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Orionzetec Part II – The Return


Orionzetec

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It started with the white Orion which some of you probably know or have seen at shows during the past 7 years. Sadly this year became the last year as it failed its MOT on a list of things. Most were easily fixed but two which were giving me grief were Chassis rust and failing emissions. After failing the emissions test twice (even with a new lambda) I decided enough was enough.

The car had covered about 200,000 miles (on 2 engines) and wasn’t the best base for my ideas. So instead of struggling on I decided to get an mk6 escort saloon. After much hunting I found what I was looking for, 1996 1.8 Ghia Saloon. In reasonable condition as the 2nd owner had looked after it well (the 1st was Ford) with the car collected from Peterborough I was back on the road again.

With the white Orion safely garaged I started my plan of action. I had loads of ideas floating around my head (still do) about how to go about this new project.

With no deadline or proper plan I just had ideas with no definite timescale or deadline.

Then one damp & wet day in October on route to collect the misses from work a women in a golf+ decides it would be ok to pull out of a side road straight into my path!!! Whilst looking totally the wrong way! Great. Id only had the car 4weeks and it was already a mess! Luckily the insurance company wrote the car off as a category C which meant I could repair it.

They paid out the full value of the car and for £80 I got to keep the car. So not a bad result in the end. I worked out the cost of the repair to be quite cheap actually!

Being a front end accident it damaged the front panel, bonnet, headlight, foglight, bumper, Radiator, Air Con Radiator.

All of which (except the front panel & Rads) I was going to swap anyway. So I already had the parts on the Orion.

Working in the trade the front panel cost about £35 which isn’t bad is it!!! I’ve also decided to change both sill panels as they are showing signs of rust and Id prefer to do it properly now, than chase rust about in 12months time. The cost of each sill? £11!

Rude not to change them then!

The plan is to fit the RS bumpers from the Orion, along with the bonnet and morrette lights. I’ve got a set of genuine ford skirts to replace my fiberglass ones. Give the car a respray, maybe colour code the alloys, lower it a tad and then use it for a while before making a choice of engine transplant. All the work except the spraying and a bit of welding will be done by my own hands. Luckily I work for a company with a bodyshop and they kindly let me work on the car at night when there are less workers around.

I’m trying to do this project on a smallish budget as funds aren’t great at the moment, doing a lot of the work myself will save a lot of labour costs though.

Enough of my typing away, let the long days + nights begin!

 

The Old Orion

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Orion.jpg

 

The New Escort

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/newsaloon1.jpg

 

The smashed up Escort

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild2.jpg

 

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild1.jpg

 

 

With the front stripped it became obvious that a new front panel was in order.

 

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild3.jpg

 

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild4.jpg

 

After a bit of work the old bent panel was removed

 

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild6.jpg

 

New panel on

 

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild7.jpg

 

A bit backwards but I then realised the wings would have to come off to do the

sills

 

Wings Off

 

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild9.jpg

 

Once that was done it was time to move on to the next step.... The sills

 

 

Ive only done one side and i dont want to do the other as the drivers side was a real bitch to do.

Oh well i guess ill have to!!

 

Sill No.1 off

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild10.jpg

 

New sill in its place

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild12.jpg

 

Also had a st500 in the workshop. No. 1 of 500

Rude not to have a sit and play! Seats are real comfy :) Out of my price range sadly :(

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild14.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/orionzetec/Escort%20Rebuild/Rebuild13.jpg

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