I have Purchased a new project shell a very good price 1200 NZD (you do the math). This does not mean that the old girl is junk I have spent too much time on her to just stop I will continue with her but at a later stage. I am currently thinking that the old girl will be for racing only not really for the road. As such the new shell will be a shorter build as she has virtually no rust. I will get her soda blasted and primed then possibly fit a set of steel bubble arches a atlas rear end 2 linked and will fit the 2 litre and 5speed that I purchased a couple of months ago. the shell has a large tunnel and mounts for a nissan SR20 engine and box but I am going to stick with the Pinto as I want to stay with a more mechanical engine and not computer controlled.
I will take photos of the new car next weekend as she is now under a tarp outside till I move the old shell to the side of the garage which I will do this week.
cheers Peter 

Only a small amount achieved this weekend mainly a bit of filling and giving the area a coat of primer to protect it from any moisture in the air as we are having our mid winter storms at the moment. So lots of rain around. The reason for not doing much is that my wife had a major birthday so it was a party weekend with lots of visitors. Have a good week Peter

Today I removed the old frame that was used to hold the battery in the boot and what do you know underneath was my old friend rust bugger.Once I removed the frame and ground away the excess steel and rust I cut a patch to fit and after a fare amount of welding and grinding it was fixed. I also tacked the new Patch into the L/H corner this involved a bit more work than the R/H side as the panel was not as badly damaged so it has been butt welded together on the R/H side I over lapped the panels once finished this side will look quite good .

The panel that was under the battery frame

These 2 are the new panel tacked in place I will finish the welding this comong week

Today I removed the front panel and top slam panel What a mess! It looks like I will need to replace the L/H inner guard, the R/H total strut top from front to fire wall, the slam panel the lower radiator support and of course the front panel. the side radiator supports are ok so I may reuse them I will not know this until I decide what radiator to use and what I will need to do to fit it.so I have a lot of work ahead of me. One thing I have purchased locally are a pair of Lucas L792 indicator/park lights these were used on the Borham Works escorts. these will enable me to use more modern headlights that do not have the parklights in the headlights ( one of the things that I hated in the old escort) as the bulbs were always blowing.
                                     
                                                              the front panel removed

the lower radiator support

The front L/H corner

The R/H lower corner

The rust you can see in this one is the front of L/H inner guard it has had patches welded over the rust but as I have found in other places the rust has not been removed so this is why I am replacing the entire inner panel.

Another weekend down and more achieved. I have removed the L/H corner and cut the panel to fit, finished welding the R/H side in and refitted the bubble arch. The way I am fittin the arch is with rivets and a urethane adhesive whek I have finished filling the panel the whole quarter will be glassed over. the reasons for this is essentially 2 fold 1 to support the filler and  to prevent cracking and 2 to assist in reducing damage from stones and gravel it will also give a smoother look once painted (lets face it this car is not going to be a show car so I will do what I can to hide how rough it is)

the L/H corner removed

The new panel ready to be tacked in

                                     
The line of urethane adhesive ready for the arch

the arch in place

This weekend has seen some progress made. I have cut out the R/R corner and fitted the new corner in and tacked it in place Fortunately the old panels were so far out of shape I could fit the panel straight over the old and had no distortion

The new panel sitting in place

And riveted in place before being welded in

I riveted the panel in place first then tacked it in place there was a small amount of work with the hammer and dolly mainly around the upper curves but when the arch is refitted and filled with filler it will look as good as new. I will also be filling in the seams on the rear under the window so that will finish the corners off nicely

I picked up the clean panels this morning, bought them home and gave them a coat of anti rust epoxy as winter has set in and the bare steel will quickly get surface rust on the steel but at least I have something to do indoors during the wet weather. I need to get some more argon for the welder and I will be away with more repairs.The car is going to take a lot longer that I originally thought but fortunately my mate is not doing the winter series at Hampton Downs in his single seater so it will give me at least 4 extra weekends at home.

This is the patch that I made up for the R/H boot drip rail

Above is the R/H strut tops

the L/H strut tops

The boot floor there is a bi of rust in it but not too bad

The L/H rear corner

The R/H rear corner The purple tinge is the epoxy spray this will eventually go black