Ford Cortina MK3 Rebuild

Intake Manifold Design

2009-07-14T21:15:00.002+08:00

Here's something I'm cooking up for the Webers from the previous post. What do you guys think?

I've not decided on the length of the runners yet, but I know it isn't supposed to be too long. Might tilt the runners upwards a few degrees. We'll see in due time.

On another note, getting an aftermarket 4-1 exhaust manifold made which should arrive this Friday or Saturday. I doubt it'll benefit from a performance point of view, but it should look a lot better than a rusted and weathered factory standard exhaust manifold eh?

DCOE Top 40

2009-07-10T22:49:00.002+08:00

My my my, has it been a very long while.

After much swearing and shouting matches (not to mention money NOT well spent). the project has been resurrected, for lack of better words.

To get the rest of you up to speed, the cortina has been lying dormant on my cold, hard and weathered cement patio for the past 6 months or so getting fired up to make sure the ol' heart still beats with the occasional reverse and 1st gear drives to make sure the differential hasn't locked itself into a no-wheel drive vehicle.

Why have I gone back to throwing money at this car again you may ask? Well, it's not the fact that a lot of money has already been burnt here but about a month ago I fired it up and took it for a spin and realized that if I didn't complete what I'd started almost 3 years ago, I would have not failed my grand dad (who's still alive btw albeit funky in the head) but failed myself.

Enough blabber as this isn't some fucking high-school reunion where get all emotional and what not, it's time to be a man and do the right thing which is to give the car the grunt that it deserves.

Say hello to my DCOE 40s. :)

Next thing to get done is to get a manifold made for it as I currently have the Proton Iswara manifold (any takers?). More engineering work to be done, among other things still pending.

Hopefully I can get this car up and running to get it into the next autocross just for the heck of it. Running with cut springs (another story all together, which will be posted at a later date) and wide wheels, I guess I'll be thrown into the open class AGAIN. :)

Please Wait To Be Seated.

2008-11-03T23:16:00.002+08:00

after many moons, dad and myself decided to plunge into buying a seat for the cortina. it was a frantic time searching through the galleries of cyberspace in particular zerotohundred where we found these old pair of seats taken from an AE82 i'm told.

although they don't match colour-wise, but the design is old-school and matches the back somewhat with the bumps and all.

old generation seats in this picture not in chronological order. AE82 (early 80s), Cortina MK3 (early 70s) and the Bluebird (late 70s to mid 80s) in the background.

so fellow readers, should i reupholster the front to match the back (shame though, as the seat's in good condition!) or match the back to the front (both material and colour) or re-wrap both in some sort of faux black leather? comments always appreciated.

Burton Power!

2008-10-28T23:10:00.002+08:00

i arrived home to be greeted by the Burton Power 2008 catalogue!

browsing through it now to see what goodies they have inside. it's a good piece of literature regarding cam timing and fitting, just some of the technical babble most people leave to mechanics.

Wiring.

2008-10-24T21:59:00.002+08:00

For record keeping purposes, I'll just post about the wiring. It was sent on tuesday apparently and should be done in about a weeks time.

Then it'll be off to the body shop (again) for some touch ups that the previous welder did not close which is how water keeps coming in. the hole in question is located on the extreme right hand corner of the firewall hidden from view by the massive fenders.

Also, I'm in the progress of designing my wheel adapters to suit 114.3 PCD wheels since those fucking 108 PCDs are a thwat to obtain here in Malaysia.

TADA! had some idle time so I whipped up a mock wheel assy. the adapter is to the correct dimensions as of this writing but is subject to change when I get the cortina back for proper dimensioning, just to be sure.

In New Light.

2008-10-01T14:09:00.002+08:00

It's almost two years now. Come december it will be. Celebrated my grandad's birthday yesterday. Unfortunately i did not have the cortina ready. It's almost done, and i know i've been saying this to a lot of people pre-graduation but the car IS almost done.

the engine is in and running (alternator needs to be replaced though, wrong one was used donkeys years ago), painting is 90% done, needs to be touched up after the windscreens and wiring has been settled.

disappointments have arise in the form of rust. Front passenger door has built up rust beneath the layer of paint thus causing it to crack. oh well, like i said, the paint needs to be touched up in several places. orange peel developed on the surface of the boot lid among other things.

another worrisome issue is the mounting points for the front seats. as previously there were holes with weld nuts on the inner side of the plate to mount the seats which are non existent now since those parts were where new sheet metal was fabricated WITHOUT accounting for those weld nuts. so now i'm getting a headache over engineering a solution for this using non-evasive methods preferably.

anyway, found these seats and will be checking them out tomorrow, what do you think? will they suit the overall look of the car?

