My 1.6LS - First car

[tallant]

Hi all, new guy here.

Been following this forum for quite some time and finally bought myself a project 83 1.6ls. Im 20 years old and got into capri's around 2 years ago.

It was last taxed in 2007 and been off road since in the gents garden in Norwich and even though its been sat so long it managed to start up after fiddling with the points and move... barely, so we drove it on the trailer and trailered it back to Nottingham.



Took the interior out and running gear so its mostly shell and rust.

as it stands now

[Peter-S]

Another one saved, nice one.
Welcome aboard and good luck with the resto

[Swishy]

Always fun to see another LS - (have two myself)

hard to tell exactly from pics but the colour, is not polar grey is it?

good luck with the restoration

[tallant]

No idea what type it is but it is grey.

[Swishy]

if it's grey it probably is - one of mine is/was - couldn't believe ford would do a grey capri.

oddly, found that spectrum grey (a mk3/4 escort van colour) was a better match - if you keep it that colour....

[dan the capri fan]

nice that will look nice when you have finished with the project you have come to the right forum to get expert advice and parts from

[markske67]

Nice one, saved from the scrappers !!!
It doesn't look bad in the pictured.
Keep pictures & updates coming.

[tallant]

Its just rusty in the usual places.






Engine bay cleaned up a treat though.

[Swishy]

looking better already - (kind of, if you know what I mean)

time for a quick bit of patchwork...

[tallant]

Made some progress and tried welding out for the first time

[Beakster]

Hey,

Great to see you fixing it up and looks like you've got to grips with that welder really quickly

Going to try to give some constructive criticism though . I'm not expert and started out exactly like you but here's my 2p:

When I fixed that bit on my car which you have in your last picture I took a different approach. There are 3 sections of metal meeting there, the floor, the inner sill and the outer sill. I always tried to repair each section individually, so rather than patching it up, I was repairing the panels. For example at that part I made a section for the floor (with a right angle bend) A section for the inner sill that the floor section was plug welded too, and then I replaced the sill (available cheaply).

The problem you're going to have with the repair you've done is that where the inner sill and floor and rotted away you now have nothing to weld the bottom of the outer sill to because you just patched it from the inside. Then means you'd need to make another patch for the bottom to get the sill on, but then the inner sill isn't connected directly to the outer sill, only through the floor patch. Pretty soon you end up with patched on top of patches which isn't really very tidy.

Here's a couple of photos to show you what I mean:







You can see where I butt welded onto the inner sill to replace where it rotted away. The repair section above is for the floor panel, the holes are there to form plug welds which replace the original spot welds.

The problem with this approach is that its time consuming though, making repair sections to perfectly fit, and butt welding them up takes a lot more care than putting a patch over a hole. If the car is a keeper though then I reckon it's worth the investment. If you click on my sig pic then you can see my resto thread. I'm not claiming that how I've done it is the only or even the best way, but take a look at the pics and hopefully they will be of some help.

Keep it up, great to see another one being saved from the scrap heap

[tallant]

Thats what i plan to do on the underside of the car, make another right angle bend, a straight piece of steel to the inner sill then the outer sill to make the 3 join together. Was told about the original way the floor must be half way through the weld by my dad. I do cut the rust out and try to make a piece fit in perfectly but it doesn't always happen, im trying to keep away from patching over rust holes. Thanks for the advice and yeah, its a keeper for me. Don't plan on letting it go anytime soon.

[dan the capri fan]

how on earth did you get it that clean i might give my 1.6 laser the same treatment

[BMWcapri]

great project! imagine the smug feeling of having a fully sorted shell, and that will help you through those shitty times when you've got your head stuffed in a footwell and a welding spark lands in your ear and the soundproofing is on fire...

[tallant]

The drivers footwell is the next job hah, will need to fold myself in 3 places to get into there. Too tall you see. I assume you mean the engine bay Dan, lots of petrol and engine degreaser, and a pressure washer

[tallant]

Been working some more on welding.




Cut the wing off to see what was under and it doesnt look so bad.



cut out more rust

[tallant]

finally finished the drivers side footwell and my god it was a pain, either no room to fit my head with the welding helmet on or too far away to see where i was welding But got there in the end.

[tallant]

sure is cold outside, though the inside warms up after a while.



A big chunk out the tunnel.


On with the cutting!



And just because this look interesting.

[Craigorypeck]

major respect to anyone who tackles this kinda project! Well done!

that piston is F**ked!

[Swishy]

Yep - been working in the same areas on mine...all started when I finally got round to tackling the manky driver's wing.

Just keep going - easier said than done in this weather - car is getting stronger with every pic