danthecapriman

That Toyota is gorgeous. Lovely styling on Jap stuff of that era, very American-ish.

I’ve not really updated it for some time tbh. Various updates etc have gone in other threads too but: It was from around the time Photobucket started arsing around so I’m not sure all the photos are there anymore either. I should probably start another thread or combined thread for all my stuff? Might be a better plan? Sorry for the hijack LHg. Mustangs looking fab! Still love the colour👍

Nice! A touch of luxury for my L then! The bit in the middle is like a rubbery soft padded bit, similar to dashboard padding. I’ll have to pop out the centre badge and see who the manufacturer was and the date of manufacture is usually stamped in there too. I think there were a few different manufacturers making them for Ford at the time.

More done today. Mostly cleaning the interior this time. The seats are fine, being new material, but the dash and most other bits of trim were filthy and looking dull from years of storage so I’ve cleaned it all down with some trim cleaner and a cloth. Incredible how much crap came off on the cloth! It looked grubby but it was far dustier than I thought. Then did a few coats of black cockpit shine and buffed up with a microfibre cloth. Looks absolutely fantastic now! It’ll most probably need a few more goes over with the shine as some of the plastic had gone very dull. But it’s not been cleaned or polished in years. Spent ages over the last few days sorting the door and tailgate seals too. They’re all new and are making shutting the doors/tailgate extremely difficult. The rubber is so stiff and thick it’s stopping things closing properly. Managed with the doors, although I think it’ll improve with time once the new seals soften and take the shape of the closed doors. But the tailgate is not having it! I think I need to loosen the hinge bolts and slide the tailgate up a touch as I think the seal is hitting in the wrong place on the underside of the tailgate. Also finished cleaning and shining up the replacement footwell kick panels. They’re looking great now and just need fitting. I’ve also wax injected the A pillars and inside of the door hinge areas so now just need to fit the kick panels over them. And, I had a great find recently! I’ve been thinking about the steering wheel recently. Been keeping an eye out for a better one - couldn’t find anything much of an improvement over mine so thought about getting the leather wrap on mine retrimmed. Then a really nice one turned up on eBay so I bagged it! Heres my original. These are different to normal mk2 steering wheels. Mine being an early car they carried on using up stocks of mk1 wheels. Which look way nicer too imho. And here’s the one I got off eBay. It’s in absolutely lovely condition. The soft trim is all perfect and the plastic is all really good. I think it’s actually off a higher trim car than mine as it’s got a soft padded centre section whereas on my old one it’s hard plastic. All it needed was a quick wash and some cockpit shine buffing on and it looks a million times better than my old one. Its got a really pleasant smell too! That old musty car smell with a slight hint of old tobacco! Or rather it did, until I cleaned it. Anyway, almost there now. Just a few bits to finish then time to hit the queens highway. (It’ll probably be kings highway by the time I get it done!!) Main thing stopping me driving it now is the tailgate not latching down.

It’s a toss up between two for me. A 1990 H reg Ford Orion 1.4glx (first year of the new shape Escort/Orion). This thing was an absolute shit pile on wheels. Everything in it had a mind of its own and either worked or randomly didn’t next time it was used, engine was a gutless turd that would never stay running for the duration of any journey, electrical faults and random smoke/burning smells, drive in rain or any damp would turn the headlights off permanently until dry. It leaked badly too, used to get incredible amounts of condensation on the inside. It was an absolute dog. Couldn’t sell it (nobody stupid enough to buy it!) so scrapped it… imagine my surprise and disgust when, a few years later, I spotted it parked outside shops not far from home! It’s definitely dead now though. or A 1991 J reg BMW 316 E36. I hated this thing. It was utterly worn out everywhere and was falling to bits. It was the car that turned me against BMW’s, the previous E30 was a brilliant car imho but this replacement model was utter shit. A real disappointment. It was uncomfortable, cheaply made and felt cheap and tinny. The engine was rattling its tits off too. Rear brake lines had rusted through and were a pain to sort. It stank inside because of mould, which was there because it leaked like a sieve. Sold it for a big profit believe it or not! And probably could have sold it a few times over given the interest I had in it. Don’t know why? But it sold to a pair of chavs who turned up in a modified Saxo which probably says it all. I can’t imagine it lived much longer tbh given the state of the Saxo and how they drove away. Id say the BMW probably takes the title. Just! I’ve got absolutely no desire to have another (but an E30 would be a different matter) yet, strangely, I’d probably have another Orion. Just one with a bigger engine.