if i do get them, i'll probably wrap the rear seats to match the material. looks like it's velvety. at least if i park under the hot sun, it won't burn my girlfriend's butt (she said it, not me).

finally, blogs would be so empty without pictures, so here's some of the cortina with 11-ish a.m. lighting at harvinder's place.

good to see the engine in there eh? all ford/smurf blue and all.

front end needs sorting out still.

looking good here.

the left tail light needs to be binned. asked harvinder to source for a pair of new ones.

logos on and looking good.

free center console thrown in by harvinder. do all cortinas and escorts have a similar center console? seen a few pics of escorts with something similar.

there you have it. the car sitting there waiting for the windscreen rubbers to arrive so that the screens can be fitted and the wiring sorted. all after hari raya obviously.

fingers, toes, cats and dogs crossed that the windscreen rubber arrives on time AND that the wiring chap does a fantastic job.

estimated completion of harvinder's scope of works is end of October 2008. then it's on to me to complete the interior and wheels.

Dum Dum DUUUUUUM!!!!!!

2008-05-02T22:04:00.002+08:00

sorry for not updating frequently. cause the painting took soooo long, i didn't want to keep posting the same pics of the car in a pretty dismal state.

but anyway, after much perseverance, it's finally done and its now sitting under harvinder's front porch.

so without further ado, i will showcase highlights of the car's painting stages just to get all you readers up to speed.

Primer:

Undercoat:

Use your imagination at this point. :)

must keep you guys in suspense at least till the chrome bits and windscreen are all up. actually, its because i haven't been able to take a good picture of it with lighting from the sun. my trusty k750i is not a dSLR you know.

a last pic which i think needs no explanation.

at the moment, i'm leaving the rocker and timing chain cover in its original shabby form as it won't hamper performance or what not...it'll just be draining money to paint it. i'll do it at a later time at my own accord.

hope you like it so far. :)

Accommodation.

2007-10-07T21:47:00.000+08:00

This picture tells all, about the living conditions of the cortina as it awaits the painting phase of this restoration. sigh. car looks like it's been abandoned.

the painter has however assured me he will move the car into the shop and start work immediately but then again, i've been stuffed with dodgy promises so far. quote from the painter, "i will start on the car. but you make sure you collect the car when it's finished." really, i mean, if i really wanted to ruin your business would i come and show concern about my car?

and so once again, the rest of the world waits impatiently...

Sorry.

2007-10-02T22:52:00.000+08:00

yup, once again i fail to provide meaningful updates because apparently the money i've given isn't satisfactory for the painter to start work because he 'lacks the confidence' that i will pay the full amount if he finishes painting it.

really wtf.

so i guess not only you guys, but I the fucking owner have to wait 2-3 months for him to finish the job.

geez.

Hey Jim, Did You Hear What He Said? Paiiiint!

2007-09-06T23:20:00.001+08:00

yeah, finally it's at the painter. it was towed last night apparently.

now, comes time to decide on the colour.

i'm going for an 'obsidian black pearl' from the subaru impreza wrx line of cars.

pics were taken from Mirror Works Detail website, so thanks in advance yeah.

the engine bay colour is still undecided...my dad thinks matte black would be practical and better suit the car since it'll all be black.

i really don't know, maybe i can add some cherry red (subaru's STi colour) accents around the car and its interior. mmmm.

Fear Not.

2007-08-28T20:17:00.000+08:00

fear not.

i can smell an update coming soon.

why?

the cortina is gonna be shipped for painting on wednesday or thursday, depending on harvinder. so if he can deliver, then i can deliver to you guys. :)

keep all available fingers, toes and eyes crossed.

Bad News?

2007-06-25T23:38:00.000+08:00

it's finally over...exam season that is.

so back to work on the putra and the cortina. the cortina...is in a sad state, the welder promised he'll finish by today but apparently has been too busy. so the car's been sitting in his compound rusting i suppose once again. really have no idea what to do with this welder.

sad state isn't it?

the drama will continue to see if i can manage to bring this car back to an acceptable restored standard. so stay tuned.

Grind The Rust, You Get More Dust.

