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Hi all, I seem to disappear from the forum for long chunks of time, life gets busy I suppose... Thought I'd give an update on the state of the Mk3 and share some photos. Still have the Mk3, I plan to keep it till I'm in the ground. I guess I don't post much as I don't run in to many problems It's my summer car, insurance/tags are expensive around my way and as a young man with a mortgage I can't afford to insure it as much as I'd like to, only 3 months a year really. Earlier this year I spent a small fortune getting a new fuel tank over here, the only reliability problem I've had with the car is rust in the fuel filters. Every third or fourth outing I would plug the first filter (right after the tank) it got to the point where I would remove it roadside only by feel, blow backwards through it to clear the rust, put it back and keep going. Late last year or early this year I purchased a boot trim panel from Craig, really finished the car off IMO, even if it's just an L model If anyone ever finds themselves in Vancouver near the end of May, there's the "All British Feild Meet" each year and that's the only goal I have for the car each year, is to get there. Loads of TR6's and MGB's, but there's usually 4-6 British Ford's around. Cheers, David

Just back from a great trip across France and Spain in the Mk3. We did 2650 miles, spent £602 on fuel and £204 on tolls. The car absolutely flew down to the Costa Brava, stopping off at valensole in Provence to see the lavender fields and the pont du Gard viaduct on the way back. It was absolutely roasting as soon as we hit Lyon on the way down and we were stuck in traffic for about an hour but the car kept it's cool and trundled off with no problems! 3 weeks away we set off stopping at clermont ferrand and then driving non stop for Calais.

Quality, cars back from the paint shop , thanks to Andy and Craig at Amington accident repair

Not done anything for a while,i pushed the car out a few weeks ago to get my trailer into the yard & had a clear up. Have now removed the nearside inner wing. New inner wing screwed into place.

A little photo shoot today, the estate will be featured soon in a well known classic car magazine. I couldn't help but sneak my saloon into the mix. Given she's now 6 years old since restoration, she's holding up well against the out of the box shiny new estate. Very lucky to have these 2 beauties. Now, should we find another Cortina challenge!!! 😉😁😜

Sold anglia boot needed wielding and steering needed doing put new box in still knackered fell out off love with it.so next classic had be a ford and rack and pion steering ended buying this drives like new and never been wieled or messed with.all original

Took a wee trip up to Glencoe today, met friends at Stirling where there seemed to be lots of folks meeting! Car went well, about 300 miles done. Roads were pretty busy from Callander, A84/85/82 up through Glencoe to Ballachulish. Weather was great, window down all the way!

Finally on the move Showtime soon 😎 VID-20240630-WA0000.mp4

how she looks now with new bumpers and plates and the right spots. uploading pictures

Depending on the day of the week that could either be Vernon Kay or Rylan Clark...

Thanks everyone, I don't have a Cortina these days but will keep the site running and maintain it whilst people still use it.

Ready to roll tomorrow. Heading for Galway, about 2 hours away and nearly all motorway.

Yep I still own the same car since 2000

Shake down run yesterday. I previously had a problem with the nodiz, with sync loss, and it cutting out at high revs. I had looked into this when first on the road 18 months ago, and changed the crank sensor , made sure it was close enough to the trigger wheel ect. When I stripped it for paint , I found the earth battery terminal loose at the body, so thought I'd fixed the cut out fault. But I hadn't , as it's still doing the cut out for a few seconds , then back on with a big bang of unburnt fuel in the exhaust. Pretty much .ed off, and down hearted now. I've emailed ME , to see if they can shed any light. Anyway to cheer me up , here's a picture as it is now ☹️

Well underway with painting. Original factory Dragoon Red. Will be finished in a couple of weeks and then start putting it all back together again

