Ford Cortina Ute Project From OZ

[corty1980]

Hey Guys, great site this is, with some very interesting projects. I came across this site when I was looking for ideas for making a frame table for my current project. Iam working on a Ford Cortina which is going to be converted from a sedan to a ute, or a truck as you would call it in the USA. Anyhow here are a few pictures.

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Frame Table that Iam making, hopefully it will be finished and ready for the corty body next weekend

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/07/corty20uteJPG-1.jpg
A quick drawing of what the shape of the corty ute will generally look like

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/07/corty20ute20prep4JPG-1.jpg
Rear section of the corty removed, no going back now!!!

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Part of the floor cut out

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Factory Ford Cortina Ute also know as a P100 or Bakkie, very rare

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Current model Ford Falcon Ute as sold by Ford Australia, which comes in a six cylinder engine, turbo charged six cylinder engine and v8 engine.



Cheers
Robert, Melbourne Australia

[LeighP]

G'day Robert....interesting project. I never even knew there was a ute version of the Cortina.
What sort of drivetrain are you looking to fit? Current model XR6 Turbo???? (would be very cool and should fit).

[corty1980]

Hi Leigh,

I have had this car for about 5 years now, and it was a 4 cylinder auto when I bought it. I didnt set out to do a sedan to ute conversion, but after not being able to find a replacement back panel and quarter panels that werent rusted I decided to change direction with the build. I even contacted a few places over in England to get replacement panels, but for some reason they either didnt reply to my emails or werent willing to send the parts. I ended up getting 3 back panels from wreckers and all were rusted, they were either as bad as the one on the car or worse.

For the drivetrain I have already test fitted a EL 4litre and a T5, with the motor the standard crossflow mounts work with very little tweaking. The final engine that I use may change, might goto an AU or BA 4litre. Not really interested in going turbo, car will be more of a cruiser than a racer. Though it wont be slow with whichever motor I go with in such a light body. The cortina is about 1200kg whereas a falcon is about 1700kg from memory.

[LeighP]

Sounds good...I had one of the Tickford 4.0's in a Fairlane....added a decent exhaust with headers and that thing flew.

[andrewb70]

Neat project. It's cool that we have a pretty good size group of members from Australia!

Andrew

[cobragt]

People here still argue about the Elcamino and Ranchero being cars or trucks given that the bed is part of the car and not a separate piece, Are you going doing a separate bed like the one pictured or are you welding everything together like the current Falcon?

[chaz75]

damn nice, i want a maloo real bad but its just a dream.

[corty1980]

The bed will be separate, I think only the commodore (GM) ute has the body/cab together now. Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi etc utes the cab is separate.

[cobragt]

Sorry I didn't look at the Falcon pic all too well.


The bed will be separate, I think only the commodore (GM) ute has the body/cab together now. Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi etc utes the cab is separate.

[corty1980]

I got the legs welded up and the wheels on the frame table this weekend. Still need to weld in two cross beams and then I can put the stands on the table. I would have liked to have put some steel sheet on the table, but its just so expensive. Fingers crossed I can get the car up on the table next weekend, which will be a task in itself.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[corty1980]

I finally got the body up onto the frame table, which was easier than I thought it would be. Also started to extend the table as it was to short, but wasnt able to finish the extension due to running out of gas for the welder. As it was a saturday Iam unable to beg more gas, will have to wait till next week to finish it off, just need to add the legs and wheels. Also decided to lay a rail on the table to give me a rough idea what it will look like.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[corty1980]

Finally got the engine in the corty shell, damn glad it worked as I didnt want to have to take it of the frame table and put the motor in. It would have been fun trying to get it back up on the table with the engine in, not !!!

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/08/IMG_0320JPG-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/08/IMG_0321JPG-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/08/IMG_0322JPG-1.jpg

[linkstar69]

Should stand out from the crowd thats for sure!

[LeighP]

Are those later engines bigger than the old cast iron 250's? Just wondered how much space it leaves you in the engine fore-aft?

