Hi Guys and Girls, I’ve been loitering on here on and off the last cpl of years, and I thought I’d share my motor with you. Purchased back in 04 as my first car (and only car until last year) I’ve had some great fun and great adventures in it. I’ll try and do a bit of a backstory on it to cover off the last 9 years (I can’t believe I’ve owned it that long).
When I purchased it, it was in pretty good condition 1.6. Laser with only a small amount of filler in the wings and a badly resprayed bonnet as she had been put into a bollard by the previous owner. I kept her pretty standard apart from a CD player and some recaro seats. This is the earliest photo I can find…
As time went by she had a new drivers side front wing as my boss reversed into it and a few bits of welding here and there to get her through the MOT's. I couldn't afford to lavish much money on her as I was at university and had lots of drinking to do.
By the time I had finished University there is no way that I could sell her or replace her she had travelled up and down the country to and from uni fully laden with all my curse word. I was skint after uni so sensibly decided to spend some money with my then GF to take it on a grand tour round Europe, We went Paris, Bordeaux, Monaco, Florence, Rome, Venice via some other places in between and back. In just over a month she had done over 5000 miles. Great experience want to do it again… just with a bigger engine!
Some pics from the trip…
Monaco F1 Tunnel (wrong way);
Some Mountain somewhere in Europe;
I think it was 09… anyway crashed into a ditch…
Resulting in this….
Gold Wing!
This is probably my favourite Pic of the car… Sums up some great memories in it… God my mates look so young…
I don't believe in fair weather driving;
That Photo’s reminded me of this video of some fun in the snow with my bro and dad;
Anyway the next MOT after the snow photo, the capri needed work on the sills and some other bits and bobs so I took it off the road and went to work and live in London, where I couldn’t park or tinker with a car. It sat fairly forlorn on the same place on my parents drive for about 18months, my job then changed so I could justify the expense, using really shoddy man maths, to get it sorted... really really shoddy Man Maths.
During its resto in 2011 its had the following;
New Sills
Drivers Door
Passenger Door
Tailgate
Offside Rear Arch
Fibreglass Offside Wing
Fibreglass Nearside Wing
Fibreglass Valance
Fibreglass Bonnet
2 Sills
Rubber Bump Strips removed
So as you can see I’ve kept a lot of the original panels. The result was this…
My mate did most the work as I would never have had time myself. I wanted to go fibreglass for ages. The wings are now bolt on so easy to whip off if needed however the fit isn’t the greatest. The bank of M+D assisted me with this as I went a bit over budget as rust seem to stretch fairly deep into the shell.
Engine wise its been the same 1600 Pinto until xmas 2011 when, I had a slight issue in fitting a 2nd hand carb off ebay. Result was the throttle jamming open. By the time I’d got a new carb the engine was sounding Tappety (I think only the tappets) and a core plug had rusted through so I did the easy option of replacing for a 205 blocked 2 litre engine:
Engine Out:
Engine In:
Shortly followed by fitting 2.8 discs, spaced calipers, greenstuff pads, braided hoses;
After the 2 litre engine went in I was using the car every day. My work switched to Tamworth so was driving up the M1/M6 daily 100+ miles each way. This quickly racked up the miles… and quickly highlighted the lack of money I’d spent on the running gear over the years… it needed new rear springs and shocks, a gearbox, rear diff and a clutch. I was battling hard to keep it running with every weekend seemingly being dominated by the car. I decided to get this so I can do bits to the capper in my own time:
Great car love it for the Motorway and taking mates to footy… thanks to this forum want to lower and stick banded steels on it however must resist as money is needed to be spent on the Capri!
Capri as it currently looks;
Recent mods its had
Single Leaf Springs lowered 1.5” with Monroe Shocks (Lowering kept the same ride height due to old springs natural sag!)
Bonnet Pins to stop the fibreglass bonnet flexing alarmingly at speed (can’t believe I ran without these for over a year!)
Imminent mods are…
Fitting Polys front and rear
Front Adjustable shocks (Avo or Gaz any hints?), 2inch drop 190lb springs
Future mods… you’ll see!
