Mk1 Escort Estate aka Jigsaw. Remove bodges, replace rust with solid metal.

[Nomad]

I've been having so much fun with this I ran out of wire !
The local factors all stock arc rods but have very little choice for mig.
All I could find is a 0.5kg mini-roll of gasless in Lidl - so I'm using that for tacking sections until the 5kg roll of 0.8 wire I've ordered turns up.


The drivers footwell was a mess even before it got "customised" by PO.
Several sections need some love, plenty of holes and thin metal in one area. I tried using tacks to fill the holes but just kept blowing new ones.
The good news is it was an ideal place to practice something I saw a while ago


Cut a repair piece (the edges must be straight - curves won't work), bend if needed to match the damaged area, use the new piece as a template to draw on the old panel.
Use a thin slitting disk on a grinder to cut 2 of the marked edges.
Hold the repair section in place and tack it flush where the cuts were made.
Using the new (tacked in place) section as a guide, cut the other 2 sides of the old panel with a slitting disk on an angle grinder so the rusted section is free and can be removed.
Tap the new section flush and tack all around it.



Optional stage (but highly recommended) - have beers to celebrate !


It's the first time I've used gasless and didn't have high hopes.
I'm impressed. The welds are clean, have decent penetration, are very neat so should be easy to dress flush, and it feels like less heat around the weld pool.
The downsides are a lot of splatter, and I not sure about the strength of the welds - I'm happy to use gasless for tacking pieces in place but will wait until I have new wire to seam weld with gas.

For info. I'm using a Clarke Pro-90 and have always used CO2 in the past, I like the machine but there's no option to reverse polarity when using gasless but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

 

[Nomad]

Good things have been happening using the gasless wire ( I couldn't find any normal wire locally so I'm using gasless for tacking things in place, it's slowing things up but is giving me time to fettle things in a way I'm happy with).

It's taken a while for me to get my head around the best way to recreate the missing piece at the front of the sill, now I've worked out how to wrap it up neatly which is a big hurdle passed.
Realising the front up-bend in the floor can be made to match the bend in the chassis rails if I shifted the new panel back a couple of inches was a big breakthrough and moved things along a lot.
New rear floor tacked in place, new front floor cut and shaped ready to be tacked in place.



Grille & bonnet resting in place just for a mojo boost.


My spare time has run out for a while so don't expect to see updates for at least a month.

 

[Nomad]

Good things have been happening slowly, highlights this week are :

Left side A-post and lower bulkhead have been rebuilt / repaired, front & rear floorpans on the left are now fixed in place (tidy but not 100% finished, more seam sealing to be done)

Today was the first day I've driven the car (the exhaust downpipe is missing, a RHD one fouls the steering column and I can't find a LHD one), the car came with a new middle & rear exhaust sections but they're not connected to the engine. It was good enough to turn the car around so I had better access for the next floorpan marathon, impressions are the engine pulls well and it's a strong motor.



Once I've finished the floorpans on the left I need to do the same "remove, repair, replace" job on the right

< I took photos of the work so far but the camera is acting up so results are lousy, I'll take some more before I upload>

It's been a fun project so far

 

[Nomad]

The good news is my welding is getting better with the practice I've been getting recently. The bad news is my photography skills aren't

New front left section after trimming, reshaping, making up the missing corners and drilling ready for plug welding
Celebratory beers were involved when it was all finished !


Before & After - the contrast makes it all worthwhile


Left side in detail. New front and rear sections are now in place and solid, some rough edges still need work

 

[Nomad]

Jigsaw floorpans are now 3/4 fitted



Progress has been slow as my welder died, then it took a while to to get rid of the cobwebs and gremlins in the 2 "sort of working" welders I got to replace it. Many thanks to the folk on the forum who got me running again

The prep for the new floors took a long time but the passenger front took less than a half day to fit & tidy up
The front edge isn't finished yet but I called it a day as it looked like it was going to start raining.
It's very noticeable that I'm getting better with all the practice I've had Odd that I get a lot of very nice beads from the new welder then a few "dry" welds. Hopefully things will settle down now it's in regular use

The last big job is *just* remove the remaining bodges & butchery ( badly fitted battleship grade 2mm plate flooring !) before fitting the last floorpan section. Sounds easy if you say it quickly !

