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

no idea either, if i quote your post, it doesn't work either

but it does work when i place it in new (identical) tags
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Great to see it coming together. Wouldn't it be easier to cut/weld the mounts than make new manifold?
Interior looks great. You need this kind of air cleaners for the new "make glorious braaa" horns.
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edit: wonder why img tags dont work with my phone...

I'll modify the exisiting manifold slightly, only 2 of the tubes really need to be moved about 20mm to clear the brake master cylinder, so not a massive job. :)

As for air filters, I'll run the some ones I ran last year = Open trumpets :p
 
/me shakes head disapprovingly

I don't know anyone who has ever had any issues (apart from slightly accelerated engine bore wear) from running open trumpets, whereas a lot of friends have had all sorts of problems with airbox pop rivets, air filter foam, air filter mesh, etc. ending up in the intake. One guy even had an air filter nut destroy a piston.. :rolleyes: If I was running the car on gravel a lot I would fit some sort of filters, and eventually when the bigger engine finds it's way in the car I'll make a kevlar airbox for it, but for now open trumpets are a reasonably reliable and infinitely cool option. Honestly the horror story of a stone or something ending up in the intake due to having no filters very rarely happens.


..Also the engines is loudest without filters :p
 
Galantti is also driving without a filter, since he never bothered to replace that tube in the engine bay.
 
I was horrified when I drove the Blizzard for 15 miles only to discover the next day that the filter wasn't installed :blink:
 
I've driven 2200 km's with the Cortina without air filters, a Friend clocked up nearly 40 000 km's in a Sierra and an Escort with no filters. Never any issues and all the cars have been driven on gravel and snow for extended periods of time. :) Not bothered at all.

EDIT: Though I will run some sort of sock filters or the like in the spring when there is a lot of dust on the roads.
 
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1 Step forwards, 2 steps back it seems. Today started quite well with the car as I went to pick up the remaining suspension components from the metal platers:

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Fantastic finish to them, now I'm just waiting for 2 rose joints to come from the UK and I can build up the front (apart from the ARB, which will come later)

I modified the engine mounts to drop the engine some 15-20mm in the car so I wouldn't have to modify the exhaust manifold, and as such it was fitted "for good" and I could remove the broken gearbox:

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Damage was as I suspected, a broken split pin in the 3th & 4th gear selector. Tried the propshaft yoke on to the gearbox and decided not to repair it for as there as quite a bit of play in it (probable cause for the vibrations..) I fitted a replacement gearbox (which luckily had the same speedometer drive gear) in the car and proceeded to build up the rest of the engine:

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Started up basically on the first crank, and apparently the crankshaft is hitting the new sump on the driver's side (3rd conrod most likely), so I'll have some more dismantling ahead of me tomorrow.. <_<

Oh well, at least it runs.
 
Might get to go for a test drive next week :) Got a huge amount done today in just 3 hours. Started by unbolting the sump, and sure enough, there were marks on the driver side wall of it. The sump was off a 1300cc kent which has a shorter stroke, which means the bigger conrod bolts I have on the engine just clipped the side of the sump (3rd cyl). Bit of ball peen hammer action, new gaskets and seals and it's sorted, took maybe 90 mins in total. :)

Also fitted the engine mounts, the front beam and...

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This.

Looks a bit more complicated than the original setup, but the suspension is now mounted for good on the drivers side. The only thing missing is the anti roll bar drop links. :)


This is the car supported for the first time on the new suspension setup. The ride height will be approx 20-30mm lower than in the picture:

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Felt really good to see the car sitting on the new suspension, so treated myself to fitting a new, longer steering wheel hub, which brings the steering wheel approx 50mm closer to the driver:

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There's a quick release in there as well :)

Can't wait to work more tomorrow! :cool:
 
That is fantastic!

As a matter of fact, this is more fantastic:

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I think it looks pretty much as good as it can without bodywork modifications. There is still some fettling to do with the suspension setup and the steering (also the engine has 5dl too much oil in it so it has been acting like an Mx-5, spewing it everywhere :p) But most crucially it drives fucking fantastically, a slight bit of rain and it's fully sideways in every 2nd gear corner :cool:
 
Hmm.. Might be a good time to update this thread as the car has gone through quite a bit in the past 2 months or so. I got the rack and pinion steering finished and working in July in time for the bigassroadtrip people coming to Finland. The new sump I had made for the car caused some issues with oil pressure and leaking, and the vibrations were ever present, so I didn't get to drive it all that much. Took it to a sports car breakfast club event, where I found the first mk 2 Cortina I've seen on the roads since I bought mine:

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This one was all original and registered as a historical vehicle, so it was quite nice to play spot the difference :p Also, other gearians:

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2 days after which, this happened:

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An oil pressure switch adapter broke due to the vibrations and resulted in an impromptu rust-proofing for the passenger side inner fender. I was pretty sure before the conrod bearings on the engine wouldn't be in tip-top shape, but after this a checkup was in order. And sure enough:

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The crankshaft was still completely fine, so I fitted all new bearings to the engine, made a new sump, and it was good to go again:

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When I first got the rack-and pinion sorted I was running without an anti-roll bar. The car handled well, but I still felt that it would be a welcome addition, especially if I decide to start running grippier tires. I had to make special brackets to mount a modified stock Cortina ARB on the car, as I no-longer had the option of using original fixing points in the track control arms, which resulted in this:

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I used 16mm rose-joints on the parts as I had a couple spare ones and thus would only need to buy 2 more. They are completely overkill for the application, and add quite a bit of unsprung weight, so I might go back and redo the mounts for smaller joints..

Added some chassis strengthening for good measure while the engine was out. These gussets were added where the front chassis rails meet the bulkhead. You can see the compression strut mount is right underneath, so this is a high-stress area in the chassis. It might have been able to cope in standard form, but I did this for peace of mind.

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And to finish off the suspension mods, this was in order as the front track width is now significantly wider than standard:

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Interior is also finally getting done "properly", bought an unnecessary accessory:

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..And finally getting the GT-dash top finished in lovely, genuine leather :cool:

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With all the mods done, I could bolt all the engine bits back together:

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.. And she runs again! :)

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Drives better than it ever has before. Very oversteery and you can have a lot of fun even at slow speeds. Still feels like a hooligan car :p Vibrations are also greatly lessened as I fitted a different prop shaft :)
 
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Great results and nice sturdy roller for arches. No pics of the GT-dash done?

Work in progress :) Should be finished this week (apart from wiring and installation) :) I'm not very good at upholstery, so the end result won't be absolutely perfect, but at least the leather is really nice and genuine :|

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