Project Korean Cortina - going back in time!

[Lankytim]

That donk really looks at home in there, well done!

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It sounds like a flipping TVR!!!! Not a massive surprise i suppose. GR9 WORKAGE

[KruJoe]

Mat, if you're worried about those copper pipes leaking from the union with the carbs, seal them in with a smear of Araldite. It has worked well for me in the past.

 

It's sounding better than ever now buddy. Do you have an MOT date on the Autoshite calendar yet?

[Ratdat]

Sounds great! Years ago, I put a Rover V8 from a P5 into an old Datsun 280C I had. On reflection it was fairly pointless from a performance angle as it wasn't any more powerful than the 2.8 six that was in it before but like this, it sounded awesome so it was well worth it. Mind you I bet a Rover is quite a step up in performance for your Stellar. Probably not much difference in weight either.

[mat_the_cat]

MOT - my mate's stag do is in September, so before then would be good! Ideally well before then for shakedown runs and in all likelihood so I have time to help him weld up his Alfa for the wedding! Now I've decided to go with the original rims I need to buy a set of tyres, and return the wheels after 10 years in the undergrowth.

 

Also a patch on one chassis leg, wheel spacers, and sort out a speedo cable and calibration. Not 100% sure about the dizzy either which may need a rebuild, I know I need to work out why it has two vacuum connections and my new carbs only the one.

 

Weight wise it felt very similar to the old lump (iron block) when manhandling it around so hopefully little difference. Power from 74 bhp to maybe double that? Really depends on how the PO rebuilt the engine - it is an SD1 block with P6 ancilliaries, and (was) early RR carbs. Guessing it may be RR spec internally as he built it for one. Hopefully he built it with a few extra horses though...

[Inspector Morose]

Hmm sd1 block with p6 bits. Could well have been built with higher compression then so there could be more power in there somewhere....

Still, it's still and awesome beast. I might take you up on the bx bearings one day just so I can perv over it again.

But please sort that alternator pulley alignment out just so I can sleep at night.

[mat_the_cat]

Ha! You noticed! The alternator is OK with the crank I think; it's the water pump which needs sorting. It was a saga and a half to get it shortened to fit - I originally cut it down to get it in and then found there wasn't enough friction between the pulley and shaft, and it spun. So I got someone to grind (too hard to drill) a couple of holes half in the shaft and half in the pulley, and then Loctite two pins in the holes.

 

Having made the decision to use the original wheels on the Stellar I've dug them out of the undergrowth they've been languishing for the last 8 years. Not looking too bad from a distance:

 

 

although I think the tyres may not scrape through an MOT...

 

 

Not sure how best to tackle the wheels - anyone refurbished alloys before? Not hugely bothered about close-up cosmetics, but would like them not to be flaky.

 

 

Do you paint the area where the tyre sits? Or just take that back to good metal? And seeing as I need new tyres anyway, I was thinking of getting the tyres off, brushing and painting before the new ones are fitted. But then how do you stop the new paint from getting damaged?

[rainagain]

You could try seeing if the tyre fitter could balance them with stick on weights rather than mashing your new paint hammering weights on.

[mat_the_cat]

Yeah, he's got the proper weights so that's not a problem. Might be best to get the new tyres on after prepping the wheels, but not seated until after I paint 'em. Then a quick bust of air to seat the bead, and balance them. Managed to find a set of BF Goodrich tyres for under £120 delivered, which seems like a real bargain!

[mat_the_cat]

Tried the original wheels on the front tonight, and reminded myself exactly why I bought the bigger ones! Tight or what?

 

 

Sadly, even with a 10 mm (wooden) spacer it's still just kissing the brake calipers but I reckon with a light filing or grinding I can sort that.

 

 

A shame to ruin the nice paint job but that's life I suppose. Reckon that the best I'll get is a couple of mm clearance, as the spacer makes very little difference really due to bugger-all angle on the inside of the wheels. Not sure whether that will be enough, as I'm not sure how much everything moves and flexes under hard cornering. One way to find out...

[gtd2000]

Drive as fast as possible, that way the centrifugal forces will expand the wheel, providing ample clearance for the brakes!

[twosmoke300]

And make sure the stick on balance weights get put where they don't hit anything

[mat_the_cat]

Still no bloody tee pieces to properly plumb in the carbs, and no response from the seller either, despite raising a dispute on eBay. It's less than a fiver but it's the principle of the thing which bothers me.

