grimlok

Used to be red. Because Red is faster. Pretty keen on swapping over to the Mazda front end, Saw the chrome Mazda grill on Tard me, and it seems to be just a bonnet swap to make the Mazda grill work. Will know more when I get the donor. And the bonnets have to come off anyway. Rained off work today. So was able to sus a few things. I currently don't have a car with a tow ball. So the first mission was sussing something that can tow a car trailer. And a car trailer. Luckily my brother to the rescue. Has a towbar on his Toyota work shitter. V6 3L Avalon. Not the ideal tow vehicle. But better than none. And booked a trailer with the boys at Tool Hire Taranaki for Tuesday arvo. (Gotta time in with my brother's shift work, my own work, and the owner of the donors work hours) Think I might prep and underbody seal the engine bay while the motor is out. Attempt to get another 30 years out of it. Not overly worried about looks. I quite like the idea of patina rust repairs going on because work ute. And if I do the engine bay now. I shouldn't have to touch it again. (famous last words)

Bluetooth heady. Because Priorities. Ripped the rad out. Not the original rad, Not even a courier rad. But plastic tanks and fairly new. So we'll keep that. Find a better way of attaching it. Because tec screws. But could be worse. Could have a blown head gas... Oh wait.

Got a line on a donor '88 b2000. Rusty as. fried clutch, no class, no wheels, no rad. Which is good, 'cause further inspection says the leafs are well over due for resetting/replacement. And here's the donor from facebook marketplace. So to do list now includes rear suspension, And frankly, might as well do the front while I'm at it. I'm just gonna end up doing in the future anyway. Might as well clean the chassis up and sort it all while I have the try off and have it in pieces. (We all know how this goes right) Do the brakes. Do the shocks. Rebuild the whole dammed thing. At least the suspension parts are relatively cheap and easily available compared to some of the cortina stuff.

Haha. Doh! Just when I thought I had gotten my head around the whole offset thing I prove my ignorance by getting it wrong. Got a line on a rusty flat deck Mazda b2000 with a running motor and a few other donor parts fairly local. Pretty keen to get into this one. Been a while since I did any real work on a car.

Discussion Thread:

Have at me guys. Tell me all the things I'm doing wrong. Laugh when I cock it up. And share a beer with me when I get her going!

Hey Team. Been AWOL quite a long time. Had some serious hickups in life that slowed me down and forced me to let go of my last project. a mk3 Ford Cortina. And frankly, I went through a pretty nasty period of depression. But you can't keep a good guy down. And you won't stop a grease monkey eventually getting covered in grease. Around a month ago, My Daily Driver 2000 Ford Mondeo slipped a tooth on the timing belt on the exhaust cam, and did some bendy valve stuff. A friend had this sitting in his hay shed taking up space. And Rather than try and rebuild the Mondeo motor (Which had only done 30,000k since I did a rebuild on it anyway) I jumped at the chance to get into something RWD, with a carb, and a tray. Repainted sometime in its past, But rather neglected of late. I saw this as a chance to tinker with something oldish again. Fresh Battery and some fuel and she fired right up. She didn't sound right, but she did start. Got her home running like a bag full of assholes. Popped the bonnet to find green alien blood pretty much pissing out the Number 4 exhaust. (Sigh... Headgasket) So.... List of things on the to do list... Head Gasket (Or just pull the motor and rebuild the whole thing, It's done 300,000+ k) The steering wheel is toast. The Fuel Sender is bung (This is pretty common in these from what I've read) The tray needs that water trap bedliner scrapped and a spray on liner done. The offset on those rims is FAR too positive. Add more tie down points. Fix the Fuel door Stupid little interior blanks with holes drilled in them need sorting Screws missing in the interior. Giant speaker holes in the door cards. Apply power steering (If I can find the stuff to do it) Headunit with bluetooth. Other minor cosmetic things. Sort the suspension. Answer every question/problem in life with "Just chuck it on the back of the ute" Create discussion thread.

