Renault Estafette Van, Mk2 Cortina GT

[jonsey]

This morning I moved the Cortina off the lift and put it in the other bay so I could take the TCAs. The car will be immobile until I get them back. As I’d loosened everything off on the lift it did take long to get them off.



For some reason the passenger side inner poly bush has gone wonky








I asked on the Cortina owners club FB page why this would happen and most are saying it’s the grease. Now I know you’re only supposed to use silicone grease bla bla bla, but this is the only bush that’s gone wonky, so I’m thinking it’s not the grease, I’m thinking perhaps the cross member isn’t straight. The mounting point in the cross member points the TCAs rearward slightly. I’m thinking if this side is a little to far back , then the arm will be pulled forward by the ARB putting extra strain on the bush. I’ll have to have a measure this week l What do you reckon?

So the guy who is going to mod the arms lives  in Aberporth so I dropped the arms off at his house this afternoon and then went to the beach 2 mins from his house and had ice cream and chips. Not together. This merged car time with family time. Bonus.

[teaboy]

That bush is odd.

I like ice cream.

[generalstirlingprice]

Don’t forget that the anti-roll bar clamp was loose and the TCA joint was goosed, if it was that side. Chassis drop check next? Please keep us updated on the on the new TCA joints,that’s an interesting modification.

[jonsey]

May 7, 2023 19:17:08 GMT generalstirlingprice said:

Don’t forget that the anti-roll bar clamp was loose and the TCA joint was goosed, if it was that side. Chassis drop check next? Please keep us updated on the on the new TCA joints,that’s an interesting modification.

Chassis drop check? What is that Mr Price? The ARB was loose on the other side but may be an issue. The ball joint mod is something used on rally Escorts. I’m hoping to get them back in a week. I’ll let you know how it goes

[generalstirlingprice]

Chassis drop check is set the body shell level on a level floor surface and drop a plumb line from every suspension point and mark it on the floor and then measure and compare to the factory body shell drawing. This allows you to determine whether the suspension points are in spec,surely you’ve done this with your Escort? Although you may call it something else where you are 🙂

[jonsey]

May 7, 2023 20:01:23 GMT generalstirlingprice said:

Chassis drop check is set the body shell level on a level floor surface and drop a plumb line from every suspension point and mark it on the floor and then measure and compare to the factory body shell drawing. This allows you to determine whether the suspension points are in spec,surely you’ve done this with your Escort? Although you may call it something else where you are 🙂

Not done it with the Escort. I’ve only ever set the castor and camber on that. I’ll measure diagonals to see if it’s in the right ball park. I know the corner weights are out as it does lock one of the front wheels first even though the brake efficiency is equal on my brother’s dyno. The ARB did look like it could be bent on the car when I got it so I fitted another one. Perhaps there is an issue with this corner

[daddyshortlegs]

Ice cream & chips, a bit like fish fingers & custard.

[jonsey]

May 8, 2023 15:47:40 GMT daddyshortlegs said:

Ice cream & chips, a bit like fish fingers & custard.

🤮I think I’d prefer the ice cream and chips

[jonsey]

I’m off work for the week. The weather was wet wet wet yesterday so I couldn’t push the Escort from the old garage back into the new one. So I turned this


Into this


Today after shopping for Mrs Jonsey’s birthday I mowed the grass and and cut up 4 bin bags worth of cardboard boxes from the garage. As it was sunny Jones Junior (the elder) helped me push the Escort back into the new garage


This is in the boot after I did the cut and butt on the driver arch


You are supposed to pull the “cut” out after you’ve tacked it but I forgot. A quick wiggle with a pliers and it came out ok


Just needs a tickle with the power file now.

Hopefully tomorrow I can fit the arch on the passenger side

[jonsey]

This is the passenger rear quarter minus the rear arch


First I cut the grot out and separated the tub from the quarter like I did on the other side


I then trimmed down the top of the arch leaving just a tab to hold it on with a screw


Next was a cut and butt all the way round the arch leaving the arch tacked on


I then ground these back


I was going to do another set of tacks and grind them back before the next set of tacks, but I got bored of that and kept going. I then ground them all back in one go



There’s a few spots to go back over with the mig and I need to finish the bottom of the arch front and rear

[jonsey]

I didn’t do anything yesterday as it was Mrs Jonsey’s birthday. Today I started on the bottom corners of the arch
The rear was just a simple weld up job


The front I had a bit to fill in


Cut a piece and welded it in


Put some primer on


And back on the floor to see the fruits of my labour


I helped my brother move his Gilbern GT to storage a few nights ago. When I got back this had happened


I think it’s from the trailer dragging on the floor when going up /down ramps. Took the light pod off

Welded it back on


And ground back


This happened also


Luckily I had a new one ready so fitted it. No photos of this though.