2007-05-22T09:44:00.001+08:00

got back earlier from the body shop. been a week since i could visit tina in the hospital. it's now rolling around the shop's floor since they need to get the car down from the lifts to grind the exterior of the car to check for anymore rust.

again not too happy with some of the welds as they were basically tack welds again. so i told the worker to seam weld every bloody tack weld where possible. they fitted the petrol tank so i told them to remove it and store it nicely cause we don't want big bulky things like that being in the way when we get the body to the painter.

was just hanging around the shop when one of the workers decided to fit the boot and bonnet back on to grind it along with the other remaining panels. that was when i got a shock when one of the letter 'F' from the bonnet was missing! i asked the guy, "where the hell isit!?! it's expensive and difficult to find a replacement part for this you know?" then he went of searching all possible places. but somehow, i remembered seeing it somewhere around the shop thinking it was some random bit of metal lying around. then suddenly i remembered where i saw it, on top of the tina's dashboard! wth man. so anyway, reason why it was there was one of the pins snapped. so some genius decided to just put it on the dashboard. talk about proper practice. sigh, almost unheard of in malaysia i tell you.

so immediately told the guy to remove all the emblems and give them to me for safe keeping. since the painters would also need to remove them, so i'll just keep them for now. hope the painters are not blooming idiots to cover up the holes that are there for the chrome bits to fit though. it's quite possible actually. dumb-ass workers. really makes you wonder where their brains are.

harvinder still hasn't sent the fuel tank cover to ah min for some touching up and refitting. will have to wait till monday cause he'll apparently be going to subang then.

while fitting the boot, the worker ran into some problems trying to get the boot to be flush with the rear panels. the right hand side of the bonnet was fine, just that the other side refused to be flush. it instead decided to be lower than the surrounding area. so the worker hammered it with a hammer and dolly, tried swiveling the bonnet left and right. still not solved since i left. you can see the problem here:

bad

good

it is believed that some sections of my roof (closest to the rain channels), parts of the rear quarter panel (near the rear windscreen and around the fuel area) contain aluminium which means that they can't fix up the surrounding area. this is very wierd, because it actually looks like it's from the factory! i mean, how can you have mild steel and aluminium together? it's insane i tell you.

don't know if you can see it but it's the only part that doesn't look rusted (obviously). anyone have any idea? i'm quite puzzled really.

then came talk of engine transplants. not with ford engines of course as parts are harder to find not to mention more expensive over here but with japanese engines. let's face it, japanese engines are bulletproof (figure of speech ya). so the engine in question was the 1JZ from the toyota soarer. let me break it down for you.

to overhaul the current 1.6 OHC pinto:
RM 3000 (expected value based on quotation given by AMC as well as factoring in misc. items that might need replacement along the way)

to buy a toyota soarer 1JZ halfcut:
RM 3000.
this halfcut comes with the entire front end including body panels, dashboard, air-conditioning, automatic gearbox, ECU, front brakes as well as the fuel tank and rear axle which comes with disc brakes too!

so nice :)

we're talking about 4 times more power than the ol' pinto not to mention more torque (1600cc VS 2500cc), EFi and the ease of getting replacement parts in the future!

the downside of doing this is:
a) rear axle and possibly the entire suspension system would need to be reworked to properly fit the axle. therefore equals $$$.
b) our daft transport department does not allow/approve any engine transplants that are >25% of the original engine's displacement.
c) our daft transport department doesn't allow mods to the chassis unless you get extremely detailed drawings of the alterations which is to be checked by a registered engineer of the JPJ (our transportation department) which would not be approved ultimately.

*note: this is why you don't see many crazy conversions being driven legally on the roads of malaysia. if they do, they risk getting their car confiscated.*

d) if you want (b) and (c) to be accomplished, you need lots of $$$, and i mean lots of $$$. corruption, corruption, corruption.

again, it's all about proper practices which is almost never practiced here unfortunately.

on the lighter side, just look at that engine! the cortina could definitely fit it without much trouble now wouldn't it? sigh. anyone know of other japanese engines that would fit without requiring much alteration to the rear axle? let me know.

since the car's on the floor, might as well take the pic to help you visualize how good the flared arches are with wide wheels.

before:

after:

yes the left one's photoshopped. how else could it be done? notice how much meaner the stance of the car is? ahhh, satisfaction...satisfaction. (ignore the low-ness of the anti-roll bar brackets and tailpipe)

F1 Style Side Mirrors.

2007-05-21T00:00:00.000+08:00

i kinda get the feeling that i'm veering towards a drift-style car than an old classic. but what the heck. i feel that these would look reallly cool on the cortina.

most old school drifters in malaysia use them on their toyotas (ke70, te72, ae86) and a lot of other 15-20 year old cars. they not only look good but prove to be aerodynamically sound as well. and the down side? well, let's just say they'll be very easy to steal if i don't take the necessary precautions (i'm not telling but it's a rather logical thing to do, go figure).

if i'm not mistaken, the mk3 cortinas do not come with side-mirrors as standard fitting yes? if so, these would serve the purpose wonderfully.

i've got the flared arches, the f1 style side mirrors...what else do i need? oh yes, nardi steering wheel, wide-assed rims, semi-bucket seats. if i had things my way, i'd have a roll cage and harness installed but the fuhrer (my dad) will not let me convert this into another daily/track car (for those of you who know my current daily car, putra505).

