Ford Capri Mk3 Track/Race Car Project

[Will01]

It is getting a cage and i agree now is a perfect excuse to weld it into the A-posts. I still haven't however decided what cage i will purchase as i had the choice of weld in or bolt in.
I prefer the idea of bolt in, but there is no reason why you cannot strengthen by welding extra supports aswell.
Might seem a bit silly, but i do not feel happy welding the main structure of the cage with my welder as i want the welds to be neat(ish) and therefore i would prefer more of a pro to do the wedling which would cost s fortune.
However if i get a bolt-in then i can bolt in i am quite happy to weld in extra reinforcement as i will be able to grind the welds smooth on flat sections. (i hope that makes some sort of sense).

[Will01]

So made a little more progress again.
First i thought i would post some pictures of the strengthening added to chassis rails, which will take the new compression strut mounts.
Then i trialled out the mount on one side to see how it worked(was just tacked in place).
In the design of this mount i have made sure that it is not just welded to a flat surface. The design includes a few small steps that help locate onto the chassis rail to help with initiaal building but also to give a little more robustness.
Everything seemed to move well without any feeling of binding in the bearings, therefore i decided to replicate the mount for the other side.
took various shots to give an idea of where i found the best location.
Next jobs are to ream out the mounting hole to the correct size for the bolts supplied with the rose jointed ends.
I will also have to make up some aluminimum top hat spacers to ensure the rose joint sits central in its mount.
This is important so that the compression bar doesn't bind with the mount. I did shape the edges slightly to give more clearance. This will be checked more once i have purchased adjustable TCA's.
Both mounts were clamped next to each other in the vice and were cleaned up (linished) with a flap wheel to make sure they are symmetrical and free of sharp edges.
At some point once fitted i will remove more material as there is alot of un-wanted material. But it gets the basic design sorted for the time being, the mounts will also be reinforced with extra gussets to make sure they definetely do not move.

I also took the time to clean up the original ARB mounting points. Unfortunately when i originally removed the ARB 3 of the 4 bolts sheared off. Therefore i tried to drill them out, this became a problem on one of them so i have decided to drill all the holes out aswell as the thread and new larger bolts will be used. This is not a problem as i will be using harder and more arb bushes so it helps to beaf up the assembly anyway.

Also because i got slightly bored and was thinking about ways to take out a bit extra weight, because i keep adding it at the moment, i decided to start work on some lighterweight bumper mounting brackets. Looks quite neat aswell.
I had some spare bumper brackets from a while back that i had started to play with, but i thought i would look at how much weight i could take out of them, therefore i drilled pilot holes at fixed intervals along the length of the bracket and then drilled out with 10mm drill (biggest drill i have). Before i started i weighed these brackets at roughly 465g each. After drilling them out i have manged to take out 50-60g per bracket. (Not as much as i thought, but every little bit of reduction helps).
If i was doing again i would prefer to use a pillar drill and a jig made up to ensure holes are perfectly aligned, but i have to make do with the tools at hand which consisted of a punch and a hand held drill. As you can see the holes aren't perfect, but it doesn't really matter. I might agree to adapt others in the future so would want to make a better quality finish.
I may also drill some smaller holes between the larger holes as i will be taking material out of the bumper aswell by way of swaged holes. I don't intend to use the bumper and it will only be there for looks so i don't need to have big strong mounting brackets.

[Will01]

So made a big jump forward over the weekend.
I finally plucked up the courage to weld the compression struts in situ after being careful to measure them up, in case i need to make more.
Also got a bit unacceptable with the grinder and started to strip off the paint on the inner wing and get rid of some crusty bits.
I also then mocked up the suspension with the double front ARB idea i have.
I got to say though the hardest thing is going to be where and how i connect the ARB's to the front suspension which is in a location which clears the steering and suspension through its movement. I have a location i just need to make up some mounts and some adjustable droplinks and try it out.

[Will01]

Pictures Inner wing cleanup

[Will01]

Welding on the Compression Strut Mounts.
Welding these on was very tricky but we got there in the end, welding both sides with such an angle was difficult to get the weld to lay properly. Several layers of weld had to be built up.
These mounts will next be braced to the chassis rail, but for now they are good.

A little treat aswell. Showing mock up of the double ARB, this is a real pig and will result in modifying two Capri ARB's.
The pickup location will stay secret for now, but it will be very difficult to locate and keep adjustable and clear of all other suspension/steering parts. The droplinks will also be made adjustable to allow finite setup later on.
The bars will need bending and one of them is going to be cut up aswell!
The stiffness is also going to be adjustable but i will share that later on in the build.

[Will01]

Here's a rough Mounting Bracket Schematic Drawing. This may change dependant between cars and length of compression strut etc

[Will01]

So only had 1 ay over the weekend to play with the Capri. Now my wife is finishing work ready for the baby i fear i may not get much time to work in the garage. Lets hope i still can continue to make progress.

