ON A PROMISE
Four and a half decades, more than 100,000 miles and one rebuild later, Dieter Quent is still living the dream
Devotion that saved a Capri from scrap
As marketing messages go, ‘the car you always promised yourself’ is one of the better known – it’s almost impossible to talk about the Ford Capri without referring to it. German-born Dieter Quent didn’t just make a promise, however – he kept it. “I first saw a Capri in 1969,” recalls the owner of this concourswinning Mk1. “I was working for an aircraft company in Hamburg at the time and owned a Cortina GT, but as soon as I heard about Ford’s latest coupé, I knew that I wanted one.”
That ambition came true in 1971, when he bought himself a new 2000GT XLR, but that first Capri fell victim to an unfortunate accident early in its life: “I’d only had it for about three months when I took it up into the mountains on a skiing trip. During the night, an avalanche fell from the roof of my hotel and landed on top of the car, which was parked in the street directly below.” The result was a badly dented roof, but it otherwise survived largely intact. “The damage was beaten out but the finish wasn’t perfect,” remembers Quent. “In the end, the bodyshop disguised it by spraying on a fake vinyl roof.”
His initial taste of Capri ownership might have been soured by that unlucky incident, but Quent continued to enjoy the V4-engined 2000GT for the following year, until he learnt that Ford was planning to facelift its sports coupé. “I decided that it was time to upgrade. I didn’t like the styling of the Mk2, though, so contacted my local dealership back home in Farnborough and enquired whether it would still be possible to get hold of the Mk1 facelift. They replied that it would, so I placed an order in July 1973 for a brand-new 3000GT to export spec, finished in Diamond White and fitted with every available extra, including a full-length Webasto sunroof.”
At that time, Quent had no idea he would still own the car 45 years later, but he was nonetheless keen to have the exact vehicle he wanted and thus requested a number of additional upgrades: “I thought that the front-end styling could have been better resolved, so I had the car delivered to me via Broadspeed in Coventry, where it was fitted with quad headlamps – it had left the factory with rectangular lights – as well as quarter-bumpers and a recessed numberplate, in the mould of the Broadspeed Bullet.” On 20 November 1973, Quent was informed that his Ford – the eighth-from-last Mk1 facelift V6 to be produced – was ready for collection, and so he flew home from Germany to pick it up.
With the Capri registered on British export numberplates, which meant it had to leave the UK within three months, Quent immediately returned to the Continent, where he rapidly piled on the mileage: “The Ford was my daily transport, and during the first three years it racked up around 30,000 miles.”
“I personalised it quite a bit during that time,” he remembers. “Modifications included a set of Recaro bucket seats, which I had trimmed in leather. I also added a rear spoiler from a Mk2 Capri, an elaborately engraved four-spoke Moto-lita steering wheel, Ace Mercury chromed wheels, Us-style side repeater lights and even an eagle mascot on the bonnet, which carried bonnet pins. It was the age of the boyracer and I fully embraced it!”
Quent returned to live in the UK in 1976, bringing the Ford with him. After a drawn-out but successful battle with bureaucracy to keep the original registration number, he continued to use SYT 511M regularly, but by the late ’80s the Capri was getting well past its prime.
“The car has been involved in a couple of prangs,” he says. “On the first occasion I’d caught the back end of a Morris when turning right, pushing up the bonnet and buckling the nearside wing so badly that the Capri’s battery ended up near the middle of the engine.” Fortunately, the impact hadn’t distorted the bodyshell, and the car went on to survive a second altercation – this time with a baker’s van – which led to a new bootlid and offside rear light cluster. As with so many cars of its era, however, it was rot rather than accident damage that threatened its existence. “Rust had begun to take a firm grip on the ageing steel,” he recalls, “and when the car failed its MOT due to corrosion in the chassis rails and rear spring-hanger area I was faced with a tough decision – scrap it or restore it.”
Having already owned the car for 16 years, Quent was clearly attached to it so, although a rebuild was not a foregone conclusion, he was reluctant to send it to the crusher. As a result, the Capri spent the next couple of years mothballed in his garage while its custodian mulled over his options. He had never attempted restoring a car and initially felt daunted by the prospect, unsure of where to begin.
Reading a magazine feature about a 3000 GXL that had been restored – and updated with 2.8 injection running gear – by a chap called John Timms provided the necessary stimulus. Quent got in contact with Timms, and after a lengthy discussion it was decided that he would help out by repairing and repainting the bodywork of SYT 511M.
The Capri was dismantled carefully by Quent, the parts meticulously photographed and catalogued until all that remained was the bare shell, which was sent to Timms in April 1991 for shot-blasting. Unfortunately, the process revealed the true extent of the corrosion: “It really was rotten,” its owner recollects. “The chassis box-sections, sills, floorpans, boot floor and rear arches were in an awful state.” That in itself would have been bad enough but, to compound matters, the supply of replacement panels was pretty sketchy back then: “It took me about eight months to amass the necessary parts to rebuild the body, sourcing them from all over the UK with the help of the various Capri clubs, as well as the local dealership from which I’d initially purchased the car.”
