kiwitina

So I managed to get some tina time in today. Decided I’d start stripping one of the doors down in some kinda effort of making progress. They’re actually in really good nick already just a few minor surface rust spots here and there.

Getting all the inner mechanicals out was pretty straight forward. The hardest and most painstakingly annoying thing was getting the chrome trim off the window frame without bending and denting it. If anyone has any tips Id like to hear them.

After a few hours of stripping and sanding it came up pretty good. Just a little pinhole and a dent to fix up.

Covered it in this stuff until I can finish the whole door and get it etched. Wouldnt use it again as it doesn’t spray very well. Hopefully it does ok.

Also started cleaning up one of the replacement guards I got.

Might even be able to use part of this headlamp bowl to patch up my rusty one.

Removing the remnants of the inner wing

Have a spot weld drill now which makes things alot easier and tidier this time around.

Get in touch with hrdengines on trademe, they may be able to help with your two door bits.

He is the guy who can make fibreglass guards fyi. I think he might use them on his savage rep racecar. They just have a slightly different wider arch for bigger wheels. Good to see youve got a project thread started nick!

is that the one that was on trademe for a while?

haha i think thats the one I got for parts. red with the smashed front drivers side?

Like the idea of using a 2nd hand kitchen bench. Cupboards and shelves below the bench and a big wood panel backing to hang tools on Gotta get on to making one soon or as soon as I get a garage...

Ive sold it. Might have kept it if it was good for that reason but its totally screwed. Sills, floors, boot, front and rear guards and posts To big a job for someone like me who doesnt know how to weld yet. Apparently what is salvageable will be used on another 2 door so that atleast is good.

didn't have any issues with cert. or wof's since. i too suffer from t-rex arms

Boring pictureless update. Its amazing the amount of interest you get from having a Cortina parked up in a paddock in view from the road. I ended up selling the aussie 2 door as I’ve got the parts I needed and dad would spew if it was there for much longer. Having the 4 door in his shed is bad enough but hopefully thats not for much longer. Moving out west as soon as I can afford it to some place with a nice double garage. I cant wait.

Just been doing a whole lot of networking of late. With the interest in the 2 door, its been great just talking to people about parts etc. Bought some refurb’ed 9 inch GT drums for the rear recently with some backing plates coming from a guy I sold my mk1 failure of a project to years ago.

Been doing alot of thinking about paint. (Its hard not to think lots about it when the car is so far away) I’ve always been a fan of ermine white. But now semi interested in some kind of peppermint green (maybe like those snifter lollies they used to sell) . Possibly with a stripe down the lines on either side but without continuing on to the rear panel like the lotus colors did. Smoothed bumpers to go with it a la hot rod style would also be cool.Tell me your thoughts.

Saw the shed of the guy I sold the 2 door to. He’s a collector and has a whole bunch of low mileage factory condition cars. Think there was about 4 mk2 eskys including a couple of sports, 2 german mk3 capris, Mk3, 4 & 5 cortinas. All spotlessly clean and concours condition. It was unbelievable. He also had a Boss 260 BA Falcon that he bought new and just put away. Never driven. Still had the new car smell on the inside. Was amazing and pretty inspiring to say the least.

solid as shell mate. hopefully that means we see it finished soon?....haha.

Like the idea of having a stripe of white down the side. Makes it less harry potterish

On lotus steel rims it will look goooood

amen to that!

Well. Some further developments with the Cortina Resto. Had a mission of a day on wednesday picking up a parts car from Napier. What a day of drama. You know how theres people who when they have a bad day, it seems like its just one hiccup after another? Well I am apparently, one of those people.

It’s a long story but here goes...

I’ve been in the hunt for some front guards for ages. It was looking like I would go fibreglass but then an auction popped up on trademe. Auction was for 2 cars, An aussie 2 door and some variant of the 4 door. As part of the sale was a GT dash with gauges and some spare guards so I was really keen. The guy wouldn’t break up the auction so it seemed I would have to make 2 trips down from Aucks to recover the whole lot.

I arranged to borrow my dads ute to tow a hired trailer. Picked up the trailer and rigged it to my 1.5 laser to travel it down to swap it over to dads ute. Made it to my folks, the laser was a little champion. By now I was already behind schedule and the battery in dads ute just decided to give up. Grabbed tools and jumped the ute to travel with trailer and buy and fit a new battery on the way. I don’t know what repco has against me but every time I go there I always walk away with the wrong item. No matter what info I supply them with. After hooking up the battery I find the battery is shorter than the previous one and the nuts on the brace were bottoming out so not doing a good job of holding the battery. Short time later I have the correct battery in place and me and dad are back on the road.

The next few hours passed without problem. Apart from dad leaving his sunnies behind in at a Shell station. Someone left the bathroom there possibly looking a little cooler than before.

