GLS! A model never available in the UK and has a lot ofsmall differences that you wouldn’t notice straight away.So, I snapped it up and tried to drive it home as it had anMOT on it.However, it didn’t go well, the steering was all overthe place, vague wasn’t the word for it!So, Les had got himself an Essex V6 Cortina withsteering that was more disconnected than a teenager ona mobile phone! At least the Cortina was rust free? Well,err not exactly!“I took the car to a well-reputed place to be repaired,£5,000 and a few months later and the car had barelybeen touched! I was not happy, so I gave up with theseJokers and hunted around for somewhere better! Thistime I struck gold with Upwood Auto Repair Centre, theywere superb from the get-go! They advised that we stripthe car down, to see what we were working with. Oncethe engine was out of the engine bay, we discoveredthat the front panel was rusty dented and full of filler!”Les added.Les sourced a new front panel and a new powersteering rack. However, the steering rack was meant fora 2.3 Cortina Ghia with the Cologne V6. Unfortunately,there was no way it was ever going to fit. The three LitreEssex X-member it turns out is totally different!“As the build commenced, I began to find moreand more unique small differences between the SouthAfrican and the European Cortina’s. Luckily, I managedto get the original rack rebuilt, so I got around that issue.About this point I decided to do away with the C3 Autotransmission and instead fit a 5-speed type-9, but thiscame with the issue that the type-9 won’t fit straight onthe Essex engine.After some head-scratching, it was made to fit witha spacer plate and a shortened prop shaft. Then a Mk4Cortina manual peddle box was installed. “It ensured Iwould have the correct amount of pedals.” Says LesThe build at this point was starting to take shape, andLes was looking for a new interior as the original waswell past it, so a chance meeting with serial Ford builderWayne Champion to pick up a Mk4 Sport interior led thebuild in a slightly different direction…“Wayne had a superb Mk4 Cortina Sport, and it gotme thinking, Ford didn’t make a Mk5 Cortina Sport,but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t! Now my car hada manual gearbox, it was pretty much the same specas the Australian XR6 Cortina. So, with a bit of artisticlicence maybe I could build the car as a sort of mash-upof the two, with a bit of American muscle car stylingthrown in?” Grins Les happily.Back in the day, Les had worked on a few ‘Yanktanks’ and liked the side marker lights that they had,and he fancied incorporating some on his car. That’snot all, he also liked the idea of some round LED rearlights instead of the originals. It’s not one for the purists,but Les built the car how he wanted it, and not for otherpeoples benefit….“One of the interesting differences with the SouthAfrican cars is that the bumpers don’t have plastic endcaps they are all steel, but the front one was badlydented. Luckily the ends unbolt, so we used the centresection from a standard bumper and then bolted themetal ends back on, some powder coating later, and098Support us and subscribe online at: www.retrofordmagazine.co.uk
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