The Ford Corsair Owners Club

ROBERT SHANDS 3 LITRE V6 PICKUP STORY

THE START.

My brother purchased XHM53G for me from King of lee’s scarp yard (yes scarp yard) in 1984 due to the fact that he had burnt my first beloved Corsair NME 699 E when he caught the garage alight while doing some welding to a mini. We promptly striped down XHM and went to work on patching up the shell (I stood fire watch this time) unfortunately at this time I had just turned 20 and I brought my first house which lead onto the ups and downs of life? XHM ended up on a trailer where it sat for 22 years going with me from place to place with the dream that one day I would put her back on the road.

I agonised over its contours from the start but once that first cut was made there was no going back. I drew up some sections to form the rear box section and took them to my metalwork man to get folded I had to make all the other bits for shaping of the roof and rear pillars myself as it was a bit suck it and see.

The rear panel of the cab is a VW camper tail gate. (courtesy of my brother) All the initial cutting, welding and strengthening was completed by January 2006 ready for shaping. Before I started on shaping the body we needed to fit a petrol filler cap as to have a tailgate we had cut out the back panel. I had decided to use a MKII Cortina tank as it fitted into the same hole but filled from the side. So we took a trip the local breakers yard with hammer and blaster in hand to find a filler flap, the only flat one we could find was on a Skoda (yes I know sorry but it was just right for the job).

With this fitted my next step was to get the cars contours finished. We lowered the engine into place and set about making new mounts to push the engine back and down so I could still fit the radiator and leave the fan on the front of the engine. We connected up the gearbox. I wanted the pickup to be an automatic so I could have a bench seat and as the car was a manual we needed to change the transmission tunnel. I had an old deluxe automatic car as a donor for bits so we cut the tunnel out and sat it in place, bolted it to the mounts and welded it in place (oh and by the way we didn’t waste the rest of the donor car my brother kindly turned it into a trailer for me, joining the front and back together, but we’ll save that story for another day too).

With the engine and gearbox all mounted in place correctly, out it had to come to be painted and allow me to paint the engine bay. Once all this was completed we put the engine back and connected it all up.

I made a template for the tail gate and took it into work to have a mould made and a fibreglass one produced. Once this was fitted into place and after more agonising filling and rubbing to archive those contours, it was time for some paint.

                               Being only the fifth car I painted, the decision to go with black was something else that was about to nearly break me. After all those weeks of preparation and still there was minor blemishes. But with the clock ticking I decided to leave it and move on.

                            We still had the interior to sort out and an exhaust to make. I had purchased an industrial sewing machine and had set my partner the task of making me a new cover for an old bench seat I had, with this being her first attempt, it as came out excellent.
The day came when we were ready to start the engine for its first time. We cranked her over, all seemed fine at first so we went for it and bang disaster hit, the oil pump stuck and sheared all the teeth off the end of the camshaft. This was sorted out later.

                            So I set her the task of making the carpet, as trying to get someone to make me a set to suit an automatic was impossible(she did another grand job).

                          For the exhaust I went to Burton Engineering and purchased all the boxes and sections. Then with a battery screw gun and some wire we laid under the car and assembled one side. Once it was all tacked together we dropped it off and welded it up. We then mirrored it for the other side. There was still a lot of assembling to do, we were already flat out. We took a breather for a few days, but then I decided to book into the Nationals at the end of August, so away we went again! The final pieces were finished off just in time. I took her for an MOT with about a week to go, she passed with flying colours. With pickup completed and the trailer hooked up to the Crayford, off we went. We arrived at the show and found ourselves a spot. As we parked up a man came riding over and commented ‘That’s a beauty, I haven’t seen one before where did you get it?‘, I replied, ‘I made it from a four door 2000E‘, to which he said, ‘I thought it must have been an import, it looks original‘. My goal had been achieved! I couldn’t of received a better compliment and what a glorious weekend it turn out to be the sun shone all weekend. This pickup was my baby. I have had the shell, the engine and the wheels all stored for 22years and to see it complete is a dream come. True but it wouldn’t have been completed without the help of my friends and family so thank you to all of them.

