Project Project Capri. Back on the road! New earths.

[nigel bickle]

Put the glass in. Dry job, from above, and will help dry it out.

[Christine]

When it gets a bit warmer the copper pipe will expand and it will be long enough . ..

[fordperv]

I don’t mind the cold so much, I work outdoors all year anyway. there’s few things worse than rolling around on a soaking wet floor when you’ve got to work under the car!

 

Same here I am happy to work in the cold as long as its dry, I hate getting soggy pants, also the pissing down rain seems to make the simplest job take 27 times longer

[danthecapriman]

Put the glass in. Dry job, from above, and will help dry it out.

All the glass is actually back in. It’s just lacking most other stuff like rubbers for doors and tailgate, they’re on loose but not properly. Screen wipers aren’t in properly or sealed. Door glass rubbers not in yet. There’s various holes around too where the bungs etc aren’t in yet. Plus I’ve still not finished the wax rust proofing and I won’t risk it getting wet without it!

 

When it gets a bit warmer the copper pipe will expand and it will be long enough . ..

I hate you!!

[Timewaster]

 

Is there any chance you could tighten some of the angles Dan?

 

When I worked in the spares place we made brake pipes to the customers pattern, I always made them a good few inches longer as they never get the bends as tight as the original and no one ever complained they were too long.

 

The customer who had a front to rear pipe for a Princess made up was the angriest I've ever seen anyone when he brought it back having threaded it all the way from master cylinder to the rear wheel to discover I had put the nut on backwards!

 

Being told if he had left it on the car we could have lent him a tool to reflare it in situ didn't help either.

[danthecapriman]

Is there any chance you could tighten some of the angles Dan?

When I worked in the spares place we made brake pipes to the customers pattern, I always made them a good few inches longer as they never get the bends as tight as the original and no one ever complained they were too long.

The customer who had a front to rear pipe for a Princess made up was the angriest I've ever seen anyone when he brought it back having threaded it all the way from master cylinder to the rear wheel to discover I had put the nut on backwards!

Being told if he had left it on the car we could have lent him a tool to reflare it in situ didn't help either.

Haha! I can sympathise with that mans fury though!

On the Capri it leaves the master cylinder and drops down the bulkhead, then there’s a series of bends to get it to follow the shapes of the bulkhead, heel board bit then the floor/chassis. I can probably try to make the curves sharper but it’s bad for access, unless I take the whole length of piping out again. Which I’m loath to do now, it was a real bastard to get it in!

The other concern I’ve got tightening the curved bits is accidentally overdoing it and kinking the pipe. If I do that I’m screwed and will probably have to start again.

I’ve got a hand held flare tool and a new pipe joiner with the right ends so while the fuel tank etc is all still out access isnt too bad to add a section in.

 

I’ll have a look though before doing anything and see if I can try to stretch it out a bit. I know how I left it last year I was getting pissed off so maybe I just threw the towel in without rethinking it first. Best doing that though than losing it and carrying on doing a shit job!

[Shirley Knott]

Meh, I've done very little over the last couple of months, like you say when the weather's so crap it's hard to find your mojo really.

 

Building this beauty back up is going to be lots of fun and really rewarding so saving it until it's warm out and you can actually enjoy the process is the angle I'd be looking at it from.

[SiC]

Don't know about the south coast but up in Bristol it's being pleasantly warm! At least warm enough from what it has been that my now thicker blood thinks it's warm.

 

I was out yesterday and it was quite usable weather. Especially if you're doing stuff inside the car, once you get moving it warms up quickly.

 

Oh and by the end of the month, the sunsets nearly at 6pm down here!

[danthecapriman]

Don't know about the south coast but up in Bristol it's being pleasantly warm! At least warm enough from what it has been that my now thicker blood thinks it's warm.

I was out yesterday and it was quite usable weather. Especially if you're doing stuff inside the car, once you get moving it warms up quickly.

Oh and by the end of the month, the sunsets nearly at 6pm down here!

To be fair to it, it has been ok here the last week or so. Yesterday was like a spring day! Trouble is I was working.

Before this week though it’d been awful, wet and windy.

