Heatwave 76 Gina I got a Cortina...................

[Hooli]

Pfft, heaters for for girls!

[8BAK465]

Pfft, heaters for for girls!

[8BAK465]

So things have somewhat come to a halt because after being fried alive for a couple of months we are now being drowned.

The last I did was I started to bare metal the passengers side wing,now I am no paint spraying outfit and dont have access to professional tools its Sepetember 1976 and I live on a council estate so its just sandpaper around a block and good old elbow grease and my workshop is in the gutter next to a lamppost and a grid

I did part of the wing then discovered the blue paint on the strip was like concrete but the minute any heat was generated by the paper the paint would almost melt and clog up the paper



Its costing me a fortune in paper so Dad has offered to lend me his drill and a wire brush attachment so I dont die of boredom doing it by hand.

You can see in the pics that the thick blue paint has undercoat under it,once I have got through the surface this chalky undercoat acts almost like a talc that stops the paper clogging up with the sticky blue paint (which we think is enamel)



So I rub through to that with a sacrificial piece of sandpaper that clogs very quickly then work outwards so the paper gets a coating of the undercoat dust which appears to stop it clogging with the blue

Will be glad when I collect the Drill and attachment from Dad as I am giving up the will to live doing this by hand

There is the odd day of dry whether coming up so will try and get as much done as I can around the front of the car and keep you all posted

[8BAK465]

So after struggling with the wrong sandpaper

I switched to wet and dry but gave up the will to live then Dad let me use his Electric Drill and provided the wire brush attachment to strip Grandads metal gate and fence (which he never did) so ill put them to use instead

So I decided to revisit something I started when I got the car.

Id already sanded the rust bubbles by hand on the doors which then became holes

I decided to tape above the first few inches of the door where damage seemed to stop and strip back to see if there was any more damage?



Unfortunately there was another spot further up but that just turned out to be a pin size of surface rust it hadn't got through

But as you can see apart from the corners the rest of the skin looks fine

I gave the rot a rust killer first and plan to red lead the exposed bare metal for now



As you can see I got carried away by the power of the drill and stripped off the sill which though covered in stone chips and rust stains is really solid,I think the rust stains are leaking down from the door skins





And as there were rust spots and staining under the rear bumper panel stripped that back too.

There were a few weeny pin holes but nothing a bit of solder cant fill



So when that's done ill just strip the whole of the front end and the same area around the other side

And I thought the car just needed a Wash and T Cut

[Hooli]

And I thought the car just needed a Wash and T Cut

You're nearly as bad as SiC!

[8BAK465]

And I thought the car just needed a Wash and T Cut

You're nearly as bad as SiC!

Ill take that as a compliment I admire his fleet and his fine work

[8BAK465]

So sat at home today everybody is out I am waiting in for the postman to deliver a parcel for Mum so thought I would make my notes of what I have been up to on the Cortina and let you see the photos

So back on Dads drill and wire brush I decided to strip more paint off I ventured over to the passengers side as that seemed the worst from the small areas id sanded through by hand then treated with jelonite.

Not much to tell about the bonnet other than its really solid apart from the pinholes in the leading edge

Just thought id get that out of the way first as its bare metal in the photees



The Passengers wing though



What to do? what to do?

In one sense there's a lot of it quite solid and some dubious repairs

There is a hole in the side about the size of a 2 pence coin that been plated from behind inside the wing,not welded just filler that a metal plate pushed into it



Better than nothing I suppose

Then there's another in the top of the wing repaired in the same way

About the size of the bottom of a Babycham/Cherry B bottle.



I then spotted this circle of Fibreglass appear at the top corner of the wing as I went through the paint to bare steel



As I kept abrading the edge of it as little by little the obvious patch came away



Then it fell out and it dawned on me Radio Aerial Hole



It looks like it was beaten down so it could be filled.

Then of course there's tiny pinholes here there and everywhere.........................

And creases and once all the filler came off though a lot of it very solid its clear its had a bump sometime in the last 12 years

And of course the rear bottom dogleg of that very wing is a bit like Lord Lucan (missing for couple of years )



Anyway about that wing bottom

There was something trapped in between what wasn't there and the bottom of the inner A post (which is also not all there )

I wish I hadn't prodded and poked as I pulled out this sharp full of fibreglass splinters work of art













More to investigate I do hope the drivers wing is in better condition?

It looks it but who knows what could be lurking under the paint

I have a better feeling about that one

[8BAK465]

So I had rubbed down the obvious scabs of rust bubbling through to investigate on the passengers side doors and much like the drivers side they had gone in pretty much the same places so like the drivers side now I had the drill and wire brush cup I decided to measure the same distance and take of the paint to see it it had spread from where I already knew about?

Front door first.



Rear Corner already knew about



Front corner there are a few pinholes that could be soft soldered up



Rear door



Obvious Fibreglass patching of hole in bottom front corner



And just to the right of that there are a few small pinholes which can either be filled or the area that's cut out could be extended and just do a larger plate to get rid of those pinholes at the same time ?



And last but not least the small hole in the bottom of the rear dogleg just ahead of the rear door just needs plating as the dogleg and arch itself is rear solid



So next I painted all that lot to protect the bare steel but you lovely lot will have to wait for boots to develop those photos as that film only went in over the weekend.

Ta ra for now

[Hooli]

Looks factory fresh to me

[mercrocker]

How most of my teacher's Cortinas looked at school in the 70s.....Best was Mr Williams's LHD bench seat Consul Cortina with column change. He took a few of us up the pub in it one Friday afternoon (yep it was a different world in 1975) and lost all forward gears. We wanted him to rag it back to school in reverse but he sorted out the linkage sadly. Ermine White with alternating rust and primer......