Alan Mann Ford Escort MkI 'Tin Top'

Using this kit....



..... together with this Trans Kit....



..... and these decals....



..... to turn it into this:



Cutting out the original bonnet:




And it's removed. Needs a bit more cleanup then I can move on to fitting the engine campartment.



The trans kit engine compartment and bonnet are going to need a bit of fettleing to get a better fit, The black outline on the chassis will be removed in order for the kit sump and gearbox to mate with the trans kit engine. But I'll need to mockup the front suspension first.











Engine compartment cleaned up and mocked up:









Got it moccked up with the rally wheels and tyres. Same width all round as per the winning Roger Clark 1972 RAC rally car.





The AMR racers used wider wheels and tyres at the rear and were lower set on the suspension, so I purchased some resin tamac tyres for it:









They are the correct Electron Minilites for the AMR racer with the correct track tyres on 13" rims 4.47 front/9.40 rear.

Going to take a little bit of jiggery pokery to get the cat down to track height and get those fat tyres under the rear bubble arches.

A little more cleanup and when painted, they should look the Biz.





With a lot of jiggery pokery, I have managed to get those fat rear tyres onder the arches and suspension dropped to race height rather than rally height.

This is how Belkits designed the kit:



And this is my modified 'race' version:



This is the real deal X00349F




With the bonnet cut out, the 'engine compartment' had almost nothing to be glued to in the body and the bonnet had nothing to support it. So I added under wing strips of thin styrene to either side. This also gives me a much better attatchment point for the inner wings etc.









Roger Clark's rally version of the Mk1 Escort had twin fuel tanks, the filler caps being located in the C pillars on either side. In contrast, the AMR cars had a single 22 gallon fuel tank located in the boot, with the single fuel filler under the boot lid.



The kit body has the twin recesses for the fuel fillers in the C pillars, so I cut two circles of styrene to fit, glued them in place and will finish them of with filler and no doubt endless sanding.





In the same way, the AMR cars had a bracing bar between the front and rear roll cage hoops that the rally car' didn't have, so I'm adding those in too.



I'm having a real problem filling the rally car fuel filler recess'. I cut styrene to fit and have dad  four attempts to fill with two different filler, each time with the same result....... sink marks when the primer is applied. and dried.

Thread now up to date as of 05:05:2023

So now I have filled the fuel cap recess' with 'Bob's Brew' and once again sanded down.





It's much better this time but still needs some 'fine' filler so I have just ordered some of this stuff:

Hi Al,

AWESOME start Sir, I do prefer the stance that you have done, looks more natural...

Andy...

Lovely job.

Looking really good Al, makes me want to get another one.
....and I forgot the Belkit came without the engine detail - like the Esci Mk2.

Looking good Al!