Hi guys, first time poster.

So far all ive done is buy the book, but im very keen.

Looking around the forum and the web in general the issue of the donor car has slightly muddled me.

I dont think its going to be easy to find the escort donor as described in the book, and as im an electrical engineer i really wanted to go word for word by the book (although i understand theres discrepancies in the cutting list)

So if i cant find a MKI, MKII escort and use for example which ive seen a sierra donor, will this render the book useless?? and is it much harder??

Advice would be much appreciated

Cheers Will

Will, in a word no there are a couple of minor issues that require a bit more thought, the Sierra does not have a rear axle like the cortina, so u would be looking at building your car with Independant rear suspension, and u require a spacer at the top of the front upright to use it. A dive into this site u will see a lot of people building weird combinations of chassis/engines/bodywork, and no end of free advice to help u work it out, so its not going to be a big problem. If u dont want the hassle of building your own chassis, there are a variety of suppliers can flog u one to suit the Sierra running gear.
Cheers
Shug.

Drop Darren George an email......darren@gtstuning.co.uk www.gtstuning.co.uk.
Nice bloke who knows his stuff......well he does work in F1 so speaks for itself

I had the same idea as you, building the car by the book. That lasted all of five second's before it became a coaster for my cuppa.

If I was to restart my build I would go for the seirra based car, due to the ease of finding bits. Mention the word Kitcar and Cortina to a scrappy and the price goes up.

If your going to build your chassis then there's a couple of people on this site who have cad drawing's and the likes. Mksorely is a name that spring's to mind, and I think his are seirra based.

If your going to buy a chassis then several companies have both live axel and IRS setup's. Luego is one of them. Personnally I would go with this option, the cost of buying (in both money and time) outway's the cost of building a chassis especially if you cannot weld.

I should point out that the book is good for how to build the chassis and suspension (be aware that there are a couple of errors in the book - can't remember what though) for the rest of the build it's a bit "simply fit engine" so a bit of thinking is required. Many a time's I've gone to do something and cursed "Ron and his silly little book" but the thought of blatting around in my little sports car has kept me going.

Hope I haven't put you off! and good luck with your build.

Chris

A new builder in search of enlightenment.
My first question to you all was going to be about the donor vehcle as it would appear that mk 2 'scort are like rocking horse droppings. Im glad to see the news about the sierras. Ive been told to look for an estate as it has a higher ratio diff and a 2 litre pinto with manual gearbox. Does anyone agree with that?

if your going to go live axle spend some time trying to source a Cortina, everything you need will come on that one car...........they are out there,

Sorry my mechanical ignorance is coming through, i mean IRS. It looks like im gonna go sierra donor.

sierras count as tried and tested by now, many builders are using sierras, so there is bags of info about IRS/de dion, all the engines, the hubs, diff ratios etc.

i wouldn't specifically seek out the estate only on the basis of diff ratio, not sure what ratio they were but there is plenty of choice out there anyway.

by the way, i always wanted to make a trailer out of half a sierra estate... could be fun!

hello scoop
keep away from the sierra with the dohc i made that mistake and now have had to get another doner
with the pinto sohc engine its alot smaller and parts are alot cheaper
good luck dave

quote:

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Originally posted by flyingkiwi
....... Mksorely is a name that spring's to mind, and I think his are seirra based.........

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Well if you wont to build book live axle.
all my mk2 escort bits are stil up for sale look at parts for sale?.

hello new builders. mackie and I still have a cortina back axle cluttering up our shed. 75 quid. will even throw in a free engine and gearbox