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Cortina donor chassis width?
mattpilmoor - 30/11/04 at 06:58 AM

Hi,

Chassis steel being delivered today, can't wait to get at it.

Anyway, i think i've found a decent cortina MK5 donor. The question is-do I need to widen the chassis to accomodate the back axle (or the 2l pinto) thinking about using the mcsorely.net CAD drawings with the + 4ins width. If i can get away without doing it i'd rather go with the standard book chassis cause i guess the fibreglass bits'll be cheaper.

Any comments appreciated.

Cheers

Matt


James - 30/11/04 at 08:14 AM

More importantly than cheaper, is easier to get hold of! No one I'm aware of produces +4 bodywork so it means doing a lot more work yourself.

If you look at pics of standard cars you'll see there's a lot of the 'caravan' look- where the back axle is a lot narrower than the rear arches. A lot of people think this doesn't look too great.

With the wider Cortina axle and standard chassis/arches this issue goes away!

There's maybe a potential issue with differing front/rear track but no-one I know of has yet said it doesn't work having wider track so I guess it's ok!

Hope that helps,

James


ned - 30/11/04 at 09:35 AM

standard chassis and bodywork will be fine for cortina donor.

Ned.


Mark Allanson - 30/11/04 at 06:31 PM

If you use a book chassis with a Cortina axle, you will need some seriously wide rear arches. Mine are 12" and my capri axle makes the wheels fill the rear arches.