Minder Capri
Blink and you’ll miss it. Terry the Minder Capri’s rebuild continues at a right old rate.
It might not look like much has changed since last time, but looking at Terry the Minder Capri, almost glowing in his fresh Diamond White paint, you know a major milestone has just been passed.
When we left the Capri last month it the wings were welded and doors trial fitted, and the whole body had been painted in the poly coating and the block sanding had just begun. We always say that in painting a car preparation is everything and so is the time consuming part of the job, but when getting concours-winning standard paint, the application takes a while too, and of course being a busy restoration shop there are other customers and projects demanding time in the booth as well!
So, following on from blocking the entire car to a perfectly smooth and flat surface ready to accept paint, the interior and roof were masked up and the panels cleaned of any dust or grease and it was back into the spray booth.
First came two coats of primer and once ready, this was rubbed flat. This is the stage many DIY home painters discover they didn’t find all the lumps, bumps and imperfections in their welding, filling and prep before reaching for the spray gun, but not here, it was straight on to the base, or colour coat, the change the makes a car look like its really coming back together. Five coats of Ford Diamond White, the shade the car left the factory in, followed by a final three coats of lacquer.
Those eight coats of colour and gloss give huge depth and a deep shine to the paint straight from the gun, but to get that perfect mirror finish more time had to be spent with a mop and cutting compound to polish the new surface to a glass like smooth surface. It looks good in the pictures and feels almost frictionless to touch, but Tony says he still wants to spend a little longer on it. Perfection doesn’t come easily!
Bay watch
In the engine bay the mocked up component positions and part made brake lines have been replaced with the finished items.The brake servo now has the new master cylinder fitted - complete with unmelted reservoir — and the hard lined for the brakes are not only made but installed as far as the connections to the inner wings where they will join the suspension. Cables are run and clipped in place as they should be. Everything is ready, there’s just one thing missing…
the engine! As we saw last month that’s been serviced internally and painted externally so is ready and waiting.
In the cabin the new loom has been run to approximately the right places ready to reassemble the dashboard and all its instruments. Looking in the passenger door you can see a large sheet of Dynamat has been dropped in ready to fit properly, and a big box of the stuff is on the bench, so riding in this car will now be quieter experience than when new.
Box of bits
This is the part of the restoration which can flummox the home restorer, trying to remember what when where and how things came apart — we’ve all been there! — so we grind to a halt at the last hurdle, but longtime Ford restorer, Tony has built more Capris than he cares to remember and so the interior and engine bay should be falling into place in no time. We look forward to checking in again soon to see how it’s coming together.