Renault Estafette Van, Mk2 Cortina GT

if you had been there you would see why!!

I have covers and bump stops to go in mt front struts when I build them up should give added protection to the strut rod.

I was reminded of an interesting fact whilst putting the strut on yesterday. You the see the front springs are off James Bond's car. Now when I say James Bond, I mean Roger Moore. You see Roger once owned a mk2 Cortina 1600E. A series 2 to be exact. These springs are actually off that car. Now these are 2" lowered and I'm not for one moment suggesting Roger was out side is house one Sunday fitting lowering springs to his 1600E. That would be cool though. But the the guy who now owns the car was putting the car back to standard after someone (probably not Roger) had fitted them. I then bought said springs and have fitted them to my Cortina.

So there you go, James Bond's springs (probably not).

Today I sorted the other rear brake so all is good there. I then started do rebuild the front suspension. I've bought new track rod ends but they are 2 different types. One is light duty and the other is heavy. I spoke to the club spare guy and another heavy duty is on its way.
Fitted the steering box





I built up the steering with the old track rod ends for now. There actually in good condition, they just need new boots.



I've managed to cobble together 4 wheels that do hold air (might not hold it for long though). Then slowly it landed back on the floor.







It's sitting a bit high in the back by an inch. Hopefully it'll come down when everything is in it. I've also fitted a standard steering wheel that's not cracked! Most go for a1600E steering wheel (of which I've got a few), but I prefer the look of the standard spindly 3 spoke. I also like the look of the mk1 Cortina centre badge rather than the Cortina "script", so I've fitted one of those too.
Apologies for the poor photo. There was a bright light outside in the sky. Not seen that in a while.

Thanks Pete. I think the Corsair is the same as the mk1. The mk2 is a slightly different set up. I don't know what the difference is though. I've only put the old ball joints on so I can take it over my brothers to get it flatted and polished. I'll get it set up properly once the new ones are on and the engine is in.

I think it's cool.

I got fed up of thinking about tyres. I've been walking around car shows and whenever I'd see some Lotus steel wheels I'd be taking pictures of the wheels and tyres looking for a "look" that I like. I'm far to young for 80 series as I'm far to young for that even the the old guard in the Cortina club will tell you they drive better on them - I don't care. I didn't want 185 60's as they looked to wide on a 5.5". I wanted a 70 series look but they all looked a curse word shape like they were just a budget tyre to do a job and aesthetics didn't matter. In the end I gave up and just bought some Yokohama A539 175 60's. If I grow to hate them I'll burn them off on the rally car.






I've also resprayed the grille black like a 1600evand refitted.

Next I pulled an engine out of the local harbour. Well it looks like it.

Removed a broken exhaust stud


In guessing a core plug is leaking


But a bonus is it dies have a performance air filter fitted.
I then spent half an hour removing all the rusty flakey paint. If you ever need to do this get yourself a brrrrt. It's brilliant easy and quick.

Van.
I've been using the van. No where far. Just over my brother's garage and picking up Jonsey Junior (The Younger) from school which put a smile on his face. No photos though. I had a few looks. Not sure if they thought it was cool or they're not used to seeing a van being driven with the door open.

Cortina.
Change of plan on the engine front. I was going to use the engine that came with the car. The PO told me that it ran brilliantly and was really quick up hills etc. But he'd also told me he had done all the welding underneath. Remembering that I had spent 2 years welding this replacing all the chassis rails as they had been covered in what looked like bean tin quality steel and layers of black curse word, I decided that taking his word on the engine condition may not be the best decision. So roll out engine No2.

Now this beast isn't really a beast at all. It used to live in the Escort until I converted it to 16v. But I do know its condition. I bought it for £90 about 12years ago. It had been rebuilt with +20 pistons but where most people fit 1300cc pistons to up the compression ratio, they for some reason used 1600cc pistons so a rather uninspiring standard compression ratio exists. I've fitted to it a rebuilt bid valve head with a bit of porting, Rimflow valves, bronze valve guides and double valve springs. I've also fitted an old stool Cosworth A2 cam - nothing to wild there. When this engine was first in the Escort, Jones Junior (The Elder) who was about 5 at the time put some nuts down the carb whilst in the garage with me. The Little Cherub. I subsequently took the car for a little spirited drive where the engine consumed said nuts and made a horrible noise as you can imagine. To fix it I pulled the head off, used a screwdriver and hammer to chisel the damaged valve pockets back into shape as the nuts had managled the piston. I straightened the valve in the vice, relapped it and refitted it all. And it worked good after until I went on a quest for more power.

So it's not a brilliant engine, but is a known quantity. But it needs to be converted to fit the Cortina as that has a front bowl sump and the Escort has a rear bowl sump. So sump off, cleaned and sprayed satin black, and timing chain cover off also as the dipstick is now housed there.





Flywheel next. On the Escort I ran a Cast flywheel that was that was machined to take a larger pinto clutch and it was also lightened. I used it in competition for about 15 years and it never exploded and killed baby ducks like everyone moans about. Only problem with it is on the Cortina I want to run a standard clutch and the face of the flywheel on the Escort flywheel is 8mm closer to the engine. It might be fine but I've got no time for release bearing issues so I've sent a Cortina flywheel to a mate for it to be lightened (without it exploding and killing baby ducks).



I do have a standard GT Cortina flywheel, but I made a lamp out of that so it's no good now.



So the engine was attacked with the brrrrt to remove layers of old paint, rearbowl sump fitted with Cortina timing cover and painted satin black too.



This morning before work I've fitted new front wheel bearings, vented discs and calipers. I have to change the caliper end brake pipe as it is now metric as these are Escort calipers not Cortina. The thread is the only difference apart from the vented v's non vented bit.


Until next time.

Really, really happy that the time thief just does not reside exclusively in my workshop in that case - he / she also appears to be making regular visits to your place too - so do me a huge favour next he / she visits - can you lock him / her in your workshop, barricade the doors & windows and call the local nick to have him / her arrested has I'm well & truly sick of the menace on this Corsair job

Or could it be that you are getting visited by the Welsh time thief and I other hand find myself visited by the Southern time thief ?