Sunday 16th August - Battlesbridge Breakfast Meet.

 After yesterdays busy exploits, today was a time to chill, so we headed down to Battlesbridge. The weather had cooled quite a bit, so it wasn't as uncomfortable as it had been recently. (I don't deal with the heat very well)
Karen and I arrived there fairly early (as usual) and headed straight to the gazebo for some coffee. Before long we were joined by my Triumph mates Peter Silk and Gavin. 
We sat talking and drinking coffee for some time, before having a wander around the cars. My favourite car was one I hadn't seen there before and was absolutely beautiful. It was a Mk2 Consul estate. There's not many of these about now, mainly because there wasn't many of then built in the first place. Ford Motor Company wasn't making their own estates when the Mk2 Consul was being produced and the conversion to estate car was given to Abbots of Farnham. 

I even managed to find a picture that was taken inside the Abbots workshop which shows the conversion process taking place. 😊

Another estate that caught my eye was a Ford Anglia estate. Quite unusual these and one of a very few estate cars that had only two doors. The only other 2 door estates I can think of from back then is the Ford Escort and the Vauxhall Viva. 

Time was getting on and we had to make a move as I had to call in to my friend Keith's to collect some parts for my LC. I had been a good morning though and it was nice to just sit around chatting to friends. We need to get some more of these meets in, because before you know it, Autumn will be closing in and another show season will have passed. 😢

Saturday 15th August - Getting legless!

After my very short couple of drives around the crescent in the LC, I had a feeling that all was not well suspension wise. I took measurements once the car was back on level ground in the garage and found a centimeter difference between the nearside and offside springs at the back of the car, and a 2.5 centimetre difference at the front. 
The 1 centimetre difference at the rear is nothing to worry about really and can easily be ignored, but only if the front is level. 2.5 centimetres doesn't sound a lot, but its amazing how much it can affect the steering and handling. 
So, todays task was remove both front struts and strip them down in readiness to take down to Gaz Shocks in Basildon. Everything came undone easy enough as it had only recently been fitted up!
I must admit to kicking myself, because I should really have got these done while they were off the car for eight months, but hey ho!
By lunchtime I had both of them removed and stripped down and found that one of the inserts was virtually seized. I also found that one of the springs measured 33cm while the other measured 31cm. 
That will be why the car wasn't sitting level then! All I need now is to get them to Gaz so they can totally refurbish them. 

Wednesday 12th August - A vast improvement!

 Saturday morning I had spent a couple of hours or so of my valuable time making a second throttle bracket for the Lotus Cortina. The first one was the correct shape, but the metal I used was too flimsy and was flexing more than I liked when put under pressure. 
The second version that I made was built from thicker metal, but to my disappointment still flexed under pressure.
Whilst browsing online for something totally different I came across a much better version to what I had designed and built. I decided that the 'not cheap' asking price was worth the risk and would hopefully save me wasting any more of my time. 
Today, the said item arrived. It came Kelvedon Lotus and they must have now decided that I had spent enough money with them to warrant giving me a couple of free stickers. (I purchased a full set of brand new brake pipes, plus other goodies from them previously). 

My garage is immensely hot by the time I get home from work, but I resisted the heat and went straight out there to fit this new work of art. I have to admit, it's a much design than my one and the 'flexing' I was experiencing is now a thing of the past. Two very good results so far this week then! 😊

Tuesday 11th August - A very nice surprise!

 So, Monday morning I started making phone calls regarding a replacement radiator for the Lotus Cortina. I was hoping to find someone who actually had one in stock and I wouldn't have to wait for them to make it. Some of the lead times were 4 to 5 weeks!
Eventually I admitted defeat and placed an order with Coolex of Nottingham who promised no more than a week and a half. This would have been around 12pm that I spoke to them and said I would be eternally grateful if they could do anything to reduce the lead time. 

So, you can imagine my surprise, and delight when the new radiator arrived the very next day! I opened the box to make sure that all the fittings were in the right place and that they hadn't just sent me any old one they had laying around, but everything was as my specifications. Even the overflow pipe fitting being on the driver side. 

Without any hesitation I went straight out into the garage to trial fit it and make sure all was well. I can safely say that it was and within half hour I had my new radiator fitted. 
I'd been a bit disillusioned with some customer service recently, but this was breath of fresh air. I know who I'll be going to with any radiator issues in future! 😊

Saturday 8th August - I finally drive the Lotus!