 

I think, if it’s dry this weekend I’ll push it out of the garage and try to get something done. From memory the interior sound deadening sheets are about ready to be stuck in, at least in the main cabin area. I think I’ve still got some waxing to do in the boot.

I’ll dig out the engine bay wiring loom today too if I get time. Once that’s cleaned and re-taped it can go back in. Once it’s in I can start throwing all the other engine bay bits back in too. Which shouldn’t take long!

I’m keen to get the engine running ASAP too. It’s been some years since it last ran.

[danthecapriman]

Ok, so today I finally did something to the actual car, not just bits & bobs on the bench.

It’s been lovely today, so this afternoon/evening I’ve made a restart on the brakes.

 

Regulars might remember I pretty much finished on this last year at a low point by doing a job I utterly hate. Brake pipes!

I’ve never liked doing these, but on this it’s a case of replacing the whole lot of them. None of the old ones were good enough to go back onto the car so it was a case of buying a new kit for the car, bending them all up and fitting them. It doesn’t quite go like that when it comes to actually doing the job of course!

Basically it ended last year with the front - rear pipe not being long enough so I got mad and gave up.

 

Today’s job was going to be something simple but that I could do and finish and then say ‘great, that’s done’ and finish on a positive. Then maybe next time I work on the car I’ll feel better about it!?

 

So, since I’ve got all the parts on the bench, all painted and ready to go I decided I’d get the front brakes fitted and finished. Easy.

 

 

Everything gathered together from my workbench, tools assembled and ready to go! Callipers were reconditioned just before the car came off the road so they’ve just had a good clean and coat of vht paint. Hoses, the two stubby pipes, pad fitting kit, locking tabs etc - all new, I even bought new lock nuts and star washers for the brake hoses. The only things I’ve reused were the discs and pads, these being almost new when the car came off the road too so I kept them and they’re easily good enough to reuse.

The reason for the old sponge? You’ll see later in another pic!

 

 

 

I didn’t get any pics of it ‘in progress’ but here’s the finished article on one side. Everything went together beautifully, it’s so nice to work on this car as it’s so clean you don’t even need gloves to do stuff like this! There’s not a single speck of dirt, dust, rust, nothing!

There was a slight issue however. The copper stubby brake pipes turned out to be slightly wrong...

They come pre shaped with unions and flares ready done in either metric or imperial. I tried the threads on mine and needed Imperial so bought those. However when trying to fit this to the new flexi hoses the Imperial unions wouldn’t fit!

They needed metric threads! God knows how it’s ended up happening but I’ve got Imperial threaded callipers with metric hoses so I had to cut back the new stubby pipes, remove one of the imperial unions, replace it with a metric, then remake the appropriate flares! It’s worked fine but I don’t know how it’s ended up like that as the new hoses are identical to the old ones and the callipers are the same. Unless it’s always been like this and I’ve just never noticed? Either way it’s now sorted!

The old pads were cleaned up, regreased and fitted in place with new pins, R clips, springs and squeal plates.

 

 

Other side - exactly the same.

 

 

Inside the engine bay showing the way the hoses come through the inner wing and bolt onto the new pipes.

 

The front brakes are now finished with the exception of brake fluid. Can’t do that until the rears are done!

 

I spent a bit of time today while doing the brakes checking stuff under the wings and also painted a few odd bolts/nuts etc that had been missed during assembly of various things. I’ve been painting them all as I’ve been going so nothing looks half arsed or is allowed to be left bare steel and go rusty. It’d look shit otherwise!

Here’s a few pics of the underside at the front and how clean the inner wings etc are! They look absolutely superb!

 

 

 

 

Inner wings and struts/springs.

 

 

Inner wing where it joins the outer wing at the front with the headlamp bowl. This is normally a bad rot spot on a Capri as all the road dirt and water get flung up into this area.

 

 

Inner wing/A post/heel board area, shows the black non original splash shields in place to stop the A posts and inner sill ends rotting in future.

Also shows why I needed that old sponge! Yes, it’s to cushion the trolley jack and stop any marks on my underside!!

 

 

Finally the underside of the engine and front end.

[AndySnapper]

That car is looking so good now Dan 

[eddyramrod]

It certainly is!

