1969 Mk2 Cortina 1600E

[orionmojo]

This is a recap form another thread on another forum, so sorry if the continuety is abit skewed.

After advertising my Cortina for about 6 months, having numerous leads and inquiries, dropping the price again and again then selling it for the third time on ebay, and being let down... for a third time i've had a chat with my dad and i'm going to keep it, reinvent it and use it again for the summer.
I love the car and have had some brilliant times in it and didn't really want to sell it deep down but the orion takes too much money to keep on the road to warrant 2 lots of insurance and petrol. but I cant get rid of it so i'm going to push through the bank balance and get it back on the road. The orion wont be going anywhere soon though dont worry

the Cortina hasn't seen tarmac since april 09 and that was only a brief stint whilst NMS was fettling the orion. its been off the road really for about 15 months. which is bad, too bad for a classic sitting outside. its aged very well however and went though her MOT yet again straight away :mrgreen: Happy days. It will look drastically different to how it does now when i've finished. The orion has the wood and leather interior also, i cant have 2 1600E's now can i, that would just be greedy :P

Stripped out racer look is what i'm going for. As for the counting my chickens title, i haven't started yet. theres some suspect areas on the car especially around the windscreen, so it could be the beginnning of the end for the shell. i'd sell just the shell off i think rather than scrap it, but buy a better one, or keep the running gear for a mk1 escort if it turns out theres too much grot. My uncle is on hand however and he's restored loads of british classics, a few mk2 jag's, a jag 420, a few astons, and a good few others so it takes a fair bit to scare him.

How she looked when i got her.
May 2006





Circa April 2007









June 2007 (Run to the Sun) 560 miles in 1 weekend, and she never gave any trouble.










July / August 2007. The day before ford fair. I never got to go because I forgot to tax it ops:





3 weeks after those pictures were taken, I flew off to Australia. When I got back I used it for a few months when I was turboing the orion in late 2008, then again for a week or two in april 2009. that brings me to now.

On a different Reg. ready to be sold, but still polished up nicely. Started after 5 mins or so too. Not too shabby for a 40 year old motor!








It will be stripped, slammed, caged/roll hoop, bit of a dash, some cheap bucket seats, but no halfords crap. Twin 40’s would be superb, but the running gear is staying exactly the same for now, they might come later. I want the cosmetics done first. I’m aiming for something between these two, for some proper summer blasts.












Sorry about the life story, I’m abit bored at the moment lol but also really excited about starting this.
Wish me luck. Joe…

I started to strip the car down today, as I wasn’t working to see what I had to work from. I’m over the moon in to be honest, I couldn’t have a better start for what I want to do.
First on all I jacked up all 4 corners and had a good poke around too see if there was anything obvious that needed attention, but its all undersealed so you cant see a lot, plus, it passed the rubber mallet test anyways so I’m happy to leave that ther for now at least.
I then started in the boot, armed with the dustpan and some scrapers. I Took all the carpet up, some of which was glued down, along with the rubber sound deadening material on the boot lid which had gone soft, but also held water. Luckily though nothing more than a few surface scabs. One small hole in the floor which I already knew about, surface rust in the spare wheel well. Very solid overall. Touch!









Carried on through the firewall, although a cardboard firewall might not pass many safety tests today haha rear seats…



Up! …




Completely Solid again



Front seats out, drivers one fell apart but the passenger one is alright. I might try and sell that one with the rears. Not sure yet.




This is how much sponge was in the drivers seat




Carpet out, Passenger side front and rear is very clean. I was well surprised. Drivers side which I knew was damp was also completely solid I can’t believe that one. The carpet and underlay was knackered and rotten ,but the metal underneath is 100% . :king: I must remember to say my prayers more often :cry:






















This is how much rotten underlay I took out.



And the tools I found under the carpet, Woo! Lol



Random



I’m So chuffed with it though. It’s a million times cleaner than I was expecting it to be, its been round the block a few times all the inside floors need are a degrease, rub down and paint. I’ll chequer plate some of it aswell, so the welding will be covered too. I’m off to buy a lottery ticket. :king:

I've been chipping away at sound deadening for a while after work yesterday and today though, boring tedious job, and nothing to report on it. I did get a small delivery though!

The Rally Design stuff is here, i love getting parts 8)
Not too exciting, but i got some -2" lowering springs, and i already had the -2" blocks but threw them in for the pic , for continuity :wink:



I robbed the battery cut off switch off my dad, i have no idea where he gets this stuff lol, but i'm not complaining as it saved me a few quid.
Fire extinguisher pull Cable (this will be wing mounted along with the cut off switch, but i'm using it to open the bonnet instead of an extunguisher. )
bonnet pins with recesses
boot clamp spring thingies!
harness eye bolts and backplates.
I'm well chuffed with my haul. it keeps me inspired whilst chipping away at sound deadening anyway


i also got the trickest little gadget you'll ever see.

a pole dancer for my aerial How freaking cool is this :mrgreen:



That’s up to date now, more stripping down tomorrow, and I’ll have apicture update too hopefully. 

Joe.

[edsel]

I've always had a soft spot for tina specially 16E's. Good luck with the project and if you get yours that low you should really put something with 6 or more cylinders in it, a 2l pinto at least .

[Danno1975]

Looking forward too seeing more, my Dad had one first time around (could'nt afford a lotus cortina).

[03OKH]

Excellent start given the foundations Look forward to seeing the updates & thanks for sharing this.

Tony

[Dipesh]

Looking good. Any of your orion??

[Cullers]

OMG - my first ever car! That was (well a similar one!) the car i learnt to drive in and first did the ton in. Mine was a disgusting sandy grey colour, actually more khaki.

Learnt to drive in that one (a 1600E) and then customised it.... frenched the arial, spoiler on the front and rear, chopped the bumper and put a pair of Fireballs on and put spacers on the rear wheels to make 'em look wider! Interior was furry seat covers with a add on head rest and a load of gauges from different cars from the scrap yards. Then when I came out of the Marines, bought myself a lovely Lotus Cortina. Two door in white and green. I'd forgotten how much room there was to play under the bonnet (which had the ubiquitous rubber stays on there and a totally unrealistic power bulge). Never truly appreciated that car until it went to Fords great garage in the sky lol.

Love the car mate. A true classic. When driving a car and looking after it were one and the same thing.

[EliteCarCare]

Nice Mk2, make sure you keep the minilites, or maybe change to some wider superlites like in the white/cream one in the pics..

Alex

[davewhitt]

it's times like this that you just sit and think 40 year old car can't be ,i had one of them and i'm only ?.first car i had that did a ton was a mk 1 cortina 1500 gt long gone now ..

ps i wanted a lotus to

[RyanJon]

Cant wait to show this thread to my dad.

He always tells me the story about his 1600e he had when he were a lad.
He was an apprentice at ford, and bought 1 that had been wrapped round a lamp post. The dealership he worked at had just got there ovens for baking metalic paint, and used his 1600e as a test bed & painted it oyster gold. He's had literally 100's of cars over the years, but saysits the 1 car he wishes he never sold.

Ryan

[Richf]

Brings back memories i put a Rover V8 in one of these a few years back