Ford Cortina's Mk3 & 5

[Conair]

Hi All
 
Newbie here, please be gentle lol, got directed here by a good buddy who said it was a cool place to hang, i'll introduce my self, i'm Mike, late 20's and a Virgo, getting you exited yet lol enough on me here are my cars the most interesting bit
 
I'll Start with My Mk5 Cortina Wagon '5
 
Now 5 was brought from a local garage my family used for our repairs and bits call brands, my mum had just been diagnosed with MS which at the time meant she would need a wheel chair and my nans 3 wheeled robin rialto was'nt the best of machines for this duty so it was decided a bigger car was needed, we were passing brands when i spotted the old fella outside for sale, now 5 is a spit of one my grandad had in colour, spec and year, in fact i was to be my grandads last new car, it turns out that the previous owner who had had him from new decided that after 20 years time was up for him and got rid of him for a new focus (idiot lol) anyway a deal was struck and he was now a family member.



My nan used him daily and i kept him running, then i took him over and ran him daily, we've had some right times together, one that always springs to mind is about 6 months after i passed my test i decided to vist my old man in halifax, now i live in suffolk so we're talking about a 500 mile round trip for someone who has'nt got much experience and never left the county in his own motor before, well the trip there went well, got a little cough about 3/4's of the way there and thought no more of it, well had a corking weekend and well chuffed with myself for the trip,well the return trip was where the fun was, the condenser was braking down and that cough was now the old fella trying to cut out, in fact he did at the top of the steepest hill in brighouse with my old man in his mustang at the bottom, S*ting myself in free fall i managed to bump start him with the momentum and stop in time,great start to the return trip lol this carried on for 250 miles on the M62, A1M and A14, every 2-3 miles bang as he cut and then bumped himself as i was doing 55is as this was the most we can do, i learned more about driving in that 1 trip than any of my lessons lol, well we made it, the old boy got me home safe, i fear if i had a new motor i would have been squashed on the M62 but i had 5 and together we made.



Now i'm very attached to the old, i sunk a lot of money into him about 7 years to a restorer to do welding on him, money well spent, not the robbing time wasting *******.!!!!!!!!!! as you can tell it didn't quite work out but after agro, hassle it got done(ish) and i brought him home and hit the road again in blue and black until a local company sprayed him for me and he was one colour again and then that kind of brings us to were we are now, the old war horse who has helped my nan & mum, taught me valued driving experience and honed my mechanical skills, helped me move house, move my wife in with me and made countless men at the local tips smile when i rolled in, It 2009 his fuel tank spung a leak and i laid him up till i got a new well 4 1/2 passed before i got back to him, well after some work a new 2nd hand tank and some good friends he was back up and running again and has been since april, here are some pics to get started, sorry if i've waffled on but you know how it is when you get going lol
 

 

 

 

 

 
Next I'll Tell you about the Mistress in my life, My Mk3 Cortina Grace
 
I've know her since i can pretty much remember, my uncle was given her back in 91, he needed a car and his friend at the time was part of the family who owned the local scrapyard, Grace was a runner so he shot back to the yard and then brought her back to the pub for my uncle, death dodged lol, she was used and abused by my uncle, even caught fire when they were weld her and the back seat went up in flames, just about remeber sitting on my aunties lap at one point cuase of there being no rear seat, well my uncle got banned from driving for a short spell so decided to rebuild and turn her into a fast road toy and got quite away with this but to many house moves and kids stoped this and after dragging her around for over 10 years gave up and thats where me (at 14) came in and took over, not alot happend to start with but over the years i returned her to standish, more a money thing than anything else, I had a chap named Dom, who runs DLF classic's install an engine and get her MOT'ed for me, dude is a legend, and has run, used , showed and maintained her since, cover 11k in 5/6 years used daily like the wagon, been up and down and side to side of the country been to some awesome show ans met some awesome people, again i'm waffling so i'll shut up and post some pics.
 

 

 

 
Hope i've posted in the right spot, look forward to spending some time on here and checking out whats on the go, thanks again all.
 
Mike

[Cavcraft]

Welcome along Mike, loving your Cortinas.

[Wilko220]

 

Welcome!

[Shep Shepherd]

Hello! 5 looks great

[TRW]

LIVING. THE. DREAM.

 

Mk5 is yum yum yum. Bonus points for povo 'L' spec and towbar.

[Semi-C]

Buono Estente, top archbishoping that man!

[fordperv]

Yum yum truly scrumptious tinas you got there

[eddyramrod]

We do like a Cortina round here, and you've just fed us a feast!  You can stay!

[trigger]

Welcome along Mike! As i said I'm sure you'll fit in well here, just as long as you don't keep photobombing my photos, you weirdo!

 

[cort16]

Lots of love for Cortinas here. I have a hankering for a father ted spec Cortina but in estate form so I'm already jealous of yours.

 

Here's mine..

 

IMG_0980 by cort16, on Flickr

[vulgalour]

I haven't seen a 5 estate like that since the mid-nineties as owned and driven by our mental (late) neighbour.  Very fond memories, though his had the brown sagging interior rather than the none-more-blue in yours.

