My 82 Capri RS Resurrection and Build

[SchoolBoy]

Nice Nelson......

Stay tuned it gets better!

Good job man. I like the idea using the drill to get fluid through the power steering system. Doing it stage by stage is defiently the best way to do it so you don't get overwhelmed.

I am so glad I am only doing this in stages right now. When I strip her back down for paint, that's when everything will need to be labeled really really well.

[SchoolBoy]

Moving right along we pulled the drums apart and dropped the 7.5 from the car. My brothers Fairmont will be getting the 7.5 a bit latter on now that he has a 302 in the mont.





















Rust belt and east coast guys eat your hearts out!






Putting new NAPA bearings and seals in the 8.8.











Cleaned up and painting the small bits of the drums and the backing plates.







There you have it folks we're all up to date now!

[mustangxtreme]

Looking good Nelson. The front looks great with those springs.

[SchoolBoy]

I have been sick for the last week so progress has slowed to mainly cleaning and painting. So first up is the axels....











Cleaned up and painted the mounting bolts and nuts for the control arms. Along with cleaning the body where the arms ride I put the grease on the bushings to hopefully keep them from squeaking.













To adjust the konis I carefully put them in the vice and push down on them till the teeth engage and I set them at 1 1/2 turns to the firm side. I also made sure to push both shocks all the way down and release them at the same time to make sure they rebounded at the same speed. Hanging them was fairly simple but a second set of hands is much better.










To get the old bushings out of the 8.8 all ya need is a drill, vice grips, and either scotch bright or a sanding drum.

[SchoolBoy]

Moving right along to the Steeda LCA. These things are so nice, but I was disappointed there was nothing in the instructions about using lock tight or a torque spec for the lock nuts. Just make sure the Steeda logo plate that the sway bars attach to are facing to the out side of the car when they are built. Again add grease to install.












With all the dangly bits installed on the car we turned our attention back to the 8.8. We are going to built everything we can before instating it. Its so much simpler to build the brakes this way. So the brake lines from the 7.5 needed a little tweak on the passenger side, while the quad shock bracket on the drivers side needed to be notched a bit.

[SchoolBoy]

Since I didn't find a SVO axle cover I decided to clean up the one I had which was ugly so bring on the filler primer sanding, repeat 2 or 3 times and add a little paint....















Don't worry old girl, you'll back on your feet soon enough....

[SchoolBoy]

Well this update is lone over due, so lets get down to it!



While the axle cover was drying we installed the hard lines for good.

SAM_0249 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0251 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0252 by capri_nut82, on Flickr


the painted cover with silver bolts for a bit of contrast....
SAM_0254 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0257 by capri_nut82, on Flickr



Cleaning the gasket surfaces up to glue the axle gasket to everything, No leaks darn it!....... "little did I know that a months later after filling the diff I found an NOS SVO axle girdle"

SAM_0258 by capri_nut82, on Flickr


Putting the steeda bushings in the upper mounts.
SAM_0259 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0260 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0263 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0265 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0268 by capri_nut82, on Flickr


Now for some long term ease of use we disassembled the steeda lower control arm spring risers and greased the hell out of them.
SAM_0269 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

Really small bearing that sits right under the main spring perch.
SAM_0270 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

Underside of the spring perch.
SAM_0273 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

Going back together.
SAM_0275 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

Plus a healthy dose of anti seize for the treads.
SAM_0279 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

SAM_0283 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

[SchoolBoy]

Now to get the rear axle in I had to first remove the koni's. Using a jack to lift the axle up one of us steadied it while the other attached the upper arms. Then we were able to put the lowers on with the springs. Doing it any other way had us pulling our hair out because it would line up for the upper arms.

SAM_0281 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0280 by capri_nut82, on Flickr



Once we had the rear end in place we built the rear drum brakes before putting the axles in for simplicity sake.

