1965 Lotus Cortina (DM) Total restoration

Specification (briefly) for this project is as follows: Total restoration to mostly original specifications. The car will be painted back to its original Ermine White with Sherwood Green stripes. As this is a personal project, there will be extended periods of inactivity as we focus our efforts on all of our customer restorations - which take precedence, for obvious reasons!

The other evening I was surfing the Internet looking for general Lotus Cortina information/news and ended up being thoroughly entertained by a lengthy (62 posting) thread about my car that I stumbled across on the www.bringatrailer.com website. It was most amusing to read some of the posts, especially those from people who clearly wouldn't know what a Lotus Cortina was if it ran them over.

Some suggested that I had paid far too much for the car, others claimed the car obviously wasn't a real Lotus Cortina, and one gentleman called Mr. Busta-Peck (seriously, I couldn't make this stuff up) even had the audacity to suggest that my 'personal projects' stall because I cannot afford to buy the parts needed for my restorations. Pretty amazing stuff...and I thought nobody cared about me or what I am up to 

The truth is that here at Classic Jaguar we are very fortunate to have a shop full of customer restoration projects - over two dozen at last count - and those cars obviously take priority over my personal toys. Accordingly, my personal projects will often sit for a while with little or no progress. It isn't that I have lost interest in them, or that I am saving up for a rubber seal, Mr. Busta-Peck. It is simply that my customer's cars come first. Remember the tale of the cobbler's shoes?

Anyway, back in May I ordered all the body panels that I am going to need to restore the sheet metal of the Lotus Cortina from Pressed Steel Panels in England. As of yet, none of the panels have been delivered. Once they are, I promise to get the body restoration back underway as soon as possible.

The power of the Internet...

I was recently contacted by a gentleman called Mike Morgan, who had owned and enjoyed my Lotus Cortina in the 1970's. Curious as to what had become of his old car, Mike put the power of the Internet to work and found his former ride looking back at him from these pages.

Mike told me how he had put the original 'remote shift' transmission for the Lotus in the basement of his former home in San Diego, California, leaving it behind when he sold the house and retired to Mexico a few years back. Armed with the name (Dan Vincent) and email address of the person who bought Mike's house, I fired off a hopeful inquiry and was delighted to hear back from Mr. Vincent the same day. He said that he didn't think there was a transmission in his basement, but that he would investigate further when he returned home from a trip a few days later.

Shortly thereafter, Dan got back in touch and reported that he had indeed found the transmission languishing in his basement, along with a Lotus Cortina grill. Furthermore, he kindly agreed to pack everything up and ship it to me!

So, thanks to the power of the Internet, and the enthusiasm and kindness of two complete strangers, my car now boasts its original, matching number gearbox.

PS. I am looking forward to receiving a bunch of period photographs of the car that Mike has promised to send to me!
 

Original transmission re-united with car

We have now received the car back after being media blasted, and thankfully there were no nasty surprises. The blasting process revealed a couple of fairly crude patches in both doors and both rear wings, but other than that, everything was pretty much as expected. In the next week or so we will get the body restoration underway.

Back from the blaster!	Main floors are pretty solid	Area beneath rear seat also in good shape
Both doors have been patched but are not in bad shape	Engine bay is amazingly clean	Car and panels sealed in etching primer
	Boot aperture lip will require extensive repairs	Engine bay almost as new

With the body off being blasted back to bare metal, we have been busy trying to make one good bonnet and one good boot lid out of two pretty nasty examples of each.

My friend Bill Collings (Collings Guitars) has offered to refinish the woodrim steering wheel for me - an offer I obviously couldn't refuse!
 

Lotus horn button not perfect, but has a nice patina	Wood will be refinished by master luthier, Bill Collings	Rear edge brace on underside of bonnet is nasty
	Better example from parts car will be transplanted
		Front edge also in need of help
Again, replacement panel sourced from parts car		Rear corners of boot lid require similar surgery
Stripping sound deadening from underside of roof	Off to the blaster!	Original radiator will be used as template for uprated aluminum version

We have now removed the engine and drive train and hoisted the car on a rotisserie jig. We will be sand blasting the monocoque next week...

Steering wheel boss will be restored	Wheel has been sanded down	Removing drivetrain
Engine, trans and front suspension removed as a unit	Monocoque now on rotisserie
Underside is actually very solid		Ready for sand blasting

All that remains is to remove the engine, transmission and suspension before the car can be placed on a rotisserie jig...

Dash now completely stripped
Not much left in engine bay	Timing chain cover damaged and will be replaced

I am pleased to report that we now have this restoration underway. Our first task is to completely disassemble everything and build a rotisserie jig that will accommodate the monocoque while we deal with the tin worm.

The first photo in the sequence below shows a pair of beautiful black hides that my friend Eric Suffolk in England picked out for me, specially for this car. I know the interior trim was originally vinyl from the factory, but hopefully the purists will allow us this one little indulgence...

We will make seat covers from scratch, using English hides		Disassembly underway!
	Labeling all the fasteners as the car comes apart	Chrome cantrail trim removed
The round hole is factory, the large jagged one isnt...	Front and rear screens will be  replaced	Original Ermine White has a creamy hue
		Interesting positioning of ground  strap under rear floor
Roll cage cut away		Stripping out the dash

The Lotus has arrived safely at CJ in Austin, Texas and we will have the restoration underway very shortly.

As delivered	Bonnet has been vandalized	Incorrect steering wheel will be replaced  with correct Lotus woodrim
Sherwood Green visible beneath yellow stripes	Rear shock towers are in good shape
	Cylinder head currently removed	Damage (marked X)  will be repaired in CJ machine shop
	Only rust in engine bay is inside the engine block !	Both front shock towers are 100% rust free
		Original data plate will be retained
Chassis # also stamped by front right  hand shock tower		Correct Lotus woodrim wheel will be restored
Wood not cracked but laquer has wrinkled with age - as have I...	Also received correct center boss and woodrim shift knob	More Sherwood Green
Front and rear seats will be retrimmed in black leather.	New gas tank arrived nicely powder  coated	New dash binnacle obtained in England
Rear floors are very solid	Boot lid lip is VERY rusty	Ironically rusty California license plate
Center console not correct for  Lotus Cortina	Carlos removing the interior and  carpets
More Ermine White beneath threshold plates		Floors are amazingly solid