So, here are the pics. All the techno stuff is at the bottom of the page.

Click on pictures for larger pictures
 
 

Caterham stand, Car Show, Earls Court, Nov 1991. Oh dear, I can feel one coming on !! If only I had a donor car.	Jan 1992,Chris, I've broken the Escort, would you like it for a kitcar ? Bug*er	1300 Crossflow block, potential donor engine.	Rear axle removed for use on Westfield.	Rich salvages bits for his Cortina project.	Crossflow in bits for examination & consideration for rebuild. Unfortunately it was too far gone.
Ford Mk2 Escort rear axle. This is stripped and the casing given to Westfield for modification.	Half shafts removed.	Timken Differential.	Steering rack salvaged.	Austin Allegro steering column. This was given to Westfield for modification.	Following the decision to abandon the 1300 Crossflow, a 1600 Ford OHC "Pinto" engine was sought.
MOT fail Cortina, bought for 80 GBP prepares to donate its' engine and front uprights/brakes.	Removal of engine at night. This did not go down too well with the neighbours.	Out comes the 1.6 litre pinto.	Front wheel hub, brake disc & caliper.	Front upright after removal of hub, disc and caliper.	One Ford 1600 OHC "Pinto" engine.
Block assembly prior to clean up.	Block minus sump. It was necessary to shorten the sump to improve ground clearance. Care must be taken to prevent oil surge problems.	Engine block stripped and cleaned. All bearings and rings replaced.	Cylinder head cleaned up, repainted, cam bearings replaced and valve seats reground.	Gearbox prior to clean up.	Reassembled Pinto.
The kit in the back of a "Luton" transit van on collection from Westfield.	Basic Westfield spaceframe chassis. As you can see, it is NOT based on a VW Beetle!! My housemate, Richie's 3.0L V6 Cortina project in the background.	Fitting of brakepipes to spaceframe.  Cortina Project wheel in the background. The neighbours did NOT like me at this point. They mellowed later.	Having fitted the brake pipes and pedal box the next step was to fit the internal aluminium panels. You can save money & do this yourself or get the factory to do it.	View of pedal box assembly and some of the aluminium panelling.	Rear axle drum brake backing plates.
Rear axle brake cylinders.	Rear suspension trailing arms & bushes.	Renovated rear axle components prior to reassembly.	Fitting of  new brake pipes to the reassembled rear axle.	Reassembled rear axle.	Front view prior to the fitting of the front suspension.
Renovated front upright/hub/brake assemblies.	Westfield front wishbones and Cortina uprights/brakes fitted.	Rolling chassis.	Chassis was "test driven" by a number of my neighbours in this form.  3.0L V6 Cortina in background, Ha Ha.	Vauxhall Astra gives scale to the rolling chassis.	Rolling chassis.
Fitting of sender unit to petrol tank.	Petrol Tank fitted to chassis.	Rear view of fuel tank mounting.	Close up of fuel tank mounting.	Handbrake mounting on transmission tunnel. Brake & fuel pipes are just visible. Care must be taken to ensure the drive train does not interfere withem at the extremeties of it's travel.	Mini heater exchanged with Rich for the Escort bits & Cortina Bonnet.
The wiring loom. Not as bad as it looks. All the connections are colour coded.	Close up of footwell area. I'm in the process of fitting the loom at this point.	Engine block/gearbox assembly being lifted into position.	Unfortunately I did not know at this point that the 1.6 L Cortina had been fitted with a 2.0 gearbox. So it had to come out again & be changed.	Engine in position. Oh, how nice and shiny it all was then.	Rolling chassis with engine in place.
Trial fitting of the bonnet and nosecone to check alignment. This is worth taking your time over.	First fitting of the body to the chassis.	Rear light set, fuel filler & spare wheel carrier added.	Scuttle & windscreen added.	Fitting out of the scuttle. Mini heater being installed.	Sorting out the loom connections in preparation for the instrument panel.
Using templates of the instruments to plan the layout of the panel.	Checking instrument panel fit & positioning of switch templates with respect to loom connectors.	Passengers' seat runner being positioned. Runners are not normally required but my legs are a bit shorter than normal.	Trial fitting of the seats.	Fitting of carpet with double sided tape.	Fabrication of interior trim panels using hardboard foam & vinyl. Vinyl was used to cover most things in an attempt to provide a level of weather proofing.
Interior trim panels being made up. Much use was made of cardboard templates to get this right.	Vinyl & foam cut to shape ready to be stuck to hardboard.	Finished Instrument panel and trim panels. Doing the instrument panel was the most time consuming part of the entire build.	Nearly there.	Exhaust mounting.	Front view showing wing mounts. These have proved to be a weak spot. New Westfield one's are strengthened.
Close up of wiper installation.	Rear complete apart from number plate mount.	FINISHED!! Well, finished enough to get it MOT'ed &  registered.	Complete rear view.	With sidescreens in place.	Hood up comparison with MG Midget.
Hood up rear view.	It's worth practicing getting in & out with the roof up in private first.	Roof up front side view.	Stereo added. This was frowned upon by some, but they didn't use it as their only car.	Front completed. Plywood ducting between the nose aperture & radiator was added to drastically improve cooling.	Full circle. Parked behind the replacement for the dead Escort that help start it all.