Watch this space for updates (but don't hold your breath)

 

[Wildefalcon]

Looks satisfying.

 

[Nomad]

The new floor pans are now 4/4 in place



I tacked the final floorpan in a couple of days ago and got a half day today to crack on.
It’s in and not coming out again, 75% of the edges have been seam welded so far
There’s still some tidy up to do on all 4 new floors but it’s getting there

It’s slow but it all counts as progress

 

[Nomad]

the winter project gremlins have come out of hibernation and are active again

The engine has always started on the button until this week when it's been difficult to get it running. I hotwired the ignition and it fired and ran for a few seconds which got my hopes up but it soon died. Putting a cupful of fresh fuel down the carb got it to fire but not for long. Conclusion was it could be a fuel problem, ignition, or both

The new electric fuel pump has a built in filter and I always fit a glass filter just before the carb so it's easy to check fuel is flowing. Both filters were clean but the carb float bowl was nearly dry. After stripping the carb I found a small bore mesh filter in the carb just upstream of the float chamber. It was choked with fine debris. I cleaned that and everything is running happy again.

Next task - resume welding

 

[Nomad]

More jigsaw bits completed

This has been sitting doing nothing for a while for various reasons, yesterday I did some prep to line up the new inner cill with the original panel.

Today I used a thin slitting disk to cut along the top of the new panel, removed the scrap from inside the cill, put a few tacks in place, fully seam welded it then spent ages grinding it neat
It's solid and I'm hopeful it will score some points for effort and artistic style if nothing else
The scrap bit sticking up at the back is a sacrificial earth tag that will be getting removed soon

Work stopped when I ran out of charged batteries for the grinder - coincidentally around the same time as the good lady of the house came home from her day out - but this side is close to being finished

Sizzling bacon was found in places, a shame it was mainly towards the end of the session - hopefully I'll get everything dialled in sooner next time !

Something I noticed - with light wire feed tension the feed sometimes got stuck, when I increased the tension I got a birds nest. The liner is almost new, any idea what else could be causing the poor feed? Tip seems ok but I did notice the angle I hold the torch makes a big difference. Could it be something around the torch neck area??

Lessons from today : if you can’t see the weld pool check the mask adjustment hasn’t been adjusted by gremlins since it was last used stock up on charged batteries + grinding disks before you start Don’t clean the protection from new panels then leave them unprotected for ages Have plenty of cold beers in the fridge

 

[RWD3M]

Something I noticed - with light wire feed tension the feed sometimes got stuck, when I increased the tension I got a birds nest. The liner is almost new, any idea what else could be causing the poor feed? Tip seems ok but I did notice the angle I hold the torch makes a big difference. Could it be something around the torch neck area??

Rusty wire?

Don’t clean the protection from new panels then leave them unprotected for ages

Duck oil.

 

[Nomad]

The last patch on the right side floor is now done, a small plate just above the jacking point - for some reason both new floorpans had a cutout in this area

More grinding needed but the welding on this side is just about completed

 

[Nomad]

Rusty wire?

Duck oil.

Problem found! A liner kinked in 2 places where it leaves the machine The liner was quite new but the outer sheath had fractured and been repaired using gaffa tape before I got the machine. Refitting the old but unkinked linker fixed things. I'll look at a stronger repair now I know it's a weak point. I also fitted a new tip while it was apart.

More work got done today so the floorpan now it has a undercoat on 1 side and looks a lot tidier
It also makes it a lot easier to see any bits that need another dab of welding or that need more grinding. The downside is I can now see a lot of niggles that I need to fix or live with.

