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

[danthecapriman]

Since the road test, 

More seams and little bits around the car have been filled with wax. 
Drivers side carpet on the inner sill has now been tucked into place, trimmed to size and glued down, with the stainless sill top trim screwed on. 
Gave the whole interior a thorough hoover out to get rid of all the dust and bits of carpet fluff. 
Found the spare wheel retaining bolt. I’ve also slipped a few carpet off cuts under the wheel to stop any bangs/vibrations and bolted that down. 
Refitted the original (non rear wiper moulding) tailgate interior trim. This was in good condition so hasn’t been re trimmed. Just had new plastic clips and a clean.  

Dug all the cars badges out and given them a clean up, then carefully sliced off the remaining pins from the backs ready to stick them on. 
Though I did find my roll of double sided trim tape has gone off! It’s dried up and not very sticky anymore so I’ve ordered some strong 3M stuff off eBay, just waiting for that to arrive now.

[Crackers]

3 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

strong 3M stuff

If it's the thin red stuff we have at work, be sure you've got everything in *exactly* the right spot before you press it down because that 3M tape would probably hold a house together!

[danthecapriman]

30 minutes ago, Crackers said:

If it's the thin red stuff we have at work, be sure you've got everything in *exactly* the right spot before you press it down because that 3M tape would probably hold a house together!

I think it well be, although the colour I’ve ordered is clear. It does say though that it’s incredibly strong bond! Best not fuck it up then had I!😆

Might end up driving around with an upside down Capri badge!

 

What do you use it for? I’m guessing it does last well outdoors?

[Crackers]

11 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

What do you use it for? I’m guessing it does last well outdoors?

I don't know what its official use is to be honest, it's not used in the areas I'm involved with - but the rolls we keep for the office go missing regularly as it's extremely useful. 

[danthecapriman]

13 minutes ago, Crackers said:

I don't know what its official use is to be honest, it's not used in the areas I'm involved with - but the rolls we keep for the office go missing regularly as it's extremely useful. 

Ah. I understand 😁

I’ll give it a go. Carefully.

[danthecapriman]

Another irritating problem sorted today.

Starter motor. This is the car’s original part and does work. But, it’s developed an annoying habit of not engaging or releasing as quickly as it should or even at all sometimes. 
I’ve tried giving it a quick clean up, spray down with WD40 and exercising it, which seems to have made it a bit better but after a while it returned to being a pain again. The last time I took it out I managed to snap off the brass live terminal bolt too so I decided to replace it since a reconditioned part isn’t too expensive.

You can see the gear isn’t moving freely as it should as it’s jammed in the middle in the pic.

New recon part fitted. The only thing I had to do was trim the unnecessarily long bolt that holds the strap/cover on the end together as it kept fouling on the side of the engine block. You can see the same had been done on the original part too!

 

Start’s and spins over really easily now and there is no awful grinding noise where the ring gear and starter aren’t separating quickly enough. Lovely and quiet.  
I did have a quick look at some of the ring gears teeth while the starter was out and there’s no damage or chips to any teeth. Probably only a matter of time before damage was done however.

 

Also, bought a new tool!

Wasnt cheap, but makes things so much easier! 
Id recommend getting one tbh if you do much spanner work. They don’t fit everywhere but make things much less work than a spanner or ratchet. Save your wrists!

Trim tape is here now too, so I’ll get that done tomorrow. I’ve had enough today. Hay fever is really bad here today!

 

[danthecapriman]

Tailgate badges are on!

 

They took an unnecessarily long time to fit though.  
The ‘L’ and ‘Capri’ ones weren’t too bad but the ‘FORD’ letters were a bit of a pain. Mainly because it required me to measure and do maths and shit to get them centred and spaced right. Me and maths do not get on. Not at all! 
In my defence though, as we all know, mathematics is a fantastic theory, however in the real world it just doesn’t work. At all. Ever. 
The tape is a bastard! It seems strong, but it’s a shit bag to cut into shapes or around the holes in the letters. It seems very squishy too, you can wobble the letters a bit although they don’t come off. Maybe it takes a bit to cure? 
II badge was dead easy, it’s just a vinyl decal so as long as the surface is clean and free of grease/polish etc it’s fine. 
The ‘L’ badge was a new old stock part, correct style L for this cars age, but unfortunately the original sticky tape on the back of it had long since gone hard and no longer sticky so I had to scrape all that off and put new on.

Pics aren’t the best unfortunately. I’ll try to get better ones another day! 
Still got the wing shields to put on.

Still glad I stuck them on. I think drilling holes would have been a nightmare to get them lined up and caused corrosion issues later on. This won’t. I think Ford probably used a jig to do them tbh.