Ever have one of those days where you have an epic post with photos and blood and awesomeness and dragons, and then the internet takes a giant shit and you lose the lot? Hello You... And Welcome to Starship Cortina. This week. Grinders suck. My thumbs hurt. My wrists ache. I'm still pulling wire bristles out of my dreads. There was some of this... Followed by some of this... (When they disintergrate they really actually do disintergrate huh?) Then there was some of this... Found some swiss cheese in the boot. And a small hole just breaking through in the tire well. still really happy with the condition of the car in general especially since now I figure all the rust is exposed. Remember how I stored all those bolts and shit together for future me... Took me 2 days find the box with all the bolt bags... Fail. Finding the missing seat runner nut right where it should be... WIN! Next on the cards is to do the panel beating on the underside. Being really anal retentive about it. There's a couple of dings to smooth out. And those couple of patches to do. Seaming up all the factory stuff and smoothing it all off. Ready for new seal next week.

December 2013.. Holy shitballs batman. Has it been that long? Ehem..... Hello You! And welcome... To Starship Cortina. A lot has happened in the last 18ish months... A plane disapeared. (Conspiracy? How the hell do you lose a whole f%$king plane?) I've almost rebuilt the entirety of the Girlfriends Shitty Nissan. (This isn't a thing against Nissan's. Just the girlfriends p10 Primera is a shitbox) And Starship Cortina hasn't moved an inch. Until now... ... Well. She still hasn't really moved an inch. But. I've made some progress. For a 40+ year old paint job. That blue stuff is sticking pretty well... I can feel a tiny bit of momentum building this week... Half an under body stripped. Having some thoughts on Diffs. Read about a worked 2L pinto sending 168rwhp into a 2L Cortina diff and getting diff chunks in his diff oil more than once in the last 12 months. I won't be putting a 170 horse through it. But... I don't really wanna stick with the ford diff if it's only goal in life is to fill my diff oil with diff chunks. (I HATE buying new diff oil. that shits expensive... Oh and so are diffs that aren't in chunks) Might have to have a measure with the tape. I'm sure I read somewhere that a 80s hilux diff isn't too much work to get in. Tune in next week when I'll have finished stripping the paint and strengthing up the shell. Berate me for my lazyness and sheer lack of ability to work on cars for the last year or so, And tell me all the reasons a hilux diff isn't the way to go: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/40329-grimmys-71-mk3-cortina-zetec/

So. Got the 1300 of slow into the work hack, Plumbed up, new fluids and filters. Bitch wouldn't fire. Got a couple hours sleep (Which is more than I've had any other night this week) and some fresh eyes on it this arvo. Had the firing order completely wrong. Gawd alone knows what monkey put those leads on at 5am (Yeah... it was me) Pulled the plugs and had nothing on no. 1 and no. 3. Swapped the leads, still nothing, changed the plugs round... still nothing... Finally ripped the dizzy cap off and let out the small water feature in the dizzy the rotor was swimming in. Blew it out, dumped some fuel down the carb... Boom. Into life. Got it up to temperature and let it idle. dunno how to embed video... http://s900.photobucket.com/user/grimlok_photos/media/MOV_0236.mp4.html She's got a miss and a fart under heavy load. She could prolly do with a proper tune anyway. So quickly do that in the am. But Managed to do an engine swap single handed in 4 evenings and still pull a 48 hour week the week before xmas so pretty happy with the outcome. </ThreadJack> Back on target now, Pulling the Mondeo into the workshop early next year to strip it down and of course continue with the rust work on the Cortina. I get bored of doing the same thing very quickly, Which is why I jump from doing a section of metal work to sussing some of the nuts and bolts. Should start comming together soon tho. Have an awesome Xmas everyone.

<Threadjack... Bitch!> So here's teh daily with the sunroof of awesome, without a motor... or gearbox, or several other things. I've owned 3 BF Familias in my time. My first car was a calf shit yellow '84 laser 5 door hatch, I had a white 5 door familia I blew the head on in '09, And this one. When I blew the head on the last one I swapped in an E3 1300 SOHC and 5 speed from an '85 laser sedan. This motor proved to be rock solid. Despite it's lack of any nutsacks what so ever. This motor was still going strong when the body started getting beyond repair about 18 months ago. Did the smart thing and kept the the old Mazda bucket for spares when I got my current daily 2 door '85 familia... Smashed about 3 litres of degreaser over this and it came up looking almost new again. Ran outta time to get to get an inlet mani gasket and oil pack. Thinking I might run a thinner oil for a week, Before dumping that and the filter for something a bit thicker just to give the motor a clean out on the theory that a thinner oil should breakdown any buildup in the oil journals and just free things up a bit. Before getting something thicker in there to lube it up (The ladies always love it when summink thicker gets in there to lube it up) Does this make sense or am I dreaming and there is a far better way to give it a quick clean out internally? Actually... What is your process on a quick swap? What do you renew? And what do you do to prime it? I've done sump gasket, water pump, thermostat and housing, Fanbelts, fuel filter, Plugs, and tranny fluid. Still gotta pick up an inlet manifold gasket Oil and a filter. Usual way I go about first start is pull the plugs and crank it off the starter till the oil pressure light goes off. This also gets the fuel pump going and gets the carby bowl full. From there put the plugs in, do skids, and win at life. All before Xmas.