Fender Flaring 101.

2007-05-19T10:31:00.000+08:00

the welder guy is done with flaring the fenders and wheel arches. only thing left to do is to grind of some excess sheet metal here and there. right now the 5.5" stock rims look really small tucked under such wide arches. i should be able to fit up to 8" wide rims now looking at it.

front arches.

new rust area that will be fixed, after removal of the petrol tank. it's the rear bumper hanger slot.

so basically the whole point of having wider fenders is to get wider wheels under them and by doing so, you change your suspension geometry by widening the track width of your car. handling would be better since the wheels now sit further out from the chassis. handling is still heavily reliant on your suspension setup, but in general, the wider your track width, the better the handling.

going too wide however might stress the axles unless customized parts have been made (according to your new vehicle specs) since the wheels now sit further out now. but this is really a case when you go really really far out of the body and by the time you reach that, you'd notice some drive shafts have bent or are really out of position because the weight of the car is not supported by whatever is linking your wheels to the axle. not to mention your dampers would have to be totally reworked to accommodate this setup.

enough of that technical mumbo-jumbo. one problem that i've come across is the odd PCD (pitch-circle-diameter) that the cortina has. it has a 4x108 PCD (4 represents number of bolts and 108 is the PCD) which is very rare to obtain here in malaysia which is dominated by japanese makes which have PCDs of 114.3 normally. so, hunting around in chop-shops for old school rims is gonna be difficult.

last resort would be to order something from the UK. though the rims i've seen there aren't really to my liking as i'm looking for something like this:

or this but not pink on the inside. maybe fluorescent orange.

those 2 photos of the wheels are courtesy of Hayashi Racing's website.

there are other rims out there...but it all depends on the PCD. maybe eBay might have something i'm looking for but i'm afraid of the customs officers. they apparently over-charge you for bringing in stuff like these.

oh well, if any one has the above rims in 14x7 or 14x8 PCD 108. please drop me a message ok?

If You Lie, Your Fender Will Flare.

2007-05-15T20:35:00.000+08:00

the welder has started flaring the fenders. so far, it looks rather good. reason why i'm flaring the fenders/wheel archs is to fit my future wide wheels. looking to go around 7 to 8 inches wide at the back and about 7 inches wide in front. also it looks 'ganas' haha!

before:

after (at 65% complete):

it'll be interesting to see how the welder does the front fenders. this is because the arch already comes out of the fender prolly by 2-3 mm so if the welder starts moulding the fender after the slight bump in the fender, i will be like this: -_-" and then consequently i'll end up like this: X_X" or @_@". hahah.

comments?

A Disaster.

2007-05-12T21:08:00.000+08:00

it's been a week and the damage has been done. what damage you ask? well, the bodywork was looking good till the shop decided to speed things up. so seam welds were left as tack welds and some tack welds were left as broken-off tack welds.

was damn pissed off so i told the boss. had to wait for him for about 15 minutes before he arrived, then i pointed all the problems that i could see under the car. all the boss could say was, "ok, can can." i was not impressed at all by the copious amounts of underbody sealant was used to seal up the tack welded parts. i mean, come on man, even though i'm a technical person, don't ASSUME i'll be happy with the welds that you're giving to me. geez...malaysian mentality.

would you accept welding like this?

some sections were still not finished eventhough he said it was! like these,

i have no idea whose work is this but i'll just put it up here cause the current welder was supposed to fix every inch of this car.

so after calling harvinder to come to Ban San ASAP, we spoke to the boss again, ran through most of the stuff that i could see that was wrong with the welding and stressed to him that he can take his own sweet time to fix the car as long as the outcome is fantastic. he confidently said that it's all small problems and that he will have it fixed in 3 days. well i didn't buy it so i visited him yesterday and thank God he wasn't finished. instead, he managed to fix both chassis rails

also, the driver side sill which he totally missed has been fixed
before:

after:

this is another piece of shoddy welding. it's under the rear bumper where he just tack welded a pieve of sheet metal. and he tacked only one side! i could push the metal or rip it out with my bare hands!

the acceptable corrected section:

as you can see, the reworked sections are alot better than what was done to it before. proper plug welds at the sill section instead of tack-welds. i just hope he will continue like this for the other sections. personally i don't think it's that good but i guess i'll have to settle for the quality of local welders. :(

WTF.

