Monday 26th May. - A short drive out.

 It was supposed to rain today, but I woke up this morning to glorious sunshine. As a result, I put some of my outstanding work to one side and decided to go for a drive in my Zetec Cortina instead. 

Since changing the diff ratio to 3:31, this car drives a lot better. However, I'd suspected for some time that the front seal in the diff is slightly leaking and after jacking up the car on my return, it turned out that this is indeed the case. So I shall be speaking to the man who built it for me and see what he's got to say. It does annoy me when you pay a lot of money for someone to do a job and it isn't up to standard. The trouble is, it seems to be happening more and more these days. 

Saturday 24th May - Billericay Breakfast meet.

 Good friend Dave Harvey was down this weekend and we made arrangements to meet our other friend, Gavin at the breakfast meet. Luckily the rain that had been coming down since 5am had stopped so the meet was dry. I still think that put a lot of people off though as there wasn't many people there. 

One car that did catch my eye was a nice 2 door Ford Corsair GT. These are a very rare car now and I can't remember the last time I saw one. 

Dave and I left after a couple of hours as we had a prior arrangement on the Isle of Sheppey. (Well, I was going to look at another car!) The traffic on the Dartford Bridge was awful and it took far longer to get there than it should have. We spent an hour or so looking over the car and then went for a bag of chips on the seafront while we let the traffic die down a bit. 
Luckily, the drive home was traffic free and we made good time. Time for a nice cup of tea, then a visit to the pub! 

Tuesday 20th May - The engine's in!

 I finished work on time again today, so it was time to get a few more garage hours in, especially as I'm busy for the rest of the week and this would be the only chance this week.

I had to finish off fitting the steering column shroud and parcel shelf that had been extracted when I removed the steering box, but once this was done I turned my attention to the engine. I fitted the engine mounts as they had been removed by the engine builder and also re-fitted the clutch, making sure the bolts were tightened to the correct torque setting. 

The engine didn't want to go back in first of all, but with a bit of jiggery pokery it was soon in place. However, while the bell housing bolts lined up fine, the engine mounts didn't want to line up with the crossmember. After a bit of head scratching and thwarted efforts, I decided to remove the engine mounts from the block and swap them over. I mean, they looked exactly the same shape, so I didn't think they were handed, but I reckon they must be as things then became a lot easier and I was able to get the securing bolts in. 

As it was now 7.15pm, I called halt and went indoors for some dinner. I'm not sure when I will get a chance to get this finished off now as the rest of my week and the coming bank holiday weekend is looking quite busy, but any progress is still progress, so I was pleased with what I'd got done. To be continued! 😊

Monday 19th May- Steering box corrected!

 As luck would have it, one of my jobs today at work was to deliver a car back to Barking in Essex. This would take me down the A13 and past Lakeside which is where the company that did my steering box are situated. So, a quick diversion saw me calling into their workshop and the chap that runs it corrected my steering box while I waited. 

I also managed to finish work a tad early as well, so I went straight out into the garage when I got home home so I could get the steering box fitted. It's a fiddly job, so I took my time with it and about an hour later, it was in place and all bolted up. Another job off the list. engine next! 

Sunday 18th May - Battlesbridge Breakfast meet and aborted steering box fitting!

 Today was another classic car breakfast meet at Battlesbridge Antiques Centre. I set out at about 8.30am and when I turned off of the A127 and onto the A1245 dual carriageway I found myself sitting behind a 4.2 litre E type Jaguar. As soon as he saw my little Cortina Mk1 in his mirror, he pushed the loud pedal down and tried to put some distance between us. However, he didn't know what my little Cortina has under the bonnet. (A fuel injected twin cam Zetec engine) Needless to say, at 80mph he gave up the chase as he knew he couldn't get away from me. I do like being able to surprise people with this car. 😊

It was a good meet and made all the better by my friends Russell and Jan who I hadn't seen for over a year attending. Gavin and Peter were there too and we all had breakfast together. 

There was some unusual cars in attendance as well and one of the things I like about this meet is that there always seems to be different cars turning up. It's never just the same old cars. 

(The E type that thought he could get away from me!) 