Hope you enjoyed the read and like the motor. I'll update as I carry out more mods. I'm looking forward to getting involved in this forum and showing some appreciation for the inspiration I've recieved!
Cheers,
Josh
When I purchased it, it was in pretty good condition 1.6. Laser with only a small amount of filler in the wings and a badly resprayed bonnet as she had been put into a bollard by the previous owner. I kept her pretty standard apart from a CD player and some recaro seats. This is the earliest photo I can find…
As time went by she had a new drivers side front wing as my boss reversed into it and a few bits of welding here and there to get her through the MOT's. I couldn't afford to lavish much money on her as I was at university and had lots of drinking to do.
By the time I had finished University there is no way that I could sell her or replace her she had travelled up and down the country to and from uni fully laden with all my curse word. I was skint after uni so sensibly decided to spend some money with my then GF to take it on a grand tour round Europe, We went Paris, Bordeaux, Monaco, Florence, Rome, Venice via some other places in between and back. In just over a month she had done over 5000 miles. Great experience want to do it again… just with a bigger engine!
Some pics from the trip…
Monaco F1 Tunnel (wrong way);
Some Mountain somewhere in Europe;
I think it was 09… anyway crashed into a ditch…
Resulting in this….
Gold Wing!
This is probably my favourite Pic of the car… Sums up some great memories in it… God my mates look so young…
I don't believe in fair weather driving;
That Photo’s reminded me of this video of some fun in the snow with my bro and dad;
Anyway the next MOT after the snow photo, the capri needed work on the sills and some other bits and bobs so I took it off the road and went to work and live in London, where I couldn’t park or tinker with a car. It sat fairly forlorn on the same place on my parents drive for about 18months, my job then changed so I could justify the expense, using really shoddy man maths, to get it sorted... really really shoddy Man Maths.
During its resto in 2011 its had the following;
New Sills
Drivers Door
Passenger Door
Tailgate
Offside Rear Arch
Fibreglass Offside Wing
Fibreglass Nearside Wing
Fibreglass Valance
Fibreglass Bonnet
2 Sills
Rubber Bump Strips removed
So as you can see I’ve kept a lot of the original panels. The result was this…
My mate did most the work as I would never have had time myself. I wanted to go fibreglass for ages. The wings are now bolt on so easy to whip off if needed however the fit isn’t the greatest. The bank of M+D assisted me with this as I went a bit over budget as rust seem to stretch fairly deep into the shell.
Engine wise its been the same 1600 Pinto until xmas 2011 when, I had a slight issue in fitting a 2nd hand carb off ebay. Result was the throttle jamming open. By the time I’d got a new carb the engine was sounding Tappety (I think only the tappets) and a core plug had rusted through so I did the easy option of replacing for a 205 blocked 2 litre engine:
Engine Out:
Engine In:
Shortly followed by fitting 2.8 discs, spaced calipers, greenstuff pads, braided hoses;
After the 2 litre engine went in I was using the car every day. My work switched to Tamworth so was driving up the M1/M6 daily 100+ miles each way. This quickly racked up the miles… and quickly highlighted the lack of money I’d spent on the running gear over the years… it needed new rear springs and shocks, a gearbox, rear diff and a clutch. I was battling hard to keep it running with every weekend seemingly being dominated by the car. I decided to get this so I can do bits to the capper in my own time:
Great car love it for the Motorway and taking mates to footy… thanks to this forum want to lower and stick banded steels on it however must resist as money is needed to be spent on the Capri!
Capri as it currently looks;
Recent mods its had
Single Leaf Springs lowered 1.5” with Monroe Shocks (Lowering kept the same ride height due to old springs natural sag!)
Bonnet Pins to stop the fibreglass bonnet flexing alarmingly at speed (can’t believe I ran without these for over a year!)
Imminent mods are…
Fitting Polys front and rear
Front Adjustable shocks (Avo or Gaz any hints?), 2inch drop 190lb springs
Future mods… you’ll see!
Hope you enjoyed the read and like the motor. I'll update as I carry out more mods. I'm looking forward to getting involved in this forum and showing some appreciation for the inspiration I've recieved!
Cheers,
Josh
every time I drive it ha ha! 
but i'm glad you've not been put off and have got a new in its place 