[cort16]

I just remembered I used to go to college with a guy with one arm who drove an estate the same as that too. He had an egg cup attachment for changing gear and could still drive it and roll a fag at the same time. skillz

[bub2006]

Great cars and welcome. But can you enlighten me as to what a robin Rialto is exactly

[dollywobbler]

Nice beard. The Mk5 estate is truly delightful.

[messerschmitt owner]

We do like a Cortina round here

do we? I much prefer a granny, I do, but less of my sex life and let's get back to cars again!

 

Welcome!

[cms206]

Welcome

My neighbour had a similar MkV estate in the early 90's which was metallic blue; it rotted and the floor fell out, so he replaced it with an orange Volvo 244DL. Clearly the 244 wasn't lurid enough as he painted it with purple dulux and a roller in his driveway one weekend.

[mercrocker]

Nice pair of Cortys and on some choice registrations too.....Might I suggest you bin all those number plates for proper fonts though?   Those cars must feel like they are wearing a baseball cap with a cardigan - the estate car has even shed a tear or two about that back one!  

[Conair]

Welcome along Mike! As i said I'm sure you'll fit in well here, just as long as you don't keep photobombing my photos, you weirdo!

 

IMG_0452.JPG

 

 

Nice beard. The Mk5 estate is truly delightful.

Cheers & Thank you for the warm welcomes and Beard love

 

I will post some more pics later of some of the work i've done and currently doing on both.

 

Once again cheers for the welcomes  dudes

[DVee8]

Hi and welcome along.

[bub2006]

I really must get a photo of the green mk5 estate in riddings. Bloke owned it as long as i recall and the arse is nearly on the floor and the back end from rear doors to tailgate looks like its dropped. Still in daily use.

[garbaldy]

now that's some anti theft device not many twocers come armed with mole grips.

 

nice cars thanks for sharing them I would love another Tina I've been through a few but never managed to own a mk3 even though that is my favourite one.

[CortinaDave]

Cortinas are ace. Ive got a Mk4 2.0S currently, but have had loads of mk3s 4s and 5s over the last decade, plus one MK1 GT

 

Sadly I'm kinda priced out of mk3s in particular at the moment! Ten years ago a grand bought you a solid and tidy GXL - now you've no chance sadly.

[garbaldy]

Cortinas are ace.

That I will agree with  

The only downside is the amount of sumps I used to go through, I bought an old mk4 2.0s for the engine and drove home 5 miles to which point it started to rattle result another fucked engine

[trigger]

I volunteered my services this evening in giving the Mk5 a polish, the poor thing hasn't seen a polishing cloth in god knows how many years, I must say it's a lovely old thing really, It's very tidy considering the use that it's had, ok it has a few dents on the doors and some scabs around the edges but for a Cortina that's not been restored it's very nice.

 

It looked a lot prettier once I'd finished with it too, sadly i have no finished photos as it was dark but we can all imagine what a shiny Cortina looks like..

 

 

 

[Conair]

It's look pretty damn awesome this morning , Old Triggs has done a grand job, will try and get some photo's tonight for everyone, warning you will need sunglasses lol.

 

My securtiy might seem a bit mad but the chance of some oike joy rider having a spare steering wheel or mole grips with them are fairly slim and only takes a minute to do and cost's nothing.

 

Sumps are a weak point, already had one rust through on the MK3.

 

Once again cheers for the welcomes all

[ShiteRider]

Hello fellow owner of awesome lego shaped cars.

[wackywacerwill]

Cracking pair you have there, makes me want to get on and sort mine out again.

 

Here it is in happier days saying hello to another local one.

[Conair]

Hi all

Over the last few months me and bud's have been building a new motor for the MK3,  a 2.0 which has ended up becoming a 2.1,  running a 32/36 webber, i had put off putting it in till after the super doopa 70's show last week, Trigger has already posted picks of that, so this weekend was picked to do the deed, Well it's in, Grace is now running her new heart and damn i'm chuffed to bits, we stripped the ancillaries friday night and pulled the old and fitted the new sat morning, no real issues as well, went pretty smoothly, got the timing 180 degrees out but i expected that as it's a common thing, so we quickly sorted that, once we sorted that first tun of the key and damn she runs well, still needs a little tune up but hey i still class this a s a big win, Massive thank you to my Bud 's Carl, Moggey, Jono & Trigger who with out wouldn't have happened, Here's some pics and if i'm lucky a little vid of her in action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We even found time to celebrate Jono's birthday with a homemade cake

 

 

 

 

Hopefully the link to the Vid

 

http://youtu.be/DS8efk_Z4Tw

 

Hope you all like, there are more pic's if you want them

 

Cheers For following

 

Mike

[trigger]

That was good fun yesterday helping to put that in, well I say help, I didn't do much other than watch but it was still impressive watching a  engine being fitted in the driveway old school style!

 

Nice cruise around town afterwards in it too, It's a real head turner with those slot mags on, it's reminds me of something from the late 80's.

 

 

Running for the first time.

 

 

 

I thought mine looked quite good in this photo, like a photo from the 80's.

 

 

This was the debut run from outside, It sounds better and he was going slower than the video looks before anyone asks! 

 

[Felly Magic]

I see some gormless docker managed to photobomb you back Mike. Both your Tinas are very nice indeed