2007-05-08T21:59:00.000+08:00

really wtf man. harvinder just called me up telling me that the welders are done with the cortina! that's too freaking hard to believe!

i'm expecting shoddy workmanship right now. i'll have a sleepless night. i mean, overall the other welds look good. but a two weeks job completed in about a week? have to check every nook and crany of the body before i can decide if i want the fenders flared.

there are certain spots that i feel should be seam-welded instead of just tack-welding it in place, eventhough the seasoned veteran welder begs to differ. i just want the car to be perfect (in the real world, multiply that by a factor of 0.6 to get 'the-real-world-perfect'). i do believe that seam-welds can be performed. usually tack welding will be done first to hold the metal in the correct position and to avoid distortion. it's silly to just seam weld the thing at first go because you'll end up with a piece of distorted metal that's more distorted than a mental patient's perception of the world! ok, so it's tack weld first (1" apart at best) taking regular breaks to let the metal and welds cool down to further avoid distorting or burning through the metal and then only seam weld. if it's a very long seam weld that is required, usually welders use a step-back technique where you start seam welding from the ends or the center of the panel and skip a tack weld and after seam welding the fore-tack weld, you weld the aft-tack weld (ie. if tack welds are positioned at 1-2-3-4, you'd seam weld the gap in between each tack weld in the following order: 1->3->2->4, get it?). this process reduces/cancels out the residual stresses formed as a result of welding (ie. expansion and contraction from high heat which is due to WELDING!).

for those of you interested in what i believe is a basic to welding, you can read this good article HERE on tack welding. feel free to google more info so you don't get cheated when you have to send your ride for bodywork/panel beating.

more updates tmrw.

Motherload Of Pics.

2007-05-07T19:05:00.000+08:00

i've gone mental and provided bigger reso pics of the upcoming cortina. still in the welding stages. still haven't decided if i should flare the wheel arches. more 'ganas' no?

bad graffiti huh?

clear view of the new floor-pans

this needs to be re-worked.

even clearer shot of the underside

my front windshield is still in good condition :D

you can see how the front suspension of the cortina is setup. double A-arms, tie-rod and anti roll bar link the spring and damper in check. since there's no strut tower, a strut bar would be useless...there's no place to put it too! maybe i could fabricate something to stiffen up the front a bit.

close-up of sheet metal tack-welded into place before (hopefully) seam-welding it nicely.

as you can see, the exhaust has to go. don't ask me why it's mushroomed at the tail pipe and why is it bent like that.

pano of the rear axle.

rear suspension shot for the curious.

butt view of the car and the workshop.

a little blur but you can make out the new sheet metal on the door.

the front of the car and the uncle from kelantan who's been doing all the work. apparently he's the guru here.

so ends another session of pics. i went shopping for seats and rims and i won't tell what i've in mind just yet. but it'll consist of 2nd hand semi-buckets and old school jap wheels.

stay tuned.

Nip/Tuck Season 1.

2007-04-30T17:21:00.000+08:00

many would be p2p-ers would be sad to find that i'm not actually hosting the nip/tuck season 1 for them to download and watch, but will find instead pictures of an old car being brought back to life.

not that it was dead...but it was on the verge of dying.

so anyway. i just got back from taking photos of the car which has actually started having surgery since last week! harvinder told me it'll most probably start this work. so i'm pretty happy with the speed that this project is coming.

so, ban san motor works is the place to be. situated very near ah heng's exhaust in the subang industrial area it makes life easy for me as you might know that monash uni and subang industrial aren't very far away.

all i can say is i'm very happy that the metal working is good. better than some i've seen done locally but still, sadly, we aren't anywhere near what the boys in UK or US can accomplish. but overall, for the price you pay, i guess it's all good.

so enjoy nip/tuck: season 1.

no more foot-hole!

badly rusted B-pillar 1

welding-dude

welding-dude again

driver-side floor pan all nicely done up

badly rusted B-pillar 2

rear passenger floor section

underside of rear left passenger floor-pan section

front left passenger floor-pan section

underside/firewall side of driver floor-pan section

view from under the engine bay. can you spot the new metal?

ye olde cortina

ban san! ah min is the guy in between the aeroback and the tnb switch board

that concludes season 1. tune in a couple of days time for more updates. hopefully they've started work on the boot section and exterior panels.

Bodywork. Coming Soon To A Workshop Near You.

2007-04-29T09:39:00.000+08:00

yup, after a month of waiting, it's finally happened. the car is in a bodyshop in subang industrial area.

the welder (ah ming) has apparently scheduled my car for a full body metal surgery this week. since he's got other cars to finish off first.

more details and pics as soon as i visit my tina in the hospital. :P

ps. sorry to amc guys and ecstacy elmo for not going for the track day at sepang. loaded with work as my finals approach. and harvinder, i didn't get any calls/miss-calls from your number man.

Budget Woes.

