Ownership Verified: My 44 -year old antique ['70 Cortina "GT"]

My ST is up for sale atm :)

As I said, it'll be a 1600 kent for now. Most likely very similar to the engine in MXM's 7.
 
All the suspension components have now been taken to the sandblasters, I will have them back next week. :)

Dismantled the interior today to repaint the seat mounts and check the condition of the floorpanels from the inside. I simply could not stop laughing as I removed the carpet and seats.. I mean ffs, look at this for a 44 year old car:

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There is literally only the tiniest bit of surface rust under the sound deadening bitumen (where the factory left bare steel..).. The brown stuff you can see in the pictures is just old, dried up carpet glue.. :dance:


What about the body cavities then..?


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Yeah, there is actually still a good few deciliters of fresh oil inside.. Marvellous.. I owe a big thanks to these guys:


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(Note the dried-up window seal :(




Alongside the interior, I made some preparations to the front strut "ankles". The original design looked fantastically weak (brazed together at a small area) , so I strengthened them by fitting some cut-up bits of rollbar tubing between the strut housing and "ankle".

Tacked:

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Welded partly (not the best of seams, I know):

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and both done:

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I'm calling it now, the car will be on the road before September.
 
Wow, that's a short phone number. :lol:

Early 70's I'd guess?

Presumably, since the car is MY 1970, and the rust proofing had to have been done when it was fairly new. The rust proofing oil on the bottom of the car is clearly quite old as it has hardened and comes off in chunks if hit with a hammer. There is also an old tax sticker from 1976 on the windshield, road tax was 100 marks back then :p
 
It's 02-2329863 nowadays. :)

YTJ.fi claims the company was registered in May of 1980. Maybe the actual company name was something else before that?

I would go there to have it rustproofed again if I was you. :D
 
It's 02-2329863 nowadays. :)

YTJ.fi claims the company was registered in May of 1980. Maybe the actual company name was something else before that?

I would go there to have it rustproofed again if I was you. :D

Would make for a few laughs for sure :) I'd also expect a discount as a returning customer.





..And a new sticker, naturally.
 
As said in the other thread, I sold the E-max Sierra today. I got what I wanted for it, but still quite sad to see it go, it wasn't a particularly trusty or polished companion, but it was mine nonetheless. It will most likely be parted out for a Mk 2 Escort.

Last picture of the cars together:

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Oh well, swapping it out for the Cortina can be no bad thing..

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After all, it does have that old-car charm..

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And one less hole in the boot (to boot!)

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Did they have oem second mirror for co drivers fender? That would be cool.
Just remembered that I had original color brochure for mk2 Cortina that had Lotus as well, gave it away to friend who has mk2.
 
Although it does look better in the rain, but that's fixable. :p

:smile:

Indeed it is, again this car makes me laugh.. I mean, FFS.. Look at this for the classic 50/50 buffing shot:

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Can't wait to do the whole car.. The car has been resprayed in the past, and I suspect it has been done with lower quality paint.. It should look pretty good, nice and shiny with plenty of patina, fantastic! :cool:

Anyway, onwards with other things, this awaited me in the driver side rear inner arch:

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..Aaaand it's gone:

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Fuel tank removed for cleaning and inspection. It looks pretty new, I suspect it has been changed at some point..?

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Escort RS2000 front brakes dismantled for refurbishing. Everything is in good order, 12? worth of seals and some paint and they'll be like new.

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Difference in pad area vs. std Cortina brakes:

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They are not "race spec" by any means, but a friend has them at the front in his Escort and they are plenty enough for the 13" tires I'm going to run. The brakes are not servo-assisted, hoping the pedal won't be untolerable with these.



I found this pretty interesting, both the inner seat mounting points in the shell had collapsed:

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Andeh can probably say whether this is a common occurance in these cars? The seats are mounted directly to the floor pan (0.75mm steel) so it's not all that surprising that they have failed. Driver's side seat rails also had a crack in them.

Anyway, fixd'

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Also removed the battery tray from the engine bay and painted the front struts partly, but don't have pictures of those jobs. This is one of the nicest cars to work on that I've experienced. Wherever you look there are nice surprises and the bad ones are minor enough to be dealt with swiftly. :)

More progress to come!
 
Can't say I've seen that sort of stress issue with Anglia seats, and they mount in a similar way! Normally just rot that's the issue...

I would say that tank does look like a recent NOS fitment, but given the condition of the rest of the body, could just be a really nice original one.
 
My Fairlane's seats mount a similar way as well, and no signs of stress fractures in it either, though, as Andeh says, rot at the front seat mounts is not uncommon.

