1965 Clark Cortez

hey, it's not only 10mm. I lose 13mm in equal measure.

Have you seen the Eastwood SCT? www.eastwood.com/eastwood-contour-sct.html

looks a mean stripping machine, I've seen it used on Iron Trap Garage to good effect, but a wee bit out of my price range.

No more progress but a load of new parts have arrived!


Our speedo has no idea how fast we're going, if you're doing 10mph the Cortez it knows 100% you're doing between 0mph and 20mph, it's just not sure of the exact figure. So, new speedo cable!


New thermostat and gasket


New valve stem seals, we're burning oil and I'm 100% hoping its the stem seals, if it's not them, for the price they're not worth not changing, as they'll be at least 47 (ish) years old! and were sat for at least 10 of those.


New valve cover gaskets, again these will be around 47 years old, they aren't leaking at the moment but I think as soon as I remove the valve covers they'll crack. Also, new intake manifold gaskets, I want to have a look at the push rods and lifters, also the intake manifold looks like its been in the sea for years so I wanna take it out, clean it up and paint it!


And finally, a rebuild kit for the Carter carburetor. Again, this is loppy and I doubt has been rebuilt in a long time. Its so gummed up that the choke sticks and the accelerator cable wheel (can't think of another word for it?) doesn't go 'home', meaning that if the engine is idling at 1000rpm and you rev the engine to 3000rpm when it comes back to idle it will stick around 2000 / 1500 rpm.


Thanks!

Andy & L

So, on Saturday we had a mobile welder come and look at the Cortez. We've decided that there is just too much for us to do! I've welded in the past but it was never pretty. I had enrolled in a welding course a the start of the year but obviously Covid-19 cancelled that! The guy seems really interested in the Cortez and we've agreed that we will do as much of the prep work and cleanup as possible saving us some cash.

The first job is going to be the roof so that we can then get is resealed and make the RV 90% water tight - The remaining 10% leaks in through the cracked and / or missing door / window seals.

The next will probably be the front passenger corner and interior step.

The rest of the jobs can be found in our latest YouTube video.



I know everyone isn't a fan of videos so I'll make sure to get some photos up later!

Yea we agree! Our welder man has ordered a 5ft by 8ft sheet of steel to get us going. We'll be heading to the Cortez this afternoon and I need to find out from him if he wants to do the roof ribs or the roof skin first - We'll be cutting it out to save him time and us money (I think I've said that previously?). Obviously if we cut the ribs out we can't get on the roof until they're replaced.

So GREAT update time!

Well, let's start with the crappy update first!
Thursday evening we went to the Cortez for "an hour" to cut out the rust ribs from the roof to save time when our welder man arrived on Saturday. Well, that went to pot as when we were driving up to the garage the Cortez died. Tried firing it up and it did for about 4 seconds and died again. Found the wire from the coil to the dizzy was loose so shoved it back it and it fired up only to die again. Checked the new fuel pump for leaks and then couldn't get it started at all. Thought it had ran out of petrol so chucked 5gal in. Still wouldn't run. Took the pipe from the fuel pump to the carb off and turned it over. No petrol. Took the pipe off the inlet to the fuel pump. No petrol. Took the pipe off to yet another fuel pump we found and again no petrol... initially thought it had vapor locked too.
So ripped out the non working fuel pump, which we think is clogged from running the tank empty, stuck in a new fuel filter we had spare and tried turning it over to pull petrol through. Still nothing. So armed with a can of easy start L turned the engine over while I got it running with the easy start. After about a minute it ran fine and you could see the petrol going through the carb. It was fine when we left. Excluding a fuel leak from the filter which was just a loose clip.

So that was 3 hours lost with no progress on the roof.

Lets move on.

Saturday! What a great day that was!

We got a late start but made great progress!
Me and L chopped out the rotten roof ribs while our welder man, Paul got set up, the roof looked like this.



A few short hours later it looked like this



The original ribs looked like this



But we couldn't get anything in the same profile so some decently thick 1" square bar was used. Bent to shape and welded into place we had ribs!



While Paul was welding, L was bust grinding away rust... I was busy taking photos.



When I got back to work I started cutting out the rusty parts of the roof and old vent holes





L even had a crack too



Paul made great progress on the roof panels too.
While welding in the new panel on the left in the image below, he was struggling with it distorting and moving. His soltuon was to tack weld in some small brackets on the inside of the roof to support the new panel and then weld it all together, it worked fantastic!



We'll be back on Monday to tackle the rest of the roof, the rear battery / gas storage area floor and the front battery area (we want it boxed in). Then I'll be back with Tuesday with Paul to hopefully move onto the front passenger-side corner and fill in random holes inside.

Have a great weekend!

Andy&L

Thank you so much grizz!
Saturday was felt like such a great leap forward. Hoping today brings us another step closer to completing it!

Well, last night was a write off, we got home and crashed out!
Here are some more progress pictures!

We start looking at the front corner of the Cortez, at some point in it's life it's had a smack and whoever "repaired it" should honestly be put in the stocks and have lumps of bodyfiller thrown at them!




We've dug out the majority of the filler now and we *think* we can save the bottom edge keeping the radius and corner which will save us so much tme and effort! It is a bit crinkly and dinged from 55 years worth of travelling but it doesn't need to be perfect! I just need to take some brave pills and cut the bad metal out now!

As fast as our welder man, Paul was filling in holes




I was cutting new




and even bigger ones!




This one measures about 4ft x 1.5ft. L was very against this but as we were putting new metal over an existing vent hole and the metal either side was extremely pitted and had a number of holes in she was quickly out-voted and I set to work. We've already got the replacement panel cut and ready to go in this morning.

L also prepped some areas on the front of the Cortez but somehow neither of us got images of them, so I'll add them to the next post.

Thanks!

Nobody ever sees the roof on something like this, last autumn we noticed our mid roof transit at work was leaking, it was only when we went upstairs to take look we noticed the whole back of the roof was smashed in and someone had obviously driven under a height restriction lower than the van, judging by the rust and dirt it had been like that most of the summer yet no one had noticed.

That's crazy but I guess if there isn't an issue is doesn't really matter.
What I was most concerned with was having areas where water could puddle if parked. With how it is now I don't think it will happen.



A gantry would be great but I'm hoping that once we've got it sealed up we won't to be back up there until we fit the solar panels and AC. We've got a plan to increase the number of ribs front to back inside which should help when we do have to be on the roof in the future.
Yea, getting someone who knows what they're doing was definitely the right move! Still got alot to get done welding wise so he'll be back!