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

[Amishtat]

On the road this summer? Not far to go in the grand scheme of things. 

[danthecapriman]

2 hours ago, Amishtat said:

On the road this summer? Not far to go in the grand scheme of things. 

That is the plan, yes! 
It’s pretty much done really, just assembling the doors, fitting some bits of trim, badges etc. There’s very few bits left in boxes so it must be close.

Ill definitely need to get someone to look at setting the tracking etc too before it goes far.

[danthecapriman]

On 6/14/2021 at 9:56 AM, danthecapriman said:

That is the plan, yes! 
It’s pretty much done really, just assembling the doors, fitting some bits of trim, badges etc. There’s very few bits left in boxes so it must be close.

Ill definitely need to get someone to look at setting the tracking etc too before it goes far.

Famous last words wasn’t it!? I’ll get it done for this summer… yeah bollocks!

Its not done! It’s sat exactly where I left it how I left it after the last update. Tbh I had something else come up shortly after that but since then I just couldn’t find the interest or enthusiasm to touch it, so I didn’t.

This week’s weather is supposed to be ok though so I’m going to use it to get as much as possible done. Hopefully to break the back of it now. 
So, I’ve picked up where I left off and continued work on the drivers door. Last time I’d assembled some bits of it, sprayed in a quick blast of cavity wax around the very bottom of the frame and left it to soak in. 
Today I’ve attempted to finish this but as usual ran into a problem, which I’ll get to later. 
I started by hoovering out the cobwebs and dead flies from the inside of the door, then fitting all the door lock and latch rods. I’d actually already done the rod for between the interior handle and latch mechanism but it turned out to be fitted the wrong way round so I had to re-do it. 
With all those now in place (the rod for the interior door lock pin was an absolute cunt!) I went to fit the exterior chrome handle, which is where I ran into problem number 1.

Basically on offering up the handle it was clear that the the locating dowels/bolt holes on the back of the handle would not line up with the holes in the door itself. There was also an issue where the lock cylinder would fit tight against the hole in the door skin. All this meant the handle would not ever fit in the door skin.

You can see how misaligned things were here. 

 

The cause of this, boys and girls, is because of non genuine parts. 
Unfortunately, the drivers door skin I got for this car is a new pattern part. The door frame however is an original Ford part and you can see here the quality issue trying to line them up together. 
The skin itself looks absolutely fine, it’s just the holes for the handle misalign with the original frame, the hole for the lock cylinder is significantly too small and as a side note, the non genuine skins don’t have any factory made holes on top for the chrome trim retaining rivets (these are easy to drill, but still…).

The solution isn’t difficult but a bit of a pain, simply use a file to open out all the holes. After removing a little bit at a time until everything fitted as it should the next job was to protect the now bare steel edges where I’d filed it down, so a modelling brush was used to carefully touch in the edges with a couple of coats of Miami blue paint. 
Once dry the handle could be slid in, with its new rubber seal and bolted into place.

 

With that done I tried operating the latch and lock mechanism. Which completely failed to do anything! 
As per the passenger side, the mechanism was just gummed up and seized from sitting unused for so long so several blasts of penetrating spray and working through saw the latch mechanism working. However, problem number 2 was the lock mechanism was having non of it! It was jammed solid and wouldn’t work from the key in the lock or the manual interior pull. 
It actually took me hours to find what was wrong with it, which pissed me off no end. 
Turns out that because of the trouble I had with the door skin not being aligned, this actually meant that the handle itself was now not sitting in exactly the same place as it was originally. This caused the latch handles operating rod to be sitting too high up which forced the lock mechanism interlock to become stuck! Easy to fix once you work that out though. 
The two rods on the back of the handle have a hairpin bend in the middle of them, which I guess is how you adjust their lengths to fine tune them. In my case I needed the latch rod to be a gnat’s cock length longer, so simply putting a big flat blade of a screwdriver into the hairpin and twisting it slightly was enough to open the bend out a tad, making the rod slightly longer and allowing the mechanism interlock to work. The result? A working lock! Finally!