[Christine]

Top marks for the sponge...nothing worse than a scratched trolley jack ..

 

I want a brake pipe flare tool , what one have you got ? Is it good ?

[JuridicalGrunt]

ive been meaning to catch up with this,it looks amazing i love the colour.  keep up the good work!

[danthecapriman]

Top marks for the sponge...nothing worse than a scratched trolley jack ..

 

I want a brake pipe flare tool , what one have you got ? Is it good ?

Yeah I’ve spent a fortune on that trolley jack, it’s like my favourite child I look after it so much! I’d be beside myself if anything ever happened to it!

 

 

The brake flare tool ive got is this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Laser-3434-In-Situ-Hand-Held-Brake-Pipe-Flaring-Tool-Top-Quality-Bargain-Price/302613045872?epid=1781476634&hash=item467524a270:g:NogAAMXQfFJRQaMI

 

It’s cheap and looks a bit wank but it works well for what it is. I was going to buy an expensive vice mounted one but for how much I use it V’s the cost decided against it. Plus, these ones being hand held means you can use it to flare pipes still on the car if you need to. I’ve even done a steel pipe on a BMW 3 series with it before (the stupid rear pipe that goes up under the fuel tank and is a twat to remove!) and it flared the steel pipe perfectly.

I wouldn’t probably use it for professional use but at home now and again it’s perfect.

 

I also have one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MINI-TUBE-CUTTER-AMTECH-TOOL-BRAKE-PIPE-CUT-COPPER-BRASS-PIPES-3-22mm-1-8-7-8/372561675349?epid=2035166770&hash=item56be680455:g:r80AAOSwNXtcNML1

For cutting the pipe, small and easy to use. You still need to file the cut ends down to get a really good flare but it’s better than a hacksaw.

[danthecapriman]

Having a go at the rear brakes today.

 

Jobs to do here:

*Come up with a way of extending the front - rear pipe. At the moment it’s a few inches short.

*Fit rear flexi hose.

*Fit short ‘pig tail’ pipe to link flexi hose to first rear wheel cylinder.

*make up and fit final rear brake pipe across the rear axle linking both rear wheel cylinders.

 

First up then, I’ve got the new rear flexi hose fitted. There’s two little brackets, one on the underside of the bodyshell and the other on the axle.

 

 

Then the ‘pig tail’ pipe. I don’t think it’s actually called that! I just named it that to identify it!

This fits ok, but I still need to fit the wheel cylinder this side and then bend the end of this pipe at a slight angle so it lines up with the cylinders union.

 

 

The next stage will be to extend the front - rear pipe.

Here you can see how short it is.

 

 

I think my best option here is just to fit a brake line joiner adapter. The original pipe had one right in the middle, but I think I’ll just put mine close to this end somewhere and make up a new longer end section to make up the length. I’ve got a new joiner and pair of unions so I’ll just have a go.

[mitsisigma01]

Looks like you could eat yer dinner off that. Mega clean

[Skizzer]

What a joy it must be to work on a car that you’ve already got all clean and non-rusty! I’d say I was jealous if it wasn’t for knowing you’ve been through a lengthy, costly and very stressful process to get here.

 

Oh, and if that’s not called a pig tail pipe it should be. And is now.

[nigel bickle]

Hell- working on that must be really scary!

 

One slip of the spanner on that paintwork and you’ll have to start all over again.

Or have you got a secret touch up tin & a really small badgers hair brush?

 

Seriously Dan, bob on mate.

[Mally]

Is the pig tail pipe usually like that?

Is it secured at all?

Looks to me like vibration will eventually cause it to shear at the back plate if left as is.

Would also put the joiner close to securing tabs. Directly over the leaf spring bolt in the photo looks good, tab on both sides.

[Shirley Knott]

That's looking incredible, cleaner underneath than most cars are up top! Properly inspirational stuff.

 

It looks like things are really coming together now, fingers crossed you'll be out driving this and reaping the rewards of the time and energy you've invested by he summer.

[danthecapriman]

Cheers guys!

