2.0S Daily Driver

[Andrew 2.8i]

Hi,
Nice car, gorgeous colour. Love the wheels, too.

All the best,
Andrew.

[2litreScapri]

Nice solid cappa you've got there.

Thank you, but I'd like to quote you on that. Took the car in for MOT. I knew there were minor issues that I have been putting off which were likely to fail; pulling to the left when braking, horn & washer jets not working, and I knew the exhaust needed minor adjustment & more recently I slight fuel leak from the carb seals. All issues which needed sorting, but I've always been happy that despite the surface rust the chassis is solid underneath. I had a look underneath when tyres were changed and all looked good. However the MOT brought up a major issue.
Everytime I get in the car I put the seatbelt on & all seems well. Unfortunately the inner chassis has rusted away on the drivers side at the rear and the lower seat belt anchor point is hardly being held on. The bolt is still there but loose but the rust has eaten the screw point away, see below:





I have no idea how long I've it like this & I never got round to the interior cleaning when I've been to shows so I've never noticed it. Shockingly I must have driven up to East Kirkby & back like that & Beaulieu, plus daily driving & local meets as I do. Counting my chickens really that nothing serious happened. So Old Ford Autos have removed that & welded in new metal plates, plus got the rest of the issues sorted. Now is has a fresh ticket. I'll be back on the road next few days.

[2litreScapri]

So, as Brooklands was an astounding success I put off what I could with my car but I couldn't hold it any longer. It's amazing that this:



That looks very shiny would hold a few hidden horrors, but the wet weather showed up the inevitable. I noticed last week that the bottom of the doorcard was very soggy. Unfortunately I knew this would be the start of something bad, so I had a dig around, and found this in the drivers footwell:



and this in the rear seat footwell:



This I knew was the start of problems, and although the passenger side needs bodywork repairs, there are no major leaks coming through anywhere on that side of the car, and I'm limited on budget, so I have put it aside to have the drivers side completely repaired, with all the rust spots inside & underneath all done (and ones that are discovered), then a respray which will be blended in. Not ideal but it will have to be done so it can survive. So I have stripped a bit of it down, and these are the bits that will be repaired:

Rear quarter sill:



Rear chassis sills


Rear spring Mount welding as this has corroded away badly:



Rid of drivers wing rot by replacement wing (Hadrian Panels)



All chassis sills ground own & welded where required:


Wing replaced where rust meets front valance (valance will also be stonechipped & sprayed):


Removal of surface rust on wing with replacement:


Smooth bodywork of parking dents & dent in door on top (where someone tried to half-inch it in it's previous life).Note the rubber trim; I did this & it might have been the car's undoing as you can see it wasn't cut right, so I think it's been letting in rain:


Removal of rust on rear quarter sill by wheel well:


The inner chassis rail looks like it will have to be replaced too:




Removal of rust with replacement wing:


So the car is currently with Jason @ Austin Sheward, an old Ford know all (mainly within the Granada world) and all round good guy. He has since called me to say that since putting it on the ramp the inner chassis sills by the have had plates welded onto them and they are rotting through so they will be replaced. More pics to be sent through by him as an when as he is aware I'm doing the build thread. Lead time is 3 weeks but with Xmas coming up I'm not sure. I need to order new rubber trim from East Kent Trim & new stripe kit from DB Graphics. The main thing is it will finally be rid of the rot on the wing & will look a llot prettier. There are lots of other cosmetic issues, but unless someone hands me a blank cheque for a full resto, it will have to be this way!

Despite this, I am looking forward to 2015! More updates to come as & when I get them!

[2litreScapri]

So just before Xmas I went to the bodyshop to have a look at it. Doesn't it look lonely there......



So Jason took me round it & showed me where all the rot is. Some of the worst affected areas were the chassis ends on both sides, so they need doing regardless. But the pics I took were with the wing off, we can now see (literally) the sunroof drain tube & the rotted metal, the rot at the bottom, and the lower rear quarter, which is also full of filler. Plus I'm having all the little parking dents removed, no point going all that way back to a respray job without sorting them out.