 Todays main task was to finally drive the Lotus Cortina out of the garage and hopefully round the block a few times. I still had a few things to do on the Green Cortina first though and being my only show car at the moment, this has to take priority.  I had carried out a compression test on the car just to see if I had a head gasket problem. The engine had been rebuilt a couple of years ago and to be honest I can't remember re-torquing the cylinder head. 
So I had carried out a compression test and re-torqued the head during the week, so this morning I just had re-fit the rocker cover and air filter and then carry out another compression test. The results of the two tests can be seen below. There's not a great deal of difference, but they are at least within 10% of each other now. Plus it rules out any head gasket issues. 

My next job was to re-fit the rear bumper again. I wasn't completely happy with the finish when it was hydrochromed, so the guy who did it offered to do it again free of charge. It looked much better this time as you can see.

Next on the list was to make a thicker throttle bracket for the Lotus Cortina as the previous one I'd made was a little bit slack. I used thicker metal this time and although it still flexes a bit, it's better than it was. After prepping the car I was ready to start it and it fired up no problem. I spotted an initial water leak, but this was only a loose jubilee clip. With this tightened the dripping stopped. 
I then drove it round the crescent a couple of times. It drove great and sounds great too. However, lifting the bonnet revealed that the repairs my mate Gavin had done to the pin holed radiator hadn't taken and it was spraying out water and it was also  leaking engine oil from somewhere. How disappointing. 😔

I quickly got the picture I had been waiting to get ever since I bought the car, (see below) and then put the car back in the garage. 

Further investigation revealed that the oil leak could be a crankshaft seal, and after speaking to my engine my engine builder, we've decided to sort the rad out first, then the car will be going to his workshop for investigation and repair. 

I was very disappointed, but the at least the test drive revealed that the brakes, clutch etc are all fine and it's only these bits that need doing. (it will need a rolling road session though to set the twin 40's up properly. 
The main thing is though, I have now driven my dream car, the Mk1 Lotus Cortina. And I loved it! I will persevere and I will make this car this great again. Watch this space! 😊

 

Sunday 2nd August - Cortina Mk1 OC National Day-Stratford Racecourse.

I was hoping to be able to take the Green Cortina to this event, but with Thurston Engineering letting me down, I ended up taking my every day car, my Peugeot 308 estate. Karen and I decided to repeat last years plan of booking somewhere to stay for two nights and travelling up to Stratford Upon Avon on the Friday night. So, Karen collected me from work Friday afternoon from Hockley at 3.30pm and we drove straight to a farmhouse B&B that we had booked, arriving at 6.40pm. 
Saturday was Karen's day, so we just mooched around the town looking in shops and just chilling out with an ice cream in the park. It's a beautiful place with plenty of lovely old buildings to admire and it made a nice change not to be working on cars for a change. 

Sunday was bright and sunny and we arrived at the show location around 09.30am. Already there were some beautiful cars there with more arriving through the morning. As well the Cortina Mk1 Owners Club having their national day there, so did the Lotus Cortina Owners Club, (Of which I am also a member) the Mk2 Cortina Owners Club and also the Ford Anglia 105E Owners Club. So there was plenty of cars there to look at. 

There was also a lot of auto jumble stands there, although I never bought anything. There was only one thing I was looking for and that was a bonnet catch for my Lotus, but I never managed to find one. Once we'd finished looking round the auto jumble we moved onto looking at the cars and there were some really lovely cars in attendance. My favourite car was there as usual and as usual I couldn't resist getting (another) photo of it. (See below) 

There was a also a couple of Mk1 saloons for sale, but despite being tempted due to my troublesome pair, I managed to resist and keep my hand in my pocket. The yellow car below was well priced at £6K and the White car priced at £9125. Both pretty good prices, but I've got enough to do at present. 

A car that would have tempted me if it were sale was a Mk1 Cortina GT estate. A very rare car in itself, but also in one of my favourite colours of Goodwood Green (Same as my four door) with a Sherwood Green flash. (The Lotus Cortina Green) I must admit, I really like the Sherwood Green flash and I'm now thinking about having one painted onto my four door. 

I couldn't leave without looking at the Lotus Cortina's and there were some gorgeous examples present. Looking at these just made me want to get my one on the road. These really are a special car in my eyes and have been my dream car since I was a kid. I've been a passenger in one, but I've never even driven one, so I need to change that soon. 

