Renault Estafette Van, Mk2 Cortina GT

Nearly teaboy , it was actually metalshapes that posted a picture of his DIY hand held shrinker on my thread. This is it.....




As to the arch issue......


 
I would cut out and remove where I've drawn in red. Then replace it with a fresh piece of flat steel that follows the line of the lower rear corner and add a 90 fold one end for the arch return etc.  Then slice/remove where I've drawn in blue ( maybe not quite as much width wise...just take away small amounts at a time ) and then push the outer arch back until it lines up with the new flat piece that would be previously tacked in. Probably clear as mud....but that's all I've got I'm afraid 😄😄

Thanks Commy.

I’ve only just welded that bit in! I was thinking I would have to go a good bit higher like you’ve shown. I’ll give it a go and if I bolls it up you can come to West Wales and help me sort it. I can do you a good deal on a nights stay in a shepherd’s hut 😁.

That’s about 4 years in graphic design school to learn that.

I had a day off today as I worked last Sunday. After food shopping with Mrs Jonsey I had to change the rear brake shoes on the eldest’s Clio.

With all that out of the way I thought I’d make a start on the other wheel arch. First I roughly cut the old one off


I started to line the new arch up taking measurements from the other side. No matter what I do, I cannot get all the measurements to be the same on this side. If I get all the measurements right on the body, the measurements with respect to the wheel is miles out. 0k, it’s only 10mm and if I was building the Forth bridge I’d be happy. But it’s only a bl00dy wheel arch.

I’ve measured across the gap at the bottom and it’s the same as the other arch, I’ve measured from the axle to the car to make sure that’s straight. I’m measuring from the rear bumper hole as a datum so perhaps that’s not right as it has had a couple of knocks.

I’ve moved the arch about that much and screwed it on to the rear quarter so many times it’s starting to look like Blackburn, Lancashire. So stuff it. I’ve locked up and I’m going for a pub meal. We’ll reconvene tomorrow

Thanks for the reply Teaboy. I totally agree. The problem I’ve got is the car is stuck on the lift as there’s no front suspension/steering. This side of the car is close to the wall so I can’t stand back and have a decent look at it. I think it would be easier with 2 people. One to hold the arch and the other to measure

That is a an option. It probably wouldn’t take that long as the cross member is on already. Forecast rain tomorrow though. I did have a quick play today and got it a lot nearer so I’m a bit happier regarding that.

Spent the afternoon fitting discs, pads all round and handbrake shoes to Mrs Jonsey’s rav4, washed the Cortina ready for Singleton show on Monday and realised it has totally eaten the inside edge of the front tires so it will need a new pair 😩. I had it tracked when I first built it and it drove fine, but must be miles out now for some reason and is really “darty” when you drive it now.

I jacked it up and everything feels tight so I’m not sure what’s changed. I’ll try and take it over my brother’s tomorrow and get it tracked again.

No pics to evidence any of this.

I’m on call today so had a little hour out the garage. Most of that time was spent hunting through the storage “pile” looking for bits.

Anyway, I got the front suspension back on


And got the car back on the floor for the first time in an age.


I can now push it outside to eye up the passenger side arch to see if it looks right.

I’m a day off today, yay. As I’m working Saturday, boo. The Escort was pushed outside so I could get an eyeful of the rear arches.






What do you think? Are they the same / close enough? Ignore the body line.





Enough of arch-gate, before the Escort was pushed outside for the first time in many many months, I took the Cortina to my younger brother’s MOT station to put it on the shaker. All to see what’s causing my tyres to wear the inside edge away. The result? Passenger side track control arm has loads of play, it didn’t appear to the other day, but it does now. The drag link has very slight play. The driver anti roll bar mount was loose.

So first fix- ARB loose bolt


Tightened bolt and lock tabs bent up as some idiot hadn’t done it (me).

Drag link bushes






These were replaced when the car was put together. They are nylon. I’ve ordered some poly replacements but I can see them being useless. I can take the cupped washer off so it tightens them up a bit. We’ll see.

Track control arm



These are expensive. When I first saw the play I was moaning to my brother how expensive these were when I bought them and why have they lasted only a few thousand miles. I then looked back through this thread.

If you look closely at the above photo of some bits being blasted, you’ll see a familiar shape. I hadn’t replaced them at all. Never mind.

But replacements are expensive. There are some NOS on eBay for £400. There are some reproduction ones from Australia for £200 plus delivery, plus however much tax will be added. There is an alternative. I have spoken to Jeff Skitt who is going to bore out the arm and fit a spherical bearing and make new pins with the correct taper (pics stolen from Turbosport forum)






These bearings can then be replaced for about £30 when required. As the car was on the lift I did a quick bolt check on everything and loosened off all the bolts to remove the TCAs as I will be dropping them off on Sunday.

The exhaust is also falling off



One rubber has snapped and the other 3 are cracked. New ones have been ordered.

And finally the Escort was pushed into the old garage. Don’t look at the Estafette. Pretend you haven’t seen it.

Thanks Teaboy

I’ll get back on “Gweek” at some point. To much going on at the moment though.