A Donor Car is bought!

Driving along the A47 to Peterborough I saw a silver Escort MK11 in the back garden of a row of council houses. I plucked up the courage to knock on the door and politely asked if the car was for sale. The man said it was his brothers car and he was sure he would not sell it. I asked him to make sure so he phoned his brother and his brother said "how much will he give me for it?" perhaps he was a bit short of cash! I quickly said £50. He seemed a bit dejected and said he wanted £150 and a deal was cut for £100. We jump started the car from another battery and it actually run sweet! Actually it seemed too good for the condition of the car in general. I moved the car home on my transporter trailer and proceeded to poke around and inspect further. I found labels under the air cleaner element on the engine saying "Ford Remanufactured Engine". RESULT!

My Donor Car  

A Chassis is acquired.

Here is where I have to apologise to everyone because if you were expecting a full run down of building the steel box frame chassis, I'm afraid I have to disappoint you. I had a steel list and had quotes for between £57 to £114 from steel stockists, quite a difference you must agree. So remember never take the first offer for things, shop around and don't be afraid to barter. Building the chassis is a detailed job and will take a fair amount of your build schedule. The drawings in the book take you through it all the way! Although you should never be afraid of hard graft, Never be afraid to take a shortcut or help.

I am always looking for auctions and newspaper adds for a bargain. I came across an advert in the newspaper for a Locost chassis, 2 litre Pinto Ford engine, 1100 Crossflow Ford engine, 2x 4 speed Ford gearboxes, 2x wiring looms, suspension arms and brackets and a box full of smaller parts, a little treasure chest all for £250. I inspected the chassis and although the completed welds were sitting high with too little penetration, in general it was put together very well and square. The whole package cost me £200, a tough man to deal with, but I suppose it was his dream he was selling.

I spent the next week welding joints that were only tacked together, and grinding off the poor welds that were there, before Prepping and re-welding. Plenty of current and good penetration on these welds left a very pleasing LOCOST 7 chassis in front of my eyes. The floor section was sourced from a local engineering fabrication firm. The floor is welded in position with stitch welds, these stitch welds are around 30mm long with around 50mm gaps between them. It is a good idea to weld small runs alternate positions around the floor, instead of lots of welding all in one position. This will move any heat build up in the steel evenly around and put less stress and warping in the floor panel.

Hammerite paint although good anti rust properties, is very hard and not the best on the chassis as it tends to crack and lift. A better but more expensive option is POR15 rust preventative paint in Black. It has very good properties and is also flexible, so will not crack and flake, and is very hard wearing.