With early afternoon approaching, we decided to make a move homewards. We had well over 100 miles to cover and it was starting to get very hot as well. We'd had a lovely chilled out weekend and will be looking to do it again next year. Hopefully in a Cortina! 

  

Monday 27th July - The Lotus Cortina awakens!

 I had my engine builder coming round tonight to assist in the re-generation of the Lotus Cortina. I had carried out a few jobs in readiness of his arrival: Put petrol in, fully charged the battery and made sure there was a spark at the distributor etc. 

I had also filled the engine with 20/50 Valveoline VR1 engine oil and so the first job was to pump the oil round the engine. We did this with the spark plugs out and soon had enough pressure to fire the engine. 

It seemed to not want to go at first, but then we spotted that the ignition wire had fallen off of the coil. With this replaced the old girl fired into life. 

What a moment! This car had been sitting in a garage with the engine removed since 1977, so this was the first time it had been running for

 49 years! Amazing! 

As you can imagine I was very pleased. I've revived cars that have been standing for 23 years and 26 years before, but 49 years is definitely a fantastic achievement! 

Unfortunately, we found that the radiator was leaking slightly, so that's something else that will have to be looked at. Still a brilliant night though and I'm getting closer to driving my dream car! 😊

Friday 24th July. A free day courtesy of Thurston engineering!

 Today was the day that I was supposed be taking the Green Cortina over to Thurston engineering for a rolling road session. 
They sent me a long list of things to check before bringing the car over and I just happened to ring them on the Wednesday to query one of them. (It was to do with suppressors in spark plugs) 
Whilst on the phone to them, they then decided that they wouldn't be able to do my rolling road session due to 'staff shortages' and 'their equipment suddenly developing a fault'. What a load of old bollocks!

I pointed out to them that their check list that they sent me also so stated that I would still have to pay an hours labour if I should cancel the session inside a week. (£140 plus vat)
So I reminded them that I had booked a day off work out of my holiday allowance for today, so would they be able to reimburse me a days wages? What do you think their answer was? Yes, you are right. So, word of warning, if you need a rolling road session carried out, be very wary of THURSTON ENGINEERING of ONGAR. They are totally unreliable!

There is a guy who works in a garage near where I work who owns a very quick, fuel injected, Mk2 Lotus Cortina. So I went to see him to see if he knew anyone that could help. He didn't, but he did offer me the use of his gas analyser so I could see what my emissions were reading. 
So we got the car into his workshop and placed the probe in the exhaust. No matter what we did, we couldn't get the emissions down. I told him that I had been trying bigger jets in an attempt to reduce my 'popping' on the over run and he said that's probably why the emissions wont come down. He recommended going back to standard jets to start with and just adjusting the mixture. 
So, that's what I'm going to try. It's a standard engine with a standard camshaft and standard carburettor, so it shouldn't need oversize jets in it. It's just a shame that Redline tuning and Thurston engineering cant honour their bookings otherwise this would have been sorted by now. Very frustrating! 

Wednesday 22nd July - Hydrochromed bumpers collected.

 A short diversion today saw me collecting the rear bumper from the Green Cortina and the quarter bumpers from the Lotus Cortina. 
Normal chroming has become ridiculously expensive and the last quote I had to do these was £800! (I remember when I used to buy complete and running cars for that!)

I was put in touch with someone last year that did 'Hydrochroming' so I thought I'd give him a try. He did do a rear bumper for me before, but it turned yellow for some reason. To be fair though, he took it back and worked on it again and this time it came out well. 

Once home, I wasted no time in fitting them (Even though it was baking hot) and they really looked the part. There's nothing really wrong with the bumper on the Green Cortina to be honest, but it's an estate one. These have a small cut out in them so that you don't graze your knuckles on them when you are opening the tail gate. Saloon bumpers seem to be few and far between now, so it was good to finally get the right bumper on the car. 😊

Saturday 18th July. More electrical work!

 Dave Maton was able to come up again today and the plan was to investigate the wiring issues on the Lotus Cortina. Over the past few weeks I had replaced the dynamo and the voltage control box. (Another £150 spent!)
Dave spent a lot of time delving into the main loom and trying to find out why the ignition light wouldn't illuminate. Eventually, he had some success and managed to get it working.
With all the burnt wiring cut out and replaced, we were satisfied that nothing else would short out and that everything was working and so we set about refitting the dashboard and interior.
We even managed to finally fit the glove box that had been laying in the spares tray since I'd bought the car. 
All in all, a successful day. 😊

Saturday 27th June. A good start but a bad ending!

