Wobstang II

[danthecapriman]

Sounds bloody lovely Jo! An idling V8 is a sound I’ll never tire of!

[eddyramrod]

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.

It's the model built before catalytic converters so it runs good on regular gas

 

Sounds bloody lovely Jo! An idling V8 is a sound I’ll never tire of!

Me too!

[panhard65]

I have just had all the fun of finding wheels for the Thunderbird, there are plenty out there with the correct bolt pattern but they just won't fit. Trying to get advice off anyone proved difficult as when I asked on a forum about a set of Mustang wheels about 50% of them said they would fit. Best way round it is to search ebay by the wheel size and bolt pattern and see if you can find anything secondhand and local. Once you know what will fit it gives you more options. The poxy Thunderbird is really hard to get anything other than standard steel wheels for without serious modification. As for the vibration get someone else to check the balance. You used to be able to get wheels balanced on the car but I haven't seen that machine in years.

[PhilA]

Yeah. 55-60 does sound like balance is wrong.

 

Sure there's nothing loose inside the tires? Old rubber, dirt and rust and junk? If that shifts about you'll never balance the wheels.

 

I would personally look to see if there's a "close enough" seal that can be made fit, particularly just for the trunk. The doors will just whistle if the trunk is correctly sealed. How does it attach? Glue? Clips? Presses over the inner rim of the trunk aperture?

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Those are a complicated shape. WTG Ford.

 

You shouldn't get anything much from the front, particularly if it still has the PCV system. I would hazard a guess at the trunk seal being most of the issue particularly as it has dumper tips just behind the rear wheels.

 

Phil

[JeeExEll]

Duct tape. Something like £5 or £6 a roll for decent kwality. It does the job on greasy hot industrial cooker-hood ducting. Paint over it if you want, use lots of it, it's gonna be under the insulation and carpet, will never be seen.

 

Steering vibes could just be worn front suspension rubber bushes, a really common Capri problem, especially on V6s and where wider / heavier wheels have been fitted (previously?).

Will get chased out as things gradually get re-newed.

 

Lots of progress since first Shitestang post ten months ago Jo

[MorrisItalSLX]

Jaguar used duct tape from the factory to seal holes to the outside world! So it must be good enough for a Ford.

 

I wonder if there is any connection between factory duct tape bungs and their reputation for rusting out floorpans?

[danthecapriman]

Jaguar used duct tape from the factory to seal holes to the outside world! So it must be good enough for a Ford.

 

I wonder if there is any connection between factory duct tape bungs and their reputation for rusting out floorpans?

Ford used it too. The holes through the inner sills into the sill cavity and various other similar places all had duct tape over them in my Capri, Transit and the old mk2 Granny I used to have. It’s just a little inch or so long patch slapped over the holes. When I rebuild the Capri’s interior I’ve got some new black duct tape to put back on it.

 

If nothing else though Jo you could plaster on the tape just to prove where the gas is getting in, then if you do need a new seal or bung you know which one(s).

[Uncle Jimmy]

I still reckon you should try driving around like this; kink- solved, fume problem- solved. You'd probably escape being ever stopped by the police as they'd be too scared!

[Guest Hooli]

 I decided to turn round my Trunk Seal by 360%

 

 

180 degrees would have been better

[danthecapriman]

I like the Magnum 500’s but if they won’t go on easily then that’s that, so if it were my car, I’d go with a set of the 400’s with decent tyres with white painted lettering! They do look good.

 

Trouble is I suppose, even most of the U.K. 4 stud Ford wheels are 13’’ so using them isn’t really much help. Though I would like to see a ‘Stang II on some deep dish dartboard steels!

[eddyramrod]

I know this is no help, but the 11 I so nearly had years ago was wearing dartboards...

Have you consifered 14s?  You might have a chance of getting something to fit, that will look the part.  Although saying that, I'd be making the effort to find some 13s either with whitewalls or white letters.

[JeeExEll]

I can't visualise how they would look on a Mustang II right at the moment but Capri 280 'Brooklands' rims are 7X15" size with the 4-stud pattern. (Just an idea. Haven't thought it through yet).

[junkyarddog]

A set of Weller steels should be easy enough to find in a 4 stud Ford fitment.

[JeeExEll]

Aye, I did think 280s were more fox Mustang stylee or later even. It was just an idea as they were standard Ford rims available in 15".

[Noel Tidybeard]

seeing as peugeot wheels fit a fraud would 205 xs wheels work? they like 14" dartboards?

 

[Guest Hooli]

4 stud pugrot alloys fit if you get the holes redriled a bit. I can't recall which way round it is but one uses flat nuts & the other cone shaped ones. Swapping the nuts might also be an option but when I put GTI rims on a XR4i I didn't have any pugrot nuts to try.

[Noel Tidybeard]

they magnum 400 is corgi whizzwheels innit

 

 

:mrgreen:

[eddyramrod]

I'm assuming you intend to have the join where the catch is?  OK, start there with one end of the seal and apply it all round the aperture.  Once you get back to where you started, cut.  I suggest deliberately cutting it a little bit long, then you can trim it down.

[Rocket88]

Measure with string..........then cut slightly over size, trim to suit. In this weather, would lob seal in a sink full of hot water before fitting.

[mrbenn]

One other tip which I'm sure is stating the obvious (soz) is make sure you use decent sharp scissors to cut the seal correctly on the first pass! Measuring with string as above is an excellent tip.

 

Your painting looks great btw!