SAM_0306 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

SAM_0307 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

SAM_0309 by capri_nut82, on Flickr



With all that monkey'n out of the way it was time to glue the diff cover on.
SAM_0308 by capri_nut82, on Flickr


Now for some reason we had to enlarge the holes in the brackets for the shocks to fit the new bolts. Thank god for grandpas drill press!

SAM_0323 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0326 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0327 by capri_nut82, on Flickr


Had to put the wheels on and put the rear up on bolts to get the car to "ride height" for the final torque on all the suspension bolts plus I fought the sway bar for a while before I realized the reason it was hanging so far down is because I installed the mounting brackets wrong on the lower arms so those had to swap sides.

SAM_0324 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0325 by capri_nut82, on Flickr

Here you can see the sway bar hanging down because of my foul up.
SAM_0326 by capri_nut82, on Flickr




This is after I fixed it
SAM_0338 by capri_nut82, on Flickr



Back on all fours finally!!!!!

SAM_0318 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0320 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0321 by capri_nut82, on Flickr


And as a comparison here she is next to the svo finally seeing the light of day.

SAM_0341 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0343 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0344 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0345 by capri_nut82, on Flickr
SAM_0346 by capri_nut82, on Flickr



And that's all folks. From here I started a two and a half months fight with the svo creating its front mount intercooler so look for that post in the 2.3T section of the forum. The plan now is to repair the rest of our ageing fleet of 10 fords. With some luck come the first of the year I will be back to update this when we pull the motor out and rebuilt it into a 331 with AFR's. Something else I am looking into is baer racing 12" 4lug brakes to sneak behind the pony wheels, but that's still up in the air.

[mustangmania]

Very cool thread! I am doing the same suspension/rear end/brake stuff to my car, so I've learned a lot here. Thanks for sharing!!

[SchoolBoy]

^^ This is why I tried to be as detailed as possible. Most threads on here are loaded with info but no pics. I wanted to make sure that the new comers have a semi step by step how to if you will. Plus I am not afraid to say when I think a part is crap, or if this setup rides harsh ect, trust me I'll make it known.

In fact two bitch's. I have is with the steeda lower arms is that if you don't run isolators the sping has wiggle room at the perch. The second being that they could have drilled the bolt holes in the sway bar anchor plate a bit more at an angle forcing the sway bar to tuck up better. And lastly I am not a fan of the top three coils of the rear springs being so closely wound that when you set the car on the ground you only have a few thousands of inch clearance. And when you compress them they bind up. I am afraid this will cause a harsh ride but we will see. My back up plan is to buy svo spings....

[NAVYCAT]

so riddle me this Nelson... why didn't you paint the underside when all the parts were out?????

[mustangxtreme]

Come on Joe... this gives him something to do later.

[Saturn V]

Ride height looks perfect. How about a couple of shots next to your Dad's 79?

[SchoolBoy]

Joe, because I am planning on getting the car all built and road tested then I'll strip her to the frame and paint her in one shot.

SaturnV finall ride height might change after we remove the smog crap and add the afr heads. As for a shot with dads car I'll keep it in mind. But both cars are kinda burried.

[pre89street]

Really nice ride ! The height is just awesome! What is the purpose of the rubber o ring at the end of axle? Mine was dry out when i make the 5 lug swap and I just dont replace it?

[SchoolBoy]

We believe its to take up the slack for the c-clips. But when we installed the new c-clips they were so tight we did not use the O-rings.

[hcmclean]

Sweet Capri!!

[SchoolBoy]

Thank you man!!!

[hcmclean]

Way cool thread! Wish I had toe time and energy to do all of that to my pace car. Great work!

[SVTKID92]

Any other plans for the car?

[SchoolBoy]

Yes I started collecting parts to convert to 95 cobra brakes all the way around. A fays2 watts link is also under consideration for the suspension. For the rest of the car leanning to 331 and modern driveline t5 with custom 5th gear. Interior will get sound system and custom svo seats. Exterior will get modified capri sail pannels, modified 3 peace rear spoiler, stock louvers, 96 waffle star cobra wheels, bright atlantic blue paint with white and gold RS stripes. At least thats the current vision!