Cortina Build

02-02-02 + 10

2012-02-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago this weekend was the 02-02-02 drive, yes, the YEAR OF OUR CAR as we called it, and that was the day of our car. The BMW 2002 is what I am referring to now, Cortina's were a twinkle of an obsession in my eye yet. BMW being true to it's roots sent us all (well, I think all) our own key chain with the infamous grill on it with 2002 below, this is on the keys to this day.

10 years ago, let me see, my current wife was going to UW for her short 1 year stint before she headed up to WWU, I was going to school at WWU. I picked my then girlfriend, now wife up at her Sorority and headed off to the Alki boat launch only to find the whole group of 02's had departed! DOH! A traffic slow up on the 520 bridge made me late. So we found out where they were headed and ZOOMED over to Golden Gardens park. Luckily I found them all lined up and joined the group. From here we wound our way up the hill and made our way to Green Lake where we made a stop before heading over to SPUDS along Green Lake. From here we took off and did our own thing.....though it is crazy to think 10 years have passed since this weekend.

I did not make it out with the 2002 group this weekend for the 10 year anniversary, I was busying going up to Bellingham to enjoy the beautiful weather one last time as childless parents. Today I did take the car out though, and boy was it good to get out, it reminded me of everything that it means to drive that car. To put it in words would surpass my writing abilities, so i'll just put it this way, it was my first car at 16....I still have it to this day, and am reminded every time I drive it why I still have it and won't get rid of it! If any of my kids don't have cars running through their veins by 16......I know what will help them out =)

to the 2002! (that's when you toast your class and clink my beer)

Engine mounted!

2012-01-25T17:08:00.000-08:00

Have you overshot your new years resolution if you achieve the goal before the first month of the year is up? Possibly, though as far as I was concerned, I only had about 2 to do it anyway.

Big milestone, one of the bigger for the project. The Engine is IN the car, mounted on the engine MOUNTS! That is a big deal as it sums up a lot of fab work, some design/fab I did the year I bought the car (now almost 3 years ago), and a lot of planning. The funny thing is, it went pretty well and was quite simple....engine swap being tough my a$$.

So here it is, in all its glory

The mounts made a few years back

Angle iron welded in for added strength

Tacked up

Welding it all up with gussets

More welding

Passenger side mounted

Drivers side mounted

Top view of passenger side

The whole thing, hoist removed!

Well, I suppose I have to create a "bonus round" of new years goals....Transmission mounted by the end of February it is. Time to start marking up where to cut the tunnel and firewall

Cosworth Racing parts

2012-01-19T19:25:00.000-08:00

What makes you able to put a Cosworth sticker on your car? Cosworth parts on your car of course..... I painted the valve cover of the Duratec to look like the famed BDA Cosworth engine....something you might have found in an English Ford of the Period. So, lucky me. I needed new flywheel bolts for the engine as I had to replace the flex plate with an actual flywheel. I had not had any luck when I first looked a few months ago. The other day I stumbled upon the Cosworth website and what did I find? Flywheel bolts! YAH!

Yes folks, my official Cosworth parts arrived today (actually, they are just ARP bolts hahah). No, I won't put a sticker on the car....but it helps justify the BDA imitation valve cover =)

1973 Honda XR75

2012-01-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

1973 Honda XR75, a fun little motorcycle that I have owned since I was about 8...., so 20 years! I sold this fun little piece of history yesterday, the first of its kind, quite a collectors item. The history of the bike goes like this. I saw my cousin's motorcycle out in Wisconsin and wanted one myself, so my Dad helped me pick out a good sized bike to look for. I scowered the newspaper classifieds (back when those existed) and Little Nickel hoping to find one for a good price. One day I found one for $150, so we drove to Issequah to go take a look at it. It was in good condition, was running and a great price. So we went to the bank to get the $150 and paid the guy.....and then somehow got it in to the back seat of the 1977 Volkswagen Bug convertible (Champagne edition to be exact)...yes, we drove it home sticking up in the air in the back of a Bug convertible...fun times.

