Garage find Capri

[DSdriver]

I believe people who worked at Ford's Dagenham plant were able to buy cars at a discount.

[Tenmil Socket]

12 hours ago, trigger said:

after the interior, it was exterior time, the best part of any project!

I couldn't believe how much better a bath made it look!

and i gave it a touch up and ran a mop over it.

I've spent so much time on ebay and Facebook just souring the broken or missing bit, side repeater lamp, boot spoiler plug, head rests, fog light switch, just silly bits like that.

I also fitted a brand new 32/36 DGAV Weber carb, for the sake of £280 it wasn't worth messing about with the completely seized and gummed up one, same as the radiator 

Such a satisfying transformation before and after washing!

[Datsuncog]

What a find, Trig - this is literally the kind of thing I'd dream about, coming true. 

Couldn't have ended up in better hands, either. Looking forward to seeing this one come back to its former glory, though it looks like you're already more than halfway there.

12 hours ago, adw1977 said:

Terrific purchase!

Nine different colours in the October 1986 brochure:

 

Book price of a shade over £20k in today's money; with the 1.6 lump costing an equivalent £1200 less or thereabouts.

You can see why they were still popular here in blighty, even by the mid-80s.

I would.

[lesapandre]

Thanks for being such a gentleman on the offer of £2000 - seems about right for an unknown quantity out of long term garaging. So many in this situation of closing an estate get hassled or told they need to pay for disposal etc.

Fantastic attitude there.

 

 

[Macscrooge]

Great find and excellent work so far!  Good to see this being saved.

[yes oui si]

3 hours ago, motorpunk said:

That looks great! Keep us posted.

PS - I’ve never driven a Capri, can anyone tell me what they’re like?

Wallowy but not in a comfortable way, nose-heavy and not as quick as people would have you believe. 

I wanted one until I drove a few 😕

[yes oui si]

Amazing work getting this sorted so far @trigger@trigger - offered them a reasonable price and you won't lose money on it.

What's it like underneath? 

[mk2_craig]

Amazing that they continue to find you, what a honey! Well done on the work so far and, as said already, kudos to you for going in with a decent offer rather than trying to low ball it. 

[motorpunk]

3 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Thanks for being such a gentleman on the offer of £2000 - seems about right for an unknown quantity out of long term garaging. So many in this situation of closing an estate get hassled or told they need to pay for disposal etc.

Fantastic attitude there.

 

 

I totally agree with this, it's fair and respectful, the poor seller has family bother to deal with and I hate the idea of some Mike fucking Brewer having their pants down. 

Well done

[High Jetter]

Brilliant, well played. Looking forward to your progress with it.

[danthecapriman]

6 hours ago, motorpunk said:

PS - I’ve never driven a Capri, can anyone tell me what they’re like?

They’re great to drive! 
They’re not sports cars. At all. They’re a GT cruiser which they’re great for. The cabin is well laid out and comfy, everything feels like it’s exactly where it should be to feel ‘right’. They are low though, both low down and the seats are low too and there’s not much room in the back seats! Front is great though, loads of leg room and very light airy interior. 
As much as I love the older models the later cars have better interiors - more comfortable and better made. 
The handling isn’t very good really - leaf springs on the back and rear drive. But they’re fine unless you think your a driving god or full of Clarksons pub bore bullshit! Tbh cars that handle badly are way more fun anyway!

I absolutely love them tbh. They were my hero car when I was a kid and when I actually got one at 16 they fulfilled the dream and I’ve never been disappointed with them!

[motorpunk]

7 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

They’re great to drive! 
They’re not sports cars. At all. They’re a GT cruiser which they’re great for. The cabin is well laid out and comfy, everything feels like it’s exactly where it should be to feel ‘right’. They are low though, both low down and the seats are low too and there’s not much room in the back seats! Front is great though, loads of leg room and very light airy interior. 
As much as I love the older models the later cars have better interiors - more comfortable and better made. 
The handling isn’t very good really - leaf springs on the back and rear drive. But they’re fine unless you think your a driving god or full of Clarksons pub bore bullshit! Tbh cars that handle badly are way more fun anyway!

I absolutely love them tbh. They were my hero car when I was a kid and when I actually got one at 16 they fulfilled the dream and I’ve never been disappointed with them!

Thanks for that. I had a passenger ride in a 3.0 car as a young kid but had no frame of reference for how fast it was, I do remember the driver trying to hit a ton in 3rd. A mate rented a 280 Brooklands a few years ago and he got left behind us with anything vaguely modern pretty quickly, but it did look cool. 

Thanks Dan

[RoadworkUK]

This is just amazing. 

And although the 2.8i gets all the glory, I reckon the 2.0 Pinto is the blue-collar engine it really ought to have.

Incredible stuff.

[sierraman]

I don’t think they would be considered a sports car, moreover at the time a bit of a poseurs mobile, I don’t mean that with any disrespect, the Capri is one of my all time favourites, but my memory of them was they weren’t the car choice of the shrinking violet. It was a bit of flash for the average working man, nothing too fancy that he could use for work in the week and then on a Friday night take out to attempt to impress some women outside a Berni Inn. But on a Sunday he could fart about fitting any number of fairly bad taste accessories or tuning the carb. 

Credit to you also for not being one of these with big eared twats with baseball hats on, bumming them over with a price. No doubt a lot of people would have gone round completely insensitively and done all the ‘it’s fucked m8 I’ll give you £300’ and then made some dreadful YouTube video of them defiling it by painting it Matt black or some arse about tit attempt at changing the camber on the wheels. 

