The Red Capri - Introduction

This is the story behind my latest Capri restoration project.
I was asked at one of our club meetings if I was interested in assisting a person restore his Capri that had been sitting under his house for some 18 years. I had previously completed two Capri restorations on my own cars & the story of one can be seen at
http://my70fordcapri.blogspot.com/ 
Initially I was not interested & after several weeks I decided that I had time for a new project & decided to have a look. By the way, I am retired and relatively free of the normal comitments that many restorers have. 
The initial inspection did not help very much as the car was parked in a fairly dark garage and there were many parts spread over several areas. The car was the result of parts from a previously damaged Capri being transplanted onto a newly painted (many years ago) Monza Red Capri shell. The major mechanical work had been done eg. 1600 engine, gearbox & drivetrain, front & rear suspension, most exterior body trim including bumpers & side windows. 
Another person had almost completely rewired the car but had unfortunately not completed the task & had not left any instructions. The interior of the car was completely stripped apart from the GT dashboard which had been installed.
I was not really enthused and I could not really see if there was any rust in the body. There were a few minor spots on some body panels. I indicated to the owner that I would think about it for a few days.
After several days & a few discussions with my more sensible partner, I phoned the owner & indicated that I would need to see the car in better light before I could really make a decision. He agreed to moving the car out of his garage, enabling me to get a good look at it. Unfortunately in pulling the car out, the rear bumper was pulled off damaging the bumper & some rear panel work. The car had also been hosed down which made it look a little better. Surprisingly, the door pillars seemed rust free & I did not notice any major rust areas.
I then decided I would go ahead with the job provided we could agree on some conditions. I put together a simple written agreement indicating that the work would be done at my house with parts paid for by the owner & a small hourly rate be charged. Work & hours would be documented & invoiced each fortnight. Either party could terminate the agreement at any time. I also advised the owner that such projects always took longer & cost a lot more than one orginally estimated. Famous last words! He agreed & that is how it all began.

Part 1 - How it looked!

 

The car arrived by tilt tray on 28 September 2010.
These pictures were taken soon after its arrival.
Firstly, the exterior-

Now, the inside

 

 There were no interior fittings apart from the instrument panel. The roof lining was also missing. The pictures also show the mass of wires under the dash. Also note the separate ignition switch.

Part 1a How it looked!

Now for the engine bay- most of it seemed complete apart from the air cleaner.

Due to my agreement with the owner, I kept a diary of my work on the car as well as the time taken to do the tasks. This blog is a summary of what happened over the next 6 months.

Part 2 The Work Begins

As I had no real undercover space to work on the car, I needed to try & get the car mobile so that I could shift it around my yard or under cover.

29/9/10     I started on the engine, degreased & cleaned the engine bay, removed radiator hoses & flushed radiator & engine, removed & attempted to charge battery, drained oil, removed oil filter (which had the date 7/86 written on it), removed spark plugs & ignition leads, removed fuel pump. The fuel pump was one of the original glass bowl types & was just full of a white powder. I attempted to turn the motor by hand & it only revolves about half a turn.Removed starter motor, & tappet cover. Still no difference. Checked & tightened front suspension bolts. 

30/9/10     I tried again to free the engine – no result. Inspected both front wheels & brakes – sprayed RP7 everywhere. RH wheel seems very tight, LHF brake hose is not connected & corroded & will possibly need replacement. Lowered dashboard to allow access to wiring & removed crash pad. Also unscrewed ash tray & heater controls to allow access to heater/fan area. Sprayed RP7 around dash area.

1/10/10     Again I tried to free the engine & after releasing fan belt & trying a few other things, there was no difference. Next the rocker cover was removed & I noticed that 2 valve springs were compressed permanently so maybe several valves are stuck. Nothing to do but remove the cylinder head! Removed the carbie & intake manifold & in the process the centre bolt snapped. (The one under the water intake hole). Great!! It always happens even when you take it carefully. Hopefully, I can get the remainder out OK & no other bolts snap, which is a thing I dread when dismantling these old engines. Thankfully the exhaust manifold came off pretty easily so then it was time for the cylinder head. That also came off without any dramas & it is obvious that it has not been removed for a very long time judging by the gasket & associated corrosion & gunk. I tried to turn over the engine & guess what? It turned over a complete cycle really easily so the valves must have been hitting the top of the pistons. That was a major relief as I was not looking forward to a total engine rebuild. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning & scraping the old gasket material off the face of the block. AY(the owner) came over this afternoon to see what progress had eventuated.
 