2007-03-27T21:13:00.000+08:00

so far, nothing has been done to the cortina except the guys at AMC have been moving it around their shop to make way for other cars.

apparently they're getting a welder to work at AMC itself, instead of the initial plan which was to send the car to a panel beater. harvinder guarantees that the welder is as good if not better but costs 100 to 200 MYR extra. work is scheduled to start next monday once the welder gets in.

some changes (reality checks) have been made to the items going in and out of the rebuilt cortina due to budget constraints. the major one would be retaining the 1600 pinto instead of the initially planned 2000 one.

rebuilding the 1600 shouldn't cost more than 3000 MYR as compared to the transplant of the 2000 which could escalate to more than 3000 MYR excluding misc costs that may arise. anyway, a quick search revealed that the power difference between the 1600 and 2000 aren't very far away. even torque is a few Nm off each other. so the costs outweigh the power so 1600 it is. *edit*

so the quote so is:

3400 MYR for basic welding, replacing the floorboard, pillars, door sills, front and rear windscreen frame, trunk/boot and engine area.

2200 MYR for painting the engine bay, exterior anti-rusting, doors, and interior.

an extra 1100 MYR for removing all paint to bare metal. however, this extra cash only gives an estimated 1 to 2 years extra to the life of the car on top of the expected 5 years without scraping to bare metal. so i'm skipping it.

air conditioning is estimated at 1500 MYR for a complete brand new unit and less than 1000 MYR for a reconditioned one.

any company willing to give sponsorship for this restoration project?

Engine, Out!

2007-03-11T20:08:00.000+08:00

a week has passed and on saturday, the old weathered 1.6 pinto engine is out. along with the propeller shaft and transmission unit.

here's the car under the shade

can you see the transmission tunnel?

here you can see the rear of the slam panel

close-up of firewall, crossmember, and steering rack among other things

the garage in the background houses the a-team van, a 29 foot limo and some other classics.

transmission unit, propeller shaft and engine (l-r)

close-up of the weathered 1.6 pinto.

weathered gearbox

now the boys at AMC will be arranging the wiring loom and labeling other miscellaneous parts for storage then in the next week or two the car should be at the body shop. more updates to come when that starts rolling.

Moke Fever

2007-03-05T13:14:00.000+08:00

this one's for the guys at AMC. remember i mentioned a Moke at taman anggerik shell station thereabouts?

well, here it is:

really well kept. took a peek underneath the car and it looks like it was repainted. but it's in good condition and i don't think the owner (old chinese uncle) is willing to part with it.

Finally! It begins, NOW!

2007-03-05T12:12:00.000+08:00

after a long break of not posting it has finally happened. bodywork has begun. at least it will begin because AMCs welder is currently packed with other classics.

but i don't think they'll dissapoint. :)

i'll let the pics do the talking now:

Loading and transporting the 'tina

My mum getting nostalgic over the car she learnt to drive in

Harvinder's 'tina and mine, nose to nose

Sign, sealed and waiting

that's it. hope y'all enjoyed it. more to come in the coming weeks.

what's planned for the car at the moment:

1. 2000 pinto engine
2. black paint in and out (subject to change)
3. nice nice deep dish rims
4. super assuring alarm system (a must)

ok. stay tuned for weekly updates.

Rubbish.

2007-02-09T08:36:00.000+08:00

well, it's been awhile since i touched the ford. been working on the putra lately.

anyway, cleaned up the inside of the car. removed a lot of rust particles and the lizard egg shells (remember that post?).

threw away some broken down interior parts as my house is starting to look like a 2nd hand parts dealer.

nothing else i can do but wait for the end of the month to arrive and it's off to AMC for this car.

gong xi fa cai (in advance)!

2007 thus far

2007-01-28T21:01:00.000+08:00

well, it's still too early to tell how 2007 will be for me. but so far i believe my overall knowledge with cars have increased.

alot of money will be spent this year to fix up the ford as you all know. and as for the putra, major engine mods and suspension components overhaul are underway.

hope chinese new year brings in some extra cash to carry out work on both these cars.

also, R3's Time Attack has been canceled this year as far as i know. so the only other autocross would be GRA. motorsports in malaysia is just shitty. so you guys overseas who have organizations like SCCA should count your blessings. open track days at sepang will also start close to the end of the year.

maybe it's a sign that i should concentrate more on my studies. hahah. oh well.

oh and the guys at AMC are a real bunch of classic car maniacs!!! cool guys too. nice chevy impalla although i wouldn't drive it if i had one cause it's tooooo friggin long! you'd need a bus parking space to park one.

but yeah, car should be at AMC by end of february 2007. so stay tuned.

