Ford Cortina "Beaver Rocker"

[Reuhkapelti2]

It's time to make a replica of this legendary Finnish race car from the '70-80ies. The real car was put aside for decades, but now it is fully rebuilt to race again by Jyrki Aukio and mates.

My model will be a replica of this new version of Beaver Rocker Cortina. I had a great moment a while ago in an American Car Show here in Helsinki Finland, as I had a chance to sit at the drivers bench of this legendary Cortina. 

 

[Spottedlaurel]

I look forward to seeing how this progresses. I've seen the Mk1 Cortina bodyshells come up for sale every so often, I guess the intention is to build a Lotus Cortina using an Escort donor kit, but what you're doing is much more interesting!

There is/was a guy called Steve Green who ran a similar car in drag racing here.

[Kah puts]

Looking killer ?

[ea0863]

Very interesting build Ismo. I'll be looking forward to your progress.

[Scott8950]

Very cool

[slusher]

Kool and interesting build!

[Reuhkapelti2]

Thanks everybody.

I've made some progress, the front end got some tubes.

The engine is supposed to look like a Ford 390cid with a low intake and two 4bbl carbs. It's located waaaay back to give a good balance to the vehicle.

[beeRS]

Great idea building this legend ??. 

Is this the resin body from Airtrax?

[Reuhkapelti2]

4 hours ago, beeRS said:

Great idea building this legend ??. 

Is this the resin body from Airtrax?

Yes it is. I bought just the body and the hood.

[beeRS]

19 hours ago, Reuhkapelti2 said:

Yes it is. I bought just the body and the hood.

I have seen a few different bodies cast in resin, but I think the Airtrax one is the most accurate in shape. I have a 1:1 Cortina mk1 to compare against. 

[Bugatti Fan]

I believe that Rod and Ian Knott who used to do the shows in the UK with their Motoring Museum In Miniature made resin kits of the Mk1 Lotus Cortina in 1/24th scale. Look on their museum website.

A number of years ago peviously there was also a resin kit of South African origin of the Mk1..

I came across a 3D printed body kit for a Mk2 recently so at long last I can build a model of a car that I actually owned back in the 1970's. Body shape is similar to the very popular 1600E of the time.

Edited May 20, 2023 by Bugatti Fan

[ozmodeler]

I,m loving your build. Here is one of the many that drag raced in Australia in the 70's, 1st pic,and how it is today.

[Reuhkapelti2]

Great looking rides in Australia, back then and now.

I took the previous tubes out and made the new ones from 2.5mm styrene rod. Looks more accurate, I think. 

There's no tubes near the a-posts, as I checked from the videos of Beaver Rocker Cortina. 

[Reuhkapelti2]

Blue windows. I put two sheets on top of each other to get more dark blue glass as in the real car has. One sheet wasn't enough.

Also I started to make the small flares to the rear wheel openings.

I need to get the body more down in the rear, as the car should sit quite level when it's parked.

[Anglia105E]

This is a very interesting project of yours Ismo . . . I have seen the available Cortina MK 1 bodyshells from Airtrax, also Motoring Museum in miniature in 1:24 scale, and of course the Airfix body for the 1:32 scale Lotus . . . Next week I am starting a build which is the 1:16 scale Ford Consul Cortina MK 1 by Frog model kits. These kits are are very rare, and difficult to find in UK.

Tis 1:16 scale Cortina body is the 4 door version, even though the box art for the kit clealy shows the 2 door version.

I like the V8 engine that you have put into your Cortina body, and those dark blue windows are really good !

This is a photo of the Frog kit in 1:16 scale.

David

[Reuhkapelti2]

Wow that's an awesome kit you got there. 1:16 will be a hand full of work, as you need to put tons of details in it to make it look superb.

My project got some progress too, as I moved the engine even further back, about 5mm. Now the other carb is sitting under the wind shield as it should. I cut an opening to the glass and will make a intake box inside the cockpit as I've studied from the pics of the real car. Not quite sure how to get it look good, but I'll figure it out.

The scoop is scratch built, and I'm almost satisfied how it turned out. It may look like it's twisted, but that's just in the pic.

Then I detached the rear suspension and shortened the springs so the rear of the car now sits lower. I needed to remove some material inside the wheel openings to get more room for the wide rear tires. The stance is level now.

I hate that white Vallejo putty, it's so slow to dry and hard to sand smooth. Unfortunately my green putty is out, but I hope the ebay order from Spain will arrive some day. None of the few markets have any green putty in Finland, don't know why. 

[Reuhkapelti2]

Now I got the scoop and the dash done. I took some Toyota steering wheel and used it to make a 3-spoke old school type of wheel.

I managed to make a wall between the engine and the cockpit, and that needed a lot of adjusting. 

[Reuhkapelti2]

Using just the Paint program in my old laptop it takes a long effort to get this much printing done on a piece of paper. 

The text is from a photo of the real car, but it needed a lot of adjusting to get  the mirror reflections out etc. 

 

[Reuhkapelti2]

Most of the decals are now edited and printed to the transfer sheet.

[slusher]

Great looking project and I love the name!

[Reuhkapelti2]

Thanks Slusher, thanks.

Today I painted the body with Tamiya white primer and Tamiya white spray paint ts101.

The red stripes are brush painted, and oh man that hand shake. Not much but just enough to make those curves not perfect. I'll try to smoothen them still.

The decals are not placed yet, because too fresh paint.

The roof needs blue metallic paint.

[Reuhkapelti2]

The big selfmade decals were quite a challenge this time, as I put the decal film only once on those big ones. I had to mix some paint to fix the small cracks and spots, but that went well enough.

The small decals got two coats, and they were easy to handle. 

Today I painted the roof and the hood, after some serious protect tape applying. All went well, no leaks or hassle.