Ford Capri Mk3 Track/Race Car Project

[Will01]

So i haven't personally done anything else to the Capri recently due to on going other projects like my wifes Mini & Oscar my 9 week old son.
However i did collect a few parts from the blast cleaners on the weekend which will help see some nice new shiny objects fitted on the car, ready for more customisation.
Parts cleaned up,
- spare later model rocker cover for Pinto engine with oil spalsh guard for filler/breather. This will be painted same colour as the car. Currently in primer, just need to oil the inside to prevent corrosion setting in.
- 'motorsport' lighter weight bumper irons
- 2.8 single leaf springs
- front arb mounts for both early and late model cars
- leaf spring rear shackles
- steering rack/arb clamps
- front and rear bumpers
- top radiator cowling
- gearbox mount
- front lower crossmember
- front arb's
and got the two painted compomotive wheel centres and outer rims chemically dipped to remove the poor hammerite blue paint someone put on them.

Next job for alot of these parts is to finish prepping them for paint, some items i have to fit polybushes and other items i need to modify further.
I am very happy with the results, i just need to prepare another load of parts to get blasted and painted, which should include front wings and quite a few other suspension components.
This is part of the big push to just cough up slightly and get things moving quicker. I can't build alot of the custom suspension parts until i have got the car sitting on the ground so i can start taking more measurements etc.

[Will01]

So the first time in ages i was out in the garage and a real bonus because i had my wife to give me a hand also.
First thing first, the parts which i decided not to prime after sandblasting, were cleaned up ready for priming. Catherine had to (using a wire brush) give the antiroll bars and single leaf springs back to bare clean metal. Then cleaned up with thinners and painted with several coated of etch primer. She did a very good job(much better than me) and she really enjoyed doing it.

Whilst she was outside the garage doing this, i was inside continuing to strip the crappy old paint back on the front end, and found a few more small spots that require a little attention. That can be done easily and quickly so i not bothered. This time i concentrated on the Slam panel and around the front headlamp grill area. There is still loads to do round here and it is tricky to clean everything.
I really need to decide whether i am keeping the front standard radiator, or i am cutting the front end up and fitting a much larger radiator for different engine choices further down the line.

[TomLouwrier]

Lots of elbow grease there. Wouldn't you give the poor lass a steel brush on a electric drill? Awwwww.....
;-)

regards
Tom

[Will01]

Normally Cat uses the angle grinder with wire wheel, but this time i was using it and because it was only light rust she was happy to get on with the handheld brush.
Good job that she enjoys this type of work and really meant we could get cracking on.
Cat has also decided that we are going to paint the leaf springs and chosen pieces underneath the car in body colour paint. So the Leafs, ARB's and cross-members will be painted in Signal Yellow. I am pretty sure the detailing which is going on under the car wil lplease most MOT garages and since it is not going to cause any additional work i reckon it will look really great.

Some nice new shiny bits are arriving somepoint this week. Bought some Rose Jointed In-Situ adjustable Track Control Arms to help with the adjustability of the front suspension. I really did need these as i need to take loads of measurements and trial fit the new double front ARB setup to make sure it clears all the other components under steering lock, compression etc etc.
Bought these items from Retro Motorsport so really looking forward to them arriving so i can play.
Next job is then to take the final measurements so that i can manufacture the double ARB clamps and get everything where it needs to be. Then the front subframe brace with additional ARB clamps can be made up and fitted in aswell.
The top mounts will also eventually be repalced with In-sity adjustable Castor/Camber plates along with coilover units, but i have got what i need currently to move forward.
As we are talking paint, we are now completely set on Signla Yellow for Body colour with Satin black painted interior to keep down the glare, as well as Satin black painted around all the light areas and the window areas. I think the standard power bulge in the bonnet will be detailed slightly with a small Yellow stripe, much like the old american muscle cars used to have. I will try and add a picture of this at somepoiint to give slight idea.

Obviously i still have plenty of metal and crusty metal cleaning to get on with before we are ready for high build filler primer. But the only other thing holding me up with this is depending on my choice of radiator for engine cooling. If i am just getting the car running to begin with on the old Pinto unit then the current rad is perfectly fine. However if a newer bigger engine is going to be fitted, i really need better cooling from a much larger radiator. If this is the case i am toying with the idea of an ALuminium Sierra Cosworth Radiator with twin fan setup, but this involves cutting a large amount of the front of the car away in order to make it fit.
I think this radiator will probably be the next big purchase as i know i can make it work with the Pinto aswell.