Part 3- Head Work

4/10/10     Went to Autobarn & ordered all the parts necessary to replace the head (gaskets, hoses, thermostat & housing, filters, oil, carbie gaskets, plugs, paint, WD40). I was very surprised when they rang that afternoon & had all the parts ready. A very prompt service! Over the weekend, I had been constantly spraying WD40 down the valve guides to try to free the stuck valves but no luck. They are really going to take a lot of effort to move.

6/10/10     Today was very frustrating as I spent the whole day trying to free up the stuck valves & removing the broken stud. Four valves came out very easily but the remainder were really stuck. I continually sprayed WD40 down the valve guides & eventually with a bit of physical persuasion, they became free. That took most of the morning. Then I spent most of the afternoon drilling out the broken intake manifold bolt. I broke about 5 drill bits & two stud removers in the process but after several hours, I had most of it removed. The thread still needs to be cleaned up & I hope it is not too damaged but I guess we can re-thread if the worst comes to the worst. Tomorrow the cleaning of the head & valves will continue.
                                                                                                     

7/10/10     Continued to clean cylinder head & remove gaskets. Cleaned & wire brushed valves, starter motor, rocker arm, rocker cover, carbie, intake manifold, fuel pump, ignition leads.

8/10/10     Continued to reface valves & prepare to reassemble cylinder head. Re-threaded broken intake manifold bolt.

                                                                                                       

11/10/10   Refitted valve springs & collected spray can of Monza Red paint (Slacks Creek).

                Dissembled & cleaned the carbie. Fitted all new gaskets & needle & re-assembled. Finished cleaning intake manifold. Everything now ready to paint.

14/10/10   Removed radiator & fan & prepared the engine bay & battery tray for touch up painting. Spray painted all the engine parts. Refitted the cylinder head, valve guides, rocker arm & ensured valves are operating. Refitted exhaust manifold, fuel pump, starter motor & intake manifold.

                                                                                         

15/10/10    Completed fitting intake manifold & all bolts in starter motor. Adjusted the valve clearances & tried to turn motor over to ensure all parts are operating so far. No response. Tested all circuits & tests indicate current & ignition switch is operative. Possible that starter is faulty so it was removed & tested. Working fine. Purchased new battery. Plenty of action with new battery & everything turning over OK. In fact, there is a bit too much action & sparks were flying from the connection. I really think that there is an earthing problem but I will trace that further. Ignition does work & there is spark at the distributor. Cleaned out fuel lines & removed a fair bit of rubbish from engine end. Put several litres of fuel in tank to try & clean out lines. No fuel coming through so that is another task. Later on I noticed that the fuel tank was leaking all this watery black like petrol gunk through into the boot. Not good news but not surprising considering how long the car has been in storage. So that means the fuel tank will have to come out & repaired. Fitted oil filter & sump plug & then filled with oil. No obvious leaks so that is good news. Refitted radiator, hoses, thermostat, alternator, fan belt & filled radiator with water as I really wanted to fire the beast up. I seemed to keep adding water to the radiator & was hearing water leaking out & then noticed water pouring out of the rear welch plug so that was it. No fuel, no water – no go!! Very disappointing!!! Also noticed a small leak under intake manifold where bold was stripped so that will also have to come off again. So a little frustrating but I guess that goes with this type of job.

Part 4 - More Engine Bits

18/10/10    Removed fuel tank & flushed many times to try & remove rust. Lots of rubbish came out. There are several holes along the bottom seam of the tank but I think it can be repaired by soldering. Removed intake manifold to repair stripped tread stud under water jacket. Removed exhaust manifold to replace two welsh plugs. Managed to remove both plugs without too many dramas as they were very rusty & the bottom of the engine block was full of rust & gunk. Tapped solenoid & it doesn’t seem to be arcing and no shorts obvious when connecting battery. Off to see if I can get two plugs & a helicoil to replace the thread.

                The welch plugs were easily obtained at Autobarn & also a thread repair device – a bit expensive though!  Bottom of one of the block holes is a bit suspect but I cleaned them up as best I could with the wire brush on the drill. Very difficult to insert the plugs as the room is restricted to get the hammer onto the plugs. Both went in OK & also inserted helicoil into cylinder head.