Anyone seen this? Amazing old truck with a bit of a history to it which gets touched on in the vid’s. Looks like an interesting project! The guys also got an old Autocar tractor unit too.

I’ve only ever had old cars, never even had anything with the new style 51/02 style number plates. In 22 years I’ve broken down 3 times. 1: Capri. Popped a heater hose. Pulled over and bodged it back together and drove home. No big deal. 2: Volvo 244. Front brake calliper seized up and boiled brake fluid. Had to get recovered. 3: Mercury. Original starter motor died at importers warehouse so got swapped for a small block mustang starter (same bolt pattern as big block but not manly enough!) worked for a while despite sounding awful, then blew itself to bits trying to start up at motorway services! Nothing I could do after that so recovery used. I don’t think that’s bad going at all for that length of time or the ages of the cars I have!

Small update. Got a few small odd bits finished since last time, nothing exciting really. I’ve been over the entire underside and fitted split pins to all the castle nuts and nut cages and made sure all the nut/bolt lock tabs are bent over - loads weren’t 😬 That sort of stuff really, and more waxing of box sections and bits of the underside and chassis which wasn’t a nice job in the recent hot weather! Today I ran it up warm and changed the engine oil, it’s been in the sump a good few years now since the car went back together but I wanted clean oil in ready for hitting the road. Didn’t bother changing the filter as it’s essentially new still and hasn’t hardly been used. Old oil came out slightly darker than new oil but still golden and pretty clean. No metallic bits in it, no moisture and no petrol so everything seems good inside. No bits of crap on the drain bolt magnet either. Stuck new 15W40 Castrol back in (which is what I’ve always used in this) with a dose of Marvel Magic oil mixed in just to help it a bit after sitting around so long. Also diluted some of that down in petrol and stuck it in the tank to help lubricate the top end/rings etc. can’t hurt! Also shoved a bottle of fuel system cleaner in the tank just in case there’s any varnish of crap in the lines or carb. It seems fine so far but again, can’t hurt! I’ve given the carb a bit of a tweek on mixture too, seemed a tad rich looking at the plugs and it seems to run a bit smoother now. Decided to change the front anti roll bar bushes today too. Old ones looked very tired and were likely original parts. Dead easy on these, two bolts each side to release the U clamp then just pull the old bush off the bar. New ones are polyurethane replacements in the soft ‘Road’ material so should be similar to new rubber ones in the way they feel. All contact faces were smeared in silicone grease that came in the pack and all went back together easily. Old V new. Old ones were really baggy and dry rotted once off, definitely worth changing them. The new ones are a superb fit too, really nicely made. This is one of those jobs made so much nicer by the car being as clean as it now is. All the bolts came out easily, no rust on the U clamps or mounts… lovely! Been shopping too. Got a really good condition base model instrument cluster with correct mk2 style lettering on the dials. Mines ok but nowhere near as good as the new one. Got that for less than £10 posted, which seems a bargain to me. And scored a pair of very good condition black front footwell kick panels. Been looking for some for ages but good black ones never come up. Loads of grey mk3 ones but no black. They’re in great condition and just need a wash and buff up with trim shine. My old ones were a mess, one had a hole melted through it from a welding job behind it way back whenever, and the other was cracked and had a hole through from an angle grinder! Always been like that since I’ve had the car and not ideal to put back into such a nice car now! Anyway, it’s on the home straight now. Very little left to do. Main thing is fitting the last bits of brightwork, odd bits of interior, under-dash panel, steering wheel needs bolting tight and pinch bolt on the steering UJ coupling. Probably other bits & bobs too but it’s close!

I don’t think it’s that one. The one I’ve seen isn’t as tidy as that! I think it’s a bit older too. Most of the times I’ve seen it it’s been around Waterlooville and Havant so I’d imagine it lives in that area somewhere but I’m still yet to find where! Thinking about it I’m sure there’s another Espace around here somewhere that’s got a massive bleached/bare patch on the bonnet. Though that might be a mk2, I’ve not seen that one for a while.

