For those interested in old cars.

[MJI]

AC was a Warwickshire plate. Could even be Talbot company car/demo or an employee purchase.

 

Avon did 50 with DDU plates

[40 058]

Great thread this!

 

Aside from model trains (and real ones!) my other hobby... classic cars! Always loved the old stuff and I’ve had a classic in one form or the other since passing my test.

 

Here’s my current fleet.

 

1988 Volvo 740 2.3GLE auto. I love these old bricks and had a few 700’s and a 200. Numbers are starting to thin nowadays, especially on the early ‘flat front’ cars but then the newest ones are just about to turn 30 years old now.

I was actually given this low mileage car for free after had sat on my sisters boyfriends grandfathers driveway for two years unused. He passed away and the car was left to rot. I trailered it home, sorted it out and did a load of unexpected welding to the rear floorpan (lesson here - never ignore water leaks!) and got it back on the road. The US market front end was a swap done by me using imported US complete light units which I’ve modified to be U.K. legal. It’s a great car and is an old car capable of daily use all year round without any trouble.

 

 

Next are the toys!

 

1984 Ford Transit mk2 2.0 petrol, quite rare now as it’s the LWB high roof model. Ex BBC mobile radio studio and has been barely used only covering 19k Miles new! It’s now a camper van.

 

 

1974 Ford Capri mk2 1.6L. This was my first car. It was a bit of a shed then so I restored it then used it for ages. A few years back it started looking rough again so I went a bit mad with it and had it stripped to a bare metal shell (always reveals many more horrors than you thought you had!). It’s cost an eye watering amount to get it to this stage but it’s pretty much as good as new again now and just needs reassembling which I’ve been gradually doing. The colour is Miami blue, not this cars original colour but is my favourite from the 74 Ford paint chart!

It’s a very very early mk2 having a few features unique to the early cars and is mostly a late mk1 under the skin. It’s been with me a long time now and I don’t think I could be without this one!

 

 

 

Finally ‘The Beast’,

1973 Mercury Marquis Brougham. Fitted with a monster 7.0 litre big block Ford V8. I imported this from the states a few years back. When it got here it turned out the engine was worn out! It’s now been fully rebuilt to the last nut and bolt so runs beautifully. Being a 73 car it’s got non of the power sapping emissions control rubbish either, while it’s not actually that powerful for the size of it it’s still got some serious grunt and torque and goes very well (in a straight line!). It’s great to drive and turns lots of heads when it’s out.

 

[BernardTPM]

My favourite 'Mark' of Capri. Lovely to see one so straight. Thanks!

[Rugd1022]

There can't be many Mk2 Capris around these days, haven't seen one i nthe flesh apart from at the NEC shows. John Thaw drove a green one in an episode of 'The Sweeney' and of course Dennis Waterman had a couple in 'Minder'.

[BernardTPM]

No, but I did a double take about 3 to 4 weeks back when passing a car workshop yard next to a local pub and saw the front end of this. It wasn't here long though.

[Two_sugars]

A 1300? . . . Can't even remember seeing one when they were new!

 

John

[40 058]

Yeah the mk2 Crapi was always the rarest, not made for long and the slowest seller. They’re a bit forgotten now as everyone wants a mk1 for the styling or the more ‘butch’ looking mk3.

My one shouldn’t still be here really! It’s a Halewood built car (more prone to poor quality and rust) seems to have been actually built in March 74 so it’s an old one. It was in a right state when I first bought it (for £100!) but still road legal. Given it’s state it was a spares car really or one for the banger racers but the Capri was the car for me. I’d wanted one since I was a lit kid so as soon as I left school at 16 I went looking for one and ended up with this one. It’s like a part of the family now it’s been with me so long.

 

Here it is in the condition I got it in.

 

 

 

Despite its looks it was absolutely stuffed with filler, the vinyl roof was a non original later addition done very badly. However it ran perfectly and drove well, in that respect it’s been the best car I’ve ever had - only once it’s broken down when a heater hose split. I bodged it back together, filled the water up and still drove home where I fixed it properly!

 

Then I restored it, on a budget. Loads of welding done and a colour change to Roman Bronze and a good used brown interior to replace the poor black original.

Like many things though you get what you pay for and within a couple of years the paintjob was looking like a cheap job. It stayed like this for a good 13 years or so though.

 

 

Then in spring 2016 I decided enough was enough. It was really starting to look rough again and there were a few areas of rust and rot beginning to take hold again.

The original idea was to just strip it down, weld the bits I knew about and fit new wings then a repaint.

First though I got a second opinion, this being the killer! It turned out once up in the air on a lift and a good prodding it was a fair bit worse than expected.

The plan then changed to a bare metal strip... I was warned prior as many cars this age come back looking utterly grim!