 

[Wibble]

Fair play Dan, that looks spot on! Tape was definitely the way to go.

I’ve been thinking about getting a cordless ratchet for a while too. Would only be a cheapo though!

[danthecapriman]

27 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Fair play Dan, that looks spot on! Tape was definitely the way to go.

I’ve been thinking about getting a cordless ratchet for a while too. Would only be a cheapo though!

Do it! I didn’t realise until I bought that one how much of a pain it is, especially with long bolts/studs, sitting there winding them out/in by hand. The cordless ones make it miles quicker and it doesn’t destroy your wrists or give your fingers cramp! I expect it’ll be much nicer to use in winter too, not having to hold the cold metal spanner!

Ive got a big battery 1/2’’ impact gun too, but that’s not much good on smaller stuff though. Great on stubborn rusted up bigger things or wheel nuts etc.

Id recommend both if you can get a set at a good price. Sometimes you can find them cheaper without the chargers and batteries. I’ve already got a Milwaukee tyre inflator tool which came with a charger & battery so I just got the ratchet on its own without them cheaper. Although I might still try to get another more powerful battery yet.

[Wibble]

I’ve already got an impact wrench but mainly use it for getting wheels off. It’s a cheapo but has been very good. Ratchet job next for sure👍

[stuboy]

On 6/4/2023 at 12:56 PM, danthecapriman said:

i got a generic amazonian one and is brilliant if have crippley hands etc

[eddyramrod]

Just been watching your vids there Dan.  Oh boy I bet that felt good!  Heart in mouth a bit as you were creeping out of the drive?  I wouldn't blame you.  I hope your new place has better parking and clearer access!

 

Well done all round.  Brilliant job.

[danthecapriman]

Another successful days dicking around!

Last night I did a bit of late night reading about the electrical system on the gauges on these cars and discovered that apparently the fuel gauge and temperature gauge are both wired commonly to each other. Generally speaking, if one gauge works then they both should. 
Of course my fuel gauge isn’t working at all so that pretty much shifts my attention to either the wiring or sender unit.

The gauges use a voltage regulator to maintain to a stable 6V (or was it 5V, I forget now!) so since the temperature gauge works perfectly this is working fine too. So I should get 6V on the end of the wiring to the sender unit at the back of the car…

Nope! Testing it today showed massive fluctuations depending on the position of the multimeter probes and the wire. This is clearly not right.

So I’ve had a play around and close look at the wires and the live wire turned out to have loads of dirt and corrosion inside it’s connector to the sender, which will obviously cause high resistance and low volts. The earth wire that runs only a short length from the sender earth pin up into the cabin/boot floor to a clean earth connection on the body, was absolutely rotten! It looks ok but the copper inside was all green and powdery at the sender (outside the car) end and the connector was also full of corrosion and dirt.

I think I’ve found the issue then! 
I’ve disconnected both wires, completely replaced the earth wire with new and new connector eye for the body end. Then to be safe I’ve cut the live wire back a few inches and soldered on a new length of wire to make it the right length again, and put a new connector on. Tested it on the multimeter and it’s now perfect.  
Ran into a problem with the earth though, as the connection to the sender earth pin is a weird size female bullet type connection. Which I don’t have any new ones of!

To check the gauge itself works I just connected the live wire and earth wire to together, which immediately sent the gauge up to max. Result! 
 

The connection for the earth pin left me scratching my head for a bit and searching everywhere for anything that might work. Eventually I had a eureka moment and found a single brass chocolate block connector. Stripped off the plastic insulation and managed to slide the brass connector over the earth pin and tighten it with the connector’s screw, then slide the earth wire into the other end and tighten that up too! Is it really a bodge if it works that well!? 
It’s a solid connection anyway so with the live connected up and the ignition on…

 

We get a quarter of a tank of gas! Which is about right as I did put a big Gerry can of fuel into it last year. Thank god it was a simple fix!

Here’s the wiring in the boot.

And the sender end with the bodge fixed self made connector.

Ill see if I can find something better to do it properly later but for now this works fine.

Heres the dead earth wire and old connector’s. I’m surprised how rotten the end of that wire had become. Old age and damp I guess.

 

With that sorted, I checked the other electrical bits on the back of the car and discovered the number plate lights both don’t work.   
Took the covers off and found a similar problem. Bad earth. These just earth via the metal bulb holder pushing against the body of the car, but obviously won’t work if there’s paint all over that join, so I’ve simply cleaned a patch of paint off and screwed the covers back on tight. Which fixed that problem too.

For what it’s worth as they really don’t put out much light!

 

Tick off two more faults from the list! 
Tomorrow I’ll do what I was supposed to do today and do the two wing shield badges!