 

Believe it or not, it’s a pleasure to work on it in many respects. There’s absolutely no dirt, grime, rust, oil, underseal - nothing whatsoever anywhere! It’s so easy to do stuff because everything is so clean and absolutely nothing is seized. Today, I was laying under this doing the work wearing a nice pair of jeans and my best sweatshirt! And I’m still clean!

On the other hand though, like Nigel said, one slip of the spanner...

You do have to take much more care what you’re doing with everything. My heart was in my mouth when I was doing up the lock nuts for the front brake hoses. They go through those nicely painted inner wings and the spanner jaws were a gnat’s cock away from the paint! Even carrying stuff near the car takes extra precautions.

 

Is the pig tail pipe usually like that?

Is it secured at all?

Looks to me like vibration will eventually cause it to shear at the back plate if left as is.

Would also put the joiner close to securing tabs. Directly over the leaf spring bolt in the photo looks good, tab on both sides.

Believe it or not, yes, that’s more or less how they go. I thought exactly the same as you though, that curly pipe is very prone to vibration damage. It’s a close copy of the factory original though.

Here’s another pic of some other Capri with the same thing.

https://images.app.goo.gl/K4KctJJH9bwPjjw4A

 

I might try and find some way of supporting it better though? All the rest of the brake lines still have their factory tangs to support them and they’re all nice and tight.

[Mally]

Fair enough, can't argue with Ford.

[danthecapriman]

Got the brake pipes almost finished this afternoon.

First I needed to clip the long front - rear pipe into place along the rearmost end of the chassis. With that secure, I could attach the new joining piece. I’ve put this right on the very end of the too short front - rear pipe. Reason being, is: A, it’s easier! And B, there’s two of the factory tangs attached to the side of the chassis right next to it, so it’ll be as secure as it possibly can be.

Then I just offered up a short length of brake pipe, cut and bent it to length/shape, slid on the two new unions and flared a female flare onto both ends. It fits perfectly so I’ve tightened it up and tidied everything up so it looks the part.

 

 

 

The next step was dig out the new rear wheel cylinders, check the unions on all the pipes do actually fit them! Which they do.

The wheel cylinders on this car are actually not the usual mk2 parts. Because this car is such an early one it’s still using many mk1 bits, the axle/brakes being one of them so everything here is mk1 stuff. These cylinders are the old single acting type, whereas a normal mk2 or 3 should use the more recognisable double acting type.

The curled up pipe in this pic is the final one that connects both the rear wheel cylinders together and runs across the rear axle.

 

 

 

To get this on I bent it straight, measured the length and marked its centre. The centre point can go on directly behind the securing tab on the rear axle, right above the diff. It was a bit tight to bend it to shape and feed it around the anti roll bar but it’s finally on and in place. It will only go on in one shape and position. Once in place I’ve tapped the securing tabs down onto the pipe to secure it permanently.

I didn’t have the original pipe for this one though so I had to just do it from pics on the web and my best guess/memory.

 

 

 

Here all the pipes are on and in place, I’ve just curled the ends of the axle pipe up out the way for now so they don’t rub on the wheels.

Tomorrow’s job is to refit all the drum brakes, once that’s done I’ll bend the axle pipes ends down and attach them to the wheel cylinders. Then that’s the brakes done, apart from refilling with fluid and bleeding them up.

 

 

Finally, here’s a shot of the underside at the back end, looking forward. Mega clean!

 

[SiC]

Did you want to come to Bristol sometime and do the brake pipes on my 1100? I hate having to wrestle copper tubing snakes into position.

 

What made you go for copper and not kunifer?

[danthecapriman]

What a joy it must be to work on a car that you’ve already got all clean and non-rusty! I’d say I was jealous if it wasn’t for knowing you’ve been through a lengthy, costly and very stressful process to get here.

Oh, and if that’s not called a pig tail pipe it should be. And is now.

Hell- working on that must be really scary!

One slip of the spanner on that paintwork and you’ll have to start all over again.

Or have you got a secret touch up tin & a really small badgers hair brush?

Seriously Dan, bob on mate.

It has been a right hellish nightmare trying to get this car to this point, as you both well know! I’m glad (and grateful) that I’ve managed to get through the shit and keep hold of the car and see the job through. To think I was almost at the point of having to call it a day on this car! I’d honestly have been heart broken to lose it!