If I'm lucky I can drive for approximately another 20 years ( my mother died when only 3 years older than I am now & my father 8 both from forms of cancer), rumour has it, It will be approximately 10 years be for new ic vehicles cease production with another ten for the supply of fossil fuel to end. This is only for non commercial vehicles as lorries & diesel electric trains especially can't carry the loads or cover the distance expected of them now due to the size/amount of batteries required. Bring on the washing machine powered wonders I say, leaves more petrol for me. The motor industry was recently reported to be running scared re failing sales (profits) of electric vehicles especially fleet/lcv segment as customer grants are dropping & people are becoming savvy to the real world costs/limitations. I know people who work in the back rooms of this technology & they report that the technology can't meet the customer & environmental demands now let alone for the "deadline" & that the tree huggers are siding more & more with people like us who keep older not just classic vehicles in use, as whatever fuel source a vehicle uses the carbon footprint of building & in many cases shipping them halfway round the planet ( cause its "better " for the profit margin ,err I meen planet) is no different wether ic or electric & takes over 10 years to be offset. More & more research is swinging towards hydrogen fuel cells than electric to enable a match to present customer usage demands. Call me Greta's worse nightmare but personally I don't give a ., 3 of mine already run on lpg & the rest are easily converted, which by the way is a byproduct & better for the environment! The planet won't die the human race will & that's what scares the rich & powerful. I think that before global warming wipes us out it will more likely be one meglamaniac with beliefs that differ from another or another Corona type virus that will bring the cockroaches to the top of the food chain. & The last thing the oil companies & middle Eastern countries want is an end to the ic engine. Anyway don't worry as according to news reports E10 will have forced all the old cars of the road by the end of the month like E5,unleaded,locusts & pestilence was going to before that. Long live the V8 !!!!!

So it's finally finished, she passed the MOT earlier this week. Got to say I'm really proud of what we've managed to achieve. All done ourselves bar the harder welding and putting on the paint. Photo shoot for a well known magazine feature on Sunday, weather permitting!!!! Thanks for all the great comments, it's nice that people appreciate the hard work it takes. Keep it Cortina folks!!!!

So it seems i'm finally there after 5 long years - August 16 2015 i started this thread, 5 years later i'm almost done, wheels from Image, VRT and sunvisors are the only things left to be done. They have been 5 years where many times i wondered why the heck am i doing this, a lots of downs and some ups along the way.Had to redo things along the way due to unfortunate circumstances hitting panels during assembly,glue from headliner oversprayed on the luggage boot and it burnt through paint ,,,list is endless. They were HARD times! Still are as i planned a VRT on Saturday and i am stuck here on obligatory quarantine till Monday. Restoring a car is an upward struggle in my opinion both mentally and financially but all in all i'm a happy man with a car i have practically all done by myself except for upholstery. A BIG thanks goes to everyone here at BSC especially one who is no longer active here Pete C and many others who helped in giving support and needed parts. Dave Baglow's rear bumper(now rechromed as seen in pic) @TIB3300 and @sheffieldcortinacentre for washer bottle and recently @RichardJ for providing a baggage of info on Image wheels. Thanks to all and sorry if i forgot someone. When i have the car VRT'd and with the new wheels on will take the obligatory pic in front of car as Tibbs said i should do :).In the meantime this is the latest i have done,front and rear bumpers. Cheers take care stay safe.

Well it was tight,but i managed to turn the Cortina around in my back garden. Now a few pics before it goes back into the garage.

made some panels to covers... the firewall recess

On holiday down south visting my brother.went into london one day.then next day went to hasting on way back drove through the coast.and in bexhill there it was.i rescued must be nearl 20 years ago from a lock up in preston.put 2nd had 3 doors boot and bonnet and 2nd hand tan seats had fur interior 😃was yellow with front spoiler that looked like a snow plough.sold it half finshed it was solid last time i seen it was maroon.now its back to its original silver fox.looks lovely still have the original number plates in my garage and got pics when it was yellow 🤣

Hello everyone, some of the longer members may know me. I was into Cortina's for many years and had I would say a memorable 2 door GXL that was in a very good state. I owned this car for over 15 years and had undergone a couple of major revamps, bare metal respray and total rebuild from ground up. but in February 2016 some scrotes decided to steal it for fun and destroy it. From that day I said I will never own another. I bought a Zephyr 6 that was told was a good one. On further findings it was a bag of crap and needed major works. So with my heart on the floor it needed to be done, but the full story is too long, after many years it is looking sweet and running a V8. I still have / had friends in the Cortina world and spoke to some regularly and I also class as good friends. As some of you may know Crazyian. Who I have been friends with for over 20 years passed. The joke was always he will go before me and I will have his car.... well that time did happen a man of that much integrity and kindness passed (miss you mate). I am happy to say I am back as I have now the owner of HANK. so my spirit is back in the Cortina world.. Regards Rick. God bless you Ian x

We took part in a section of the Street Machine Cruise for Charity in Julie's green Thames 300E van,and we still have the van on the road in the same paint ! Pictured here a couple of weeks ago

pleased with this photo

Nowadays cars are just white goods people are more interested in the gadgetry or how envious the neighbours will be rather than wether it's actually any good.

