STARTER COURSE

When we previously looked at Pete Crompton’s restored Mk3 Cortinas there was one we held back — this green GXL that first inspired his love of the cars.

Pete Crompton swears he doesn’t have a favourite among his collection of Mk3 Cortinas (see the Cortina City feature in the January 2021 issue,) yet this green 1972 2-litre GXL automatic clearly rates high in his affections. “I saved it from a scrapyard where it was about to be crushed,” remembers Pete. “That was toward the end of 1992 and the car was an MoT failure. I was a regular visitor at the yard, which was Ben Johnson’s place in Southport. I’d buy a Mk5 Cortina estate from there, do whatever repairs were needed and run it for a year or so as a daily driver for work. Then take it back in and buy another Mk5. I must have had 10 or more Mk4 and Mk5 estates, usually bought for between £25 and £50.”

“This Mk3 Cortina GXL caught my eye because it looked too good to be in there — it had failed the MoT on rusty sills after just 56,000 original miles. This was 1992 remember, when these Fords were only just becoming considered classics and weren’t especially rare — they were just another old banger, although I still appreciated the cars.

“I convinced the lads not to put the Cortina in the crusher and took the car home. It was my first Mk3 but my brother had a facelift example so I’d had some experience of them. I’d been welding since I was 17 so replaced the inner and outer sills myself. I had bought the parts from a Ford dealership in 1990 that still had them on the shelf — even before I owned one I was collecting and stockpiling Mk3