 

Next up was fitting the last few sheets of the sound deadening material, as per the other door. I’ve said it before, but the difference this stuff makes is incredible. The panels feel and sound so much more solid and heavy than without it. Infact, I reckon this car will be bulletproof with all this stuff lining the panels out! It’ll certainly weigh a good deal more!

After that I cleaned all the gunk and grease out of the mechanism and then gave the inside of the door a second, heavier coating of cavity wax to finish that off.

 

Another job I need to sort is the fuel filler door. This is fitted but the bump stop for its closed position is missing. Turns out the bodyshop fucked up a bit! Unfortunately, not being familiar with Capri’s they’ve actually thought the metal tab that holds the rubber bump stop was a spare seam for the inside of the fuel cap area and they flatted it down and spot welded it down! So I now need to drill out their spot weld, bend the tab back up and find a rubber bung/grommet to fit as the bump stop. Shouldn’t be too hard but access is tight so I’ve ordered a right angle drill attachment to do it. Hopefully that’ll be a job for later this week.

 

 

[Datsuncog]

Great to see work with this is still progressing - every now and then an odd thought will pop into my mind about how it's coming on.

So many minor annoyances to contend with, but it's so close now - hard earned, but hopefully so satisfying once the last part clicks into place, the boxes of bits are empty, and you get to sink into the driver's seat and turn the key...

[danthecapriman]

Oh what a day!

Its fighting me every step of the way but it’s creeping forward bit by bit.

First thing to do was finish off the last dregs of cavity wax in a couple of cans I had lying around so I’ve just gone wild with it inside the doors! Then left them both open for a couple of hours to drip the excess into some old trays. Each door must have a full large can of Dynax S50 in them now so I’m considering them about as well protected as they can be! And it’s got rid of a few half used cans of wax.

Next up was to get the door check straps installed and the two courtesy light switches in the door shuts. 
The switches involved drilling a hole through the A post to fit them, something I wasn’t keen doing tbh but it’s got to be done! 
I googled a few photos of mk1 Capri’s (same type of switch this car should have, which I’ll explain later…) to get a good idea of positioning. It doesn’t matter too much really but ideally I wanted them to be about in the right place, both in the same place per side and they need to miss the framework inside the A post and let the wire reach the backs of them. 
If I’d remembered I’d have taken a photo of them before the car came apart but unfortunately I did not! 
I also did a practice run on a scrap of steel to gauge what sized hole worked best for the switches. If you go too big with the Mk1 type switch your fucked as the switch will just fall out! They simply stay in under tensioned metal tabs against the edge of the hole which also double up as the earth for the switch. 
Measuring up on the car, I used a flexible trimmers tape measure (to get in the space and shape, steel rulers etc wouldn’t fit!) then marked where I wanted the hole centre on a strip of masking tape. 
 

If, in the unlikely event anyone ever restores a Mk1 or early Mk2 on here again my measurements for them;

60mm lower than the bottom edge of the check strap slot. 
30mm out from the door seal attachment flange. 
11mm hole diameter.

I did look online but couldn’t find anything about what other people doing this did so that’s mine! 
Then pop a brave pill and I drilled a 2mm pilot hole in each side, followed up with the 11mm final hole. Best way to do this and get it neat is to use a step drill bit. For those that don’t know, these are cone shaped drills that get bigger in steps so you simply keep pushing the bit through until you hit the size step you want the final hole to be. They also leave a perfect smooth round hole unlike some normal drill bits! I’ve had mine years but recommend a set of them to anyone doing stuff like this. 
Normally I’d paint the edges of the holes but in this case I need them bare metal for the switches earth. I might pop out the switches again yet and put a bead of sealer around the rubber seal then pop them back in, just to make sure damp can’t get under it.

Heres the finished result.

After that I just stuck the new self adhesive check strap foam seals on, then pulled the strap into position and put new pins through. I also put a smear of grease onto the straps to let them slide and move freely. 
This one was easy. Drivers side check strap was a right twat and took me hours to actually get it to work properly. Not helped by the door now being full of fresh wax and the window frame being right in the way! 
Also had to cut off the switch wire connectors as they were the wrong type for these new remanufactured switches, then crimp on new ones. 
 