There were a couple of technical issues today :
The welder stopped feeding wire. Cleaning slag from the tip often helps free thing up but this time it made no difference. Checking the wire I noticed I'd finished to roll A new roll fixed things.
My c02 fire extinguisher still has has plenty of gas but the valve is leaking badly when I turn it on, I'm guessing the newer extinguishers are designed for one-time-use not multiple welding sessions. They don't make them like they used to

 

[Nomad]

Some grinding done, some primer done … more grinding needed on the rear floorpan

Seat mount mocked up…

 

[Nomad]

Today has been "One of those days"

The doors have never lined up or closed properly (best result was if you lifted the door and slammed it hard).
Getting the hinge pins (roll pins) out wasn't easy, the top pin has to be punched down but the curved door skin makes a good swing with a hammer impossible.
The bottom hinge is even worse as that needs to be punched upwards and the pin is even more shielded by the door skin and the cill.
It took more than 3 months of here-and-there attempts to get the 2 pins out.
The hinges are welded onto the A-post so any adjustment has to be done using carefully applied brute force - in this case using the blunt end of a wood axe as the 14lb hammer I have here has a snapped handle and my spare hammer isn't here

Things improved but the door catch still snagged on the fixed catch on the B-post, some oil on the bear claw catch in the door helped a lot ! The catch on the door was sticking (old grease?) so it wasn't quite in the right position to clear the pin on the door post when the door was closed. I wish I'd noticed sooner as I might have been able to do the other work without removing the door. Oops



The good news is the hinge pins on this door are good, I'm assuming the pins on the other door are also ok so no need to add new pins to the "Escort bits" order I'm putting together.


This door now closes with a lovely light click, one door down - one to go

 

[Melvyn Best]

I had a tool for removing hinge pins , it was a bit of square bar with a slot in one end that took a threaded pin with a shoulder that was the same outside diameter as the hinge pin , the other end took a nut. The pin was pushed through the hinge pin , the nut was then screwed on then the square bar was placed so the pin fitted into the slot . The bar was then hammered until the hinge pin came out. . Normally just a few minutes work

 

[Windy Miller]

I had a tool for removing hinge pins , it was a bit of square bar with a slot in one end that took a threaded pin with a shoulder that was the same outside diameter as the hinge pin , the other end took a nut. The pin was pushed through the hinge pin , the nut was then screwed on then the square bar was placed so the pin fitted into the slot . The bar was then hammered until the hinge pin came out. . Normally just a few minutes work

Yep I have one somewhere too. Mine used to REALLY hurt my hand! Nasty thing to use, but as you say very effective!

 

[Nomad]

I had a tool for removing hinge pins , it was a bit of square bar with a slot in one end that took a threaded pin with a shoulder that was the same outside diameter as the hinge pin , the other end took a nut. The pin was pushed through the hinge pin , the nut was then screwed on then the square bar was placed so the pin fitted into the slot . The bar was then hammered until the hinge pin came out. . Normally just a few minutes work

Hi. I had a look in my box of oddments to make something something but I didn't find any bolts long enough ( some short high tensile, some right length but too wide... ).
Now I have the pins out I'll see if my local hardware places have anything that I can use to make an extractor like yours for the other door

 

[Windy Miller]

Here we go - found it in about 2 mins!

It’s about 300mm long and 15mm square. Pins about 100mm long with threaded, knurled attachments for the end. Large one goes at the tool end, smaller one that matches the dia of the roll pin goes at the other.
Remove small end, pass pin through roll pin and screw the attachment on tightly. Hook pin through the tool and smack it to pull the pin out.
Wear gloves as the shock makes your hand sore! The posh Sykes tool had a nice soft blue plastic handle. My cheapy does not!
Dimple in the other end to replace pins

 

[JMS1972]

Today has been "One of those days"

The doors have never lined up or closed properly (best result was if you lifted the door and slammed it hard).

Having owned an MK1 escort (first car) and several MK2 estates many years ago when they were sub £200. I can confirm they all did that sir

You're doing a great job and we're all enjoying reading the updates. Stick with it.

 

[Melvyn Best]

View attachment 454843View attachment 454844View attachment 454845View attachment 454846Here we go - found it in about 2 mins!

It’s about 300mm long and 15mm square. Pins about 100mm long with threaded, knurled attachments for the end. Large one goes at the tool end, smaller one that matches the dia of the roll pin goes at the other.
Remove small end, pass pin through roll pin and screw the attachment on tightly. Hook pin through the tool and smack it to pull the pin out.
Wear gloves as the shock makes your hand sore! The posh Sykes tool had a nice soft blue plastic handle. My cheapy does not!
Dimple in the other end to replace pins

Found mine to be very effective when used with an air hammer