1966 Mk1 cortina GT She Drives!

5 minute(s) of a 319 minute read

If you are having trouble seeing this video, watch on YouTube

It seemed so easy to just fit the interior but with the car moving over the years, I had half and my parents had the other - I think they have my hornby trainset which might be a fun side project! I digress, with the interior all in one place and many favours and pleas made to Mrs. Jim to let me give the carpets a clean inside before taking them out to the car.

The carpets are relatively new I changed them not long after I bought the Cortina in 2005 but came out in 2006 after it came off the road so factory fresh!

The Cat almost got carpeted!

The door cards are oiginal and have just had a clean, the vinyl had lifted off the card so gave it a dab of glue and used some bulldog clips that have been way more useful than I had considered when I bought them a few months ago!

Next up was the rear seat which have again just had a clean, I didn't take a photo of it but I have added lap belts for the rear as a precaution , I would like a 3 point belt but I haven't found one that would work with the rear shelf as it would be below the shoulder.

This is when I ran into some trouble! I went to fit the centre console I had retrimmed but it just wouldn't fit, my natural reaction was to have a mental breakdown and check the heater position, engine position and life in general! The console came out of the car as had the heater - a quick google showed me that there are 2 types of GT shifter 116E designed for the Consul Capri and the 118E for the Cortina GT/ Lotus - guess which one I had!

There's about 2" difference in length and they also come at a premium because Lotus tax! Luck was in my favour though as the new shifter had bushes that weren't made of powder so decided to use it as is rather than disturb it - if anyone is after a shifter let me know!

the seats are original and could do with a retrim but my efforts are being put into getting the Cortina back on the road and come back to a few jobs over winters etc

One great thing about the interior is that the parcel shelf is under the dash which makes storage for parcels actually feasible! A quick tip for these cardboard interior parts - you can use satin black paint to revive them.

The front seats were the last thing to go in and I can't quite fathom that the Cortina has a proper interior, I still think of it as a shell in progress and now it feels like a car!

Now I'm working on a list of stuff to do for the MOT; hopefully nothing major but mainly bolt check, fix any leaks etc