One Retard, a broken Capri, and a Wife... and a V8?

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JonnyEnglish
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One Retard, a broken Capri, and a Wife... and a V8?

Post by JonnyEnglish »

So whilst living in a third floor flat with no garage or parking.... we have decided to embark on the most epic restoration project on the most broken 1.6 Laser Ford Capri ever dragged out of a barn.

My wife, Mim (22), has agreed to helping with this project... probably just to keep an eye on the finances as I do like to spend more than I have! With about as much experience with cars and engines as a two year old child, she can just about fill up her car with petrol - as long as there is an adult to supervise!

I restored a Classic Mini about 3 years ago before we got married but other than that, my knowledge comes directly from a Haynes manual - so I am a bit nervous as this Capri really does need to be stripped to a shell and then rebuilt entirely!

So you may be wondering why on a V8 forum? Well against all advice from friends and relatives, I have decided to purchase a Ford 302 5.0 V8 to upgrade the existing 2.0 Sierra that came with the car. This forum will log all progress that we make on a weekly/bi-weekly basis and any advice will be warmly welcomed! Any questions that we have I hope can also be answered here!

Jon and Mim

Me

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I might slate her in this forum but she is fine :-)

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The Captain

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Week 1

After twisting my dad's arm I have managed to wangle a space in his barn to store our Ford Capri, junk and all. However, when it arrived on a tow-truck, the space in the barn was not ready so The Captain (the name we have given our Capri) had to live outside for a month or two.

After battling spiders as big as our hands and rubbish to the ceiling, we finally cleared out The Captain's new home. Assuming that it would only take me half an hour or so to pull the Capri from my parent's drive to the barn 50 meters away, I took a day off with my wife.

2 hours later and up to our ankles in muddy water we were still wrestling The Captain.

A good lesson for us to learn is that a 1.6 Audi A1 can't tow a Capri. Turns out the brakes have seized on and the wheels are entirely flat. Thankfully the Glish-machine (daddy) was on hand with a BMW X5 which yanked the Capri along just fine.

Our next problem was maneuvering The Captain as the X5 couldn't pull the Capri into the barn as there was not enough space to bring the X5 back out afterwards. So it was going to be a push job between the three of us.

Out came the broken compressor to try to get enough air onto the tyres whilst we pushed. Anyone who has seen my previous Mini restoration project thread ( Link here ) will remember this cheeky character!

With three pumped tyres and onenot holding air, we inched our way forwards, me at the rear with Glish-machine and Mim at the front end steering with one hand and pushing with the other. As comical as it sounds and probably looks in your head right now, we were about to witness a catastrophic argument, trouser gussets ripping under force and more than one coronary attack (although not necessarily in that order!)

Moving around an inch at a time for the first half hour, soon an inch became a foot and a foot became a meter as slowly the brakes become unseized-ish... Until Mim in her excitement forgot to steer and we crashed.

Pretending not to wish to strangle someone, we had to heartbreakingly push the Capri back 2 meters to try to compensate for the turning circle.

Finally The Captain was home.
Last edited by JonnyEnglish on Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:52 pm, edited 8 times in total.



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Post by scudderfish »

PHOTOS!

:)

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Initiate Interior strip down and Engine Removal

Post by JonnyEnglish »

Week Two

Saturday 9th January

For the last three months, the V8 engine that I had paid a deposit for has lived with it's previous owner. Due to unfortunate timing we have found it difficult to arrange a courier collection and delivery so in the end I hired a van and collected my beloved V8 engine with my cousin Icegti. More on this welder extraordinaire later...

Arriving at the guy's house that we were collecting the engine from, everything was plain sailing. He had prepared the engine on an engine crane with the gearbox next to it ready to go. He told us to make a start on loading it into our van and that he would meet us in ten.

