Project Korean Cortina - MOT day

[Inspector Morose]

Wow.

[Felly Magic]

GR12 Matt, You have won at Autoshite

[panhard65]

It certainly looks stunning I just wish I could find someone to paint my Renault Domaine as it seems round here no one wants to know. What sort of cost did it come out at in the end if you don't mind me asking so I have a rough idea if I can get someone to finally quote.

[Bucketeer]

That is looking MEGA.

There aren't many cars that could 'turn' a guy but If you weren't such a drunkard I'd marry you.

[Banger Kenny]

Congratulations and Excellent work Mr The Cat - it's come a long way in 32 pages

 

 

 

Still think my follow-up idea of a Redtop Pony is viable

[mat_the_cat]

If you weren't such a drunkard I'd marry you.

 

Denied

 

Made it back from the test run OK with two minor problems - the wipers were put on in the wrong position so they wiped onto the screen trim, and my oil temperature gauge reads half way as soon as you turn the ignition on. And stays there. Aside from that, good to be behind the wheel again!

 

I went down onto the beach for a quick photo too, as I can't resist a good sunset:

 

[Angrydicky]

Is that Black Rock Sands beach?

[RayMK]

Looks fabulous on the beach.  Is it wise to take a Stellar so close to all that salty water?

[mat_the_cat]

I know that your bodyshop is not close to me, but do you think they'd be interested in repairing the rear arches on mine and matching the paint over the repair/panel?  My local bodyshops either won't touch a Stellar or are too busy with E types. 

 

I asked them about this today, and they said no problem, so long as you can get it to them and collect. They weren't the quickest to respond to email but did in the end - personally I'd phone and ask for Graham. Obviously they'd want to see it before a firm price but I guess they'd be able to give a rough idea from photos.

http://www.birminghamgarage.co.uk/

 

It certainly looks stunning I just wish I could find someone to paint my Renault Domaine as it seems round here no one wants to know. What sort of cost did it come out at in the end if you don't mind me asking so I have a rough idea if I can get someone to finally quote.

 

It was around the £1500 mark, although would have been ~£1700 if they'd had to make the rear wheel arches from scratch.

[mat_the_cat]

It is indeed Black Rock Sands, and I stayed well away from the water!

[cort16]

Looks great well worth all the hard work

[mat_the_cat]

I got back into it today, and had a quick blast up the road After the van it actually feels quite nippy!

 

I've also bought a stainless steel polishing kit, and I so wish I'd bought it sooner!

 

 

I.e. before I'd put the trim back on. I cleaned it all, obviously, but hadn't realised that I could polish out all the tiny scratches. It's early days yet as my drill batteries are all fairly low, but the first bit of trim I've tackled is starting to come up nicely. Would be easier with it off the car though...

 

Also treated myself/it to this:

 

 

These are the sample images which they've sent to me for approval (and before payment!) Look good to me, right down to the detail of the issuing office being correct for VH. So I'll have something to put in the tax disc holder for the show in a week and a half.

[Jon]

That stainless steel polishing kit looks interesting, I may well have to add one to my list of things I must remember to buy one day. I've never thought of it beforehand but I reckon a UK tax disc may look quite good in the our 205, as it's an import - albeit a Japanese one but UK ones were common too back in the day.

 

One minor suggestion though, since I'm a pedant; is there an option to get just the area issuing stamp on the disc and not the make/model/price? Surely that should be filled out in biro, as I doubt there would have been a computerised system in 1985? You could even ask one of the older friendly* members of staff at the post office to fill it in for you for the ultimate effect!

[Bucketeer]

So that tax would have been bought in Huddersfield in Apr/May '85 which is the exactly the same time I moved to Huddersfield from Scotland as a young boy.

Spooky*.

[mat_the_cat]

One minor suggestion though, since I'm a pedant; is there an option to get just the area issuing stamp on the disc and not the make/model/price? Surely that should be filled out in biro, as I doubt there would have been a computerised system in 1985?

 

There is the option for a blank disc, but I decided to get one filled in as I didn't trust my handwriting and we don't have a *friendly* post office around here! Apparently the pre-computerised discs were typewritten if not filled in by hand, but I must say the font looks wrong for that - I would have thought one with equal character spacing would be used.

[mat_the_cat]

So that tax would have been bought in Huddersfield in Apr/May '85 which is the exactly the same time I moved to Huddersfield from Scotland as a young boy.

Spooky*.

 

Registered on 17th May 1985, exactly 29 years to the day before I brought it down to SF '14!

[Vin]

Is that disc from a chap called Greg Powell??

 

If so, you'll get 4 discs. 2 printed, 1 hand written and 1 blank, but all with the stamp on...

 

Here is mine for the 126...

 

[mat_the_cat]

Yes, that's the one:

http://www.poplargreg.com/taxdiscs/taxdiscs2/indexdiscs.htm

 

Although the site now only mentions that two spare discs will be sent, so I've asked whether I can have one blank and one filled in by hand. Seems pretty quick so he might have sent them out already though...

