Plus 2 Eyeball Air Vents

[bill griffiths]

With the boxes of parts which came with my replacement early Plus 2 are two chrome rings which go one at each end of the dash.

In the middle of each is a plastic control with a knob in the middle for providing volume and direction of air flow.
It is these plastic pieces which are missing.

Any advice as to where to look would be gratefully received - even to know exactly which Ford (just a wild impetuous guess) cars these pieces belonged to would shorten the search which to date has been unproductive.

Kind regards,

Bill

[vincereynard]

I believe they came from the Rootes Arrow range . Hillman Hunter etc. Why not a Cortina ? Who knows?

[elanman999]

They are from the later (airflow model) Cortina MK1 and I think all of the MK2's.
Cheers
John

[vincereynard]

They are from the later (airflow model) Cortina MK1 and I think all of the MK2's.
Cheers
John

That would certainly seem more likely and make more sense. I bow to your superior knowledge.

[jeff jackson]

Without wishing to start a fight, I'm sure they were from the Hillman Hunter / Minx 67 on...

Jeff 72 +2

[elanman999]

Jeff,
Well I have been known to be wrong before. . It's a long time since I was collecting parts for my car in the scrap yards.
Cheers
John

[wotsisname]

Google is your friend.. for example the Hillman Hunter Super interior & Cortina mk2 eyeball vents look remarkably familiar. [I'm joining the UN next week ]

[wotsisname]

Bill,
In case this helps... this is what you are looking for....
The black ring on the front face pops off.

There is a bit of felt on the two surfaces that sandwich the plastic ball.
Took me a while to track down screws of the correct thread as they were finer than my guage
There are no markings on the plastic ball that give a clue to the source
The gold (paint) on the knob may well not be correct, I was trying to guess if the colour should be a nicotine brown, dirty white plastic or some other colour variant

[Orsom Weels]

I can say with certainty that they are from the 1968 on Ford Corsair, not sure about the Cortina. The first year of aeroflow Corsair production (67-68) had different vents which didn't have the facility to shut the air off, this was done by two push/pull knobs in the dash. That being the case, I doubt MK1 Cortina would be correct, but MK2 may be. The knob in the centre should be chrome on plastic, but that will be long gone on most now.

Tim

[ElanDNA]

I can say with certainty that they are from the 1968 on Ford Corsair, not sure about the Cortina. The first year of aeroflow Corsair production (67-68) had different vents which didn't have the facility to shut the air off, this was done by two push/pull knobs in the dash. That being the case, I doubt MK1 Cortina would be correct, but MK2 may be. The knob in the centre should be chrome on plastic, but that will be long gone on most now.

Tim

Hi

My Lotus Cortina January '66 in 1990:

Sorry for the quality of pictures

[vincereynard]

My source is the original description Motor sept 1967.
" The laminated windscreen is Ford Capri, the through ventilation vents Rootes and the gearlever gaiter Rover 2000."
And Test -
"The swivelling side vents are a little more efficient than those of the Hillman Hunter (from which they were borrowed)"

The article could be wrong / production cars could easily have been different.
Perhaps Hunter and Corsair vents are identical anyway.
Corsair seems a likely source as it was always more pleasant car than the Cortina!

[JJDraper]

Best I could do...

Looks close.

Jeremy

[Elanintheforest]

I would have guaranteed that they were Cortina, until I had a look!

Just took one out of my Lotus Cortina to compare with a spare Plus 2 vent, and they are quite different. The Plus 2 vent is a plastic eyeball set in a cast metal housing, with a straight tube, where the Cortina is all plastic and bent!

However, two more things to think about.

The eyeball and it's flaps / control knob look identical.

My Cortina is a Series 2 car from 1969. Looking at the parts list, the Mk2 Series 1 Cortina had a straight tube, like the Plus 2 vent. But no hint regarding what it's made of.

So just maybe the original is from a Mk2 Series 1 Cortina?

The eyeball control knob is definately chrome plated plastic.

Mark

[Orsom Weels]

As said, I can say with absolute certainty they are same as 68 on (or post 67, if you prefer) Corsair, one of my +2 vents was broken & I replaced it with one from a Corsair, it's identical in every way. (I am also a bit of a Corsair nut & have a 2000E) As for the Cortina, looking at what pictures I can find, the MK1 with Aeroflow ventilation looks to have the same as the Aeroflow 67-68 Corsair, but the MK2's LOOK the same as the later Corsair & +2, but may be different behind what you can see. The difference between the early & later Corsair units is only the actual plastic 'ball' part, it doesn't have any means to shut the air off on the earlier model, the outer housing & chrome fronts are identical on both.

Regards, Tim

Edited to add pictures of 67-68 Corsair type vents, hopefully you can see the difference between them & the +2/68 on Corsair type shown earlier in the thread

[vincereynard]

As I mentioned before, maybe the hunter and corsir vents were the same thing.

2000E Orsom? Best car Ford made in the sixties. Not that it was up against much competition.

I knew the chap who designed the door handles! How's that for fame?