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De arching the Revell Mk2 Escort to make a standard road car


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Been a long time coming this one! 16 years ago my wife bought me a half day rally driving in a Mk2 Escort for my birthday and afterwards I went out and bought the Revell kit, intending to make a model of the car I drove.

 

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Pretty quickly though this idea changed into converting it into a standard road going 1100/1300, more in line with my usual modelling tastes! This would entail the removal of the flared arches and recreating the standard arches - plus a whole lot more!

 

I borrowed the factory manual off of a friend and photocopied anything I thought may be useful. There was a side plan of the bodyshell and I scaled this to 1/24th and printed it onto acetate so I could hold this up as a guide.

 

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To be honest this was as far as I got until early last year until I saw a resin de arched shell on ebay so I bought one and re-visited the project.

 

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This was described as being able to take all the parts from the Revell kit to complete but it actually appears to be a copy of a die cast model. After working on it on and off for a few months there was no way I could get the windows to fit to my satisfaction so decided to go back to my first idea and convert the Revell shell.

 

Early stages of the conversion - after filing off the flared arches I traced the profile from the acetate onto thin plastic, cut this out and stuck it inside the body on both sides. Further pieces were cut to bring it up flush to the surface plus plenty of filler!

 

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Plastic strip added inside the arch to create the lip before adding copious amounts of filler!

 

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I'll follow up with the finished shell once I have dug the pictures out!

 

Cheers

Chris

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Boot spoiler has been removed and front skirt created

 

I've lost count of the number of times I had to fill, sand, prime repeat to get to this stage! I have decided it is good enough, using the excuse that the weather is too cold for any more spraying..

 

 

 

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Comparing it against the resin shell I am pretty pleased and certainly the kit shell is a lot finer detailed around the window area

 

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Last thing on the shell is I have put the Ford letters on the boot (possibly early cars only) using Slaters 1.5mm letters (not sure these are still available?) but not sure I am going to keep them

 

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Hopefully now I can move on to the chassis and interior

 

 

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There's a half decent pinto engine available from the AMT Ford Pinto wagon. It also comes with a V6 or V8 (one of those V things anyway) so the kit won't be wasted. I know only RS 2000s had 2.0 pintos and the 1.6 was a Kent, not a OHC but something to think about...

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14 minutes ago, roym said:

There's a half decent pinto engine available from the AMT Ford Pinto wagon. It also comes with a V6 or V8 (one of those V things anyway) so the kit won't be wasted. I know only RS 2000s had 2.0 pintos and the 1.6 was a Kent, not a OHC but something to think about...

I think the Ford Escort Mk.2 came with the 1.6 Pinto rather than the Kent.

 

I like this project as I'd rather have a standard Ford Escort than a sporting one.  The first family car that I can remember was a copper Mk.1 Escort and that was replaced by a Mk.2 Escort Popular Plus four-door in dark blue.  It would be nice to make a model of one of those.

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I've got two shells almost to the stage of adding the arches - hope I can get the filling and sanding on mine to look as good as yours. I'm aiming to do replicas of the 1600 Sport and Harrier I owned back in the dark ages! The Sport eventually ended up as a forest arched stage rally car so I'll have to do two!!

 

18 minutes ago, roym said:

1.6 was a Kent, not a OHC

 

Except for Mk2 Mexicos which had a 1600 pinto.

 

6 hours ago, onethritysecond said:

it actually appears to be a copy of a die cast model.

 

I thought about buying one of those, but comparing the pics on e-bay it looked identical to the Burago diecast.

 

Looking forward to seeing this one progress

 

Keith

 

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13 hours ago, Windy37 said:

Your doing a good job there .  Nice to see a different take on this controversial kit . Just a thought , are you going to use the kit engine ?  That would be be a proper Q car . 
 Gary . 

 

13 hours ago, roym said:

There's a half decent pinto engine available from the AMT Ford Pinto wagon. It also comes with a V6 or V8 (one of those V things anyway) so the kit won't be wasted. I know only RS 2000s had 2.0 pintos and the 1.6 was a Kent, not a OHC but something to think about...

 

13 hours ago, johnlambert said:

I think the Ford Escort Mk.2 came with the 1.6 Pinto rather than the Kent.

 

I like this project as I'd rather have a standard Ford Escort than a sporting one.  The first family car that I can remember was a copper Mk.1 Escort and that was replaced by a Mk.2 Escort Popular Plus four-door in dark blue.  It would be nice to make a model of one of those.

 

 

Thanks for the kind words everybody!

My understanding is that the 1100 and 1300 at least inherited the crossflow kent from the mk1 escort.

 

To be honest after the amount of time the body has taken I wasn't going to bother with an engine, especially not the kit one, but then I found this in my bits box

 

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It's a pre crossflow Kent from the Tamiya Lotus 7 kit. It's going to involve a fair bit of work, including crossflow manifolds, and, going by my Airfix 1/32nd Mk1 escort kit, the starter motor needs to be on the other side.

Engine mounts will need to be changed and I think the sump needs to be the other way around, partly going by the Airfix and and partly by trial fitting - the Revell steering/suspension is awful by the way and may end up having it as non steering for a bit of solidity!

Chris

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Really smooth finish on those wheel arches. Glad you’re adding the engine, although this looks like you’re creating a mammoth task!

 

What’s the interior like in the kit? Will you be able to create something ‘stock’ with what you have?

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This is an interesting project,  great work on the shell.  Brings back memories of mucking around with mine which was a street sleeper in ratty hearing aid beige with warmed up engine and suspension and brakes and Rostyle wheels used to love that thing, great fun.