[tooSavvy]

 

Cost nowt......

 

 

TS

[mat_the_cat]

I tackled some of the brightwork this evening...this was one of the worst areas where it looks like someone has rubbed down the paintwork at some point with a power sander, and caught the trim:

 

 

And this is the same area after around 20 minutes polishing:

 

 

You can still see the marks if you look closely, but from head height it looks great. If I go overboard then I'll have to do every bit of it to match, and life's too short! I'm glad they made the trim from stainless though, as I'm sure chrome-plated steel would have rusted after 30 years. Surprising quality for a budget brand - most modern stuff is chromed plastic.

[RayMK]

Mine (1988) also has stainless trim and bumpers, yet the 1989 Sonata GL that I once owned had chrome plated steel strips in plastic mouldings along each side.  They were rusting and looking unsightly at 5 years old. I suppose the accountants won in the end.

[mat_the_cat]

I think you're right, Ray. Why make anything last longer than it needs to?

 

The 'sample' discs I had were actually the proper ones - I just thought they were samples as they seemed too small! But no, there are the correct size. I asked him about a blank disc and a handwritten one, and he sent me one of each out FOC The latter I think looks best:

 

 

I've also polished the rear bumper, as well as treating the black plastic with Gtechniq C4. It's looking loads better!

 

 

 

Still working on the front bumper, as that was more heavily scratched but I'm making progress.

[RayMK]

Looking good.  I found that the aluminium foil seal from Pringles was the right size to put in my licence disc holder.  The Stellar, however, was not amused and threw the holder on the floor overnight.  It had previously been perfectly secure for over 10 years.  Also, whilst checking its blowing exhaust yesterday, the backbox fell off, revealing a very corroded entry pipe and a large hole in the box body.  So far, I've not had any positive responses from exhaust suppliers.  The '88 onwards Stellars will not accept the earlier exhaust because the Panhard rod bracket is in the way.  I am considering a huge, messy bodge involving bits of old tube, JB Weld and jubilee clips.  Probably 3 hours of effort for a month's extension of exhaust life.  Yours is presumably a custom job.  Did you go stainless?  Was it a financially painful experience i.e. >£300?  My last exhaust was bought from a place having a clearout in Southall.  It has lasted 5 years.  Can't grumble really because it only cost £29 (full system including the downpipe).  My local exhaust place then fitted it for £40.

[mat_the_cat]

The '88 onwards Stellars will not accept the earlier exhaust because the Panhard rod bracket is in the way. 

 

That's a shame, as I'm sure my Dad used to get a Cortina exhaust fitted to his (early) Stellar. Not that Cortina exhausts are commonplace any more though. As an impoverished student I used all kinds of bodges to keep it going; bean cans were a good balance between flexibility and durability!

 

Yours is presumably a custom job.

 

Yes, sadly Kwik Fit were clean out of exhausts for V8-engined Stellars when I asked It was stainless, and unfortunately over £300.

 

 

However, you might find that closer to civilisation there is more competition amongst custom exhaust makers, and hence a better price. Round here it was a choice of two places at 50 or 80 miles away, and the latter never returned my email! Certainly with only one downpipe and (presumably? ) a smaller bore that should bring the cost down.

[mat_the_cat]

Next job was the windscreen wiper spindles - the covers had become very brittle and started to crumble:

 

 

Not expecting Hyundai to have any on the shelf, I remembered that I found somewhere specialising in ball joint boots when all the front suspension ones had rotted last year. Fortunately the smallest size they listed were a reasonable fit, so I ordered a pair Thursday night with an explanation of what I wanted them for.

 

They arrived today, with a handwritten note saying he'd included a smaller set (not listed on the website) FOC that he thought might fit better And this is the finished job:

 

 

Nice and unexpected for someone to go over and above what you expect.

 

I still need to find some caps for the spindle nuts, so hopefully I'll get to a scrapyard at some point and see what, if anything is suitable. Sierra ones fit well, as there was one round the back of the bodyshop - however that was fairly brittle and unlikely to be in the scrapyard!

[Skizzer]

If all else fails, could you use the brittle Sierra one to make a silicone mould and make yourself some rubber ones (or silicone ones if you use a release agent), or something?

 

Meanwhile I've taken the liberty of adding your excellent balljoint boot friend to the Limeflower Pages (which for some reason are on the Other Side of the Forum) and cross-linked back to here.

[mat_the_cat]

Cheers for putting the link up.

 

The cap is something like this, so am sure I'll be able to find one which fits.

 

 

But moulding something is an interesting idea, as 3 of the alloy wheel centre caps have gone missing, so maybe I could make copies? I'd been thinking of 3D scanning and printing, but moulding may be cheaper; i.e. I could do it myself for little outlay.

[mat_the_cat]

Success! With a little modification, Citroen ZX caps fit pretty well. Before:

 

 

And after:

 

[twosmoke300]

Sad fact alert . On most cars those caps are different for each side

[mat_the_cat]

Interesting - why's that then? I'd never looked at them in much detail before and it amazed me the number of different styles there were!