Haha. The P-Plates were a 21st present from the boys many moons ago. This a long (And possibly R rated) story involving Kristoff 62 and a Student Radio Production Suite... And a girl with loose morals. I'd explain it, But then I'd have to hide my shame more than usual. Pulled the replacement motor for the daily today. I've got FAR too much experience will pulling familias/lasers apart. Just waiting on the boss to give me a hand moving some cars round in the workshop and I'll pull the dead motor. Leaving me all day Friday to plumb it all in. Seriously considering biffing a 1.6 DOHC B6 injected motor from a slightly newer familia in. Did the swap in my head and it's no harder than swapping another 1500 carby e5 in. Might be worth it considering the idea behind the daily is cheap motoring. DAMN MY OWN THREADJACK. Might have to rock down to my friendly Ford/Mazda wrecker and see what he has stashed under his kilt.

Sadly didn't make the meet. See my build thread regarding the foobar head on my daily. Anyone know if you still get a refund for what's left on the rego when you hand in plates and rego tags?

Hello You... And Welcome to Starship Cortina. On this weeks LONG overdue episode. INVASION OF THE DAILY DRIVER OF OVERHEATING AND SHITNESS. And a silver lining. So my daily is a '85 BF Mazda Familia 1500 carby hatch with the sunroof of awesome. About 2 weeks ago the radiator decided to just drop a tennis ball sized chunk outta itself and then not tell me. (OK so maybe I don't look at gauges as much as I should, and maybe it did try to tell me) Anyway, Long story short. Cracked head. (BOOOO DAILY. You've been awesome for years till now) Swapping a spare motor in before this weekend. Because picless posts suck. Here is a pic of the offending pain in my ass. In my travels to find a new daily I came across a too cheap to be true mk2 (98ish) Ford Mondeo. One of these is what my 2 litre Zetec motor came from. The price was worth it just for parts/spares, and if it lasted a year or so SWEET. It didn't even survive the 20 kays from the sellers home to mine before doing exactly what the stupid Mazda did. (Was a risk I took when I brought it. I knew "Something wasn't quite right"... Turns out it was the gearbox.) But it has provided me with a spare fuel pump, loom, ECU, sensors, injectors, intake mani, throttle bodies, etc. And I'll take the smart locks, ignition barrel, door barrels, leccy window and central locking parts for retrofitting into the Cortina Hell maybe even the seats. I'm not decided on weather to part off whats left or just scrap it. Prolly should part it off as the panels are all straight and good. Again work is getting very busy with this time of year, so... Tune in again NEXT YEAR when we continue the ongoing saga of the Starship Cortina. Until then. Thanks for reading Discus: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/40329-grimmys-71-mk3-cortina-zetec/

<Cough> Scooby ej20 conversion </Cough> I dunno what you want a motor or floor pan for. It's already set up for a Fred Flinstone converson. This is AWESOME. Looking forward to watching this come together.

F&%KIN' SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET! Looking forward to watching the Essex swap come together. A 3x more betterer v6 than the colonge from the mk5 ghia imho. What g/box are you going to use? Your center console kung foo is well done too. Good score on the GT Center. Envious, I don't have one of thems. Do a brother a solid and post up some photos of your tunnel mounting brackets when you do them good sir. My console didn't come with brackets either. Resisting the urge to steal more great ideas from your build. Love it dude!