So once I got it home I wanted to ride it. Oh course being only 8 or so, and never really ridden / used anything with a clutch....my first attempt went not so well. I popped the clutch and did a wheelie up the curb and into the bush on our side yard. Yep, that was enough to scare the sh*t out of me for a year or so. My sister rode the bike for that first year or so and I just had to watch and build up my courage to try it again. I finally learned that if I started rolling the bike and then released the clutch it went much smoother for me. The next few years were spent riding around the neighborhood back and forth between the culde-sacs, and then the 300ft gravel trail behind the house. Eventually a hole opened up in the fence behind our house granting access to the High School parking lot and rugby field. My friend Fernando and I would take turns driving from one end of the field to the other as fast as we could, hitting a small hill /bump in the process trying to get air. At some point we discovered some tire ruts in the field which when it rained a lot turned quite muddy......so we would take turns driving through the thick mud, sometimes getting somewhat stuck with the only way out being gunning the throttle as clumps of mud flew up in the air and landed our our shoulders and helmet. Oh the good times we had with the bike!

Around 5 years in to owning the bike, maybe a little more, it got to where we could barely get it started. The best bet became starting at the top of the hill and running it down, hopping on and trying to bump start it. Once this didn't even work...it was time to take it to the shop. Unfortunately we discovered the engine needed a $600 rebuild which at the time was out of the question.

Fast forward a few years, I was in college and had a class where we had to tear an engine fully apart, every component laid out on a table, re-assemble and get running. The XR engine was the perfect choice for me, I started buying the parts it needed for a rebuild and started the tear down process. Somewhere along the line in the crankcase I encountered some pain in the a$$ spot that needed a special Honda tool to take apart. Well, despite my best efforts, and even machining a "special" tool of my own, I could not get it apart. I started on some other engine to finish the class. Well, I forgot to take the XR engine home all year, and that summer in one of the foundry classes the went through all the cupboards to melt down "lost" engine pieces for their casting projects...so, the main crankcase became someone else casting project and was melted down. For the next 6 years I toyed on and off with buying and engine and rebuilding and putting in the XR to get it driving again, because it was FUN. Well, too many car projects got in the way and it was never done. Once my parents tired of it sitting in their garage, they dumped it at my house so I could store it.

I sold the bike to a guy that had one back in the day and plans on restoring it. Knowing it will be brought back to like the proper way makes me happy. I bought a fuel pump, oil filter relocation mount and some lines with the money I got for the bike....cross that off the Cortina to do list. I had hoped to rebuild the bike with me soon to be here son, but decided building a go-kart together would be a much more fun learning experience for us two!

FWD to RWD Sump Mods

2012-01-15T13:20:00.001-08:00

One of the things I have done to save spending $2500 on a dry sump system and also save the time and money from designing / making a custom wet sump system, is I have chopped up the stock Focus sump to make it work with the RWD configuration of the Cortina.

There it is in all it's FWD sumpiness glory, obviously not going to fit.....even with the 2x4 gone.

So I had to do this, hack it up (well, in some spots I literally did hack it....and it shows). Nice is most of what I took out was actually just dead space, not actual oil volume, so that is good!

Oh hey, it fits.....all part of the plan, no luck there.

Oh, there you can see some of the hacking that went on, ooops. Cardboard Quaker oat pieces ready for welding in!

Welded up nicely, funny how cardboard turns shiny like aluminum once you weld it ;) . Very nice guy near me welded it up, will be using him for jobs like this that I can't do with my equipment.

And it still fits, sweet! That rusty piece of metal is just a spacer so when I do weld the engine mounts in place, its not with the engine resting on the crossmember

Automotive inspiration

2012-01-10T21:03:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get asked "if you had all the money in the world, what car would you get", I usually respond, well a nice 2002 and a nice Lotus Cortina, and the people go really? The cars you already have? That is an easy answer out as how do you pick one car? My response should be, give me a 100 stall parking garage with my unlimited money and i'll tell you how i'd fill it. Here are some of those cars....exotic to plain ol every day classic.

