1964 Ford Cortina, tatty but loved... but sold

Hi all,
I've been following threads here for a while, and like many others I felt like I should introduce my own 'ride'



It's the 4-door Deluxe model, painted in Aqua Blue; it was built in October 1963 in Dagenham and sold on April 15th 1964 at the Garage Gaume in Le Mans. When I bought it, it still had its original registration '468 HA 72', which is pretty rare for a car this old.

Here are the first pics I took:








I bought it March 24th this year, and it had been off the road since '95. I took it home on a tow truck (very expensive), it seems all it needed was new front shocks, new tires all round and other small stuff.
The previous owner actually overhauled the brakes, the engine and the clutch but stopped the resto when he found a '66 1500GT that was ready to go. Most of the body is original, since it was apparently protected with used motor oil: ugly but efficient!

Since then, I've driven around 2500 miles with it, including a ten-hour 350-mile trip, and another twelve-hour 430-mile one... No need to say I was deaf after both ;D




It's pretty slow, with around 48bhp but only weighs 840kg and I never take the motorway anyway.

Changing front shocks:





On these pics you can see that the car was lowered, using a toolbox in the boot:




The rear suspension is very sensitive to load, like when I had all my stuff in the car as I was moving from my apartment:




Other pics:











In its new home:





I hope you like it, I don't intend to modify it, it's only original once... And there are not that many in France!