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7,043 Posts
Should I start at the beginning? Nah, that was too many years ago. Well, maybe...
When I was young the family was poor. It was the 80's, and my dad was a self employed mechanic. It put food on the table, and I learned a few things. Mostly my dad would want me to just sit and watch him, but like most energetic 3 year olds, I didn't comply. I had a knack for all things mechanical it seemed, as when I was 2 my dad gave me my first "toy" to play with...a broken record player. Why I never had the unction to put the stuff in my mouth and choke is beyond me. So, when I was 3 I'd graduated to helping my dad with cars.
We had a black '81 2 door sitting around that was a project car. My dad had a fresh '88.5 GT powertrain to install. He was taking the body apart to ready it for painting, and he finally asked for my help. He told me to remove the hood bushings and the door trim panels. He walked inside for a little while, leaving me unattended. So I went a little further with my help and took the entire door off.....oops. That was the beginning of my love of the cars.
The car sat around for a number of years before it was repainted. The job that was done was pretty poor, it was more orange peel than black. Eventually we moved from MI to WV, and the car came with. Ultimately it sat outside for 7 or 8 years, and the powertrain was sold off. Title issues kept it from the road. Eventually my dad junked it when I was around 16, although I'd begged to have it be my project (Escorts were plentiful around here then). I later saw the car in a demo derby. It was heartbreaking to watch it be destroyed, but at least the car held its own and demolished everything else in its class. My first car came to be an '83 Caprice wagon...it was a love/hate relationship, and I was looking for an Escort.
My Escort didn't quite come when I wanted it, so it was substituted with a '91 4 door Tempo I bought in 2002. Technically my first car. Shortly after I discovered it had a dead transaxle, and found a beat up '86 2 door Tempo for parts. That taught me even more of what my dad had failed to show me when I was young. I'd dealt with repairing many things, but he always left me to just watch with the heavy stuff (engine and tranny rebuilding). I put that car together, and was surprised at how it drove. Way better than the Caprice, and cruised well, too. 2002-2004 were the road trip years for me, where I put on 12k miles in just a few weeks to that poor car. I finally flipped her at '70 into a deep ditch, and she drove no more on the road. I took the engine apart, and aside from a worn timing chain, all was in order, even after 255k. Yeah, I was hooked.
Shortly after acquiring my Tempo, my parents found a '90 4 door Escort LX in the area, asking price: $200. The owner had put on a new head, but had no manual, or real working knowledge of the cars. They bought it, and my dad had plans to fix it up. Those never came about, and after killing the Tempo, I was looking for something along the same lines. So, I bought it off the parents, and tore into the thing. That proved to be my most daunting task ever. Now the real story begins.....
My Escort has been my first for many things...and I can't even count how many other cars have been cobbled into it to make it functional. I'm still pretty financially poor, but it hasn't stopped me (only slowed me down). WV isn't the economic hot spot, if you will. It's more like fast food central, with low minimum wage and no benefits. On to the facts and memories!
In summer of 2004 I began my work on the car, tearing it down and noting exactly what it needed. When I finished with that I was pretty frustrated. The car required a lot of work, and even more unseen things. The head gasket was blown, and I didn't know why, so I was worried about warpage. As it turns out, the previous owner hadn't torqued it completely, so it never really sealed. At least there was that. The rings were shot, gaskets old and rotted, bushings mushy, and an exhaust manifold cracked. Being of the "poor" mindset, I was pretty frustrated, and almost gave up....almost.
My dad mostly took over the project, and tried to tell me what to do. Unfortunately this had all the accuracy of a corn cob. He even went so far as to help me remove the very light ridge...and gouged #1 cylinder .020" deep. I didn't know it at the time, and slapped everything back together. It burnt oil so badly that I was putting a quart in every 200 miles. There were no leaks...just burning. The car was rough, ran dog slow, and had an odd wander problem. I eventually traced that to a worn out steering knuckle. After 1000 miles of oil burning hell I tore the car apart again, in November of 2004. My dad helped a little bit, and broke the rear of my timing cover. After that I told him not to help.
