Greg's Cortina Mk1 GT Build

It’s amazing how much time you can spend getting the little things right. Some time ago I had pulled apart my handbrake mechanism and had the housing sandblasted and powder coated. When I went to put it back together again I realised that the original mechanism was broken. So I sourced another under dash handbrake. When it arrived I realised that the handle was metal, whereas my original was plastic. Other than that they were identical. This turned out to be a blessing as I was able to restore the handle. I sanded it back and painted it up gloss black. I also sanded back the linkage and gave it a coat of silver as it’s not possible to re-anodize the end as it is fitted to the cable. The lever was sanded with fine wet and dry to remove scratches and discolouring and polished to bring back some shine. With everything dry I fitted it up to the previously powder coated original housing. A new rubber grommet was installed as the original had hardened and tore when removing from the car. The rubber grommet was actually one of the harder to source items on the build, eventually I found it on eBay UK.

Original mechansim. You can see the spring loaded latch at the bottom which should be flicked up.

Replacement handbrake lever

Replacement handbrake lever

You can see the spring loaded latch as it should look on the replacement handle

The replacement handle was disassembled

I sanded back the handle to remove any pitting and scratches and sanded it back with fine sandpaper as I wanted a smooth finish

The plasic lever had some discolouration and scratches from years of use

I sanded out all the scratches and polished it up

The new lever looks as good as new

Handbrake painted and reassembled

Handbrake painted and reassembled

Handbrake painted and reassembled

The end attachment was sanded and painted silver and a new rubber grommet installed