Project Korean Cortina - going back in time!

[mat_the_cat]

Thanks for that Ray, very helpful I've been told that the doors were in the spray booth this afternoon awaiting colour, so planning to collect them tomorrow. Forecast is for dry weather so if I get them I should be able to hang them in the evening, as I can't open the doors wide enough in the garage to access the hinges.

[mat_the_cat]

Good news and bad news. The good news is that I collected the doors, rear bumper and grille today - the bad news is that the boot lid had a reaction to some old paint, so they've had to take it back to bare metal and start again! So far this evening I've fitted the bumper and grille, plus hung the doors although only partially refitted the internals.

 

 

 

 

The new door seals are making it very hard to close them fully, but hopefully will compress a little over time. Still need a lot of alignment tweaking as well!

 

I left the van outside the bodyshop for them to load up, as they would have closed by the time I got there after work - when I got there they'd put the boot lid badges in as well so I guess that answers the question of who will refit them! Interestingly I noticed that the later badges from the current lid were made from injection moulded 'chromed' plastic, whereas the earlier original ones were brushed aluminium:

 

 

 

It's not the first difference I've noticed between seemingly identical parts when I compare early to late; the door handles went from stainless steel over a plastic core, to plated cast aluminium which had started to corrode on the donor doors (photo before I swapped the handles over last year).

 

 

I did wonder whether it was Hyundai trying to reduce the cost to build the car even further, although I did read something interesting about another possible cause. Most of the parts for the Korean motor industry at that time were supplied by a company called Mando, something like 90%. They apparently used to regularly cheapen the design of parts, but also bribe inspectors at Hyundai not to do anything about it! So I don't really know whether it's Hyundai's penny pinching or their supplier...

 

With such a monopoly and corruption, if you upset them they could stop supplying you and halt production. That's why Mando were broken up in 1997 by the government, giving manufacturers more freedom to buy elsewhere. 

[fordperv]

Looking fantastic mat, I'm sure this car is going to make a few yoghurt trucks crash when it's all back together

[RayMK]

Door hanging is not a job I enjoy.  I find it easier to get good, even panel gaps with the seals off and preferably a helper to blame when the door moves before you've tightened the hinges.  Those older ally badges look nice.  Are they going on, rather than the plastic ones  ?  No temptation to put 'V8' in small print anywhere  ?

[vulgalour]

This really is looking stupendously nice and is quite the sneaky sleeper.

[mat_the_cat]

Door hanging is not a job I enjoy.  I find it easier to get good, even panel gaps with the seals off and preferably a helper to blame when the door moves before you've tightened the hinges.  Those older ally badges look nice.  Are they going on, rather than the plastic ones  ?  No temptation to put 'V8' in small print anywhere  ?

 

Yes, might have to pop the seals out to finish the job, although I'm not holding out for perfect shut-lines after a big welding job around 2000. When I picked it up again the tops of the doors were a couple of mm different height to each other on one side! Managed to get it better when I did the sills last Spring, but never perfect.

 

Yes, I'll put the older badges on, no question after seeing them side by side. Not sure about a V8 badge, but if I could find a 3 and a 5 in exactly the same font, I'd replace the 1.6 with 3.5...

 

I'm heading to bed now as I have work tomorrow, but I've managed to do the door wiring, the plastic parts of the rubbing strips and fit the mirrors. Oh, and attempt a mobile phone arty shot:

 

[Inspector Morose]

Looking good Mat, looking good.

 

Please leave the 1.6 badge. No need to shout about it.

[twosmoke300]

Deffo no v8 or 3.5 badges . Keep it 100% sleeper

[mat_the_cat]

Slow going tonight, just got the door rubbing strips on, handles and locks in, and a little bit more adjustment.

 

 

Happy with the back door, but the front's a mile off!

 

[mat_the_cat]

I've spent an enjoyable warm afternoon working on it, and things seem to be going pretty well. Still no boot lid, but the doors are now as good as I can get them:

 

 

 

Unfortunately one of the rubbing strip clips shattered when I riveted it on, and seeing as I had no spares I had to bond it on with PU adhesive.

 

Under the bonnet I've finally wired up the inertia switch I fitted last year:

 

 

Newly plated bonnet catch:

 

 

I've been on the lookout for a proper bonnet light (with built-in mercury tilt switch) ever since I bought the car; it was NLA with Hyundai even back then and none of the scrapyard cars had one. I wonder if it was deleted from the later models? Anyway, I ended up making my own up ages ago.

 

The slam panel now looks a lot better!

 

 

And finally, the door cards are on and so is most of the trim. It's very satisfying watching my box of random door bits gradually get emptied!

 

 

[Skizzer]

Bloody awesome stuff.

 

There's a joke to be made somewhere about taking a year to get around to wiring up an inertia switch, but I just can't get off my arse to think of it.

[chaseracer]

Looking good Mat, looking good.

 

Please leave the 1.6 badge. No need to shout about it.

 

 

Deffo no v8 or 3.5 badges . Keep it 100% sleeper

 

Aye.  And dump the alloys for steelies, with hubcaps... 

[mat_the_cat]

Hey, those alloys are the original ones which came with the car!

[RayMK]

I think Hyundai used a European (UK?) supplier for Stellars' alloys.  Mine, also standard fitment, are very similar to yours but only have 10 spokes.  They originally had centre caps but finding new or second hand replacements is almost impossible.

