A man with a Van.
I've always had a thing for Escort Panel Vans....Not sure where it comes from, maybe from a friend's dad in primary school who was a stonemason from Essex and drove a Mk 2 full of marble chips and cement dust.
When I was at Uni, my housemate used to borrow her brothers Escort van on the odd weekend. We would head down the coast, Maria and Bill up front and me bouncing around in the back. I remember falling asleep on the way to see the glow-worms and waking up in Barwon Heads at 3am.
The first Escort van I bought was after going to look at a Capri. It was a bodged up 2.0lt auto and sliced my hand up removing the transmission on the hacked apart tunnel. I drove it all of 10m from the street and up the driveway before it conked out in the drive and I couldn't revive it. The parts went into my next van which wasn't much better but it was a step in the right direction.
Over the years I have owned no less than 15 Escort vans, both Mk 1 and Mk2, autos and manuals, 1600s and 2000 (yes, we got those in Australia from the factory) and even 2 rare Sundowners that were always the most sort after of models.
Until recently, I owned to very nice Escort vans, a converted 1600 Mk 1 and a factory 2.0lt Mk 2 which I still have back in Australia. Sadly I had to sell the Mk 1 but needs must and I got to drive it only British country roads before it went off for restoration with the new owner. I'll dedicate a blog post to both of these vans in the future.
In the future, I'll do a couple of specific blogs on the Sundowners that I've owned along with a series of Mk 1 Vans. Stay tuned for that one.
When I was at Uni, my housemate used to borrow her brothers Escort van on the odd weekend. We would head down the coast, Maria and Bill up front and me bouncing around in the back. I remember falling asleep on the way to see the glow-worms and waking up in Barwon Heads at 3am.
The first Escort van I bought was after going to look at a Capri. It was a bodged up 2.0lt auto and sliced my hand up removing the transmission on the hacked apart tunnel. I drove it all of 10m from the street and up the driveway before it conked out in the drive and I couldn't revive it. The parts went into my next van which wasn't much better but it was a step in the right direction.
Over the years I have owned no less than 15 Escort vans, both Mk 1 and Mk2, autos and manuals, 1600s and 2000 (yes, we got those in Australia from the factory) and even 2 rare Sundowners that were always the most sort after of models.
Until recently, I owned to very nice Escort vans, a converted 1600 Mk 1 and a factory 2.0lt Mk 2 which I still have back in Australia. Sadly I had to sell the Mk 1 but needs must and I got to drive it only British country roads before it went off for restoration with the new owner. I'll dedicate a blog post to both of these vans in the future.
Above is my very first Escort Van, a rough auto conversion that almost severed my hand.
Another parts donor van that I bought off of Melbourne Ford Anglia Legend, Tim "Angry Anglia" Mattison. Tim now works with Yesterford in Bayswater and is keeping the local small Fords on the road.
http://www.yesterford.com/
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