Seeing as there was no history with the car before 1995 I expect it has had cheap bodge repairs done to keep the rot away. Despite my efforts to use & abuse it it seems to have worn fairly well against everything but I'm not expecting it to be cheap; and this is one side only. Now just got to buy a new stripe set from DMB Graphics & a new door weatherstrip once it's all done. No idea on timescales, and Jason was going to talk to Quoyloo Garage about new panels, so I'm in safe hands. Glad I decided to do this during the winter!








If anybody actually remembers looking round the car at Brooklands (in paddock area or on banking) you'll probably have only noticed how shiny the paint was, that's because I spents hours waxing it. But no matter how hard I tried I knew something was going on underneath & now it's showing.

[Caprifan Rob]

Looks like you're in safe hands there, this is going to be a sound car when finished, another great looking Capri S saved, keep us informed, hope your progress is quicker than mine

[2litreScapri]

Pic update.

Thank you Freelanderfan, well I popped by the bodyshop to hand over a better dashboard I acquired, stripe kit from DMB Graphics & weatherstrips from East Kent Trim over & got some pics of the car, they are not pretty. A bit of fabrication required to repair the door post, new repair sections as picture. So much to be done by the end of the month.







And I can see through the car! This now explains the water in the footwells

[Taff50ish]

Hi Kris,

It is looking a little sorry for its self there mate. But just think of the finished product, looks like its getting the All Star treatment!!! Roll on Summer...All the best,

John...

[2litreScapri]

Good news/bad news.

Good news is some of the missing metal is back on the car, progress was starting to go pretty well, but at the last update, they hadn't got to the rear properly and had to remove the outer sill at the wheel arch, what they found was this:



Virtually no metal in the inner seal supporting the rear spring mount. This must have been the aftermath of last years missing seat belt anchor and inner seal. So that's got to be done.

The full extent of the rust by the footwell:



But here's some positive pics:







The door needed a new plate on it (had rusted out at the bottom but has been saved. Time & cost is getting worse, but will have it back by April, maybe March. No rush at the mo. Structural stuff to be done!

[3 Litre Power]

Very nice , and yes to me it sounds bonkers not to convert the head to unleaded, it would definetly pay off eventually , those fuel additives aren't cheap are they? Since my '75 3.0 Ghia was converted to run on unleaded as soon as unleaded went away around the late 90s' here in Spain , my heads were also i think stage 1 ported and converted to unleaded with a 3 angle valve job , really makes the engine run better.

[2litreScapri]

Thanks 3 Litre, and there are pros & cons to having kept the head leaded. it seems that I had completely forgotten to update this thread around August/September 2013 as shortly after my head was sorted, the engine decided to let go (unrelated to original work done), so I had the bottom end worked on, light skim, new pistons etc etc and the valves were replaced on the head again. I had some running in issues but since October 2013 I've loved the engine rebuild & has good power. At the time I was happy with adding theadditive as "if it ain't broke don't fix it" & Castrol Valvemaster is a great product & boosts the octane rating. since then though, Castrol have stopped producing it, stocks are now limited, and the ethanol in petrol situation is a big question mark for classic car owners. At the moment I am fine but it is a concern, being that the car is still a daily driver.

Anyway, big update on the bodywork front. Had a lot going on this week so just had to work and let the bodyshop get on with stuff. Lots of old rusty metal cut out, and new metal welded in, especially round the chassis rails & inner sills, which is a big step forward to a solid car. Outer sill is also done but needs welding in. Door outer skin needed replacing at the bottom, so now with all this in place it's starting to resemble a car again:


















The only stumbling block has been the front wing. Original pattern one I had bought just did not fit in a decent way, not for a long term "keeper" project. Contacted Niall Diamond about a front wing & was ready to buy, unfortunately family issues meant I couldn't concentrate on arranging this, so I had to settle for a new pattern wing as time & money aren't on my side. This isn't ideal as I would have preferred a Ford replacement wing but pattern will do. The guys have done a good job of making it fit, as even this isn't perfect, but panel gaps are even & hopefully won't be able to tell (unless you do the usual tests to check).







I did get the chance to see it yesterday though so I took some pics.







It still looks like a long way away from completion but it is getting closer. Will it be ready for Lancaster Bomber day? Fingers are crossed that I will get it back by then and have done a shakedown test to make sure it will do the journey ok. I'm sure it will feel very different to driving it, now it'll feel more solid. Should be exciting.