I know it sounds stupid, but I was looking at it today and I still can’t believe my Capri now looks like this! I love it to bits this car!!

Nigel has said it to me before, but I think he’s right now I’ve actually got the car back. It’s great to have something like this, but really it is too nice. It’s at the point where you’re carrying things several feet away from the car that you could just lift over or past it because you’re scared of dropping something on it or scratching it. Or using a spanner on it and shitting yourself about scratching the paint with the spanner!

I think this will be the only time I do this to a car. Restoring is fine, but it is possible to over do things.

Not that I’m unhappy with this car you understand!

[danthecapriman]

Did you want to come to Bristol sometime and do the brake pipes on my 1100? I hate having to wrestle copper tubing snakes into position.

What made you go for copper and not kunifer?

It is a shit job I’ll admit. I’ve not looked forward to doing these.

Copper or kunifer? Kunifer is better and more resistant to splitting or vibration damage, but copper is quite a bit softer and easier to bend/make fit into the tight spaces. In the end I just went for that option! I’ve used normal copper on cars for years and never known problems with it tbh, so I just stuck with it.

 

If I was to do it again, I’d use the kunifer though.

[Sir Snipes]

Can't help thinking the rear brake line would have been better with a longer flex, maybe clipped to the axle (with enough slack to allow it to move obvs)?

 

Or like my old Silvia which had two flexis at each rear wheel?

[danthecapriman]

Can't help thinking the rear brake line would have been better with a longer flex, maybe clipped to the axle (with enough slack to allow it to move obvs)?

Or like my old Silvia which had two flexis at each rear wheel?

It is a funny way they’ve done it on these cars. The front - rear pipe goes to a flexi hose at the back near the axle, then the ‘pig tail’ pipe (which I still can’t see the point of tbh, it just seems unnecessary to me?), then into the first wheel cylinder. Then out the other (usually a bleed nipple) union, across the rear axle via another pipe and into the second wheel cylinder, which also has the bleed nipple.

Looking at it now it looks a bit pants, but I suppose it’s the age of it! It’s all mk1 so it’s a 60’s design.

 

I’m not going get the rear brakes fitted today, I’ve dug the bits out of the boxes of parts and some of it isn’t as good as I thought it was, and I can’t fit bits that aren’t up to standard.

Both the handbrake adjuster arms are broken, so there won’t be any self adjustment. That’s not the end of the world as I’d been running around with them like this for a while before thecar was stripped but I’m not doing half arsed stuff like that this time. Also, all the shoe hold down pins and springs are rusty and past their best, and one of the sprung clips that hold the wheel cylinders in place has also broken.

I’ve ordered the new bits, all off eBay! The pair of adjuster arms I need are custom made and cost £46 for the pair though! I don’t have much choice though.

 

Instead I’ll get a few other bits and pieces done instead. The diff and gearbox need filling with oil too.

[danthecapriman]

Here’s a few pics of today’s limited progress.

Here’s a selection of the rear brake bits. The springs are all fine, so will be cleaned up and reused. I’ve got two new rear cylinders, but the little adjusters that fit into them need a good scrub. The shoes are fine, plenty of meat left on them and they’re not actually that old either.

The handbrake adjuster arms have both snapped off, not much you can do here other than try to buy new ones. All of the sprung cylinder clips are quite rusted and pitted, one has also broken. The hold down pins and springs are all pretty poor too.

New bits are all on order so I’ll clean up what I’m keeping, and once the new stuff arrives I’ll get the rear brakes built up and finished.

 

 

So with that little job in hand, thoughts turned to the next job...

 

 

 

 

...the wiring.

This is the engine bay loom. It will eventually connect to the cabin loom through the top of the bulkhead via the two big round connections.

This is the first time I’ve had it out of the box, first impressions are that despite it being utterly utterly filthy and the old loom tape very crispy, it’s in fine fettle. All the connections seem decent and present and there’s no damage so far.

Plan is a simple clean up, strip the old tape off, check all the connections and then replace all the old tape with proper loom tape.

The massive* and highly sophisticated* fuse box seems ok too, so should respond well to a good clean.