1972 Ford Cortina Mk3 GT
This Mk3 Cortina 2 door GT has come to us after being soda blast cleaned. The owner Richard, has striped the car to a bare shell himself and had the car soda blasted. Corrosion wise the shell and it's panels are in fantastic condition.
Corrosion wise, the outer sills had suffered along the lower edges so the complete outer sill was removed from the car.
This revealed some suspected corrosion to the rear sections of the inner sill.
The corroded sections were cut out and new sections fabricated and welded into position.
The lower forward outer wheelhouses had also suffered some minor corrosion, so again these areas were cut out and new sections fabricated and welded into position.
Once all the repairs to the inner sills had been completed any surface corrosion was cleaned back prior to the inner sills being treated with a zinc phosphate primer coat.
It was the same story with the offside inner sill, so again all the corroded sections to the inner sill and the lower wheelhouse were cut out and replaced prior to the new outer sills being fitted to the car. We were fortunate in the fact that by chance we had a pair of new original ford full outer sill panels in stock. Prior to the outer sills being welded into position the doors are re fitted to the vehicle to ensure all the shut lines were correct. The sections to the lower rear quarter to sill joints had also corroded so these areas were also replaced with new sections fabricated in order to repair this area.
The lower area to the nearside forward kick panel had corroded so this section was cut out and repaired with a repair panel section. Fortunatley the offside had not sufferd so this repair was only needed to the nearside. The original ford jacking strengthener was re-used here as this was ok although not shown in the picture.
The lower rear corner to the nearside of the vehicle had corroded so this was removed to reveal as suspected corrosion to the inner panel. A new section was fabricated to repair the inner panel prior to the new repair section being fitted to the outer quarter panel. Again the inner panel and new section were treated with zinc primer prior to the new outer panel being fitted.
Unfortunatley the nearside rear quarter panel had at some point sufferd some extensive damage followed by poor repair in that it had been loaded with a rather large amount of body filler. The soda blasting process had of course removed the filler to reveal the extent of the damage. It is very hard to see in the picture the damage to the panel but a great amount of time was put in to dressing and body file-ing the panel back to as close as possible to the correct shape. The panel was quite severly rippled so a complete skim coat of body filler was needed to get the panel straight and imperfection free.
The next thing was to fit the front wing to the car. Prior to this the inner wing area was completely seam sealed along with the seam at the back of the wing itself. A mobile sealer was used to all the bolt flanges prior to the wing being bolted on. The inner wing and inside the wing itself were treated with a black rubberised underbody coating to ensure future protection from corrosion. the owner has requested the underside of the car to be done in this process also.
The next areas to attend to were the front and rear panels on the car. The front lower panel was removed to reveal the inner panel/crossmember which was in remarkable condition with only some very minor surface corrosion. Again this was cleaned back and treated with zinc phosphate prior to the new lower front panel being welded into position. Only some minor damage repairs were required to the top front panel/under headlamp section. The outer rear panel was removed to reveal the inner rear panel was badly perforated. This panel was replaced completely with a new panel sourced from Ex-pressed panels. Top marks to them as the new panel was of top quality and fitted perfectly with only very minor re-dressing of the side return flanges.
The top section of the offside inner flitch panel under the wing had sufferd some corrosion. This area was cut out and a new section fabricated and welded into position prior to the wing being re-fitted to the car. Again all areas will be zinc primmed and the inner wing sealed and treated prior to the wing being finally bolted into position.
Once the front wings had been aligned and finally bolted into position the car was wheeled into the booth ready for its primer coat. After masking the shell to avoid any overspray to the interior compartment all bare metal areas were re-etch primed. The complete shell was then primed with three coats of high build primer.
The next thing was to modify the transmission tunnel as the car is to have a T5 cosworth type gearbox fitted. The gearbox was bolted to the car and held in place so a box section could be fabricated to allow the gearbox to fit correctly. At the same time any repaired areas to the interior compartment were re-etch primed prior to seams being sealed. The boot floor was primed with a high build primer due to a few repairs carried out in the boot area. The boot floor could then be prepared ready for re-finishing along with the interior compartment. Again the car was rolled back into the booth and masked ready to re-finish the inside. The car is to be painted Sapphire Black metalic so the basecoat was applied followed by a few coats of laquer.
Further updates to follow shortly.