83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

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Rdowe
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Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:00 pm
Car(s): Ford capri 1.6 LS

83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by Rdowe »

After becoming a proud owner of a Mk3 Capri back in 2013 and joining this forum I think it is about time I make a project thread so you can see what (little) progress I have actually made!

As a mechanical engineering student I was looking for a project to work and learn on. I was a bit hesitant when I saw her at first as you could straight away see that there was more body work that needed to be done than mechanics. however as soon as I got on the road my face lit up and I bought her there and then. She started off life in 1983 as a glacier blue 1.6 LS. Her history is a bit of a mystery up until around 2010 when she received some TLC body work wise, newly refurbed RS wheels and a 2.0L skimmed lump.
So this was the state of the car when I got her home
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Now do you remember the "Storm" that we had a few years ago that was blown out of proportion (excuse the pun), yeah the one that blew over nothing..... apart from the wall that was next to my car.
I came home one evening to find this.

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By sheer chance the car was parked in such a way that meant the second pillar landed in the wheel arch and was resting not on the body work or the rims but on the tyre... silver linings and all that.

Anyway she came off rather well with only a few scratches on the rear quarter, two small knicks to the door and a small dent in the wing (that needs replacing anyway but we will to that)

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Now as I mentioned I'm currently half way through a degree and as of this moment I am on placement which means I am about 3 hours drive away from being able to work on the car hence why the project has got off to a bit of a slow start.
First I had to gut the garage and seal the floor as it was horrid and crumbly, after all that I could finally start work on her.
Up to date I have pretty much only stripped the interior out and honed my welding skills on a roll-over/rotisserie jig.

This is the state of my front end
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Left hand light tub
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Right hand
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The wing rails are falling to bits
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As are the wings themselves
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As far as I can tell the drivers side wing has been replaced at somepoint, mainly due to the awful shut lines and slight mismatch in paint from front end to the rest of the car.
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The boot lid is also rusted
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Wheel well also...
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Doors...
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Now we get to the really good bits. As I was taking the interior out and everything was going better than expected; I pulled up the dry carpets to reveal the sound deadening underneath was soaked right through. Worryingly when I bought this car it had an MOT and this was the horrors that lay beneath.

Passenger Sill
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Passenger front floor pan area
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Drivers side
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Passenger Rear floor
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and finally the drivers side rear floor, complete with quick patch job on welded to the bottom
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The Good news is that there is no sign of rust around the sunroof area WOO!

Although having rust on almost every part of the car, have no fear I am not disheartened, infact I am quite excited! I have a few weeks off at the end of may which I plan on spending on poor old Arabella so updates will come sooner and more frequent than 2 year intervals (hopefully)

Raj
Caprifan Rob
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Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by Caprifan Rob »

You've definately got the right frame of mind Raj, excited is not a word I would have thought after seeing all that work in front of me :D
The car looks good on those wheels & the rear spoiler sets it off, a good looking car & I really like the colour. You were lucky to get away with such light damage after the wall falling on it too. A great project for your course & yourself, good luck with it.
Cheers,
Rob
tallant
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Car(s): 1983 Ford Capri 1.6 LS
Yamaha xvs650A Dragstar
1983 Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia X
2004 Ford Mondeo 2.0 tdci

Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by tallant »

Same year and model as mine and funnily enough the rust looks almost the same as mine did when i got my car stripped a couple years ago.
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pbar
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Car(s): Capri 2.0 Laser, frequent driver.
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Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by pbar »

That engine bay doesn't look at all bad to be honest. Much to do in there?
Rdowe
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Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2013 6:00 pm
Car(s): Ford capri 1.6 LS

Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by Rdowe »

Thanks guys, Just been having a look through your project thread tallant to see what I have in store! I have to say that yours looked a lot worse but good to see that you've made a lot of progress which gives me hope haha.