Around 12pm I left as I wanted to get some work done on the Green Cortina. The steering box had been refurbished and I had collected it on Thursday. I had spent time on Saturday de-rusting the toe board and making it look better. (Even though it can't be seen when it's in position.)

So, I got the car up on axle stands and started re-installing the steering box. It did seem a bit awkward, but eventually I managed to get it in position, but it still felt that something wasn't quite right. 
After a short investigation, I was dismayed to find that during its refurbishment, it hadn't been put back together properly. There are some mounting brackets on the column and these should sit vertically. The problem was that my brackets were all sitting horizontally, so they wouldn't line up with the fitting brackets that they were supposed to. How bloody annoying! I was hoping to fit the steering box and then refit the engine as well, but now the engine will have to wait until the steering box is corrected. 

Wednesday 14th May - Engine collection.

 I had a phone call from the engine builder on Sunday telling me my Engine was ready. He was busy for the next few days, so arrangements were made to collect it today. Luckily for me I managed to finish work early, so I made the trip to Wickford to collect it. 
Apparently the engine was in pretty good condition. The pistons were new, as were the big end bearings and the main bearings. However, it looked like whoever had put the engine together originally hadn't honed the bores in the cylinder block which would apparently lead to 'blow back' and cause excessive pressure inside the crank case. The cylinder head gasket was suspect as well. 

So, each cylinder had been given a good hone and the engine was reassembled with new piston rings and a new timing chain. It had also been given a real good clean and a nice paint up as well, so it looked really smart. The engine was then loaded into my car and taken home ready to install into my Green Cortina. This wont be for a while yet though as I want to get the steering box refurbished and it will be lot easier to refit the steering box while the car has no engine in place. 

Sunday 11th May- Battlesbridge Autojumble.

 Whilst removing the steering box from the Green Cortina I discovered another part that needed replacing. (It just keeps on giving this car!) Luckily, a quick scan on ebay found the part that I needed and it was also being sold by my Friend Keith. After a quick phone call, I found out that Keith was going to the Battlesbridge autojumble and would bring it over for me and meet me over there. The part in question is a foam gasket that fits under the column shield and as you can see below, mine was quite knackered! 

I was at Battlesbridge quite early and while waiting for Keith to arrive I met up with Gavin for a couple of cups of coffee. Upon looking around the stalls I also found a couple of nice metal plaques for my garage wall. 

To be honest, the autojumble wasn't as big as usual and I had seen all I needed to by about 12pm, so I made tracks as I had other things to do. it was still quite a nice morning and good to get out. 

Saturday 10th May - A job I had been dreading for a long time!

 Since owning the Green Cortina I've always felt that the steering had a lot of play in it. I'd always put it down to the fact that it was due to it having a steering box, rather than rack and pinion steering which is far more accurate.

However when you compare it to driving the Zetec Cortina the two cars are worlds apart. The Zetec steering feels nice and tight while the Green car resembles sailing a boat in force nine gales. 

While the engine is out of the Green car I felt that now would be the best time to remove the steering box and get it refurbished. Having no engine in the car gives you a lot more room to work. So after speaking to a few Cortina friends for advice and reading the workshop several times, I decided to bite the bullet and get stuck in. In situations like this, I always think back to what one of my ex-girlfriends, Amanda, said to me, which was: 'Sometimes, the THOUGHT of doing something is worse than the actual doing it'. 

So with this ringing in my ears I made a start. I'd had to work as well today, but started very early so that I could have a good few hours in the afternoon to get the job done. (I had to deliver one car to Margate in Kent, then come back and deliver another car to Maldon in Essex. I started at 5am and was finished by 12pm. 

Anyway, I digress, so I drank my cup of coffee while staring into my empty engine bay while trying to figure out how the hell the steering box (and column-they cant be disconnected whilst in the car) would be able to exit the car from underneath. (That's what the workshop manual had said!)

The first job was to remove the steering wheel, then the indicator and headlight arm and then the column shroud. I then found two crosshead screws that had to be removed to relieve grip on the column. Next was to remove the parcel shelf so that I could remove another bolt that holds the column to the pedal box. The last to do inside the car was undo the metal plate that the column goes through via the firewall. This also has a foam gasket which I knew was completely knackered, but luckily my friend Keith has one for sale and will be bringing it to the Battlesbridge autojumble for me to collect. 