[mrbenn]

I guess it comes down to personal preference. If the seal is quite thick you might find you end up using a sawing motion with a knife to get through it which might make it look less of a clean cut. I've got some really sharp "garage scissors" which go through stuff like that in one cut and offer the advantage that you can hold the seal steady in one hand which cutting with the other.

 

YMMV, of course

[DSdriver]

Get a pair of trim cutters that take stanley blades. Well worth the £12 ish as come in handy for lots of stuff including pruning the roses

 

Rub some vaseline petroleum jelly into the new seal. It stops it getting frozen to the other surface and tearing when you try to open the boot on a frosty morning. Do your door rubbers while you have the jar open.

[danthecapriman]

Nice job Jo! The new seals do eventually settle a bit and make it easier to close the door/boot etc. The ones I had on my Capri were the same.

The bit where the ends join together - you can reinforce that bit by cutting a short (inch or two long) section of appropriate diameter vacuum or fuel rubber hose and just feed it into the opening in the ends to almost bridge the joint if you see what I mean? It just stops the two ends being able to flex and move.

 

Edit; the tip above about a thin film of Vaseline is well worth doing on the top contact surfaces of the rubbers. Just stops them sticking and tearing.

I’ve just had to do the Mercury’s trunk seal as it had stuck down and a right bastard to open! Luckily I didn’t rip any of the rubbers.

[PhilA]

I have all this fun ahead of me. Good job, sealing leaks and making things less wind-noise is a pleasant end result, well worth the money.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Surprisingly good, to be honest. There's a lot of interest for these cars, and as such there's a fair amount of reproduction kit available for where the original stock has dried up.

 

Because they made quite a lot of them and a moderate amount was GM Parts Bin eBay has a fair bit also floating around at any one time.

 

Cross reference and fora full of "that's the wrong type of crimp terminals" retentiveness are usually quite helpful too

 

 

Phil

[danthecapriman]

No Photos but went to our local meet today and Shitey was very naughty indeed

First before we even left he flooded his engine

Then after trying numerous times to start him we got him going

Then he consumed much more fuel than he should of done and ran like a bag of ****!!!

Jury is out on Shitey right now as he is consuming wayy too much Jungle Juice ( I know hes not economical but hes even worse than he should be )

He keeps dumping coaldust on the floor

I do wonder if I should just try another carb?

I just want him to run right....................................

 

Sounds familiar Jo! Mine kept doing exactly the same earlier this year and it did it just after it’s last MOT too.

First time was gunk plugging up the carb, cleaned out and solved for a bit. The second time it was incurable! Stripped the carb down and it turned out to be a worn needle valve/seat. Changed that and all gaskets etc etc and it’s run absolutely perfectly ever since.

[PhilA]

Left the sunny, dusty dry climes of the West coast to land in the cold, damp winter of the UK- expect the running behavior to change as things dry out or gather moisture or are disturbed for the first time in forever as you do some actual maintenance on the car.

 

Phil

[eddyramrod]

73 was a whole different car, Jo.  If there is a different type listed for the II, try that, you've nothing to lose.  Otherwise I think you need to take the whole car round to various garages until some old bloke in a brown workshop coat says "oh yes, a Capri one will fit that!" or something similar.  Good luck

[danthecapriman]

Just getting me down right now its obviously carbon but where it all coming from? Ill take a photo in the morning.

Going to pull the plugs tomorrow and clean them,ill get some new plugs but for now ill clean them up and see if it helps it running lumpy?

Mine didn’t always do it during the period it was playing up, sometimes it would be ok then the next time it was used it be a right swine! It just depends if the needle and seat aren’t operating as they should that particular time.

Basically, on mine there was wear on the needle end (like a visible ring worn around the end of the needle, you could feel it if you ran your fingernail over it) when this happens the needle isn’t seating properly to stop fuel flowing into the float chambers so they overfill, then the car is forced to run way over rich because there’s nowhere else for all the excess fuel to go.

Mine kept pumping out plumes of black smoke and leaving black ‘skid marks’ on the ground under the exhaust. It’d also be an absolute twat to start - usually only being able to reluctantly fire with loads of cranking and foot flat to floor on the throttle, it’d frequently die and splutter too when running making driving it a nightmare.

 

Changing the plugs won’t help as it’ll just continue flooding and wetting the new plugs and fouling them up. You need to sort the flooding issue first then I’d change the plugs anyway.

 

Does your car have a fuel filter?

If not I’d fit one. I’m 99% sure my problem was caused by the cars long term lay up in the states. The fuel tank rusted inside and was full of sandy rusty gritty crap. Once I got the car and started using it again the usage must have stirred up all this sediment in the tank and it started getting sucked up into the carb.

First sign was the new fuel filter clogging solid within a few hundred miles, then the pump died as it filled up with crud.

To cure that I bought a brand new tank, pump and cleaned/replaced all the fuel lines and filter. The damage was done though as the problem returned some months later, opened the carb to find the float bowls had a brown gunge inside them. Cleaned out and ok again for a while...

Then it began to flood badly. That’s when I bought a full carb recon kit, new floats, valves, jets etc etc and pulled it apart for full rebuild.

Since then it’s been faultless!

 

Edit; one thing I did try to temporarily get it going was to gently tap the carb body with a hammer or screwdriver. This must have shocked the needle free again letting it close fully. It did work sometimes but not others and was only a temporary fix as it’d frequently just do it again shortly afterwards!