Hello You! And welcome... To Starship Cortina. On this weeks mini webisode bonus special... I'm wet... And not in a good way. When we last left the Starship she was looking like this... Bit Dirty... Again... Not in a good way. So went to see the good buggers down at the local hire quip and made off with their high pressure high temp water blaster when they weren't looking. Only to discover it hadn't been checked and was outta diesel... Screw you Karma. I should ring kyle and the boys to complain... Oh wait... we flogged it. (Disclaimer. We didn't really steal it, But Screw you Karma anyway.) I've heard stories of late nights soaking the shit in petrol/something to soften it, I've heard of sweating like a fat kid in the cross country and scraping/chiseling/digging and pretty much putting blood sweat and tears into getting the factory underbody tar sealer off. This is after hitting it twice with the steam blaster. Don't get me wrong. It isn't a walk in the park, You get drenched, you get covered in crap, I burned myself on the wand fitting half a doz times. I spat water/steam in my face a million times, and you gotta have a firm grip on the wand at all times. But it's actually pretty enjoyable Vs the other options. It is an all day mission tho. I found you have to work on a section and heat the surface of the metal up, get a loose edge and it chipping off as it softens... Hit it with a 3rd pass and really concentrated on the few remaining built up areas that weren't back to factory primer. Before: After: Dropped it back down flat and also ripped thru the bay. But didn't take any photos, It was getting dark, and I was wet... Still not in a good way. Also gave the diff and front rack the same treatment. It's much nicer to pull shit apart that isn't covered in crap. And the steam blaster has done a kick ass job. Things seem to be happening at the right pace for it to be back rolling by the end of the month. Next mission... scratch it up to get some primer on. Finish off the last part of the Sill supports. Then strip down the diff and front rack ready for rebuilding. Thanks for watching EDIT: Friday knock off with her back inside and looking a whole lot better below her panty line.

90% of the zetec conversion is done. Still waiting on some good news about my sump situation and the east west to north south conversion is pretty much done. That's the only thing stopping me from starting it on the workshop floor anyway. Shelved in the "too hard" basket for now. Just for now. Oh the RUST! Scrolling through your thread earlier and you mention those moments standing there looking at the shell going "Where do I start?" Fully had one of those moments yesterday when I almost couldn't be f&$ked with it anymore. Just have to accept the fact I have to get new Sills rolled up. Luckily... I happen to know a couple of guys that will skimp on labor charges. (It's not what you know, it's who you know) Work is Naki Nitro Indoor Karting. Flick me a PM and sus out comming in and having a squiz some time if your interested dude. Bring her car.. We like mk1s almost as much as we like mk3s

Hello You... and welcome! To Starship Cortina. On this weeks episode. Rust, Dodgy previous repairs, And introducing my favorite tool (for now)... The Air Chisel of Openinging... and do0m. Both Sills have rust in the rear ends. They have also been repaired using the "Just weld a patch over it" school of thought. With the old sill still rusting away underneath, Sigh. My dearly departed Poppa's words ringing in my ears "You only ever see a tenth of it" Split the "3 skins" apart into what was left of their layers with my new favorite air tool. The Chisel of division. The rattle gun is pretty hard to beat for pure awesomeness. But the chisel is like "If it doesn't fit... get a bigger hammer". Me Likey. HACKED the side of the sill open in frustration and man sulking and split the inner holey cheese away from the rest of the car and the boss cut a new patch out and filled it in. Shut my eyes. and hacked into the rust in the front section of chassis rail. BEHOLD... BAM! and zee rust is gone! Smashed the air down the rail while I had the chance and blew out a chunk O crap. I'm knocking kilos off this car just by getting the crap off. Should prolly put summink in that gap... Opened up the drivers side sill and was greeted with exactly the same gremlins as the passenger side. New sill section braised over rusty holey messy dumbness. Before zee chisel of division wins it's epic battle. And after: Was about this time we ran outta panel steel. So cut off the hanger bearing mounts, ripped the rear valance off, and fired off a pic of the old 1600 for an interested party. Picking up some more panel steel tomorrow, to smash out the rear end repairs. Hopefully the steam blaster is available on Thursday. All going to plan Should have the seal off before the weekend and ready to re seal next week. Discuss the awesomeness of the air chisel of do0m here... //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/40329-grimmys-71-mk3-cortina-zetec/