20/10/10    I tested it with water in the block & one plug has a very slight leak so it will have to be replaced. Bought another plug & because of the weather went back to repairing the fuel tank. When cleaning this with the wire brush many more rust spots became obvious but all in the same general area at the bottom of the tank. I cut a metal patch out & used an epoxy glue to stick that down & then I will solder around the perimeter of the patch. Hope that works!

                Put in the welsh plug & applied a liberal dose of gasket cement & then refitted intake manifold. Checked for leaks & success with welsh plugs & intake manifold but still a slight drip from bottom of front of engine. Tightened bottom radiator hose but, on closer inspection from under the car, the water is coming from the front of the water pump. What a bugger!! I suppose again that this is not surprising considering the time the car has been sitting. But that means taking the radiator out & a new water pump. Surely that must be it!!!

                I continued to repair the fuel tank but it will have to get a better cover with the solder.

21/10/10   Removed the radiator & water pump. It came off with no dramas which was surprising. The inside of the pump was badly corroded. Cleaned up gaskets & resprayed area. Ordered parts.

22/10/10    Collected parts & refitted exhaust manifold & new water pump. Lot of difficulty fitting fan belt pulley & fan as the threads on the water pump spindle were of a different size. Had to buy a new set of bolts & finally had everything lining up. Refitted radiator & hoses & filled with water. Finally, no water leaks which was very pleasing. I was a bit concerned as the water pump pulley did not seem to be aligning up exactly with the alternator pulley. It seemed to be 5-7mm out. Fitted spark plugs & ignition leads. I wanted to have a go at firing the beast so some fuel went in the carbie & everything was turning OK but no go. Checked points & it seems that they have melted at some stage so that is where the problem is but not enough time today but getting very close to the magic moment!

2/11/10     After a week away, I fitted the new contact points & sorted out the plug leads. I had also done some internet searching and found that there are two water pumps listed in some parts catalogues for this engine. So, it looks like I landed the incorrect one! Took out the radiator again & removed the water pump in readiness for fitting of correct one. (Reordered WP181 through Autobarn as two pumps, WP181 & WP730 are listed for the 1600 engine & this is why I had so much trouble fitting the fan belt pulley). I will compensate for this error but no one really is at fault – Autobarn provided the correct one at the same price as there was a reasonable price difference. Connected fuel pipe from pump to carbie & vacuum leads from brake booster to carbie. Not sure how to connect main fuel line to pump & leave the original fitting. Tried to connect throttle cable but a bracket off the rocker cover is missing so either I will have to find one or make one. Also have to fit cable to accelerator pedal behind dashboard.

3/11/10      Checked new water pump for fitting & found that the bolts required to fix fan & pulley were metric thread so I had to make another trip to Repco. Fitted water pump & this one aligns properly & no water leaks so that is good. Had a go at starting but no spark. I found that the lead to the coil was loose & with some adjustment to the contact points, then there was spark at the points. Had another go to turn over motor but no go – what a bugger! Turned my attention to the fuel tank & spent about an hour soldering on a patch to the bottom & I though it looked OK. Put a bit of fuel in it & started leaking everywhere but not from the patch but from a hole on the other side of the tank. On closer inspection, there were rust spots everywhere & with a prod from the screw driver, holes were everywhere. So, in short, the tank is RS. I think I will have to try & source another one which may be difficult. (I was able to locate one that night from another club member so hopefully it is OK.) That is the good thing about being in a club & having some good club members. When packing up for the day, I noticed that the rotor from the distributor was not where it should be so I put it back in properly, poured in a bit of fuel & whamo – a bit of life appeared for approx 1 sec. Tried again but starter motor would not engage so another set back but at least, the engine is very close to firing.

Part 5 The Wiring Puzzle

4/11/10     A very wet day so I collected the dash section that had been repaired at Jobsons & visited AY to discuss several matters & check out what parts were available for the next stage.

