1966 Mk1 Cortina GT

5 minute(s) of a 210 minute read

You're not wrong and to be fair I did daily the Cortina for 2 years and never had a problem. With that said I never had a radio like the bourgeoisie - I do now but I also have a job so I can afford such decadent items Speaking of wipers I did manage to finish the conversion, I decided against an intermittent setup as I couldn't find a suitable relay with enough information. The OEM's work but would take time to figure out how they're to be wired or the aftermarkets just didn't have enough support. I needed an audition relay board for the wiper, I could have used my spare relays but I am still tempted to put some Lucas spots up front for winter driving.

I have been looking at modern seats as an alternative and quite like the idea of heated seats as I have the spine of a much older gent given my many years of self abuse riding BMX's! So having relay holders ready to go is a motivator for me.

Having designed and printed an adaptor block that would marry the modern motor to my antiquated brackets I felt smug - right up to the moment I went to test fit the wipers and discovered the wiper motors offset body clashed with my steering column support! A simple rotation of 15 degrees and a 5hr wait for the print soon had it fixed though.

It's a little hard to photograph but to test longevity of the new parts I rigged the loom etc up on the bench with the full wiper assembly secured in the vice and put it on full speed and left it running till something broke- after 9hrs it was still running as smoothly so I figured it was a win.

For the 2 speed with I will replace the washer pump, this has a chrome trim piece that not only supports the pump but also holds the odometer in place, I didn't want to drill and potentially ruin the original part as they're not easily replaced so I took some dimensions and printed my own with the correct thread.

Chrome paint is difficult to look authentic and I feel like the Culture hustle mirror is the best one I've found so far, I'd suggest priming the part and using a satin black to give the mirror paint a bit more depth - it's not far off!

I will get some photos of the dash when I've put it back together, I have a new voltage stabiliser to fit beforehand though.

At the end of January I decided to remove the cylinder head one of the running issues is down to the inlet/exhaust threads are pretty worn - they were loose after 150 miles. It is possible to sort these with the head in situ but I'd rather have someone sort them with more experience than I have the problem is we're in April now with no sign of the head being done which is a little disappointing.

A trawl on eBay and I found a genuine GT head for rebuilding and it was cheap - I bought it and found out why...

I'm assuming this was found on the Titanic - that's the only explanation I can think of for the valves to be that corroded! Tonight I shall be filling the ports with penetrating oil/ diesel to try and free the valves. Should that be successful I'll set up and electrolysis bath to pull the corrosion off without anything aggressive and go from there.

Another job I had been putting off was the wheels - the 7's on the rear was an ambitious move and it can be achieved if you go for stretched tyres which isn't what I wanted - the 205 wide tyres I had used caught the wheel tubs (not the arch lips) when hard cornering which meant they had to go. I've moved the 6's from the front but wanted to keep the staggered look so went back to the original 4.5" GT wheels.

My 4.5's were looking pretty ropey and I wasn't a fan of the silver of the new steels so they've been off for sandblasting and powder coating but I went with anthracite for something a bit different.

I quite like the look of these wheels without the caps - I've even had the spare done!

I'll get some better photos when I can roll the Cortina out properly