1966 MK1 Cortina GT

In between working on the doors etc I started on a dummy build, I'm not making massive changes to the engine etc but it had been apart for so long and at the time we were looking to move to our first house and it made sense to put the Cortina back together as much as possible for that move so the reconditioned engine was put back in with a bare gearbox case and the wiring loom.

The original engine had been sold to fund a zetec conversion - it was seized solid, I should have kept it but hindsight! I changed my mind on the zetec mainly because I like the look of the old Kent engine and let's be honest I'm not going to be setting land speed records in a Cortina!





I had worked on a bike a bike carb conversion but the carbs needed some work so that's been shelved for now 





Things were generally going ok, at this point the loom was in as it was and things worked but the Cortina only had 1 fuse and that's for the indicators - so I thought now was the time to add a fuse box and relays so I could use H4 bulbs, an electric coolant fan and an electric fuel pump for bigger carbs and to do away with the old mechanical pump.

I mounted the fuse box and started cutting a wire and extending it to the fuse box and then back to the cut wire - one system at a time just taking it easy, I started with the headlights as they needed more work for the relays and then I went back to the sidelights....

As I was setting up for this I noticed the nearside sidelight was a little intermittent so thought I'll sort it before doing the fuse otherwise I might make a mistake - that was the mistake! Wiggling the wire my fingers got very hot - I had shorted the wire and quickly sprang up and watched my loom toast itself! It was like watching a long fuse on dynamite in an old western!




To fix this I used an old piece of chipboard and again removed a burnt wire, replacing it with the same colour and size then adding a fuse or a relay - much easier than doing it in the car but words can't express how annoying I find wiring!







With it all working it went back in the Cortina to test it





The engine was soon running but rather loud mainly because there was no exhaust! You'd think getting a stainless exhaust for a mk1 Cortina would be easy, it's not! Ashley only make mild exhausts which are generally low quality and piper's are hard to get hold of and need modifying to work with the standard GT manifold or you can buy the whole lot for £500 at the time - which was too steep for me.

I figured why not make my own - it's only stainless and so I bought some 180 degree bends and 2m of straight pipe along with a straight through silencer all for £120, I cut it and tacked it all up then handed it over to a friend of mine to TIG it all up.











I made my own hangers using stainless bar and more modern rubbers, it's quite raspy but not too loud. It's 1 3/4" instead of the pipers 2" for the power I'll make it's more than enough but not too loud.

Now that all that was done with it had to all come out and start the bodywork.

he bodywork

Everything up to this point was a learning curve, I'll give everything a go after all that's why I took a project on like this. I'd never done bodywork before so started reading up on what I needed and how to do things. Chris was an enormous help with this even which I'm thankful for.

With the various repairs done over the years the red oxide was looking rough so figured start with bare metal, spray a base epoxy coat down then long block with 180 to find my highs and lows.















cue lots of filling and sanding!
























Eventually I was left with this







Except for this



The nearside rear, I had spent a lot of time on this door as it had a large dent in it as well as the rust. I was on the fence about keeping it but thought I'll try to repair it as buying a 2nd hand door could be just as problematic. I'd finished the repairs and the filling when I was about to start the final primering when it fell off the hooks it was held up with and smashed the lower corner - a reskin it is then! As it was a 6 week lead time I figured I'd start the interior and engine bay painting as they're unaffected by this.