5/11/10     I spent most of the time today trying to figure out the wiring & what was connected to what. The car had been rewired but not completely & came with no instructions. Firstly, I had to remove the interior fuse panel (not original!) which was badly rusted & give it all a good clean. The fuses were badly corroded. Cannot work a few things out as it appears that the column stalk that is not original (from a Falcon) has some wires connected & some not. The fixture of the stalk is not stable so I will have to figure out a way to keep it in place. I think the washer pump is linked to the second stage of the fan motor. The wipers are linked to the left hand stalk. The indicators to the left hand side but I still cannot really understand where the lights are linked to. After putting in some new fuses, I will try to sort this out further. The wiring to the horn goes up through the steering wheel which is not correct so some alternative horn button will be necessary. I will have to take off the steering wheel to replace the rear section of the steering wheel & make something to conceal the front section of the indicator stalk.

                                                                                                   

9/11/10     I spent most of the time today trying to sort out the wiring & dashboard. The ignition works, voltmeter works, fan makes a noise on RHD & I think LHD on the switch near the heater controls is for the washers. Front lights & spotlights work form second switch on dash. Ignition light works. After a lot of stuffing around & a set of new fuses in the inside panel, by earthing the bottom right hand fuse, all the controls located on the steering column work i.e. indicators, front & rear, & both sides are OK; wiper motor works but spindle needs to be pulled right up through the bonnet fixture. I also found the speedo cable. The driver’s side door handle now also works due to heaps of WD40 & it seems that the ignition key will lock this door & the boot.

11/11/10   Removed the starter motor & it seems OK & I am not sure why it is not engaging. It may be the spring mechanism so I will try & sort that out. Fitted AY’s fuel sender seal into the tank I got from AJ. It all looks OK & no leaks obvious now after the seal has been fitted. Spot painted the rust spots & then resprayed the whole tank black. Attempted to fit the throttle cable but (a) spring is missing (b) bracket onto rocker cover is missing (c) hole through firewall is gigantic & (d) can’t undo inspection plate to refit end of cable onto accelerator pedal. Very frustrating & I will have to make a bracket. Not a great deal of progress!!

                                                                                                            

15/11/10   Some progress was made today. Refitted the fuel tank & that took considerable time due to connecting up all the vent hoses, the filler hose & then the fuel line & that took a midget’s hand to be able to connect it. Finally got that connected & then used the brass joiner to connect the fuel line to the fuel pump. Put in a few litres of fuel & had a dribble through but I think it needs a few more litres to really get it going.  Tried again to fit the throttle cable & lying upside down under the dash is not my favourite place. I have come to the conclusion that the cable is not correct as the end that fits through the pedal does not have the usual round end so that the attaching clip can fit over. Fitted new spring & bracket to rocker cover. Refitted starter motor & goes OK but needs a whack to get it to engage. I will get more fuel tomorrow & then really try to get this motor going.

16/11/10   At last some success! I actually had the motor going. With a few more litres of fuel the fuel flowed pretty well & with a bit of cranking it was through the filter & into the carbie. Then had a bit of backfiring & found that I had the rotor around the wrong way! After a bit of fiddling, I had it running reasonably OK – no strange noises & then it stopped. I discovered the coil was super hot so I need to replace that with a spare one I have & will try again tomorrow.

17/11/10    A mainly wasted & frustrating day. I cannot work out the issue with the coil. I had my technical expert, KH, help me out & he suggested that the engine wasn’t earthed properly as there was no earth wire from the engine to the body. I added an earth wire to the firewall & then tried but no difference as the coil was still getting super hot. Tired several coils, including a new one off my other Capri & same thing happened suggesting it is not the coil but a short circuit some where in the distributor. The starter motor is also playing up so that doesn’t help. So, no real progress until we sort out this electrical problem.

                                                                                                           

18/11/10   Checked spark from the coil to distributor but points not opening & the new set had started to get very hot. Points are also not opening & so obviously causing everything to short. KH rebuilt the distributor, cleaned & reset points. Everything looks OK & the points are opening correctly. Battery charged.

                                    

20/11/10   Took out starter motor again. Re-oiled spindle & refitted. Turned key & the engine fired up straight away & ran for a short time sounding pretty good. Then it stopped. Went briefly again a number of times & then stopped. Checked fuel & fuel pump & that is OK. Checked points & again they are burnt & not opening properly with the coil warm again. So there still is a problem which may involve three things – either the earthing is still insufficient, a missing resistor to the coil or a faulty condenser. Hopefully the fix is close as it is very nearly there!