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Well it's nice to here that we have similar experiences of cars from that era. I had a Mk3 Escort as my first motor. She was 10 years old with around 60k on the clock and was quick having the 1.6 ltr engine. At the time every man and his dog seemed to have an xr3i though so I decided to pimp my ride and become a boy racer. The first few upgrade were pepper pot alloys from the local scrappy. Side point here is you no longer see scrap yards. My local town had 4 that you were able to route around, good times.... Those alloys needed some tyres which were scourced from another scrap yard. As a youngster you don't really see the dangers of this so I would never do this or advise it. Next upgrade was a K&N filter, easy swop. Next was to install a rev counter which was more of a distraction. No boy racer is without his new stereo so in goes his pull out blaupoint from a GTI and new speakers sub woofer and bass box. At the time I had a few dodgy friends so I didn't bother asking where that stereo was sourced... the same guy also found me a brand new frount spoiler from a RS turbo, interior seats from an XR3i with steering wheel and gear knob. The frount seats were quite new and did not have the same hole pattern in the runners to fit my car unfortunately. I remember driving to work with the seat being held in with one screw🙈. Lucky I'm a toolmaker so it didn't take long to make some adaptations with aluminium blocks. Back then we did car share to work on a week basis. Just before Christmas I borrowed my neighbours garage and took the engine out stripped it down and replaced bearings, valves ect. The head was skimmed at work by me and engine was rebuilt and replaced. First turn over didn't go well and resulted in a bent valve as it's bush wasn't seated correctly. Those were replaced and the engine waited to be installed. Now remember my dodgy mate? I couldn't prove that he was involved but I'm sure he was. My engine was stolen from the garage 😭. It learned me a real lesson though and I've not brought anything dodgy since. The following Saturday another friend took me over to a big scrap yard and we picked up a replacement 1.6 engine. Again this was stripped with same process as before. With a new clutch the engine was a success. Next on the list was new exhaust. The trend at the time was loud. Down the road was a min specialist that built exhausts in house and was happy to make me a 4 branch big bore. It sounded great too. My mom complained about it a few time so it must have been good 😏. Another mate worked at a parts supplier and got me vent discs new callipers and mintex pads. All did not go too well though. The engine mounts failed whilst driving to my aunts. Uncle Bob to the rescue. The car was not too happy after as that effected my gearbox with third gear failing a few weeks later. First replacement was not working and only option the scrap yard had was one from a 1.3 car. This had different ratios and made my car into a rocket that ran out of puff very quickly. Fuel consumption was eye watering too. Then unfortunately I damaged the car beyond economical repair whilst showing off so brought a replacement Escort and swopped everything over. Last straw was when the car got stolen from the cinema car park. It was found 20 miles away and took my friend and myself the whole day to recover her. The police found her and it seemed made it as hard for us to find her as possible. The car was down a side access road in a village and was on bricks. No wheels stereo and belongings all gone. So those were replaced and I part exchanged it for an Astra. Don't regret a thing though. It was a great experience looking back. I wouldn't advise anyone to mod a car unless it's for the experience. Easier and much cheaper to buy a hotter model but less fun. Good times.........

Madness 😂. Thanks for the post though def worth a look

Welcome to the forum Philip You will find the members here very friendly and always happy to answers questions. There is an event in Beaulieu in April which a number of us are attending, It would be a good opportunity to meet other members. Graham