Canford Classics was asked to restore an original RHD 2.7 RS Touring from an overseas customer. This RHD 1st 1000 production RS was driven to the workshop. At first glance the car looked to be in good condition. The shell was stripped and the extent of the rust and previous poor renovations became clear. There were also signs of previous accident damage around the LH rear wheel.

The entire shell was stripped and media blasted before body work commenced by Barry Carter. New panels included new RS rear wings, left rear inner wing,  inner and outer sills, front wings, wing closer panels, tank panel and support plus localised repair panels. Being an original lightweight steel bonnet this was repaired rather than replaced. The original RS duck tail and front bumper also required repaired. The aluminium frame was removed from the ducktail, repaired and re-bonded.

The shell was re-sealed as per factory spec before being fully repainted its original colour Signal Yellow. All the mechanics, suspension, wiring, brakes etc has been stripped and refurbished, suspension parts powder coated and steel parts re-plated, chrome re-plated and the door frames/rear 1.4s  re-anodised. Once completed all parts are then rebuilt with all new rubbers, bushes, bearings etc. The fuch wheels were also refurbished as per original factory spec. This RS was originally sold with a factory installed rear nudge bar which during it’s life was removed or simply went missing. Canford Classics sourced a replacement, had it re-chromed and installed it. It was apparent that the LH rear suspension arm was not correct for an RS, Canford Classics thus modified the arm to RS spec. We also fitted a new external oil cooler using one of our own 1973 oil coolers. A full set of Factory RS decals were installed as per original.

The gearbox was fully rebuilt whilst the engine had already been recently, it was detailed correctly and fitted with a new shroud, exhaust, rebuilt MFI throttle bodies, stripped and re-chromated fan/housing etc.  Finally the RS was tuned on a rolling road at Bob Watson Engineering and showed a healthy 212 bhp. To see a sort movie of this click here.