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

This doesn't sound good... Perkele.

It doesn't. But at least it's still driving. That's a neat fucking car Posmo, I really hope you can keep it on the road.
 
You are the man Posmo! Make it better!
 
The car will absolutely certainly be fixed.
 
Before the slight mishap I got to try the Cortina. It is really hard to compare new and old steerings, but it feels pretty much perfect fun car for winter. Small slides are really easy, as current steering is accurate and quick enough and engine response incredibly sharp. You just have to be brave and give it enough gas, the tail always starts to slide. LSD is something all winter cars should have. Makes things so much more predictable and enjoyable.
 
Time to update this I suppose, it has been a week since the slight mishap, and repairs are underway. But before going into that, here is a taster of the damage:

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Looks bad, doesn't it? :( Well, in truth, it really isn't the end of the world. The way the car hit the tree could not have been more lucky, as the car didn't hit head on, and there was a large rock to the left of the tree, now the front wing took the majority of the impact, along with a slight dent in the A-post and a pushed in sill panel. Also, after getting the car home, I noticed there was some (quite minor) dents in the bonnet as well. But all in all, as long as the car would be straight, it wasn't going to be hardest fix in the world.

Started sourcing parts immediately after the crash, and I already have reserved a used front wing, and I found a brand new windscreen for 180?. The A-post will be straightened, as will the sill panel, so no need for repair sections for those. The first thing to do regarding the repairs was to get the smashed front wing off to see if there was any actual damage to the bodyshell. Though with the way the panels still fitted I was quite confident the body was fine:

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Started by dismantling the front end:

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And getting the spot weld drill out (I still hate Ford for spot welding panels on to their cars back in the day.. Makes removal a total bitch. :mad: )

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Like a can of beans!:

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Suspension is still there..

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Next job was to clean up the metal to see how much rust there was to fix on the wing rail and headlight bowl, both of which are common rust spots on these cars. Cleaned up the spots with a wire wheel:

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..And it's mint. :blink:

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Makes the crash a bit more of a shame as there really was no reason for having to remove the wing due to rust issues, The panels are in exceptionally good condition.

Next job was to put some temporary zinc paint on the exposed metal pieces in preparation for the new front wing. Also fitted a spare bonnet I have as I can't be 100% sure the original one is straight after the impact, So I will use this one (which I know to be straight) for fitting the front wing in the correct place.

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And this is how I left it today:

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I'll get the new front wing on friday, after which I can start seeing how well it fits, and start work on the A-panel and sill :)

All in all, no nasty surprises, and a good bit of progress on the car. I'll post more when work proceeds. :)
 
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Gotta respect oldies for durability of them parts. What's that little dent from? Hail? -Naw, just some giant tree fell on it.
 
Well, it did grow like it was supposed to hit cars like a motherfucker.

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I mean, look at that.
 
:lol: Sure, jumped out of the fucking nowhere in to the middle of the road and attacked the car :rolleyes:

That reminds me of anekdote.

Drunk explains the situation: "I was walking down this shady street, and then sudennly this mean lightpole got into my way and pushed me back onto creepy gateway. The gates bumped me forward and then i got hit in the face by a sewer cover, which brought me back to a lightpole... maan, i tellya, if it wasn't for police officers drawn to the sceene by noises, they would've killed me!"
 
Borrowed a Smith and Deakin front fender for trial fitting, and made the decision to go for fiberglass for the front fenders. Couldn't find a good enough condition replacement fender, so this is the best way to go. Upside is that they won't rust :D

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I will of course strengthen the front end structure of the car at the same time, it will get significant bracing to counteract the removal of the spot welded original fenders.
 
Still waiting for the front wing shipment from the UK, they should arrive this month, which will speed things up immensely. For the time being, I've been working on important, but slightly miscellaneous stuff, mainly strengthening the car bodyshell:

First, made my own strut brace:

Some laser cut plates of 3mm stainless I've had for over a year:

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Local recycling yard had some suitable 2mm wall stainless tubing:

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The brace will also be tied to the firewall in places, this is for added stiffness and bracing for under the pedalbox. These parts are still a work in progress:

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Underneath the front wing, the car was *extremely* rust free, but I felt some strengthening here was in order as well:

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+

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=

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The flat part with the spotwelds is there purely so in the future if I fit a rollcage in the car, I can tie it into this plate from the interior of the car with bolts.:

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How it was left for now:

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All the modifications will be replicated on the drivers side of the car after I have fitted the passenger side fiberglass wing, after which the other steel wing can be removed from the car.


Oh yeah, got this as well:

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Brand new windscreen for a 46 year old car. 180?.
 
Good work! :thumbsup:

The grease nipples for the shocks are a nice touch, did you fit them or are they original?
 
laser cut plates of 3mm stainless

2mm wall stainless tubing

The brace will also be tied to the firewall in places, this is for added stiffness and bracing for under the pedalbox.

Underneath the front wing, the car was *extremely* rust free

The flat part with the spotwelds is there purely so in the future if I fit a rollcage in the car, I can tie it into this plate from the interior of the car with bolts.:

Brand new windscreen

Enough with hotline talk, i'm already wet! :drool:
 
Progress has been a bit slow due to a customer engine I took on, but I might have the engine bay in paint next week. So far it has taken maybe 35 hours of work just to prepare the engine bay and inner wheelarches to the point that I'm satisfied with them..

The car will have separate front and rear brake master cylinders with an adjustable balance bar, so I had to make a new mounting on the firewall and something for the reservoirs:


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The old radiator was sold and replaced with a significantly larger one:


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Fabricated a new inlet manifold for the throttlebodies (Billet SME -brand ones), and offered a bare cylinder head in the engine bay to check clearances etc.

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EDIT:

Also bought some split wheels by Gotti, anyone on the forums from France and willing to help me find some wider lips for these?:p

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Finally feels like I'm making proper progress.

Started yesterday by hanging a spare engine block in the bay to see how stuff would line up.

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And surprisingly enough, everything fits nicely! I was able to get 10-15mm of clearance everywhere by just carefully placing the engine in a good position. So I proceeded to cut off the old gearbox mounts from the transmission tunnel, enlarge the gearstick hole, and make some engine mounts:

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Engine sits pleasingly far back in the bay, approx 50mm further back than the original, should be good for weight distribution as the new engine is quite a bit heftier than the old one:

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Pretty tight with my strut brace :p:

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And then the most rewarding part of all, spraying some primer on the front end of the car:

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This is just a first coat which will be followed by seam sealing, filler work and more primer, but already it feels like a big step forward with the car! :cool:
 
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