J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

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J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby Jin » Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:36 pm

Hi all, after putting up a wanted ad on here what seems like an age ago I’ve finally got my grubby mitts on the original factory demonstrator from GTM cars.
after 4 years of Quantum ownership and finally finishing all the jobs i wanted to do i got quickly bored and had to move on, the Midas had always been on my "must own one day" list but not having seen any for sale in the whole time i had the Quantum i didn’t think it was going to happen until Neil came to my rescue and handed over the keys to one of his collection.

I’ve always liked the silhouette and general styling but a little put off by the front though not as much as when i first saw this very can in "which kit?" magazine at the tender age of 15, it looks much better now (it’s amazing what age can do to your eyesight) so here i am with more than enough jobs to keep me busy for a fair few years yet.

The list of jobs includes
Re-trim (but for now I’ll settle for ripping the carpet out and burning it)
Stop all the rattles
Sort bonnet alignment
Sort doors alignment
Sort boot alignment
Sort glass alignment
Sort bodywork
And that’s just for a start.

Planned modifications include

New back lights (on order)
DAB radio (on order)
New steering wheel because i can’t reach the current one (on order)
Coil over conversion
New alloys (if i can ever find any to fit??)
De-cat


Couple of questions if you don’t mind?

1. Does anyone know the reason for the re-spray? I guess it had a full go over at the time it was face-lifted to blend in the new panels but i want to be sure before i attempt to strip the paint down to the gel coat only to find out it’s full of filler or something?

2. I’ve seen a photo of a white Cortez with a sunroof, what type is it and does it affect structural rigidity?

3. I’ve seen a white and a green one with a boot spoiler, now i don’t want to make a clone but if somebody can tell me what it’s off its gives me a starting point.

4. Do the moulds still exist for the pre-facelift front?

5. What is the colour of the blue one? Is it RAL or other, just in case i stick with the paint a decide to correct it

That’s probably enough for now; no doubt ill have loads of questions to come so please bear with me, any help is very much appreciated

Lastly a couple of pics

In its new home

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The stickers

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Sorry, but it wouldn’t do for us both to have the same mistress now would it? What would the neighbours say? :lol:

Bonnet alignment before

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After adjusting the centre catch and making rubber chocks to sit in the middle

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Not perfect but a work in progress

Thanks for taking the time to read, much much more to come

BTW how do i officially join? Who’s palm do i cross with silver / PayPal?

Cheers
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby ACourtney » Wed Aug 27, 2014 2:17 pm

Welcome to Midas ownership.

I'm afraid I can't answer your first question, probably only the previous owner responsible for the respray can answer that. I believe that was the owner before Neil.
However, I can have a go at the other questions.

The white Cortez with the sunroof is probably that of Josie and Michael Horsley - club treasurer and Cortezkeeper on the forum. I believe that the sunroof is a Britax one for the Ford Fiesta. However, I don't know which model Fiesta it was for. As to the structural rigidity, that would be unaffected over all as the structure at the edges of the roof provide the rigidity.

The boot spoiler (also on the Horsley's car) is a unique one made by the previous Midas company. I have the moulds for it.

I also have the moulds for the pre-facelift front end that use the Rover Metro headlights rather than the more rounded Rover 100 items.

The colour is a harder question as different gelcoat colours were used at different times. The most likely gelcoat colours were either DSM's Royal Blue, or LR's Oxford blue. I would need to see the car or a part of it to confirm a match.

As for joining the club, a membership form is available on the club's main website: http://midasownersclub.co.uk/membership/ and links to contact the committee members are on the Personalities page.
Tony Moss (club secretary) will be at Donington on Sunday, so if you are going you should be able to catch up with him there.

Regards,

Alistair
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby Stuart » Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:49 pm

1. Does anyone know the reason for the re-spray? I guess it had a full go over at the time it was face-lifted to blend in the new panels but i want to be sure before i attempt to strip the paint down to the gel coat only to find out it’s full of filler or something?