More pics to come, running out of time

GT inspiration

2012-01-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

This car here is a lot of my inspiration. I loved the superlite wheels on it!

This one I actually saw first though, and LOVED

Other Duratec Builds

2012-01-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

Flywheel stop

2012-01-05T20:11:00.001-08:00

One lesson I have learned, if a solution doesn't immediately come to me, keep it on the back burner and keep visiting it every now and then.....you'll think of something.

I just fabbed up a flywheel stop for the Duratec....something I have been looking to do with the materials at hand, and finally came up with a solution with some scrap steel I had lying around. Better than spending $45 or so on buying one!

Nothing special, but should do the job. It is 1/4" steel 3x3 tube cut to fit....It goes to show that my Lincoln Handymig CAN'T do metal that thick (it will work for this, but I wouldn't use on engine mounts etc)

Verify fit

2012-01-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

If you haven't been able to tell yet, i'm trying to do this Duratec build on the cheap.....meaning instead of paying $1500 or so for a dry sump system shipped over from the UK to make the engine work in a RWD configuration.....and sit low enough, i'd do something like, CHOP THE SUMP UP and make it work. Well, at least that is one of the crazy ideas I had, and tonight I checked to see if it would work......and it looks like it will!

There were a few things the sump had to accomplish:

1. The engine had to sit low enough to clear the hood, AND not have a high center of gravity (handling)

2. The engine had to sit far enough back that the balance of the car wasn't messed up

3. It had to allow close to stock level of oil (I'm hoping to make up the small loss of capacity with an oil cooler and lines...)

4. It had to retain the bellhousing / transmission fastener holes

5. It had to be cheap

6. I'm sure there's more, but i'm moving on

I will post more on the sump when I get it welded up (I have to pay someone, I can't do Aluminum). For now you just get to see "test fit pictures"

Plop, there it went, almost perfectly centered....hope it's this good when MOUNTED

About 4" clearance from pulley face to front thing'a'ma'bob there

3ish inches to heater bowel...just enough room to be able to do some work back there

Sneak peak of sump....yep, it all fits in the new clearanced sump..., steep plate is to prop engine up

Clearance to front fascia there

Close to final resting place for engine mount, looks like the rod will almost go downwards to the engine.

How the radiator fits now, i'll be moving the rad mounts inbound so there is more room between engine and radiator
See how much i'll move it in

Just a reminder how high the stock rad sits, I forgot to snap a pic of the new rad to compare...but it seems it sits high, until you look at this.....and it sits lower than this, somehow this doesn't hit the hood!

Well as you can see, on my way to meeting that resolution of mine!

New year!

2012-01-01T18:14:00.000-08:00

It's a new year, and with a new year brings resolutions! What is yours? Mine is to at least get this beast:

In here:

And look something like this:

Of course.......ACTUALLY mounted in the car, and not just hanging there. I'd like to do this by the end of January.....though I'm always a little late on my due dates, so maybe Mid February this will be done....

Strut repair complete!

2011-12-28T19:12:00.001-08:00

Well, I had better post some progress before I head off to Ocean Shores for New Years at a cabin. What does the new year have in store for me? Some things I am not sure.....mainly where I will get with the Cortina. What IS sure, is I will have baby come March / April.... This means so many things.....most of which I do not know and have not experienced yet, but I am excited and anticipating the things to come. One day going to the races, car shows, building a go-kart, or two.... who knows, but, I get to be a kid again as I raise my kid.

But, on to the business...the reason you come to this site I am sure. The Cortina, the biggest project is for the most part done....the daunting task of repairing the strut tower rust (drivers side). I have learned a few things.....that of, make a BURLY locating / brace device for putting the cup back in place....I had made mine thinking it was good....3 point location and all, but then realized after cutting everything out that once the cup was removed....the 3rd of the 3 was gone, so it was down to 2 spots locating where the cup went...which wasn't enough as it ended up not quite where it should. Hopefully this is fine.....I guess I will find out in a few years once the car is running and driving.

fabbing up the strut brace, fun stuff

Here it is, all done....could have used a bit more bracing / beefiness, mmm, beef

What's the saying, hindsight is 20/20...suppose I could have got away with not cutting it out and wire wheeling out the rust and welding / bracing as needed...DOH!

