Ownership Verified: 1969 Ford Corsair - 'The Pube'

Andeh

is teahte tbungafloed
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
3,514
Location
Cumbria, UK
Car(s)
Fiestas, Mondeos, Anglia, Austin 7, Corsair, Chrys
Corsair =/ Coarse Hair =/ Pube.

So on Saturday I went to get the latest round of winter tyres fitted on the blue Mondeo. While there I got wind that a friend was thinking of selling his Corsair. This is the same chap who back in 2012 sold us a NOS Anglia front badge, as well as a few other goodies when work on the Anglia first started.

He bought the Corsair to tinker with, and rebuilt the engine. These Mk2 Corsairs (or 'Airflow Corsairs' due to the new ventilation system) were fitted with the then brand new Ford V4 engine. It gained something of a reputation for both reliability (lack of) and refinement (lack of). This car has had it removed at some point in the past, and replaced with a 1600 Kent Crossflow, a development of the 1500 Pre-Crossflow I have in the Anglia. (Which ironically, was pulled out of a Mk1 Corsair!)

The previous owner never even finished running the new engine in properly, having only done a couple of hundred miles in it. He likes to work on cars more than driving them, and thus it sat outside for a couple of years rarely being used. Fast forward to this weekend, and I agreed to buy it. It's had a couple of winters outside which has flattened the paint a fair bit, and there's a few bits of surface rust emerging. There's a more serious bubble on the bottom of the driver's door, but otherwise the car is in really nice shape.

For those not familiar, the Corsair came out in 1963 after the Cortina, and was intended as a more upmarket car. It's based on Cortina underpinnings but with an extra 3 inches in the wheelbase, and a more spacious boot. The interior has plusher reclining seats, a wood dash (on the Mk2), soft closing doors and lots of other things to make it that bit more refined than the Cortina.

This car is to relieve some of the pressure on the Anglia, which gets, sometimes unfairly, driven hard keeping up with other classic Ford friends on summer runs. The Anglia can now go back to shiny show car (still driven everywhere I hasten to add), and this can pick up the fast road driving.

Feel free to ask any questions on this oddball...

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Also I love these gauges.
 
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Wow, it's like an Avanti was mashed up with a Pinto. Awesome!
 
Congrats! Love the look of it. Reminds me of a mini early 60's Thunderbird.

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Very neat car! Not sure I've ever seen one.

Is the blue engine bay OEM?

They are properly rare in this country now, only a few hundred left out of the ~350,000 built. Being expensive, and with fussy styling compared to the Cortina, it wasn't a big seller. People just bought Cortinas instead, especially once the 1600E 'posh' Cortina came about. There was a 2000E Corsair rival though. I really like the styling though, its got a really clean lines.

Blue engine bay is the previous owner's rustproofing, it's also made it's way onto the fuel tank. It'll be getting painted white ASAP in the new year!

Realise there's not booty shot, so here's one from when I first spotted it years ago:

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I think I have a Matchbox model of one of these somewhere... It was/is white too.
 
Awesome.

SAVE ALL THE UNLOVED UK FORDS!

Why "The Pube"?
 
So, that makes two of us with 8-track players!
 
They are properly rare in this country now, only a few hundred left out of the ~350,000 built. Being expensive, and with fussy styling compared to the Cortina, it wasn't a big seller. People just bought Cortinas instead, especially once the 1600E 'posh' Cortina came about. There was a 2000E Corsair rival though. I really like the styling though, its got a really clean lines.


* snip pic

..

Ah, well done. It looks good!

Congrats! Love the look of it. Reminds me of a mini early 60's Thunderbird.

* snip pic

That's it, I was trying to recall that pointy front end styling!

Awesome.

SAVE ALL THE UNLOVED UK FORDS!

Why "The Pube"?

.. I think Andeh intends to do that! :smile:
 
Awesome. I don't think I've ever seen a Corsair in real life.

We did get British fords here back in the day and Cortinas and Anglias were plentiful, but I think most buyers that wanted something bigger went for a Taunus of some sort.
 
Very nice! Love the styling...
 
Really amazed at all the positive reaction to this! Seems the unpopular styling must have aged quite well. I'm going to start work this weekend removing all the brightwork, examining the metal underneath and protecting it as necessary, as well as polishing the car up more.

Awesome.

SAVE ALL THE UNLOVED UK FORDS!

Why "The Pube"?

See the first line! Common nickname in Ford circles.

So, that makes two of us with 8-track players!

I just need a larger 8-track collection... I guess Lucille has the other?

Found it!

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Here's a much nicer example on eBay that still has the plastic boat that it came with....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Matchbox-Se...%3A2a6633661580a605b8345e6dfff9155b%7Ciid%3A8

That's awesome that they sold in the US, despite no kid ever really seeing one in person.

That one on eBay is really cheap for the condition compared to UK models, it's a shame the seller won't post to the UK. I'm bidding on some over here now, but don't want to pay much for than ?7! :lol:
 
Congrats, looks really neat! I like the side view a lot, it's very clean and elegant. I just think the front end would look better with pairs of smaller round lamps on each side.

Also, isn't the rear bumper fitted upside down?
 
SAVE ALL THE UNLOVED UK FORDS!

I'm feel like I'm doing that with the colony park because I've had a lot of people ask about buying it to use it for a rally bash up thing.
 
I'm feel like I'm doing that with the colony park because I've had a lot of people ask about buying it to use it for a rally bash up thing.

A what? Do you mean a demolition derby?
 
Yeah that. My English is not so good.
 
Congrats, looks really neat! I like the side view a lot, it's very clean and elegant. I just think the front end would look better with pairs of smaller round lamps on each side.

Also, isn't the rear bumper fitted upside down?

Yeah, pairs of smaller headlamps with a lip over them from the bonnet would look mean.

Bumper is the right way up, that's just the way they look!
 
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