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

[Ant]

yeh just looks daft IMO inpractical and for how much it costs to buy i musch prefer to see hidden cables then all that chrome

[d_diddy]

i would prefer the hidden cables as well, so alan when u gonna do it?

[nez]

hidden cables all the way, then you can do mine for a cup of tea lol

[Uk Dave]

Im not feelin it meself,if uve got fcuk off chrome wheels on the outside dont see why that theme shouldnt be carried on in the engine bay,if ya goin subtle inside(tidy bay hidden wires etc) should be subtle outside and no offence clares is about as in yer face as it gets-just my opinion, chrome would look gorgeous on the blue engine bay aswell.

[Alanman]

Update: (Maintenance/Repair rather than moddifing)

Firstly the wheel bearings on front gave up the ghost on way back from yorkshire show. So last night stripped it all down and prepaired it ready for new bearing later this week. I'm glad I did too, cos the hub is bolloxed. Newth only ask me last week if I had one cos his was the same. Seems like when Escort front bearing go they take the hub with it for some reason. So need to get one quick, and quick usually means expensive.

Also ordered valve stem oil seals from PJ Motorsport, so they should be here in next couple of days. Fed up of it smoking when its cold.

Also need to get some repairing and painting done inside on the fibreglass sub boxes before the next show.


Alanman (going to be busy)

[d_diddy]

so you finally crack on with the stem seals as i remember you where on about this LAST year.

[Alanman]

You can't rush these things!

[d_diddy]

im sure claire would have something to say about that.

[Alanman]

Clare who?

[Dubmodder]

I know what you mean about the wheel bearings. Mine gave up twice on the old Cossie blue Escort. - think that was probably down to the extreme slammage I gave it but I was kind of expecting the rears to go first as they were going through new Avons in a fortnight.

Must be an underspecced part IMO as its the same on Fiestas and they don't die like Escorts. Either that or the actual hub casing doesn't dissipate heat like the Fiesta.

Hard to give you an opinion on what to do under the bonnet Al.

Engines aren't designed too look attractive and very few do naturally (V8's, flatheads and vintage straight 12s excepted). The RST as you know isn't the smoothest looking engine and part of the 'cleaned' look is removing ugly boltheads, pipework etc as well as the wiring. Unless you can make covers or smooth out stuff like the plenum, rocker cover and more I would forget it as it will look half a job.

If you can then I would be tempted by some chrome covers for say the battery, brake reservoir. I'd remove all badging/stickerdom, create a blanking cover (2 piece?) to hide the wiper motor, ecu and other rammel near the bulkhead. Then I would paint/polish whatever else I could.. Ditch any hex bolts for smooth allen heads and simplify the iginition leads with a plate hanging off the rocker cover bolts.

Easy for us to say, there is a lot of work involved but I think a combination of the cleaned and chrome look would really work on BigCab. Ditch all know detail, smooth everything you can that bolts on and cover anything that looks fugly.

Its a bit like putting a shiny sunglasses on a mingers face. Underneath she is still ugly but the shiny reflections make you believe its OK to look at her tits (metaphorically the cool underbonnet bits like dump valves, turbo etc) and not feel guilty/weird.