Renault Estafette Van, Mk2 Cortina GT

gavin rodgers on turbosport has done it without issues mate ive heard of others doing it as well

Fry up and garage. Made a start on welding the other side seat mounts





Filled in the hole I accidentally drilled last week and filled in 2 more that are in the inner sill as standard





And ground them off





I also welded the tubes and sprayed a bit of primer


And a bigger shot showing all my hard work


The seat rails aren’t finished though. I need the seats before I can drill the tubes and weld in threaded bosses. I think I’ve persuaded the misses to go on a weekend away to Wrexham so i can go to Demon Tweeks and see if the seats will fit in the car and that my ample figure will fit in the seat.

Didn’t do much more. Went to see my mother as I’m working tomorrow and went for a walk down the Harbour

Much neater.

Younger siblings are a nightmare. My younger sister and my wife’s younger brother are the reasons why our son is an only child. 🤣

Got up late this morning as I was dragged to a “ghost hunt” by Mrs Jonsey. Unsurprisingly no ghosts were found. Anyway, after breakfast I started on the tunnel. The last post showed the new tunnel levitating about an inch above the floor as the old tunnel extension is in the way. So out with the grinder


Also drilled out a couple of spot welds around the gear stick hole


A lot of grot in there. Probably a good job I’m doing this. Still not enough clearance so it all came out


It was at this point I started stressing and sweating. This tunnel didn’t want to fit good at all. I’d seen a video on YouTube few months ago of a young lad (mk2 Mitch) fitting one of these tunnels so I had a quick flick through his vid. At one point he’s stressing asking himself “why am I cutting up my car” as he realizes the size of the job. I feel your pain young man.

My problems were compounded by the fact that I’ve also replaced the floors, I’ve cut out part of the bulkhead, the cars far from straight and I really can’t be arsed with this after 2 busy weeks in work. So I thought to unstress myself  I’d repair the bulkhead first.

Tacked in

Welded


And ground



With that sorted I put the tunnel back in and played with it in different positions. Went for the best compromise and ended up with gaps like this

So I massaged them into place with a hammer and blunt chisel and screwed the tunnel down








I then drew around and removed it



Then drew another line 15mm further in

I then cut it out to the inner line and ground the epoxy off (no photo evidence of this- you’ll have to trust me).

I used my joddler/punch to put some holes in the flange. I’ve had this since I was a teenager. The hole is too small (5mm?) so I always dril the holes out bigger. But this puts the hole quite close to the edge of the metal so you can get burn through to the edge. So I got the grinder out and cut the slot from this

To this



It’s only a couple of mm but will hopefully make the difference.

The edge got primed and the tunnel screwed back in








I can now plug weld the tunnel in and I’ll stitch weld it also from underneath tomorrow

my first mk2 Escort back in ‘96 was originally an auto so had the same tunnel. I Knew it had a bigger tunnel but I’d forgotten how big it was. It is Massive. Far bigger than it needs to be. But it is a lot neater than what I had. Rallying rules have also changed where bigger tunnels can mean the MSUK classification can change. But this is a Ford fit tunnel so should be ok

Great work as always 👍🏻. I often modify my hand tools to make them more efficient.....or to make them do something they were never designed for....which then renders then useless for what they were designed for! ....if you know what I mean 😀😀
Ghost hunting....sounds interesting, although, as confirmed by yourself......uneventful. My late Nan used to be interested in all that. She also liked a drink. My dad always joked that she was known as the Exorcist because she wouldn't leave the house till all the spirts were gone! 😁

I was on call on Tuesday. I had planned to refit the engine in the morning but when I woke up it was peeing down, so watched TV instead. So this morning I was up at 9, fry up and then out the garage.
First I had to tidy up as the place was a sh1t tip. That done, it was time to fit the engine and ‘box.


It’s on a trolley which makes it easy to move around on my own. When I took the engine out it was tight with the manifolds still on so I removed the exhaust side to make things easier


So with the trolley positioned under the ‘bay, I lowered the car onto the engine and ‘box. It’s still on the cross member so after a couple of attempts I got it all lined up and 3 of the cross member bolts in. One has gone missing somehow. The only casualty was the dip stick pull snapped off 😩. I think I have a spare.





The bit of wood is to hold the gearbox where I want it.

When I fitted the tunnel I didn’t cut the gear stick hole

Using the aluminum gear stick hole thingy as a template, I marked up the cut lines


Quick zip with the grinder


And we have a hole. The gearbox can now lift higher up into the tunnel and I can start making the ‘box mounts. When I first fitted the 5 speed I just drilled some holes and bolted the mount to the floor. With the new tunnel the mount isn’t long enough to bridge the gap. I could weld extensions on and bolt it back through the floor again. In fact this is what I did when I had put a manual gearbox into my old mk2 Escort auto shell. But I decided to make some box mounts in the tunnel instead.

It was at this point I forgot to take any photos. But in a nut shell, I bent some 1.6mm steel, welded some m8 nuts inside and tacked them to the shell. It was at this point I remembered to take some photos so here you go.


I really should have taken the engine and ‘box back out and put the shell back on the rotisserie so I could weld it all together. It would have been tidier and I wouldn’t have had molten steel dripping on me, but I couldn’t be arsed with all that so buzzed them up from underneath whilst molten steel dripped on me.











A bt of primer got added and the mount bolted up so I could see the results of all my hard work. I might grind all the welds off. I might not.






I’m navigating for my nephew in his Astra GTE at a rally in Caerwent army base tomorrow so there’ll be no progress until next weekend.

Thanks Mr T. It’s a Ford I4 engine out of a mk5 Escort Rs2000 16v. When I first fitted one it was 150bhp for £100. They’ve gone up a bit now. I’ve got a 2.3 bottom end from a Ford Galaxy that I may use to give a bit more go.

There was a 2.3 with 260bhp on fb this morning for £2800. Bargain. Mrs Jonsey would go nuts if I spent that money though