Anyway i thought i would take a few pictures of the front suspension setup to show issues i have with placing the front ARB.

Also because i seem to be spending a fortune on grinsing wheels etc i decided a new approach to stripping paint from the car, also i think it wil help with reducing noise levels somewhat. I decided to carry on stripping the paint from the engine bay as i really want to get the underneath and engine bay ready for paint.
I invested in some Nitromors and applied to the synthetic paint the previous owner had used to spray areas of the car. This paint kept gumming up the flap discs and wire wheels i was using to strip the paint. Thankfully the paint stripper meant i could remove the red top paint and then once removed i could quickly clean up everything underneath with the wire wheel grinder.

I think it must have taken me 4hrs to strip paint from the inner wing, bulkhead and front crossmember areas and i was completely knackered once finished. There are still hhard to reach areas i need to do, but i will be using the pot blaster i have for these. The only reason i haven't used the pot blaster for the rest of the engine bay is because it is a large surface area and it would take alot of fills of the tank in order to complete. I find that i can only really get 3-4 fills of the tank before the glass starts to clump together after moisture collecting. I am sure a water trap would help but thats something else for the future.
Anyway you can see a few pictures of bare metal and primer being applied.

It is important to note that you should always clean the bare metal with thinners or similar to make sure the surface is clean ready for primer etc

Next time i will continue to strip paint and crusty bits on the front of the car round the headlamp and front slan panel area. This is going to be very difficult due to access etc, but i will have to use combination of paint stripper, grinders and the pot blaster to clean out all the crud. I still toying with the idea of cutting out the standard Radiator supports and fitting in a larger radiator for increased cooling etc.

[Simon]

That's coming along nicely Will. I too found chemical stripping was much more efficient compared to abrasives when I started on my old 911. I just brushed it on and waited, then you could hear the paint bubbling up and it all came off in big sheets to reveal bright metal underneath. I really ought to get around to putting the fresh paint back on!

Are you going to seam weld the front chassis legs at all?

[Will01]

Hi Simon
I would defo like to see some pics of the 911. Which one do you have? I am particular fond of the late 80's and early 90's cars which were still air cooled. 993 GT2 being my favourite dream car.

As for seam welding i did say to myself that i would not get too caught up in seam welding the entire shell. Mainly because i don't have much experience of what you can get away with and i didn't want to overdo it. Since the car will still be used on the road temporarily and might do the occasional long distance i didn't want the shell to be too stiff and cause cracking etc.
However i always planned on seam welding a few chosen locations, mainly around where the suspension pickup points are. From the pictures you will see that the chassis rails under the front of the bulkhead where the compression struts mount i have seam welded. I still plan on seam welding the suspension towers, but i think i will leave the front chassis rails for the time being.
I am open to advice.
The only piece of refernce material i found on old Fords was a preparation manual for seam welding a Mk1 Escort, so i have taken a few bits from that.
If i had access to a shell stiffness rig thingy i may be more tempted to try seam welding more of the shell.

The next area which i have identified as a possible weak spot are the inner wings to top of strut towers. I am still looking at reinfrocing these areas with extra panels which are available and called 'walking plates'. But also i plan on clamping some flat plates on the top of where the strut bolts in, to help prevent deformation since i will be using solid rose joints for bushes rather than rubber.

[Will01]

So i haven't been able to spend any more time on the Capri due to other vehicles breaking and requiring repairs.

However in the mean time it has given me time to think about other possible upgrades i can make to help improve the car, the list is endless i know but i may aswell take the opportunity to sort out now.
I may have mentioned about the Double ARB for the front suspension, although we are still going forward with this idea i did have some reservations about using the cranked type 20mm front ARB of a standard 4 cylinder model Capri. This is because its design, doesn't allow the use of double width ARB mounts.
For Escorts etc you can buy a kit which allows fitment of these, but this will not work with the Capri.

I have come up with a simple design to help increase structural rigidity of the front end where the ARB mounts connect to the chassis leg and also allow the fitment of extra ARB mounts. I am going to use the two spare standard width ARB clamps and make up a bar which they will fit to. Please see approx design attached.
I will make this up with 2mm thick steel. If possible i will make from cut down rectangular hollow section, if not i will make up from sheet and bend the edges for extra strength. The large holes will then be drilled using a hole saw and using a flaring tool they will be punched in order to reduce weight, but also increase the rigidity in the sheet steel.
From quick calcs this will probably weigh in around 700g so we will see.
This extra bar will be welded on to the standard ARB mounts in situ.

