1984 Capri RS Turbo - my new project

[In2Fords]

Looking really good

I approve of your work so when you get a chance you can fly over here and do the Turbo Swap into my Capri for me

[Capriman86]

That looks great underneath. You'll have to drive around with mirrors so people can admire all the work.

^^^ true statement!

[ccurtin]

Started collecting parts again today!

Got a Bob's Log turbo header for about 1/2 what it would have cost new with shipping!

Had a huge box from Classic Tube waiting when I got home (brake lines), ordered the other brake parts and will pick them up on Friday. (something about a 27 year old car people don't stock a lot of the parts

[ccurtin]

Three friggin hours to put the rear end back in. I swear I sweated 10 lbs off.

It even fell off the jack and I needed my wife and 16 y/o daughter to help me get it back on! (Yes I have jack stands, tires under the frame up front, all kinds of safety stuff). Needed them to help get it right side up. Just wasn't strong enough to get it back on the jack myself.

So much for getting a lot done today. So I said 'screw it' and took the little guy to the pool!

[ccurtin]

Not a lot of progress this weekend, I spent Saturday running around with the kids so I only had a few hours today.

First, the correct brake line from Classic Tube still hasn’t arrived. I was told it was shipping last Friday, but no shipping information yet. I called them on Friday and of course no one picked up since it was a few minutes after 5. So no brakes.

Instead, I took a crack at the dash hull, since the wiring is the next big thing to do on the car. The hull itself is in really good shape, but the metal frame inside is covered in rust (like the rest of the car was!) After several hours I was able to get it extracted from the wiring.

Here is how bad the rust was:





I then sanded the parts and painted them with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator. The humidity here made it hard to brush on, but I got just about everything covered.



I also bought a gallon of Evapo-Rust and started cleaning all the original fasteners. I took really close pictures of all my notes with each fastener, then put them into a half-gallon plastic bucket for a couple of hours. Came out great for the about half of the fasteners and brackets. The extra-rusted ones are going to sit over night. I’ll get some after pictures for next time. Unfortunately I don’t have a bucket big enough to put the dash frame.

Assuming the brake line arrives this week putting the brakes together is the next thing, then the heater box and dash.

[mustangxtreme]

That's what my frame looked like as well. Wire brush on the die grinder and a dremel took care of most of it. The rest got some Rust-Mort. Primer and paint finished it off.

[Mr. Squirrel]

Holy smokes, that is a totally different animal. This cat has literally a new lease on life. Glad you saved her

[ccurtin]

I now have no doubt that I will touch every piece on this car and clean or paint it before I'm done. Spent a lot of time today working on the pedal box. Looked at it for 30 minutes before deciding to paint it in place instead of messing with the steering wheel and steering shaft again.

Pictures tomorrow when I get some of it back together!

[ccurtin]

After all the work to cleanup and paint the metal frame that one will ever see again, it was time to put it all back together. Well, not everything. The HVAC piping needs to be cleaned and the foam insulation replaced, but the metal and the wires are back.

(Why work in the garage where it is 90+ degrees when the house is air conditioned and the computer with the 'before' pictures are in the house?)

Not a lot to see here. (If you want to see what individual parts of the wiring look like behind the plastic, go here)

And still no break line from Classic Tube and Late Model Restoration. It's now been a month since the first shipment.

[Mike Croke]

You're smarter than me. I swapped all that wiring in the garage. Coulda used the kitchen table.

[ccurtin]

Long time between updates. Way too hot and sticky this summer so I haven't done anything since July.

Dropped one of the blocks, crank, pistons and rods off at the machine shop to get checked out.

Hope to finish the brakes this weekend. Should be hot, but no kid activities so I can some work done in the mornings.

[ccurtin]

After a slight change in plans yesterday (went to Dragon*Con with my daughter and had a blast) I got back to working on the Capri for the first time since July 4th weekend. It was just too damn hot and humid in Atlanta this summer, even early in the morning to get anything done.

First, I bench bled the master cylinder and installed it. Here is a finished picture of the line without the brake proportioning valve.



I then started to bleed the brakes. Man was that a pain! Every time I thought I found all the leaks, I found more. And with every leak found I could tighten the nuts even tighter, when a second before I couldn't. (Make me wonder if I missed a 'best practice' of lubing the nuts to get them tight the first time?). Lots of little drips, skinned fingers and cursing of inanimate objects, I had the brakes bled! I did use a vacuum bleeder, not sure how I would have done it without one!

I also finished setting up the rear drums so they catch with the emergency brake and the pedal! Of course without an engine to produce vacuum I won't REALLY know how good a job I did, but no leaks!

