My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

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Arya2.0S
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My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Hello all, first time posting here, figured id start with my own project.

Its replacing a written off 1972 VW beetle which, after spending what felt like a constant fortune decided to just turn around and randomly catch fire one day, with me and my wife inside it.

That was the last straw and at that point i decided i would never buy an old VW ever again, but i wasn't put off old cars in general at all, i cant stand all this new rubbish.

I knew i didn't want a Beetle again but i still wanted something classic, something cool but more comfortable and reliable than the VW was, so i decided on an old Ford since they have served me and my family well over the years and rarely let us down.

I decided on a Capri due to their awesome looks and simplicity.

Anyway, after a major kerfuffle with the insurance claim i finally got my cheque come through and so i went on an epic 200 mile drive to go pick up my first ever Capri, a nice little find from eBay, with a years MOT and a months tax and 8 previous owners and 118 K on the clock and loads of service history, even including the cars original owners manual and its first ever service slip done at just over 1000k miles by Ford themselves.

Here are some pictures, sorry they are a bit poo.

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We've decided to name her "Arya" from Game Of Thrones because of the number plate. :)/>/>

Shes pretty solid apart from the front wings which are knackered around the headlights, there's a couple of scabs in the paintwork on the wings up near the doors, the filler cap is pretty bad too, and the bottom of the drivers side door is pretty rotton as well, but the arches are fine, as is the underside and around the windows and the front scuttle and front and rear valances, strut tops are original and intact as well, a-pillars and door hinges are also fine and dont drop either, it even has aftermarket central locking which still works!
Chassis, spring hangers and everything important is solid as a rock, had a mechanic look it over just incase and he said its one of the best he's seen, especially for what it cost. Engine runs beautifully now too, oh and it has the 5-speed manual gearbox.

Interior is almost like new, with only one small tear in the drivers seat. Dash is uncracked with no splits, everything still seems to work, sunroof doesnt leak and never has by the looks of it, door cards are all in mint condition, carpets are all in good condition too and i think they might be original as well as they have the "S" logo embroidered onto them. Spare wheel well is untouched and like new too with original paint still intact.

Plans are to do a full restoration back to its original color.

More pics to come.

Thanks for looking.
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Arya2.0S
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Ok, heres some pics of the worst areas and a few more general shots:

Both rear footwells look like this, pretty nice with original soundproofing and insulation intact (not shown) and just a tiny bit of surface rust which i will get rid off and repaint original color.
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Front footwells...not so good, but ive seen worse on here and on my old Beetle.

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Heres a shot of the spare wheel well which is in great condition, only minor surface rust under the wheel which im sorting out now. The whole compartment will be resprayed too.

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And finally heres some shots of the interior which i am really happy with.
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Uncracked or drilled dash, but it does need a new fascia which ive already sourced.
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Arya2.0S
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Some more colse up shots of the rusty footwells. Not the worst ive seen, and it hasnt spread any further than what you see in the pics...not sure how this passed an MOT though..do they have lower standards up north or something?

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Arya2.0S
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

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Arya2.0S
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

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The worst part of this car are the wings, but we thought we could repair them upon first inspection...well after further inspection its not looking so good:

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After grinding down to the remaining metal we're left with tons of filler:

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After taking the filler out, which was half an inch thick in places (!) we're left with something that looks like it was raised from the Titanic!

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And its even worse once you cut the rust out and you see the inside!

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Thanks to the amazingly skilled previous restorer for doing such a wonderful, professional job that withstood the test of time. :angry:/>/>/> <_</>/>/>

Anyway, not gonna bother trying to repair these, not worth it and the result wont be good enough so im gonna try and get some replacements. Yay more money to spend that i dont really have. Shoestring budgets suck!
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by BMWcapri »

Welcome to the forum! :) nice car, and shame about the rot but seen a lot worse taken on. If the rear wings and the underside around the spring hangers and the rear chassis members is good then definitely a 2L worth saving, & if you can afford the better pattern front wings that should save you some time
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Arya2.0S
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Ok, decided to bite the bullet and take off the old wings, no turning back now. We just cut them off with a grinder, no point being gentle with these:

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Overall everything was nice and solid, apart from this small hole on the passenger side:

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Passenger side headlight bucket needs a complete rebuild, but the rest is ok.

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Little hole in the lip, no problemo:

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Hopefully will get some new wings this weekend. Thats all for now.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by simon.rob »

Looking challenging! You're at the same point as me, getting the wings off and finding more red stuff underneath! Any A-pillar holes?

Si
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

simon.rob wrote:Looking challenging! You're at the same point as me, getting the wings off and finding more red stuff underneath! Any A-pillar holes?

Si
No thankfully everything else on the car is solid apart from what you see in the pics. Ive had a mechanic go over the whole underside of the car, checked the leaf springs and the spring hangers and the rest of the chassis structure and everything is good, even has polyurethane bushes already installed, so that saves some work and money hehe.

