Chrome_GT

Hi All,

For my Alfa i regularly purchase parts from the UK - cheaper, good availability, online catalogs etc. http://www.alfaworkshop.co.uk/alfa_156_parts.shtml

I'd like an equivalent company specialising, or dealing with European Fords. I'm after a company with a good range of bits, easy on line purchasing, and reasonable and reliable shipping.

Does anyone have experience buying parts for their classic small Fords from overseas. I have a Capri so I'd like to hear from the owners of escorts, cortinas, anglias etc not Mustangs

In my case $50 for a Capri MK2 Rolling Body in 2003 - was a paddock racer. I chopped it into pieces and stuck it in a 2m x 1.5m shed! A Capri of similar condition would easily fetch $1000 now.

As others have said - depends on way too much. And also a barely running or broken down shitter in many cases could be cheaper than a rolling body. A rolling body often implies someone had plans for it and probably expects more because of it's potential.

Does the 'Buy sell exchange' still exist? it was good for this kind of stuff.

Capri 2000GT recore only xcost me $200 from A1 Radiators in 2007 (maybe 2008). I had several spare radiators but when swapping them around i found they all had leaks or too many missing cooling fins. So got a recore - They come out looking like brand new!!.

Pretty sure Cortina 2000 & Capri 2000 had almost exactly the same radiator - except the top hose connection switched sides or bent 90° or something. So a Capri radiator may be worth looking for on Trademe / ebay etc. Not 100% sure but Escorts ones have the same mounting positions too.

Same Guy?

January 26, 2010 - 11:15am

Photo of the Week was caught by our roving photographer couple of Kevin and Michelle - they caught the end of Brian Bradshaw's Modified Sprint crash which proved to be quite nasty, Brian suffered a broken pelvis and cracked hip from the incident.Brian has a long history in motorsport and we hope that he recovers quickly and we can see him on the track again.

Wow, had no idea about all that. I'll shut up now

There's a guy Brian Bradshaw. He had a workshop in Hillsborough a couple years ago but has since closed - Impwerks. Might be worth doing a google as he may have another workshop you can take your imp too. His own one was immaculate in red.

May be worth holding onto if u still have it. Did the yoke match up? Might pay to see if a d-shaft manufacturer can shorten it for u? They'll probably suggest a new one from scratch. Myne cost 300 to 400 dollars from circle track engineering in christchurch.

Or just fix the two piece shaft.

There were a few different driveshaft yoke splines used by Ford on the Capris/Cortinas etc. Give it a try anyway. You may even just need to get your old drive yoke welded onto the one piece shaft.

FYI I had a one piece manufactured to replace my 2 piece shaft when my joints failed too about 11 years ago.

Have you considered an Alfa 156 Sportwagon. Plenty of style and they aren't as bad for reliability as they are made out to be. Parts do just cost more though. I like Mazda 6 (Atenza) wagons aswell. I bought my 156 sedan cos i couldn't afford an Atenza sedan. Pretty much half the price

Its easier and cheaper to recheck some faults then agrue with a WOF inspector on a power trip who won't back down.

That's what I reckon too. Bloody good to know. At minimum I thought you had to wait 30 days before going to somewhere else - assuming the system would not allow them to log a pass. But now i know better, cheers guys. Sorry for the hijack

Did you fail a wof at one place and went on to get the wof done again and passed at another place within 30 days?

I thought you couldn't do that cos the fail gets logged in the system. Sounds good if it is allowed. very curious as this could be an easy way of getting around wof failures for rediculous things

Yeah check brushes for sure - easy to do and cheap.

Also make sure your ignition light comes on when you turn the key to 1 position before start (on?) - They say it 'excites' the alternator into action. If that doesn't come on then then it is something else like a plug coming loose or possibly just the bulb (i think it needs to work to excite the alt circuit). Some sparky will know more.

That photo of the brake shoes looks like there is no pad on the Rightmost shoe but there is. It starts a couple inches from the end. The same thing happens on the lower end of the leftmost shoe in the next photo. I'm pretty sure that is normal. Looks like you have 2mm minimum so just check that is above the min required.

Hint. Take photos before dismantling things like brake drums, dashboards , . That is a good way of recording shoes orientation,spring hook locations etc

Re non starting.

A couple things which have got me in the past.

1. Check to make sure there is enough gap in the points. If too close you'll get issues.

2. Plugs onto coil. If pins rather than spades make sure the sockets are tight.

3. Ballast coil vs non ballast coil. Not sure way a mini needs but make sure u have the right one

I would say yes to be a daily - but only if driving in town. I used mine as a daily for uni and work for about 4 years. Was ideal - cheap to run, fun character, cheap parts, easy maintenance. But you'll need another car for weekend trips if going any sort of distance.

I just bought H7s from Ebay $4 each or something like that - cheap as! ex hongkong. Blue glass but advertised as Superwhite. 55W apparently aswell. They look whiter but when driving i have definitely noticed a huge drop in illumination, not just a change of colour. So the morel of my story is don't buy cheap no name bulbs.

I'm now going to go and buy proper branded bulbs from Repco, Supercheap, Butlers.

Sorry in a rush so haven't read replies.

I painted my mini with Acrylic Laquer using a 50litre 2.5hp compressor. That compressor size was very borderline but was ok for a mini.

'tyres to go' have been the cheapest i have found for new tyres. Tony's would probably match whatever price though.

Pretty sure Capri stuff is girling. But as above we'll need pics as I have no idea what marinas have in them.

Boom:

http://www.paints4u.com/AutoColours.aspx?ProductID=5020

I tried mine, 1974 Ford(Europe), and typed in phoenix into description cos I already knew it. Got code E M which is phoenix orange V5.

I agree, this is rediculous. An often many cars take more than one month to sell

Old fords have a code stamped inside the door, I think it was actually on the panel rather than the lock. Can be seen by removing inner trim. Maybe you car is similar. It was 13 yrs ago I did this. The code is the pattern for the key

looks like i confused a few people with my poor explanation.

When you put your car on hold - always do it for 12 months. If you want to road register your car within the first three months of the exemption then you have to backpay for the period between the exemption beginning and that road registration beginning.

Scenario:

You reckon you will need 5 months to repaint your car so you choose a 6 month exemption period. Ideally you could have walked in at the 5 month mark and road registered the vehicle that day and from that day (no backpay)

But at the 6 month mark you aren't quite ready and probably need another month. Too bad, at the 6 month mark you needed to reregister or do another exemption. If you register it'll cost you and you need a wof. If you re exempt then you have to wait another 3 months before you can road register without having to backpay.

But if you had just done a 12month exemption in the first place then after three months you can road register at any point up to the 12 month without having to backpay at all. So licensing the vehicle at 7 months would have been easy and you didn't have to pay for road registration when you weren't using the road.

Does that help?

Just a tip - always do it at 12 months even if you only plan to have it off the road for three. That way you will have less '3 month minimum' periods to wait out.

Shame. I rang NZTA and it turns out I had already done the exemption a month ago so it was already due to expire in 2012. My method of keeping my bills on the fridge only until paying failed me big time. Honestly can't remember doing it. Might blame Earthquake stress for my bad memory.