[danthecapriman]

2 hours ago, motorpunk said:

Thanks for that. I had a passenger ride in a 3.0 car as a young kid but had no frame of reference for how fast it was, I do remember the driver trying to hit a ton in 3rd. A mate rented a 280 Brooklands a few years ago and he got left behind us with anything vaguely modern pretty quickly, but it did look cool. 

Thanks Dan

By the standards of their day they were ok. Perfectly adequate for their intended purpose, like most other cars then. But probably not exceptionally fast in any form. 
Nowadays they’re going to get left behind by most things! My 1.6 is (from memory!) about 75 hp. Which is nothing now, you can get more out of a modern sub 1.0 shopping trolley these days. Even the 2.0 pinto is under 100 hp. 
It’s all about the looks and ‘cool’ factor now. It doesn’t matter how little power they make or how slow they are now. It’s a cool car, looks great, dead easy to do anything on and you can have fun with them.

I did used to use mine as a daily in the 2000’s, all year round, and it did it with little issues… but realistically they’re not really well suited for that anymore. Too old and hard work to keep them from dissolving! Plus, things like steaming up, ice on the inside of the windows etc etc gets really old really fast. There’s far more capable cars around now for that. Capri’s are cars for pleasure use or nice weather. 
Mind you, that’s probably true of most classic cars!

 

[tooSavvy]

As an ex- CrappiKlubber [ex car/missus*]

*HER car.... I'm (as we all know) an IMPnutter 😵

...... I was driven past the Spanish City amusements, in a quite learry 3.0S, with 'Tunnel of Love' booming out of the Quadmillioz Subamp 🙄 .... Yes, he was an Essex Boi, visiting up Newcastle with the Klub Set....

#hadtobetheremoment

[trigger]

More progress on this, lots of jobs have been getting done over the last week, mostly painting the alloys and getting new Nexen tyres fitted

And I had a new front plate from Retro Plates arrive to match the rear.

Yesterday dad came round for the day and we really cracked on with the brakes, they've all been replaced now, had to replace some of the lines but that's to be expected, the oil pump seal then decided to pour out so we quickly swapped that out with a new one I'd bought

Also finished setting the carb back up and it's now running really nicely!

unsurprisingly i think the valve stem seals are toast as it's chucking out blue smoke on start up and when you rev it after idling for a few minutes which is a pain, i doubt it will pass the mot like that so that will be the next job to do.

[tooSavvy]

Are you trying the valve spring removal with..

A# bar in plughole

B# string packed up to TDC

C# *enhanced jeopardy* 250psi compressed air

..... Just asking, lyke 🤔

 

[trigger]

I'm not sure yet but dad seems to think option C is the best bet?! Compressed air in the spark plug, I've never done one before myself so i haven't a clue!

[3VOM]

3 minutes ago, trigger said:

I'm not sure yet but dad seems to think option C is the best bet?! Compressed air in the spark plug, I've never done one before myself so i haven't a clue!

There is a tool to do it - plug thread one end and air push fit on other. Think you could get a Laser one from Halfords.

[mk2_craig]

That front plate looks spot on Trig!! Always makes such a difference on an honest and original car. 

[timolloyd]

Love what you’re doing with this.

This is one lucky Capri to find you. Sympathetically returned to the road, instead of being passed around eleventy million more owners trying to flip it for Ford Tax.

[bezzabsa]

On 10/6/2022 at 9:09 AM, cort16 said:

Great work as usual trigger. Good to see the original airbox on the car they're usually long gone.

That roof mounted rear scoosher looks like a classic "oh shit we need to fit a rear wiper lets just put it there" job. 

I thought it was a huge hole till I spotted the clean pic!,

[Dick Longbridge]

4 minutes ago, bezzabsa said:

I thought it was a huge hole till I spotted the clean pic!,

I thought the same!

It looks fantastic in a relatively short space of time. One thing though - it would be well worth forking out a little bit for an upholsterer to sort the bolster on the driver's seat. Relatively small outlay to make the interior look immaculate. 

[trigger]

Yeah there's still quite a few jobs to do, the bolster is one, ideally I'd like to find a better seat but I don't think that will happen and I need to get the welding on the strut top sorted plus a few dents and scrapes on the wheel arches to sort so plenty to do still. 

Everyone thought that washer jet was a hole! 

[Split_Pin]

Just look at how nice that is sitting the sunshine!

[vaughant]

Lovely job on this so far well done. 

Never owned one but my auntie who was very high up in the RAF swore by them. She had a 3.0S, 2.0S and a laser on a C with that two tone burgandy/silver colour scheme seen in the brochure. 

Only issue she ever had with it was she went for a long walk somewhere and came back to it on bricks with no wheels 🤣🤣🤣. 

 

Same ones on yours. 

She became the first person I knew then to get locking wheel nuts back in about 1983.

[Nibbler]

Wow! Fantastic find! 

[Noel Tidybeard]

laser seats may be harder to find than some of the other types

[bunglebus]

Very boring anecdote but I remember going to look at D41 RNO with a friend - a MK4 shape Orion Ghia that turned out to be a bit of a turd sadly. I think it may have even been the same colour as the Capri. 

Last seen in a Pitsea housing estate with a white bonnet after he got mugged off by a "mate" who didn't pay the other 50% of the asking price after taking ownership