Here’s a comparison of new different switch types.

The round ones are Mk1 & early Mk2. The other one is later Mk2 & Mk3. Imho the later style switches are better parts and design, and I was going to use them instead but since I want my car ‘right’ I decided to go as original instead!

Now that’s done I can wax out both A posts inside and fit the A post kick panel trims. Then finish the carpet edges off and fit the door sill finisher trims. Question is, do I fit the grey plastic Mk3 trims or the stainless steel non OE ones Ive got???

 

[danthecapriman]

Not a whole lot done today but did manage to get something done that makes the car look more finished, and imho makes it look even cooler!

Firstly, it’s picked up some bullet holes!!

 

Oh yes, it’s time to fit the door mirrors!! 
This bit was a bit of a one shot deal, get it wrong and you’ll see the error! As usual, I could find no information anywhere about exactly where these needed to be fitted on the door so it was a case of find what pictures I could of the right style mirrors and cobble something together that looks right. 
There’s a variety of different types of mirrors that were fitted to these cars from the factory, depending on the cars age and specification. Believe it or not the earliest mk2’s actually had no set mirror type, some were even sent out with no mirrors at all or, like mine did, with a single extra cost mirror on the drivers door only. Then of course there’s a whole shed load of non genuine mirrors that people fitted too. 
When I got the car it had a non gen mirror on the drivers door (chrome TEX item). Then after it’s first rebuild I fitted a pair of standard late Mk2/Mk3 mirrors, the chrome version. These, while not being a bad choice weren’t right for the age of my car so I decided to hunt down the right ones. I mentioned this earlier in the thread somewhere, but my car being so early was almost certainly originally fitted with a mirror similar to some Mk1’s had. Despite looking similar it’s actually a new part for the Mk2 in 1974. However it seems this design was very short lived (from what I gather the ‘ball’ type position adjustment between stem & mirror head was prone to wear which meant the head would just flop down rendering the mirror useless unless you liked looking down at the road!) This design was only available from Jan 74 to Nov (I think) 74… nowadays this is a rare part! 
Naturally this was what I wanted as I just love making life difficult for myself! 
I looked for ages for a pair, and eventually got lucky finding a new old stock left hand one in Germany. Then shortly afterwards spotted a mis-described right hand one, also new old stock, here in the U.K. 
Since I’m aiming for reasonably close to factory looks for this car I should have only needed the drivers side one. But, I’m going for the pair as having both door mirrors will just A; be safer - better visibility. And B; I think having both looks better!

So, masking tape stuck to the door in roughly the right area I measured, offered up, measured, offered up… many many times to be absolutely sure! Then compared measurements from one side to the other just as confirmation. Then drilled a pilot hole through my lovely doors. This was followed up with the step drill bit through to a 6mm hole x 2 per side. 
After that, I cleaned up the swarf and painted the bare steel edges of the holes, first with primer, then a coat of blue, then finally I swabbed in a bit of thick Waxoyl just to be absolutely sure rust can’t start on the holes if any damp manages to creep in under the mirror stem seal. 
Here’s what I used to get approximate position from, a Ford press pic. 
 

 

I actually had someone hold my mirror in place then I jumped in the car to check I could see properly from each seat (before drilling the holes!) but I found I could see more by moving the mirror further forward up the door than Ford put them so I went with that. It’s barely noticeable tbh but I’d rather be able to see properly than worry about absolute mm perfection to original!

Fitting is easy once the holes are drilled, slide the stem seal on, push the two studs through the holes then stick your hand up inside the now freshly wax filled (!) door and do up the nut. They didn’t come with washers, but I did add a big penny washer and spring washer to each, just to be sure. I’ve also smeared grease over the studs/nuts to stop corrosion and then blasted wax over the backs of the holes inside the doors to protect the hole edges.
I’m well pleased with them! Exactly what I wanted, and quite an unusual item on these nowadays. I forgot to get a pic but standing back and looking at the car now it looks really nice with these on. They really set it off imho.

