OK, first up – those pesky ARB chassis brackets. Each had one broken bolt stuck in them that had sheared off when removing the ARB and which was rusted in solid. No amount of Plusgas was freeing them up, but to be fair, it wouldn’t have done much good as there wasn’t really anything left to get hold of. In to college then and time for a play in the Mech.…
That last TCA nut didn’t want to give up without a fight, but in the end it couldn’t compete against the combined might of the angle grinder, cold chisel and lump hammer It’s definitely been changed since the car was built, so I’m guessing whoever did it chose to use salt water on the threads instead of copper grease for some bizarre reason As the ARB chassis brackets had to come…
Steering rack and both track rod ends now successfully off the car – the jacking-up tip worked a treat Replacements are being picked up from the nice people at General Traffic tomorrow at a mere twenty quid for the rack and four quid each for the TREs The other nut on the TCA rose joint isn’t shifting for love nor money. Getting the steering off enabled me to rotate the strut to…
Isn’t it amazing how doing nothing for years can sometimes be good, and sometimes be bad? Trees, for example – do nothing with ’em for a few million years and you get petrol Steel nuts and bolts, however, you can’t even leave for twenty seven years … This weekend has been spent stripping down the front suspension eager to put some shiny new bits on, but in total I’ve managed to…
Well, after a battle of Tolkeinesque proportions, the bushes and their sleeves are finally out of the rear springs Taking onboard everyone’s advice, I started by attacking the bushes themselves with a blowlamp. Whilst it was fun, the novelty wore off real quickly once it got smelly … and then the muesli-eating kids from a few doors down started taunting me about my environmental footprint Getting the sleeves out should have been nice…
Not a lot going on at the moment as I’ve been rather busy with work, but set to this morning to clean up a set of single leaf springs I picked up months back. Lots of surface rust removed with a flap disc in the grinder meant that the air in the garage was a little thick by the time I’d finished Glad I remembered to put the dustmask on first They’re obviously…
I managed to get a quick spray of blue onto the car when I got home last night and to allow suitable drying time we nipped out to the pub for a swift half When we got back at about 1am I got the mirrors on and adjusted, the doorcards fitted and gave the windows a quick clean. Changing the mirror mounts over to studs makes the job infinitely easier No pictures,…
And so begins the second year of the project If I seem overly chuffed, it’s because I was worried I might get hacked off with it all early on and chuck in the towel after a couple of months – so to get this far is cause for celebration in my book But, you lot don’t want that – no, you lot want updates, pictures, questions, bizarre bodges and clearly signposted…
Amazing as it seems, this thread is now almost a year old Thanks for all your help and encouragement folks All of which means that the car’s due for an MOT . I took the opportunity at college this week to get the car up onto the ramps and have a good look around underneath, attack any surface rust on the chassis sections with a wire brush, clean up old fluid…
As part of the continuing adventures with the Capri, we took it out for the weekend round North Wales on a trip organised by Aled (alminera) and Dave. “Classic Ford Snowdonia Mountain Trail 2007” it said on the plaque attached to the bumper … I think we managed to contain our glee at such a gesture – little touches like that are what it’s all about as far as we’re…
Well, just like I said I would, I took the car out to college tonight – nearly didn’t make it though as I only just remembered it needed fuel as I was almost level with the garage I’ve got to deduct one dancing banana from the previous points haul, though, as when I got to college I noticed a small leak from my old friend – the thermostat housing. I’m sure…
I took the rocker cover back off this evening, and the first thing I saw was nice fresh yummy-looking oil and no stray shards of engine Loosened each head bolt in turn, as per the Haynes, and torqued them up to their final 80 lb/ft. Rocker cover back on, static timing checked again, engine fired up and all seemed tickety-boo. I then plugged the old Gunson timing light into number…
Well, after a day mostly spent moping around and feeling pretty pissed off, I decided that I could either continue sulking, or get the car sorted out. In my experience I’m pretty crap at the former for any proper length of time, so chose the latter I ordered a replacement head gasket set from the Gaskets for Classics chappie on eBay – knew it rang a bell when Dave recommended them the other day … turns…
Well – what an anti-climax With the assistance of my neigbour, I finally got the head back on and spent most of yesterday refitting all the bits and bobs that go with it. Ran out of time to get any fluids into it before dinner guests came round, though, so I had another day’s anticipation build-up. Today didn’t start off too well though – left the house at 6am on…
Well, this afternoon I finished putting all the valves back into the head, checked the endfloat, set the valve clearances, refitted the cam gear, and the belt tensioner and the thermostat housing. Put on the new exhaust studs whilst it was easy to get at them and then I then gave everything a damn good clean. After popping into B&Q the other evening, I picked up some 12mm studding and…