During that time the shell, which had been coated in oil to prevent further corrosion, was stored in Quent’s garage, but eventually work started. The body was returned to Timms, who began painstakingly welding in fresh steel. Key to this was the £80-a-day hire of a body jig, which enabled correct alignment of replacement parts.
While the structural repairs progressed, Quent busied himself with the rest of the project, stripping, inspecting, and repairing or replacing as necessary: “Lots of items were retained, but everything was cleaned or refurbished. The whole of the dashboard and centre console remained original, for example, but they were thoroughly spruced up before being put back into the car.” The rear seats were also kept but, in his quest to return the Ford to factory spec, Quent decided to retire the Recaros and reinstate the factory items: “When I swapped the seats in 1973, I sold the originals to a friend with a Cortina. Amazingly, he still had them 20 years later, so I bought them back, had them rebuilt, then retrimmed them in the same vinyl that had been used by Ford in period – which is extremely hard to get hold of.” The engraved steering wheel, meanwhile, was refurbished by Motolita and still sits in the Capri today – one of the few non-standard elements that remains.
Remarkably, given the extent of the rust, Timms was able to salvage the original floorpan and petrol tank, but, frustratingly, a number of non-corroding parts had to be replaced, including the windscreen and rear window, the latter’s heating element having long-since burnt out. A new headlining and door cards were also fitted, the doors themselves having been replaced by new items sourced in The Netherlands. The gearbox and back axle, meanwhile, only required cleaning and fresh lubricant, but the Essex V6 had seized while the car was in storage, so had to be stripped down.
“It had covered some 80,000 miles,” explains Quent, “and I decided that the work should be done to the book. The heads were skimmed, ported and polished, as well as fitted with hardened valve seats, while the valves, pushrods,
“It was really rotten – the chassis rails, box-sections, sills, floorpans, boot floor and rear wheelarches were in an awful state”
springs and followers were all replaced. Other parts included new pistons, rings, big-end bearings and conrods. The rebuilt engine was mated to a new clutch, alternator and distributor, while Quent also commissioned a stainless exhaust and manifolds to replace the corroded originals.
“The trickiest job was the wiring loom,” he says. “I wanted everything to be period-correct, but the grey tape that binds the cables together was no longer available. To get it right, I had to purchase a second loom from a scrapped car, carefully removing the tape in order to re-use it on the repaired original. That in itself was no small job – I laid it out on a board and replaced every connector.”
When the Capri was first taken off the road as an MOT failure it was a mere 16 years old, so it is astonishing to think that today, almost 30 years later, it was once in such poor shape because every square inch remains highly polished and immaculate. “It’s been back on the road since 1993,” says a proud Quent, who undertook all the repairs except the body and paint. “There must be a couple of gallons of Waxoyl pumped in the box-sections and cavities because I didn’t want it to go the same way as it had before.”
Other than the frustration of the paint on the bonnet and top of the wings erupting in blisters six months after completion (caused by water in the undercoat, which led to a bare-metal respray of those areas by a very apologetic Timms), the Capri is holding up magnificently. Out on the road, this beautiful survivor is surprisingly quiet and refined, a testament not only to the model’s prowess as a long-legged GT, but also the integrity of the restoration. There are no creaks or rattles to upset the early-’70s ambience. “It’s done around 35,600 miles since I finished,” says Quent, the longest journey being a 700-mile round-trip to Scotland in 2000.
“I had entered the Autoglym Concours and set off from home at 5am on the Friday. It rained all the way up – I was hoping for dry weather the next day. Unfortunately, it poured down again and the field was so muddy it was almost impossible to get to my allocated slot. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I then realised that I hadn’t taken any cleaning materials with me! I begged and borrowed what I could, but, unsurprisingly, I didn’t win – although I was congratulated for the attempt.”
Quent has fond memories of that Scottish adventure, but it was the Capri’s last really long trip: “These days, I keep within a 150-mile radius of home and tend to take it out during the summer if it’s dry and sunny, maybe to the coast or to see my grandchildren in the Cotswolds – they love it, especially when they see it win at shows. It’s mostly very reliable, although there was a glitch about four years ago with the carburettor and I had to replace it, while three years ago I had to renew the coil and electronic ignition. I also overhauled the axle in 2006 – apart from cleaning, it hadn’t been touched when I rebuilt the car.”
Four and a half decades after acquiring SYT 511M, Quent is as passionate as ever: “I really wanted a Capri, right from the day I first saw one in Hamburg in 1969, but never imagined that I’d still have this car 45 years on. Having driven it for 16 years, then taken on the restoration, used it as my wedding car and gone on to win many concours, as well as it being on the Capri Mk1 Register stand at the NEC, ownership has been very, very rewarding. Perhaps the best, though, is when I am approached at shows by people of a certain age who say, ‘I used to have one of those and I wish I’d kept it.’ That really is satisfying, and makes it all worthwhile.”