Lagoonblue's MK2 1600 deluxe

[the-ford-cortina.com 226]

 

 

My original interior light turned to dust (was impressive, like something from tutankhamons tomb :lol: ) were these carved from cheese? This one is not perfect either, i'm thinking of making a mold and casting a replica with resin. Nice small project for the winter.

 

 

 

Yes they do dissolve like that - just shows that some plastics are bio-degradeable :rofl:

 

There are already repro lenses available but they dont look as good as originals

[LagoonBlue 145]

Update time! Left rear quarter has been taking longer than expected but is almost sorted, other side should go a lot smoother now that i have some experience under me belt.

 

My salvaged arch panels lip required some repair work so i made a jig from plywood:

 

 

 

Scrap pieces of wood screwed right through the panel keep it from moving while working.

 

 

Made a small gauge to help with lining up.

 

 

Welded. I made the lip longer than needed, will trim later.

 

 

More repair work.

 

 

:shocking: Not much left after cutting all the rot away. Treated and painted the upper surface of wheel well now that i had access to it.

 

 

Okay, now let's put her back together! Repair patch to spare wheel well.

 

 

Welded in place. Here you can see some of the mistakes that i made :(

I made flange joint to repair panel thinking that it would be easier to weld but in reality seemed to be harder that way. I also made sharp angles in the panel that caused problems during welding as all the stress gathered to the corner causing distortion. Had to learn how to flame straighten the resulting oil canning. Got everything reasonably flat in the end but will need i lick of filler.

 

 

And the results in temporary primer, not too bad for a first timer ^_^

Spare wheel well bottom panel and sill to be made next, also i have been making a roll over jig that i can use when the chassis is rigid enough to take the stress without folding in half :lol:

[LagoonBlue 145]

Pays to shop around..

 

My right side rear arch panel that i salvaged was in rougher shape that i thought. It had been repaired at some point with a lap joint and had rusted quite badly as a result. I was not in any mood to try patching it.

 

I needed to buy a new panel.

 

This place had one for a reasonable price with free shipping in UK so i enquired what the shipping fees would be to Finland. Around 100£ :shocking: :shocking: :shocking:

http://www.classiccarpartsdirect.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=3032508

 

But i will not give up so easily :rolleyes: Motomobil in Germany had the exact same article in stock for cheaper and the postage fees were under 14€!

http://www.motomobil.com/repair-panel-wheel-arch-outer-rear-right-hand,3237,25665920-1.html

 

Guess where i bought mine :lol:

[Steve E 0]

Great stuff there :thumbup:

Photo's make it look easy but I can see how much time has gone into that!!

 

Keep up the good work

[the-ford-cortina.com 226]

Pays to shop around..

 

 

 

I needed to buy a new panel.

 

This place had one for a reasonable price with free shipping in UK so i enquired what the shipping fees would be to Finland. Around 100£ :shocking: :shocking: :shocking:

http://www.classiccarpartsdirect.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=3032508

 

 

 

rip off postage price I could send you that for under £30 !

[LagoonBlue 145]

Great stuff there :thumbup:

Photo's make it look easy but I can see how much time has gone into that!!

 

Keep up the good work

 

Than you! I'll be needing a holiday from my vacation soon :lol:

 

 

rip off postage price I could send you that for under £30 !

 

My toughs exactly! <_< DHL seems to have much more reasonable prices compared to whatever courier classiccarpartsdirect uses, in UK they ship for free but not an option in my case.

 

That Motomobil place has some other parts too for Cortinas with tolerable prices, mostly reproduction stuff but i do not mind if the quality is good enough.

[cortinax14 10]

Really impressed with your work there :thumbup:

You're making excellent progress :thumbup:

[LagoonBlue 145]

Really impressed with your work there :thumbup:

You're making excellent progress :thumbup:

 

Thanks :thumbup: It is great to finally make progress that shows!

 

 

Made sill ends for a repair panel that i had local school fabricate, has a distinct "carved with an axe" look to it in pictures but looks ok in person.