[Will01]

So heres a picture of the nice new In-situ adjustable track control arms.
Kit comes with all fittings etc to install on the car, plus i will have ARB bushes left over as my compression struts bolt into where the ARB would normally go.
Really pleased with them so far so just need to fit them, thankfully the rosejoints come with dust covers also which should help them live a little longer.

[Will01]

Had a quick trial fit of one of these on the weekend. Fits in nicely and the amount of adjustment it gives is simply superb. If i use these in conjunction with the castor camber top mounts i will also be able to play slightly with the track of the vehicle aswell, which may be useful in trying to fit the new front wheels as i have noticed they are sitting further out due to the disc brake conversion(which i had forgot about!)
The plan is to fit it all into place with calipers etc and front wheels over Christmas to get some much needed measurements for clearance.
Will post pictures as and when as normal.

[Will01]

So just before Christmas i ended with getting hold of some adjsutable in-situ TCA's.
When i had the chance these were trial fitted on the front suspension and hooked up to my in-situ adjsutable compression struts.
I will need to machine up some top hat spacers to keep the rose joint central, although there i sno reason why at a later date i couldn't offset slightly if this is neccessary.
See the pictures i have attached. The range of movement is simply superb and i look forward to getting the adjsutable top mounts. I have decided that the old 2.0 struts will be converted to coilover height adjustable units as i simply cannot justify expense on fully adjustable coilover units.
At somepoint i will post pictures of this conversion (as long as the struts are in solid enough condition of course)
Part of the modifications i have had to make to the car now involve drilling out the original track control arm to crossmember mounting holes. The adjustable joints require a 1/2 bolt which is much larger than stock bolt. Luckily i had a drill of the correct size lying around. I will be keeping one of the cross members standard just on case this is required for any future regs. The crossmember i had blast cleaned is the one i have chosen to modify.

[Will01]

So i also decided to trial fit a few other parts over the Holidays. Santa and a few others also gifted a few parts for the Capri project build aswell which was nice.
First if all after modifying the crossmember i also trial fitted the cleaned up and painted steering rack with the new PolyRace bushes which i purchased.
I also have a spare manual rack which i will be converting to Quick rack in time, but this will be mounted to the crossmember with solid aluminium rack mounts aswell in time.

[Will01]

I also took the time to strip down a spare boot and spare doors off my old very rotten white Capri GL.
In all fairness these did look alot better when i removed them from the car a few years ago, but hey. Now i just got more work ahead of me to repair these. I don't mind cutting into these parts as they are in pretty bad shape and therefore make perfect donor try out parts to play with.
The glass and all non-essential items were removed. It is amazing how much weight is taken out of the boot already. I still need to cut back the rusty parts and will weld in some fresh metal. Then i will be fitting a polycarbonate panel in place of the rear glass window. I will also add holes for ventialtion and covers to prevent water coming into the car. Because of the design of the rear boot seal alot of the inner structure has to remain in order to get a good seal, the last thing i want is alot of wind noise which will drive me mad whilst driving the car to and from the track.
Earlier on in the thread i put the weight of these parts, i will re-weigh once i have cut away at them. The doors and boot will still have rubber seals as per the standard car, but will not have window winder mechanisms or glass etc. The boot will also not have a rear wiper etc.
Santa brought some competition boot spring locks. so these will be used to fix the rear boot and prevent it popping open. I will also leave the standard rear lock in place also so it can be locked up. I wasn't going to do this originally as the rear boot lock had corroded solid. However i stripped this down and gave a good clean and little tweaks here and there and now works as new. I might put a little ad saying to Capri members if your rear boot lock is corroded up and won't work send it to me for renovation.