There’s a maroon mk1 still in use round here. I see it out and about fairly often, but I’m yet to see where it lives or find out who owns it. It’s not in the best of condition but still seems to keep going and keeping getting MOT’s so someone loves it. Ill keep an eye out!

What a lovely old thing it was! Heart breaking what happened to it, and the other car. Certainly makes you think (and worry) about how safe your own things are. I’m not a million miles away from where it was taken myself and it’s got me thinking about my own yank.

Apparently that Ford wagon had only been in this country for a couple of months. It’s owner having just imported it in from LA. Poor bloke must be devastated and pissed right off by what’s happened. There are some absolutely immoral horrible cunts out there. I just can’t fathom how anyone could do stuff like this to other people’s things. Shame on the race promotors/track too for allowing these two shit bags to carry on racing those cars. If that was the last meeting at Ringwood then good riddance if that’s the sort of thing they turn a blind eye to.

I’ve played GTA games right from the top-down era original games. I got the original way back in 1997 at first release. I’ve played every one since. A favourite of mine then was the GTA London 1969. I played it to absolute death! My two favourite cars in it were: The Crapi (had to be didn’t it!) And the S-cart There was an add on for this too; GTA London 1961 which had the same map but with new missions and loads of different cars. GTA 2 I found a bit of a let down really. Never really liked it as much as the previous ones. GTA3 was brilliant when it came out as the first of the 3D era games. Favourites on this one were the Esperanto, Manana and Perennial. San Andreas was absolutely fantastic. The map seemed absolutely enormous and there was so much to do. By far my favourite GTA of all though was GTA IV. Not the biggest map, but it was really detailed and had a good story. The graphics were great and best of all, the car handling and collision damage was absolutely brilliant. Way more realistic than GTA V. Favourites from IV were; Marbelle. Handled awfully but I like that and it looks like a classic yank. (Think it’s based on a US Granada/Lincoln Versailles) Esperanto. Emperor. Uranus. Love it’s fox Mustang/Escort-ish looks. Buccaneer. Classic muscle. These seemed really rare though? And from The Lost & Damned add on for IV (which was brilliant add on!). Regina. Classic station wagon, all in beat up rusty appearance only in IV and with a way better looking front end that the same car in GTA V. Rhapsody. Because AMC Pacers are cool. Fact! GTA V I was very disappointed with. The story and missions were good, Trevor was a great character and the map & graphics were great but the car handling was terrible and very unrealistic and the car damage was absolute crap compared to IV. I’d say this was the GTA I’ve played the least and enjoyed least.

Looks as superb as ever to me! 👍 Nothing wrong with having it looking tidy and looked after. Tired old parts are nice but sometimes do let the appearance down a bit.

Certainly looks ‘vintage’! Probably for the best it’s been changed! You've reminded me, changing the diff oil is a job I need to get done on my Mercury.

Fantastic work! You sure did pick your time to be welding. On the hottest few days of the year (so far!).

I’ve got triple green! Green paint, green vinyl roof and green interior trim. The seat material is actually metallic green, with little flecks of silver fabric in the green. There aren’t many seats more comfortable than those!

Got a dreaded HM revenue & customs letter this morning. Usually not a nice thing to find on your doormat, meaning you owe them something! Opened it up to find, shockingly, they owe me £1800!! And they found the error and contacted me about it! Overpaid tax apparently. Nice little bonus I wasn’t expecting. Im off to eBay to look for things to spend it on😆

It’s bad already! I was sat in it yesterday and the vinyl seat bolster bits were roasting. Even though I was wearing jeans you could feel the heat. I don’t think I’ll be wearing shorts when using this car!

Here a link to Flickr for a video of it running for those that couldn’t see it earlier on this page.