[Will01]

Just because i realised i didn't have any, i have created some drawings to manufacture some cheap hole flaring tools. I will make multiple sizes to suit the various sizes that i require.
As you will see from my last post i will require these to strengthen the Double ARB stiffner plate that i am going to make.
I will make one to start off with to test how it works, and also see how it handles different thickness materials. But these should definitely come in handy.
So far i have created these as parametrically controlled part drawings, so they should automatically change size to suit different required hole size.
Just another quick lunchtime project

[Simon]

I was over at the Nurburgring a couple of weekends ago for the Old Timer GP and thought of your project when this appeared!

Capri Racer, Nurburgring 2014

_IMG2651.jpg (331.33 KiB) Viewed 12854 times

[quote="Will01"]Hi Simon
I would defo like to see some pics of the 911. Which one do you have? I am particular fond of the late 80's and early 90's cars which were still air cooled. 993 GT2 being my favourite dream car.

As for seam welding i did say to myself that i would not get too caught up in seam welding the entire shell. Mainly because i don't have much experience of what you can get away with and i didn't want to overdo it. Since the car will still be used on the road temporarily and might do the occasional long distance i didn't want the shell to be too stiff and cause cracking etc.
However i always planned on seam welding a few chosen locations, mainly around where the suspension pickup points are. From the pictures you will see that the chassis rails under the front of the bulkhead where the compression struts mount i have seam welded. I still plan on seam welding the suspension towers, but i think i will leave the front chassis rails for the time being.
I am open to advice.
The only piece of refernce material i found on old Fords was a preparation manual for seam welding a Mk1 Escort, so i have taken a few bits from that.
If i had access to a shell stiffness rig thingy i may be more tempted to try seam welding more of the shell.

The next area which i have identified as a possible weak spot are the inner wings to top of strut towers. I am still looking at reinfrocing these areas with extra pttachment=0]_IMG2651.jpg[/attachment]

Seam welding at least the high stress areas definitely seams like a good idea to me.

Regarding the 911, it is an old US import 1970 2.2T, and I have just realised its been off the road for 10 years! Its currently in storage with no paint on it, having done quite a bit of bodywork. I will post up another thread as it may encourage me to get on with it now that the 124 is on the road.

In the meantime this is what it looks like (you can tell how long ago this was as the 124 was still a convertible!)

911dustoff.JPG (96.02 KiB) Viewed 12854 times

[Will01]

Thanks for the Zakspeed pic. That is an awesome piece of art and engineering. Maybe one day mine.will end up more like it than.a.standard road spec car.
The 911 looks like it will be a great fun project and brilliant car. I will own a 911 one day, just have to see how long I have to wait. My problem is I never sell a car so I really need to buy a.big garage or storage building.

On a completely non related car note and the reason why I haven't posted alot recently is because my wife has.been heavily pregnant.
Best news ever is that my baby son Oscar was born on Saturday almost a week ago. I am sure it won't be long before he gets his own project. Massive congratulations to my wife.

[TomLouwrier]

Best news ever is that my baby son Oscar was born on Saturday almost a week ago. I am sure it won't be long before he gets his own project. Massive congratulations to my wife.

Hi Will,

Very good news indeed. Congrats to the three of you! Hugs, thumbs up and a big smile from Holland.

regards
Tom

[Will01]

Thanks Tom, it really is best news ever.

Back to my Capri. I really have forgotten about her for quite a few weeks(which is too long!). New target is to get the car primed and on its wheels before end of year! That is a big ask with soo many other things to get on with but hey.

On Saturday i took a very full car load of Jaguar/Riley & Capri parts down to our local Blasting specialist. WTA Coatings. Roy who runs the operations is very knowledgeable in blasting and preparation of items for powdercoating etc etc. He is very active with many nice and unusual projects which is great to see. He has a real passion for what he does, which really made us comfrotable trusting him with our large pile of parts.
For the Capri, this really means that all the items for the suspension e.g. Crossmember, mounts, leaf springs and ARB's will be cleaned up nicely, ready for prime and paint.
It is always much nicer to deal with clean parts, this will also greatly help getting the car rolling again as i have been waiting for clean suspension for a while in order to assemble the polybushes etc.

My father and I travelled down to Stoneleigh Park yesterday for a Jaguar Spares day, i also used it to scout some parts for the Capri also.
I have now picked up 7+metres of Cupro-Nickel brake pipe and some fittings to help with putting new lines in the Capri. Have settled with standard size hose (memory bad but think it is 3/16). Also got some more as spare for use on the other cars aswell. Found a few contacts for stuff such as Fuel hose and other universally required items for cars in general which is always good.
Also purchased some 2K Filler Primer in order to have the materials to spray the shell once all the old paint is removed and metal cleaned up.
I know its not much but it hels me start thinking about her again.

I am also about to order another few parts for my DIY Brake bias box and try to get running with this also. This will be combined with another order i have for parts for my wifes Mini e.g. gauges as spoken about in the 2003 Mini Cooper S project