MK2 CORTINA

Some projects can take years to see fruition, but if they’re anything like Nick Manson’s Cortina, they’re well worth the journey.

1MK2 Classic ’60s looks hide a mammoth 10year build and stunning detail.

It’s no secret that the average classic Ford obsessive likes to play the long game. Strike up a conversation with one at a show and you’ll most likely find that they’ve been mucking about with old Fords for years, quite often leaving the scene for a while then coming back a few years later, and in the meantime holding onto whatever cars and parts they’ve amassed along the way.

Nick Manson is no exception. He started messing around with Fords before he could even drive (well, legally...), buying up cars and parts when they were cheap and tucking them away in various lock-ups around his home town. This once-ropey Mk2 Cortina is a classic case in point, having impressively been in Nick’s ownership since 1986.

“This was actually the first car I bought,” he recalls. “This was back in 1986 and I was still learning to drive at the time. I didn’t stay on the road for long though and once the MoT ran out it ended up being stored in various lock-ups, as me and my mates got into mucking about with Fiat 131s. I never though to get rid of it though — I guess I’d become quite attached to the car.”

Fast-forward a decade or so, and Nick started picking up Classic Ford, and the bug bit again.

“This was 2007 and I decided it was time to do something with the car. I dragged it out of the lock-up expecting the worst, but it really wasn’t that bad.”

When Nick says it wasn’t that bad, he’s being slightly economical with the truth... “OK, when I stripped the car down, I found it needed strut tops, sills, front panel, bulkhead sides and rear arches. The panels and repair sections weren’t as easy to find back then, but I was able to get the sills and arches from the late Paul Money at Classic Ford Parts — I think they were all new-old stock Hadrian ones, and the rest came from Ex-Pressed Steel Panels.”