Work then moved to inside the engine bay where I had to disconnect the pitman arm on the steering box from the steering link. This caused no problems and I was now at the stage where the car had to be jacked up and placed on axle stands to provide enough room to manoeuvre the steering box out from underneath. 

I also found out at this point that it's easier to remove the offside front wheel to gain access to the three bolts that secure the steering box to the chassis rail. (The workshop manual didn't mention that!) Once I'd removed the three bolts the steering box was free, but I still couldn't find enough room from underneath to remove it. I then decided to disconnect the track rod from the drop arm and this then gave me enough room to 'manoeuvre' the steering box out of the car. (The workshop manual never mentioned that either!) 

So the job that I had been dreading for months and months was now complete. It took just under two hours. It will now be taken to a steering box specialist in West Thurrock in Essex when time permits. I'm not sure I would have fancied doing it with the engine in place though, so I definitely wont be refitting the engine until the steering box is refurbished and back in the car! 😊

Saturday 3rd May - Zetec Cortina MOT time!

 The 365 days since the last MOT had come round really quick and so it was time for the Zetec Cortina to be checked over again. I know that classic cars don't need an MOT, but it's a condition of my classic car insurance that this one does because it's classed as modified. (It produces twice as much brake horse power as it did when it left the factory!)

It would also be interesting to see what kind of brake readings I would get on the brake rollers seeing as I have recently carried out a rear disc brake conversion on the car.

The guy doing to the Mot was impressed with the car and the brake readings were spot on. I was worried that the new callipers on the rear would have a better braking efficiency than the fronts, (which is not allowed) but this wasn't the case. In fact, the total braking efficiency of my car was 69%, which apparently, is better than most modern cars. That's pretty good considering I haven't even got a servo fitted. 

The car passed with no advisories and I celebrated by driving round to Gavin's house and we both went to his local cafe for breakfast. A very good, successful day. 😊

(Look how small the Cortina is compared to the BMW!) 

Sunday 27th April - Battlesbridge Breakfast Meet.

 This was the first Battlesbridge meeting of the season and due to the bright sunshine I expected it to be quite packed. I was able to have a 'proper' drive today on unrestricted roads and test the new 3:31 ratio in the differential I'd just had built. I was really pleased with the result and I now don't feel as though the car needs a five speed gearbox. 

Even though I arrived early, there were still people that had got there before me. It looked like it was going to be a busy day. 

Good friends Gavin and Peter arrived shortly after I'd arrived so we headed to the marquee for breakfast and coffee. Cars were pouring in at a good rate and pretty soon they were starting to use the second field to get everyone in. 

It was a beautiful morning weather wise and a pleasure to be out in the sunshine again. I like this meet because as well as the regulars, there are always cars that I've never seen before which makes it very interesting. 

About lunch time I called it a day as I had things to do at home, plus I had to run some parts down to my engine builder. Hopefully he'll have my engine repaired soon and I'll be able to get the Green Cortina back on the road. 

Saturday 26th April. Billericay breakfast meet.

 At last the weather was getting a bit warmer, so a visit to the Billericay breakfast meet was on the agenda. It would also be the fist proper drive for the Zetec since the fitting of the 3:31 differential and the rear disc brakes. 

I left early in case I had any issues and as a result, I was the first one there. The only trouble with the drive down to Billericay is the roads are all 50mph speed limits, so I couldn't get up to the speed I wanted to to test the diff. 

After a while other people started arriving and a few of my friends as well. We enjoyed a bacon roll and a coffee and spent time looking at the other cars. While I was there I received a text reminder that the MOT was due  on the Zetec Cortina in the next couple of weeks, so I rang the garage and booked it in for the following Saturday. 

All too soon it was time to head home and hope that the traffic wasn't too bad. (The A127 can be a nightmare when the sun comes out, because everyone heads for Southend!) Luckily, the A127 was fairly quiet and I was home in no time at all. It had been a good morning and nice to finally go out without needing a coat!