Repairing/Restoring my damaged Ford Capri 2.8i

It was about £60 for the whole thing including a multimeter. Just need to add a power supply like a car battery charger & de-ionised water and you are good to go.

It's from a company called classic plating.
 
hi new to this forum ,i have a capri same as you thats been laid up in the back garden since 2002, but the body works in a poor state ,id like to start stripping it back ,but cant weld .can you tell me if your using a mig welder there or something else ,also where have you been getting those new pannels from thanx
 
vanpeebles said:
I think the Cosworth engine is the right choice, just seems to fit right with a Capri. I'd love to hear how you get on with the zinc plating kit, I've been looking at that and those blackening kits too.
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Agreed.

The Cosworth derived 24v V6 is a peach of an engine IMO.

Vastly underrated mainly because it lived in bug eyed late era Scorpios.
 
tiffy1 said:
hi new to this forum ,i have a capri same as you thats been laid up in the back garden since 2002, but the body works in a poor state ,id like to start stripping it back ,but cant weld .can you tell me if your using a mig welder there or something else ,also where have you been getting those new pannels from thanx
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Yes I'm using a Clarke Pro 90 mig welder & an auto dimming mask, I could not weld when I started either, I learned by watching youtube & practicing on scrap. The panels I got from various sources but mainly from a company called Imperial Panels in Doncaster.

The NOS Front panel I found on E-Bay & had to pick it up from Manchester, cost me £300 if I remember correct. One thing I will point out is don't bother with pattern wings as they are an absolute nightmare to get to fit so I ended up getting a 2nd Hand one and a pattern one & basically making one decent wing out of two naff ones, it's not perfect but far better than the pattern one I had tried.

Be prepared for it to take some time before you start. I have seen threads on other forums where people have started a restoration and it has turned into a major job then given up as they uncovered all sorts of horrors, I have been extremely lucky as mine wasn't that bad really.

Whilst I am posting this I may as well provide a minor update, I have just started re-assembling the front suspension & steering, all gaiters have been replaced with nice new ones even though the originals were still good enough for an MOT for £15 it was pointless not to, likewise with the track rod ends, all new just because I felt like it so I've basically replaced the entire front suspension with new stuff apart from the top mounts, arb & the lower strut casing.







I wonder how long I can keep it all that clean?

I spent all of last weekend finally recovering the engine from it's resting place a few miles away in someone elses garage, got it home and onto an engine stand as I need to start working on it.

For the first time the entire car is now all at one address :)

It needs a serious tidy up though as it's absolutely filthy, I have noticed a set of later model camshafts on E-Bay at the moment too which are tempting but somewhat overpriced or I'd have bought them.

 
Another month another update!

The front suspension is now fully re-assembled, I got the ARB fitted last week but I am really unsure about the polybushes fitted to the outer part of the control arm where the ARB goes through it as they seem to distort when I try & torque the bolts up. I will try again once the suspension is loaded up with the weight of the car & engine and see if it makes a difference.

I have also been in touch with a local engineering firm about Modifying the hubs to take the discs from a RWD Sierra Sapphire Cosworth which should hopefully help with the terrifying brake fade that the standard brakes demonstrate at speed.

The fuel system seems to be far simpler than the 2.8i engine, I just need to get a couple of new hoses made up & connect the return pipe up below the passenger footwell & one from the fuel filter to the fuel rail. This would have been very simple if the numpty I bought the engine from had not cut the old lines so short.

The EGR system needs blanking off so I shall be either welding a bolt into the exhaust manifold hole for the pipe or getting the hole threaded so I can stick a bolt in there.

I have been attempting to tidy up the engine and have ended up painting the camshaft covers red, painting the block silver & I am planning on polishing up the plenum chamber for a maximum bling mirror finish.

As you can see, 20 years of crud leaves a rather thick coating!



It now looks a bit cleaner!



(Overspray since cleaned off)

It will never be as clean as some peoples engines but I'm doing this on a budget and with a set of cam cover gaskets alone coming in at £90 a full stripdown gets very expensive, besides i'll likely forget where half of it goes!
 