I finally found a job at a Pizza hut in Jan. of '05, and walked to work each day from a friend's house. Crappy hours, low pay, and ultimately messing my 4th lumbar disc up were the result from that place. Just before the injury happened, I finished work on the car. The crank was turned to get rid of gouges in it, all surfaces were milled (my head had been milled enough before...now it was worse), and the cylinders bored .040" over to compensate for that gouge. It was coming together until I tried to check oil clearance for the crank mains. Everything checked out alright on the sides, but not the top and bottom...wtf? The machine shop denied any issues, and then I realized they'd never cleaned off my main caps properly, and there was a black film on them. I very carefully cleaned that layer off, and tolerance snug all around. I had an issue with an oil ring not wanting to go in with the compressor I used, so I eventually just put them all in with my fingers. It all came back together, a bit hurriedly as I was getting impatient, and looked good. The day I fired it up I was greeted with a lumpy idle and no power. My valve timing was off, and I learned the important thing about milled heads. The exhaust system from the '88.5 GT my dad had for the '81 was still around. All but the header had rotted away. So I put that on my car to replace the cracked cast manifold. Things were looking good. The car hit the road June 1st 2005. I was never happier.
The car was all Escort for a few months until the fuel pump went out. I bought a new one, but the hanger had issues. I eventually swapped it out for a Tempo unit. I also got into trying to lighten the car however I could, and with a wealth of spare Tempo parts left over from two cars, I compared and played around. Not long after that, however, the cars were junked by my dad for "being in his way." A lot of my parts are now gone, although I have a few. The cobbling together of this car to keep it on the road keeps going to this day, and I'll keep playing with parts until I find what I like best....it's going to be a curious mix of parts. I have my projects, but they're not quite started, other than being on paper. Since this is an ongoing thing, I'll look into uploading pictures and try to document my work from here on out, since most of it was locked in my head, and I can't quite scan what I remember.
For this summer I'll be updating this thread more often, with pictures, to show my progress. Any words of encouragement, questions, or constructive comments are welcome. This is probably going to become very lengthy, as it's just the basic history taken care of.
When I was young the family was poor. It was the 80's, and my dad was a self employed mechanic. It put food on the table, and I learned a few things. Mostly my dad would want me to just sit and watch him, but like most energetic 3 year olds, I didn't comply. I had a knack for all things mechanical it seemed, as when I was 2 my dad gave me my first "toy" to play with...a broken record player. Why I never had the unction to put the stuff in my mouth and choke is beyond me. So, when I was 3 I'd graduated to helping my dad with cars.
We had a black '81 2 door sitting around that was a project car. My dad had a fresh '88.5 GT powertrain to install. He was taking the body apart to ready it for painting, and he finally asked for my help. He told me to remove the hood bushings and the door trim panels. He walked inside for a little while, leaving me unattended. So I went a little further with my help and took the entire door off.....oops. That was the beginning of my love of the cars.
The car sat around for a number of years before it was repainted. The job that was done was pretty poor, it was more orange peel than black. Eventually we moved from MI to WV, and the car came with. Ultimately it sat outside for 7 or 8 years, and the powertrain was sold off. Title issues kept it from the road. Eventually my dad junked it when I was around 16, although I'd begged to have it be my project (Escorts were plentiful around here then). I later saw the car in a demo derby. It was heartbreaking to watch it be destroyed, but at least the car held its own and demolished everything else in its class. My first car came to be an '83 Caprice wagon...it was a love/hate relationship, and I was looking for an Escort.
My Escort didn't quite come when I wanted it, so it was substituted with a '91 4 door Tempo I bought in 2002. Technically my first car. Shortly after I discovered it had a dead transaxle, and found a beat up '86 2 door Tempo for parts. That taught me even more of what my dad had failed to show me when I was young. I'd dealt with repairing many things, but he always left me to just watch with the heavy stuff (engine and tranny rebuilding). I put that car together, and was surprised at how it drove. Way better than the Caprice, and cruised well, too. 2002-2004 were the road trip years for me, where I put on 12k miles in just a few weeks to that poor car. I finally flipped her at '70 into a deep ditch, and she drove no more on the road. I took the engine apart, and aside from a worn timing chain, all was in order, even after 255k. Yeah, I was hooked.