Which was exactly what it did look like on its return from the blasters.

 

 

 

 

This became a big ‘oh crap!’ moment.

It was far worse than I’d thought it was sadly and needed some serious surgery to save it. It was so bad in places that had the car been in an accident it would have probably just disintegrated.

When it comes to things like this you can either bail and cut your losses, I couldn’t do that to this car! So instead looked at this as a way to be absolutely sure all the rust and damage were found and fixed and make this car the absolute best I possibly could.

Luckily I’d been preparing for this over the previous years by buying up as many of the parts and panels as I could. Most of the panels being rare new old stock Ford parts. Expensive and hard to find but well worth it in the long run. Some really were mega rare parts like the genuine Ford front panel/valance.

 

Here it is in various stages of the repair work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The black finish is an epoxy primer type stuff. My painter swears by it as it goes off and forms a strong waterproof film, unlike primer (which is porous) so rust should be much less likely.

Despite the car being a rot box it’d actually survived well in the places an old Ford shouldn’t have! The strut tops are both untouched originals still having the VIN stamped into one as it should, rear spring hangers were pristine apart from a tiny square that was let into one side. The chassis rails are all as new still.

 

Here’s a few pics of the freshly painted shell and a few bits going back onto it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The engine itself is an early style 1600 Pinto. It was absolutely filthy but it was a good engine, compression etc all checked out so instead of doing what everyone does and sticking a 2.0 in I kept the 1600. I stripped it a fair way down and cleaned it up which uncovered the engine number. As it turned out this 1600 engine is in fact this cars original engine! VIN and engine codes both match. A nice feature few cars like this will have by now.

It’s had new gaskets, water pump, cam belt, clutch etc etc etc and a full paint job itself. As have literally all the other parts that came off the car. Everything has been checked over and either repaired or replaced then painted.

The cars underside - I had a couple of choices from my painter.

A: full on stonechip paint and then full undersealing/waxing.

Or

B: factory look.

I chose option B. This is a fair weather toy from now on and lives in a garage so it’s had factory style seam sealing, then factory look stonechip paint and then over painted in body colour blue to look like a new mk2 would have done back in the 70’s.

 

Without wishing to blow my own horn, it’s absolutely gorgeous now! Far better than I’d ever expected really. It’s cost me dearly though, the new body panels that went into it came in at a shade under £10k alone! Parts for these cars are not as cheap or plentiful as they once were!

I’m seeing it as a one shot thing though, if I finish it well and look after it it should easily last another 40 odd years. Good value if you look at it that way!

Besides that it is ‘the car I always promised myself’!

It’ll be remaining pretty much in standard condition, there can’t be many standard low spec ones left anymore so it’s something that little bit different and shows that not all of them were 3.0Ghia’s or 2.8i cars. The vast majority of them were like this one.

[APOLLO]

What a lovely Capri and well worth the effort. First class job.

 

I bought a brand new 1600 Capri Cabaret special edition back in 1982 (Y reg), ming blue metallic. It had a sunroof, full instruments and other bits n bobs.

 

On putting it in the garage the aerial hit the lawn mover suspended from the roof, which fell on the car roof severely scratching it, it then bounced off the wing but did no damage there. Gutted, I thought what to do and had a black vinyl roof fitted (remember those) and I must say it made the car look a whole lot better. It was a nice car to drive, slick gearbox etc. I traded it in for an Audi 100GL5E - that was a nice driver too - but there was always something going wrong so that went after a couple of years.

 

I wish I still had that Capri - can't remember ever having a fault or any warranty work done - just the vinyl roof !!

 

Brit15

[40 058]

Here’s a few extra pics of some of the bigger parts before and after.

 

Engine before,

 

 

 

After,

 

 

Prop shaft befor and after,

 

 

 

The wheels originally on this car were the ‘sports’ steels in 13x5 flavour with the early style stainless centre caps. Like an idiot I binned them years back as they were rusty and bent. Now I want them again! However the 5J type are a bit narrow for my liking so I tracked down a set of 5 of the 13x5.5 deep dish style ‘sports’ steels which are my favoured style wheel but are wider with a more manly deep dish to them!

A couple were good used ones, the others were all new old stock imported from Germany. They were then blasted and powder coated in a metallic grey/silver colour and fitted with matching Firestone tyres and the stainless centre caps I’d fortunately kept.

 

 

The interior was another big ticket item that I’d thought long and hard about.

Aswell as the good used brown interior I’d fitted ages ago I’d kept the black original one. In the end I decided to go with a black interior again, I prefer the black but also because the black interior already needed retrimming it wasn’t any loss. The brown interior was a bit too good to chop up and retrim but not quite good enough to refit into the now pristine body! Plus, the black is what this car should have.