I converted my car to the factory 4 piston disk brakes off a 67 mustang and my pads are about a third again bigger than yours (bigger car too though) and even though I had to maintain the unassisted brakes due to space constraints with the clutch master, the brakes are not unduly difficult, no more then they were with the manual drums. I did change the master cylinder as well though, to one designed for the setup.

This looks like a nice example of an old ford though, especially considering where it's likely spent the last 40+ years.
 
You're so lucky with this car. I hope this continues. I really want to see the result of that buffing when applied to the whole car.
 
Can't say I've seen that sort of stress issue with Anglia seats, and they mount in a similar way! Normally just rot that's the issue...

I would say that tank does look like a recent NOS fitment, but given the condition of the rest of the body, could just be a really nice original one.

The funny thing with this car is, that despite the cracks (exposed metal) there was no rust anywhere.. One of the seat mounts had been welded before by a previous owner, so I suspect it could be quite common?


Or maybe the previous owner was just fat. :dunno:


This picture shows the paint condition quite well, as you can see, there is still some reflection on the door bottoms, so I expect they should buff up to an even nicer shine than the rear quarter. I'm most worried about the roof, it's got a fair bit of sun damage..

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Often the problem with reds that fade to pink is that you can buff them up, but they very quickly turn again, quicker than a regular colour deteriorates anyway.

Perhaps different with modern paint to old, but I do know people with 90s/00s red cars which have been sun damaged, which can buff up fantastic, but fade back so very quickly.
 
Often the problem with reds that fade to pink is that you can buff them up, but they very quickly turn again, quicker than a regular colour deteriorates anyway.

Perhaps different with modern paint to old, but I do know people with 90s/00s red cars which have been sun damaged, which can buff up fantastic, but fade back so very quickly.

Case in point, my solid red 1990 Sierra. It looked lovely for about six hours after I gave it a coat of wax.

I've always wondered what it's like to drive with the rear view mirrors (or mirror, in this case) far away on the front fender like that.
 
I expect the paint won't be shiny for too long, but it's really nice to know that it's at least somewhat salvageable. I was worried that I'd need to respray the car. The bodyshell is in such good condition that leaving it looking like a barn find wasn't really an option.

The (5-digit) odometer shows 68 000 km's, I need to do a registration history check (28?) to see if it's rolled over once. Judging by the condition of the pedals, it can't have done 268 000 km's, and with it having sat, it could even only have 68 000 km's on it. After the history check I'll try to find some of the previous owners to learn the history of the car. What I have gathered so far is that one (or more) of the previous owners was a fat smoker who couldn't afford proper paint, but had a good welding machine :p


This might be a bit confusing and incoherent, but I'll try to explain: The car has had only a few owners, as the registration documents for the car are the seventh ones printed for the car. (Every time the owner of a car changes you get new documents, the ones printed with my name on them are the seventh ones, for comparison the E-max was on it's 23rd papers when I put it under my name :p) When you discount the dealership (#1), the original owner (#2), the fact that the document style changed about 15 years ago (#3), the guy I bought it from, and his friend who owned it previously for a brief time (#4 and #5), and me (#6), it only leaves 1 more case of "new" registration papers, which basically means that the car has at most had 4 or 5 previous owners. The number could be lower as there can be other reasons for printing out new documents, but still, not too many (GD)PO's. :)
 
Progress is constant but not quite quick enough. I found pistons and a cylinder head for the engine, most of the rest of the stuff I'll need to buy new anyway, so the engine build can commence quite soon. As always, I tried to find a complete engine, but when none came up, I guess I'll just build my own then..

Anyway, front struts housings finished (need some paint still):

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Shock absorbers will be Volvo 240 units, coilovers obv.


Front brakes off a Capri/RS2000 Escort, fully rebuilt by me:

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And finally the front hub carriers with brake discs installed.

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All of the parts have soaked in acid solution for a good while, so they are 100% rust free. :)

I fear I might need to get the welding canister refilled before I'm done with the body, which will set back the schedule a bit :(


Undecided on the steering wheel, I like the feeling of the stock one, but this Personal -item might be a better choice for "spirited driving" opinions? Keep the thin spoke stock wheel, or use this one?

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Finally, I had a go at this a few days ago, this car is the primary reason I bought the Cortina, I've spent hundreds of hours with a friend this year getting it back on the road for the first time in 15 years. Originally a 1300 Sport, it now has a group F rally engine and has been convered to full RS2000 spec. with a lot of perioid go-faster mods :) Probably the best car I've ever driven..

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