We had planned on stopping in Taupo for some food and refuelling. Came across a new road that allows you to bypass Taupo and get straight on the Napier Highway. Thought it would be a great idea to take it and make up some time. Would just have to stop somewhere along the way for eats and gas. Turns out there are absolutely no gas stations for the 100 odd kilometers between Taupo and Napier....

So the ute is towing a pretty heavy trailer over some of the hilliest sections of road in NZ....

So me and dad start stressing about getting stuck on a hill in the middle of nowhere. Dad jokes the ‘F’ on the fuel gauge stands for F*&k all and the ‘E’ for ‘Enough’. Cue nervous laughter.

So we start heading up this big ass hill and the engine starts sputtering. Manage to pull in to this little gravel section, get out and start making myself look more presentable in order to pull a ride to Napier. 5mins later (I must scrub up all right) A South African lady offers me a ride. Dad stays with the car. After about ten minutes of typical hitchhiking small talk we come across a policeman giving some poor bastard a ticket. Now, I think It’s about as easy to feel ill of the NZ police as it is for them to feel ill of the rest of us so Im a bit worried that this guy is gonna talk to me like Im some kind of dipshit. It turns out this cop is actually a nice guy and hasn’t put up with enough bull shit yet to abandon treating all people like scum. He says that theres a cafe 15ks back with emergency fuel supply and gives me a lift there.

My conversation with the lady at the cafe goes something like this

ME - ‘Im out of gas’

CAFE LADY - ‘We have a 10L tank’

ME - ‘Great’

CAFE LADY - ‘That will be $55’

ME - ‘Wow. That’s like $5.50 a litre’

CAFE LADY - ‘Yes it is....’

ME - ‘I’ll take it’

So the cop gives me a lift back to Dad and the Ute and away we go again. Make it in to a gas station in Napier around 6pm. Its already dark and getting damn cold. The winch cable on the hire trailer is barely long enough to attach to the car at the base of the ramp. We try anyway and the cable flys off the the winch because its been unraveled too far. Luckily we had a chain with us to extend it. We rethread the winch cable on using an ipod as a torch. Its not ideal but we obviously hadn’t planned on being this late. Dad isn’t happy that the car will stay on the trailer so tells me to go buy a proper torch so we can have a better look at what we’ve done. I do a dash to the warehouse right on closing time and $40 later I have a torch that helps us establish that the car aint going anywhere that the trailer isn’t and I didn’t need to spend $40 on a stupid torch. hahaha.

That was the end of the drama and we got the 2 door and stuff home somewhere around 1am. Was meant to do another trip today for the 2nd car but it was all too expensive the first time. I got the guards, dash and all I wanted on the first trip so I pulled the plug on round 2. The guy I bought them off was cool enough not to worry about me not going through completely with the deal. He probably shouldn’t be anyway as he gets to sell a car that he already sold and make a bit more cash. If anyone is keen on a four door shell pm me and I can put you in touch.

Heres the aussie built 2 door. (only good enough for parts on a kiwi 4 door ofcourse) Actually its totally nailed and wouldn’t be good enough for anything. Think Im just gonna strip it down of everything usable and then send it to the scrapyard in the sky.

The dog didn’t hesitate making herself at home.

Dont know this Cortina’s history but I know that it met with the last of its roadgoing days about the same time it met with something else. What a shame.

This is the GTE Dash. Wood panel is broken in about 4 places. Gonna make a template from it and get something native to make a new one.

Gauges are good. Thats why my thumb is up.

Could do with a little clean. Im missing a hubcap off one wheel. Its got me thinking about widened steels and whitewalls.

Managed to have a good clean out of the shed but it doesnt really show.

So much stuff in there. I wont be breaking the bank again until I can afford to get another house that has atleast a double garage. Living in an apartment 50ks away from any kind of work I could do is a serious killer of progress.

Pushed on with my blast cabinet this week. Had the idea of making it myself to save money and found a couple of good build threads for inspiration. Got a bit carried away with it as you’ll see and probably ended up spending what I would have paid to get one off tardfactory.

Still got plenty to do to finish it but have most of the bits and pieces ready to go.

Dont ask me why I chose that yellow. I kinda like it now though. The window is just sitting in it for wow thrills. Will fix it in place next and seal the thing up and it will be good to go minus a light and extraction. Im thinking one of those LED tube light things and a hand vacuum.

Also had a good chat to a sheet metal fabricator type and he’s gonna make me a rotisserie thing when I’ve got the cash. Yeah its been a long time coming but...cool cool.

wow the last post was really that long ago...

Havent really been doing much work at all on the Tina so best call this a crapdate rather than an update.

Been working lots and havent had much time for anything. Spending money on it still which is something I guess. In the past couple of months I've managed to get myself some new kyb shocks, some m16 calipers to recondition. a bunch of various tools and a whole lot of other random shit to make myself a blasting cabinet. Stitched together a window for it the other day in true rough as guts style.

