A 1968 Ford Cortina 1300 De Luxe 2 Door 1st registered 5th April and started life white.

She is a UK car that at some point in the early 80s was exported to Portugal. She came back in 2017 and although I have no information it is believed the colour change  and 1700 681 engine was done in Portugal.

The 1st Pic is what she was like the day she came into my possession. Badged as a GT in Lutus Red and Gold colours. She is an extremely solid car for her age I guess due to being in Portugal, certainly in better nick than me and she’s a year older!!

The only welding she has had (that I can tell and I’ve had a good look) is a very small plate on the chassis rail under the driver’s seat, but even this does not appear to me to be because of rust and more likely due to jacking damage! All original spot welds and factory chassis is still stamped on the inner wing top which is quite rare to see. She is badged as a GT and has the Mild tuned 1700 XFlow 681 long block from a Genuine GT, with twin 40/40 weber, believed Kent Cam KCGT lumpy idle and very revy, Alden Fast Road 103XFYV Distributor with their Ignitor electronic ignition system, Lucas Gold Sports Coil and Escort MK2 rack conversion with a MK1 Escort steering Colum. She already had the rack conversion of good quality but it needed attention as did the steering to it, I fitted the MK1 escort column to it, as what was done was quite a mess and dangerous!

I have done way more to her than I had planned or expected…mainly sorting LEAKS, I know most classic ford owners will say it’s their way of self-preservation but I wanted it right. 1st was the oil and water leaks, oil from the rear prop seal on the gearbox and sadly from the main seal too. So the rack came off, then the sump, then gearbox out. Gearbox functioned perfect so I did every gasket and seal, the rear main seal on engine while it was out, checked the clutch, then put it all back with fresh oil. Then new water pump and correct BOLTS (it had Alan head…no!) sorted that. I also fitted new fan as there wasn’t much of the old one left. I then fitted the aluminium Rad as seemed daft not too while old one was out even though the original didn’t leak. Then the 40/40 weber leaked fuel a lot from just about every place it could. So a brand new 32/36 was fitted and the 40/40 jets swapped over, she ran better with the 40/40 jets and this my get changed again for bike or twin 40s carbs in the future! Then the brake pedal went to the floor, luckily while in the garage, all brake-fluid gone so expected another leak! What was strange is not a drop on the floor, where had it all gone? The Brake-servo had vacuum sucked all the fluid due to internal seal going!! Quite scary this can happen, so new servo fitted and all brake-fluid renewed bled etc.

Then it was just a case of tidy up and Livery time….I think because the car was originally white, inside the boot, engine bay and wheel arches was all painted black which I did not like. It’s amazing that although it was very clean, it just did not look so, I think it looks so much cleaner in red. Bonnet and boot removed to paint the underside the rest was mostly brush painted. The engine was not removed, I just did the best I could with it in and will continue to tidy it up/improve as I go. Then the Alam Mann roundels and Livery process began, and I tried to “rap” the roof gold….it may look easy on the TV but trust me it’s not.  So I painted it myself, not the best but “I did it myself” means more to me and though the car looks great the rest of the paint is far from perfect, so fits it well.

I made the Centre Console (trying to give it a lotus console look) and fitted AFR so I can keep her tuned to the best. Fuel gauge has new solid state 5v stabilizer but with the temp gauge on it too they never seemed right. Just the fuel gauge now runs 5v and the temp was changed for new with a matching sender. I always fill up at half a tank to be sure. I still have the original gauge and the AMP and Oil Pressure are original. She then has Modern Volts, Oil Temp, AFR and Block Vacuum gauges in the console.

Things to do, although the wheels are nice they are not in keeping with the Alan Mann theme so I plan on changing these for the exact same wheel (Superlite 13) but black centre with polished rim. I will also change the tyres which are the wrong profile which should help with gearing. I have also just change the rear dampers for fully adjustable GAZ ones to stiffen up the rear to match the front. The exhaust was a bit of a Hodge podgy….so replaced the section from manifold to backbox with extra silenser was to single box system (Quite Loud) not a twin box system with much better ground clearance. The 4" tailpipe (Nod to Cosworth) had to be altered as now the rear box sits way higher up so thats angled but still looks good to me. I've recently removed the bumpers and added more livery so more like the original Alan Mann car, in fact bar the fact its still badged as a GT you'd be hard pushed to tell the differance! There is always stuff to do….that’s part of the fun!