New member - 1985 Capri RS - out of mothballs, original owner.

[tcruise]

Beautiful Capri you have there! Better put the stock shift knob back on, or the collector car police will get you! ;-}
All of my cars are drivers/survivors that live outside, except one that needs restoring in my old dirt-floor one-car garage, and one that is getting paint in a portable garage. The best ones all sit out in the weather. I want a man cave!

[TWiCS]

Beautiful Capri you have there! Better put the stock shift knob back on, or the collector car police will get you! ;-}
All of my cars are drivers/survivors that live outside, except one that needs restoring in my old dirt-floor one-car garage, and one that is getting paint in a portable garage. The best ones all sit out in the weather. I want a man cave!

Oops! I can't find where I put the stock shift knob! Yikes you have sharp eyes (first to notice).
It sounds like you have way more fun with your "fleet" than I ever will!

Thanks for looking.

[FatBoys86Vert]

That is one sharp Capri I beleive I would have to leave it alone and enjoy it as is ok maybe add real dual exhaust just for the sound but beyond that I'd let her be.

Heck I'm having a hard time with my 85 GT Vert that's about 75% original and I'm not the original owner I mainly want to improve it not mod it so much I can't drive her every day like my last Vert.

Have fun and enjoy the ole girl either way

[TWiCS]

That is one sharp Capri I beleive I would have to leave it alone and enjoy it as is ok maybe add real dual exhaust just for the sound but beyond that I'd let her be.

Heck I'm having a hard time with my 85 GT Vert that's about 75% original and I'm not the original owner I mainly want to improve it not mod it so much I can't drive her every day like my last Vert.

Have fun and enjoy the ole girl either way

Yeah, I've been thinking of replacing everything from the heads back an maybe store or sell the original parts.

[TWiCS]

Man, leave it stock she's to nice to sell or mod it, go cut up a poor looking stang if U must.

Its "still stock" and out of storage for the summer now. We hope to make it to the NW BBQ this year.

[WHTLTHR79RS]

The date is August 25th. registrations going out soon, I am way behind this year.

[TWiCS]

The date is August 25th. registrations going out soon, I am way behind this year.

Neil, sorry I missed last year (family issues).
Should be no reason not to be there this year.

BTW, just to show you how far I am behind i just got around to posting my 2010 photos and a link to your BBQ on the Capri RS Facebook page.

Like it at http://www.facebook.com/CAPRI.RS.5.0 (FACEBOOK for ALL FOX cars)

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Thank you sir...we are working to make the website viewable with the new browsers.

[edman1000]

Wow! I just read this whole thread. I see what you mean about using mine for a blueprint. I'd hate to be you. to modify it it or not... What to do what to do....I know, how about a trade? straight up! lol

Actually, I dont think I could Haha!

[TWiCS]

Wow! I just read this whole thread. I see what you mean about using mine for a blueprint. I'd hate to be you. to modify it it or not... What to do what to do....I know, how about a trade? straight up! lol

Actually, I dont think I could Haha!

Yeah, I think you would lose big time on that trade! I love those wheels and cobra disks. Oh my! What to do?

[edman1000]

No, I actually meant that yours is worth waaaay more than mine! I'd love to have it but I'd be afraid to drive it....let alone modify it ...and even though I'm not the original owner like you, I have 18yrs of history with mine so parting with it would be even harder. I guess Im just lucky enough to have beaten the crap outta it when I was 19-23. Good thing I didnt wreck it though!

I would not want to be you my friend! I'd call the Henry Ford museum and donate it on contingency that you could get it back anytime and go get yourself a beater!

[James Jenkins]

Hello everyone. Great forum.

Back in ‘85 I factory ordered this (1985) Mercury Capri RS and took delivery in March of the same year. It is white with charcoal trim and has sunroof, radio delete, PW delete and cruise control options.

I drove it only on sunny summer days (weekends mostly) up until it was mothballed in Sept ‘88. We accumulated 20,000 Miles on the clock in those four summers. It has been stored in a heated garage and never driven or started since 88. It is bone stock and in mostly original condition (including original tires)….,well other than some required paint work in 85 and a vintage 1985 Blaupunkt stereo and power antenna (no harm with radio delete option).

I live in Coquitllam, British Columbia, Canada (12 miles east of Vancouver).

Here in BC when an original vehicle unmodified (in any way) reaches age 25 and is in "exceptional condition" the owner may apply for collector license plates for it, the plates allow the owner to purchase quite inexpensive government insurance.

Over the next few weeks I'll be compiling the necessary information and photos to submit to the insurance corporation for the plates. Please wish me luck, it is not a slam dunk.

Quite frankly It is absolutely killing me holding back the urges to "make it better" by tearing it apart and installing all of the standard fare modern conversions. Is it fair that all I can do is dust it off and look at it? AAARRG! Who was the learned scholar that said "they are only original once"? I can't get the phrase out of my head!

Not sure how long I can hold off the five lug conversion and the flow masters.

TWiCS

Edit: Collector plate photo added (last photo). The plate number is altered for obvious reasons.

