Thanks for the well wishes, Guys.  Fortunately my house is in one of the higher suburbs, so didn't get any flood waters at all when the flood gates were fully opened on Sunday night, but a lot of people have severe damage or have lost everything.  One of my wife's friends had about a metre of water came through her place so will be over to help clean up when I can. Will still be a couple of days before the water goes down, but unfortunately they say there is more coming.
Cheers, Len

Good to hear everythings alright at your place Len, feel for the people that aren't as lucky.
Hey Deano, I'm going with the original colour, I'm a bit of a stickler for that sort of thing, that and all the other GT numbers match. Lol I can hear people yawning at that, each to their own I suppose
Colour is sunlit beige, it appeared on the XP Falcon aswell, same code, but is more of a gold. We need to do some samples before committing to a supplier. Heres a couple of pics as an example, the first is correct the second is the XP shade.


 

I'd go for the correct shade too - nice -looks like a pale silver in the photo, tho might be a trick of the light ?
Cheers, Len

I like the first color , looks silver / grey and very fresh apart from the door looking a different color.
Not struck on the second color , Jewish racing gold . looks very dated . 
Just my opinion .

Hey Drew, you might like to consider painting it yourself. We did our van engine bay recently, and we're really happy with it - frankly, it's better than the job I paid a pro to do on the other car! Car's not on the on the road yet, but you're welcome to come by to check it out and have a chat about it any time.

I'm exactly with Bonus's summation.Silver and minilights would look the bee's guts.
If this is the color though, I'd definitely be paying a pro to do the final spray.
 
Metallic, plus being silver plus clearcoat would be the combination from hell in terms of getting all of the panels to match to what I think is your level of perfection Drew, and whilst I have never sprayed it myself, I have learnt from others how difficult it can be. Maybe do most of the pre and undercoat if you can, and then hand the car over?
 
Even in the pic above, as Bonus pointed out, there's a noticeable variation between the rear door and body.
Perhaps some more wise painters than my inexperienced self can chip in.
 
I've had 2 cars that are metallic silver, a late model MX5 (Starlight Silver), and my better halfs Territory is silver also.
Both have have had 'professional' panel repaints (not my fault honestly), but a keen eye could pick up the differences.
Maybe the newer paints are more forgiving.
 
Having said all of the above, I have a 1lt of the original metallic Spruce color to put on the Mk 2 Escort if I get a chance.
 
 

The cars in the  shop at the moment, this is my least favourite part of a project, its out of my hands and a just need to be patient. I stopped in for a look during the week and it is making progress, he's being particular with it, so far, so good. Agreed Deano, glad I'm having it painted by a pro, I'd love to have a go but was stressing a bit on the finish I'd get.
 
In the meantime I've been preparing the engine and box. The last owner said the engine had about 10 000km since a rebuild and I'm inclined to believe that, at some point it's had a new gasket set, core plugs and head gasket. Its had a paint now, parts powdercoated, engine mounts, thermo housing, nut and bolt kit etc.

Gearbox is unknown but the oil was clean with no bits of metal and the gaskets and seals look like they've been done too. Didn't take much to clean it up and I put alloy top cover on the buffing wheel for good measure for good measure.

 I've joined the Mk1 Cortina club in the UK so I now have access to there "parts department" Wow! its amazing how much stuff they have reproduced and how cheap it is. $16aus for a new speedo cable, $10 for a GT air filter... I wasn't going to go this far with the car but it's really stepping up the build. I'm going to have to powdercoat and replate all of the underside of the car now to match the top haha. The tyre shop also had a good special on bridgestone 185/13's so I put new rubber on the superlights for a bit over $200. Stoked with that.
Got a roofling in the correct 'loadstar' material and ordered an interior from Aldridge, new door cards, seat cover set, front and rear parcel shelves. Got a pretty close match to the original material and the whole lot will be done from the same roll so it should all match up nicely. I wasn't a fan of the palamino coloured inerior to start with but after seeing this picture I think it'll be a nice place to sit once it done.

Well thats it for now, just playing the waiting game now. Cheers Drew.
 

Damn Drew - sounds impressive! Can't wait to come see it in person.

I'll let you know as soon as its back mate. The anticipation is building at my end

Hi Drew,
If you get an interior finish as good as the one in the pic - very nice. Though I must admit it would be a bit of an unusual colour combination with a silver exterior.  Does the gearbox have the short shift extension to go with it? Len