Another month so I thought I'd post a minor update. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on the plenum chamber due to it being sat slap bang in the middle of the engine bay & being rather large.

The engine is pretty much ready to be fitted now, just a few small bits to do before it goes in.

I have now got the exhaust manifolds cleaned up & painted in VHT paint which I had to bake on in the oven & I also welded a large bolt into the hole where the EGR pipe was fitted as all the EGR gubbins belongs in the bin.

And people say I never do any proper cooking!-



A few days work then on the plenum chamber (those polishing kits are great)-



Almost done-



I'm hoping my next update involves wiring the engine up :D
 
Just read the whole thread. Amazing.

For someone who never changed brake pads before, how have you been teaching yourself?

I'd like to do something like this one day.
 
Mujja said:
For someone who never changed brake pads before, how have you been teaching yourself?
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Forums like this one basically & a Haynes manual with massive amounts of patience thrown in.

If you can't figure something out there is always someone on a forum willing to help. Just 5 minutes ago I posted a query on another forum regarding deleting a pipe from the cam cover to the plenum as I have no idea if this is possible or even what the purpose of the pipe is. All I know is I don't want oil in the plenum (just nice clean fresh air!) so want it either vented to air via a filter or possibly route it via an oil catch tank if that isn't possible.
 
Thought I'd update this as the engine is finally in the car & I am currently trying to figure out the rest of the wiring however the more me & my dad look into it the easier it seems as there is a lot of wiring that simply wants binning. I have decided to keep the loom fitted to the car for the original engine but it is being hidden behind the brake servo out of the way with three plugs remaining on the opposite side of the engine bay which will need tucking away somewhere.

Not that I ever plan to go back to a 2.8 but it keeps the car compatible with the old engine if for any need I had to go back. (like the 24v goes bang & I want to run the car over the summer one year whilst I source another)

I also need to figure out the power steering & am going to have to give a local hydraulics company a visit as I need hoses which are part Scorpio & part Capri.

The fuel system is a piece of cake & far simpler than I originally thought it's literally just a case of connecting the original 2.8i fuel filter to the fuel rail via a 7mm pipe and then running a return back from the rail to the original 2.8i pipework under the passenger side footwell.

I now need to source a pair of lambda sensors & a couple of coolant hoses and decide whether I either want to re-locate the battery to the boot in which case i'll need to weld the battery tray into the spare wheel well or run a gel battery which are much smaller and should still fit under the bonnet.

I need to look at making a pair of downpipes too.

Some pics of todays adventure-



We couldn't get the engine to lift level so we spent ages gradually dropping it down with a high lift trolley jack under the back of the sump to level it off.



It will probably be a couple of months before I can try firing it up as there are lots of bits to fork out for & my commission which pays for this is non existent in August & September as I'm in B2B sales and everyone seems to be on hols in July & Aug.
 
Another slight update. I got the gearbox cleaned, painted & installed-

Shiny!



However due to the clutch alignment tool I borrowed being a "Universal" one which was naff me & my dad spent several hours trying to manhandle the gearbox into place and failed miserably, a week later I went and picked up a better one from machine mart and within 45 minutes the clutch & gearbox were fitted & operating properly.

I used the pilot bearing from the original engine which I removed by shoving bread into the hole and compacting it in with a 10mm socket. I read about it online & wish I'd filmed it actually working as I thought there was no chance.

I now have this mess to figure out-



It isn't as bad as I initially expected and after working through the loom from a pin out list & wiring diagram I am removing the bits that need to go in the bin such as the stuff for the auto box, air-con & EGR system.

There actually appears to only be four wires that need connecting to the original loom however I can't even wire up a light switch.

Wish me luck!
 
Superb - can only hope this gets finished and runs like a champ!!!

First car I ever remember 35 years ago was my dad's Blue 2.8i capri - lovely car!
 
I had a 2.0S that could keep up with 2.8's I once tried to race a 2.8, Well it had 2 pipes at the back. After being well and truly spanked I pulled up next to it at some lights and he had a V8 badge on the wing and it whistled.

Turns out it was a 3.5 Rover V8 with a Janspeed turbo conversion.

Mental












Back in the day
 
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