 

Now these are on I can fit exterior glass seals, chrome trims and also fit the interior door plastic membrane and door trim panels, arm rests etc. 
Right angle drill is due for delivery tomorrow so once that’s here I’ll do the fuel flap door stop, then fill the fuel tank up and run it up from its own tank! If I can get any fuel!

 

[danthecapriman]

Someone posted this pic of an early car with these mirrors way back in the thread, one of the cars that convinced me with the mirrors!

[danthecapriman]

Didn’t get any pics today (sorry!) but it was only boring stuff anyway.

Job 1 was to sort out the fuel door. This was fitted and working a while back, but the doors bump stop was missing which allowed the door to close too far causing it to look wank from outside but also made a paint on paint interface where it definitely shouldn’t. Looking at it revealed a bit of an error by the bodyshop. 
They’d wrongly assumed the bump stops metal tab to be a seam for between the outer rear quarter panel and the bowl the fuel cap sits in, and they spot welded it down! I think it was an honest mistake, possibly because of unfamiliarity with this type of car and I don’t hold it against them at all tbh. One of those things. 
I thought I could fix it by drilling out the spot weld then bending the tab back up and popping a rubber bung in the hole but after drilling the spot weld out it had been done with a mig welder so the weld was actually huge and not round so the spot weld drill couldn’t do the job unfortunately. 
So instead I carefully used a cutting disc in a dremmel and sliced the old tab off completely then ground off the remaining blobs of weld to leave a flat smooth surface. This wasn’t easy as it’s inside the fuel cap recess so space was at a premium. This was why I didn’t want to put petrol in the tank yet! Not a place you want sparks flying around! 
With the old tab gone I simply made a cardboard template for a replacement, then transferred that to a bit of old steel sheet I had laying around. Drilled a hole for the bump stop rubber, etch primed and painted it blue. I did this yesterday and left it to dry overnight.
This morning I fitted it into place. It’s not welded in. I decided welding it was more trouble than it was worth tbh. Given there’s no weight on this tiny part and minimal pressure on it (all it does is hold the door in line with the rear wing when closed and stops it closing too far) I decided to mix up a bit of epoxy metal adhesive and glue it with that. Then once it was in place I drilled two holes through it and the panel it attached to and put a couple of pop rivets in to hold it. It’s absolutely rock solid now and you can’t see the back of the tab or the rivets when the doors open or closed so I’ll put a bit of seam sealer over the joins to keep moisture out then touch in the paint. 
It works a treat now, very solid and the door closes into the perfect position with the rear wing.

 

Job 2 was to fill up and bleed the brake system. I thought I’d done this already tbh, but clearly not. I’ve filled up with standard Dot 4 fluid and bled it up. No leaks anywhere so all good! Took a while to get the air out but to be expected on a bone dry new system I suppose. They work now too! I rolled the car down the drive and pushed the pedal and it stopped well enough. Might give them another bleed before hitting the road though just to be sure.

While the wheels were off I also gave all four wheel arch bowls/inner wings a second coat of clear UB wax so they should be well protected now.

 

Not a thrilling update, but one step closer!

[Low Horatio gearbox]

Fantastic work... 5 days I've been reading this to get here. Glad to see it coming together so nicely especially as said a base spec -they never get saved.

[danthecapriman]

Not had a great deal of time on this lately, had something else on the go so my minds been on that.

I have however checked the brake system since filling and bleeding it a while ago. I was paranoid about it leaking somewhere and getting brake fluid on the paintwork under the bonnet or somewhere! Just as well I checked it too because it has leaked! 
Fortunately not onto any paint. But the level was a bit low in the reservoir bottle and having a quick look underneath showed a tiny puddle under one rear wheel. A closer look revealed the union between the new brake pipe and wheel cylinder was a bit loose. So far since tightening it up (and double checking all the others) there’s no further leaks. Topped up the reservoir and all seems well now. 
 

