Two go in and one comes out (Operation body swap)
Well here it goes.. I decided to bring this thread over from feoa and post it here as well. I don't post here regularly, but I will start to more often. Some of you may have seen my old Escort GTX and some of you may have not. I picked up a nice body replacement quite a few months ago to swap over to because my old GT was just in bad shape, mainly the chassis being bent from getting run off the road at 70mph. My choices that I had were to either hit someone else or swerve and jump a 45mph median that was about 10ft wide.. The choice was pretty clear. So without further ado I give you some of the original thread in one post. Enjoy!
I recently bought another 1994 Escort GT in nice condition...
This body will become the host for my gt-x (aka the gray one) and all future setups. It's been lowered and makes mine look so much taller.
More to come later.
Got bored while taking parts out so I tossed on the lights and grille from the gt-x. I still got the hood too but it doesn't line up with the gt fenders. One day I'll do the front end conversion....
Just to show how cramped it is in my garage atm
And now its time to start fixing what a leaky battery has caused... I cut a decent sized hole in to the frame rail to really see what had been damaged. I'm going to have to cut down at least another inch to remove permanently rusted/rotted outer frame. The inside layers are in great shape so its really not as bad as it seems. Once it's all cleaned up and prepared I'll weld in a patch and strip the paint so that the engine bay can be repainted. Lots of work to go before it's ready to receive anything from the gray one.
Before I got my hands on it..
I'm almost finished patching it up. The image below was about halfway from me finishing mig welding it up. Not bad for mig'n paper thin steel.
Small update. So I'm not so sure I like the way the bmw lights are sitting with the original bumper since the other one I did fiberglassing on to make them line with it better. I may just end up making a set of the OEM housings for myself at this point so I can avoid doing any modifications to the bumper. Other then that I've cleaned up and stripped the engine bay so I can repaint it. Once that is finished I'll start swapping everything else over.
Small update..
Freshly painted engine bay with a nice high gloss black.
Got some wiring problems solved this week. So electrically it's alive but I still need to redo some under the dash stuff. Got the entire front suspension redone and up with the freshly sandblasted/repainted subframe. Redid the brakes and tossed on the CS SS brake line kit while I was at it. I'm hoping to have the damn engine in it by sunday if my damn throw out bearing shows up.
As time went on... the poor unwanted escort has been given a new lease on life by receiving its much anticipated heart transplant donated by the other brave soul which will be moving to it's final resting place in the local junkyard.
Took a little time out today to fix some of the interior wiring problems such as the radio and alarm system.
Interior wise is a filthy mess from dust and such but I'll worry about detailing it once everything is done... Probably gonna swap the mid section console since it's very yellowish, in fact quite a few interior panels are just as bad and will be swapped with my interior from the other gt.
Here's a good picture to show you just how much dust it has collected sitting in the garage... Gonna give it one hell of a wash and waxing once I'm done.
The engine deserved a much more clean/nice host. Did a quick mock up of the rear reflectors that I painted up awhile back to see how it was gonna look. I'm waiting on some hood vents to show up from the UK, not sure if I'm gonna paint match them to the car or paint em black.. If I end up painting them black I might do the wing black too.. Hmnn
Not much done in the past few days.. Engine needs some cleaning up.
The paint on the bumper kinda looks messed up but it's just dirt, dust, and grime building up.
Finally got around to rerouting and mounting the GReddy PRofec b-spec II which required putting most of the dash back in place.
The hood vents I ordered from the UK will be here in the morning. Time to see how that's gonna look.
The dust is getting so bad that it's starting to resemble certain things..
Just doing a quick look see in the general location.
So anyways here's a comparison of the two and yes the cossie vent is sitting a bit crooked, but I made it so there is still some room to play with before securing it. I used the old hood to test the pattern that I made from the cossie vent. This is about as far as I can put them without really screwing the hood webbing supports up. I think it'll look ok when it's finished.
Time to say goodbye to the old girl, R.I.P.
Got around to getting the holes cut for the vents. Some serious quality control problems with the red grille as its deformed.. I have my black one off for something that I'm doing with it.
I used the black one to make a fiberglass mold for making custom grilles from. The picture bellow shows the first test version out of the mold, however there are a few problems with the mold and I need to redo it.
Small update, got my new intercooler and gtx fmic pipe kit today. Finally gonna see what the vj20 is like with fmic instead of the smic. Still a bit of fandangling left to get everything snug and sitting correctly.
Here's a little something I decided to work on recently. I think it turned out really well and will look good once tossed on. Pic just doesn't do it justice at all.
Here it is installed.
Well I picked up the color matching paint to try it out on the vents. Here is one in black and one in matching red. The red looks kinda bright but it does before it really cures. I don't think I really like it matching. Thoughts?
