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

I recently swapped out the laminated screen in the Triumph for a "toughened" one, rather hoping it doesn't explode in my face. :lol:

I like the "GT" style grille, the whole car looks a bit more serious.
 
The windscreen is in! Was a bit of a bitch to install, and the gasket *almost* broke in the passenger side upper corner. But everything went better than expected for my first windscreen install :) I used a huge amount of butyl sealant to keep it leak free. I still need to source the chrome strips for both the rear screen and the windscreen.

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The heater bowl is also in now:

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Blame Ford for the bolt spacing, that's how evenly they spotwelded the panel at the factory :p I'll paint all the bolts (and the gray sealant) in the same red colour as the bubble to make it look a bit neater. (also note: new windscreen wipers :) )

Tested out some of the electrics, it's alive:

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And as a final job for the day, made a bracket from some scrap stainless steel and fitted the throttle cable, it's from an Opel Kadett of all things :)

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Hopefully I can pick the engine parts up tomorrow so the engine build can commence..
 
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The bottom end parts are finally home, and the spec is finalized. The engine will be ~1650cc with 10.5 compression ratio. Camshaft is 290 degrees with 11.10mm lift. Hoping for around 120-130 hp with the Webers.

Block back from the machine shop:

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Lick of paint:

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The modified conrods:

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They are lightened, polished and balanced within 1g of each other. The conrod bolts are from a Cosworth YB engine.

Crank in:

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And the 1300 kent pistons found their place aswell:

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In other news, the new windscreen leaks ever so slightly :mad:
 
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A friend of mine had the brilliant idea of getting herself a LHD Cortina TC. The spare parts situation in Germany is bleak, to say the least. Can you recommend a source for a set of round headlamps? German classic Ford parts stores only carry the square Taunus-style lamps.
 
Any particular reason you can't just order from the UK?
 
MXM said:
The beam shape would be wrong, for one.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

Anyway. I found out in the meantime that supposedly round Tanus front lamps and round Cortina front lamps are identical. Let's hope the parts bin won't let us down!
 
samulis said:
Isn't the lamp same that is in Miata, VW Golf etc?
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The lamp, as in the thing you plug into the socket, yes. The assembly, as in reflector, glass, mount, etc - not.
 
Dr_Grip said:
The lamp, as in the thing you plug into the socket, yes. The assembly, as in reflector, glass, mount, etc - not.
Click to expand...

You can adapt mk 1 Golf lights to fit, should be easy as pie if your friend is not picky about originality. mk 2 ones will fit aswell but if I recall correctly they will need a bit of cutting of the fitment plate to fit, still easy though, and doesn't require modifications to the car body.


..Just make sure you don't buy those clear "tuning" ones ;)



Anyway, as for the Cortina, the bottom end is not completely assembled, the rest will be done when I can pick up the head from the machine shop. :)
 
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MXM said:
This is starting to look familiar :)
Click to expand...

Can you spot something else familiar in these pics? :)






And yeah, the lockwiring is completely necessary and not at all for looks :p
 
what is that? why is the oil filter parallel to the block?
 
bone said:
what is that? why is the oil filter parallel to the block?
Click to expand...

As MXM said, the aluminium casting that the oil filter is connected to is the oil pump. I guess the engine designers ran out of space inside the block so they decided to make it external? The black cover with the 3 bolts and lockwire (and loctite, and locking washers :p) is actually the oil pump rotor cover:

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The constant rain continues, so I sheltered myself inside the car and fitted some of the interior back together. I covered the rear shelf panel in red vinyl which (despite the panel being warped) looks fantastic: It's the same red as the car, so it looks very "airy" :)

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Seat back in aswell, along with some self made sound deadening:

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Hoping to pick up the cylinder head tomorrow or Friday, then I can assemble the engine completely and adjust the timing, after which fitment won't be too far off :)
 
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Picked up the remainder of the parts from the machine shop now, the major bit that I still needed was the cylinder head:

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So when I came home from work, I proceeded by popping the head gasket on:

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..And torquing the head down:

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But wait... something doesn't seem right.. :hmm:



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..Much better :)





starting to look marginally better than when I started, from this:

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.. to this:


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I love how the carbs look disproportionately massive on these small pushrod engines :p
 
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