danthecapriman

I love Cortina’s but I’m not one for modding cars either, which might be part of that car’s problem... That being said, what’s it like rust-wise? And will that black thing on the bonnet come off or is it painted on? Is the purple paint ok? I want a Cortina! Timing might be bad though as I’ve got no space.

True! Volvo made and designed their cars to outlast the competition, something they almost always did short of writing one off. Even so, their cars from the 60’s and 70’s weren’t immune from rotting away. The 700 in the 80’s was the one that really capitalised on the Build and longevity though. Designed to last 21 years if I remember right and I’m sure that was actually on one of their adverts for the cars. Even now, nobody does that! Volvo’s were never cheap cars though!

That ovloV is lovely!

Nice job on that. Your welding and metal work is really nice and neat.

For me, it was the 90’s in general where car design just went downhill. Reliability went up but cars just lost style and uniqueness. I just can’t drive stuff like that and have absolutely no interest whatsoever in them. I like chrome bumpers or 80’s style metal/plastic ones that still look like bumpers, I like angular styling and coke bottle styling, and fins & chrome! All personal preference I guess!

I’m similar I suppose. I don’t like very much from the last 25/30 years as a rule and I’ll be fucked if I’m buying modern stuff. I just don’t like anything about them. My choice! But I’ll gladly buy classic stuff and spunk the same money on them instead. I could have bought a nice modern for what I’ve spent doing the Capri and Mercury as an example, I just don’t want to! Both of those cars are way way cooler and more my style than any modern. Im not well off, not well educated either. I’m just good with money and good at saving. If you want classic cars, have one. If you want an old banger, have one. If you want new and shiny, have one. Everyone’s different with different needs and wants.

Nice work on this, definitely got your money’s worth out of that old clutch!

@TripleRich

That’s the thing that’s worrying me now, especially with higher ethanol % fuel on the horizon. I’ve been trying to get stuff that’s unleaded A1 hose, but I’m not sure really what I should be looking for? Is there a standard that I should be getting?

Silence you! Mine actually do work at the moment... they probably won’t for long though once it starts moving around and getting dusty! Yep, they’re an odd set up, but probably very much of their era I would imagine. I know mk1’s use this set up and mk2 Cortina’s etc do too. It’s very simple, and so easy to build up new brakes, but I wouldn’t expect they’re as good at actually braking as your car! I’d imagine doIng a comparison between the two would probably show the deficiencies in mine!

In other news, I got the last bit of rust proofing done on the rear end. Just the backs of the chassis legs/spring mounts and the floor area under the rear seats and transmission tunnel. It’s all already covered in that rubbery factory look coating and blue paint but I’ve just used Dynax UC clear wax to give it that extra bit of protection and water resistance. The clear stuff looks brilliant too with the blue paint showing through! I’ve also given the four fuel tank mounts a good squirt of it too before they become hard to get at. Then I used the Dynax UC to coat the top face of the fuel tank. This will be totally inaccessible once it’s in so best done I think. It’s got black POR paint on already but, again, the Dynax just gives it that bit extra protection. Next was to find the big rubber O ring seal for where the fuel filler pipe goes into the tank and seals the joint. This just slipped on with a squirt of wd40 to help it. Next was the bit I wasn’t looking forward to! Lifting the tank into place under the car! I think Ford must have got a deal on Army surplus armour plate to make these tanks! They weigh a shit load and that makes it so hard to wrestle them in and then hold it in while you secure it. The first thing to do is coat the big filler pipe O ring in something slippery to guide it onto the filler pipe easily. I used a smear of KY jelly, I mean Vaseline! There was something disturbing about rubbing that around the O ring!😂 Anyway, with that now fitting together with the tank I could put my trolley jack under the tank to take the weight and lift it into its final position. There’s four little rubber pads on the top of tank so once they hit the underside of the boot floor you done. Then the two tank retaining straps clip onto lugs at the back of the car, hinge round under the tank and then a long bolt with a hook on one end hooks into another lug above the axle. The threaded bit passes through the end of the strap and then you tighten the nuts to pull the straps tight. Takes a while but it’s blatantly obvious when your under the car doing it as it will only go on one way. Once the tank is tight and secure the breather vent tube can be joined to the T piece on the tanks breather tubes (rubber hose & jubilee clamps). I’ve secured these tubes with a couple of leftover clips I had from doing the brake lines just so nothing can move or rattle. Then the two sender wires just push onto the connectors on the sender unit making sure the earth wire is on the right one! Its hard to get a pic underneath now as there’s not much space but here’s one showing the tank is back in place! One more job of the list! Just got to run the front - back fuel pipe now.

Putting there was probably an after thought, on mine there’s just a single guide with a bush in it and the cable just runs in the tunnel above/along side the prop so you don’t have to do anything in the tunnel. All the adjustments are made from the back axle. The rear brakes are totally different to yours too, yours has the standard double acting wheel cylinders with separate adjusters. Mine has old (mk2 Cortina etc era) single acting floating cylinders, with the adjuster combined on the cylinders. Then the handbrake arms go through the back plate to the cable, but inside the drum there’s a little finger that pokes down onto the adjust cog. As it all wears the movement just pulls the finger and winds the cog out to move the shoes further out. Its not a bad set up, very basic and easy to work on, but the weakest bit is the adjuster fingers. They get old and just snap off meaning you get no self adjustment. On mine both of them had snapped off, one did it on the motorway but as I was driving you could hear it rattling around inside the drum! I couldn’t get replacements then either so had to manually adjust the rear brakes every 6 months or whatever it was! Ive got a pair of new ones now (at great cost!).

That’s probably why they changed it from how mine is. There’s more slack and points of wear/adjustment/failure in the way mine is. It seems a bit of an over complicated way to do it too. Works well at the moment though! There’s something very satisfying about a nice tight handbrake!

Given it’s probably now in the hands of the insurance company, I wonder if they’ll care about the cars value or perceived value? I mean, just because the owner paid £55k for it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth that in the eyes of the insurer. They might just see it as ‘an Capri’ and write it off as severely damaged. The panels to fix that alone wont come cheap (I know exactly how much as I’ve recently done it!). I really hope the owner doesn’t have any trouble though and it just gets sorted ASAP. I just don’t trust insurance companies!

The filter mesh on mine is brass/copper mesh! The top is plastic though.