Project My capri laser project

[fordperv]

Right folks its about time i introduce you all to my capri project thats been sat at my mums for a few years, ive had this car since 2008 as all of you will remember this was before they became subject to omgoldfordtax

 

 

 

I loved driving this car looking down that long bonnet

 

 

 

 

it was my daily car up until 4 years ago when i had an unfortunate accident, a roundabout was covered in diesel, i went around and understeered and hit a railing, there was nothing i could do

 

 

 

The accident crumpled the inner wing, headlamp bowl, wing, valance, bumper, it bent the steering arm, buggered the rack and arb mount, a good mate popped up and we heated the headlamp bowl and pulled it straighter with a chain and pulley on a telegraph pole, another mate whose a breaker raided his parts for replacements for me and i got it looking like a car again so i could drive it, my insurance cat c the car but i wasnt too fussed, i drove it up until the m.o.t ran out then parked it up at my mums to work on as i had no space, i started collecting as many new parts as i could for it, i even bought another to break in my neighbours drive which i cut the inner wing out of as a repair section, the only downfall is mum works nights so i cant start tin bashing in the day, so i mainly did mechanical things, she used to get no end of people door knocking to buy it, a week ago I decided to make some space and actually fire into it, so i popped up put a battery on and she fired into life, the brakess were still free, it's like it was just waiting to be saved

 

 

 

I then proceeded to strip it down, Look at the twist in that headlamp bowl

 

 

 

surgery begins

 

 

 

I also had to do a rust repair to the inner wing and the strengthener but havnt got a picture

 

 

 

Bring in the replacement

 

 

Grafted in

 

 

You notice the wing rail is rotten but before i could replace that i had to repair a common rot spot, i replicated all 3 skins as i wanted it to be spot on

 

 

 

Then it was time for the wing rail

 

 

The rust marks you can see in the pictures on the crossmember etc are literally that, a tickle with the flap disk and its clean steel

 

 

We're pretty much up to date with the repairs, i'll update when i can, when everything is done metalwork wise, im going to be doing an engine conversion to give it a little more go

[Essex V6]

Snap - my 2.0S after I "modified" it on a road rally...

[Springer]

I'm always impressed by some of the skillz on here.

 

Keep up the good work.

[Essex V6]

Snap - my 2.0S after I "modified" it on a road rally...

[Springer]

Snap - my 2.0S after I "modified" it on a road rally...IMG_1761.JPG

Richmond Street???

[Essex V6]

Sorry - doubler!

[Tamworthbay]

Looking good! I really must start a thread about mine as well sometime.

[Essex V6]

Richmond Street???

Yip - just off Rosemount Road

[danthecapriman]

Looking forward to see more on this, it should provide inspiration for me over the coming months.

It looks a good solid car too, apart from the unfortunate crash damage that is! It looks way more solid and original than mine does.

 

What is it, 1.6 or 2.0? What you planning for the engine?

 

Also, I don't know if you need to or not but what are your front sill ends like? The bit in the inner wing/A post area I mean. I've got a pair of new ones if you want them?

I bought them for mine but it turned out they were a bit inadequate for mine given the whole A post was shot too so I had the whole lot replaced with Ex-pressed panels complete A posts, leaving these small repair panels spare.

[Springer]

Yip - just off Rosemount Road

Haha, that'll be 'Place'.  Thought it looked familiar.......think the wee shop is long gone though.

[fordperv]

Looking forward to see more on this, it should provide inspiration for me over the coming months.

It looks a good solid car too, apart from the unfortunate crash damage that is! It looks way more solid and original than mine does.

 

What is it, 1.6 or 2.0? What you planning for the engine?

 

Also, I don't know if you need to or not but what are your front sill ends like? The bit in the inner wing/A post area I mean. I've got a pair of new ones if you want them?

I bought them for mine but it turned out they were a bit inadequate for mine given the whole A post was shot too so I had the whole lot replaced with Ex-pressed panels complete A posts, leaving these small repair panels spare.

This car is pretty solid as they go to be fair, i peeled the carpets back and its still nice under there so it's mainly cosmetics, originally it was a 1.6 but i popped a 2.0 in there, i am putting a C20XE in for a bit of a giggle, im going to run it on it's original injection, it will probably upset the purists but im not doing anything thats not reversable, ive got everything now for the conversion except a clutch and exhaust manifold, i havnt dug at the sill end yet but it will no doubt have some grot in them they all do, what do you want for them? Drop me a pm if you want

[Bren]

The pinto engoned cars do have a certain charm that the others don't have.

[overrun]

Cool. You do love a blue oval! Do you ever buy or own anything else? I'm not hating, I do like a nice mk3 Capri.

Wanna buy another S2 RST for the fleet?

 

Inner wing repair looks familiar lol Mine had already been kicked in the face before I bought it, though!

 

 

Crack on, fella. I know it's in good hands! (Your 3dr base and missus' S2 look great in the pic, too - who's is the other Capri?.)