These photos are not the shots I will submit to the MV. The MV requires all the original badges in place and stock ride height. I'm going to work on that tomorrow and plan to submit the application on Monday

Have you ever seen cruise control buttons on a Ford that were not on the steering wheel? This 85 has the buttons on the signal stalk. Yes it was a Ford option. Look closely and you can just see the on/off rocker through the left side of the wheel.

I think it is very rare.

Note the cruise control buttons on the signal stalk.

This shot taken a month after OP, Proper Air cleaner cover installed and minor detailing completed underhood

At last! My collector plates arrive! After 25 years of waiting to qualify it was a 7 week wait for the plates.......Hmmmm.......Now what do we do?

Two choices left for the future. Mod it? Or sell it?

I think we will go with the former.

TWiCS

Welcome!Very Nice

[TWiCS]

Thanks :-)!

[IDMooseMan]

Welcome to FEP. That is an awesome-looking car.

[WHTLTHR79RS]

No Kidding !! you should have seen it in person a couple of years ago in my big field.

[Bryan Knebworth]

First of all, I better stop looking at this car because it is so nice, it almost brings a tear to my eye!! lol Second, besides mine I've never actually seen another radio delete car, and third TMI should use your seats as the model for their new seat covers--they are the nicest I've seen

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Brian, my capri is a radio delete car, and I still have the cover plate in the machine turned pattern. I installed the radio and bored the hole for the antenna. The radio I installed was ( is ) a Fujitsu Ten, and I did not have to cut the holes or anything, so it can be put back if needed.

[Bryan Knebworth]

Brian, my capri is a radio delete car, and I still have the cover plate in the machine turned pattern. I installed the radio and bored the hole for the antenna. The radio I installed was ( is ) a Fujitsu Ten, and I did not have to cut the holes or anything, so it can be put back if needed.

Nice...its so unusual to see quarter trim panels without speakers! Before joining this site, I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but it is uncommon. Do you really have an RS with White Leather as your name suggests? I think I saw pictures of it sometime back, unless it was another members car. Does it have the Ghia interior with the 'Mercedes style' headrests? I love the number of possibilities Ford offered back then; nowadays its 'Option Group A, Option Group B, or Option Group C'.

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Bryan, yes I do have white leather seats, and they are glove soft, not the hard junk that today's cars are sporting. I did cut holes in my rear quarter panels for the mid-base speakers when I did the sound system many years ago, but my white panels are turning to powder and I need to find replacemants. My hearing is starting to fade ( 60 yrs old ), so I might take the sound system out and go without any radio with the orginal panel back in place. The current system had 10 speakers with a custom crossover that I designed.
I was going to send you to my car domain site, but all of my pictures are gone, now I posted that question in the general BS section....

[TWiCS]

No Kidding !! you should have seen it in person a couple of years ago in my big field.

On the 85 the radio delete plate was a "raised horizontal rib" design and by 1985 ford was punching the antenna fender hole on all cars and covering the deletes with a black plastic cover matching the size of the big standard Ford base (very ugly).

You can probably see from my photos that both still exist on the car but were cut out to accept the antenna and radio (circa 1985). I used the antenna plate because the hole under the antenna plate was just too big to accept any power antenna available in those days.

Thanks for looking!

[WHTLTHR79RS]

Bryan, I don't mean to side track this thread too much, cause Twics is great guy, but I just looked at my car domain site again and all the pictures work..take a look. I posted about this in the General BS section...

[TWiCS]

Bryan, I don't mean to side track this thread too much, cause Twics is great guy, but I just looked at my car domain site again and all the pictures work..take a look. I posted about this in the General BS section...

Hey! No worries! I'm loving the memories of my old 79 that your conversation is bringing back. It was also radio delete and a personal factory order like the 85. I would still have it (and likely have not ordered the 85) if I hadn't wrapped it around a pole in 84 (yup, you guessed it, I still think it saved my life). There is a picture of it earlier in this thread and also on the Facebook page (timeline 1979). White with black seats gave me green stripes, White on White gave you blue stripes the only other diff I can see.

It was a smoking total wreck with a nice compact untouched drivers seat with me left sitting in it. Walked away from it with only 13 stitches (the only salvageable piece was that seat (I have pictures somewhere).

I had black leather in mine but would have ordered white had I known it looked sooooo good like yours (no leather option in 85 ).

Keep the memories coming!

[TWiCS]

Hello again to all of my fellow FOX geeks!

I owe an update on my Capri RS and a thank you to the kind folks that have wondered and asked about the car over the past years.

The Capri is still exactly the same as the OP showed it and went back into storage about 10 years ago, Yes still has 1985 air in the tires and spare.

Me? I had a triple bypass two months ago and now feel pretty good about taking it out of mothballs once more.

I'm hoping to get it back on the road early next year for the spring and summer show season, but for now here is a picture of the cocoon.

[WHTLTHR79RS]

well, well, welcome back and congrats on feeling better. before starting the old girl up, change the coolant, try to get the old gas out of the tank, and check the brake fluid for freshness, as it will turn to mud from sitting. old coolant will cause corrosion between then thermostat housing and intake manifold, and the bolts holding the water pump to the timing cover. it will etch the surfaces of the intake manifold where the coolant passages are at the front corners of the manifold. inspect the brake rotors and check to see that the calipers release when you let off of the brake pedal.

[dapetik]

Hey, welcome to the group!