Wobstang II

[eddyramrod]

That's the Shite spirit

[PhilA]

Looking mighty shiny right there.

 

It's worth the effort in the end (or so they tell me!)

 

 

Phil

[JeeExEll]

Aah, that carpet's much worse than expected Jo, not worth wasting time over refitting it. If necessary run the car with newly painted floor (temporarily) for the 'stripped out V8 doorslammer experience'? (It will be a bit cold tho !). Then you'll appreciate the new carpet and sound-deadening even more once they get fitted.

 

Impressive plastic-welding skilz, you've saved that ruined dash.

[Guest Hooli]

Was the plastic welding hard to get the hang of? it's always looked like it would be to me.

[danthecapriman]

Great work Jo, your dash repair is most impressive! I don’t reckon it’ll be getting broken again any time soon with all that beefing up.

 

Shame about your carpets, I guess the California sun has done for that after over 40 years.

My original Capri carpets were much the same and that’s without a California sun rotting them! It just disintegrated when removed. New carpet time.

[PhilA]

Sound deadening works more for high speed running, it mostly mutes the roaring sounds of the air going past bolts and suspension and floor plan and stuff

 

Best of luck finding why the dash won't go in, it's probably one bolt 1/4" out of true or something nonsensical. Typically it'll be one that's an arse to get to.

 

Door cards can be rebuilt with new cards and foam but fix the source of the water ingress first.

 

Cali sun and the dry will wreck anything plastic. Probably best not to ask what was in the carpet. Template and bin...

 

 

Phil

[danthecapriman]

Just discovered theres nothing left of the door card on the drivers side either from the armrest down

Its seperated from the vinyl the vinyl itself is still intact theres just no hardboard backing

Though im hoping they can be taken apart and re-boarded?

In all fairness if your's were anything like mine they stank to high heaven! now the car is stripped back it smells so much better in there

If your vinyl is ok on the door cards you should be able to re-back them in ply. That’s what my trimmer did on my Capri ones.

The vinyl was ok but the foam and hardboard behind had all rotted away leaving the vinyl hanging there on its own!

To fix it he carefully stripped the remaining hardboard from the vinyl, cut a new ply back board and replaced the foam then stick the old vinyl back on top. Any splits in the vinyl can be fixed by gluing a strip of similar colour vinyl under the split and smoothing the join out as the glue sets.

However, if like my Capri ones did, you have a shaped moulding on the top of the door card (where it rolls over where the door window is) then you need to cut off and reuse this bit. You can’t shape ply like that and even hardboard will be difficult to shape like that at home. On mine they cut the curved tops off the old cards and glued and riveted them onto the new ply bottoms. It’s about all you can do unless you buy fully new door cards or want to start pissing about with fibreglass or shaping aluminium etc etc!

 

 

These are my new Capri ones. You can see the new flat ply and the original hardboard tops that are curved. New foam was laid on then the original vinyl went on top.

[vulgalour]

That's an impressive repair on the dashboard, top work.

 

For the carpet, to eke a little more life out of it, try brushing a coat of thinned down PVA (50/50 with water for the first coat) over the whole back of it, then a couple more less diluted coats at about 60/40 and then 20/80.  It won't fix it, but it should stabilise the fibres and prevent it degrading further while still allowing the carpet to be flexible.  Ideally you need to clean it before the glue on the back so you'll have to do that very carefully, the cleaners will likely undo the PVA work.  It won't magically replace the missing bits or fix bigger tears, but it may make it a little easier to handle and fit and give you a bit more use out of it.  Sounds like the damage caused is just age and UV exposure, once that starts to happen there's not a great deal you can do to stop it.

[PhilA]

That looks like it was applied with a flame thrower.

 

Someone has put what looks like bedding sponge under my carpet...

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Yeah, it's part of the new carpet and interior re-trim the car has had. All very professional, just getting kinda tired now.

 

Shampoo machine beckons, definitely.

 

 

Phil

[Uncle Jimmy]

Fuck my boots that floor pan is clean innit? I shall post some pics of the Saab up before long, looks like someone was sick in there in 1974 and never cleaned up.

[PhilA]

Because America.

 

A number of battery positive wires in mine are originally black. Go figure.