I then put the car on the ground and finished the MM Caster/Camber plates. In the air I couldn't get enough compression on the strut, so on the ground I stood on the k-member and could get them installed properly. Here is the 'all done' picture:



I need to think about 'next steps' now that the weather is getting more work in the garage friendly.

One more thing, first casualty of the project. My favorite ****-kicker t-shirt is done. Even after washing it last weekend after mowing, it still reeked, so today after sweating for 6 hours, I tossed it in the trash.

[DRAGTOP89]

Trash? Dude,shop rag!

[neald]

Great job so far! What booster and master are you running? Is the brake kit for late 80s or early 80s style?

[joey7508]

Run a long piece of vacuum hose to one of your other cars and check out how the brakes feel with vacuum on the booster! The other car will need to be running of course. JK
Looking good by the way, keep it up.

[86 50CPRI]

Seeing the picture of the underhood progress really shows how far you've come on this car.I just looked back to the first page, and looked at what you brought home; seeing all the surface rust, the holes in the frame rails,the rusted springs, shocks and brake parts and the general mess.. man, my hats off to you. Nice work is rather an understatement.

[ccurtin]

Great job so far! What booster and master are you running? Is the brake kit for late 80s or early 80s style?

Stock MC and booster. Everything I read said anything else was overkill for now. Fronts are 87+ rears are unchanged.

Brake lines are SS with the original bends etc. Major pain to get in, since each one felt like it was 1/2 to 1 inch too long at each bend.

[ccurtin]

Run a long piece of vacuum hose to one of your other cars and check out how the brakes feel with vacuum on the booster! The other car will need to be running of course. JK
Looking good by the way, keep it up.

Wow, wild idea. Need to think about how to get one of the other cars near enough. may just roll her into the driveway.

[rbmead86]

Looking Good!

[ccurtin]

Today I took apart engine #3. Yes, #3. I started with two long blocks of questionable history/status. I knew there was a chance they weren't going to be okay when I bought them, but I got a good deal on them and some other 2.3T stuff.

I took apart block #1 and took it to a machine shop to see what state it was in. Turns out it is is already 0.030 over and needs to be bored 0.040 if I want to use it. Oh and 0.040 over pistons are $600 for this motor!

Took block #2 apart and took a piston to the machine shop to see how over bored it is. It is 0.060 over! Damn, for a turbo block that is unbelievable. So I didn't bother bringing the block in.

A couple of weeks ago I found an ad on Craigslist with a guy parting out a few vandalized Merkur xr4ti's. He was nearby so I went over and took a look. Turns out one has only 116k miles on it! (all the glass was broken and interior trashed so I don't feel bad about taking the motor.)

Got it home yesterday and the little guy immediately noticed it was hanging from an engine hoist. He of course wanted to raise/lower it, but being on 5 I wouldn't let him.

What I got: motor from an 88 or 89 xrt4i, stock T3 turbo, intake, PF3 computer, small vam, E6 exhaust manifold and hopefully a 100% stock bore block.

Got everything taken off/apart today in about 5 hours, with a break for lunch and the last baseball game in between. Other than a breaking a head bolt (!!@%@@%#) everything came apart pretty easily.

Next step: bring the block to the machine shop and see how usable it is. Hopefully can just be re-ringed, but I suspect we'll have to go 0.020 or 0.030 over (0.030 means we can use the old pistons!)

The little guy giving me a hand.



Thomas the Tank on the Engine Hoist (now named Cranky)



Better picture.



Oops

[JTurbo]

Congrats on finding a virgin block. One step closer.....

[neald]

Great find. Hopefully you can get away with a hone and re ring like i did.

[ccurtin]

Since the Capri sat for many years, the fuel tank is destroyed and rusted from the inside. The fuel pump retainer ring won't even come off and the fuel level sender took several days of soaking and love taps with the brass pick and rubber mallet before moving.

Since the 84 is an odd-ball year, no one stocks the replacement level senders. There are lots of threads on Four Eyed Pride about this. Through one of them and some additional searching around I found a company, S.U.R&R. (http://www.fuelsender.com/) that rebuilds the sending units for cars that you can't buy off the shelf. I sent it to them a few months ago and got it back in about a week. Amazing the difference!

Before:






After









Not bad for $120 plus shipping!

[Capriman86]

Looks like the bead blasted all the rust off and rebuilt it, the arm near the float ok? looks like it thinned out a lot from the rust.

I was wondering how they looked when they came back from that company, thanks for the pics.

Keep in mind it might be cheaper and you will have fresh metal if you go with the route Jeff wrote up here too : http://www.foureyedpride.com/joom/in...-art&Itemid=42

[ccurtin]

ooh shiny ...