1966 Mk1 cortina GT She Drives!

7 minute(s) of a 319 minute read

Thanks dude, next time you're over I should have a road legal car we ca play with.


I've been working on little jobs that seem to take forever like tweaking the fit of door handles or trying to get my headlights to work because the full beam doesn't want to play.

To break away from that I thought I'd see if I can resurrect the choke cable, the original was dogeared with an outer core that had seen better days. I had purchased a replacement cable from the owners club with a handle that didn't lock once pulled out and just looked too new compared to the other switch gear etc, as an experiment I thought I would cut the old cable off the handle and replace it with a gear cable from a mountain bike £7 all in and it's worked a treat!

On a bit of a high from the success of the choke cable I set my sights on the HT leads which just look awful.

I'd been talking to broady about this as he's made several set of leads over the years and even leant me the tool for crimping the leads which I'll send back to him soon but it's a simple job that doesn't take very long (about an hour all in if you take your time).

But it's made a huge difference!

If you're interested in giving it a go check my how to on it:

Edited - I put the wrong picture in...

11-16-2020

It had to be the one that's a pain to get to! looking back at it with a glass half full - the gearbox was destined to come off again as I didn't have the right release bearing arrangement, I could have done without getting a coolant shower by my own car! Thanks I appreciate it!

I think I downsized the photo quality too much last time and I'll look to sort it out moving on.

With a moving car I had a lot of project mojo but nothing to focus it on - getting the car moving meant I knew what I needed to tackle but now I have a lot of stuff waiting to go on or be painted or ordered but no direction. So I wrote a list of everything I could think of - it's long, scary and a little dull in areas but necessary!

Knowing that some jobs were relatively easy like sort HT leads (see above) I'd do a load of those before anything taxing like headlining!

I started with the easiest of the easy, the fuel tank/ pump wiring. it was all there but hadn't been cut to length/ terminated. Easy! but after wrapping and sorting an appropriate bung for the hole in the boot I didn't like the look of the dangling cable that would no doubt get snagged on something so as luck would have it I had some 5mm P clips I mistakingly ordered for the fuel line that were the perfect size for what I needed and much better than what had been previously done (underseal the heck out of the fuel sender wire till its stuck to the floor)

I eventually had the rear door skinned after being let down and blown off by the bodyshop who I had paid to resin the door along with the paint work but found a guy locally who used to resin ford doors regularly back in the day - I had it back in less than a week! A major weight off my mind!

I then got on with fitting door handles, I had given them a polish a while ago and was rather excited about having doors that shut. The gaskets need a little trim and the handles would be fine for now but I'll look at chroming next year perhaps.

With sound deadening pads inside the doors there is a rather satisfying clunk rather than a ping (I explain this better in the video)

Whilst this was going off I received a few packages of seals, the door seals will be fitted by the body shop guy when adjusting the reskinned door as I struggle with door adjustment but I gave the boot seal a go, it's not great but I assume that's because of me again. It take some effort to shut the boot which a lot of other people have agreed with on the clubs facebook page but I never remember it being like that so I'll get a second opinion. It's nice to think that I'm doing jobs like this that get me closer to an MOT.

The boot springs were cleaned and fitted with me narrowly avoiding. a hernia - they put a fight up!

After trimming the boot sound reading felt to suit the relocated battery I felt rather satisfied that the boot area was 95% complete.

I had held off buying an air filter because generally the ones that are on the market for 28/36DCD look too small, I found this gem on eBay - it's a period correct Timavo item that I've never seen before and I know the element needs replacing I do like how it looks now it's been sprayed in wrinkly black paint. The engine clearly prefers it as it seems to run better with a filter than without?!

Just before I go back to seeing what else I can get knocked off the list I threw the front steels on with a hub cap - I'm happy with the decision I've made but a little annoyed I have 3 steels the same and 1 odd one!

If anyone has one that matches please let me know, I want to get a pair remanded but don't want to commit till I have a full set.