It might be hackneyed,
but there’s a whole lot of truth in the old adage that ‘if something’s worth
doing, it’s worth doing well’, and it certainly rings true when it comes to restoring
old Fords. Let’s face it, there’s always the temptation to take the easy route,
especially when you’re up against a ridiculously tight (normally self-imposed)
deadline. It’s the ability to see the bigger picture, and make sure that each
and every aspect is perfect that sets the truly jaw-dropping feature cars apart
from the others, cars like the ’66 Cortina GT you see before you.
It’s been built by Tony
Barrow, and, like all the best projects, has an interesting history behind it.
Ford
Cortina Mk1 GT, Badge
Bargain hunt
“Me
and my late father, Eddie, bought it as a project back in 2009. His dedication
to doing things the correct way has carried through the entire build”, explains
Tony.
The pair first learned
of the car through a friend, originally passing it over as they were both
working on a split screen Type 2 bus. A year later and they were again offered
the car, and this time they didn’t pass it up, especially when they learned
more about its spec.
“It’d been in a lock-up
since 1980 when the owner found out it was too rotten to rally. It turned out
to be a two-door GT, complete with Lotus steels, and we got it for $ 1,662.90,”
grins Tony.
Tony’s
dedication to originality even extended to keeping the original seat foam,
ensuring it still smelled authentic.
Things got even better
when the pair got the car home and began stripping it down. Not only did it
come with the aforementioned steels, it had a complete interior, ‘posh’
suspension and, with a little work, a smooth running Pre-Crossflow.
Not bad for a car that hadn’t seen daylight since 1980! The car was soon back
to a bare shell and an assortment of parts, and that’s how it stayed for a more
than a year as more important family health matters occurred. Sadly Eddie
passed away in 2011, but it did instill in Tony a desire to finish the Cortina,
and to a standard that would’ve made his father proud.
“It took 105 hours of
work, but it was done to an insanely high standard“
“I decided right then
to build it as a bit of a tribute to him, so from that point onwards everything
had to be first class”
With this in mind, the
car was sent off to Manny Galea for bodywork
attention. “Turned out it took 105 hours of work, but it was done to an
insanely high standard. He redid my welding, glass
bead blasted the shell, then put it on a spit and re-aligned the sills and
rebuilt the battered driver’s side wing.”
The work took a few
weeks and there was something of a waiting list, but there was no doubting the
sheer quality of Manny’s work, and it certainly fitted with Tony’s desire to
make his perfect Cortina. The car was then rolled across the road to Stu Pike
for painting, and there was always only ever one candidate as far as the colour scheme was concerned.
“It was always going to
be an Alan Mann replica, but actually getting hold of the correct colour codes, especially the gold, has always been really
difficult.”
Tony’s dedication to
perfection came to the fore once again, and he hunted down an ex-Mann employee and
got the precise paint details, none of which we’re permitted to print here.
Stu’s skills were more than up to Tony’s high standards, and the
freshly-painted shell that was dropped off at his house in August 2012 was, not
to put too fine a point on it, flawless.
“Tony reckons it’s
making roughly 120 bhp, which is more than enough to
give modern cars a fright “
The paintwork
is beautiful, a deep red, the original colour with
contrasting yellow stripe
