Welcome to my Cortina page

I purchased this car in June 1990. I am only the second owner. The car had 49,000 genuine miles on it when I purchased it.It was originally a bench seat auto 2ltr 4cyl. I converted it to a 4 speed manual, fitted bucket seats in the front, moved the handbrake lever from a dash mounted control to between the seats and installed a standard TC cortina console.

The car was used and abused as a daily driver for the next couple of years and I managed to double the number of miles on the clock. The engine was fully rebuilt by 'Brad's Speed Shop' in Sydney and now rev's to 8,500 Rpm and pulls 120Km/h in second gear. The engine ran well at the time but with a 10.5:1 compression ratio it does not like the lead replacement fuel. The original paint was starting to fade and the car had a minor altercation with a Torana.

It was time for a new paint job. So in March 93 I took 4 weeks holidays and drove back to my parents in northern NSW. To begin with I was just going to give it an average paint job, but then I got carried away.The first week was spent dismantling the car back to a bare shell and removing all the original paint from outer panels using paint stripper. then it was off to the sand blasters to do the backs of panels and in around the door jam's. The next 3 weeks I spent as a lacky for the panel beaters and spray painters to try and reduce my bill. Luckily they were friends of my family or it could have been a lot worse. The panel beaters had a framed picture of my sisters MK II Escort on the wall - it was the first car they repaired in their shop and not an easy one after a rollover. So after 4 weeks holidays I caught the bus back to Sydney my car still with the painters. After a couple more weeks with the painters my car was finally ready to be reassembled. So back up to northern NSW I went for a long weekend to rebuild my car. The first day was spent alligning panels and doors, fitting new hoodlining, new door and window rubbers and installing all the glass. Day 2 was spent installing new carpet, dash, seats, headlights,tailights and bumpers. Day 3 was engine, gearbox, ancillaries and seatbelts etc. Finally the car was ready for its 600 Km drive back to Sydney. My quick respray had ended up costing me 4 weeks holidays and around $6000. But it looked good, a little bit gray from minor scratches from the buffing compound but that was something I could finish off back in Sydney.

After many weeks of polishing with a very mild cutting compound supplied to me by a friend at Safe-T-Clean I managed to get the nice flat mirror surface I had been looking for.

Over the next few years the car soaked up lots of time and money as more and more parts were polished or chromed. I also rebuilt the whole front suspension, complete with chrome steering rack and swaybar, all new ball joints, tie rod ends and nolathane bushes. The engine kept destroying the original Lucas alternators (did not like the high rev's) so I made up my own bracket to fit a Bosch unit from an AR Telstar with a large V-belt pulley to slow it down a bit. The Bosch unit is also a 60 amp unit which comes in handy when the car is not driven very often.

In 96 the car was put on display at Peter Warren Ford for a week in their new car showroom to advertise the upcoming AllFord Day. The Cortina did very well at the 96 AllFord Day for NSW taking out the 'Concours De'mode' for the year and getting my name on the perpetual trophy.

At the end of 96 the car was put in storage for 5 years as I had moved to the Northern Territory and had no where to store it. In October 2001 I flew back to NSW and got the car out of storage and drove it back to the NT clocking up 4000 Km with only 2 minor problems - a dead battery that had to be replaced and the rear vision mirror came unglued from the windscreen.

Below is a picture of my Cortina as it is now, some of the chrome work needs a bit of attention but it is still in pretty good shape. I have a 5 speed Ford Sierra gearbox waiting to be installed at a later date.