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'92 Mild Widebody Build
theastronaut:
I'm new to the forum but have been in the Capri groups on Facebook for a few years. This is my tenth Capri and was the most solid base to build from. It's a 100% rust free South Carolina car that had been advertised on craigslist for $1200, then sold and a few months later advertised on OfferUp for $1000. I saved it to keep track of it and about a month later the price dropped to $550 so I sent a message and asked a few questions but we weren't able to work out a time to meet up and check it over. About two weeks later he asked if I was still interested and had dropped the price to $450 so I loaded up the trailer and picked it up.
It was originally white but had a really poor repaint. The top was in bad shape, radio wiring was a mess, it had the wrong battery, the lower rad hose was a weird flexible metal hose, the windshield was busted, and it had broken it's third alternator belt (the reason the PO was selling it) but hadn't been overheated. It started and ran well though, only had 129K, and the body was solid so I figured at worst it would be a good big nose B6d engine donor for one of my Festivas, and part the rest out.
theastronaut:
After getting it home and going over it more closely I decided to make it a daily driver so I ordered a new top, swapped on a set of Tokico struts with H&R springs from a parts car, fixed the belt and rad hose, pulled out most of the interior, and started driving it.
'92 parts car that I bought last year. It was parked in a field for 10-12 years and is pretty rotted- even the windshield frame has rust holes across the top. It had a bunch of cool parts like the struts/springs, clear marker lights, '94 XR2 spoiler, K&N filter, and a powdercoated valve cover. They said they parked it when it started knocking but after getting it running it seems to just have lifter tick. Not a bad find for $150...
My plans for the car were to pull out anything unnecessary to drop as much weight as possible. The interior was trashed so almost all of it ended up in the dumpster. I cleaned and painted the floor to match the dash color, removed the mess of stereo wiring, detailed the dash, console, step plates, etc, and bought/mounted a used Sparco race seat from a friend. I had to swap in a headlight module (it was missing) and both headlight motors from a parts car to make the headlight doors work again.
The heater floor duct was routed to the back floor so I cut it off so heat would be directed to the front floor instead.
Indoor/outdoor grip tape to replace the pedal pads.
Sparco seat... I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it and order a new cover for it, or find a matching pair of seats to swap in instead. I mounted it using a set of universal side mount brackets and the sliders from the stock seats.
New top installed.
At this point I had the rad hose fixed, new wider alternator belt on, battery swapped out for the correct size and bolted in using hold down parts from the white parts car, and a bunch of other small issues sorted out. It looked much better slightly lowered with the new top, but still pretty ugly. A friend of mine wanted the steel wheels for his 323 so I began looking for wheels. I got it registered and insured and started driving it back and forth to work.
theastronaut:
My original plans were to build more of a stance/slammed look so I bought 15x9 -15 wheels and found a good deal on 205/50 tires.
They didn't come close to fitting, but that's what camber and cutting is for... 2nd/3rd pics are with a few degrees of camber dialed in and the fender rolled/pulled out as much as possible.
Rear before/after cutting the inner wheel well loose, using a hydraulic ram to push the quarter panel out, and rolling the lip flat. The quarter is noticeably more curvy or flared compared to the stock quarter in the last pic.
The gap was filled in with a strip of sheetmetal using rosette welds to attach it. I later sealed it with primer and seam sealer.
The quarters kinked above the wheel opening from pushing them out so much so I used a hammer and dolly to reshape the low spot.
Process of sanding to find the high/low spots, then working the panel until the shape was corrected.
Finished up with a thin skim coat of filler.
Difference between the stock side and the widened side.
Went ahead and started bodywork on the rest of the car.
theastronaut:
Test fitting with the tires mounted.
greywolf27030:
WOW....welcome to the forum. You're going to town on that thing. I'm glad to see owners who are wanting to do things to personalize their Capri's. I'm going to have to start shopping in SC. I'm in NC and the cheapest Capri I've seen up here is a non running N/A with 188K for $500/ Where are you located in SC?
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