When he turned up, he asked us if we had any trouble getting to his house... (we said no)... as apparently just an hour before the police had been round to ask questions about a woman that had mental health issues who was supposed to be under supervision but had somehow escaped and had killed her husband! Needless to say, I paid up and was out of there like a bat out of a hell!!

Arriving back at the barn and no engine crane to hand, me, the Glish-machine and Icegti realised there was no way forward apart from lifting the engine out with our own brute force.

Three flatulent, gusset ripping, coronary lifts later and the engine was sitting in the barn next to the beast it will power forevermore.

Drink time.



Sunday 10th January

After the stress of moving The Captain into the barn, we started this morning with fresh smiles and energy. Shame the missus had PMT.

Not letting that hold us back, we headed to McDonalds to celebrate with a cheeky breakfast. To set the scene, I have only recently started to drive my own company car; for the last three weeks I was driving a temporary one. Our previous McDonalds trip in the previous car, ended in utter disaster when a staff member passed us out two large strawberry milkshakes without having first checked that the lids had been pushed on. This resulted in a strawberry explosion, both on the inside and outside of my car, including all over my suit.

So this morning, with a new company car and excitement about starting our new project, I threw over the bag of food to Mim so that we could set off. I probably should have checked to see if she was ready to catch a paper bag full of sausage and egg McMuffins and wraps flying through the air.

It hit into the cup of Fanta, which knocked over the cup of Hot Chocolate, allowing us to enjoy a firework display of orange and brown across the center console, front seats and dash.

We have decided to avoid McDonalds for the foreseeable future... at least a month anyway.

On to the barn...

To really look the part and to help her fear of perhaps getting herself dirty, Mim has invested in a boiler suit, gloves, scarf and hat. She's happy with it, which means I have to be too....

I have given her the job of stripping the interior and re-covering the seats. She isn't too disastrous with a needle and thread so she's up for this task. However as there were a few cobwebs on the fabric, I had to do the majority of the hard work for her...

I have decided to sell the existing engine to try to go towards the cost of the new one, so I was removing more bolts, nuts and plastic ties than you can shake a stick at (whilst, of course pulling out staples and hog rings for the missus!)

With the old fabric off so that Mim can make pattern pieces for the new covers and the engine ready to be lifted out once it has sold, we decided to call it a day and go a say hello to the Wrinklies.

In the car on the way home, Mim has started a little Instagram hashtag for our photos too, #projectcaptaincapri so feel free to check those out too when they get uploaded! We'll be back in a week or two, have fun guys!

Jon and Mim


PS We will upload photos later (we had a situation when we got out of the car when we got home. My fault. I dropped Mim's phone which now won't turn on. Five minutes without Instagram and a woman with severe PMT means that WWIII has commenced.
Last edited by JonnyEnglish on Tue Jan 12, 2016 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by ChrisJC »

Epic project - looking forward to following it!

Chris.
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Post by mgbv8 »

Keep us posted Jon and Mim :)

Perry Stephenson

MGB GT + Rover V8

9.62 @ 137.37mph

Now looking for 8 seconds with a SBC engine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVscbPHgue0&list=UUqIlXfSAoiZ--GyG4tfRrjw



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg3avnsNKrc&index=2&list=FLqIlXfSAoiZ--GyG4tfRrjw

JonnyEnglish
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Phones back so we are too!

Post by JonnyEnglish »

Tuesday 12th January

So we have managed to get the phone repaired! Well almost... we upgraded a bit early and managed to salvage at least some of the photos we had taken!

Here is a few photos of when we were trying to tow The Captain over to the barn... Not hugely successful to begin with, but we did it in the end! Also shown is the Glish-machine and Mim being entirely useful... She does love taking selfies at inconvenient times...

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Comes with a courtesy cup holder!!

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Always a good idea to use an extension lead in the pouring rain... Watch Glish-machine's eyes glow :twisted:

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The Captain reached it's new home!! Albeit with some junk that still needs to be removed... Anyone want a bio-diesel maker? Trying to shift it but don't really want to throw it away if someone can find a use for it?