 

Since my original sills upper part was in fairly good nick i will replace only the bottom part. Not the best or even easiest way to tackle this spot but i'm trying to keep at least half of the old tin in this car :lol:

 

 

 

 

I painted insides of both inner and outer sill with 2 part epoxy primer. After the paint cures completely (week or so) i have to weld the upper part of repair panel to the original sill which will burn off some of the paint even if being extra careful. If i leave bottom flange unwelded i might be able to rattle can the seam from inside, will be a tight spot tough.. :playball:

 

All box sections will be thoroughly waxed at the end.

[Captin Crayford 2]

Looking good Mr Blue.. Keep going, good work... :thumbup:

[LagoonBlue 145]

Looking good Mr Blue.. Keep going, good work... :thumbup:

 

Thank you! :thumbup:

 

Paint held up better than i expected inside the sill when i welded it, epoxy primer sure is good stuff!

 

 

Minimal burning is visible in seam but it does need a protective coating before cavity waxing.

 

 

 

So i made this B) a spray nozzle extender, these are commercially available but not locally, especially on a Sunday. I took a rattle can nozzle that was identical to original (i save these from empties) pried out the nozzle part and stuck a short lenght of polyurethane pipe to it and modified original nozzle to the other end. Finished off by taping a stiff wire to the pipe.

 

 

 

I wedged bottom of the sill open and sprayed zinc primer to weld seam.

 

 

 

Worked rather good ^_^

 

Next job is to plug weld bottom part of sill to the inner sill, after that i will start working on the other side.

 

This pile is starting to look like a car again :lol:

[LagoonBlue 145]

Pretty much done with the sill for now, came a wee bit wobbly side on the rear upper step part. Looks the worst if viewed from a low angle like in the pic. I might revisit that spot at a later time.. not a good spot for a filler that <_< . Nice thing about working with metal is that one can always cut the mistakes away and start again.

 

Anyway, i will take a short break from bodywork, no shortage on other smaller jobs in the meantime.

 

 

 

Also bought me a factory fresh generator, nought of this newfangled alternator rubbish :lol:

Honestly tough never had a car with a generator, always nice to try new things, or in this case that would be old things i guess :rolleyes:

 

[LagoonBlue 145]

Sill was bugging me so i cut a small slot in the spot that was most out off kilter (beneath B-pillar), tacked two angle irons top and beneath and fill welded the slot. Slightly better now but has still 1-2mm negative valleys, looks worse than it is :headscratch: Will do for now.

 

 

 

Also refurbished the rear lights, i will touch up chrome surrounds black bits with thinned model enamel after i buy some. Would of done that before i installed them but i forgot :P

 

[G.O 19]

You're making some great progress with this :D You're right about redoing bits too, as the great Colin RNK says - its only metal!!

[LagoonBlue 145]

You're making some great progress with this :D You're right about redoing bits too, as the great Colin RNK says - its only metal!!

 

Thank you! :thumbup:

 

I have learned a lot during this project. Good thing i started with bits that are not in plain sight so i will not be tempted to redo the whole car :lol:

 

I finished the back light chrome bezels yesterday, turns out today's kids are not in to model kits anymore so i did not find model enamel locally but that was a good thing because i ended up doing it the proper way by masking bezels and spray painting the inlays. Not a big difference really but worth doing anyway.

 

Having a long weekend so returning to bodywork tomorrow.

[LagoonBlue 145]

 

This side seems to be in better condition. I will sort out the wheel tub and inner wheel arch lip first and then continue on to tool well and after that outer wheel arch and sill. Working from the inside out, seems to make the most sense.

 

 

 

Wheel arch area was reasonable solid, only slight trimming of the edge was required. There were Escort wheel arches pop riveted in place previously :rolleyes:

 

 

 

Not so lucky with the wheel tub..

 

 

 

On with the patch work.

 

 

 

Some more.

 

 

 

Seat belt anchor point area was also fairly rotten.

 

 

 

Small patch welded. And that's all for this weekend, most of my time was spent on evaluating the rot with a MOT mans pick and figuring out what shape of patches were needed.

 

Sadly my Dremel corked out today, could be the brushes :headscratch: Still has warranty so no big deal, i will take a look tomorrow. Good tool for those hard to reach corners with EZ Lock cutting wheels.