The Cortina rescue...(very belatedly)

[whitevanman]

My appologies for not posting this up back in january, but I have had a lot of connection issues and have never been able to log in. Add in the fact I have been busy and this is the first oppertunity to post this up.....

 

Firts a bit of back ground info on this car.

OPR is a well known car in Cortina circles, converted to a 2.9V6 by Steve Taylor a few years back for a guy called Stu, it then passed on to another member of the Cortina community up in Derbyshire, mit was run like that for a few years until it was passed on trho a friend of mine who stripped it down for a rebuilding....due to his marrige break up, it was bought by TimL of this here manor and brought up to me for storage, a few more bits were removed and it went over to my workshop to finish stripping and see what we had.......it was fairly solid and only needed a few bits of welding done. Now before any decision was made as to it's future Stu contacted me and wanted it back. Happy days...however he was never able to get up hwere and collect it, so it sat outside in the rain until the Landlord at my unit was giving me grief over it sitting there......

[whitevanman]

Pics of the original strip down last spring

[whitevanman]

Scuttle all welded up

 

 

welded up the front wing...nothing exciting

 

Then it was on the the rear sill, now as this had previously had the rot cut out it should have been a straight forward job........AHHHH, but this is a Cortina, so there was "a bit more" to it than that

 

rear inner sill need a bit of work after I discovered that it was not solid <_<

as did the end

 

So with about two hours to go I thought I'd be finished in time for tea..........well I would have been if the replacement sill had a similiar profile to the existing one NEVER seen such a poor match on any panel, then I figured that as it's for the 3/4/5 it probably meant that it's actually a mk3 panel and nothing like the mk5...... so I fabricated a new one and fitted it up today

 

now thats all the structural welding done...I just need to create a new boot floor and spare wheel tub

[whitevanman]

Small update...some thieving pikey scum has nobbled my back axle............

 

luckily I had a spare one just lying about doing nothing.......... xsofa

 

And another bit of rust has been found...............it will be sorted at the weekend :thumbup:

[whitevanman]

So the choice was made, I decided to do a quick build up and use it for the winter then flog it on, time scale 4 weeks, nothing too fancy, just a quick simple look....

 

so on December 25th I started by getting the engine donor up and running....what should have been about an hours work turned into 10 hours head scratching graft...

 

 

 

 

 

The guard woof was the second one I had to look after over the period and work was very much curtailed due to keeping an eye on them

 

now in between trying to get the P100 running and the next couple of days I welded up the other sill and painted the engine bay..

 

 

 

Sorry for the lack of pics but the camera went on the blink and all the shots I took were unusable

[whitevanman]

So during this first week a potential buyer came along.....everything was agreed, subject to a deposit being paid, so while I waited I carried on fitting it out, new brake pipes, engine fitted, wiring fitted and made a start on smoothing out the body...

 

 

 

 

Again most of the pics didn't turn out....

eventually the deposit was received and I hurtled towards the painting stage......

what's that? oh, you want it modified!.....to what?......

 

So after a protracted 2 weeks a plan was finally agreed....bang went the 4 week schedule then

 

so I continued assembly, wings, interior, exhaust and radiator...

 

 

 

[whitevanman]

So on to the "final stage"....modify the bonnet and rub it down for painting...about a week tops then....nope...it's to be Black 3 weeks of rubbing down and filling later, we got to this stage....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it ain't perfect, hell I still missed some of the little dents, but it needs to be painted as I am spending more and more time on the XR6 and I could do with the space......so, last week it got painted....

 

 

 

 

[whitevanman]

Now for the colour..

 

First the engine bay then the Orange for the stripes..

 

 

 

 

 

 

then it's mask up the stripes and apply top coat..

 

 

[whitevanman]

Now it's time to remove the masking tape.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[whitevanman]

Now that's all done....it's time to reassemble and touch up all the bits that the masking tape has removed....

 

 

 

Now I hope to get over this weekend and put the final bits back on to it, bumpers windscreen, dash etc.... more to follow

now for a sad shot....two vehicles died in the making of this car, both were stripped of anything in the least bit useful before they ended up like this...

 

[whitevanman]

Now I have had no camera for the last few weeks and I have had very little time to finish her off, But it will be completed on Wednesday and 4 weeks will have been 14, but at least it will be done, hopefully I can add the final pics Wedneday night

[M'coli]

Top work there, WVM, it looks good with the fresh paint.

[trigger]

Nice one WVM!, It looks like a really nice job, I'm not feeling the bonnet vents personally but i do really like the black and red contrast.

 

What kind of wheels are you fitting to it?

[whitevanman]

Cheers guys, the vents are better than what he wanted....trust me wierdly the Red is actually Orange, but never shows up in the pics, the wheels are going to be Sierra 14" the ones tyhat are sort of 5 spoked and fitted to later models.....you will see them in the pics later this week.

[trigger]

Azura alloys? a bit like the Granada Cossie wheels IIRC?, I like those.

[whitevanman]

thats them.....

[Cavcraft]

Bloody hell, nice one.

[fordnut]

Your Sign Written P100 Pick-Up is advertising a very good breakers that is local me. I've got a feeling it might have been used by a local short oval track how did it come into your possession?

[cort16]

Now that's fast work! God, I really want another Cortina I think thats my next project after I finish the SD1.

[danthecapriman]

Your Sign Written P100 Pick-Up is advertising a very good breakers that is local me. I've got a feeling it might have been used by a local short oval track how did it come into your possession?

 

I was thinking the same thing! Ring + bring is about 10 mins from where I live. And it was definatly used on the chalk oval track at hazelton farm SAA raceway. (also very close to where I live). I remember it being used to carry the winners around the track with a chequered flag!

[Split_Pin]

Nice period custom look there, looking forward to seeing the finished result!

[whitevanman]

Your Sign Written P100 Pick-Up is advertising a very good breakers that is local me. I've got a feeling it might have been used by a local short oval track how did it come into your possession?

 

 

the wonder of ebay...and an LDV Convoy....

[stuboy]

nice workmanship