When I was looking for the light I found these



I’ve never had a door lock that worked on the Escort so I will mod these to fit

[jonsey]

Last night I had a call to say my track control arms were ready. The guy lives an hour away. Luckily enough, by some strange coincidence, I happened to have 4 jobs in work today, just 5 miles away from his house. What’s the chances of that😉. So I didn’t have to waste 2 hours of my weekend having to pick them up.

It ended up they were £180 but it’s still cheaper than buying new, or rejoining the owners club and getting mine refurbished. I also now have the added bonus of if they ever go again I only have to remove the dust cap and replace the rose joint for about £30. It’s only held in by a circling and the pin just bolts into the joint.








The rose joint is Teflon lined so doesn’t need greasing. This system is usually used on Escort rally cars. The forging is a lot smaller on the Escort than it is on the Cortina where the bearing sits, so these should be more than capable of transporting me to a car show.

[generalstirlingprice]

That looks like a good modification,it’s got to last as long as the original design,not badly priced for the amount of work involved and better than some of the dubious refurbs out there.

[jonsey]

May 18, 2023 20:54:18 GMT generalstirlingprice said:

That looks like a good modification,it’s got to last as long as the original design,not badly priced for the amount of work involved and better than some of the dubious refurbs out there.

The amount of mileage this car does, they should hopefully last forever

[jonsey]

Back on the Cortina. First I had to fit the new inner TCA bushes


I went with rubber this time as the poly bushes on there had gone odd


Next I fitted the new track bar bushes. I wanted to fit the original plastic/nylon type but only poly were available. They are quite tough though


I then needed to fit the track bar back on to the pitman and relay arm. This is where the photos stop as I started swearing. The bush would not go on to the relay arm. I even told it to F’off and it still wouldn’t go on. So I took the relay arm off the car and fitted it in the vice with a socket.

I then bolted the relay arm back on the car and now had to fit the track bar to the pitman arm, without the aid of the vice as I wasn’t taking the pitman arm off. I tapped it with a hammer and socket and it just slid on. Why was the relay such a pain? Because it didn’t have a chamfer on the end like the pitman arm did.

So with it all back together I fitted a couple of new exhaust hanger rubbers and went for a drive to try it out.

It now drives good again. No wandering about the road. We stopped at Dryslwyn Castle for a photo





The keen eyed will notice its rocking the rally look as I forgot to refit the hub caps. It will get a wash tomorrow so it’s ready for a car show next weekend - weather permitting.

[jonsey]

I didn’t get much done on the Escort today. I had to change oil and filters on Mrs Jonsey’s Rav4 which didn’t take long but time just evaporated doing nothing really.

So remember this. It’s the fuel filler not the exhaust.


Well it needs to be sealed off from the cabin. When I rebuilt the car back in 2007 I made an aluminum cover for it. So that can go back on. I could make a new one but I was quite pleased with it when I first made it (perhaps not so much now), and I wanted to keep something that was older on the car as everything thing else appears to have been changed.

I did have to modify it though. When it was last on the car, the turrets were in a different place so I needed to seal off the bit above the shock top mount. So I made a speed blister and riveted it on.


I then had to put a return lip on the front part by grinding a curve into a bit or 4x2 wood and hammering it over.

And all fitted



Oh, I did wash the Cortina and the RAV4 too.

[jonsey]

I’m on call today so wanted to get something done. Not a lot, but something. So remember the front panel


The spotlights won’t be on there all the time. You don’t want to smash your expensive spotlights off competing in the day when you didn’t even need them. I also don’t want to go faffing about with nuts and a spanner behind the front panel every time I want to put them on / take them off. So I’d planned to weld the nuts to the back of the panel.

So that’s what I did





I did the number plate nuts while I was at it too. Some of the welds left a pin hole on the other side


So they got welded up to and ground back


And a bit of primer added

And that was that.

[jonsey]

WI’ve not done much on the Escort recently due to work, life, etc.
Went to a car show in the Cortina


Went to the beach


Went to the hospital to have my pupils dilated as the optician thought I had a torn retina


Had a BBQ (no photo), but today I got something done. I’ve reborrowed the coil overs from my nephew


Made ghetto wheel spacers (they’re not the final solution)


So I can get the coil overs on without them hitting the tires. The old shock mounting brackets got cleaned up on a linisher thing my father made years ago out of an old washing machine motor




So I tacked the brackets on





And dropped it to the floor.





The springs are wound all the way up at the moment so it’s got a 4x4 stance so I added a bit of ballast in the boot to drop it a bit. That’s with 10mm spacer, but I think I can go to 15mm with the tires still inside the arch.


I’ll have to revisit the fuel pipe cover to give more clearance as I need to put an Allen key in the top of the shock


And I fitted rivnuts to the gearbox tunnel





I’m now off to the cinema to watch Transformers (the ballast’s choice, not mine).

[teaboy]

It's all progress, Phil.

The 'tina is looking nice.

[ChrisT]

Nice work as as always, had to google what a linisher was, and now I know your picture make a lot more sense