Our Editor's Corsair

SPECIFICATION Wheels. Icon 5 by AEZ 7x16 with 205x45 tyres Front suspension, Mk 2 Cortina front legs converted to 2.250 inch coil overs. Hillman Hunter top mounts. AVO adjustable inserts, adjustable rose jointed track control arms, anti roll bar removed & replaced by an

adjustable rose jointed tension strut.

Rear suspension, Capri Injection single leaf springs, AVO adjustable shocks.

2-inch lowering blocks. Poly bushed anti tramp bars.

Steering, Fiesta rack & pinion with shortened arms.

Steering column is a shortened Capri;

Engine cross member, Lowered 2 inches to give engine/ steering clearance, with built up engine mounting towers to take RS 2000 alloy engine mounts.

Brakes, Front. Servo assisted Austin Princess four pot callipers with stainless pistons.

EBC Turbo Grooved and Vented Capri Injection discs.

Rear, Fiesta discs, Granada callipers. Stainless braided hoses all round.

Engine/ gearbox, Sierra 2 litre Injection with performance air filter and RS2000 exhaust manifold producing 128 bhp and 5-speed gearbox with a quick shift. The clutch has been converted to hydraulic operation by means of a Mini clutch slave cylinder attached to a bracket bolted to the side of the bell housing.

Interior, Full electric Rover 820 Recaro seats in leather. Seat belts are fitted in the rear. Kenwood head unit, Pro Plus amp, JBL 6x9 speakers in rear. 5 inch JBL speakers under dash and Mac Audio sub box.

Bodywork, A full restoration has been carried out and took 18 months.

A third brake light is fitted in the rear edge of the roof and the door buttons have been replaced by smooth fitting ones, the boot lock has been removed and is operated from inside. All exterior GT chrome trim has been removed from the sides. All holes under bonnet have been filled and the wiring harness relocated. A new headlining was fitted, And tinted windows. I have done all work except the paint job which was done by Howards Coachworks North Walsham in Vauxhall Regatta Blue. If you do not like what I have done I am sorry, but it is mine and is, as I want it. (Almost!)

History of AVG 185 D

This car was a Ford experimental vehicle, the rear chassis is quite different to any other production Corsair or other Ford in that the rear spring hangers have been moved 2 inches up into the floor and 2 inches outboard of the chassis rails. At the front spring hanger they have been positioned 2 inches lower and 1 inch inboard of the chassis rails, this tilts the springs down at the front and points them toward each other. In addition to this there are brackets mounted on the outside of the chassis rails in front of the axle. What these were for is unknown. The car was given to Norwich Technical College for apprentices to work on, it was sold in 1979 and registered PRT244 W. The car did not have a Ford chassis number and was given a number that was the birthdays of the first owner and his wife. When I got the car it required some body work Swansea would not let me have Tax Free’ on a W reg car so I had to have it reregistered, hence it present number.

Pics and words: Paul Watts

Primrose, Eileen's 1500 deluxe

Well, our friend John called her "primrose" year's ago..... she's probably one of the last Corsairs in the club, with the original paintwork. tuscany yellow and the brownish two tone interior are unique too. In contrast to Pauls car, she is totally original, exept the 165 x 13 tyres. And a rare two door version.

As I'm doing the website, here are my Corsairs:

My 1965 V4 GT, the oldest V4 in the Club.

and my 1966 1700 V4 deluxe convertible.

Pics and words: Andi Preindl

The original Corsair....
Well, this is a picture of my "original" Corsair. It was a 1966 1700
V4 deluxe , ermin white with the usual red interior. My dad bought it new, I was ten years old, then. I learned to drive with her, and I got her when I was 19. She was my first car, and as usual in these days I fitted a couple of most importent extras, like driving and fog lights,the chrom wheel trims had to go, to give her a more sporty look,a radio and a clock had to be fitted, and as a real speciality I had a tape recorder on the parcle tray. On the dash we had a rev counter, white sheep skins on the front seats, that was actually due to the cold austrian winters, as the plastic seats killed your bum in winter, and not so much a "stylish" feature"!

She was a lovely reliable car for a couple of years, but got old and quite rusty, the cold snowy austrian winters with lots of salt on the roads killed her slowly....

The picture is not very good, as it is a scanned in small colour foto, but guess who is sitting there behind the wheel, while the rest of the family spent a lovely summer sunday on the beach of Austria's biggest lake......

Text and pics: Andi Preindl

Sad end....

work in progress....