 

The colors are there just to make the loom look pretty.

 

Phil

[eddyramrod]

That reminds me of Christine pulling into Darnell's at night!  Excellent!

[Mrs6C]

Looking good!

 

The thing that wouldn't go back in its hole... does it have a screw-on front bezel, so that you put the long cylinder in from behind (ooh-err Missus!) the dashboard and poke its threaded bit through the hole, then screw the front bezel onto that from your side of the dashboard?

 

Triumph Heralds have dashboard kit that mounts like that, such as the washer pump and ignition barrel...

[eddyramrod]

Oh bugger.  Hope it's a cheap fix!

[PhilA]

Does it move if you select 2 on the gearshift?

 

Phil

[PhilA]

The first/reverse band is shared, 2 is controlled by another band and can be manually engaged by selecting 2 (snow start), which bypasses the automatic valve body.

 

If it engages then likely the problem is with the valve body, something's jammed up. If it gives you neutral next place is to pull the band adjusters off and see if 2nd band is slack.. if it is, pop the bottom pan off to inspect.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Modulator would make it shift all screwy and kickdown will just make it hold gear, not disengage.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Odd, May be dirty valve block coupled with vacuum modulator. If it shifts to second by itself but harsh that's a moderately good sign.

 

 

Could be something as simple as a split pipe or broken diaphragm.

 

Phil

[danthecapriman]

It works if you select 2 but wont shift past 1 when in D

I had wondered about disconnecting the Kickdown asthats really for downshift and as it wont shift up it may do if its not connected? Ive heard some take them off completely

It won’t do any harm to try that. Tbh cars with big engines like this don’t really need kick down anyway as they’ve got the balls to accelerate without it quick enough. Mine was driving around for years without any kick down linkage and you didn’t really miss it!

[PhilA]

Apparently if the modulator fails it'll suck ATF through the diaphragm. Pulling the pipe off it will show if it's leaking or not. If not, verify the tube connecting it to the manifold is not split/broken/perished.

 

Phil

[Uncle Jimmy]

Good! Bruno wet the bed yesterday for similar reasons- somewhere there is a vacuum pipe not sealing correctly. This evening fine.

[danthecapriman]

Glad your auto box woes are sorted Jo! That could’ve been worse!!

 

My Capri used to get exhaust into the cabin years ago when I first got it but only because of a non existent back box and loads of rust holes in the rear floors! It was quite funny really watching all the smoke flowing in through the holes.

I’m sure that’s not your issue with Shitey though.

 

Can you find roughly where the gas is getting in? Front or rear? Could it be leaking manifold gaskets?

[PhilA]

Add to this my door and boot seals are knackered

My bet being wonky airflow through the car because of this. Area of high pressure just below the rear window and behind the rear lights will draw air in, the low pressure of high speed air past the doors will draw it through.

[cort1977]

Agreed, had similar symptoms with a missing boot seal in the past.  Not nice but an easy fix.

[PhilA]

Were Ford on 3-way cats by 75 or are they still the old 2 way ones with air pump?

 

If they're 2 way ones and the air pump is gone, first they won't be working and 2 they'll be shot anyway from running without the air pump.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Oh, those will be three-ways then.

 

And yes. A piece of pipe would suffice.

 

 

Phil

[Guest Hooli]

It won’t do any harm to try that. Tbh cars with big engines like this don’t really need kick down anyway as they’ve got the balls to accelerate without it quick enough. Mine was driving around for years without any kick down linkage and you didn’t really miss it!

 

 

I'd check if the box minds before doing it. I know the autoboxes in RRs don't like it as the kickdown linkage also increases the oil pressure as the speed rises to lubricate the box properly.

[Sir Snipes]

Sounds like you still need your wheels balancing but maybe try a different garage so it's no on the same machine.

[danthecapriman]

Well that was a bit of a shock it looks like the heatshields fron the cats have been bent around just strait pipe so it appears  I have no cats

Alls well that ends well then! Saves you the effort.

I did wonder if mine would have them when it came over but being a 73 car it must have missed all that eco clean air nonsense and it fortunately didn’t have them. They would have been the first thing coming off, being smashed to bits and going in the bin if it did have them.