Chriswitha1600e

Brian, just spent a happy hour or so reading your rebuild thread. Wow..just wow..

I like that idea. Thanks.

Sorry guys, I never received alerts that peeps had replied to my thread. I've got one now, local guy who got himself one then never used it, cost £120 so pleased with that. I've just got to make car mounts and probably fit castors. Lots of non cortina stuff going on at the moment but I hope to be making a start on the car early winter.

Could also be a dodgey earth.

Wow! Thanks Neil, just what I needed. The pivot point height is very useful.

I don't know for sure but I guess there should be a park switch on/in the motor somewhere? Juddering could well be just a dry screen and sticky wiper rubbers.

I'm quite practicle too. I understand forces and stress which is why I don't want to, if I can help it, use the bumper mounts. My thoughts are to have clear unfettered access to the complete underside so front and rear valance's, bumper mounts etc can be replaced whilst on the spit, not possible with the ready made ones. I understand that the jig footprint would need to extend much further under the car to counter balance the further reach to the engine cross member of course and much bracing of the jig 'arms' and jig 'pivot' to counteract the extra stresses. The shell itself is strong , excellent almost, between the two mounting points I'm suggesting front and rear. I would also diagonally brace the door openings and B posts. It's all in the thinking stage at the moment but I'd love to hear from someone who's got one to share pivot point height and a few other measurements to save some head scratching?

Located in Shropshire, near Shrewsbury. Why do you think hanging it off those mounts would be a disaster?

Thinking of building one for my 1600e. I know you can buy them for not a lot of money but I don't like where they mount to the car ie- on the bumper iron mounts. My shell is potentially a little weak in those areas and I would prefer those spots to be 'clear' for working on. I'm thinking fixing to the engine cross member rubber mounts, leaving the cross member in place, and at the rear, using the big braces that go from the inner wheel housing to the rear scuttle panel. The ready made ones would need extensive mods to do this, I would also like the hydraulic rams that I've seen on the adjustable ones, but these spits are a lot more money. The thing I seem to be struggling with is what size box section, say, 60x60 would I need for that to slide snugly into the next size up so I could get the telescope effect. ie- would 50x50x5 fit nice into 60x60x5? Same with the spit pivot, I need strong tube to rotate snugly inside another tube.

Thanks chaps, I have a spot welder but it would never reach in there down the bulkhead anyways, ok for the chassis rail though. Am aware of heat distortion and movement from welding. Unfortunately I've seamed welded(mig) all the other panels on to my original inner wings many years ago when originality wasn't too much of an issue to me so I'll have fun getting them all off again, all new at the time too, some original ford some expressed panels when I think they first started up? And the prices weren't tooooo scary!. Just got myself a second hand Tig set up and I've been playing with that with some success on 1.2mm scrap but I'm a long way off using it on the E..

Cheers Dave. I was a member of the club from around 1980 to around 2010 at a guess. I never went to local meets as I worked 12 hr night shifts and couldn't go but still stayed a member as it supported the club and spares scheme of course. Then bad times hit and I had to cut all unnecessary expenses. Had to drop membership of 3 other clubs too. I 'think' I've got the factory manual somewhere but I've not seen it for years, 27 I think! That's when I moved to where I live now. It's probably in the loft of my old gaff knowing my luck! Has anyone on here actually done this job and has any tips ? assume that I have the factory measurements but my existing strut locations are all wrong..

Inner wing tops from front of strut plate to bulkhead, underwing braces all chopped out by me maybe 30 yrs ago and repaired strongly but messy also by me. Now I'm wiser(?) and more skilled(?!) I've decided that to do the old girl justice I've got to unpick all the front-end panels again ,for reuse, and fit new complete inner wings, the whole wing, chassis rail to outter wing, not a patch panel. I have both genuine inner wings luckily. My worry is that all my enthusiastic but inexperienced metal bashing all those years ago may mean that the study geometry is all to pot possibly. No point making a jig if it's wrong of course. What's the best way to go about this? I'm thinking someone may have datum measurements I could use or maybe has a jig I could borrow? Whatcha think guys?