AndyGriff

It appears to have both GT and GXL badges on the grille, or am I imagining that? It certainly has another badge on the C-post too -- E, perhaps? And are those XL wheels? I know the real LoM car was a mish-mash, but that's going too far!

That would be great -- thanks! :cheers:

On bortaf's link, they're showing up as available and you can add them to your basket, which you certainly couldn't do when I tried to get one from there last year. Worth a try, I'd have thought? Also, I'm pretty sure one of the MTOC guys told me he had one made up for about £50. (I eventually got mine from some exhaust place that still had one on the shelf from Christ knows how long ago. It cost me £3.50, plus about £12 shipping of course. I bet there are others sitting around on shelves somewhere, though.)

Does anyone have a mk3 void bush removal tool (43mm) they're prepared to sell me? (Or loan me for a couple of weeks, if you prefer?) Cheers :cheers:

I'll do that :magic: I was pleased to see that today's downpour did not dampen my carpet in the slightest, although it's almost funny how skanky my carpet is now it's dried up. (Or at least it would be funny if I wasn't worrying about the state of the floorpans it's currently hiding...)

Yoinks :lol: I totally didn't see that at all. £31 is an absolute bargain -- they were all going for about a hundred not that long ago! I shall keep my eyes more peeled in future.

Having finally sorted out my water ingress problem, I'm now thinking about fitting a new carpet since the old one is pretty shabby from being kept in half an inch of water for most of the winter. Obviously, new old stock Cortina carpets are few and far between and tend to be expensive when they do come up, so I wondered if anyone has gone down the non-standard route? On eBay there are a fair few people selling gel-backed car carpet which is supposed to be mouldable when heated. What kind of heat does this need? Do you apply the heat beforehand, then fit it while it's still warm? Or do you heat it with something or other as you're going along? Or is is really not worth the hassle and better to wait for a real one to come along? Any thoughts?

I absolutely cannot believe how much those underriders go for!

I'd say £150 was about right. I'm pretty sure there was one on eBay six months ago that went for £150. They are very rare; I looked for one on the Australian eBay site too and there weren't any, and they were more common over there in the first place.

Worst bodge on mine was the micrometre-thick sill repair "panels" on the rear ten or twelve inches on both sides, pop-riveted on. Incredibly, it passed the MOT like that. I've done a load of bodges myself too, though, so I can't really complain...

Right! Just to tie this one up from my point of view, here's what ultimately fixed this problem: A new carburettor. Well, not a new one but a perfectly decent second-hand one. I managed to find a 32/36 DGAV (complete with water choke) together with an inlet manifold and a K&N air filter for £43 off eBay, which I thought wasn't bad going. The old carb was a 38 DGAS with manual choke and I have a feeling I lost the non-return ball valve in the accelerator pump circuit which started all the problems and led to me butchering the carb more and more in an attempt to troubleshoot it. This, therefore, is a downgrade and a return to how Ford intended. After a quick dismantling to clean the circuits, jets and linkage, it's on the car and I'm now enjoying the almost-forgotten phenomenon of the car starting first time, instead of a starting-up process reminiscent of a 70-year-old who's smoked forty fags a day since he was six. If anyone fancies restoring a somewhat ropey 38 DGAS (complete with manifold and air filter), I've put my old ones on eBay: here.

Yes, mine leaked in the same manner. You can tell if it's the heater box gasket by doing nmonkey220's suggestion, then if you get a torch and peer between the bottom edge of the centre console and the floor, you should see the double-barrelled heater outlet with a trickle of water emanating from one or both sides. I've used a belt-and-braces fix, i.e. new foam gaskets (which I made myself by peeling the foam bit off the back of old mouse mats) and massive globs of silicone sealant. It seems drier now and the windows don't steam up anything like as badly but I'm still not convinced I've eliminated the problem completely...

Me too! I can't stand my Cortina being off the road. I'd rather lose the use of an arm for a few days than my car. (Bit sad, that, isn't it?)

Little update. After picking up the part from Paul on Friday, I fitted the replacement master and everything's fine now with my brakes, which is great. (I didn't use the servo that came with it because the old one seems fine, and it was flipping cold on Saturday.) One small question, though: there's no bleed nipple on the nearside rear wheel. Is that to be expected? The Haynes manual just says "do all wheels starting from the right-hand front" or similar but makes no specific reference to the fact that one of them doesn't need doing.

I dare say you could make a fair few bob from it on eBay if you still wanted to sell -- it's the most difficult part I've had to obtain yet!