[3 Litre Power]

Nice job , i am thankful here Petrol doesn't have any Ethanol , i use 98 Octane always because of the additives it makes the engine run better and it is noticeably more responsive running on Premium I ran the engine on regular petrol for years thinking that 98 was a waste of money but since i decided to try it one day i really noticed the difference.... I see your project coming along nicely keep us updated! I will also be posting some things i will be doing to mine here :
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=47844

[2litreScapri]

So whilst I'm online I need to update my car. Well it wasn't ready for East Kirkby, and it won't be ready for Beaulieu (mainly due to a Belgian truck driver wiping out some cars in the bodyshops yard - thankfully not mine!) but it wasn't for lack of trying! Last weekend it needed a lot doing & it was suggested that if Calvin could come over after hours then me, him & Jason could at least get the dashboard, interior & other bits fitted in. Having never taken out the dash properly before (Calvin has though) putting it back in seemed daunting, but with the 3 of us working together it went out fairly well. Unfortunately the battery wasn't hooked up so couldn't test the dash, so fingers crossed it all works!

So we started off with this:



Whilst we cleaned the car out we found evidence it had been broken into in the past, and some botched wiring, but all Capris pretty much well have their tales to tell so I'm not entirely surprised. We found the build sheet for the car, good to see that had survived:



We started around 6pm. With a pizza break in between we were pretty much at this point by 10pm:



But even after all this I did think it was a mammoth task to get done. Brakes needed doing, battery reconnect & test everything, front bumper needed putting on, stripe needs putting on, and it was going to be MOT'd as well. But didn't do a bad job to get that major job of the interior done.

There's a few extra bits I've decided to splash out on for future restoration and just to make it look good. I couldn't really have a dented door moulding going back on a freshly painted door so I asked on here, and then I make a few phone calls which lead me to finding some NOS mouldings:



and some NOS front bumper end caps for the future:





Coupled with the NOS front bumper I've got I just need the rest of the car restored before it's all fitted.


And some pics of the car now painted on that side not even polished up:






It's never ending, but if my birthday is 21st May, it should be back before then!

[sheff]

Your car looks great Kris, shame it won't be coming to Beaulieu tomorrow for us all to take a look. Hopefully I'll get to see it at the Ace Cafe meet in August

All the best
Neil

[3 Litre Power]

Looking good mate!

[2litreScapri]

It's back!

Well 6months & a lot of hard work by the bodyshop & me getting bits from everywhere has come together, and this is only the one side. Cannot fault Austin Sheward Coachworks, they have come through. Obviously like everything there are minor issues to sort but mechanically it's very sound & solid. MOT went through after the front suspension arms & rear wheel bearing were replaced. Felt really weird driving it after this length of time, not helped as the tracking hadn't been done either! But now sorted & apart from the grille badge falling off I am loving it again. It's had a lot of underseal underneath & in the doors, stonechip in the right place, and panel gaps straight & true. Now I know that side is done, I need to save up for the rest of the car. I think it might become a "regular" driver, not a daily.

Much better in the metal, but here are some pics:

[3 Litre Power]

Wow looks much better now mate

[sheff]

Great that your back on the road again Kris. Might catch up with you soon, perhaps the next RSFFE breakfast meet

All the best
Neil

[andyd]

Very Nice

[2litreScapri]

Bit of an update. Decided after 5 years the Allycat replicas looked great but I wanted something newer. I've scoured sites over the last couple of years looking at Turbovecs, wheels from USA, but nothing seemed cheap & ideal. So I've stuck to a simple formula. Buy the Mk2 Allycat replicas. Same wheels, just a machined off lip to create a deep dish. The effect, after sourcing some silver/black Ford logo gel centre caps, is simple but effective:











Back to Toyo RoadPros 205/60 as the Falken tyres are good but not great.

The old Wheels look great still & have a potential buyer for them, if that falls through they'll be on here for sale.

[ThatGuy]

Even though your new wheels are pretty much identical to your old allycats, I actually really like them. And awesome to see you've got you car back Kris, Ill actually start a thread on mine soon to show everyone how shit Mt capri has got from being sat on the drive for the better part of a year