All Makes Classic Malaysia

2007-01-25T16:03:00.000+08:00

i've been told about this place in KL where they restore classic cars. apparently pretty damn good too.

just emailed one of the guys there and waiting for a reply. will visit them tomorrow.

finally! the pieces are starting to slowly fall together. :)

visit them here: AMC Malaysia

Minilite?

2007-01-24T08:44:00.000+08:00

i've noticed alot of fords (in the UK especially) like to fit Minilite wheels onto their rides. why is this so? is it purely for styling or what? because according to WheelWeights.net, the Minilite Magnesium (forged magnesium) of size 15x7 weighs 4.76 kg (10.5 lbs). BUT, there are other lightweight japanese rims that weigh less such as the Enkei RP-F1 (contemplating a set for the putra) which weighs 4.44 kg (9.8 lbs).

now, you may be thinking that, "aiya, this nick tok kok la. only a few hundred gram difference what!!!!" BUT have you thought about price and availability. the minilite as quoted here is RM3936 for a set of 4 wheels! whereas for the RP-F1, i was quoted RM1200 for a set of 4 at one of the wheels shop opposite N-1 Racing (the one with the yokohama signboard). but i don't know if it's local or not but i lifted it with my pinky! so friggin' light man. unless someone can tell me the exact price and availability of Minilite EV2000 15x7 wheels in Malaysia, i guess a cheaper jap wheel will do. in time to come.

for those who don't know what Minilite wheels are, i've done you a favor by adding a link HERE. so now you don't have to Google and search and stuff. :)

Early ang pow or late bday/xmas gift?

2007-01-21T14:24:00.000+08:00

ok, car is still sitting on my driveway obstructing traffic around the porch but it's all good.

recently two publications have given me greater confidence that the 'tina can be fixed up to a good and shiny finish. (i still doubt our local panel beater skills, sorry)

they are classic ford and car care(1985).

Classic Ford

Car Care (1985)

classic ford mag is good as you can get inspiration from what overseas ford owners have done on their rides. pretty amazing people. by chance, i managed to get a hold of december 2006 issue which featured cortinas from mk1 to mk5. pitted them against silly drag races among other things. but what made me buy it was because of the red 'tina that was fully restored to a fricking good condition. you wouldn't believe it was a junk car. it took a father and son team 5 years to fix it up. where 3 years was spent waiting and hunting for donor cars for replacement parts. the cool thing is that the father is a metal fabricator by trade and the son works at a auto restoration workshop! and his boss was nice enough to allow them full access to the workshop+tools on sundays. how bloody cool is that! i doubt we'll ever get to see something like that here. anyway, these guys gave me inspiration to be patient with the mk3 and to understand that restoration WILL TAKE TIME (and money :P) enjoy some of the pics courtesy of calssic ford.

good stuff i tell you. :)

on to Car Care. i've noticed this collection at my grandpas place but never really cared much for it. until today when my dad came back from visiting his dad, he told me he brought back 7 binders of car mags. again i didn't really care for it until i came downstairs and saw the stack and like WTF! i eagerly flipped through the pages only to realize that i've stumbled upon the holy grail of restoring and maintaining older cars! but some stuff can still be applied to current cars too.

it's got everything! from panel beating, electrical, mechanical, engine systems, diagnosis, workshop tooling, etc. sorry guys, but no 'pinjam here pinjam there' business ok?

here's the collection sitting snugly in my modest bookshelf:

anyone else has seen or owned this set? pretty old la, 1985...and it's not missing any of the 160 issues that came with it. which brings the sum (in 1985) to RM 720.00! with inflation to present day value (inflation of 8% p.a.) of RM 3000+!!! madness i tell you.

ahhh, another week and a half and i can start on the mk3 with peace of mind (or will it smash my mind to pieces?)

Different car, different damages.

2007-01-16T16:19:00.000+08:00

well, this has nothing to do with the ford but since i own it, i might as well put it up to let you guys know why i've not spent money on the ford yet.

see the cracks? sadness...that's where my money will be going. to the putra to replace the cracked rocker cover that you see in the pics. was quoted RM1014 from Proton service/parts center but apparently it shouldn't be that expensive. a nearby parts store quoted me for RM746 only and ensured me that it's a 110% genuine original proton part. any take on the matter?

there are other alternatives like J-B Weld where some forums swear by them. awaiting from a reply from them on where to get them form KL, Malaysia. unless anyone of you know, pls step forward. :)

last resort, a trip to the chop shop seems like the best place to get one as i've been told a dohc head roughly goes for RM40 only with a week or two guarantee.