 

Here’s the seats before,

 

 

 

And after their retrim.

 

 

 

Another benefit to using the black interior was that it’s only half vinyl. The inner sections are cloth so you don’t get a sweaty backside like you do with full vinyl!

 

The door cards were a bit of a pain.

These early cars have a unique style to them and they were not made to last! They’re not available new and even used ones in the right colour and in a condition worth having are impossible to find now so you’ve got to work with what you’ve got.

 

Before,

 

 

Well worn and the hardboard backing has suffered from damp and has disintegrated at the bottoms. Some of the lower vinyl has torn too.

 

During,

 

 

Vinyl all carefully removed and the main back boards replaced in plywood. The top edges are actually curved quite tightly where they hook over the top of the door frame so couldn’t be replicated in ply. Instead the originals were reused as they were still good and secured to the new ply bottoms.

 

After,

 

 

Old vinyl and plastic trims reattached to the new backing boards with new foam padding. Any rips in the vinyl were glued back together with a strip of identical vinyl beneath the rip to hide it.

If you look hard you can find them still but they’re hard to spot if you don’t look for them. There is no other option with these though and they look superb now. A good trimmer is worth their weight in gold!

The plastic trim in the middle has since been painted in a chrome/silver paint to replicate original as closely as possible.

 

There hundreds of other parts, bits & bobs that I’ve already finished in a similar way but these are the main ones. One of the last things left to do is the wiring loom which I’ll start on soon. Just about everything else is sat on the shelf ready to back onto the car.

[BernardTPM]

Yeah the mk2 Crapi was always the rarest, not made for long and the slowest seller. They’re a bit forgotten now as everyone wants a mk1 for the styling or the more ‘butch’ looking mk3.

Ford very accurately advertised the Capri II as the "The once in a lifetime car" - by the time you come to buy another new one it's been revamped. Then and now I love the subtle styling tricks and clean lines.

Yours being a 1600 is a very big plus too!

Edited November 19, 2018 by BernardTPM

[APOLLO]

The Capri was an affordable dream car to lots of us "young uns" back in the 70's & early 80's - I'm glad I bought mine when I did. I fancied a 2.8i at the time but common sense (wallet !!) prevailed.

 

In the mid 70's a work colleague bought a Mk1 GT 3 litre V6 GT, what a fine car that was also- till he wrecked it  - hooked me on Capri's though !!

 

Brit15

[uax6]

Very nice work there.

I personally avoid powdercoating anything on a car. It only takes one chip in the coating to let in water and the steel underneath evaporates away without you knowing.

 

I get parts blasted and then zinc sprayed and then paint them. The zinc spraying is almost as good as hot dip galvanising. As proof a mate had a set of rims done for a boat trailer about 20 years back. They were in and out of water all the time and are now on a car trailer. Next to no rust on them at all....

 

Andy G

[40 058]

Ford very accurately advertised the Capri II as the "The once in a lifetime car" - by the time you come to buy another new one it's been revamped. Then and now I love the subtle styling tricks and clean lines.

Yours being a 1600 is a very big plus too!

Personally I think the mk2 is the better looker over the mk3 (I would though wouldn’t I!), it’s got a much nicer shape and looks more clean and uncluttered to me. The bootlid minus the rubber boot spoilers looks nice too on the mk2, makes the rear end a much nicer shape. They look like a product of their time to me, very 70’s.

 

Mine being a peasant spec L model (registered on its V5 as a ‘base’) means it’s got even less fussy extras on it. Note the complete lack of waist height trims/rub strips down the sides. Mine are all flush.

[40 058]

Very nice work there.

 

I personally avoid powdercoating anything on a car. It only takes one chip in the coating to let in water and the steel underneath evaporates away without you knowing.

 

I get parts blasted and then zinc sprayed and then paint them. The zinc spraying is almost as good as hot dip galvanising. As proof a mate had a set of rims done for a boat trailer about 20 years back. They were in and out of water all the time and are now on a car trailer. Next to no rust on them at all....

 

Andy G

Agreed. I was warned off powder coating everything in sight right at the start for that reason.

Most of the bits off this car have been treated more or less the way you suggest. Good prep and good paint is more than good enough for a nice finish and durable enough to stop rust.

I had the wheels powder coated though just to get a good flat smooth finish that should last well. I also had the Volvo 740 wheels on the car above done at the same time. They look lovely but I soon ran into a problem! On refitting the Volvo alloys the powder coat was much thicker than the standard paint which meant the hole in the wheel centres wouldn’t fit over the hub bits on the car! I had to sand the powder coating down to make it fit properly. The other issue is when you tighten the wheel nuts, the powder coating can become loose from under the tapered wheel nut seats which allows the nuts to become loose after a while! I’ve had to remove them and clean off the old damaged powder coating then retighten the nuts again a few times since.

