Cortina Mk1 with space frame chassis & V8

[beeRS]

This is my seriously long term project. Its been in the workshop for years. I bought the Cortina as a running car in 1995.


I found it in a small ad in the back of Custom Car magazine. Can you imagine paying this amount for a 2 door Mk1 today? I done a deal and drove it home from Nottingham to Essex. I was very happy with it .


I used the Cortina as it was for a few months whilst I tried to make up my mind about what to do with it . At the time I was only interested in V8's and so I began to formulate a plan. Remember this was 1996 - I was young and daft and I thought the 'Pro-Street' look would be cool.


Originally it was a Delux trim. The interior was not too bad, but almost none of it would be used.


Someone had fitted a 1500GT engine, though it had started life as a 1200 Delux. If I had a Mk1 like this now it would get a symathetic restoration, but at the time the Cortina 2 door was not as desirable or valuable as it is now so I hatched a plan to cut it up . In my defence, the floor was rotten and needed a lot of welding. The front wings were made of filler, but the rest seemed OK.

I'll post some pics of the build when I get round to it .

[Steve]

Keep it coming

[haz87]

Looking forward to seeing this

[exboyracer]

Me too

[evans2822]

Cool pics to start Lets see the grinder ones now

[cledus]

Keep it coming. Something I've always wanted to do this after driving my Dads home built Savage.

[beeRS]

Here's some pics of the early progress on this project...


The front wings will be all fibreglass and so the first job was to take moulds of the original front wings before cutting them away.


Here you can see the moulds in construction. The mould includes the complete front panel too. The 2x2 wood is to brace the mould.


Thanks to my mate Jimbo with his oxy torch the floor is cut away in sections.


Both outer sills were replaced, the shell is braced and the centre part of the floor is removed.


With the moulds for the front wings and front panels taken the original panels are all cut off. Here you can see the non-original bulkhead. This is the a reminent from my first attck on this project - I was just going to fit a V8 and leave the shell/floor mostly unaltered. That was 3 years worth of wasted effort . Well, not quite wasted - It did teach me to weld
If you look closely at the strut tops you can see where I originally modified them to accept Capri 2.8i struts. They wont be sed now as this will have a completely new front set up.


Here is the mould for the complete front panel being hand laid in fibreglass. The mould is a 3-piece item, but the finel panel that comes out of it is a single piece item. It combines the two front wings and front panel and all weighs about 3-4kg



By this stage the boot floor has also been cut away. New inner sills are fabricated.


More help from Jimbo


Finally everything that is not required has been cut away. There's not much of the original car left now . All I have is the roof, rear quarters, doors and boot.


...and of what is left, I still needed to cut away more of the orignial metal.

[Adam B]

looks an interesting project, be nice to see some up to date pics

[QuIcKrAcK]

Will be following this with interest.

[beeRS]

Right at the begining of this project I had an idea of the look I was going for. Here's one of my earliest sketches...


To give you an idea of how long this project has been going on for just have look at the date on the sketch.

Here's the drawings of the chassis I designed...

This is the front cradle for the engine. The suspension mounts are for a wishbone indipendant front end (I thought it was a good idea at the time).


Here you can see the rear part of the chassis with mounts for a live axel and 4-link plus panhard rod. The kick up over the rear axels should still allow enough space for back seats.




I never noticed till today, but the date on those drawings was 11th Sept 2001

[rampant racing]

that looks sort of familiar to me,lol.

[beeRS]

Yes - That it does look familiar! "Great minds..." Nice work there on your Spitfire.

[rampant racing]

Yes - That it does look familiar! "Great minds..." Nice work there on your Spitfire.

thanks,yours will be a cracker when your done with it.still doing the same space frame?

[sierra1off]

I know there is a massive update due !!!!

[beeRS]

About time I showed some more of this build. Remember - this work was all carried out over 10 years ago. The chassis was constructed at Wisbech Engineering following my drawings. They did a great job and included their input for the suspension geometry. The IFS is based on Cortina Mk4/5 geometry, and the rear is a 5 link based on my specifications. With the chassis back at the workshop work began on mating it to the body.


The chassis is offered up in place. This is just before the outriggers were fabricated.




The rear axel is from a Volvo 245. It has decent sized half shafts which have a consistent diameter all the way along their lengths. This makes narrowing possible. The rear discs are the original Volvo ones that have been X-drilled.


Here you can see the stainless steel 4-link arms - all fabricated by Wisbech Engineering.


The gearbox is a Cosworth T5 with B&M quickshift fitted. The bellhousing/adaptor is from Magnum Engineering and allows the T5 to bolt straight up to the V8. You can see the outriggers have been fabricated now.




Above you can just see the IFS under the pink blanket.


Propshaft was made by Recoprop.




Above, you can see the all new fibreglass front end. The two front wings, front lower panel and bonnet slam panel have all been moulded as a single piece.


The engine you can see here was just a Rover 3.5 V8. It was not the engine to be used with this project, but was good for mocking things up. A 5.0 TVR Lump will end up between the chassis rails. The front brakes are Hi-Spec items. You can see the Wisbech Engineering stainless steel IFS.

[davblue]

amazing m8
realy good to see
will go some a bet when done.keep up the good there

dsrestos

[Adam B]

Looks excellent!

[cossymax]

WoW that looks the nuts

[Jimmythedimmy]

Loving this

[Stevehar]

Hi did this project get finished??

[beeRS]

Hi did this project get finished??

This project morphed into something different, when I ditched the V8 in favour of a mad Duratec. See my other thread here...

http://www.turbosport.co.uk/showthre...833&highlight=