[Will01]

Other jobs included cleaning up the rear Atlas axle i had spare off my old white Capri 2.0. This is the diff which i will use for fitting trials and practice with little modifications. The other 1.6 diff will also get the same attention and will be used on the road with the 2.0 Pinto engine fitted as the diff ratio will allow faster acceleration.
Anyway it looked pretty rogh and cruddy but cleaned up nicely with a wire wheel, my wife will finish it off treating the rust and painting in primer and paint.
The rear diff cover perforated due to rust, so i am also going to practice with this and try to improve it's cooling abilities by welding on some large cooling fins. If i do run into diff cooling issues however, i will be looking into running a diff oil cooler and pump, but at the moment i can't see this being an issue especially with only running a 2.0 Pinto to start with.
Once the Jaguar V8 or other engine transplant comes along, this may force me into looking at beefier upgrades.
The other reason i wanted to clean up this diff was because i have a rear disc conversion set i want to start building up to replace the original 9 inch drums that were fitted previously. The backing plates were rusty and beyond repair so i have part of a Caprisport disc conversion kit which uses Sierra rear calipers and 253mm discs. These are larger diameter than the standard 247mm discs Capri's have fitted up front.
Don't worry i also have upgraded brakes for the front. This diff will have a little strengthening also to help with the punishment which will come in the form of an axle brace. It is also convenient place to mount other accessories to e.g. brake junctions and unions etc.
The original handbrake rod is now no longer required because of the disc conversion, this allows alot more freedom to place with the back of the diff for designing a Watts linkage for later on

[Will01]

Last but not least for Holiday break was my wife also kindly bought me some brackets so i can fit my front upgrade brake kit.
This is again Caprisport what they call GTR280. It utilises Sierra Cosworth 285mm vented disc which are far larger than the standard solid 247mm discs and M16 calipers as standard or even the vented discs they used on the 2.8 v6 models. They also use a Ford Mondeo Caliper which is off a non-v6 model. These give a much more powerful brake upgrade over standard, but this is also the reason why i have had to upgrade to a 15" wheel setup.
The great thing about these are that discs and pad packages are far easier to get hold of in alot of different options and are also alot cheaper in the long run.
Before everything is fitted on the car i will clean up and paint, but the pictures below show the difference and the uprade quite well.

Modifications are required to the strut as i will have to ream out the caliper mounting threads to allow larger bolts to fix new mounint plates in situ. I will use my old spare 2.0 struts for this. These will also be converted to height adjustable coilover units aswell so i don't mind cutting them up a little.
You can see from the pictures that the disc now cahgnes position from behind the hub to on top of the hub. Means disc repalcement even easier for future and also help keep heat away from wheel bearing and allow transfer to wheel aloth better. This all helps aid brake cooling and prevent fade. The only down side is the disc now acts as a wheel spacer, but this should not cause any issue. I have already had the hubs machined down to fit tightly within the inner part of the disc, and the wheels have already been machined to fit on the Ford hubs and there is enough material to allow the wheel to centralise on the hub to help prevent wheel wobble issues.
I trial fitted the rear 9 inch wheel in the front and there is plenty of clearance. The great thing about split rims is you can modify offset and width easily by replacing the outer parts. From the fitting so far i have plenty of scope for changes if required later.
I have noticed there is a lsight rub from back of mounting botls for split rims with the caliper. Therefore the botls will be cut down to give clearance and a small recess will be machined into the caliper to prevent any issues.

[Will01]

So didn't get much done on the weekend due to such bad weather. We were due to strip the entire front end of the car as a team and etch prime ready for next level of build but i was not stripping the car back to bare metal with horizontal rain coming into the garage!
Anyway we did manage to strip the rear axle back to bare metal again and coat with Kurust to get ready for etch primer. This should look pretty good once painted up and then we can start building up this axle with trick bits and pieces.
I will also be stripping back the front Mondeo calipers ready for caliper paint, but unfortunately i have noticed that the rear calipers i have do not have sliders and therefore i need to source some before i can retro-fit to the rear axle!

[Will01]

So last night after work after leaving the axle overnight with Kurust i went to check it over before priming up with Etch.
It was pretty damn cold last night and i thought it was best not to prime in the garage with the temperature below 5°C because the paint would not cure after mixing and therefore not dry correctly.
Instead i inspected the axle to check for any flush rusting, i found a few little spots, so i re-caoted the whole lot.
Due to work unfortunately i may have to do this daily until the weekend where i can try to paint during mid day when its a bit warmer. At least i can probably be sure it has been thorougly kurusted.

Whilst i was out in the garage i also decided to look at checking the condition of the Mondeo calipers i have for the front brake upgrade. I was half expecting to see the pistons all rusted up and the seals all perished, but other than looking crusty they are in great shape. I have already started stripping these back to bare parts, these will then be dipped in a de-rust tank and then cleaned and painted and then rebuilt. Colour is still to be decided by Catherine as she is in charge of Paint etc. I half expect Yellow(body colour) or Black.

