Morris Minor - Ford Cortina

[DaveN 1,118]

There's a programme on BBC4 tomorrow night (Monday April 3rd) at 9pm called "Roof Racks & Hatchbacks; The Family Car" about family cars from the Morris Minor to the Ford Cortina. I'm sure for many of us it will evoke memories of our younger years.

[loppylugs 8,429]

Hope they YouTube it.

[Compo 10,328]

An interesting programme that looked at the many different aspects of family motoring from the forties through to the Chelsea Tractor era.

[Tim in the North East 200]

I watched it on BBC iPlayer yesterday - definitely worth watching. My first car was a 1968 Morris Minor Traveller - so I have a vested interest!

[Compo 10,328]

Ayup Tim in the north east, my first real car was also a Morris Traveller but a 1964 model in blue; complete with moss in the woodwork of  course!

[katyjay 5,091]

I had one of those, mine was of the ventilated floor variety.

[LizzieM 9,507]

Just like my first Mini Katyjay!

[FLY2 10,108]

Mine too, but some good thick carpet remnants soon rectified that.

It never put me off Mini's though, as over the years, I've had four more !

 

Had a moggie minor too around 1969, brilliant. Even I could rectify things.

Cortina, Aubergine with a vinyl roof, and I hated it. I've had four Ford P100 pick ups too. The diesel one was a nightmare, and the bodyworks were vulnerable to say the least. 

[Compo 10,328]

The beauty of the Morris Minor was that there was room to get into the engine compartment in order to fix the bit that had gone wrong.  you could send a child in to find things but they sometimes got lost in there!

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Back in 1964 we moved from Basford to St Albans road just above the Newstead Abbey, there was a line of garages and dad had one of these. He gave me his old split windscreen traveller and bought himself a 1000 saloon with 2 engines, his winter hobby was refurbing one of them which he put in the car in spring leaving the other on the bench ready for the winter, there was no real reason for this just the fun of playing over winter,

 

As to running repairs the Moggie got me in trouble one weekend. Mum & Dad set of early one Saturday morning for a weekend at Skeggy as they went up St Albans road my then girlfriend got of the number 17 outside our house. We were doing as young people did when Dad walked in the bedroom " you'd better get dressed before you Mum comes back from the shop" and slamming the door walked out.

 

The fan belt had snapped near Gunthorpe bridge and he had used one of Mums nylons to get home. Talk about being grounded, don't think I ever heard the last of that one......

[Compo 10,328]

I had a fan belt snap in a borrowed Vauxhall Viva. I tried the tights idea but it didn't work for me - just slipped all the time and then broke.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Just my luck it worked for the old man, we had planned the weekend too, bugger...........

 

Just had a thought after all these years I think he told me he did not take it round the generator pulley, just the fan, water pump if that makes sense.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

My first brand new car was a Cortina back around 1981/2ish  2ltr four cyl engine, I put a few hundred thousand miles on that one. Toured South Australia, Victoria etc.

Used to put 500 miles a week on it just to and from work. I traded it in for exactly what I paid for it on a brand new Subaru station wagon.

 

The only problem I found was handling, it had a tendency to "oversteer" at certain speeds taking a bend in the road. I had my first and only experience of aquaplaning one day when I was going through Blackheath in the Blue mountains during heavy rain..Scary!! Instincts tell one to brake, I chose to take my foot off the accelerator, the car soon was back under control.

I replaced one brake cylinder as the seals were leaking, took me an hour, replaced one ball joint, one set of front wheel bearings and seals as the seals had failed and allowed water infiltration to the bearings, and had to solder one radiator bracket that came loose. Beyond that just tyres and a battery. Very easy car to work on. 

 

[loppylugs 8,429]

#12.  NBL  If you just want to limp home probably best not to use the tights or stocking around the alternator of dynamo.  If there is any electrical load at all that would be hard to turn and probably just melt the stocking.  If you can keep the water pump and fan turning you can avoid overheating and just limp home. 

 

#13   Thats why I've always been a Ford guy, John.

[Oztalgian 3,278]

Ayupmeducks #13 TE TF Cortina, it was one of the first projects I worked on when I  came to Australia. They also did a six cylinder engine too.

It is amazing how numbers stick in your head, I can still remember the aftermarket number of the tie rod ends TE524R They had a choice of power or manual rack and pinion steering, Great little cars, You would pay around AU$5000 for one today.