 Dave Maton came up again today to help get the wiring finished. I had started another job on the Friday night, but didn't get it finished as I was waiting for the paint to dry, so while I was waiting for Dave to arrive, I managed to get in finished. 
The job in question was the spare wheel bracket. For some reason my car had a standard one fitted rather than the Lotus Cortina/Corsair item. The standard one is 6 inches in length, but the Lotus/Corsair one is 7 1/4 inches. (See below)

Because of the wider wheel rims on the Lotus, the standard spare wheel bracket can't reach the centre hole properly and causes the wheel to lean inwards towards the centre of the boot. (See below)

So, I'd managed to find the correct bracket on ebay and re-painted it in the desired colour. With this fitted the spare wheel now sits where it's supposed to and provides a bit more space in the boot. 

By the time I had done this Dave had arrived and we started on the laborious task of cutting out all of the holes on the new binnacle. Although brand new, these are just a fibre glass moulding and you have to cut the required holes out yourself. The old one in the car had turned very very brittle and had cracked in the middle. (Plus I stuck my thumb through the end of it one night by accident) 

This binnacle has to house six gauges in total. Two have a diameter of 98mm (Speedo and rev counter) and four at 52mm. (Oil, water, amps & fuel) Plus it needs holes for ignition switch, headlight switch, wiper switch etc. Needless to say, it took a while to get this done, but it did look good when finished! 

With this done, we put the rest of the interior in and I was able to actually sit in the car for the first time since last August when I bought it! We probably jumped the gun here though as we hadn't tested the electrics at this stage. The previous week we had found three melted wires coming off of the ignition switch, so we replaced the wires with new  and couldn't see any issues. Unfortunately, there obviously was an issue, because the same three wires melted again this week ! 
Feeling absolutely deflated, we shut the garage door and called it a day. We will persevere again next weekend and get it sorted.

Sunday 21st June - Battlesbridge Breakfast Meet.

Another lovely sunny morning, so we decided to head to Battlesbridge for a morning out. I wasn't expecting a big turn out as the annual classic car show was on at the Lawns in Rochford which is always very popular. Its popularity does have a down side though and sometimes it can take well over an hour to get in! Also once you do get in, they like you stay until the shows end at 4.30pm. Hence my preference to go to Battlesbridge. 😊

It was still a good morning out though and we met up with some friends for coffee as well. I had things to do in the afternoon, so we left around lunch time. 

Saturday 20th June. - Time to sort out the wiring.

 My good friend Dave Maton came up today to help with the wiring. This being an ex rally car, there had been a lot of additional equipment wired up. Wiring for spotlights, a map light, a floor mounted dip switch, plus numerous other things.
Dave set about removing all the excess wiring while I finished my throttle bracket and then set about fitting new battery cables in the boot. 
My other friend (yes, I have two!) Keith Halstead arrived to see how my progress was getting on and also, have a cup of tea. Suitably impressed with my home made throttle bracket, Keith finished his tea and let me and Dave crack on. By now, it was getting very hot in the garage, so we pushed the Lotus outside. (It's only the second time it's left the garage since I bought it.)

The original dashboard binnacle in the Lotus is absolutely knackered, so I'd bought another one. I was hoping to get this fitted today, but it needs cutting out so that the gauges can fit in. We'd also discovered that the temperature capillary gauge didn't work, (I tested the probe in a cup of boiling water.) so I have another one of those to find. 

Dave had managed to cut out and replace a lot of melted wire due to live wires being attached to the original loom, but with no relays. I do actually have a brand new loom on order, but there is a 14 week waiting time, so we are having to make  do with what we have. 
We did manage to get power to the ignition and we also got the headlights, side lights, brake lights and indicators working, so I was very happy with that. 
Unfortunately time caught up with us, and we had to call it a day, but we are getting ever closer to getting this car living again. Another couple of weekends should do it. 😉

Friday 19th June - Matching Spotlights!

 I struck lucky on ebay on Sunday and managed to find another Spotlight exactly the same as the two Lucas ones that I had on the Lotus Cortina already. 
I purchased it instantly and luckily, it arrived today. I was home from work at a decent hour, so this was my first job when I went into the garage. It didn't take long to fit it and I was very pleased with the look. 

