ST170 engined 1976 Ford Escort Van Mk2

What’s better than a Mk2 Escort van? A Mk2 Escort van that’s been brought back from the dead, fitted with an ST170 lump and set-up for fast-road heroics, that’s what!

Words Jamie Arkle

Photos Adrian Brannan

COMMERCIAL SUCCESS ST170 ESCORT VAN

Mk2 gets reborn for the (fast) road.

Chris Palmer can’t remember precisely when he first set eyes upon the Mk2 Escort van that would come to play an outsized role in his automotive tastes, but he can certainly recall the circumstances in outline. It was almost 30 years ago and Chris, a newly qualified electrician, had just started his first job in the profession, labouring under a local sparky and learning the trade he’d come to make his own. “My boss had recently retired an ancient Mk2 van which had been his business runabout, and I was smitten. I asked to buy it there and then, and though he refused at first, he did ultimately give in and said I could have it if I put a fresh MoT on it, so he could transfer the private plate. I set about doing just that.”

Quite what was required to get the battered commercial Escort back on the public road is lost to history, though Chris does recall that it happened, and that he used the van for some months before hauling it off the road to fit it with a mildlybreathed- on Pinto. It was then pressed back into service and soldiered on for some years before finally, in the fullness of time, succumbing to rust, mileage and age. Fast forward some three decades and Chris found himself with another hankering for the most practical variant of the secondgen Escort and began to hunt around accordingly. Needless to say, the passage of time had done nothing to make his quest any easier, with commercial variants of the Mk2 Escort typically living hard lives before being run into the ground.

Nevertheless, Chris kept at it, and was eventually rewarded when the shell of the van you now see before you cropped up for sale on Facebook Marketplace, albeit in a very sorry state.

“It looked as if it had lived quite a life and several different people, maybe sets of people, had had a bash at fixing it,” Chris recalls with a chuckle. “It was painted various different colours and was just a shell, and not a rolling shell, either — it took a group of us to manhandle it onto the back of the truck.”

Getting stuck in

Never one to stand on ceremony Chris set about ridding the van of rot, replacing both front floorplans with fresh metal and fabricating and refitting a pair of inner-rear sills from scratch, these being one of many items simply unavailable off -the-shelf for the van variant of the Escort. The decision was made to retain and preserve the original loading bay however, partly as a nod to the van’s original purpose and partly as, while battered, it was structurally sound and devoid of rust.

Chris spent a good portion of his youth deeply involved in Welsh road rallying for which he’d built more than a few sporting Escorts, some with Zetecs and a couple with ST170 engines. It was an undertaking which brought him not just success, but also the hard-won experience necessary to rebuild increasingly-rotten Escorts, and how best to set them up for maximum enjoyment — skills he’d put to good use in the creation of his second Mk2 van.

“The vans were strengthened over and above that of the regular saloons, so they’re well suited to handling more power… which is what I set about doing! We sourced an ST170 engine that had already been fitted to an Escort, gave it a top-and-tail rebuild and had it in the shell within hours, first in a dry build capacity and then later as a final, fitted, running proposition.”

Other elements of what would become the van’s running gear were also offered up at this time, including a Type-9 gearbox with a straight-cut Tran-X gearset (“From the collection of Escort gearbox bits I’ve amassed over the years”) and an English axle complete with plated Tran-X LSD and shod with Group 4 hubs. A stickler for detail, Chris made sure to cut off, modify and reuse the original transmission mountings when it came to re-equipping the van with its new driveline.

Proven parts

Hard-won experience building Escorts for the rigours of road rallying surged to the fore when the time came for Chris to spec the suspension and front brake set-up, with Group 4 proven hardware employed throughout, not to mention a mix of polybushes and Rose joints wherever applicable. It doesn’t make for the most pliant of rides, but as Chris says, “I know it won’t break!”

Now certain that everything could be made to fi t within the van thanks to his extensive dry build phase, Chris began to strip it back down to a bare shell in readiness for paint, the precise make-up of which he’s understandably coy about divulging. Whatever its precise formula the dramatically-remixed shade of Ford Nitrous of blue the Escort sports, applied by Kate Harrison of Harrison’s Vehicle Restorations, undoubtedly suits the van to a tee, accentuating its squat, oversquare good looks without diluting its functional, real world origins.

Nowhere were those same real-world origins more apparent than the van’s interior, a masterclass of function-led form which, while undoubtedly possessing a charm all its own, left much to be desired in terms of ergonomic niceties. And as for creature comforts? Forget it. Fortunately Chris’s grounding in electrical engineering meant he had the skills to set about changing all of this, while the fact he’d designed and built the van’s wiring loom meant he was well placed to splice in such exotic additions as keyless entry with remote stop-start and central locking in without too much trouble. The fact that Chris’s eff orts were focussed on the van variant of the Mk2 presented its fair share of challenges, not least the list of commercial-specific components, most incredibly hard — if not impossible — to source nowadays. A good example of this concerned the dashboard top, an item Chris had to hunt high and low for before, as is so often the case with these things, striking gold quite unexpectedly.