Today, I’ve been out and picked up a couple of essentials for my next task. 
Firstly was a bottle of new engine oil. The engine has oil in it now obviously, but it’s been sat in there a couple of years now while it’s been inactive just to stop anything rusting inside etc. So I’m going to drain that out and put new in ready to run the engine up properly. The filter that’s already on it should be fine. 
Second item was a gerry can full of Esso’s finest Supreme ethanol free unleaded. Which means I can now use it to fill the tank and fire up the car using the reinstalled tank, new lines etc and run it up to temperature. Should also prove any leaks in the system, which I’m hoping there won’t be any! 
It has been started a while back from a small temporary tank but it didn’t have an exhaust fitted then so I couldn’t run it for long. Now it’s pretty much ready so there shouldn’t be any issues. It’ll also give me an opportunity to bleed the cooling system when it’s running.  
In theory I should be able to move it up and down the driveway too under its own steam!
 

Not sure when I’ll get to actually do this but sometime soon hopefully.

[Shirley Knott]

Wagwan here @danthecapriman? Nearly for months sans updates...

Is all well in Capri land? Will this be the summer it all happens for you and the car sees the road?

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, Shirley Knott said:

Wagwan here @danthecapriman? Nearly for months sans updates...

Is all well in Capri land? Will this be the summer it all happens for you and the car sees the road?

I know I know! Not much done over winter I’m afraid. I can’t stand cold and wet weather so don’t tend to do much. Had a few other things going on too. 
 

Spring has sprung now though and I’ve got a can of fresh petrol sat here with the Crapi’s name on it!! Watch this space…

[danthecapriman]

3 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Spring has sprung now though and I’ve got a can of fresh petrol sat here with the Crapi’s name on it!! Watch this space…

Not that you’d know it was spring of course, it’s been snowing and sleeting on and off the last couple of days and it’s freezing out there now!

[danthecapriman]

Stuff’s been happening here, not all went to plan but it’s golden now!

So, I decided earlier this month to get the thing started and running properly, on its own from its own fuel tank. The exhaust, fuel tank & lines etc etc were all fitted last year so it was really just a case of get some petrol and pour it in, then see what happened.

I got a big Gerry can (is it Gerry or Jerry??) of super unleaded, mixed in a dose of Tetraethyl lead which according to the can made my petrol something like 101 octane! Good shit! 
Poured half the can into the tank, just did half in case anything did leak! No leaks from the tank or pipes so all good there, so dumped the rest of the can in. 
Then it was time to check oil, water etc - all good, I did pour some fresh oil over the cam just so it wasn’t starting dry too. 
Cranking it over took ages to even get fuel into the fuel filter! It actually drained the battery. I should have probably primed the system by filling the filter with fuel or squirting some petrol down the carb, but never mind! 
with the battery charged up trying again resulted in it firing up pretty easy! It was a little rough to begin with, stank of fuel and did not want to rev either. Then a problem…

As you would, I kept a close eye on the temperature gauge, just in case. Unfortunately it climbed up past half way and started heading for the red. I shut it off after that and left it to cool off. 
A bit of poking around later I’d concluded it was a simple case of the thermostat not working. So a new one was ordered up.

In the meantime, since the battery was hooked up I tested most of the electrical stuff for functionality. The heater fan didn’t want to play ball, I think it was dirty contacts in the switch as repeatedly switching it on and off eventually got it going, on both speeds! A few other bits and bobs needed fettling too but so far it’s a full house, with one exception….  
The sodding fuel gauge isn’t working! I’ve checked the wires, which seem ok. Checked the float sender and cleaned the contacts which made no difference. Shorted the wires at the sender to earth which did nothing either. Then connected my spare sender and moved the float up and down by hand - still nothing! So I think there’s something wrong at the gauge end. More investigation required. Any other ideas??

