*MAXXD* Clare's Rieger F40 Escort Cabriolet "BigCab"

[Alanman]

Well, the cab is defo done now for 2009. I started stripping the engine bay ready for it's new heart. No going back now.

The original engine smoked like something out of a bond film and luckily we managed to drop on nice with a spankin replacement. Fully lightened and balanced and only done 1500 odd miles since rebuild. Came with a nice new turbo too which also as only done 1500 miles since rebuild. Hopefully should go that bit better and maybe not use so much fuel. BigCab is seriously the shitest car ever on fuel, especially when we was running high boost. lol

I can see what work's involved now on tidying the inner wings and wiring etc. We've alway tried to avoid opening the bonnet as it was more functional than pritty and covered in oil, it is a Ford, before anyone says. Suprisingly there's nothing bad, just needs a tidy, it's 25 years old in Jan and you can tell under the bonnet. There's no welding or owt, cos when we first started the conversion back in't day, everything was replace that could be. inner wings, front panel, battery tray.

Then starts the fun, the outside. There's quite a bit of work to do, mostly minor but there's loads. lol Style wise, we're not 100% sure what to do. BigCab as it is looks fine, it still wins shit so it cant be that bad, so other than body colouring the wirrors (or black) and put the rears lights back to standard, the basic shape will look very much the same. We have a few colours variations on the short list but that changes every week, but we know the right colour can make or break it. The blue candy was the best thing we did, but candy is just impossible look after and anything even the smallest stone chip can't be touched up, its a full repaint.

I'd like to bin the 20s and drop to black 19s with a crome lip. The buying of the new ones aint the problem, it what do we do with the chromes. They were special orders from America and drilled to 4 x 108s, so we'll stuggle to sell em on cos there aint many Fords (or Pugs) that can easily fit 20s and we refuse to have a perfectly good set of chromes, (£3500 set of chromes at that), sat in garage gathering dust. We could turn em into coffee tables I suppose. Anyone want one?? £500ono lol

Anyway, no photos yet, but I'll keep a good record and post em up as and when I can.



Fanx


Alanman