 

But on the positive side I cured the brake fluid leak (just a bleed screw which needed nipping up) and almost cured the indicators. I can get them working with a temporary jumper lead, I just need to find the actual problem in the wiring now and rectify it. At least it's not the (probably irreplaceable!) switch!

[KruJoe]

YAY to the old wheels!

 

YES to painting the bead area where the tyre sits - if not, moisture will bleed in and make that bit scabby again, and you'll be pumping them up before every drive.

 

NO to spacers on the front - they'd bugger up your geometry and, it'll feel like shit to steer.

[mat_the_cat]

Ah. In that case the wheel locks solid on the caliper then! I think I can get away with only 10 mm, which may not make a significant/noticeable difference? I can see that it'll make the steering harder to turn, and with no PAS that may be an issue but hoped it would be acceptable. But I'm not sure how it would affect other geometry. I've yet to have the tracking and camber adjusted, but I know I can get it at least visually better than it is!

[Ratdat]

Is it just the bleed nipples that are close? 

[mat_the_cat]

Unfortunately not, it's the caliper itself too. If you look at the second photo (I've removed the extra ones which had crept in there!) you can just make out where it's scuffed away the coating. The two areas are on a raised part of the casting, and on the spacer between the two halves of the caliper so I reckon removing extra material will do the trick.

 

Failing that I'll have a set of refurbished Stellar wheels for sale with brand new tyres, although I'm guessing it will be a very limited market!

[mat_the_cat]

It suddenly stuck me the other day that from the mix of parts from various vehicles, I have nothing from a Metro yet. So I went and bought a Metro choke cable.

 

No, actually it was because the original cable is fraying, and I've drawn a blank trying to find a Hyundai replacement. So after much searching I managed to find a choke cable with the right length, an almost identical looking knob on the end, an integral switch to earth for the choke light and the right sort of length.

 

 

It was complete luck that it fitted exactly into the D shaped hole in the dash insert without any drilling, and looked very much OE.

 

 

With around 3" cut from the outer cable, and the solder nipple on the end cut off, it fitted a treat onto the carb.

 

 

And the light works as it should. Another job ticked off the list!

 

 

I know it's only a little thing, but these sorts of jobs give me far more satisfaction than I expect. Which will hopefully fire me up a little more to the laborious and boring job of rubbing down the wheels...

[KruJoe]

Little jobs like that always seem to be disproportionately satisfying.

 

About the spacers, 10mm may be ok, try it for a while and see how it feels. I'd probably try to trim a mm or so from the castings on the calipers.

[fordperv]

i agree with krujoe run 10mm spacers and shave the caliper a tad and see how it goes, i wouldnt imagine that 10mm spacers would upset your handling that much on standard wheels.

[mat_the_cat]

I really am a first class muppet. Hours this week I've spent, painstakingly rubbing down the wheels by hand. I even contacted a company today to get a quote for doing them professionally. Then I remembered I've got this, which I've never used:

 

 

Rescued some time ago from a skip!!! Looks to have had next to no use, as the paint is still on the mesh bottom. And the wheels (just!) fit inside

 

 

As I wish to remain attached to my testicles, I've not fired the compressor up this evening now SWMBO has gone to bed, but hopefully it will be man enough for short bursts.

 

I've also adjusted the tracking and camber by eye so at least the wheels are visibly pointing in the same direction. The only biggish job left I can think of before the MOT is a small patch on the O/S chassis rail, which was hidden by the axle stand while I was doing the main welding. It may go through a test but is crusty and obviously weakened...I could maybe poke a screwdriver through it if I tried hard enough.

[mat_the_cat]

Tonight I did something a little bit naughty. But fun. After I'd plumbed in the carbs properly, I went for a little test drive. Got it up to 5th at an estimated 40 mph, which is the first proper run for 10 years. Sorry for the crap video, but I probably wasn't the smoothest of drivers which wouldn't help keeping the camera steady!

 

 

That was part throttle, changing at 3000 pm or so. Which was more than enough to start with.

 

Impressions? Erm, quick! With lethal handling though...steering was VERY light on the move and bizarrely as soon as you turned the wheel it wanted to turn more in that direction rather than self centring. I was going to drive somewhere to get the alignment sorted, but the nearest place I know of is 30 miles away, so this may not be wise. The engine sounds tappy when warm - I suspect a sticking/worn valve lifter. Also, the temperature sender I bought which was supposedly for a Stellar seem to be the wrong resistance, either that or I really am running in the red band all the time!

