Painting Engine parts

It has been a long time since I've made any progress on the Capri, but a bunch of things are coming together at the end of the year.

First, I realized I didn't know what I was doing nor had the tools to put the short block together myself. Ring files, dial gauges, ring compressors etc. where only a few of the things I didn't have, so I took the block, pistons, crank etc. back to Goza in Acworth and had them put the short block together.

I've also put in an order for a Stage 3 2.1 head from Bo Port. Still waiting on it to ship, but I now have all (most?) of the parts to put the engine together.

New things first: this is a billet timing pointer from http://mc-machine.com to replace the cracked plastic cover:

 

Also got a new set of upper-engine gaskets, a thermostat and oil pan gasket.

 

Since the engine could be put together by the end of next week, I started cleaning and painting all the little parts to go on the engine. Here are the cam and aux shaft pulleys:

 

Here are the Serpentine pulleys and oil pan hold-down plates:

 

Here are a bunch of parts including the oil pan, oil cooler, turbo bracket and water pump:

Here are all the water lines painted aluminum. I think they look nicer than the black I originally painted them.

Finally, here is the first coats on the valve cover. I have an idea for this that I'll be working on next weekend ...

 

Marti Report for my Capri

I got an early Christmas present today from my Mom.

This is a breakdown of the options on the Capri, when it was built, when it was first sold etc. Pretty cool!

Vintage brochures for my Birthday!

No real update on the car (still at the body shop), but I did get some cool vintage Capri things from my brother Pat for my birthday.

On the left is a brochure comparing the Capri and RS Turbo to the Daytona Turbo and Turbo Laser. Pat had a Turbo Laser in the late 80's so it's pretty fitting he found this!

On the right is a original, mint condition dealership brochure for the 84 Capris!

At the bottom right is a post card of some kind showing an 84 RS Turbo

Next three are pictures of the Capri/Chrysler comparisons.

Here is a picture of an RS Turbo, blown up into a poster. Pretty cool too:

Valve cover clean up

 The Capri is still at the body shop, making slow progress (but I expected that.)

Meanwhile I've cleaned up some more parts, and spent several hours yesterday working on the valve covers. I have two 'dipped' in the middle ones and one FUEL INJECTED TURBO one. All had several layers of paint on them and I used a paint stripper and steel wool to clean them up. Not done yet (in fact I need help figuring out how to remove the remainder.)

Here are the pictures of the TURBO valve cover:

What I started with:

Current Top:

Sides:

So any advice on how to clean up the remaining paint? I've already done three sets of stripper and these aren't budging. (And no I don't have a bead blaster. I wish!)

Spring cleaning and painting

The car is still at the body shop with little progress so far, so I spent the weekend cleaning parts and painting.

First up, the headlight buckets. Since I have two headers, I took the best of each side head light bucket, cleaned, primer and painted them black. Somehow neglected to take a picture.

Next I cleaned up the replacement gas filler neck:

I spent a lot of time de-greasing the oil pan by hand (it is the one on the left, the other two are from the other engines)

Next I started restoring the slapper bars. The cotter pins turned out to be rusted to the bar, so I broke them off. I still need to drill out the old pins before continuing. Anyone know what the factory coated these in originally? It isn't paint, almost feels like plastic?

SaturdayI started on the bumpers. Both had a lot of surface rust both inside and out, so I hit them with the wire wheel, sandpaper and some rust converter. Sunday I painted both with black Rustoleum. Came out pretty good:

While I was waiting for the paint to dry on the bumpers, I started cleaning the rust off the front and rear sway bars (and a second front sway bar that came from the frame donor.). I didn't bother with the wire wheel since it isn't very useful on round things. So I sanded all three by hand. (Yes my hands are sore!) I then coated them with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator and they are drying now. Next weekend I'll paint them.

Finally I took apart the HVAC unit from under the dash and did the first cleaning of all the vents, doors etc. Nothing to see, yet.

Should Capris be in the Fox Mustang Magazine?

I received the second issue of the Fox Mustang Magazine yesterday and flipped through it last night. I was caught off guard by a section where the editors asked "Is Mercury Capri a Fox Mustang?" and soliciting feedback from the subscribers.

Here is my reply:

Hi Tom,

You asked "Is Mercury Capri a Fox Mustang?". My answer is simple. No it isn't. It's a Capri.

Any idea how many times I've said that? Hundreds, if not thousands of times. Usually when someone comments on how nice or loud my "Mustang" is. I very politely point out it is a Capri, which often led to a nice discussion about the differences if the speaker doesn't know. It got to the point when my then girlfriend, now wife would smile, laugh or look at me waiting for my reply when someone called my car a Mustang. That was back in the late 80s.

Fast forward to a few years ago and I found another Capri, admittedly in much worse shape then I left that 80 Capri and the questions start again. This time is a little different though. This time the Mustang guys are interesting in her and what I'm doing. In the 80's the Capri was an oddity. Now it is a classic and just about every Mustang or Musclecar guy I meet knew someone who had one and wants to talk about what they or their friend had.

Later you asked '... and not worth displacing a genuine Ford from our Mustang pages?' My view is yes some should. The era of the Fox-chassis Ford/Mercury cars is full of lots of interesting and unique cars and the Mustang was a big part of it, but the whole community defined the era. Should there be a token-Capri in every issue? No. But when you see a good example include it. When you are looking for a car for a tech article look for a Capri too.

Will I continue to support your magazine if you don't show Capris? Sure, I am subscriber 44 because I love the concept of a Fox-specific magazine and wanted to support you guys in getting it off the ground. Much if not all of the tech you will offer will apply to my 84, so I'll learn from you. It would be nice to see a Capri every once and a while (including mine when I finish it) but it wouldn't prevent me from resubscribing.

To give you an idea of what I'm working on, my blog detailing the full resto-mod rebuild is here: http://84caprirs.blogspot.com/ and there is a similar build thread on FourEyedPride.

--
Thanks,

Chris

No updates in a while

Winter is in full swing here in Georgia, so I've not done anything on the Capri. The weather isn't really the reason, rather all the family and work commitments. Looking forward to Spring when I can sneak a few hours in!

Currently saving money for the paint job. 'Life' has hit into the fund a few times (who knew wisdom teeth were so damn expensive to pull!) but I hope to be ready in a few weeks!

I did write a letter to my first Capri as part of the Japolink meme. My letter is here.