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Escort RS

Escort RS

After re-attacking the restoration in France, it became clear that the first restoration attempts from 10 years ago would have to be "refreshed". I took the decision to switch from the yellow idea to getting the car back to its original colour - Signal Orange. The only deviation from its original condition was to be a vinyl roof.

The car had become a "classic" during the restoration and so a further decision was reached - instead of fitting several goodies, I would try for the covetted German "Historic Vehicle" registration ("H" Plates). This meant that the car had to be absolutely original as it was registered in its first 5 years of life. I'd accumulated some old RS Tuning kits over the years like 69 Litre tank, vented discs etc. I couldn't now fit these as they hadn't been fitted when the car was new. Damn!

A stroke of luck occurred when a new ruling in Germany appeared around 2005 that, if the tuning parts were original "period" parts and you had either an old receipt from 1978 or whatever, or you could prove that those parts were available at that time, then you could fit them retrospectively!!! Yippee!!

It all started on Friday night in a Pizzeria near Munich in 1985 when a mate and I were browsing the used car section of the weekend newspaper. An RS2000 jumped out of the page and my mate said "That's like the one you used to own about 5 years ago. Wouldn't it be a laugh to have one as a second car?"

On 22nd March 1985 the deal was done and for DM4200 I was the owner of an RS2000 again.

The main attraction was the Group1 engine set up as these could not now be fitted on a car and be street legal due to changed environmental laws. Cars which had been converted could keep them. Thus the all-important thing was the log book with all the entries.

It had all the bits, but was tatty and had been resprayed in BMW white. One door had been replaced but not yet resprayed! As a bonus, the car had 4 brand new 6"x13" alloys fitted.

I drove the car about town for a while and even the girlfriend enjoyed surprising the odd BMW at the traffic lights. 

It was obvious that a restoration was approaching and I had already set my heart on a Signal Yellow with Black Vinyl Roof. Yellow was a trendy colour in those days and even bathroom manufacturers were starting to turn out yellow taps! 

The front end was stripped out and, much to the glee of the neighbours, it was stripped back to bare metal, welded, filled, primed and painted in the open garage! Local trees and pavements all started to take on a yellowish hue over the weeks.

During the rainy days, the engine and other mechanicals were tackled. The engine was stripped down more or less in the kitchen and the block and crank were taken to England for boring out and treating. Germany in those days was not much geared up to that sort of work and it was all "exchange" engines over the counter.

The front end was finished, the engine fitted, and everything was sailing along fine until........Girlfriend led to fiancée and house plans! In 1991 we bought a plot of land and a load of bricks which had been formed into a house-shape and decided to complete it ourselves. RS restoration was shelved, a "practical" car was bought, the RS was taken off the road, and years of housebuilding ensued. The poor RS was left outside in all weathers. At this time, the local postman left the handbrake off his van, which rolled into the parked RS. This was great! It crunched the spare wheel well bit which was going to have to be replaced due to rust anyway, and the Post insurance paid out DM1000 for the damage!

In 1998 my company posted me to work in UK for two years, so RS got pushed further and further down the timeline. Returning from the posting in 2000, I had shed loads of accumulated holiday allowance and took about 4 months paid leave. The rebirth of the restoration was launched! Then the department I was in was dissolved and I had to look around for an alternative. This saw a move to a different area in Germany and the renting out of the house. The new house we ended up renting did have, however..... A DOUBLE GARAGE! The catch this time? The new job took up the evenings and sometimes weekends, so the double garage never really came into its own. The latter part of 2002 saw the project revived again! and some major sill, floor pan and rear wheel arch stuff was done.

The end of 2002 saw the divorce (because you spend so much time with the RS!) and the simultaneous posting from the company to the South of France. Oh well, what the hell!

So then I was in paradise! No nagging, a 4 bedroom house for car parts, 350 days good weather a year, and eBay arrived on the scene! The drawback? French use their garages for storerooms and dimension them that way. It's a push to get a car in them, let alone be able to work all around the car and have a workbench to boot!

I've learnt welding, panel beating, leading, painting. The only thing that I wasn't able to do was the final paint job.

The nomadic life meant that the resto was done bit-by-bit which is an interesting approach and requires a hell of a lot of planning to make sure you're not going to have weld spatter on the bits you've just painted, or primer overspray on the topcoat!

Paradise ended and the company posted me back to the fog of Germany. Of course, I made sure to rent a house with double garage and, as it turned out, I was able to kit the garage out quite nicely!I finished all of the painting with the exception of the outer surfaces, deciding that these needed the skilled craftsmanship of a professional.

The car went into the paintshop at the beginning of February 2009 and in 2018 the final touch was put to it with newly upholstered Scheel RS seats.