Titanium Ph1 172

Hi all, picked this up on Xmas Eve after going to view it the week before. Was advertised on eBay and reasonably local. Guy had another ph1 rally car and a couple of old escorts but this wasn’t really used so moving it on. MOT check shows it’s done around 5k miles in the last 6-7 years and been stored inside all that time. He had the dreaded common rust issues sorted with it getting new rear arches, inner and outer sills, also the triangular panels at the front of the chassis rails replaced. It’s got braided brake hoses and powerflex bushes on the front. With it having done minimum mileage the discs and pads will all need replacing soon and the gearbox is crunching so I’ll get that out for a rebuild soon. Few pics from the eBay ad. Seems like a few of these are now coming out of hiding which is nice to see.

More updates to follow very soon.

First job was just a bit of tidying up and assessing. Overall it’s in good shape, underside is totally solid having had all the welding done and been under sealed. Thought I’d start with the engine bay so the inlet and engine cover came off.

Door pulls are easy to take off so they got some paint.

Love these and which I had kept mine!

So many ph1s loitering at the top of the projects forum! , if only the weather was nicer I'd do a token job to bump mine to the top to join you guys.

An early example too. Will be following.

Inlet and engine cover back on and the sticker arrived. Ignore the blue vac hose that’s now been changed.
Rest of the bay still looking dirty/tired but more on that soon.

Had some very rare free time come up at work so moved the Clio over to the body shop guys. A slight freshen up of the front end escalated quick.


Didn’t have much time for pictures unfortunately.

Still catching up with putting the updates on here, weirdly work got busy again quick so I put this in at the right time.

Headlamps had a good flat and lacquer.

The front bumper was in a terrible state so very happy with how this has come out.





Jobs on the todo list still are brakes all round and an MOT. I’m also on the hunt for an original steering wheel and airbag, not fussed on condition as it’ll be sent for a retrim. Will try and get the wheels off for a refurb next month.

Who did you use for the bodywork? And you’d recommend them?

Polynesian said:

Who did you use for the bodywork? And you’d recommend them?

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I manage a refurb centre for ex lease vehicles, we have a single booth where we normally do small smart repair jobs.

Looks amazing! Would love to have all the body works on mine tidied up! Hard to justify when your build is purely meant to be a track build though.

Still catching up with the photos I managed to take whilst the car was being done. In the end the front bumper, grill, wings, bonnet, mirror caps and rear spoiler were all painted. The top inlet, fuel rail guard and throttle cable bracket were blasted and a few coats of satin silver. Headlamps lacquered. Ordered and fitted a new bonnet catch and latch too. The grill plastic also had a coat of satin black and new ph1 stickers ordered from eBay.



Underside of the bonnet has the dreaded Ali corrosion, I’ve got a spare Ali bonnet with a hefty dent in that I’ll send away for blasting and have repaired before paint sometime soon.

Norris1 said:

Still catching up with the photos I managed to take whilst the car was being done. In the end the front bumper, grill, wings, bonnet, mirror caps and rear spoiler were all painted. The top inlet, fuel rail guard and throttle cable bracket were blasted and a few coats of satin silver. Headlamps lacquered. Ordered and fitted a new bonnet catch and latch too. The grill plastic also had a coat of satin black and new ph1 stickers ordered from eBay.

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Underside of the bonnet has the dreaded Ali corrosion, I’ve got a spare Ali bonnet with a hefty dent in that I’ll send away for blasting and have repaired before paint sometime soon.

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Looking very tidy chief, proper job that 👌 ive got similar ally bonnet issues, top is tidy enough but underside is much worse than yours! I was hoping i was going to have it lightly media blasted/prepped and resprayed, is that sort of method not possible? Cheers and all the best pal 👍