Bigred15

I'm not sure how receptive people will be to this thread, it is a Capri after all. But the same work that I do here can be applied to any Fox body Mustang so here goes.

The restoration on the Capri has officially started. I've got alot of work to do. I took off the fenders, hood and doors. I also started to gut the interior. I can't get to the back yet because I will need help to get the bubble hatch off, and it is HEAVY. The floors don't look too horrible, but they are not as good as first glance. I will have work to do on both floors. Tomorrow I'm going to start to tear out the rubber thats stuck to the floor, anybody have any hint on the best way to do it? Hopefully this weekend I will get someone to help me with the hatch and I can tear into the rear portion of the interior. I was thinking of not even pulling out the dash, but its not in fantastic shape so I will need to find another. My vision for the car is simple. I'm going to go with the factory with the exterior look. New factory paint color, correct decals and such. For originality sake, I'm going to keep the four lugs but upgrade to rear discs for safety. That means that the 7.5 will also stay. I'm going to put in bolt on subframe connectors, strut tower brace and lower the car with springs, upgrade to 87-93 spindles and front brakes and put on some really nice struts and shocks, probably Tokicos. The engine will initially be rebuilt bone stock, and I will be on the look out for a TC engine that I will put in and hopefully build to put around 300RWHP. The interior will be mostly factory, I will replace the standard seats with some red sports seats with halos or possibly 87-93 red seats, and possibly an aftermarket radio. All of the original parts will be put in storage for a rainy day. My goal will be a well balanced, fun to drive car that I can enjoy driving in the twisties and on an occasional road course.





Driver Side


Passenger Side


That it the work so far. I'm trying not to go too fast because I don't want to get burned out. So think about one hour a day during the week and 3-4 on Saturday and Sunday, possibly less during the weekdays. Since this will be my first complete teardown, any pointers that anyone feels compelled to provide will be appreciated.

BA Mustang

A Capri is like a fox body right?

Bigred15

It IS a Fox body. There are four main differences, the bubble hatch, hood, fender flares on the front and rear, and the front bumper cover, grill and such are different. Other than that, it is mostly the same.

Mackitraz

Nice project, looks like you have lots of work ahead of you, which will turn out to be something to be really proud of when you're done!

One question. Are you doing a faithful capri restoration? I ask because I like the styling cues of the capri except the bubble hatch. Can't stand that part! Always thought they looked better when swapped with a mustang hatch.

Good luck!!

Bigred15

I plan on keeping the bubble hatch, but I'm pondering putting it in storage just in case I get in a wreck. The bubble hatch stuff is REALLY hard to come by.

Puter

FYI, more than a Mustang - or now you know a Capri - is a Fox body. There is a good list including the Fairmont, Thunderbird, LTD, etc.

Sweet project.

Mberglo

We definitely want to watch the progress. You might want to resize your photos so they don't require us to scroll left-right.

To get the floorboard insulation off, heat it with a propane torch and it comes right off.

Rear discs aren't really necessary for a streetcar in my opinion. They're cool, but not really a gottahave safety item.

Looking forward to watching.

Bigred15

This is true about the brakes. But after dealing with the inadequete brakes in my 86, I really want to upgrade to 87-93 5.0 front brakes and rear discs. Especially since I might hit road course or two with the car. Most people don't realize that the brakes on 84 GTs were the same used on 4 cyl aero cars.

Rapture

My 79 Capri RS Tubro had no bubble back

edit Example:

Bigred15

Yeah, 79 Capris had different rear bumper covers, taillights and hatch.

kennyg

What are the correct wheels for the '84 Capri RS Turbo? TRX?/or the double spoke TRX? kennyg

Bigred15

It depends on the package. The TRX wheels were available as part of a handling package. Alot of Capris came with the 10 holes. The only way to find out is to get someone to decode the buck tag. I plan to get my buk tag decoded soon, but even then if my car originally came with TRXes I may not get them. The tires are near impossible to come buy.

kennyg

And expensive! kennyg

Rapture

TRX were for the Capri RS tubros, Very expensive wheels and tires Not sure if they make anymore


edit: I totaled mine I loved that car and loved the turbo whine
I will try to post pics later.

Wish they would have made a S197 capri

Evil_Capri

Very cool build!!

UnrealFord

I had a 1980 Capri, Turbo, the turbo went after 43,000 miles, I ened up going to a V8 conversion, After years gone by, now I wish I would have kept the 4 banger Turbo..I loved the car though, It had Console, Maplight, Factory AMP for stereo, Drivers seat would adjust even up and down,Rear defroster, It had preeety much eveything, It was originally Orange... Oh even had factory louvers and hood scoop

Mine looked exactly like this orange one .look here> http://images.search.yahoo.com/searc...72f2c&ei=UTF-8

mgreene

Or you might want to change your screen resolution to something a little more modern than 640x480 .

Mberglo

That stick in the eye thing hurts, ya know.

mgreene

You're right, they are a tad large. I'd say 800x600 would be big enough while still allowing us to see the detail.

Bigred15

Yeah I'm sorry about that, my screen resolution is 1680x1050 so I don't see a problem. I will try to resize later pics.