[Jon]

It's all coming together really well, though I wish I had 10% of the enthusiasm you're pouring in to this to get it completed. I'm really glad that you're trying your best to keep with the standard wheels, as it'll really finish off the look. Wonderful sound apart, I'm guessing this'll be the ultimate Q car and half the fun will be surprising modern car drivers - in a straight line, at least if the handling's not that flash!

[KruJoe]

That's a lovely looking bit of private road you have there!

[mat_the_cat]

Had a go with the blasting cabinet at the weekend, but unfortunately my little plug-in compressor wasn't up to the job.

 

Hopefully this will be though!

 

 

My local hire place had a 15 cfm petrol compressor, but after bringing the cabinet down to try, we decided it wasn't ideal. So for a fiver more, I got this. They made me up an adaptor, so will be having a go this evening once it's cooled down a bit.

[mat_the_cat]

Job done, and ready for paint now!

 

 

I've got some etch primer which I'll put on first, then a quick coat of silver before I get the tyres put on. Once they're on I'll do the final colour coat and lacquer before seating the tyres on the bead and getting them balanced.

[mat_the_cat]

Wheels are now primed, and already looking around a million times better. They'll probably look worse again as soon as I paint them with something glossy, but until then I'm quite pleased with 'em!

 

 

I've found a new garage which has set up recently nearby, and can do a full wheel alignment so I've booked it in there tomorrow. Don't want to fit new tyres for them to get trashed straight away, so makes sense to set up the suspension first.

[mat_the_cat]

I took it in this morning to the garage, and counted two shouts of "Fucking hell", one "WTF", and one "Why?" Once they had got over their surprise, they seemed quite interested in it and asked me loads of questions! I collected the keys at lunchtime, and they said it was lovely to work on as everything moved freely rather than having to heave on stubborn bolts. As a result they were able to make very fine tweaks to get everything close to spot on

 

I've just been to collect it now (when the roads are deserted ) and it handles a hell of a lot better. Just like a Cortina I would expect, so not going to set the world alight but at least it doesn't feel downright dangerous!  Setting it by eye was hugely out, which I expected TBH so 40-odd quid well spent.

 

I also had the replacement electric window mechanism (from a Fairway Taxi!) arrive today.

 

 

After talking to a supplier they reckoned it was one of their most 'universal' fitments and easy to adapt to non-standard applications. Plus it has enough travel to move the window over the full range.

 

I also put a light coat of silver on the wheels and got my bargain set of BF Goodrich tyres ready for fitting.

 

 

Unfortunately I can see a few imperfections (primer is very forgiving!) but I'm unsure whether to bother sorting them at this stage. So long as the paint sticks well and prevents corrosion, that's the main thing. Maybe get them done properly when (if?) I can afford the respray. They're certainly loads better than they were, and I don't think you'd notice when stood up.

 

All in all (despite my grump), a good day!

[mat_the_cat]

But please sort that alternator pulley alignment out just so I can sleep at night.

 

Ha! You noticed! The alternator is OK with the crank I think; it's the water pump which needs sorting.

 

Or so I (mis)remembered Bizarrely despite the water pump being the only thing I changed out of the three pulleys, it was indeed the alternator which was out of line. Simple job to pack it out with fat washers, and it's now nicely all in line.

 

I had a little blow between the RH exhaust manifold and head, which I've now sorted. I may have to use gaskets (as on the later engines), or get the manifold re-faced if the leak re-occurs though. But for now at least, it's sounding great!

 

Another little job was correcting the temperature gauge. Although I've not verified the actual coolant temperature, the gauge starts moving within 30 seconds or so of startup and gets to the mid-point in a couple of minutes, when the engine is barely warm. By the time the cooling fans come on it's pegged into the red! So as a temporary measure I've spliced a couple of 20 ohm resistors into the signal wire to the gauge, which sits it in the middle when the thermostat opens.

 

 

Once I'm confirmed for certain that this is the normal running temperature I'll wire them in properly, but I may need to substitute different values in the end.

 

Bad news is I already have a leak. It looks like the rear gearbox seal, which is annoying as the 'box was a rebuilt unit. If that seal can fail so soon then it doesn't give me great confidence in anything else. It's going to be a PITA to drop the propshaft with the exhaust in-situ too...aren't old cars fun?

[Conair]

Dude just read this, epic, i love it, top work.

 

As for the gearbox seal it could be where it's been sitting for so long, it might after some more use seal it's self but if it's not major pouring just keep the old peepers on it.

 

Once again top work dude.