot of jiggery pokery, I have managed to get those fat rear tyres onder the arches and suspension dropped to race height rather than rally height.

This is how Belkits designed the kit:



And this is my modified 'race' version:

A touch higher the front?

Is this more to Sir's requirements?

Or perhaps this:



This is the real deal X00349F

That's it.

Rear end needs to come up a touch now....lol

Go wan. lol!

Seriously, leave it alone now Al.

You berra belive it me owl Leprachaun.

Yeah, ya big Geordie bollix!

Keep going Al boy, a driver and a tank of petrol would have it sitting just like that.

Yup! Shay, I reckon too.

Can't believe it's been eighteen days since my last update. Not been at the bench much as we've at last sold our house and been searching for our next home, which we have found. YAY!!!

With the bonnet cut out, the 'engine compartment' had almost nothing to be glued to in the body and the bonnet had nothing to support it. So I added under wing strips of thin styrene to either side. This also gives me a much better attatchment point for the inner wings etc,

Get some paint on it!

Roger Clark's rally version of the Mk1 Escort had twin fuel tanks, the filler caps being located in the C pillars on either side. In contrast, the AMR cars had a single 22 gallon fuel tank located in the boot, with the single fuel filler under the boot lid.



The kit body has the twin recesses for the fuel fillers in the C pillars, so I cut two circles of styrene to fit, glued them in place and will finish them of with filler and no doubt endless sanding.





In the same way, the AMR cars had a bracing bar between the front and rear roll cage hoops that the rally car' didn't have, so I'm adding them in too,

For those of you following this build, I'm sorry to have to tell you, it's going back in the box for two reasons:

1. I'm having a real problem filling the rally car fuel filler recess'. I cut styrene to fit and have ad  four attempts to fill with two different filler, each time with the same result....... sink marks when the primer is applied. and dried.

2: Something devastating in my personal life happened to-day, nothing life threatening etc but enough to plummet my normal optimisim to the sole of my boots.

So back in the box it goes for now. Time to do something straight forward.

SO..... its' back to this one which is almost finished:

Pajero