Pbar, as far as I can tell there doesn't look to be much work in the engine bay but it has been repainted at somepoint so there might be something lurking underneath, but for now it is just the headlight tubs and the wing rails.
tallant
Posts: 56
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Car(s): 1983 Ford Capri 1.6 LS
Yamaha xvs650A Dragstar
1983 Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia X
2004 Ford Mondeo 2.0 tdci

Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by tallant »

Yeah I wondered why the seat was so comfy and it turned out that the floor wasn't connected to the inner sill. I just finished a motorsport engineering degree, I learnt how to weld on my capri and the body is the single most biggest job to do on the car. Mines been off the road since 2006 as it failed its mot from rust.
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pbar
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Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by pbar »

Rdowe wrote:
Pbar, as far as I can tell there doesn't look to be much work in the engine bay but it has been repainted at somepoint so there might be something lurking underneath, but for now it is just the headlight tubs and the wing rails.
That's good then, hopefully not too much to do. It does look very honest in there.
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D366Y
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Car(s): 1986 Laser 1.6, daily runaround project
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1980 3.0S, crash damage resto
1993 Fiesta 1.1

Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by D366Y »

Know it's been a while but have you got any updates??
A wise man once said... "you can never have too many capris - buy another" :beer:
It's me, I'm the wise man.
Not_Anumber
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Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by Not_Anumber »

It would be very interesting to see how it has progressed since the last post.

Looking at this I realised I dont know much about the LS spec cars at all other than it seemed a replacement for both the L and the GL, had unique steel wheels but many custmers took the option of the 4 spoke wheels that were standard on the S.
Im presuming the LS would have had the standard 72bhp version of the 1.6 from the GL rather than the 91 bhp one from the discontinued 1.6 S
Rdowe
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Car(s): Ford capri 1.6 LS

Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by Rdowe »

D366Y wrote:Know it's been a while but have you got any updates??
You aren't wrong it has been a while! Its ironic that I said "updates will come sooner and more frequent than 2 year intervals (hopefully)" and then two years later finally an update. Unfortunately progress has been incredibly slow, I have been at university and on a placement year for the past 4 years. After I graduated a little bit of work got done to it but then I had to go into the real world and get job, turns out working on a rusty Capri isn't profitable :lol: So the plus side is I actually have some money to work on the car now, the down side is that I now live about 3 hours away from the car.

This past week I've been back in my home town and have actually made quite a bit of headway with the project. I got the engine, gearbox and all the running gear out as well as taking other stuff off like the bonnet and tailgate. The plan for today is to weld in some supports so when I start cutting it doesn't fold in half, get it up on the rotisserie and then start cutting bits out (Bit nervous about that last one). Anyways, I will post a proper update after this weekend.

Not_Anumber I am much the same as you; I don't actually know a great deal about the LS models. When I got mine a previous owner had swapped out the 1.6 engine for a 2.0 Pinto so I can't help you on the engine front, but I am sure someone on here could help you out
Paul G
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Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by Paul G »

The standard LS did have the 1.6 with 72/3 BHP. The 1.6S engine died out with the S models in 1981.

The LS came with a 4 speed box and the 5 speed was an optional extra. £157 extra in 1983 so was quite expensive then.

The alloys would have been fitted by an owner of the car as the LS was specified with steel wheels with 165 r 13 tyres. The alloys were not listed as an option although 185/70/13 tyres were.
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D366Y
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Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2012 2:26 pm
Car(s): 1986 Laser 1.6, daily runaround project
1981 GL Auto 2.0, Barn-Find-Resto, now also a runaround project
1980 3.0S, crash damage resto
1993 Fiesta 1.1

Currently full up and no more space but I still want a 2.8...
Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: 83' 1.6LS Aka Project Arabella

Post by D366Y »

Rdowe wrote:
D366Y wrote:Know it's been a while but have you got any updates??
You aren't wrong it has been a while! Its ironic that I said "updates will come sooner and more frequent than 2 year intervals (hopefully)" and then two years later finally an update. Unfortunately progress has been incredibly slow, I have been at university and on a placement year for the past 4 years. After I graduated a little bit of work got done to it but then I had to go into the real world and get job, turns out working on a rusty Capri isn't profitable :lol: So the plus side is I actually have some money to work on the car now, the down side is that I now live about 3 hours away from the car.

This past week I've been back in my home town and have actually made quite a bit of headway with the project. I got the engine, gearbox and all the running gear out as well as taking other stuff off like the bonnet and tailgate. The plan for today is to weld in some supports so when I start cutting it doesn't fold in half, get it up on the rotisserie and then start cutting bits out (Bit nervous about that last one). Anyways, I will post a proper update after this weekend.
Glad to hear that you haven't left it behind to rust at least! Good luck with the work this weekend and look forward to your future updates, however (in)frequent they may be :lol:
A wise man once said... "you can never have too many capris - buy another" :beer:
It's me, I'm the wise man.
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