Ford Capri Mk3 Track/Race Car Project

[Will01]

Thanks Simon, it does look like i will be going the tall Industrial type bottles, although rather than the big bottle i probably only need half the size. Especially considering that i want to be semi mobile also. Plus i cannot see me using a large bottle in a whole year... hopefully!

I have been in touch with Solway Gas, however i have been advised to use someone at Franklin steel. I already have contact with them so this may pay as an advantage?
Just need to wait now until i can get down there.
cannot wait to get going again and try making a bit more progress.

[fingers99]

An argon/CO2 mix will certainly make for better welds. Well worth checking on the MIG Welding Forum (Google!) to see if there are alternative suppliers to BOC/AP near you -- anything to avoid the cylinder rental charges! If you're known to a local engineering/welding firm, they'll often let you have a bottle for the price of the gas.

[Will01]

I was given the option of buying a bottle outright which was 11 litres which was quite expensive or renting a bottle. I much rather like the idea of renting a bottle especially considering the number of projects we have.
I also think for our use it works out cheaper to just rent, as we can always return the bottle when we don't need it and then rent another when we do.
The bottles i have been looking a i think have either a 5 or 20% Argon to CO2 mix so it should help with the welding.
I always remember in the past that when using Argon the welder always sounds like its working better, but otherwise i cannot comment.
I will at least stick a quick picture up when i get the new bottle to show comparison between what i use at the moment.

[fingers99]

The scheme I use is to pay a one off lump sum for the bottle (refundable on the return of the bottle). In the meantime I just pay for refills.

The day after I'd done this the engineer in the 'shop next door told me that any of the 3 engineers in the street would have "given" me a bottle if I'd paid for the gas alone. It's just a business expenses/VAT fiddle.

5% should be perfect for mild steel less than 4mm or so thick.

[Will01]

So a welding bottle will be sorted this week with any luck. I couldn't sort out before as it had been an expensive month and i literally spent everything i had which is not soo good.
I will be just going for the 5% Argon to CO2 mix, so thanks for the advice on that. I will only be using for MIG on mild steel anyway.

I am going to try the welder out on some thicker stuff aswell as i have a few plans for suspension which i want to try out.
This leads me onto the next thing. Axle location!
For the Capri like may live axle cars there are plenty of options for controlling rear axle location with plenty of people offering different kits e.g.
- Axle Triangulation Kit
- Panhard Rod
- Watts Linkage
- 4 linked kit
Personally i think for what i am building the car for i would really like to adopt a Watts linkage. I do have my reasons and in time i will try to explain.
To start with though i don't want to change the original character of the car too much from OE specification as then it isn't really a Capri. Therefore i will not be fitting 4 link boxes and ditching the leaf springs. Maybe this will change later but i really want to try and keep the leaf springs for originality.
I don't really like the idea of the panhard rod as it really doesn't keep the axle centered under both right and left handed corners, whereas the Watts linkage allows you to keep the axle centered. I will eventually go into more detail but that should be fine for now.
From what i can see there are not too many people out there with a Watts linkage and rear leaf setup on a Capri, therefore it looks like i will have to adapt my own kit maybe from an Escort Mk2 or start from scratch?

The next thing i can see is i have a couple of options with Watts linkage setup.
- Watts linkage with pivot built into differential housing plate
- Adjustable roll centre Watts linkage which attached to axle tubes

Does anyone have any advice on Watts linkage setups and try to give some pros and cons of each?? All advice would be much appreciated as i need to work out how i will attach to the vehicle whilst i have the shell stripped down.

[Will01]

So my wife and I got another day off together to work on.the car, which has been really good fun. Cat carried on stripping paint and underseal from the front inner wings, whilst I carried on welding patch panels into inner sill ready to accept outer sill. Hopefully with any luck we will be able to offer the outer sill for final fitment tomorrow. If we have enough time maybe the passenger arch and lower corner can also be tacked into position. Will upload pictures tomorrow. There is still quite a bit of outstanding welding to be finished underneath, however hopefully a rollover spit will arrive next month to allow underside to be prepped properly. I also have managed to get hold of a cheap run around in order to help allow a little more to be spent on the projects.

[Will01]

So today my wife and I managed to get all the prep work sorted and started fixing the sill in place. Catherine done most of the grinding and all of the priming. Before the sill was fixed she also made a start with undersealing the inner sill and inner part of outer seal with waxoyl. Once the sill was postioned we both spot welded the edges. There are still a few patches to put in, but that is a major section sorted.
I had to laugh at one point as the paint set light and I asked Cat to blow it out, I heard her blowing but she still had her dust mask on haha......
Anyway we also managed to make a start at prepping the rear passenger arch and we mnaged to spot weld the lower corner in. Been a good days work and she really is taking shape. Pictures to follow

[Will01]

Here are the pictures as promised.
Also after taking off my wife's Mini Cooper S exhaust after the boxes blew out, I found the exhaust pipes on the system in good enough condition. So Cat was given a hacksaw and asked to cut the old exhaust up. This way at least we had some exhaust pipe which we could use at a later date to mock up a new exhaust for the Capri if needed. I try not to waste anything and like to be able to recycle certain parts.