[mat_the_cat]

I have only one of the original centre caps for mine - annoyingly I had all four when I took it off the road but 10 years and 5 house moves mean they have disappeared! My plan is to get the rest scanned and 3D printed at some point

 

I think I recall a maker's name on the wheels, so will check and report back...

[Noel Tidybeard]

ford may have used a mercury switch on early sierror estates i remember the light didnt come on until the tailgate was almost fully open

[twosmoke300]

No that was just a broken wiring loom and the wire ends touched when the boot was opened 😄

[Timewaster]

Mercury switches were dropped years ago due to their massively toxic contents.

 

Most had the Mercury replaced by a ball bearing but they were never as successful.

 

That car really does look stellar!

[mat_the_cat]

ford may have used a mercury switch on early sierror estates i remember the light didnt come on until the tailgate was almost fully open

 

Thanks, I could fit a tilt switch to the one I have, just that it'd be kind of nice to have it looking original! (At least one thing under the bonnet would be...)

[HMC]

Great to see it coming together, looks fantastic! Really interesting backstory with the component supplier shenanegins etc.

[cort1977]

Really looking great now.   No V8 badges, it is the perfect sleeper as it is.

[mat_the_cat]

Latest news is that I should be able to pick up the boot lid tomorrow It may be for the best, as if I'd had it now I may have been inclined to rush things; as it was I've been able to take my time knowing that it makes no difference.

 

I thought I'd got the shut lines as good as I could, but the front passenger door was still standing out to me. The gap at the rear edge was huge (and uneven) and the front edge was even more uneven and narrow too. Problem was, the hinge was on the limit of adjustment on the A pillar so I thought I was stuck with it.

 

 

It's difficult to make out the large gap at the rear edge from this photo, but you can see that the front is wider at the top. But then I realised that I could shim out the hinges from the door itself, with thicker ones at the top, to push the whole thing backwards a touch. Job done! Although I couldn't get a photo from the side as it's still in the garage.

 

I had a moment's panic when putting on some seals on the bottom of the doors (which stop mud being thrown up between the doors and sills). They were one of the few things the bodyshop removed, and they'd only given me two back. Visions of them losing difficult to find parts came into my head But I phoned them, and they found one there, and told me the other was in the bottom of one of the doors, which sure enough it was.

 

I've now got the badges ready to put on with some adhesive tape on the backs. Took me ages to cut it into pieces!

 

 

And I was cutting it a little bit fine with how much tape I had left over too!

 

 

Then finally, I finished my patent pending badge alignment tool (thanks to Ray!) It may come in useful to anyone else daft enough to get their Stellar sprayed, but I'm not sure the factory took that much care over the job...

 

 

I remembered to check the wheels, and they're stamped with Melber who appear to be an Italian wheel manufacturer. I guess it ties in with the Giugiaro styling?

[Felly Magic]

This is going to look fandabidozee once complete Matt, well worth the 'stellar' effort put into the project. 

[RayMK]

mat_the_cat

 

 

............I remembered to check the wheels, and they're stamped with Melber who appear to be an Italian wheel manufacturer. I guess it ties in with the Giugiaro styling?

 

Interesting.  I also checked mine this morning when I was tidying the Stellar up, ready for front suspension checks and an MOT in the next few days (and bracing my wallet for an attack).  The wheels have no maker name, just 'Made in England' and a part number which I forgot to note.  I also checked Google images to find another Stellar with alloys like mine but couldn't find any - they were all like yours, plus one or two other types. 

 

Anyway, good work with the shut lines. I'm sure the extra effort was satisfying.  Once you notice an uneven shut line, that's all you can see, even though other people may have to have them pointed out.  On mine, its the corroded alloys and the rear arches which let it down.  The MOT man will probably find more stuff.  If so, I'll be on the Grumpy thread  . 

 

PS:  I found some photos of another of the special edition Stellars on the blue Retro forum which had the same alloys as mine, so it seems that they were a Hyundai option rather than aftermarket (which I was beginning to think).

Edited June 15, 2015 by RayMK

[Guest benno]

Following collection on Saturday I think I'm going to have to keep mine outside for a bit. A quick look on eBay only throws up indoor covers and Google wasn't much help. Have either of you two got an outdoor cover for comparison or im guessing a cortina mark v one will fit?

[RayMK]

No, I have not got one,  but I'm pretty sure that one for a Cortina MKV or any similarly proportioned saloon would fit. 

[mat_the_cat]

I don't have a proper cover either, although I bought a cheap Argos one for the rainy trip to the bodyshop, which I'll use as an indoor cover I guess, stop me scratching against it in the garage!

 

Predictably another disappointment with the boot lid - apparently the paint has reacted in another place. So Thursday earliest, but we're going away on Friday so I can see it being another 3 weeks before I actually get to drive it

[stripped fred]

That looks great! All your hard works paying off.

[mat_the_cat]

Yay! Boot lid was finished today, so I collected it after work and it's now on But first, a reminder of how it looked 18 months ago:

 

 

And now:

 

 

I need to fine tune the alignment still but fuck that, I'm going for a drive!!!

[fordperv]

Mat the car looks great, a word to the wise though, don't cover your car up because you run the risk of causing micro blisters on your lovely new paint