It won't be a modified car - and I imagine the original blue gel coat faded quite quickly.
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby benofbrum » Wed Aug 27, 2014 8:03 pm

I am pretty sure the colour is Abbey Blue. It was resprayed by the previous owner, possibly because of petty vandal damage. All the scratches in the paintwork now were there when I bought the car. You may well find a receipt in the box for the respray.
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby Jin » Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:11 pm

thanks for the welcome guys,
Anthony, thanks for the info, good to know the other front end is still available, i may bend your ear one day to discuss some ideas and getting a new front made up,
Also i would like to go to donnington but with 2 small babies in the house i don't get allowed out to play much, but there will be a time....

Ill download the form and do it that way,

Ill take a look through the receipts Neil when i get a mo, whatever the colour of the paint its a damn good match for the original gel coat,

Looking around, there doesn't appear to be many wheel options, its metro mpi wheels or if that doesn't take your fancy there's always metro mpi wheels. Hmm

Just a quick 2 questions, before i get back to the dishes,
where will i find the heater resistor?
And does anyone see an issue in cutting a couple if 3" holes the the parcel shelf and a couple behind the rear bumper to aid air flow and ventilation?

Thanks
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby ACourtney » Fri Aug 29, 2014 8:38 pm

The choice of wheels (and tyres) is rather limited these days. The original Rover fitments in 13" for the GTi were the seven spoke wheels, or the cross-spoke wheels (similar to the MG Metro turbo wheels). Lesser Rover Metros had 5 spoke and 6 spoke alloys, but these were half an inch narrower than the GTi wheel options. Standard tyres for the GTi were 185/55 R13, which are now available in increasingly limited choice - currently only Toyo Roadpro seems to be available.

A popular mod for Metro GTi owners was to fit 14" wheels with 195/45 R14 tyres. These were aftermarket wheels from Compomotive and Team Dynamics. Team Dynamics will still supply some of their wheels in 14", but they are made to order for the wheel stud PCD and offset, so they are not the cheapest option.

A third option that I have been told fits okay - so the caveat is that I haven't seen it for myself - is MGF 15" alloys with 195/45 R15. The OD of these works out to be about the same as 165/70 R13 tyres, so the rears will clear the trailing arm okay, but I suspect that the front arch made need some shaving to clear on all degrees of steering lock. Anyone out there tried them?

I guess by heater resistor you mean the fan speed controller resistor. This is usually located to the right of the air intake housing.

I can't see any issues with your plan for ventilation. The flat surfaces either side of the rear lights are a left-over feature from the Gold Coupe, which had ventilation extraction vents there. If anything these worked too well and it is not uncommon for them to have been blanked off on the inside to reduce the air flow. You might want to consider some way of adjusting the vent size to give some control over the air extraction.

Regards,

Alistair
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby Jin » Sat Aug 30, 2014 8:24 am

Hi, many thanks for your reply
Firstly let me apologise for getting your name wrong, not a good start now was it. :o
I've looked into MGF wheels and all is fine except the offset which would need 17mm taking off the rear of the hub mount to fit, I reckon that would leave no material to bolt to?
As it stands I've found Vauxhall and bmw mini to be close enough in offset to fit but will need the PCD re drilling, I've had a few quotes and it's going to be very expensive, however I have set my heart on bigger wheels so it will happen regardless.

Anyway, onto the most recent jobs
Swapped the orange boiled sweet side repeaters for more stylish smoked versions
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And continued the bonnet aligning

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Still too high at the front, I had all sort of funny ideas about slotting the plates that bolt to the bumper so removed the hinge (which too 2hours :( ) but upon closer inspection the hinge was bent

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With that straightened out in the vice (and realising I could have achieved the same effect by sitting on the bonnet) I decided to sort the play in the pivots,

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I found some nice brass washers to take up the slack


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And with that lot all bolted back yo (another hour or so, I should have just removed the rad after all) the drivers side at least looks much happier

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Just got the other side to do now......
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby Stuart » Sat Aug 30, 2014 10:52 am

Ah now I understand what you may have meant regarding the facelift.

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Mike changed his to look more like the MK 3.

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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby Jin » Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:26 am

Yeah that's right mate, I would like to get it looking more like what it used to do, the fit around the headlights looks tighter, the yellow front end looks very good too,
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Re: J171 NJO Cortez / 2+2 rebuild and modifications

Postby Jin » Tue Sep 02, 2014 12:09 am

And after another 2 hours faffing about the got the passenger side lined up too, you can almost see it smile now

Image
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