With this done I then set about making a throttle bracket to hold the end of the inner cable and also a throttle return spring. After plenty of drilling, angle grinding, filing and sweating I had the basis of what I wanted. It was still very warm and sunny, so I gave it a couple of coats of silver paint and left it to dry. I would finish it off the next morning. 😊

Wednesday 17th June - Centre Console!

 I had a couple of hours free after work tonight, so I thought I'd give the centre console for the Lotus a clean up and check over. It's been sitting upstairs in a spare bedroom since about last September, so I thought I'd better make sure it was fit enough to go back in the car. 

The first thing I found when I looked inside the centre pouch was a book of matches from Trust House Forte! These were a big hotel chain all over England before being taken over by Granada. 
There was no date on these matches, but the London phone number on them started with an 01 phone code. (London later changed to 081 and then 0207 for inner London and 0208 for outer London.)

Anyway, I cleaned up the centre console and refitted it. It's not the prettiest console I have seen, but it will do the job until something better comes along. 

Saturday 13th June. Billericay Breakfast Meet.

 It was another test drive this morning down to Billericay to see if I had finally cured the 'popping' on the run down in my Green Cortina. I am gradually increasing the size of the idle jets in the carburettor in an attempt to stop it from running lean.  I am now running jet sizes 70 & 80 and if this doesn't cure I will only be able to go up one more size. (80 & 90)
Anyway, after a good breakfast in the cosy cup cafe, we had a quick look around the cars. Luckily, my friend Keith Halstead was there in his Lotus Cortina and so I took the opportunity to have a look and see how his throttle linkage fitted together as I had been struggling to see how mine worked. (My car has trumpets on the twin 40 carburettors instead of an airbox, so the set up is different.)
It was a good meet and a few interesting cars there, including a Ford Sierra with a huge V8 engine. It also had not one, but two remote brake servo's fitted, I assume one for the front brakes and one for the back brakes. (But hey, what do I know?) 

Around 12pm we made tracks as I wanted to get home and get more work done on the Lotus Cortina. It was a nice morning out though, especially now the weather is warming up. Unfortunately, my recent efforts on the Green Cortina have proved to have little effect and I still have my 'popping' issue. 😔

Once home I went into the garage and carried on with the Lotus. Todays task was to get the motorsport battery box fitted to the boot floor. This can be somewhat tricky when you are holding a spanner on a nut underneath the car, whilst attempting to tighten the bolt inside the boot, but somehow I managed it. 

I then turned my attention to the spotlight bar that came with the car. After a couple of crude attempts, it came to light (No pun intended!) that the spotlight bar was bent to buggery! 
It has mountings for four spotlights, but when these four spotlights are fitted they would be leaning like a drunken sailor! (See pic below)

Luckily, I had bought another spotlight bar some time ago, so I thought I would give that a try. This one has only three spotlight mountings, but in a triangle position, similar to the Mk1 Cortina GT that won the Safari Rally back in the 60's. 

This fitted much better and I liked it a lot. The only issue was that I never had three matching spotlights, so I temporarily fitted a smaller one in the middle and will search for a matching one on ebay. 

Pleased with my efforts, I called it a day as my garage was now getting rather hot and I was feeling quite knackered! 

Saturday 6th June - Work continues!

 A free day today would let me carry on with the many numerous jobs I still have to get done on the Lotus Cortina. You also need to remember that I bought this car mainly in bits, some of which I don't even realise are missing until I go to put things back together! 
After fitting the twin 40 carbs the night before, I connected the choke cable up. I then tried to connect the throttle cable up, but found that I am missing a vital part. (See what I mean?)
I then moved onto fitting the fan belt, but found that the plastic dynamo pulley was hitting the dipstick tube whenever it turned. Luckily, I found a smaller, metal pulley, so I fitted this one instead. 

I then fitted the radiator into the car (After polishing the brass header tank) and connected the heater hoses and radiator hoses. Next I removed the front side lights and indicators and gave them a wash with some washing up liquid and hot water. While these were soaking I painted the black inserts on the front grill and re-fitted the all important Lotus badge. 

With this done I jacked the car up and put it on axle stands so I could get the exhaust fitted. However, by now it was getting quite late and I was struggling to twist, turn, balance and hold the exhaust up all on my own, so I will save that for another day. I was pleased with what I managed to get done though, but there is still quite a way to go yet. But I will persevere! 😊