More damages

2007-01-11T09:19:00.000+08:00

looked underneath the car and the bad weld jobs continue. remember i had mentioned the floor pan is already rusting away? well, some genius welder decided to weld a sheet of mild steel underneath the rusting floor pan to support it!!! WTF!!! now i've gotta do MORE bodywork.

also, the engine crossmember which the engine mounts sit on, has a slight crack (about 1") on the passenger side. sad sad sad :(

things will be going slower now that i've gotta fix up the putra for the upcoming autocross/time attack series. apparently there'll be 7 rounds from GRA and 6 rounds from R3...crazy man. 13 rounds in a year! freaking cost a bomb...let's see, RM150 per round, 150 x 13 = RM1950!!!

so don't expect major milestones with the cortina mk3 project yet. but once i finish my training at Lotus Scientific, i'll be working on both cars as much as i can till uni starts.

Slow progress

2007-01-08T08:45:00.000+08:00

Been rather tired the past few days so no real work has started on the car. only thing is the air con has been completely removed. that means the ancient blower has been stripped from the car.

also trying to figure out a way to remove one of the extra vents from the dashboard. seems like i have to move the steering rack out of the way in order to access it. oh well, later only la.

Engine stripping part 1

2007-01-04T09:42:00.000+08:00

so tired...worked on the car till 10.30 pm last night. at the office now...sooo sleepy.

more pics for everybody. the ammount of rusted screws and incorrect bolts are starting to piss me off. our local garage/workshop ppl should be more competent when it comes to doing their job.

although i do notice most of them don't become car mechanics because they like it. well, it seems that way. i bet what makes a good mechanic is not only his/her technical background, it's also the interest in cars that makes the job that much better and rewarding. but i bet none of them give a shit. they just want to go on with their lives customer after customer providing shoddy service.

i digress.

smelly plug cables. why smelly? because when the engine is hot enough, it starts to melt the silicone and causes a smelly smoky substance to enter the car while i was driving it back home the other day

compressor and heat exchanger assy removed

do not adjust your monitor, the heat exchanger/cooling coil was shaped like this when i took it out

bug-eyed low lights

itchified, so i decided to remove the headlight flange thingy. look what the rust worms did to it!

ye ol' fuses

ye ol' fuse connector

hidden compartment at the engine bay firewall leading under the dashboard area. i have no idea whatever the hell that place is for

random pics

that's all i've got for today. price of an engine crane is about 200-300 ringgit...very tempting.

On the first day of christmas...

2007-01-03T09:55:00.000+08:00

yup, i did get the car as a christmas gift of sorts. the catch is i'd have to restore it. oh well, should be fun.

throughout most of the blog, i shall let the pictures do the talking. unless you don't understand what's going on, pls post a comment and i shall get back to you as soon as i can.

for those of you who frequent Zerotohundred forums, you may also keep up to date over there. Link: ZTH: Ford Cortina Rebuild

on christmas day itself i had already started to strip the car as much as i could, considering all the good food that was consumed earlier during the day. some problems that i came across was the bolts/nuts that were rusted shut, thus making my life miserable. i had to apply a gallon of wd-40 and if that didn't work, the good ol' hammer and screwdriver did the trick.

some stupid repairs made by the panel beaters before i got my hands on the car are:

1. instead of properly butt welding the new pieces of sheet metal to the body panels, they opted to overlap weld the damn thing. thus causing years of rust to bubble beneath the gaps of the new sheet metal.

2. the hole that was caused by one of my cousin's foot was tack welded with random pieces of sheet metal, which now looks like this __/ (side view) because the tack welds at the front portion of the sheet metal have rusted of...anyway, it's a bloody tack weld...what did you expect?

3. there are 4 fucking layers of paint! primer,white paint, primer, black paint. need i say more?

4. random screws have been replaced with inferior ones...some which do not make sense. either too long or too short.

5. the japanese make seats that my grandad changed were mounted in a very unsafe way. the welded thick washers on the japanese seat subframe to match the mounting paints on the cortina...and there was one point where they welded the washer on the the floor pan of the car...thus causing me to rip out bits of the floor pan...incompetent i tell you.

here's a collection of pics since the day i got the car. for now, it'll be about stripping the car to it's bare metal (as much as possible).

enjoy!

Grand Opening!!!

2007-01-03T08:58:00.001+08:00

hi all,
welcome to my attempt at documenting the rebuild of my 1974 ford cortina mk3.

first of all, a brief history on the car.

i would be the third owner, my grand dad the second and some other guy named ah keong or something.

the car was brought it unassembled from Ford UK and assembled in May 1974 in Singapore then brought over to Malaysia i guess.

car was originally white but was repainted matte black sometime in the last 10 years or so. the paint job was horrible as the pics will show you later on.

rust spots, holes from years of rust gone buy, bad welds have all left me with the question of whether it would be worth restoring this car, and perhaps even prepping it for track use. i won't know until i'm done right?

so read on...

The car before leaving for my home.