Pictures of Andy Derricks MK2 Harrier body restoration and 1700 X-flow engine build.

This Escort Harrier was purchased by myself as an abandoned project, it had been sitting in a workshop gathering dust since 1991, the previous owner had stripped it, cut the wings and front panel off, welded on a new offside wing and wheel arch, some front chassis gussets, a couple of small patches, replaced the passenger door then given up.

The car was in remarkably solid condition with only small rust areas to repair, and a lot of cleaning prepping and painting, Andy contacted us soon after this and said he was looking for a good solid MK2 that hopefully needed no body restoration, but that he could build himself restoring and uprating mechanical and trim parts as he went, a deal was done, and all of the compnents were delivered to Andy's house, while I started on the bodywork. Andy also decided to buy a freshly built modified 1700 X-flow from me so that is shown here too.

First thing to do was get all the dust off of the car and start sanding through that paint to see what was underneath, we found a few areas needing attention, some holes in the rear screen lower aperture, small hole in the nearside lower arch, holes in the spare wheel well and under the heater bulge on the front bulkhead, there were a few dents here and there, and some previous repairs to be tidied, but the shell was mostly sound.

Work started under the bonnet, and the wing and front panel were trial fitted to check alignment, Nearside dorr was adjusted too.

Under bonnet repairs were primed as we went , here on the inner wings we tidied up a previous strong repairs and made a new section of bulkhead lip which we welded in, the yellow paint is spray putty, a very high build primer, great for these kinds of repairs. The rear screen aperture was also welded then filled, and the under bonnet was seam sealed, then primed, with a smooth anti chip plastic coating used on the lower parts of the chassis rails/inner wings.

The offside wing and front panel were welded on next, as well as the holes in the tankwell and nearside arch, these were filled on the outside afterwards and primed.

The exterior bodywork was next on the list, many panels were taken back to bare metal, these were etch primered as we went along, before the shell was fully painted with 2k primer filler, the doors were removed and painyted off of the car so the shuts could be done properly.

The primer was then flatted back by hand with 800 wet/dry, and the car was painted in 2k Diamond White, the flatting and polishing has now started and the doors have been rehung.

More to follow.