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I bought it in Autumn 96 with the main aim of restoring it to its former glory. It wasn't in too bad a shape when I got it as it had only one previous owner a current MOT and the 36K on the clock seemed genuine. There was lots of documentation including the original pricelist(350K Jpeg) and handbook (37K Jpeg). The sills needs replacing, the door bottoms are pretty rusty and there are a few holes in the footwells.
Daylight can be seen through the base of the rear quarter panels, but the wheel well and rear chassis members are fine.
The front valance has seen better days as have the tops of the headlamp bowls.
The interior is very good with no rips on the seats (Vinyl unfortunately). All that appears to be needed is a new door pull. The original eight track radio cassette works fine, as does the heated rear window which was a combined optional extra with an Alternator.
The original 2.0 V4 engine starts and runs fine and has good compression on all cylinders. As you can see the engine will need to come out to fully sort out and spray the metal work in there.
To drive it is a unique experience with the long Capri bonnet complete with power bulge stretching out into the distance. The V4 is also very distinct, it seems quite torquey and pulls well, the engine sounds more like a V6 than any other 4 cylinder that I've driven. I've not pushed it because I'm concious how unique and rare the V4 is these days.
So there you are, perhaps a bit of an easy restoration but I'm easily distracted. Plus at £800 I couldn't resist after looking at lots of basket case MG's and Triumphs for the same price.
Here is report on progress, if you think I'm slipping send me a message to get my butt into gear.
1997
January Took the offside wing off, as well as a fair bit of trim (bumpers, lights etc.) Inner wing good with the only rust being on the lip where wing joins, few holes in A post though..
February Took most of interior out, Patched holes in rear and front footwell.
March Still patching front foot well.
April Took nearside Sill off. Quite a lot of repairs needed to inner sill, decided against buying new inner sill as complex swageing still intact and don't fancy cutting off all that key structural metal.
May Continued patching inner Sill.
June Finished patching inner sill, new outer Sill on and things are starting to look better.
July, August, September Bit hot in the Garage, holidays and new computer more intersting. - no progress
October Remove more interior trim, sort out rear wing to sill, pretty rusty.
November 97 - November 98 Not really sure where the time went, but started on N/S, needed new sill and inner sill patching as well as A post.
December 98 After a long idle period I've made some progress. The N/S sill floor and A post is now done. I'm taking my time with the wheel arch as it is the first really visible part of the bodywork I've tackled. As btinternet have increased our Web space here are some more pictures.
January 99 Things are progressing faster now thanks to having a decent heater in the garage at last. I don't how people can restore restore cars in their garden. Finished off wheel arch and lower rear wing. A bit of a set back on the inner wing where a hole the size of a penny ended up as an A4 sized patched to get back to solid metal. Here are some pictures.
February 99 Did the other wheelarch in about 2 weeks, Wow. Treated myself to a secondhand door from Tickover to save me a fair bit of work. Unfortunately I only found out after it was fitted that there are minor differences between pre and post facelift doors which have different interior handle mountings. Started on the front valance, the last bit of external bodywork. Here are some more pictures.
March 99 Modified the door, fixed the holes in my wings and spent ages trying to line them up right when refiting. Sorted out front valance and holes in front crossmember. Lots of filler over my patches here, hope people don't to closely behind bumper. Almost ready for painting now. Here are some more pictures.
April 99 Removed, bonnet, boot and side windows for painting. Spent the rest of the month smoothing down body and my repairs. Stripped new door to bare metal as it had 4 coats of paint on it. Sprayed on cellulose undercoat and quite pleased with my first go a spraying, but still more work needed to hide imperfections and tricky swage line round rear wheel arch, so its back to the wet and dry. Here are some more pictures.
May 99 I painted most of the car this month. My technique improved but unfortunately there are a few runs that may need removing or panels respraying. When enough of the car was painted I put it back together and took it for an MOT, it failed of course but with one of the shortest fails lists I've seen for ages. £65 for welding and new brake pipes plus new headlamps should be enough. Here are some more pictures.
June 99 Finished off the rear wheel arch and painted it, but didn't get it to blend in very well with the rest of the panel, so yet another panel to be resprayed. Got some new headlamps from Mick in Kent, took it for an MOT the next day and it passed. It now runs great and I had it up to 80mph without the accelerator pushed fully down. Clearly my hunch that the lack of power (65 mph top speed) and overheating at this speed was due to the second venturi on the carb being blocked through lack of use ?. A carb rebuild was all it needed and much easier than a decoke which was my second diagnosis. Here are some more pictures.
July, August 99 Runs great, but handling a bit vague so I fitted a set of polyurethane bushes at the front which helped a lot. Drove it to the Bromley Pagent of Motoring, Capri Summer Camp and Police Gala Day at Norwich. Great fun.
September 99 Time to start tinkering, so out comes the engine and all the engine bay components, no rusted or cross threaded bolts. Hope it goes back together as easy as it all comes out. Here are some more pictures.
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