Strengthening

Where to strengthen the body is:

1. Seam weld the chassis front to back (1" welds 1" gap).

2. Make a gusset to fit where the chassis rail meets the bulkhead in the
engine bay on each side. These are prone to coming away under high stress
situations.

3. On the front suspension top mount get another cap (available from a
pattern panel manufacturer called Hadrian Panels) for each side and weld
into place. Weld continuously around this point as they are only spot welded
originally.

4. Make a gusset for the xmember under the radiator (triangular in shape) to
fit where the member meets the chassis rail (on the HS engine you might only
be able to do one side as the engine might foul - check first for
clearance).

5. Seam weld the door apertures, window apertures and anywhere inside where
panels overlap.

6. Fill the drain holes with round pieces of 16SWG steel and weld
continuously around them.

7. You can strengthen the engine xmember by seam welding all overlapping
joints and welding a plate 16SWG on the underside to aid rigidity. Only weld
1" by 1" again and take your time so not to build up to much heat and
distort the xmember.

8. You can strengthen the front suspension arms in the same way, and also
where they connect to the body shell (rear mount) you can plate this up flat
with the floor pan again with 16SWG steel and up the inner face onto the
tunnel, but make sure to leave a small hole to enable fitment of the nut to
the fixing bolt for the lower wish bone or weld the nut into position to
make it captive which ever you prefer.

9. On the rear end, make and place skids on the trailing arms front mounts.
Enclose the rear of the panhard rod tower with steel plate to strengthen.

10. As for camber you can adjust a little by moving the top mount (ball
joint) of the font hub unit (on the top suspension member) inwards towards
the inner arch and retighten and even try turning it around as it is offset
a little, this will give you a little negative camber otherwise you will
have to rosejoint your front suspension mounts to allow for adjustment.

11. Weld brakets to the inner facing edges of the lower wish bone's rear
mounting point then connect both the near and off side points with a lower
strut brace made of round bar with rose joints or bolted inch box section
this also enables the mounting of a full length chassis mounted sump guard.

12. Drop where the anti roll bar mounts to the chassis rails by 2" plate
shaped to a drop bracket dropping the mounting hieght by approx 50mm then
drill these plates to enable fitment of double width brackets and bushes
from a 22mm dia RS 2000 MK2 escort, this stops diving in corners when
braking (anti-dive).

For tarmac spec cars i use 700lb front springs and 350lb rear springs or
350lb fronts and 280lb rears depending upon event and conditions, most of
these mod's have been carried out on the rolling shell you enquired about
hope this has been of some help, and good look in finding a manual as to
date i havent been able to find one!!! and its just information of people
who have rallied these for years that i have built up to aid building of my
own cars.

Info courtesy of Dai Davies