This is where you say "OH F, there is a hole in my car" yep, no turning back now...

As if Santa delivered it, looking at it I said to myself "you dumma, you didn't need to cut this out" oh well, time to fix the mess I made

Fabbin up a repair piece out of 16 gage, yep, bend that ish

Metal fab, more creativity than anything...how to make this curve...

Hey, look at that, 80% match (yep, mathematically correct)

How did that one dude say it? "BAM" I believe it was. Panel bending 101, Just do it (yep, see that welded in patch panel....doh)

Repaired up, braced in, that's how we do it

Well, here is the cheapy do repair panel from ebay marked for cutting...the one from the Mk1 Owners club would have cost me twice as much X 1.66 exchange rate....no thanks (though...would have been a MUCH better piece, and probably worth it)

Little do you know, two hours of going outside, grinding, coming back in, test fitting, going back out, grinding, coming back in.....fitting etc etc = This result above, yep, blamy

Welding, it's for a patient one, one little tack weld at a time, spaced out as best possible to avoid heat warping...fun stuff

I will admit, I am proud of this, start the arc on the nice new metal, push the molten puddle over to the gap and stop once it hits the old sheet metal. What do you get, nice tack welds, not burned through, whoeeeeeeeeeee

Count em, exactly 10 more welds than the last picture ;) . Some bigger gaps in some spots = tack weld on top of tack weld to eventually close the gap, not ideal

Shoot, look at that, mostly welded up, just some plug welds left to go

By golly, it is welded up, ground down, and patch welded for those pesky little holes still left

Ground again (did this a few times)

Ok, looks pretty good to me, possibly time for primer eh?

Primered, yippee yai yo kai yay! Next up, some bondo, some sanding to blend it all in so it doesn't look like I just hacked up the strut tower! HA! I guess you'd only know if you read this blog! Well, no, there will be some weld bumps left under the fender transition that I can't quite grind....don't want to screw it up and grind off the fender ha haaaaaaaa

After all of this work, this money spent, what did I start out with again, what was it that caused me to go through all this trouble?
It needed to be done, but in retrospect, I think just the top metal could have been replaced, while the under strut cup could have been......restored / repaired in place, not removed.

If you have made it this far, congrats, this is the longest post by far. On to the next big project.....getting the engine mounts in, welded..so then I can start fabbing up the tranny mounts and getting that all squared away, wooo hoooo

Christmas or Bust

2011-12-21T12:40:00.000-08:00

Well, the 100th post on this blog.....I am headed off to Redwood City / San Francisco for Christmas with my Wife's family, then back up home Christmas morning to spend it with my family, woooooooo, fun times!!

Some pics snapped last year down there

Well.....my Cortina is name: Yetti...

Nice 2002

Widened 240Z in Berkley

Alfa shop near Little Italy

Bug eye on Haight Ashburry

Gilles Villeneuve, Ferrari 312T3

2011-12-16T16:16:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite racing drivers, and one of my favorite F1 cars, Gilles Villeneuve and the Ferrari 312T3. A driver often seen in photos as on the limit of adhesion, a snowmobile racer turned F1 driver from Canada. His early days brought many critics with his either flamboyant driving style with rear Tyre in the grass......either highly skilled keeping it together barely, or risking injury.....either way, great driver, great car.

Korean Taco's...

2011-12-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I will be honest, I have never had a Korean taco.....so I decided to make my own. I'll fill you in a little, in visiting Portland a bit I became aware of the phenomenon known as FOOD CARTS........ So I learned more about them, one of the peculiarities that I thought I would try myself were Korean Tacos......

so I did, and here is the result! That is beef marinated in Kiwi and mango...among other things, cooked, served over sushi rice with cabbage, carrots, cilantro and some mango, mmm mmm good, i'll have to make more soon!