Few bits done this weekend; calipers, master cylinder, servo, steering boots, track rod ends. Still a fair way to go, but heading in the right direction

Not as odd as finding the whole database gone missing today, got back from work at 2pm to find an error showing on the website & no sign of the database on the server, over 20 years of info gone completely missing. 7 hours later, I've just this minute managed to get it back up and running!! Panic over!

Finally road legal, loving driving the old mk3 , been a long bumpy road getting this finished, random Cambridge parked at the top of my street well worth a pic

Bought this a few weeks back, Motd and quite pleased to be driving one of these again. Ive managed to fluke one picture over with Mrs help, by resizing it but only one it seems. Still hopefully I will find working under the bonnet of these easier than uploading photos.

yep i know about it glad she's still going Ford will be over the moon, he grew up working on it Hallo peeps, been a long time, won't take up this thread with my history just popped back in cos the email the site sent me kicked my . into action

Merry Christmas to all from Malta! Its been such a sunny Christmas here! This is what it is like today

Big thanks to Rich' aka wolf-race for my new picture

What car is the best looking in a parkinglot?

Still no call from the body shop, so more engine time, new core plugs fitted, and finally managed to get the wood ruff key out of the crank, with heat, drill, n some MC hammer time. Painted in Porsche Riviera blue, this is the left over paint I was going to paint the Cortina in

Body shop lads gave me keys to sort a few niggles on the body, final top coats this week, timed to perfection, followed by 2 weeks off work .......nice 😁

Back to how I like it. 4-spokes and 205/60’s

VID-20220418-WA0003.mp4

We have been for our MOT in the RAIN today and passed with no advisories. Great news. Only did 600 ish miles last year but we really had no where to go. But shouls be better this year I hav entry applictions in for Moffat and another show in the Scottish Borders near Jedburgh. Lets hope for some good weather this summer.

one day i need to buy a scanner, hope you can read it:

Out for a spin yesterday, car will be sorn’d this week so thought I’d better take advantage of the good weather.

So stripes have been fitted today. Can't thank Tony enough for taking the time to come and template and replica the rear wing sections to complete the estate template kit. (these are available to buy from him via Ebay in your exact cour combination for your car colour) Colours are vibrant and exact and really make the paintwork pop. So chuffed with the finished article. Can't wait to get out to a few shows later this summer. Just a few last minute bits to sort now and off for MOT very soon.

I use to have a girl friend that breathed heavy, I thought I was doing a good job, turned out she had asthma !!!! I know above is completely irrelevant and I hope it doesn't offend anyone with asthma.

Not quite invention of the century but here's something I came up with to aid insertion and removal of fuel tank senders. Bought an elcrappo brand 86mm hole saw on Ebay for a fiver, ground all the teeth flat leaving four bits sticking up corresponding with the segments on the perimeter of the sender, cut an oval shaped hole to allow the pipes through. Bit more professional than tapping the sender round with a hammer and chisel which is what I used to do before.

Must admit i do like the yellow tinge the old school bulbs give off when lit, though probably not much use in to-days modern "in your face" society. Modern cars with their HID's are seriously fooking with my retinas.

ticked another thing off the list......fuel pump. i went with falcon BA turbo intank setup....reasons being they are cheap second hand (this one $40) as they have a tenancy to stop working.......the main reason for that is they rise and sink with fuel level and tend to full with crap ....rise and not sink back down so they suffer from starvation .. they supply more than enough fuel for my needs and new or second hand readily available. it will be fine for me as i will mount it at full compression so no need to rise and sink....i just needed to make a mounting plate then i had to cut a hole in my brand new tank weld it in add some riv nuts all done

The car is still not home yet, when I went to look at it last week there were a few little bits that needed finishing so hopefully it should be coming home this week sometime. The screen looks like its in but it isn't so still need to sort this out when its back home.

Well its been a while now, but not idle Am on with the painting of the engine bay " not that interesting!" But in other news I have converted the original cortina hubs to mustang 5 stud, Firstly welding them up, turned them down the milled out the Mustang PCD Which means just simply changing the hubs to ether fit 4 or 5 stud wheels