Still progressing, just slowly! I’ve been running it up now once a week, it’s improving massively now it’s getting run and ‘used’. Very smooth and revs very cleanly and the starter has actually started to quieten down and working better too. No signs of any more of that rancid gunge in the cooling system either which is good. Aside from that I’ve been doing a few odd tweaks here and there, just getting it ready to go out on the road. Today I’ve finished the drivers door card. Would have got them both done but ran into a slight snag that stopped me which I’ll go into later. I’d already done the plastic membrane for both doors so next was the refurbished interior trims. Very simple, just those little plastic clips that push into holes in the door frame, same as all old Fords. I wish fitting the trims was as simple as it should have been but very few of my clips actually lined up with their respective holes in the door frame! The result of my door trims being refurbished but using ply instead of the original hardboard. As it was all cut by hand by the trimmer some holes were slightly too small so I had to keep trial fitting the trims, then very carefully use a chisel to open out the holes slightly until the clips sat in the right place to line up with the holes. It took ages to do and I must have had the trim on and off about a million times! Just one of those things though when refurbishing old stuff! Got it on in the end. Next I used a bit of interior trim polish to clean all the dust off the trim from where it’d been sat so long. You can see how dusty it is in the pic. They shine up well, but will need several goings over to really get them nice. Next job was the window winder and it’s little bits of trim, the door arm rest and the door handle trim. The chrome trim around the handle was a pig to fit as the door trims are now ply… which is a fraction thicker than the old hardboard was so the trim was incredibly tight to slide into place. The good thing though is that it certainly won’t keep falling off like it used to! The arm rest itself is a bit loose at the moment, the door trim wood is slightly warped in the centre so I’ve tightened it up so far and hopefully the wood will settle into shape now it’s fitted and I’ll tighten the arm rest down tight then. Again, they’re a bit dusty and faded but should come up with some trim spray. I love how it all looks now, very basic trims for a basic car but few things are as cool as 70’s black interiors on a muscle car… or in my case a wannabe muscle car! The other side couldn’t be done as I noticed a vital clip in the door frame was missing! This clip holds the arm rest at the top so carrying on would have resulted in having to strip everything off again later to fit the clip! Naturally this clip was unique to this purpose and I didn’t have any spare. God knows why it was missing, it was still fitted in the other door. Couldnt find any original used ones but someone on eBay had made some so I just bought one of those. It sits behind the doors inside frame and is held on with two pop rivets (hence why it had to be fitted before anything else!). It arrived today so I fitted it, ready for the door trim etc another day. Heres the new clip. It fits just to the side of the L shaped pressing, you can just make out the new rivets and hole in the plastic membrane for it. Here’s the other door trim ready to fit, and the back showing the clips and the holes I needed to elongate to fit properly. Didn’t get pics, but I’ve also trimmed the door seal rubbers to size and pushed them on properly, and cleaned the two sun visor’s, as they’d got very grubby and mouldy in storage. Bit of cream cleaner and a sponge had them looking like new though. Still to do then; Fit last door trim and door furniture. Realign door striker plates to get doors closing properly. Fit tailgate lock seal. Fit tailgate interior trim panel. Fit two exterior door chrome trims. Tighten steering UJ pinch bolts and steering wheel centre nut. Bleed brakes once more, just to be sure! Change front anti-roll bar bushes for new polyurethane ones (got the new bushes already). Double check silly stuff like split pins fitted where needed, bolts on suspension etc are tight etc etc. I think that’s about it!

Definitely. Some people still don’t like the idea of it but the points & condenser were always the weak points of old ignition systems. Wear, poor part quality, damp and cold always caused problems, but all of that is largely gone with electronic ignition. Obviously nothing is completely trouble free and break proof but they are a huge improvement imho. Itll be interesting to see how yours starts and runs come winter.

Glad the change to electronic ignition has gone (mostly!) well. I was a bit sceptical of the dreaded modern electronics in my lovely old classics to begin with but once you do it and get it set up ok it’s so much better. And just think, never again will you have to ponce around setting the points gaps every 5 mins as it comes out of adjustment, or the contacts have corroded, and never again will you have to buy modern cheap crappy condenser’s that may or may not work straight out of the box! Saying all that of course, I do still keep my old points and condenser in the cars… just in case!

I’ve never seen that, but I often go on YouTube and just search for stuff like Los Angeles 1970’s, New York 1980’s etc and watch all the old road and street filming. Usually packed with old Detroit iron!

Should be doing a few more jobs on this tomorrow. For now though, check this rarity out! A dash facia that’s still got both the radio and accessory button blanks! Never seen one before tbh so I bagged this one! I probably won’t be using it here in all honesty, since I’ve got a decent period radio lined up and already fitted the aerial etc to the car but I just wanted it purely for the rarity value!