Strut top repair

2011-12-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

I decided to "fix" my strut top cup....yes, after I cut it out of the car. Unfortunately I did some damage in doing this (to the cup), but in the process of fixing am getting out some crappy metal and adding some extra metal.....it probably won't look pretty (i'm kinda a beginner welder, and, it's a patch job) but I think it will end up better than the cheap repair panels I got from England (the good stuff was like 3X as much + shipping...so I said no)

Still some work left, but....hopefully this will work out for the better.

Also, the weld through primer......doesn't seem to work the way I thought it would, I maybe should read up on that, hmmmm

Underseal Removal

2011-11-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

I'm not promoting products, but the "HF" (you know what that means) multi tool thing works pretty good for underseal removal (with the scraper attachment). I am just doing the wheel wheels......well because, then I will paint them white rustoleum. I'm not sure if the factory put it on thick.....but I am pretty sure when this car DID drive......it drove around on roads that were tar and gravel....because there is a lot of tar like underseal which I am assuming IS tar that was flung up while driving around.

Before starting

After about 30 minutes of work

The other side, almost done (note strut top cup cut out....which will be coming back in soon)

A Swedish pie

2011-11-22T20:07:00.000-08:00

One day.....I will open a pizza place. This is my home mad herb pizza dough, with the just perfected red sauce (secret recipe). I hope to have a wood fired oven to bake this in at some point in my life... until then the oven will do.

Hopefully my future kids will like this sort of pizza....and not boring ol cheese or pepperoni!

Strut cup removal

2011-11-21T21:23:00.000-08:00

Tonight I finally got the strut cup out.....been working on this about all of November and finally cut it out. Had to do a little more cutting than I wanted to due to not pulling the fender...but I suppose had I not, i'd be here until February trying to get it done!

I will hopefully do a big "strut top rust repair" post when this is all done and said....just wanted to post some progress pics

change the 25 year import rule

2011-11-17T11:14:00.001-08:00

Change the 25 year import rule to 15, sign the petition now!

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/stop-using-homeland-security-funds-seize-imported-vehicles-and-change-dotepa-exemption-15-years/L50BZzwj?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Help bring in some of those cool cars out there that are still too young to bring in under the current 25 year law!

2002 Turbo

2011-11-15T21:01:00.000-08:00

A nice 2002 turbo from the July Pacific Northwest Historic auto races

MS3X + 4 channel Driver board

2011-11-04T22:40:00.001-07:00

I received my 4-channel driver board on Monday and finished up soldering and installing it in the MS3 case (it's the topmost component in the case that you see, those are the ignition drivers using the case as a heat sink). I need the 4-channel driver board as the stock Ford COP's i'll be using for the engine won't work with the output from the MS3X.......somewhat unfortunate, but with a little modding and wiring it should work for me now. Sequential injection and spark.......that will be nice, no wasted spark and batch firing injectors!

Now I just need to get the sump done so I can try and fire up the engine on the test stand....

Capri

2011-11-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

Sweet Ford Capri racer with the quad cam V6 and slide throttle ITB's at the 2007 Monterey Historics, NICE!

Electrolytic rust removal, fuel tank

2011-11-03T10:55:00.001-07:00

Well I started looking in to rust removal for the fuel tank (which is quite rusty on the inside) and stumbled upon the process of electrolytic rust removal.......I think I might give this a try as it sounds pretty cheap and effective. I'll probably "shake" some rocks or chair or whatever I can at first to loosen the big stuff....but then give this a shot:

http://www.ehow.com/how_7867452_electrolytic-fuel-tank-rust-removal.html

Strut Brace done

2011-11-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

The strut top locating brace is done, ugly but functional, all it needs to be! I referenced my tooling days, it is located to the car in 3 places, so not too over constrained. Welded it up with fasteners in place, took it apart when done, and then put it back on with no issues. I made the vertical bar bolt to my bump stop locations.....something someone with a stock sub-frame couldn't do.

I was planning on taking the fender off.....but i'm going to see what I can do with it on as I REALLY don't want to take it off......or put it back on for that matter!