April 26th 2009 - removed carpet

Today I started cleaning her up. The carpet smelled like a wet cat (and the cat piss to go with it!) and had lots of white fur and a few feathers. At some point a cat made this car home.

Once I took a lot of pictures, I removed everything I could that I needed to and removed the carpet. I found some surface rust on the passengers side and almost nothing on the drivers! The carpet was still wet(?) so we took a few more pictures outside on the driveway and stuffed it into a garbage bag.


I also sorted through all the parts the previous owner had taken off and found everthing I was looking for. One critical part, the center console is screwed up. Whomever took it out used a sawzall on it. See the picture.


Meghan helped me take the hood off and I found a nice place for it in the shed. Here again only minor surface rust.

I then vacummed the whole car, including what looked like birds nest in the cowl.

Next step: Headliner. Need to find directions how to get it out. It didn't look obvious so I didn't try today.

Time today and so far: 4 hours






Engine bay:



rust on roof above hatch:



rust under the battery:



rust under the sway bar mount/battery:



build sheet. Damn it!



passenger floor pan



console cut in half:



excellent condition dash:



pile of parts:

And so it begins!

Today, I bought an 1984 Mercury Capri Turbo RS as a project car. As you can see from the pictures, it is pretty rough. Surprisingly, the body is in really good shape. The rust is almost all surface rust which I will remove over time.

What I know of the car:

• 3 previous owners
• guy I bought it from hauled it from upstate NY to Atlanta in 2004
• it had the EFI Turbo 2.3L, but it was removed before the last owner got the car
• the hood is not original, the original was stolen before the last owner could pick up the car
• no seats. The back seat had a snake in it, which wrecked the foam and upholstery

From what I've found on the Internet this would be 1 of 1321 cars. Really. It is pretty rare!

Next steps

• remove the tow hitch from the car. Yes, it has a tow hitch for some reason
• remove the carpet. The car has sat outside for the last 5 years and smells like it. So far no sign of other critters
• clean up as much as I can so it is easier to work on the car

This is going to take a LONG time to get drivable again, so check back regularly to see what I've been up to.

Welcome to my new Blog!

Back in June of 1985 I was looking for my first car. I was 16, with $3000 (I think) from mowing lawns and shoveling snow and I wanted my own car.

At the time my brother and most of the people we knew were into Camaros. I watched John spend years looking for the Camaro he wanted and all the problems finding something good. I expected I too was going to get a Camaro. Thank god I didn't. I can't stand mullets ;-)

Actually, my mom came home one day and told me that she saw a nice white car that I should go see. I of course knew about Mustangs and Pintos (don't ask about that one!) but hadn't seen a Capri before. It was a white 1980 with red pin stripes and a red interior.

My friend Louie went with me to look at it and did an inspection. No major problems with the car, so my Dad haggled the owner down. (It was his daughter's car and he'd just bought her something new.)

I'm pretty sure I got the car on July 1st or 2nd since I didn't know how to drive a stick shift and John had to drive it home. I put the car in the driveway and immediately washed and compounded it out. I still didn't know how to drive it ;-)

The next day Deb's mom picked me up and we went to NYC for the fireworks around the Statue. I remember showing it to Deb and her not being very impressed. We'd only been dating maybe 2 months at that point.

John taught me how to drive a stick a few days later. I remember leaving the parking lot of Danbury High School with the tires spinning because the car started to roll backwards!

Deb used to call the house (years before cellphone people!) and my mom would always tell her I was working or cleaning the car.

The car was pretty solid for the next 4 years, there were a few minor issues that I fixed myself or had help with. The fall of 1987 I guy I knew who had built a 2.3 Ford circle track engine and put it into his Mustang II was looking to sell the engine. I bought it for $100, put a new cam in it and let it sit in my parent's garage for a year.

Finally in the summer of 1988 I look the old engine out and put the new one it. Mostly by myself, except getting the transmission and engine together. 'No Booze No Bob' helped me with that. amazing when you know what you are doing. He figure out the issue in 2 minutes after I spent hours on it.

Damn the car was now quick. Not fast like John's 350 Camaro, but enough to make it fun to drive. I doubt I had 175 HP, but it was fun to drive. Compared to 2006 Mustang GT I have now it was really slow, but for the time it was fun.

So why am I telling this story? Well, in 1990 I moved to Georgia and sold the Capri to my uncle. He then sold it to a neighbor and last I heard it was completely rusted out.

About 5 years ago I got the itch to start another project, and recently started looking for a new Capri.

With any luck on Saturday I am going to buy an 1984 Capri RS Turbo. If I do I'll post up pictures and start to figure out how to make it drivable.

I expect to post semi-regularly as I build the car, so check back often