Hello you. And Welcome... To Starship Cortina! On this weeks episode... Sideways Cortina And Cortina Cancer. But first a quick money shot before pulling the front rack/motor/box/diff and biffing her sideways. Ripped the doors off, dropped the fuel tank, pulled the body loom out, and sweated like a fat kid in a candy store getting the front glass out... Luckly the rear popped out without too much effort. Still the metallic blue paint underneath all the way round front and back. Quietly STOKED. Loosened off all the suspension bolts front and rear. Pulled the brake lines, handbrake cables, and opened up the very edges of the headliner right round. If it ain't broke under the headliner, Don't fix it. Just like the glass, Mint. Grabbed some done 4x4 tires. Lifted the front up off the x-member and stacked 2 tires under the rails each side. Pushed the front end down, And pulled the diff etc out. With the diff and front suspension outta the way we had no problem flipping the shell up on it's side to rest up on some more tires. As always. Metal cancer is always far worse then you initially think. And the Starship is no exception. Both front rails need some work... Drivers side is rotten right round. Already had plans on replacing it anyway. Passenger side is a prevous attempt at a patch. You know the kind. The kind where they just weld a plate over the rust. I assume in an attempt to avoid actually having to measure shit on the bush centers. Not even gonna bother dicking round with it. This is exactly the sorta shit the spare body is for. Split it at it's seams and swap 'em over. This passed a wof at some point aparently. But I strongly doubt it's ever been pretty. Couple of previous "Weld a patch over the old rust" patches in the rear sils that will have to be cut out and done properly. It needs to be opened up for flaring the guards anyway. And the jack points are a waste of effing time made outta body steel and not braced so they're comming off too. Gotta one piece driveshaft. So the hanger bearring mounts are comming off. Already pulled out the CNG and fuel lines. So the very next mission is odviously the underbody. I've heard stories of freezing it with dry ice. I've heard of blood sweat and tears with screwdrivers/chisels/putty knives. We're gonna hit it with a steam blaster and get all the crap off it first. Then nail it in sections with the gas plant and a scraper. It comes off relatively easy with a bit of heat. Takes a little bit of practice to sus out exactly how much heat is just right. But once there it comes off like butter. Tune in next week when we take on the underbody stripping. This week the only thing left to do is empty a couple of these...

Hello you. And welcome... To Starship Cortina! On todays flying bonus webisode... Remember that armrest/Stashbox cover that mumma grimlok was gonna take care of? Before: After: FANX MUMZIE!

Hello You. And welcome, To Starship Cortina! On this weeks episode... Headers of Do0m! Rocked in to see the guys at Taranaki Tire Torque armed with the header flange and some wire rod bent using the eyeometer. Less than an hour later we had some pipe looking things. Much like the Engine mounts. Bolted the flange to the head and tacked the pipes into place, Then pulled them out to get a good run on 'em. You can see where I've cocked up slightly in my drunken measuring for the header flange and had to resort to the die grinder and washers here. It was about this point I noticed number 3 was on the piss. (Typical... Sigh) So just tweaked it with the gas plant and brute force. Matt black ceramic rattle can. It's just starting to go off in a couple of places of the 2nd coat. But pretty happy with it. HUGE credit to my boss for laying down some f&%king clean stitching on this one. Pipe is hard to get a good run on and to continuously do it in one bead. (Or maybe it is just for me. I am kinda spastic.) Collector should be here tomorrow morning. Get that on, get them cured, Then pull the motor, along with the last remaining things still attached to the body (Fuel tank, rear bumper, doors and glass) and it's getting flipped on it's side to start the underbody prep and metal work. Got a cut off date on the rolling body repaired and in the first coat of primer. Dec 2. Need the workshop space for other things. And we've commited to a date of those things arriving. Tune in next week as we get stuck into the underbody and start some of the metal work. Thanks for watching. Insult my workmanship here... //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/40329-grimmys-71-mk3-cortina-zetec/

Be rude not to then. Seems in the space of a day there's half a doz of us that are keen. Don't the Mayfair do cheap pizza and beer on Sundays? And the pool hall is a hop skip and a jump away.

Keen. Beersies and Wedges at a pub on a sunday arvo sounds like good way to finish a weekend.

Been hoping you'd stop in at some point dude. Seeing as your local and have been thru some of the Zetec conversion drama you'd be a great cat to sit down and have a beer or 6 with. Now he tells me . hahahaha Couldn't find the file anywhere for the Exhaust flange when I was looking. Could find inlet, and engine mounts. No Exhaust. Supreme water Jetting on Hurlstone Dr have a complete set of files from me for the conversion now, Except for the Thermostat Housing/water rail. I haven't drawn that one up yet. Keen as for a local meet of some kind. I can even host and put together a little bit of entertainment for the boys if there is enough interest and no one is a axe murderer. The Mancave got keg lines plumbed in last week. They do need a test