Shortly after acquiring my Tempo, my parents found a '90 4 door Escort LX in the area, asking price: $200. The owner had put on a new head, but had no manual, or real working knowledge of the cars. They bought it, and my dad had plans to fix it up. Those never came about, and after killing the Tempo, I was looking for something along the same lines. So, I bought it off the parents, and tore into the thing. That proved to be my most daunting task ever. Now the real story begins.....
My Escort has been my first for many things...and I can't even count how many other cars have been cobbled into it to make it functional. I'm still pretty financially poor, but it hasn't stopped me (only slowed me down). WV isn't the economic hot spot, if you will. It's more like fast food central, with low minimum wage and no benefits. On to the facts and memories!
In summer of 2004 I began my work on the car, tearing it down and noting exactly what it needed. When I finished with that I was pretty frustrated. The car required a lot of work, and even more unseen things. The head gasket was blown, and I didn't know why, so I was worried about warpage. As it turns out, the previous owner hadn't torqued it completely, so it never really sealed. At least there was that. The rings were shot, gaskets old and rotted, bushings mushy, and an exhaust manifold cracked. Being of the "poor" mindset, I was pretty frustrated, and almost gave up....almost.
My dad mostly took over the project, and tried to tell me what to do. Unfortunately this had all the accuracy of a corn cob. He even went so far as to help me remove the very light ridge...and gouged #1 cylinder .020" deep. I didn't know it at the time, and slapped everything back together. It burnt oil so badly that I was putting a quart in every 200 miles. There were no leaks...just burning. The car was rough, ran dog slow, and had an odd wander problem. I eventually traced that to a worn out steering knuckle. After 1000 miles of oil burning hell I tore the car apart again, in November of 2004. My dad helped a little bit, and broke the rear of my timing cover. After that I told him not to help.
I finally found a job at a Pizza hut in Jan. of '05, and walked to work each day from a friend's house. Crappy hours, low pay, and ultimately messing my 4th lumbar disc up were the result from that place. Just before the injury happened, I finished work on the car. The crank was turned to get rid of gouges in it, all surfaces were milled (my head had been milled enough before...now it was worse), and the cylinders bored .040" over to compensate for that gouge. It was coming together until I tried to check oil clearance for the crank mains. Everything checked out alright on the sides, but not the top and bottom...wtf? The machine shop denied any issues, and then I realized they'd never cleaned off my main caps properly, and there was a black film on them. I very carefully cleaned that layer off, and tolerance snug all around. I had an issue with an oil ring not wanting to go in with the compressor I used, so I eventually just put them all in with my fingers. It all came back together, a bit hurriedly as I was getting impatient, and looked good. The day I fired it up I was greeted with a lumpy idle and no power. My valve timing was off, and I learned the important thing about milled heads. The exhaust system from the '88.5 GT my dad had for the '81 was still around. All but the header had rotted away. So I put that on my car to replace the cracked cast manifold. Things were looking good. The car hit the road June 1st 2005. I was never happier.
The car was all Escort for a few months until the fuel pump went out. I bought a new one, but the hanger had issues. I eventually swapped it out for a Tempo unit. I also got into trying to lighten the car however I could, and with a wealth of spare Tempo parts left over from two cars, I compared and played around. Not long after that, however, the cars were junked by my dad for "being in his way." A lot of my parts are now gone, although I have a few. The cobbling together of this car to keep it on the road keeps going to this day, and I'll keep playing with parts until I find what I like best....it's going to be a curious mix of parts. I have my projects, but they're not quite started, other than being on paper. Since this is an ongoing thing, I'll look into uploading pictures and try to document my work from here on out, since most of it was locked in my head, and I can't quite scan what I remember.
For this summer I'll be updating this thread more often, with pictures, to show my progress. Any words of encouragement, questions, or constructive comments are welcome. This is probably going to become very lengthy, as it's just the basic history taken care of.
. Good times. And now the pictures.
