Repairing/Restoring my damaged Ford Capri 2.8i

I paid £100 for my 1st Capri.1.6L Then £850 for a 2.0S. Nearly bought a 2.8 with a Janspeed turbo conversion. My next door neighbor was a Capri fan. At one point he had a 2.8, 3.0L and a 280 brooklands.

A mate used to hill sprint his 3.0L that thing did nearly 70mph in 1st.

Good going so far. They were worth a fortune a few years ago. I saw a 2.8 go for £15k
 
Jonny69 said:
Good to see this still going :cool:
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It has to be completed, i've owned it longer than a driving licence, i was driving this thing the day I passed my test, not many people still have their 1st car 8 years later & intend to get another 20+ out of it!

In 15 years there will be a "Restoring my Capri 2.9 Cosworth" thread on here.
 
Update :eek:

Found some time & motivation over the last couple of weeks so have been doing more work.

Had another play around with the new front spoiler whilst it was out on the drive the other weekend, I think I quite like it now I've seen it from a distance and in a uniform colour so it's definitely being fitted, I've read that a product called sikaflex is good for bonding GRP to metal?



This week I've spent every evening in the garage as the GF has been busy doing various things so I got a decent bit done. I finished cutting the rot out of the rear passenger side, butchered a wheel arch section to make an inner arch & got that welded in place-



Made & welded in a new rear lower quarter inner panel, it's not easy to do with no workbench or vice, I did all my bends over the trolley jack handle & the edge of the patio with a hammer.



I have then spent god knows how long bending the inner arch lip bit by bit so it all meets up nicely with the outer arch, I need to get some more seam sealer tomorrow & some more wire wheels and then I think the outer arch and rear lower quarter panel can be welded in once I've applied sealer where I need it, then the horrible job of smoothing it off with filler begins again. :-(



It's now sat as above with everything loosely clamped up, if I can get my ass in to gear there is not much left to do now on the shell of the car.
 
Sone said:
Not a pick on the 'zod, but what happened to the word fiberglass. Everyone says GRP nowadays
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Fiberglass is the name of the family to which GRP belongs, people used to just say fiberglass as a blanket term. Similar to just saying asbestos instead of Chrysotile, Amosite, Crocidolite, etc.
 
Done some more today, having a break and then might go back out there & do some more.

I have got the rear lower quarter tacked in place all the way around as you can see below-



Then I set about trimming the rear wheel arch down to fit the rear wing without going too far into the panel and I came across a bit of a problem. It seems one of the previous careful owners has scraped the rear wing between the door & the arch down a gatepost or something and left a dent in the wing about 6-8mm deep right down the rear wing, from the inside it can be felt, it's been filled & I haven't known about it in the 8.5 years I've owned it but it's going to make fitting the arch a bit more tricky due to the fact it doesn't meet the panel snug all the way along as shown below-



I see a number of options so far -

1 - Bend the edge of the panel out to meet the arch & re-fill it once welded in place, I don't want to bend the arch panel for I fear it may deform the curve of the arch.

2 - Cut out a large section of the rear wing & put new straight metal in, however I think this is overkill and may end up no better than before.

3 - Build up a beads of weld in the gap, then smooth the top off with the grinder so it meets the arch & weld onto it.

Any suggestions?, putting a new rear wing on it is not an option as they are horrendously expensive and it would be a made to order pattern one which i'd have to wait months for.
 
Problem solved, I was wanting to lap weld the arch in with a cm or 2 overlap, however I've removed some more of the wing forward of the wheel arch & bent it to meet up so i'll have to butt weld it there and hope for no blow through!
 
Just a little update here, after spending forever welding in the arch I have ground the welds back & then gone over them with a fine skim of fibreglass as I have this worry there may be a pinhole somewhere waiting to let some moisture through, how it will get there I have no idea as the arch is to be pumped full of excessive amounts of Bilt Hamber wax. Always better to be safe though :)

Fibreglass over the weld-



First skim of bodyfiller-



And an initial sand down to see what it's starting to look like, I did this tonight and although it does not feel as warm as it's been recently after 15 minutes I was sweating my nuts off! -



Should have this done by the end of next week I hope.
 
Iamzod said:
Engine.jpg


I'll stick some more pic's up later this evening of what's been done so far.
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Very impressive work. I'm loving the blue, braided HT leads.
 
Great project log
I used to own a couple of capri's when I was younger so I'll keep an eye on this thread

When you re-paint the car are you going with the original colour if not the 280 brooklands green would suit your wheels nicely :cool:
 
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