PHOEN1XV8

A British cousin of the ever popular Mustang, the Capri was never really well accepted here. Beeing seen by most as a poor man's Jaguar and by others as a second best to the Mk2 Escort, it never even came close to the popularity of the American muscle car it was derived from.

That may have something to do with the engine


This is now my 5th Capri. My first car was a 1.6 liter inline 4 Ford Capri Laser...

This one wasn't much better with a measly 2.0 liter inline 4, producing a very humble 118bhp.

It wasn't pretty when I got hold of it, its was slow and I got bored real quick...

Then this happened....



I completely stripped the thing of every last removable part, then cut more parts out in what started out as a "light" restoration before it snowballed into something else

Once I had gotten the car stripped down to this level, I figured it would be a shame to put so much work into it only to put it back together with a cr*p engine under the hood and with the handling characterstics of a Roman Chariot.

At the moment the car is still very much a bare shell. However, I have managed to graft on front and rear suspension from a Nissan 240sx with 5x114.3 Hubs so I can now run Skyline GTR brakes, and I have a great selection of adjustable suspension components available to me.

Work is slow. I am a college student working on the car by myself so when money isn't tight, time is. However, I'm at a stage now where I can realistically start looking for an LS motor to make this cars bite as bad as its bark is gonna be which is why I'm here!

Thanks for looking

Some snap shots of the work I've done over the last two years. When I started, I didn't even know how to weld two peices of metal together

burnsy86

thats pretty cool.. any other pics of the suspension you put on there?

PHOEN1XV8

Well for now its still running stock (240sx) suspension on the rear. On the front, I have had to cut the suspension cups off the uprights so they would fit into the suspension tower. Stock 240sx front springs have a wicked wide diameter but that problem is cured by coilovers....

The rear subframe when it arrived....not bad for $80 with a spare LSD diff....


Stripped to bare subframe....(this will be media blasted and powder coated before final assembly


Test fit using precise measuring equipment


A fair bit of fabrication needed....


Stock rear capri shock next to rear 240sx upright


Fast forward a couple weeks to when the mounting points for the rear subframe were completed...






Got the rear turrets from a junk car and bought a 240sx rear strut brace to help tie in the top of the uprights while I measured up where to put the towers..




starting to take shape...




SINCE THE LAST PICTURE WAS TAKEN, I REMOVED THE RIGHT SIDE TURRENT AND REMOUNTED IT AS IT DIDN'T SIT LEVEL. HOWEVER, IT IS NOW FINE

A taster of things to come (ignore the rear valance)


Front Subframe and motor x-member


Fitted...






Rear tower finished..It aint pretty but I havent gotten to the "prettying up" stage yet as the whole car is going for media blasting


And thats pretty much it for the suspension so far...

Comments/ Critism/ Advise is always welcome

chaman

iTrader: (5)

That looks great! You backyard looks like the one I grew up in! Lots of wonderful greasy car things laying around...I loved it!

PHOEN1XV8

Ha ha, thanks dude. The weather sucks at time with it raining the same amount as Seattle and working outside in the winter at -5 celcius can suck but our landlord is cool. Doesn't really give a sh*t as long as he gets rent and we clear it all up before we leave