Specification

Type:                1992 Westfield SE (live rear axle).

Engine:                 Based on Ford 1600 Over Head Cam "Pinto" as used in MK IV/V Ford Cortinas & Early Sierras.
   Block:               Vulcan Engineering 1660 Re-Manufactured block.
   Head:                Vulcan Engineering "Powerflow" Stage II Head.
   Cam:                 Kent Cams FR32 Fast Road cam.
   Carburettors:     2 x Weber DCOE 40s.
   Distributor:        Aldon Vacumnless.
   Exhaust:            Westfield 4-1 Stainless Steel, straight throught system.

Gearbox:              MK IV/V Cortina 1600 4 speed.

Front Suspension: Westfield unequal length wishbones, top adjustable for camber. Ford MKIV Cortina front uprights. Spax coil over adjustable shocks/springs.
Rear Suspension:  Westfield 5 link trailing arm, Ford MK2 Escort Live rear axle (Timken type). Spax coil over adjustable shocks/springs.

Chassis:                Westfield spaceframe chassis.
Body:                   Westfield unstressed Glass Re-inforced Plastic.
Fuel Tank:            Westfield aluminium, approx. 25 litre capacity.

FAQs

How Much did it/will it cost?

Hhhmmm, This is not as easy to answer as it sounds. In my case, the actual cost of the parts to get it on the road, i.e. MOT'ed and registered came to approx. 6000 GBP in 1992 which I reckon was good value. However, when budgeting for your build, you need to take into account such things as hiring of the van to collect the kit parts from the Westfield factory, buying/hiring tools such as an engine crane, phone calls to spares mail order etc., cost of petrol driving around all the scrapyards and car factors trying to find that small bit that is holding everything up. These can all add up to a significant amount (approx. 500 GBP in my case). Having "completed" your car and driven it for a while you most probably will want to modify/upgrade parts which will add to the cost. BUT, one of the advantages of building a kitcar is that you can spread the cost out by only buying parts as you can afford them. If you get seriously into the motorsport side, doing hillclimbs, track days etc., then the sky is the limit with regard to all the go faster goodies you can get.

What's the insurance like ?

If you go through a specialist broker the insurance is reasonable for a performance car. These brokers are found advertising in all the kitcar/specialist magazines. As with all things, shop around. If you are not going to use the car that much, you will be able to find brokers that do limited mileage policies.The premiums from the mainstream insurance companies are not realistic when it comes to kitcars.

Was it difficult ?

The mechanics were quite straight forward. There were none of the horror stories you sometimes read about other, less established kitcars, with bits not fitting. The chassis came all welded and bracketed for accepting suspension etc. Drilling and hand rivetting the aluminium panels was a chore, though Westfield can do this for you. Fitting the body work took a bit of effort and time with G clamps making sure it was all lined up properly before anything was drilled. The electrics, which I was dreading, weren't too bad as I bought the premade loom which has the wires colour coded. One of my neighbours, Matt, use to be an aircraft electrician so that eased things when I got stuck with the sparky bits. The bit that took the most effort was doing the interior trim. I had to experiment with various methods of fixing the vinyl and foam to the hardboard panels I'd made, and had several attempts at working out how oversize to cut the foam.If you can afford it, you can buy ready made trim.

Would I do it again ?

There were times at 2.00 am when I'd messed up more than I'd solved in an evening, that I did think why didn't I get a bigger loan and get a ready made car. If you decide to build something like this I can guarantee you will also go through this at some time. However, when you're out on a hot summers night blasting down a twisty country road with the roof down and side screens off it's all worthwhile.

To answer the question, YES !

P.S. By the way, the 3.0L V6 Cortina turned out very fast, shame about the cornering.