[fordperv]

That's my laser on the pic when i bought it around on the front, mrs fp ran upstairs and took the picture, i have owned other marques, in the past ive had an e30 2 door, a 3 door r8 214si, r8 414si, 4 5 door r8 214si, 3 door mk2 golf 1.8 driver, manta Berlinetta hatch, a 1990 2.6 Isuzu trooper, a 1275 metro, but i do love my fords

[Zantimisfit]

Funny the subject of Capri Lasers should come up. By staggering and highly unlikely coincidence, I saw this at the weekend......

 

 

"Its ages since I saw a Capri" is what I thought to myself before carrying on my shopping with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart

[Tamworthbay]

Two of the three side bump strips on a laser, odd one that. They do look nice in black.

[danthecapriman]

My mate had a D reg 2.0 Laser, had the twin choke on it and it went like stink! We took my mk2 1.6 and his Laser out a few times in convoy and his one used to leave mine in its dust.

It was a nice dark blue colour and had one elderly owner from new, it was a lovely solid car and the interior was immaculate. Sadly he didn't look after it all that well and the rot soon started setting in.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

2 litre with a 270 cam and a 1600 axle - flieing mashine m8.

[fordperv]

A couple of hours to kill earlier so decided to do a bit on this, i made 1 or 2 small holes on the a pillar behind the wing so cut the area out

 

 

The inner structure cleaned up nice, most of the area i removed was shiney steel but there was a rust peppering

 

 

A bit of hot metal glue

 

 

Welds flapped back a bit and primered, i havnt flushed them properly, this will get done at the prep and paint stage

 

 

I also let a patch in just under the scuttle but it was that small its nothing to write home about, next up the bulge at the front of the sill, i hit it a few times with a hammer and made a hole but im in no way surprised, the kind offer of the repair panels from danthecapriman is a godsend, i am surprised at how good the regular capri rot spots are though I expected to weld much more

[danthecapriman]

Nice job there, very nice welding too.

 

I've dug those two sill ends out of the shed. I'll get them to you Monday all being well. Glad they are of use to you!

[Steviemillar]

Snap - my 2.0S after I "modified" it on a road rally...IMG_1761.JPG

I was the next custodian of this capri - the broken headlights were replaced and I ran it to work for around 3-4 months as you see it there. The bent bits certainly made folks think twice about pulling out in front of you!

[stripped fred]

I wish I had your repair skills. Will enjoy reading how this comes along.

[Essex V6]

My mate had a D reg 2.0 Laser, had the twin choke on it and it went like stink! We took my mk2 1.6 and his Laser out a few times in convoy and his one used to leave mine in its dust.

It was a nice dark blue colour and had one elderly owner from new, it was a lovely solid car and the interior was immaculate. Sadly he didn't look after it all that well and the rot soon started setting in.

I used to have a Laser with a 205 block bored out to 2.1 - man that was fleet. My current Essex would have been eating its dust. Had a seriously loud exhaust with no silencer. Sold it to a boy from the Emerald Isles - his ears would have been bleeding by the time he got home!

[fordperv]

Well it was dry today so i decided to fire into another couple of jobs on the front panel, both ends where it meets the wings were rotten

 

 

Repair section

 

 

Welded in

 

2 patches were required lower down as well, ive got to trim the length of the repaired parts at the top as well

 

 

Whilst I was doing this mrs fp popped out with a parcel for me, it was the sill end repair panels from danthecapriman (thanks alot bud) so i proceeded to do the passengers side to complete the repairs there

 

 

I cleaned up and sorted the rest when i had took the picture

 

Repair patch i made up for the edge

 

 

All done, i may have to cut the lower lip off a little but that can come when i fit the wing and ill grind the welds down another day

 

[fordperv]

Well today's job was to remove the rest of the old slam panel sort the fitment of the wing and trial fit the panels, the wings i am using are pattern because this is not a money no object build, im simply making a tidy usable car they are old pattern not this new Shoite they are selling now, I had to hammer and dolly the back edge where it fits to the scuttle to close up the gap at the top edge of the door and the edge at the bottom by the door gap to bring it in line, as with any great magician i utilised my glamourous assistant (mrs fp) to help me put the replacement bonnet on and to get the gap right to the drivers wing that hasn't been disturbed so I know it's true, then proceeded to offer the front panel up, get the gap for the wing then drill and bolt it in place, im quite chuffed with the results

 

 

I'll have to do a little dollying around the headlamp aperture to make it as perfect as i can, im around 50 hours in on it now which I don't think is bad going

[paulscavalier]

That's pretty damn good , those panels look spot on

[danthecapriman]

Superb work so far, looks really straight and solid now!

[0ldCh0d]

Nice welding & nice capri. I wish I could weld, but I would be more likely to electrocute myself or cause a fire....

[purplebargeken]

Bloody nice work. Miss my Mk2 1.6GL in JRG

[fordperv]

While the forum was down i added a strengthener from inner wing to strut turret the same as were fitted to v6 shells, it was roughly the right shape but required dollying to get the correct shape you can see the difference here

 

 

All fitted

 

 

Today when I had finished at the gym the rain had stopped so I cracked on removing the drivers wing, I had no nasty surprises under there, in fact it was better than I expected

 

 

I sprayed a little primer to protect bare areas id made, it rained shortly after this picture so got to wait for the next dry opportunity