“Mk2 van dashtops were derived from the Mk1 van but with space for Mk2-style clocks, and as such they’re hard to find these days and tend to command a high figure when they do crop up. Luckily, I spotted a guy in Ireland selling a load of Mk2 Escort dashtops, and I noticed that one tucked away right at the back of the picture had ‘short?’ scribbled on it,” recalls Chris.

A low-ball off er was made, then accepted, with the upshot being that Chris found himself the proud owner of a mint condition example of a now hen’s teeth-rare dashboard, and for a sum that would probably have been deemed a steal when this van was still a common sight on the British road network.

Go lower

The freshly rebuilt van first fired back into life in the spring of 2023, though getting it to do so proved trickier than Chris first imagined thanks to a frustrating ECU issue. This was ultimately cured with help from Motorsport Electronics who advised Chris swap to a 5-volt coil pack instead of the standard 12-volt one. It was an outwardly retrograde step but one that paid dividends when the van barked into life at the turn of a key and settled down to a happy, even idle almost at once.

Fittingly for a vehicle conceived as an everyday tool, Chris has been careful to use the van for mixed purposes, blending hoonery with everyday practicality — the latter to his financial benefit. “I’ve used it for work a couple of times this summer and have never failed to be surprised by how well received it is, quite a few of whom recall owning Mk2 vans back in the day,” muses Chris. Indeed, so well liked as the van been that more than a few local businesses have taken it upon themselves to off er Chris work, meaning that this trusty van is still plying its trade and earning its keep, albeit not in quite the manner its maker would probably have envisioned. It also happens to be one of the cleanest examples of a Mk2 Escort commercial still left in existence and a credit to the man that built it, and now a cherished member of the family, so much so that Chris has turned down more than a couple of eyewateringly generous offers to keep his name atop the V5.

“I’VE USED IT FOR WORK AND HAVE NEVER FAILED TO BE SURPRISED BY HOW WELL-RECEIVED THE VAN IS”

The load area was surprisingly one of the few areas of the van that wasn’t toast. Now expertly trimmed, it still sees occasional use for Chris’ work. ST170 (right) has proved top be the perfect choice of powerplant for Chris. The wire-tucked engine bay is truly a sight for sore eyes. Chris’ road-rally origins have influenced the look and feel of the interior — a world apart from the spartan affair the van would have originally been equipped with.

LOCK, STOCK

THOSE HARD-TO-FIND PARTS

This build is festooned with examples of Chris having to get creative to build the van to the standard he envisioned, with one of the most perplexing being its rear door handle and lock assembly. This is a ridiculously tricky item to source in 2023, so much so that most owners resort to fitting Mini or Land Rover Defender handles instead, both of which look passable but by no means perfect. Chris, however, managed to find the real McCoy quite early on in his restoration and tucked the handle away in his draw at work for safe keeping and fitment at a later date. Fast forward 12 months and that time had come — Chris, surveying a freshly painted and partially reassembled bodyshell, set about attaching the rear handle, only to realise that he had no key for the lock assembly! He was therefore forced to painstakingly strip and reassemble the barrel in order to get it to engage and function correctly, underscoring once again his commitment to the details that make a build like this so inspirational, while acquiring the basics of a career in lock-picking at the same time.

The van has proved to be the perfect form of work and leisure transport from Ema and Chris.

Classic lowback buckets provide a lot more support than the Ford originals...

“VANS ARE WELL SUITED TO HANDLING MORE POWER, WHICH IS WHAT I SET ABOUT DOING...”

Tech Spec 1976 Ford Escort Van Mk2

• Body 1976 Ford Escort Van Mk2, complete ground-up restoration with new floorpans and restored loadbed, repainted quarter and rear bumpers, FORD front grille.
• Paint: custom Nitrous Blue
• Engine Fully rebuilt ST170 with Retro Ford sump and water rail, Jenvey individual throttle bodies on short manifold, Longlife exhaust manifold and stainless-steel system, factory Escort van fuel tank modified for in-tank injection lift pump, custom hidden wiring loom, Motorsport Electronics ME221 ECU
• Transmission Type-9 gearbox casing on original mounts with straight-cut Tran-X gearset, one-piece propshaft leading to English axle with plated Tran-X LSD, anti-tramp bars
• Suspension Front: Bilstein coil-overs, Group 4 hubs, all mounting points either polybushed or Rose-jointed. Rear: Avo adjustable dampers, 2.25 inch lowering blocks on rebuilt leaf springs and shackles
• Brakes Front: Wilwood four-pot callipers and 266 mm discs. Rear: Wilwood two-pot callipers, 240 mm discs, hydraulic handbrake. Aeroquip lines
• Wheels and tyres 7x13 inch Revolution wheels with Yokohama A539 175/50R13 tyres
• Interior Fully refurbished van interior with NOS late 1970s Cobra bucket seats, deep-dish three-spoke steering wheel, NOS Escort van dashtop, custom sound system with hidden Bluetooth head unit and 6x9 Alpine speakers behind seats, keyless entry with remote stop start and stopstart button
• Thanks Ema my girlfriend for putting up with the build and for helping — she did all the interior carpeting, Motorsport Electronics for the aftersales support and exceptional service, James ‘Jimbo’ Rees for his help with the wiring, Kate Harrison for the incredible paint job, and Longlife Exhausts in Swansea for making the system and fitting the van in at short notice