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Whilst removing the old engine, we discovered a new way of storing coolant! I must say, if this ever worked I am impressed! Almost seemed a shame to lose it...

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Our prized V8 engine in all her glory!! Admittedly I'm not sure who leaned the shovel there but it's the only photo we have at the moment so it will have to do :-) the gearbox that we also purchased can be seen at the front.

(As a side point, I would like to say how proud I was that my wife actually recognised this as being a 'gearbox' last week... I think by the end of this project she will be an expert!)

From this...

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To this...

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And lastly, everyone on here may view this as a total travesty (everyone I have shown so far has...) but here are the original Recaro seats before my wife started to take off the fabric. She's fairly good at sewing and has been watching a lot of video tutorials so I thought "hey why not!" At least this way, all the interior will match throughout. More photos of this as more work is completed.

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We are going over to see The Captain tomorrow night after work so hopefully more updates in the next few days (as long as we have no more accidents with the phone...)

Have fun guys,

Jon and Mim

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Wednesday after work...

Post by JonnyEnglish »

Wednesday 13th January

So after work I dragged Bizotch (aka Mim, but we never call her that in real life so may as well stick with her 'real' name) round to see The Captain.

It was cold. It was dark. It was damp. And Bizotch stepped into very boggy grass on the way over to the barn which she sank into and got wet feet before we had even opened the door. It started well...

The Captain was still storing a lot of rubbish and general car interior parts so we started to take these out and work out what was reusable. Bizotch has now removed all of the seats and carpets and will have more updates on this a bit later.

I, meanwhile, removed various plastic trims that had damage, some severe, some probably 'mendable'. I also fitted my new battery.

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Tried my new battery. No power going anywhere. Not even hazards. Also, the key doesn't turn in the ignition. I feel that this project has suddenly become a lot scarier.

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Floor pans also have lots of holes (some being large) so new ones will need to be sourced. Any ideas where these could be found?? Or welding solutions?

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I also managed to get a photograph of bizotch in her overalls.... I'm not keen but if it means she stands in a freezing, leaking barn for two hours with me without one word of complaint then I can't really moan!!

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After a bit of general tidying up in the barn we called it a night. We will be going over again on Saturday. Mim is hopefully going to be able to get a good move on with the seat pattern pieces and wet sponge out the interior of the car so that we can work out what is needed to fix up the floorpans. I am hoping to lift out the original engine, take off the gearbox and remove the exhaust. All of which will be up for sale shortly! I am also hoping to take off the wheels and get the car jacked up permanently.

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Does anyone know what engine this is? I want to sell it. It has '205' written on the block and is an Ford EFI engine with an 'RS2000' ECU. Much appreciated!

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And to finish off with some amazingly good news!! We have made money already!! At least £2 in the ashtray! Boom!

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Anyway, off to bed guys. Have a good Friday - that means bacon roll breakfast in our office tomorrow! :D

Jon and Mim

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Post by Darkspeed »

Engine

Ford Pinto SOHC 2.0L 205 Block EFI - One of the more sought after Pinto's as they are the later higher power variant and are unleaded compatible - IIRC rated at 115BHP. If the box is the 5 speed type 9 and in good order then that's worth a fair bit as well as are any blue oval spares.

ebay completed listings search with get you the current values.
4.5L V8 Ginetta G27

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Post by ChrisJC »

If you can't weld, you need to find a bloody good welder to help you patch that lot up. Welding bodywork is a right tricky job. Are you going to get it up on a spit so you can rotate it?

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Glish in a machine...

Post by JonnyEnglish »

Saturday 16th January 2016

With a lovely sunny day ahead of us we heading over to The Captain nice and early today. Our plan was to take out the old engine, the old gearbox and remove the old exhaust system. We have hired an engine crane for the day from a really helpful guy called Richard in Marks Tey. We found him on eBay £10 per day! and only up the road. Somehow managed to squeeze it into the back of my Audi A1... with Mim's face crushed against the windscreen the whole way home!

