Anna making sparks
Early on it seemed that the roll cage in our Escort might not be up to snuff. But after showing the car to the experts, the team was told that we jsut needed to add some rear braces and we would be fine. This weekend I bought a bunch of grinding discs, borrowed a chop saw and fired up the welder to get our cage in order. Anna hopped in the back of the race car and took the grinder to the floor to prep for welding, while I cut tubes to fit the car. After lots of metal dust a fumes it finally came together and doesn't look half bad.
Adam makes things happen.
Adam came over and helped get the car stripped down so that we can install a new driver's seat. This meant getting rid of the old plastic one which turned out to be a pain in the ass. With Link on board as well we made some good progress getting the engine and tranny oil changed, some much needed new brake lines installed, new pads up front and a couple of ideas for a paint scheme in the works.
Cheap labor
The roll cage is finished with new rear supports and cross brace in place.
The 'scort in front of LeMons HQ
I'm not the brightest guy in the world. After having some issues sorting out the suspension I came to the conclusion that the frame must have been bent in the passenger side collision. So the team had the car towed over to our friend Marc's place in Emeryville to have him take the fork lift to it. But once the Escort got their I realized that the camber was changing from positive to negative depending on which way you rolled the car. So I decided just to replace everything on the passenger side of the car, hub, bearing, axle, tie rod end, bushings etc.
Getting down and dirty
As it turns out this was a great plan, because with all the new parts in place the problem was solved and no frame bending was necessary. Oh well! So we had it towed there for nothing, but now with the front end together we can turn our attention to other things.
Bent inner tie rod next to a straight breaker bar
First the good news: I have more pictures of the car.Now the bad news:The '88 Escort had taken a shot to the right front of the car, which the previous owner told me busted a ball joint. As it turns out it also bent the strut, which wasn't all that surprising. But in addition to that it looks now like the frame may be tweaked. The team installed a new lower control arm/ball joint several days ago but once the new arm was in place, it became apparent that the sway bar was not going to fit and the tire had a ton of positive camber. My initial thought (wishful thinking) was that I had mistakenly gotten the wrong part, and that the correct Lower control arm would be a bit longer and fix the camber and sway bar fit issue, but after comparing the new and old arm side by side, it was obvious that something else was wrong...... bent frame.So I've talked with my local crazy inventor and metal fab guy, "crazy Marc" and I've he agreed to help me out straightening the frame with the help of some chain, a city of Emeryville dumpster and a Fork Lift. So stay tuned for Crazy Marc's frame repair.