Im going to restore the areas under the wings to the same quality as the outside so i'll rust proof them then paint them the same color as the car, i'll also refurb the shocks and springs on both ends too so hopefully it should look like something special once its done. I want something that looks light years beyond the tiny budget i actually have to work with. Hopefully it'll impress a few people if it turns out the way i want it to.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Ok update time, i'll let the pics do the talking:

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Now on to the other side, more to come soon.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Little by little...

Spare wheel well before, minor surface rust kinda rough looking:

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Spare wheel well after prep and primer:

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Looks like bleedin' new!

I found this cool little piece behind the foam on the rear seat:

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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Andrew 2.8i »

Hi,
That's a nice car, shame about the hidden rust you have found. It doesn't look too bad from the first few photos. Is it glacier blue?
It looks like there's still a lot of work to go, but I'm sure it will be stunning when it's finished. 8-)
All the best,
Andrew.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

peers.dupp wrote:Hi,
That's a nice car, shame about the hidden rust you have found. It doesn't look too bad from the first few photos. Is it glacier blue?
It looks like there's still a lot of work to go, but I'm sure it will be stunning when it's finished. 8-)
All the best,
Andrew.
Its getting there and slowly all the old rust is being cut out and replaced.

Yes its glacier blue, i wasnt too keen on the color at first and i was gonna do a full color change but it grew on me so im keeping it this color now. :)

Thanks.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by atomic4 »

Greetings and welcome to the Laser site. Patience and perseverance is what you need on a job like this. Stick with it and it'll pay off in the long run. :cool:
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Bit of an update.

I have decided i am changing the color from Glacier blue to Cobalt blue. The glacier blue just isnt growing on me and it is too bright for my tastes, that and it looks like boring old silver in some lights which i hate as every boring modern car is silver these days.

Here's what we're aiming for:

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So due to this change in plans, there's more work to do. Im not taking the engine out as i dont have the know-how or the equipment to do so, so i will have to paint the engine bay with the engine still in place but that comes later.

To start though i have totally stripped out the remaining interior pieces such as sound deadening, seat belts and seat brackets, scraped off all the old felt and adhesive and primed everything ready for paint. I know nobody will ever see these parts or they will be covered up by carpet and trim or sound deadening, but attention to detail is everything.

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Got some new pattern wings from Capri Gear for only £50 a piece, bargain!

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Did the couple of minor repairs that were needed and put them in primer, like brand fooking new!

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The old bumpers needed attention:

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The rear bumper had some rust holes in it which some "genius" had "fixed" by filling it in with filler. We promptly cut out the old rust and filler and welded in new metal.

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After straightening the bumpers out and welding in new metal i put them in primer and they look like new.

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Thats all for now!
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Ghia15 »

Top work there matey.

Exactly where did you find the original build sheet in the car?

Your work on the spare wheel well is giving me the motivation to sort mine out, need to be a little careful as not removing the seats to do it but all the plastic trim is out.

Just want to sort out the rust and keep it at bay.

I look forward to seeing the rest of this build.

I agree with the colour change, would do the same thing to a very similar colour.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Ghia15 wrote:Top work there matey.

Exactly where did you find the original build sheet in the car?

Your work on the spare wheel well is giving me the motivation to sort mine out, need to be a little careful as not removing the seats to do it but all the plastic trim is out.

Just want to sort out the rust and keep it at bay.

I look forward to seeing the rest of this build.

I agree with the colour change, would do the same thing to a very similar colour.
Thanks for the reply. I found the build sheet under the cloth-covered steel panel that goes on the back of the rear seats (the ones that fold down not the bits you sit on)

Here's some new updates:

Update time.

Got the floorpans welded up and seam sealed:

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Then rust proofed:

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Then primed, finishing off the interior work:

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And because i'm anal about detail, i stripped down the sunroof cover and primed it too:

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If all goes well the next update will show some paint being put on the car finally.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

We have paint!
Well...a little bit anyway, got the inside of one of the doors done and the interior which still needs a bit of work as its not perfect, mainly in the area people will see in the boot...but its a start.

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And my dad has started repairing the headlight buckets:

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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Ghia15 »

That is a cracking colour.

Was looking at something ever so slightly darker for one of our cars but not to be as original white has won.

Really looking forward to seeing the car fully painted.
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Re: My first capri, A-REG 2.0 S restoration

Post by Arya2.0S »

Small update:

My dad finished off the headlight buckets, what an amazing job, considering what he had to work with and he's never done a Capri before! As a little reminder i have included what they looked like before he fixed them: (all the white stuff is Tiger seal seam sealer, we're not taking any chances to allow rust to return lol)

Before:

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After:

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Other side, not as bad but still rotten:

Before:

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After:

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And a little something i did, got the inner wings all shultzed and they look great, makes my dads work look even better! I'll add some waxoil over these areas tomorrow to be doubly sure rust never returns:

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