[danthecapriman]

Another day spent!

Finished fitting the badges, without being distracted by other things.

Same as the ones on the tailgate, removed the pins and used trim tape. 
I had to line these up by eye, as there’s not really much there to measure against. Just used the Ford brochure pictures to get it where it looked it should go, then stuck it on as straight as I could. 

Did a few other bits and pieces around the car. 
Checked the alternator was charging properly, sometimes after you rebuild everything and paint it all the paint stops a good clean return path. No problem here though, voltage is well up under load and without.  
Had a fiddle with the choke - that seems to have started sticking on. I think it’s the cable which is the original part and is now well past it’s best so I’ll get a new one. 
Then since it was a lovely warm sunny day what better to do than lay under the car spraying cavity wax into the front chassis legs!? 
Not my favourite of jobs to be honest, but one that is definitely necessary. I’ve used a lance to fill the inside of both the chassis legs from the bulkhead forward (all the others are already done). Loads of little drips coming out from seems etc so it’s done the job. Then went over certain bits with the clear wax just to be sure. Mostly just places that are potentially rust prone but visible. I think this job is now finished though! Obviously I’ll top up the wax every now and then over the coming years.

Still got to adjust the clutch - easy!   
There’s a few screw/bolt heads etc that need touching up in black paint, just to finish them off nicely.   
I’ll give it a much needed wash now the wax is all on and weather strips are on.

But it’s now getting to the stage where there’s not much to actually ‘do’ to it!

[Wibble]

Looks amazing, just needs the wheels finishing 😉

[danthecapriman]

3 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Looks amazing, just needs the wheels finishing 😉

Oh yes. That. Haven’t decided how best to tackle the black bits yet! That’s a job I’m not looking forward to!

[Wibble]

Ha, sorry! I know you can buy stickers for the black bits because that’s what mine have😁. They look ok and aren’t peeling off, yet!

[danthecapriman]

2 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Ha, sorry! I know you can buy stickers for the black bits because that’s what mine have😁. They look ok and aren’t peeling off, yet!

That probably the way I’ll do these. I did wonder how well they’d last but if yours are still ok then maybe it’s not worth worrying about. Are they easy to put on? I guess they’re just vinyl type stickers?

[Wibble]

Yep, vinyl and no one has noticed! They were done by the previous owner but I’m sure I’ve seen them on the bay. They’ve been on a few years now so I reckon they’re ok but someone will probably disagree🙂

[danthecapriman]

3 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Yep, vinyl and no one has noticed! They were done by the previous owner but I’m sure I’ve seen them on the bay. They’ve been on a few years now so I reckon they’re ok but someone will probably disagree🙂

Well they’ll do me I reckon. The alternative is to paint them and I don’t think I’ve got the sanity to sit there and do that on all five wheels.🤪

[Wibble]

Me neither😆

[danthecapriman]

I’ve been doing other things recently (pointing the back wall of the house in the blazing heat!) so not had much time on this.

since all the sealing up and corrosion waxing is now done I decided to give the old thing a bath for the first time in years! 

It’s been covered in dust, cobwebs and a surprising amount of yellow pollen dust for ages so it’s nice to lift all that off. There were a few patches of something on it too that had dripped off the garage roof, possibly sap from one of the timber beams. 
All I’ve done here is a basic wash. Rinse off with a hose then a soft sponge and hot water/car shampoo and it took pretty much all of it straight off. There’s one tiny faint patch of the sap stuff left but I think another wash or maybe a light polish will see that gone.  
So nice to see it so clean now, but the last time I did wash it was about 2016, and washing certain areas would result in a shower of rust flakes! Doesn’t happen now!

The paint is fantastic! Definitely shows what a time served pro can do imho. To touch it’s like glass, and there’s no orange peel or anything like that in it anywhere. Really is a tribute to the guy that did it and it beats the previous paint job hands down!

Theres actually surprisingly little left to do on this now. Nothing major anyway, so I can now use it and do any remaining little bits at my leisure or over winter (how nice it is to say that!). Still need to arrange to get my local garage to do the tracking but I’ll arrange that next week.

Quick question - does anyone know if the carburettor on these is supposed to have a return spring on the choke mechanism somewhere? To pull the choke off fully? 
Looking at mine, if you pull the choke cable it works fine to put choke on, but to take it off as it warms up the cable and mechanism on the carb don’t seem to fully allow the butterfly to open up properly. 
Everything seems free and not sticky but I’m just wondering if there’s supposed to be a little spring somewhere to help pull the mechanism back fully.

