HERITAGE: Cortina MK5
Restored droptop first built by Carbodies.
Some of you may recall the ultra-rare Taunus RS we featured last year belonging to longtime Ford fan, Roy Townsend. At the time, Roy mentioned he’d already made a start on its follow-up, an equally-rare 1981 Cortina convertible in Prairie Yellow. Yes, just a year later and Roy has somehow managed to bring a second Blue Oval-badged classic up to show standard. He obviously likes to keep himself busy!
Roy’s certainly no stranger to Cortinas having owned and modified a multitude of them back in the day, though one in particular he has fond memories of was a Mk5 1300 two-door, which he had resprayed in Prairie yellow. “Over a three-year period, I transformed it into my interpretation of how a 2.0S model could have looked,” Roy recalls, “in reality no such model existed, but with a little imagination I had quite a convincing end product.”
Roll on a couple of decades and by now Roy had become area rep for the North Lincs Mk1-5 Cortina Club, but there was a problem, he didn’t actually own a Cortina anymore! Roy really needed to find a suitable car fast and luckily up popped an ideal candidate, a 1981 Mk5 converted by Carbodies of Coventry.
“As a longtime Cortina fan, I already knew that only four of the original 30 produced were painted in this colour so I couldn’t believe my luck when I found this one for sale,” Roy explains. Being located just 60 miles away from the car was a bonus too and with just four previous owners, the last having had it for 19 years, everything seemed to be heading in its favour. “The 1600 Pinto had covered just 45,000 miles and there was little evidence of previous repairs or welding work,” Roy tells us. “After a test drive, a deal was struck which included a large number of spares that would prove useful later on.”
Body work
A few weeks passed, and the Cortina was now back at Roy’s house, ready for a more detailed look at what would need to be done.
“I wanted to retain as much of its original 1981 look as possible which meant the Cyclone wheels and front spoiler would have to go,” Roy explains. “It also appeared to have been Zeibarted probably from new, but unfortunately the rustproofing hadn’t managed to reach every intended area, so there was still some welding to be done!”
The rear edge of both sills were holed as were inners, and the lower front panel had been damaged and filled. Lifting the bonnet revealed the usual Cortina rust traps around the wing rails, but having been a sheet metal worker for many years these jobs would prove quite straightforward for Roy. Once the interior had been removed, the list of welding jobs began to increase with the door pillars needing rusty sections cutting out and new metal let in.
“It was interesting to see how these cars had been built with 3x1 inch box section fitted inside the inner and outer sills and welded at each end to add strength due to the lack of metal roof,” Roy smiles. The majority of both sills had to be refabricated as did the wing rails while the damaged front valance which had been badly repaired with filler needed a full replacement. The wings along with their mount flanges needed careful adjustment to obtain the correct panel gaps, though the lower rear quarter wings and rear valance revealed a pleasant surprise as a thick coating of weatherproofing had managed to keep any rust at bay. “Once this coating had been chipped away, it left a near-perfect surface underneath,” Roy smiles.
Under glass
The rear window glass came next and unusually these are probably more familiar as the front
“I WANTED TO RETAIN AS MUCH OF THE 1981 LOOK AS POSSIBLE WITH THIS REBUILD”
quarterlights to Mk1 Golf owners and were fitted as standard by Carbodies. “The original pair at first looked OK, but had flaking rust lurking underneath so I decided to make a new pair from scratch,” Roy explains. “There was a lot of measuring involved as the new frames had to match up to various M5 screw holes and the outer hood aluminium guide.” The two sections of the frame could then be spot and TIG welded together and trimmed for seam welding to the upper rear quarter panel, while fitting the glass was simple in comparison as its just a case of slotting into the two channels once the weatherproof seal has been fitted. Roy makes all this sound straightforward, probably thanks to his methodical way of working and years of experience, but we should point out all this was done out in the elements using a TIG welder with a Pulse facility, no doubt keeping an eye on the impending weather at the same time!
New-old stock (NOS) lights, dampers, callipers and brake pipes were sourced while Roy fabricated a pair of new bumper irons. He also managed to find suitable NOS badges too, the coupe badge coming from a Vauxhall Royale.
“The Carbodies badge proved harder to find, but I did manage to track one down on a similar car owned by Jim Aldridge,” Roy remembers. “I had a replica sticker made to the same design with the help of Stu Dunn and made the steel surround myself. They turned out well after being coated in 3 mm of resin.”
The shell itself had by now been resprayed by Andy at Humber Body Repairs in a fresh coat of Prairie Yellow then attention could turn to the interior. Luckily the original seats proved salvageable after a deep clean, while a new period radio cassette and speakers are a subtle upgrade.
“I had a set of standard steel wheels blasted, painted and lacquered and with those Escort stainless steel trim wings and whitewall tyres now look the part and still manage to really
stand out.” Typically, for a 1980s convertible, the original hood had seen better days and rather than attempt a repair, Roy had a new mohair hood made to the original design by specialists, DL Barr & Sons.
Engine-eering
After all that seemingly never-ending welding, working on the engine proved to be much easier. “I removed the cylinder head for an overhaul and fitted new bearings, camshaft and oil stem seals along with a new exhaust and radiator,” Roy tells us. “All this was done just prior to the MoT, which I had booked and luckily, the car passed first time with no advisories.”
After a 20-year gap, Roy is glad to be back in the world of Cortina motoring, ready for something special the Cortina Mk1-5 Club has lined up to celebrate their 30th birthday in 2019.
Thanks to everyone at the www.mk1-5cortinaownersclub.co.uk, especially Darrel Tipping, J&A Dickinson, Dave Eastwood, Craig Walker, Adrian Fell, and all the area reps, Barry Priestman at the Crayford Convertible Car Club, Andy at Humber Body Repairs (01469 530585), DL Barr & Sons (01482 572381),and Jim Aldridge and Stu Dunn. Roy would like to dedicate this feature to Craig Cooke, a remarkable young man (09.07.1991- 22.09.2018).