Description
Here we have an early, first model year 1981 Ford Escort Mk3 1. 3 GL, in Sunburst Red, registered at the end of April.
The MOT is valid until 22/ 11/ 12 with TAX lasting until 31/ 05/ 13.
The car currently has 81000 miles on the clock, which is believed genuine, due to MOT certificates that are present in the service history. The certificates come in from the year 2000, which suggests to me that this car has spent some time off the road beforehand – the mileage in 2000 was not much more than 24000. Importantly, the Cambelt, and Waterpump were changed around January 2011, with receipts to prove, and looking at the MOT certificates, this can’t have been more than 7000 miles ago. The cars last service, although not documented or receipted, was completed by me. This consisted of oil and filter in March (79000 miles) with air filter and spark plugs being replaced in July (80000 miles). Looking through the cars history, there have been a few jobs completed. This includes a new head gasket, and head skimming, as well as a replacement distributor and a Weber carburettor (excellent improvement over the unreliable Ford Variable Venturi unit). It also had some welding completed for the last MOT.
The car can sometimes be difficult to start when it has been sat for some time, and the right hand front indicator can be intermittent.
An interesting/ sad bit of history about YVV102W, is that that is not the original registration for this car. There are documents showing a Number plate transferal of the original plate (inscribed on the windows of Spiderman) GES865W, which I believe currently resides on a Renault Clio sport. After doing an HPI check on him, although having an unoriginal registration plate, there are no further problems. The car has had no colour changes, or crashes, never been written off, nor has he been scrapped or stolen.
There is only one rear lap style seat belt, a previous owner obviously only had one child. It has been fitted using the correct mounting points. The mirrors of this car are from an ERIKA-86 model (mk3 facelift from 1986-1990), with the original single mirror and blanking plates available with the sale, if the winning bidder would like them. These later mirrors are an improvement, not just because there’s a nearside one, but they’re adjustable from the inside of the car!
The front brakes appear to be very recent, I was surprised to see virtually unworn discs and pads. I haven’t been able to check the rear drums, although the handbrake will hold the car up a local steep hill. The tyres are good but not brilliant, with the nearside front and spare being closest to requiring replacement. The wheels appear to be brush painted with silver enamel, which is not pretty compared to original paint, although they do the job. There is a slight coolant leak – the cap of the thermostat housing is slowly weeping when up to temperature and under pressure. This has been the case for some time, and I have barely had to top the car up.
The car is cosmetically challenged in a few areas, the paintwork appears to be patchy on the bonnet and offside front wing. An odd choice of colour has been used for protection of the front valence as well. The bonnet is full of dents for some reason, and all four wings contain bubbling of paint. Also, where the welding has been done, the areas have been painted black. To make these areas stand out less, the sills were also painted black, although in one 5 pence sixed spot, this has flaked off and allowed red to show through. The bumpers could do with a coat of satin black paint to tidy them up. At some point in his life, he has been broken into. The evidence for this is the plastic (opaque) quarter window in the nearside rear door, and the missing radio. I have managed to source a replacement glass window, although this was from a facelift model. Annoyingly, at the time, it turns out that Ford went through the trouble of redesigning the doors so subtly on the facelift, that the quarter glass is 1cm too large for the pre facelift models. The difference is impossible to notice, until you try fitting it to an early door! I have some Perspex (which needs cutting to size) available to the buyer if need be.