[danthecapriman]

Spent the morning doing some odd bits on this. It’s getting harder and harder to find things to do now!😆

First job was to fit a chrome trim to the tailpipe. I’d been looking at it with just the silver painted exhaust tailpipe and thinking it looked a bit pants like that, so found a nice old looking non chav type one. 45mm diameter. 
It fitted half way over the tailpipe but then became very hard to push on any further as there’s slight bends in the original tailpipe. Resorted to battering it fully home with the palm of my hand in the end which did the trick. It’s not coming off easily though! 
Looks a bit neater than it did before.

 

Other jobs were less glamorous! 
Jacked up the back end, bled off a bit of brake fluid - no air came out so must be ok. 
While I was under there decided to check my rear end! Good thing I did too as the oil was low. Weirdly. I’d filled the diff up with new oil earlier in the rebuild but somehow the level had dropped a fair bit. No leaks either, so I can only think where the diff had sat empty for a few years all the old oil had drained from the inside and axle tubes etc. I must have refilled it then where I’ve been driving it the new oil has refilled all the little voids and gaps everywhere and that’s why? It’s topped up to the max now though so I’ll keep an eye on that and check it again after some miles start going on it.  
Disturbed by this, I decided to check the gearbox oil too - exactly the same! So I’ve topped that up too.  
Clutch was nearby so I’ve readjusted that. The pedal seems to feel better but it’s still sitting a bit high. Maybe it’s always been like that. It works and feels fine though but might need readjustment after a bit of use/stretching it in.

Checked how the plugs looked too, whipped them out and they all looked a bit on the sooty side so I’ve spent a while warming the engine up then adjusting the mixture a bit at a time to lean it out a touch. I’m not sure how accurate it actually is as I don’t have a gas analyser but it seems to run happily enough and it revs cleanly, doesn’t smoke at all so I’ll leave it at that and maybe get the guys at the garage to fine tune it when they do the tracking.

Just need to sort that now then get it out for some shake down runs! (Hopefully not break down runs!!)

[sierraman]

That last shot could easily be from one of those late seventies car DIY instructional books! 

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

That last shot could easily be from one of those late seventies car DIY instructional books! 

Now you say that I can see it too! 
I’ve got loads of those in binders somewhere. I bet there’s some Capri’s in them, as well as all sorts of other chod! I’ll have a look for them tomorrow.

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, danthecapriman said:

Now you say that I can see it too! 
I’ve got loads of those in binders somewhere. I bet there’s some Capri’s in them, as well as all sorts of other chod! I’ll have a look for them tomorrow.

Or the AA Book of the Car. Fantastic piece of publishing, in fact it should be the pre coursework for joining on here.  Shows you how to fill the sills of an S-Type Jaguar with chicken wire, expanding foam and some P38. 

[High Jetter]

9 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Shows you how to fill the sills of an S-Type Jaguar with chicken wire, expanding foam and some P38. 

Are you suggesting that's perhaps not the best method?

[sierraman]

8 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Are you suggesting that's perhaps not the best method?

It’s what I would do. In one of the ‘On the Road’ books they suggest the use of some stuff called Isovoss, I’ve never heard of it but it sounds like the sort of stuff that if you inhaled it or got it on your skin would result in at the very least an amputation. I have no doubt a tin will live on somewhere in some old giffers garage for ‘special jobs’ that require a product at least as dangerous as polonium. 

[Wibble]

It just keeps getting better and better Dan! I like the chrome  tail pipe. I’ve had one on the shelf for the last 30 years and tried it in the Cortina last weekend. Doesn’t fit, too small, which probably explains why I’ve had it since I last had a Cortina!

I have the AA book of the car somewhere too😂

[danthecapriman]

28 minutes ago, sierraman said:

It’s what I would do. In one of the ‘On the Road’ books they suggest the use of some stuff called Isovoss, I’ve never heard of it but it sounds like the sort of stuff that if you inhaled it or got it on your skin would result in at the very least an amputation. I have no doubt a tin will live on somewhere in some old giffers garage for ‘special jobs’ that require a product at least as dangerous as polonium. 

That’s one of the binder sets I’ve got, ‘on the road’, there’s another one set too but I can’t remember what it’s called. But both are very much of their time! Instructions on how to fill rust holes and stuff like that! 
I’ve never heard of Isovoss, but I’ve ‘filled’ the sill end on an old Toyota Corolla with chemical metal, made a shape former from cardboard and lollipop sticks, then mix up the gloop and pour it in! Wait a day then peel off the former, quick sand down to shape it nicely and paint it. You could honestly not tell it wasn’t metal. Of course after a few years the rust would just get bigger under it and it’d fall out but the car had no longer than that left in it anyway. It actually went to Africa about a year later for parts!