Chris

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I'm going to sit in too as I'd like to have a go at making a replica of the Mk2 I navigate in these days, have a spare Revell boxing in the stash ready.

 

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Escort Popular with dry sumped 2L Zetec, twin 45's and no big arches.

 

IanJ 
 

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On 1/17/2021 at 7:47 PM, roym said:

There's a half decent pinto engine available.

 

There's no such thing as a decent Pinto engine, best used as a boat anchor these days 😂

 

IanJ

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On 23/01/2021 at 09:34, Mr Mansfield said:

Really smooth finish on those wheel arches. Glad you’re adding the engine, although this looks like you’re creating a mammoth task!

 

What’s the interior like in the kit? Will you be able to create something ‘stock’ with what you have?

Interior in the kit is no use for a road car - no back seat anyway and buckets in the front. At least the resin shell I bought has a RHD dashboard, albeit a pretty poor one. I am carrying on with the engine for now and hope to post some progress later today, although you are right - it is a mammoth task!

Chris

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Having hit a bit of a wall in trying to make a standard interior for this car I have decided to pursue the idea of trying to convert the Tamiya Lotus 7 engine into an 1100 cross flow kent.

The Tamiya Lotus is a series 2 and research on the internet reveals that the car was fitted with the pre-crossflow 1340 kent from the Consul Classic/Capri with a gearbox from the same source or from the 105E Anglia, with the remote change from a Triumph bolted on.

Now I owned a real Anglia for 20 years and, while that does look like an Anglia box (and it is definitely a Kent engine), proportionally it is way too large compared to the engine from what I remember and from looking on the internet!

 

Below is the Tamiya engine (starter already removed and sump temporarily reversed) and for comparison is the one from Airfix 1/32nd Mk1 Escort. Admittedly the escort box was a new all synchro box not the Anglia one but the size was about the same. The Tamiya box is huge!

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So I looked on the internet and took some measurements from the Airfix and scaled them up to 1/24th and proceeded to cut up the Tamiya one.

Bell housing has been reduced in thickness and the starter bulge removed to the other side, a new box created from scratch and the original tail piece has been shortened and a later style remote change added - some bits still need trimming!

 

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Still some finishing to do and I am awaiting a fresh supply of filler. Starter bulge needs to be a lot bigger yet. Liberties have been taken but it's not really going to be seen.

 

Now for some of the ancillaries - below is the engine as seen in the factory manual.

 

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This shows a dynamo however I can only find reference to alternators ever being fitted. Luckily I have messed about with real old cars for years and happen to have an Escort starter and several Lucas ACR series alternators in the garage to work from so I have started on those.

 

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So this is where I am at now - centre bottom is the Lucas 3 bolt inertia starter (I've kept the flange separate and extended piece for now for ease of painting), to the left of that is the beginnings of a Lucas ACR16 etc type alternator. Bottom right is a first attempt at the exhaust manifold but it is nothing like the one in the manual so back to the drawing board with that one! Not even thought about the inlet manifold yet!

Engine back plate has been remade to allow the starter to be on the near side.

Most things in my bits box are 1/32nd scale so I had to make my own battery (none is supplied in the kit) and will need to make a mount for it. The Tamiya rocker box will need the Cosworth ribbing removed and the filler repositioning.

Not visible above but I have removed the early type dome from the moulded on fuel pump on the other side and approximated the later tin top type.

 

That's it for this week - hope to have made some more progress by next week

 

Chris

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I'm going to try and post something on this once a week if I can!

 

This week I have been continuing work on the engine & gearbox plus the ancillaries.

 

Lucas alternator finished (photographs can be unflattering but looks good from normal viewing distance) - adjustment bracket is fragile and may not survive! Fan belt got broken on removal from the donor engine and I had to run a thin strip around it to repair - will thin this down at some point.

 

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Engine mounts have been made in one piece - there is a convenient hole through the Tamiya engine for it - and a trial fit done in the Revell cross member using blobs of bluetac. This was way over thickness (like a lot of parts in the Revell kit) so I have reduced its height but still a lot of minor adjustments to the sump had to be made before everything fit. I hope I have enough room for the starter motor! Gearbox cross member has been cut off the Revell engine and will need cleaning up.

 

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Much work also done to the gearbox based on some photos of an escort box found on the internet. Tin top added to the fuel pump.

 

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Trial fit of the engine in the body and battery mounted on a little shelf. Looks like a lot of room under that bonnet but once the top end has been made and the large air filter created there won't be too much. Still enough room to make and fit a windscreen washer bottle, brake reservoir and ignition coil. Radiator looks like it goes further back in the 1100 compared to the rally cars.

 

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Also starting to look at the running gear, starting with the rear end.

The back axle from the Tamiya Lotus 7 looks more suitable (read weedy) than the rally grade silver one supplied in the kit plus has drum brakes so will be investigating this week if it can be made to work.

I have two choices of wheels - the resin ones are Motobitz with road tyres and are pretty similar to base model escort wheels whereas the white ones are from the Tamiya Lotus 7 and have quite Ford looking hubs but more like the ones that would be on a Mk1 Escort (although they would be 12" on that) or Anglia and the crossply tyres make them way too tall overall, although it might be possible to make them fit the resin tyres.

 

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As usual with many projects, many liberties have been taken....

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Nice work

 

Reason why one axle is weedier than the other is that they are two different axles....

 

AFAIK the Lotus used what was called a "Salisbury" axle which was also fitted to the Escort road car - The rally car used what was called an "Atlas" axle which was a different beast altogether usually seen on 3.0L Capri's.

 

Rocker cover looks like an aftermarket type.

 

KR's

 

IanJ

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