 

Judging from where you had your understeer problem did you work at the pits in the Burragorang Valley, Nattai, Brimstone Oakdale or further up around Lithgow, Clarence, Springvale or Angus Place etc?

 

[Compo 10,328]

My MKI Cortina and a Cortina back end badge:

 

 

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I worked at Wongawilli Colliery until just after the "Big Strike" of the early 80's, just south of the "Gong" then after we returned to work, moved to the western coalfield to work at Angus Place Colliery near Lithgow. I lived at Bathurst, hence the 100 mile round trip every shift.

I used to do pre shift Sunday night at Angus Place, but in summer I'd get stuck behind the same car. Didn't matter if I left a bit early or late, the driver and his missus must have been psychic. Problem was, there was very few places on the Great Western Hwy you could pass anyone, especially in summer when tour buses, tourist with caravans etc were heading west. So frustration grew and I ended up getting to work with a headache.

I just gave up doing preshifts.

 

 

Springvale wasn't operating when I left Angus Place, it was the old Kerosene vale pit  which was the precurser for Angus Place. Most of the men at Angus Place had worked at Kerosene Vale back then, Angus place opened around 1979, added the first longwall towards mid 79 and started breaking world output records. I started there when LW5 panel had just started.

I have photos I took of LW7, same equipment, Gullick shields, AM500  400HP shearer and British made Wecol A67 Gate End Boxes to control the equipment. Angus Place was the first success longwall face in Australia, 48,000 tonnes a week.

Now a colliery in Queensland is producing nearly 250,000 tonnes per week from just one face... 

There's why the UK coal industry is no more!!

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

48,000 tonnes is some going but a million tonnes a month!!! That's some output what kind of manpower do they need to keep that up.

 

No wonder its cheap to buy it in. 

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Not a lot, two shearer drivers, two face men, one at gate end, spare man one elec, one fitter and one Deputy when I worked at Angus Place. Now, elec and fitter are part of the face team and get a higher rate of pay.

Norway have a face being installed which will have no men on the face, both Joy and Caterpillar are working towards manless faces. Cat own what used to be Anderson Strathclyde.

Anyway I digress, but Angus Place bonus helped to pay my Cortina and a mortgage off pretty quickly.

 

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

I might add, the Queensland pit is working seven days a week and two 12 hours shifts a day. We were only cutting on three seven hour shifts five days a week for 48,000 tonnes, night shift was a maintenance shift.

 

[Oztalgian 3,278]

When I first came to Australia I worked at a company in the southern highlands that overhauled mining equipment, mainly Joy loaders and shuttle cars, longwall working was not common then.

Adani, an Indian company are planning to open the Carmichael mine in the Galilee Basin about 160 km NW of Claremont in Central Qld. that is planned to have production of 60 million tonnes of thermal coal a year (1 million tonnes + a week). The mine site is planned to be a mix of open cut and underground operations covering an area of 173 square miles. There are many issues with the proposal including native titles, environmental and about government subsidies. Huge numbers compared to the mines around Notts that made the news when they produced a million tons a year back in the late 60's

On a lighter note did you ever get to the Dapto dogs greyhound racing on a Thursday night, a great evening's entertainment.

Have family that worked in mines around the coast in the 'Gong then gradually moving west up the escarpment and now all around the Bowen basin in Qld.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Never been a fan of dog racing, once went to Colwick to spend an afternoon one Easter when I was in my late teens..

I was more into having a few cold middies down the pubs when I first arrived in the "Gong" then sight seeing  during the nice days, I did take a few of the girls out for dinner, doing a bit of perving on the beaches, nurses from Wollongong hospital off nights sunbathing topless...Ooo lala...LOL

I don't recall any company overhauling mining machinery, been a while since I moved on. I nearly ended up at Joy in Sydney, I had an offer of a job there, but decided to stay in the mining industry, more money and less hours.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Its quite amazing really when you think of how many men used to be employed at one of our deep mines (I have it in my head that Calvo was about a thousand) and we celebrated when we reached a million tonnes a year.

 

However I still believe that the last deep mine should have been put into repair and maintenance instead of closed, one day we may need that fuel and we will have lost all the skills necessary to get it.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Yes, UK collieries were labour intensive, about 350-360 at Angus Place, including all the office staff. Cotgrave had 2000 or more, mind they had five faces, but still way too many staff.

 

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

Sound like better pay and cheaper coal no wonder you could afford your Cortina, that's not to say that miners didn't earn every penny.