Oddly the Capri wheels had none of those problems!?

[MJI]

I remember when they were the car many young drivers aspired to, as it was reachable, unlike many other interesting cars.

 

A pity they never upgraded to a coil sprung back end, but you can get anti tramp kits.

 

I think you could get a 1300 at one stage AFAIR.

 

Had a fun TLGP with a 1600 remotored to 2000 with an Avenger Estate ex 1300 remotored to 1600 with 1600 gearing (1300 blew up).

 

Was a dead heat up to 40 (the limit).

 

Many around back then, now so rare, good looking cars and another friend loved his (1600).

 

Very low to ground, very stylish, just a pity Ford never invested much in it, as it was so much more interesting than a Cortina.

 

Talking about leaf springs, how come the Escort also remained on them? Ford definately didn't improve their cars as much as they were worth.

[MJI]

Avenger was my mums and as I blew up the 1300 I had to fit the 1600, but when shopping I made sure to get the biggest which would fit.

[alastairq]

I remember when they were the car many young drivers aspired to, as it was reachable, unlike many other interesting cars.

 

A pity they never upgraded to a coil sprung back end, but you can get anti tramp kits.

 

 

 

Talking about leaf springs, how come the Escort also remained on them? Ford definately didn't improve their cars as much as they were worth.

My guess it was  about costs?

 

Ford were infamous for paring production costs down to the bone.....[who could blame them?]

[BernardTPM]

Talking about leaf springs, how come the Escort also remained on them? Ford definately didn't improve their cars as much as they were worth.

Really Ford only brought out three new cars in the 1970s: the 1970 Cortina/Taunus, the 1972 Granada and the 1977 (just, IIRC) Ford Fiesta. The rest of the 1970s range were revamps and reworkings of these and the Escort & Capri and comfortably saw them sweep to the top through to the 1980s. Hapless BL brought out the Range Rover, Stag, Marina, Allegro, Princess, SD1, XJS & TR7 but just kept loosing market share. I'm not saying none of those had good in them, but Ford better read and delivered to the market at the time.

Edited November 20, 2018 by BernardTPM

[Rugd1022]

I think Ford bringing the Capri to the market in '69 was a masterstroke, it pretty much had its own section of the market all to itself. 'The car you always promised yourself...'

 

 

 

 

 

The Broadspeed Bullit 3 litre job was knocked together down the road from me in Southam (Jackie Stewart did a bit of sponsoring with them at the time, as well as other Capri related stuff), when they moved out the premises became Southam Mini & Metro Centre...

 

 

 

Nice period mag covers...

 

 

 

 

 

JYS... love the rally jacket and roll neck sweater combo...!

 

 

 

He even roped the wife in...

 

Edited November 20, 2018 by Rugd1022

[PhilJ W]

Really Ford only brought out three new cars in the 1970s: the 1970 Cortina/Taunus, the 1972 Granada and the 1977 (just, IIRC) Ford Fiesta. The rest of the 1970s range were revamps and reworkings of these and the Escort & Capri and comfortably saw them sweep to the top through to the 1980s. Hapless BL brought out the Range Rover, Stag, Marina, Allegro, Princess, SD1, XJS & TR7 but just kept loosing market share. I'm not saying none of those had good in them, but Ford better read and delivered to the market at the time.

Some pretty good cars among that (BL) lot, as well as some turkeys. The Range Rover like the Capri had the market to themselves within their own genre.

[BernardTPM]

Yes, though it took a while for the Range Rover to really catch on (and possibly even longer for BL to realise they should be investing in improving and widening its appeal).

Edited November 28, 2018 by BernardTPM

[Southern Steve]

Dash back in Lotus-Sunbeam today!

 

 

 

Nice original car, very unmolested, I'm sure the 26,000 miles showing is genuine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 20, 2018 by Southern Steve

[russ p]

That was a pretty comprehensive instrument cluster and 7k red line for a 2.2 is bloody impressive

[Southern Steve]

I did read somewhere

 

That was a pretty comprehensive instrument cluster and 7k red line for a 2.2 is bloody impressive

 I did read somewhere  that rather than use the Avenger switchgear and instruments, the engineers used the then new Simca 1307/Alpine stuff.

 

 

All the switches in this one are certainly of French origin!

 

 

 

 

I thought the interior looked nice, better than the Escort of the same era.

Edited November 20, 2018 by Southern Steve

[BernardTPM]

The Avenger had been updated with Alpine based switchgear, dash and interior already and the revised interior carried over to the Sunbeam. The rear lights for the Sunbeam were from the Alpine too.

Edited November 20, 2018 by BernardTPM