[corty1980]

Length wise the 4 litre Iam using which is from an EL Falcon is about the same as the older 3.3 litre or 4.1 litre crossflow's. The 4 litre motor I have is a little wider than the old crossflows. So what I have done due to the difference in the sump between a falcon and cortina, is to merge the two. The top half is a 4litre sump and the bottom is a cortina. The sumps on the falcon and cortina are different, due to the xmember being in a different spot. I may go back to a stock 4litre sump and just change the xmember.

[corty1980]

Ok finally got the motor, gearbox, tailshaft and diff placed on the table and on the car, with it all lined up. So should be able to start doing some actual work on the car :)

Anyhow just a few pics of how it sits atm

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[Code Red]

hmm interesting, hope it turns out well, most of the coupe/sedan/wagon conversions to have a bed i've seen are usually hacks

[corty1980]

Yeah the few ute conversions I have seen havnt looked the best. Iam not going to try and copy the factory cortina ute, because I dont like a few things about them. For one they dont seem to have enough room in the cabin, and I dont like sitting on the steering wheel when I drive. So the back of the cabin will be further back. Also I would like quarter windows, which the factory cortina ute doesnt have. Iam not sure what to do with the rails on the car, should I keep it factory from the firewall forward and have the rest made up, or go a new chassis, which can be removable. Origionally the car had a unibody style chassis/rails with these being part of the car.

[corty1980]

I have decided to replace the factory rails on the corty and go with a custom chassis. Here are some pics of me starting to remove the rails on the front of the car. I will also be removing the factory cross member.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

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[corty1980]

I have managed to remove the factory rails, and the crossmember. Started to make up the new chassis/rails today and got the front section done. Need to get some more steel tommorrow so I can finish the rest. Once the chassis/rails is done I will get it made up as this is just a test/sample chassis. Just need to find someone that can mandrel bend it up.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/09/IMG_0359JPG-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/09/IMG_0370JPG-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/09/IMG_0371JPG-1.jpg


https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2011/09/IMG_0372JPG-1.jpg

[LeighP]

Definately doing the hard yards, mate.....you going to be able to engineer this OK for rego?

[corty1980]

LeighP, will be able to engineer it as I have spoken to the engineer about the plans. Ok just another quick update, got the sample chassis rail(s) made up from 75mm x 50mm square tubing. Next step is the get the proper chassis made up, which will involve getting the tube bent to shape.

[corty1980]

Well I went to see about getting my chassis/frame mandrel bent, the bad news is that because of the tight bends near the front of the car it cant be done. Only part that can be done is the wheel arch. So it looks like I will have to make that up. Looks like I will be very busy for the next few weekends making up the chassis.

[LeighP]

Yeah, I can see those front bends are very tight......oh well, get some practice on the welder, eh?

[corty1980]

Well this project has been scrapped -> R.I.P Cortina Ute :(

[andrewb70]

Well this project has been scrapped -> R.I.P Cortina Ute :(

What happened?

Andrew

[corty1980]

andrewb70 I stuffed up and didnt contact the engineer about a mod I made with the rails and found out latter he wouldnt pass it, when it was to late. I removed ALL the factory rails and was going to replace them with beefier ones that were going to be made up.

[andrewb70]

andrewb70 I stuffed up and didnt contact the engineer about a mod I made with the rails and found out latter he wouldnt pass it, when it was to late. I removed ALL the factory rails and was going to replace them with beefier ones that were going to be made up.

It's crazy to me how in some countries you have to get the government's permission to do what you want to do to your car...:hammer:

Sorry to hear that your hard work hasn't paid off.

Andrew

[RMMiller]

That is crazy but when you see some of the hack up junk on our roads you can almost appreciate it!

[corty1980]

Yeah in some respects it's good but in other it's just crazy. I could have continued with it but it would have cost big $$$$. It would have been basically the same process as what car manufactures go through when getting the ok for a new model car. It would be alot cheaper to find a cortina ute outside of Australia and get it imported. The crazy thing is we never got the cortina in the ute form here in Australia. Which is strange as the idea for the ute came due to the request of a farmer, who wrote to ford asking for a vehicle they could use on the farm and for day to day driving.