And before someone points out that its not a very effective window I should point out that its plexiglass with paper stuck to the outside

Have a 200L drum for it to go into. still looking around for a cheap dustbuster or something I can use to suck all the crap out of the air inside it.

Heres a couple of pics from all ford day a couple of weeks back. This car had me stoked cos its kinda where im headed with mine. Just maybe a little lower...

This is all for now. Half the year is almost gone and I've barely begun. Busy times ahead if Im gonna have it on road again for summer.

haha this is all good helpful info. cept for maybe hellraizers contribution...

did you try removing mum from drivers seat?

After searching and searching for an appropriate spray respirator to filter out isocyanates I've given up. All I seem to find is a swag of information saying that isocyanates are really bad for you or products that say 'not suitable for the use of isocyanates'. Nothing I've seen says 'this is what standard filters you need' or 'this mask filters out isocyanates'.

Any knowledgeable OS'ers know something I might have missed?. Suitable masks? Part numbers etc. It would make sense for me to go and talk with someone at a paint shop but I thought i'd try here first as it would be good to have the info here on OS for everyone.

Buy two solid engine stands, chop and weld to suit.

haha I previously wasn't sold on this idea. I dont know why. Guess it just seemed budgo to me but now it all makes cost cutting sense. Thanks mate. You've saved me a small fortune.

Ok. Here is a design for a rollover/rotisserie I've come up with after looking at a few different pics etc. Havent got many ideas for the locking mechanism yet (your thoughts are welcome). Im pretty sold on using the hydraulic rams as it seems the easiest way of getting both ends of the car up and able to be rolled over without hitting the ground.

Save barn has some hydraulic rams for cheap. $55 each i think so might get a couple of them. Any welder types out there have any idea what I should expect to pay someone to make this? Taking in to account the materials minus the rams plus labour?

Also found out the other day where I can get replacement lengths of the boot seal rails in NZ. Rarespares has them. part no. RP2033.

Did you have to replace any panels on it? If so mind sharing where/who you got em from?

Chur

nah the body shell was mint as when i stiped it back to metal, any patches and all the floors, firewall and engine bay i made all buy hand. i didnt bother with replacement parts its just impossible to find these days

yeah its a bit of a mission alright. Is the crossflow for the mk1?

I have to second Gaz and say 2L zetec. theres stacks of info out there about doing it. and more and more stuff available to get it done easier.

Have a look at this zetec to escort guide. http://www.classicfordmag.co.uk/2010/01/28/how_to_zetec_into_mk1_and_mk2_escort/

Did you have to replace any panels on it? If so mind sharing where/who you got em from?

Chur

wow. this looks the tits

Finished off removing the underseal today. Went and picked up some dry ice to see if it worked any better. Waste of time if you ask me. Air chisel did it all with no hassle. Took off about 3 plastic bags of the stuff over 3 days.

From this

To this

I didn’t get it all but what I left behind the blaster will get.

This manufacturing tag fell out from up in the roof around the windscreen. Dont know why it was there of all places, vibrations must have shaken it loose. Good find nonetheless. Just don’t understand why it says 63 under schedule number???

Check my rusty drums. haha I want 9 inch capri/GT replacements or a disc conversion. Money money money.

Was originally thinking minilites but the more I look at these cheviots the more I like em. And the more I see they need some work...

The more I think about it (and thats alot) the more I find that theres stacks of things to do when cash reserves are low. Maybe Im just a chronic procrastinator. It sucks however to have motivation at an all time high and funds at a low.

Yesterday it was 3 years since I first got her. In celebration I decided to invade my folks 2 car garage, jack it up and attack the underseal. Really happy with the state of the underside. I removed a large plastic bag full of seal, grime and shit and only found one small patch of rust!! Even that rust had come through from the inside.

I would have appreciated having a rollover jig at this point but theres only so much whining I can do about money. I still plan on getting one made and have gone to the trouble of adapting some free plans for an escort jig I found at http://www.neilfletcherracing.co.uk/the_spit.htm

I wanted to get some dry ice to hammer shatter the underseal off but it's the long weekend, BOC probably wasn’t open and I just wanted to get stuck in.

FYI. BOC sells dry ice for $5.85+GST p/kg. You’ve got to buy a minimum of atleast 1kg and it pays to ring them up so they know your coming. They recommend one of those polystyring chilly bins to transport it in. Cheap as chips way of making progress.

I ended up using my air hammer chisel to get the stuff off. At a fairly low speed it worked a treat, just got to be careful not to put the corner of the chisel through the floor or catch it on the floor contours. Also be careful not to hit seams on the 90. Still got probably half a cars worth of stuff to take off so will get some dry ice for the rest of it and see how it goes.

Looks like more of a resurrection than a restoration mate. But well done. Repairs look great!