Some of this may be out of place or sound funny due to posts from others in between mine so just ignore it. The original thread can be found here if you would like to check it out > http://www.feoa.net/modules.php?name...wtopic&t=61166
I recently bought another 1994 Escort GT in nice condition...
This body will become the host for my gt-x (aka the gray one) and all future setups. It's been lowered and makes mine look so much taller.
More to come later.
Got bored while taking parts out so I tossed on the lights and grille from the gt-x. I still got the hood too but it doesn't line up with the gt fenders. One day I'll do the front end conversion....
Just to show how cramped it is in my garage atm
And now its time to start fixing what a leaky battery has caused... I cut a decent sized hole in to the frame rail to really see what had been damaged. I'm going to have to cut down at least another inch to remove permanently rusted/rotted outer frame. The inside layers are in great shape so its really not as bad as it seems. Once it's all cleaned up and prepared I'll weld in a patch and strip the paint so that the engine bay can be repainted. Lots of work to go before it's ready to receive anything from the gray one.
Before I got my hands on it..
I'm almost finished patching it up. The image below was about halfway from me finishing mig welding it up. Not bad for mig'n paper thin steel.
Small update. So I'm not so sure I like the way the bmw lights are sitting with the original bumper since the other one I did fiberglassing on to make them line with it better. I may just end up making a set of the OEM housings for myself at this point so I can avoid doing any modifications to the bumper. Other then that I've cleaned up and stripped the engine bay so I can repaint it. Once that is finished I'll start swapping everything else over.
Small update..
Freshly painted engine bay with a nice high gloss black.
Got some wiring problems solved this week. So electrically it's alive but I still need to redo some under the dash stuff. Got the entire front suspension redone and up with the freshly sandblasted/repainted subframe. Redid the brakes and tossed on the CS SS brake line kit while I was at it. I'm hoping to have the damn engine in it by sunday if my damn throw out bearing shows up.
As time went on... the poor unwanted escort has been given a new lease on life by receiving its much anticipated heart transplant donated by the other brave soul which will be moving to it's final resting place in the local junkyard.
Took a little time out today to fix some of the interior wiring problems such as the radio and alarm system.
Interior wise is a filthy mess from dust and such but I'll worry about detailing it once everything is done... Probably gonna swap the mid section console since it's very yellowish, in fact quite a few interior panels are just as bad and will be swapped with my interior from the other gt.
Here's a good picture to show you just how much dust it has collected sitting in the garage... Gonna give it one hell of a wash and waxing once I'm done.
The engine deserved a much more clean/nice host. Did a quick mock up of the rear reflectors that I painted up awhile back to see how it was gonna look. I'm waiting on some hood vents to show up from the UK, not sure if I'm gonna paint match them to the car or paint em black.. If I end up painting them black I might do the wing black too.. Hmnn
Not much done in the past few days.. Engine needs some cleaning up.
The paint on the bumper kinda looks messed up but it's just dirt, dust, and grime building up.
Finally got around to rerouting and mounting the GReddy PRofec b-spec II which required putting most of the dash back in place.
The hood vents I ordered from the UK will be here in the morning. Time to see how that's gonna look.
The dust is getting so bad that it's starting to resemble certain things..
Just doing a quick look see in the general location.
So anyways here's a comparison of the two and yes the cossie vent is sitting a bit crooked, but I made it so there is still some room to play with before securing it. I used the old hood to test the pattern that I made from the cossie vent. This is about as far as I can put them without really screwing the hood webbing supports up. I think it'll look ok when it's finished.
Time to say goodbye to the old girl, R.I.P.
Got around to getting the holes cut for the vents. Some serious quality control problems with the red grille as its deformed.. I have my black one off for something that I'm doing with it.
I used the black one to make a fiberglass mold for making custom grilles from. The picture bellow shows the first test version out of the mold, however there are a few problems with the mold and I need to redo it.
Small update, got my new intercooler and gtx fmic pipe kit today. Finally gonna see what the vj20 is like with fmic instead of the smic. Still a bit of fandangling left to get everything snug and sitting correctly.
Here's a little something I decided to work on recently. I think it turned out really well and will look good once tossed on. Pic just doesn't do it justice at all.
Here it is installed.
Well I picked up the color matching paint to try it out on the vents. Here is one in black and one in matching red. The red looks kinda bright but it does before it really cures. I don't think I really like it matching. Thoughts?
Some of this may be out of place or sound funny due to posts from others in between mine so just ignore it. The original thread can be found here if you would like to check it out > http://www.feoa.net/modules.php?name...wtopic&t=61166
Thanks again to member gooseinyou for the familia garnish 
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