MOTHER’S PRIDE
When Martin Rice discovered his father in law Geo ’s 1972 Capri 1600XL had sat virtually abandoned in the garage for 23 years, he decided he had to get the car back on the road…
Martin Rice got a bit of a surprise back in 1993 when he went outside to look at the second-hand car his father-in-law, Geoff Hibbert had just bought. “It was a bright blue 1972 Capri 1600XL, a car I’d known around the local area for quite a few years,” remembers Martin. “I’d worked in Yeovil with the son of the Capri’s first owner in the late 1980s, he’d sold it to a local dealership and Geoff saw it on their forecourt driving home from work one morning. He paid £450 but only drove it for about a year because it had rust holes in the front wings and he couldn’t find any replacement panels.” Despite Geoff being a member of Capri Club International, Mk1 front wings proved hard to find in those pre-internet days. “He put the Capri in his garage in 1994 where it just sat. We’d all but forgotten about it. Then Geoff died in 2015 and after a couple of years my mother-in-law, Kathleen wasn’t sure what to do and considered scrapping the car.”
“I BEGAN TO STRIP THE CAPRI DOWN TO A ROLLING SHELL, AND IMMEDIATELY DECIDED IT WOULD REMAIN STANDARD, INCLUDING THE MONZA BLUE PAINT”
Fortunately, Martin is a trained mechanic and his friend, Tim runs Tim Lang Classics, a classic car restoration business. “Tim agreed to do the paint and bodywork so I began to strip the Capri to a rolling shell.” Immediately it was decided the car would remain factory standard including that unusual, for a Capri anyway, Monza Blue paint. “I think it was the bright colour that made me remember the car,” smiles Martin. “I vowed that I would only do everything once, although it was Kathleen’s car — her name is on the logbook — and my wife Julia would be using the Capri to drive her around, so I didn’t want any problems or breakdowns.”
“It wasn’t in bad condition really,” remembers Martin, “I decided to get it running first, so I was aware of any mechanical faults but after some cleaning and a few replacement parts, everything seemed to be working. So I pulled out the engine, gearbox and interior but left the glass and trim in place for Tim to remove since had he the tools and the expertise. While he repaired the body, I started stripping down the engine…”
Engineer, gearbox there
“I was brought up on old Fords,” continues Martin, “they’re easy cars to work on and I’m a trained engineer, so had no problem working out how to repair the mechanical parts. I fitted a new crank and bearings, camshaft and followers then a new oil pump, and the original distributor was fine. Petrol had lodged in the carburettor and eaten away part of the bowl, but I came across a guy selling carbs and gave him the serial number. He had two with a choice of manual or auto choke. I bought both for £190 since the car was originally auto choke, but I didn’t really trust them, having had faulty automatic chokes in the past. This one has been fine though.”
“The radiator was recored by a specialist. I had the gearbox inspected by another specialist since I felt there was a bit too much play in it, but he reckoned if it wasn’t having problems to leave it well alone. I did notice a nylon bush in the base of the gearstick had split, so I turned up a new one on my lathe.” New brakes were added, along with a new master cylinder. “I also fitted new suspension springs and strut inserts in the front. The rear suspension was in really good condition so just needed new dampers — it’s even still got the original bushes. It needed a new handbrake cable though.”
Martin also stripped the rear axle down and fitted new bearings while the wheels were sandblasted then powdercoated. “I masked them up to add the black highlights and was very proud of the results.” Geoff had removed the bumpers when he previously stored the car so they had gone quite rusty sitting in his shed
and had to be rechromed. “I used Doug Taylor in Weston-super-Mare and wherever possible I tried to use local businesses.”
Martin’s biggest stroke of luck was the interior. “It was extremely dirty and covered in black mould, but underneath that the seats were in perfect condition and so was the matching headlining. The dashboard was straight with no cracks, probably because the car had been out of the sunlight for 23 years. I cleaned it all with Swarfega Heavy Duty hand cleaner and a toothbrush. People keep asking who trimmed it; they can’t believe it’s original. You can see where the doorcards are a little faded and I had to get a new door lever from Burton Power, but overall it was straightforward.”
Together again
“Tim finished the bodywork in April 2018 and said he expected I’d have the car back on the road by September,” recalls Martin, “so he looked surprised when I told him it was booked into a car show in June! In reality, I got it reassembled even earlier because we went away on holiday for the first week of June.
“To be honest,” admits Martin, “I’m not that up on classic cars so there were things I had to ring someone at the Capri Club about, especially what colours to paint components. The trim was hand-polished and I deliberately left in a few small scratches — they’re all a part of the car’s history. It has a radio, but no aerial since I couldn’t bear to drill a hole in the new front wing.”
Although Kathleen had seen the progress of the Capri whenever she visited, she only saw it finished when Martin and Julia surprised her with a trip to a local car show in Ilminster. “That was the first journey we did and she hadn’t seen it driven since 1994, she couldn’t believe how different it looked. Now Julia uses the Capri mainly, but I have driven it and everywhere I stop, someone comes over to tell me they used to own a Mk1. It’s very much still Kathleen’s car, though. I had high standards when rebuilding it because although I enjoyed the work I knew I didn’t want to repeat any of the jobs. I must have enjoyed it more than I realised since I’ve just agreed to help restore Kathleen’s chrome bumper MGB!”