I have also found someone with a complete set or Sierra rear brake calipers, so these will be purchased and given the same treatment ready for fitting to the rear axle.
Also found someone with a cheap Capri petrol tank to use as a mockup to practice cutting up and modifying the tank to fit in place once a Watts linkage has been fitted. Just need to find a courier who is willing to pickup from other end of country for a sensible price. The plan with this is to cut up and already cruddy tank and use it to get approx shape and size for custom Alloy tank to be made. This is because i really want to keep the original location of the tank as it is nice and low on the vehicle rather than being higher up inside the boot and then causing fire wall issues for any race regulations.

[Will01]

Fuelling
Next thoughts are on fuelling for the Capri.
Quite an important step i reckon. The standard tank for a 1.6 or 2.0 Capri is a big metal tank with a fuel feed pipe/sender and hole for filler neck. There is no baffling to prevent slosh of fuel in corners or brake/acceleration etc. It is also meant for a carb engine and it also doesn't have a swirl pot.
As mentioned already we also have a problem with the space i require to design a Watts linkage for the rear axle and make it adjustable. This is going to involve cutting part of the shell and tank(at least for a temporary measure, until a custom tank is made).
The petrol tank as standard sits beneath the boot floor right at the back of the car behind the rear axle and there is little room between tank and axle. Lots of people fit tanks in the boot for racing in many cars including Capri's, however in a Mk3 Capri there is a problem as there is then no firewall between cabin and tank.
The other issues is that we are also raising the height of a potentially heavy item(when filled with fuel) which will increase roll etc. I have therefore decided to keep the stock location, but modify the tank to give access.
As already mentioned i plan to get hold of an old tank which i don't mind cutting up and re-sizing it to fit in the space.
I will also look at baffling this aswell. For the short term i don't mind doing this, but at a later date before the car hits the road a custom tank will be made out of aluminimum.
After all welding a steel tank it is very unikely to get a full seal after MIG welding. (i will try though, for my own interest)
I also would quite like to keep a fuel sender aswell so i can keep an eye on fuel level when driving the car on the road between races or track days.

To rectify the problem with fuel starvation i have already mentioned that i will experiment with baffles, but maybe even foam fill. If you have any experience let me know as i would be interested hearing it.
The practice tank will also be modified with the fuel unions and pickups so i can use proper fuel hosing e.g. AN8 or 10 fittings with braided hose.
As we are first only fitting a Pinto engine to run the car in and shake down i will be blanking off the manual fuel pump on the side of the engine. A twin facet fuel pump setup will be used using solid state pumps. The tank will feed into a seperate fuel swirl pot and then pumped to the front of the engine. I need to do some measuring, but i think i will have to fit this higher up in the car, which may require another lift pump (time will tell).
Because there is possibility of going alot larger with the engine in the future i am probably going to use a 2-3litre swirl pot. This will be more than adequate for a small Pinto but also keep up when injection and larger displacement require more juice. It is also not too large that it will cause aeration as i will keep the cylinder diameter to a minimum.
I have in the past experienced a fuel tank removing itself from a Capri whilst driving in the past due to the straps rusting out, therefore i will be looking at ways of preventing this happening in future e.g. reinforcement or back up strap. Was scary the last time it happened at 30mph let alone a higher speed.

To control the fuel pressure, i also have a Malpassi fuel pressure regulator which will be used with the Pinto, although this will have to change if we go injection at later date.

I intend running the fuel lines through the cabin of the car, so all unions and joins will have to be kept to a minimum and sealed from the cabin. These i will probably route across onto the passenger side of the car down the transmission tunnel, and these have to be braided(according to race regs). I will not use exclusively braided hose due to the expense at the moment, so everywhere else i will use normal fuel line and upgrade as and when funds allow. Its not an issue at the moment anyway since the car is still along way off.
The car will also have an interior plumbed in extinguisher system (to feed engine bay and fuel area)and seperate small extinguisher just in case.

[Will01]

On another note, i now have a set of 55mm lolng wheel studs to repalce the standard Capri items as they are not long enough for the Disc brake upgrade and alloy wheel package. Originally my Capri only had steel wheels which did not require long studs.
Just to keep the cost down in postage of items, the same company also supply Bias balance bars and adjuster cables, which will be purchased to help progress the custom brake bias box i am manufacturing.