The Ford Capri Laser Page

Hi all, I've been meaning to start a project build in here for a while, have been working on the car today and just sat down for lunch, so thought I would kick it off while I had 10 mins. The build is of a 1979 MK3 Capri, originally a 1600. I bought it a year ago and have been picking away at it for a while. When bought it was stripped, most parts in it including a really mint black interior. Someone had started converting the rear to IRS from a Nissan Laurel and it wasnt finished. Front was std. So I pulled it aprt and started again. Made new suspension towers to suit the coil overs, made new crossmembers to mount the IRS, and changed it to 5 stud with turbo R32 brakes.

I know it looks a bit greasy, detailing can come later when its all stripped for painting! So once the rear was done, I moved to the front suspension. I got talking to a guy in the Capri Car Club here in NZ, and he had converted his front suspension to Mazda RX7, so I went and had a look, and decided that was a great way to go. Reasons are 1: Coil overs, big brakes, 5 stud conversion, power steering set up and adjustable top hats would come to about 4k, whereas the mazda subframe has all that, cost me $180, only 3 turns lock to lock, beefier and stronger, bigger brakes (32mm thick discs!), 4 pots, SO much easier to buy bits for, and just better engineering all round. Dont get me wrong, I love my old Fords, but the Japs have perfected this stuff whereas the old english stuff is just so hard to deal with for a reasonable price. To make it fit, I cut a slot into the subframe, welded a piece of channel into it, made upo new mounting points for the lower control arms, made new pick up points with crush tubes in the chassis rails, notched the chassis, added fish plates for strength, notched the rails again for the steering rack to go through, and made up new mounting brackets for the sway bar.

Todays jobs are to make up some gussets for the chassis rails, seam weld the inner guards to the firewall, and seam weld the chassis rails to the inner guards, with out getting burnt if I can help it. Fat chance

And I spose a photo of the car would help too



Wheels are 16x8 from a R32 Skyline, repainted fridge white. They will do until I fit some X pack flares and ultimately I would like to get some OZ racing rims for it.

Like the project mate. Keep it up.

What V8 you thinking about?

and a better photo of the car, less reflection in this one!

Ghia15 wrote:Like the project mate. Keep it up.

What V8 you thinking about?

This one

This is an older photo, has been in my other car for a few years now. Really needs a good clean and detailing, but that can wait a while.

Heres how it looks now, done some hard work But it has got something shiny and new hanging off the back...





Tremec TKO 3550, close ratio 5 speed box, with custom bellhousing to sit the starter on the LHS so it doesnt interfere with the headers.

Love this! Fantastic work! Really like that you've fitted the Mazda front subframe and Nissan rear suspension/axle. Should handle really well, and the cost saving over upgrading the ford setup is a nice bonus

What engine are we looking at? I'm guessing it's a 5.7Litre Cleveland? What are you going to do for induction? 4 barrel throttle body? Multipoint injection? How about engine management? I hope you aren't putting all these nice modern suspension bits on only to ruin it by fitting a 4 barrel holley carb

Keep up the good work, look forward to seeing more.

Here is the result of todays efforts. Seam welded firewall and made up gussets and welded all into place. Also filled and sanded back some holes in the inner guards and firewall.

Beakster wrote:Love this! Fantastic work! Really like that you've fitted the Mazda front subframe and Nissan rear suspension/axle. Should handle really well, and the cost saving over upgrading the ford setup is a nice bonus

What engine are we looking at? I'm guessing it's a 5.7Litre Cleveland? What are you going to do for induction? 4 barrel throttle body? Multipoint injection? How about engine management? I hope you aren't putting all these nice modern suspension bits on only to ruin it by fitting a 4 barrel holley carb

Keep up the good work, look forward to seeing more.

Sorry, engine is a boss 302, its a windsor bottom end with cleveland heads. But nothing is Ford on it, absolutely everything is aftermarket, including block and heads. The only part that was original ford was the distributor hold down bracket, and it bloody broke! So now its billet as well.

As for fuel, yes, it does have a four barrel sorry. But nothing crap like a holley, they are just a controlled fuel leak! Mine has a Demon carb, very modified so that it has excellent throttle response and awesome power. I am tempted to stick a F.A.S.T systems set up on it at a later date, but lets get it running first aye? I think I have bitten off a fair bit here as it is!

Love the work mate. That engine looks sweet.

Thanks, should hav got more done today, but went fishing instead Will hit it again next week. Next stepis to get it on the alignment machine and make sure the geometry is right. if everything is ok, it;ll be off for rollcage. Could do it myself but I know a guy whos really good at them and he will do a better job then me.


sorry for spellng mistakes, lots of sun plus beer after fish for tea make fingers go funny wyas.

Looks like a great car, is that your garage? looks massive and very clean.

Jake

Jake wrote:Looks like a great car, is that your garage? looks massive and very clean.

Jake

Yeah, I am a mechanic by trade, and thats my workshop. Looks clean at the moment as we had a big christmas clean up before we knocked off for the holidays, most of the time its full of crap But I cant complain, it would be a lot harder to do if I was doing it in a single car garage with minimal gear. I can't believe some of the jobs I see guys on here do with only a garage and a dirt floor!

I love this... intuitive, innovative, inspirational!


m112 on top??

M112?I assume thats a super charger. Nah, the things too fast for me as it is Just want loads of power, with decent handling and brakes. I've driven a few 600hp cars and they are just too wild for me and my driving skills!

Bit quiet today, so got a bit more done on the car. made up new strut top stiffeners out of 2 mm plate, drilled plug holes in them, then cleaned off all the old paint and bog from the strut tops. Painted them with a zinc rich weldable paint that melts into the weld as it cools, so should sto[p the dreaded cancer. Then screwed the plate down with tec screws in a few places, and plug welded it. Then seam welded around the outside. Still have to bend it over the sides, will do that tomorrow, the melting underseal was starting to get to me!


Plate on LHS after welding




Another shot




RHS after cleaning off the paint and repainting. Also found a chassis number there under the old paint. Oh well, it was covered once, shall be for good this time. Hope you like all the pics.

Bit more progress today, cut out this rusty piece of badness to make more room for the alloy radiator....





and we are now left with this...



Boxed the ends of the chassis rails...





and so now looks like this.



Then cut out a piece of 2mm plate and about to seam and plug weld it to the front of the rails. Then a removable piece to come that goes between the rails to brace the front end and support the radiator.

Made up some gusset plates today, drilled a hole and used a ball point hammer and the press to make some swaged holes in them to add to the strength, then folded the edge before welding into place.

Looking good. Are you going to replace the front cross member you removed with anything to add the strength back in?