We accidentally got a cheeky McDonalds breakfast (Maccas for future post references!) to keep us going as we had a very early start today - 3am!!! But that's another story...

After Bizotch dolled herself up to the nines in her fingerless gloves, scarf, hat, vest, tshirt, jumper, thin fleece, thick fleece, coat and overalls on top of that... I put on my work shirt and shorts and met her over at the barn. The Glish-machine saw that we were going over to The Captain and came out to join us. Good job he did cause he sorting us out some heating while we worked.... Watch your eyebrows!!

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Our first mission was to try to find a bit of rope strong enough to loop round the engine to lift it out. We considered Glish-machine's undercrackers but decided it wasn't fair cause the engine crane wasn't ours.

After scrabbling around in the barn (cave of wonders but as disorganised as a skip) we found some rope and managed to wangle a way of tying a knot that would be strong enough to lift the engine. Granted it took a few attempts to get the knot just right lo and behold it is now free!!

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I am genuinely really impressed that I managed to clear all the bolts, cables and wires so that the engine could be removed easily today, really did not expect to do it properly!

A few months ago Bizotch bid on a set of car ramps and managed to get the pair for only £5 - best £5 she has ever spent! This meant that we had two pairs, which naturally matches the four wheels on the car! After looking at the prices of a few rollover jigs we decided to jack the car up enough to place one ramp under each wheel, all facing different directions to hopefully make it nice and stable. And if not, we can always chuck Biztoch underneath to hold it up while I work on it!!

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And here is the empty engine bay!

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After clearing the engine out and lifting the car up, we moved on to removing the gearbox. This was a bit more tricky as it was attached to more than one place we couldn't see properly... and Mim was running around taking more photos than you can poke a stick at.

Eventually, after both myself and Glish had climbed into the engine bay (the most ingenius name: Glish-in-the-machine), crawled under the car and hit a few bits with a hammer, we were able to slide the gearbox out from the front end. Bizotch was in charge of collecting all the sockets, spanners, screwdrivers, tools etc... and has discovered the reason why I insisted she wears steel-toe caps when we work on The Captain.

"If you take one more photo I am going to wrap this stick around your head!" said the Glish-machine as Bizotch took 100 other photos and videos....
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This is Glish-in-a-Machine

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Another jiggy-mer-pokery job was to detach the exhaust system, from the front up to the back. Again, once I introduced a hammer and managed a slide it all out. Does anyone know what exhaust this is?

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I am dreading sorting out the underside fo the car as the rust looks horrendous....

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Once everything had been removed and tidied we called it a day and came inside to warm up as Bizotch was acting as if I had asked her to trek the North Pole in her undies... Despite all her layers!!

Mim has got some fabric to practice her pattern pieces tonight so will have more information on this in a few days time too!

Have a good evening guys,

Jon and Mim

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Post by scudderfish »

Keep the posts coming, very entertaining :)

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Post by ChrisJC »

:whs :whs
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Post by unstable load »

Hop onto Google and look at Basil Green Perana Capri. They were a homologated special in South Africa and he had his own official VIN plate. The site should detail the required mods to keep it all from coming to bits on you.
Cheers,
John

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Post by JonnyEnglish »

Thanks for all the comments and the information guys it all helps as I dont really know what I am doing haha! I'm sure it'll go ok! I have Icegti welder extraordinaire coming over tomorrow. I mean he's good he's very good but no welder can weld air!

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Post by JonnyEnglish »

Sunday 17th January

So thought I would have a crack at getting the prop shaft off today. My word this bolts were tight! Needed a breaker bar, and extension! Then the whole prop dropped on me. Which winded me a tad and also sprayed rust dust in my eyes all good though! No Mim for this one was all on my own :(/>

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Last edited by JonnyEnglish on Sat Jan 30, 2016 1:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

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