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.