[Will01]

I don't think I ever posted about the welding gas supplier, I would just like to recommend Franklin Steel in Dumfries, they have been very helpful in sorting us out with gas and supplies for the welder.
For anyone near the South west of Scotland, I highly recommend Franklin Steels.

Back to the car, the last few days I have just been cracking on with the welding, luckily I came across a load of wax sealant in the garage which we will be using to inject the sills etc. To make this easier I will be leaving front sill repairs off so I can inspect easier.
I will upload a few pictures of the sills finished asap. I am really falling behind on the Capri at the moment as I have far too many projects on the go at the same time.
New deadline for shell repairs to be finished is now end of Christmas holidays. Plus since we now have another Riley project they desperately need the garage space.

[Will01]

So the rear sill area is all but finished on drivers side, all it needs now is tidying up, the seams will then be sealed and will be smoothed with a little filler to make it a clean job.
The front sill repair sections will remain off for the time being as I will be injecting the inner areas with sealer.
The rear lower corner and wheel arch are now mostly welded in position. There is a slight buckle in the quarter panel which I hope to fix simply. The arch lip still requires spot welding, but it is great to see the panels going on. Once these are finished off I just have to do front sill repairs, lower rear corner on drivers side and sort out the passenger front chassis leg.

Next job after these will be to make some strengthening gussets for certain parts of shell and start fire-walling the rear boot area for custom tank and swirl pot.
I will share more pictures asap, first of all I need to back up the photos I have as I have run out of storage.

[Will01]

Just to add a few photos of the weekends work.
As you can see from the photos the repairs are coming along nicely, i may not be the best welder in the world but i sure am enjoying it.
I have found it particularly difficult to prevent panels from deforming whilst welding, but i am really happy with how its all going.
I still have a little bit of welding to do underneath and with replacing the chassis leg on passenger side, however this will be done when i can flip the car over on a jig.
The front section of the sill will be next for the drivers side and then i can work on getting the lower corner on the same side to be like new.

Although it looks like i have made a bit of progress over the weekend, i was hampered with many electric tools breaking.
First of all the grinder started to play around and spit sparks, so i replaced the brushes, only to find out the mains cable had burnt out, so i re-wired. Then the grinder got very hot and burst into flames, so it was promptly thrown out of the garage and has now been replaced. I not to annoyed with this as the grinder was a cheapo Halfords item which had lasted for 10 years and used on many restorations, not bad really for £15.
Next off i found that my spot welder mains lead crimped and the live wire broke free! This also required a re-wire to make it safe and reliable again.
I have also had many problems with my MIG welder and a dodgy trigger, hopefully i can fix it but obviously all our tools are feeling the strain of lots of hard use.

One other problem i ran into on the weekend was when i was trial fitting my 3 piece wheels on the car for fitment, i have found that i have been using a front wheel that is narrower than the rears. Woops silly mistake and i can't believe i made it, anyway after trial fitting the wider rear wheels i have found the front lip does not clear the arch! This leaves me with a dilemma or three.
Options are
- to source narrower front lips for the rear wheels so they fit into the arch. Unfortunately they are discontinued and almost impossible to get hold of.
- narrow the axle to allow the wheels to fit in the standard arches, which means i don't need to undo all the hard arch repair work. i have a spare axle which i plan on working over anyway, so this may be left for stage 2 of build. for the time being i may just make use of the standard 13" wheels with standard brakes.
- modify arches with x-pack or zakspeed arches. i don't really want to do this as i like the standard body shape, but this does open up alot more oportunites for brakes and wheels for the future?

I am still on the lookout for a second hand or cheap new roll cage for a Mk3 Capri, so if anyone knows of any around, preferably close to Dumfries i would be interested to hear from you.

[Nobby]

Seems to be coming along nicely. I'm not an experienced welder (only got a naff gasless MIG welder) but have you seen the coolant gel that you can put on panels to prevent them from deforming?. I don't know how much it costs or even if its any good but might be priceless for areas where you need to be careful/can't beat out.

I must admit some of my tools are getting past their best. My pillar drill broke the other day (already sourced a good second hand one) and my angle grinder (of 15 years) broke the lock for changing the discs.

[Will01]

Cooling gel for panels is something i have never heard of, that would have been great on the rear arch. I will keep that in mind next time i am doing such a large repair. I think all the other panels i have to repair now will be ok.
Thanks for the info Nobby.

I have been speaking to quite a few people about the Capri recently, possibly boring them. But no one can understand why i am going to such lengths to repair and modify the car if i am only going to use it for fun.
My answer to them is i just feel i need to do it for my own satisfaction, plus i really want to put what i know into practise on my own car for once, rather than assisting other peoples cars.

For quite a while now i have been pretty ill and for me this is helping me get through the week, knowing that i have something else to look forward to. With my wife working so much recently i do miss having her around to help out as we do make a great team with building the car. I know she does really enjoy it, i just don't want to finish the car without having more of her input. Sorry i getting a bit soppy now.

[fingers99]

) but have you seen the coolant gel that you can put on panels to prevent them from deforming?. I don't know how much it costs or even if its any good but might be priceless for areas where you need to be careful/can't beat out.
.

Never used it. FROST sell stuff called "Cold Front" -- £20 or so a tub, but re-useable.

[Will01]

Thanks for info, i will look into it if i need to do any more welding on large panels, maybe it will come in handy for fitting new arches on the E-Type??
Will