Anyway, the new thermostat arrived. However, looking into the radiator top tank the coolant looked a bit cloudy. Weird. 
Removing the thermostat housing revealed why the thermostat wasn’t working. Basically it was plugged solid with gunge!! No idea wtf it was but it looked very much like limescale or that limey gunge you get building up in washing machines! It had all gunged up in the thermostat and was pretty much glueing it shut. 
I’ve cleaned it all out, then used hot water to flush out the entire system and block. Lots more did come out. Then I rebuilt the system without the thermostat in and filled with water only, then ran it up again. Once it was hot, I drained the system out fully, which looked much better. 
no idea what happened there or why? Only things I can think of are maybe the new radiator had something inside it like grease or flux or something from the new core being soldered together and that reacted with the coolant? 
Or maybe there was lots of old limescale and crud in the block that had dried out over the years of inactivity and now it’s full of liquid again and being used it’s become dislodged and got stuck in the thermostat?? Who knows!

I did notice too the old gunged up thermostat was an 88 degree one, but my new one I got the 83 degree one, just to keep things cooler. I might test the old one in a pan of boiling water and see if it does work, it was new only a few years ago!

 

so the result…

[danthecapriman]

Video seems to work! No idea what the black box is below it though?

It started up easily, it’s on choke in the video so was running a bit fast. This time it gulped down the coolant pretty quick so needed topping up (it didn’t do that last time) and the temperature gauge rose to just below half and stayed there. The heater is hot, the hoses all got hot and the radiator got hot too after the thermostat opened so I’m calling it fixed. 
Luckily I had a new spare housing gasket and a new spare rubber O ring for inside. Whatever the gunge was it’d made the old rubber ring go all lumpy and weird! Very strange.
 

One good thing though, the heater is incredible now! It’s never been so good! Honestly, it’s a rival for my Volvo now it’s that good. So my bodge fix of fitting a mk3 heater matrix into the mk1 casing seems to be a good one.

Its running much nicer now too, sounds great, doesn’t stink of petrol and it can be revved without any hesitation. No smoke out back either!

[danthecapriman]

I didn’t get a video of it but I decided it was so good I’d jump in and drive it up and down the driveway. Which it did with no issues at all. Granted, I’ve only used 1st and reverse but that’s the first time it’s been driven nearly six years! 
There’s still a few things to do and bits to check & sort but there always will be with a project like this. 
I also checked the alternator was charging, since everything has been painted and reassembled sometimes the paint stops the circuit being complete, but no problems there either. 
 

Next jobs. 
I might pull the starter motor out and clean/lube it inside as it seems slightly lazy to engage and disengage. 
I’ll check the coolant again after it’s cooled down, and I also want to change the engine oil. The oil in it is clean, but it’s been in there a few years now just sitting so I’ll run it up to warm it, then change it for fresh. Probably won’t bother with changing the filter as it’s not been used hardly itself.

[mitsisigma01]

Video not working at my end 😕

[mat_the_cat]

Not working for me either - when I click on the attachment it goes to a page saying "Sorry! We could not locate the item you are trying to view" but weirdly, if I click the back button, the video appears embedded in the post for a split second, then goes back to just showing an attachment!

But either way, great news Dan!

[danthecapriman]

Hmm, strange. No idea why it won’t work? It looks and works fine for me. It’s uploaded the same way as I usually do pics. I’m not exactly good with stuff like this though unfortunately!

[danthecapriman]

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! 

 

[Spottedlaurel]

Great to see it progressing Dan, and so nearly finished.

[danthecapriman]

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!  

 

    

 

[danthecapriman]

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

 

[Noel Tidybeard]

well it's about feckin time! 🤣🤣🤣

[ETCHY]

Great job, well done.

There's something about early 1970's car interiors that i just think is cool.

[mat_the_cat]

9 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

few things are as cool as 70’s black interiors

Bet you won't be saying that the first time you get in after it's been parked in the sun for a few hours 

[danthecapriman]

58 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

Bet you won't be saying that the first time you get in after it's been parked in the sun for a few hours 

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!

[danthecapriman]

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!

[Wibble]

This is so good, thank you! Being stuck in a premier inn this really helps with entertainment 😁

[Datsuncog]

Great news! Can't wait to see this gracing the Queen's Highway once again...