Me & My Resto: Consul Capri

Will Steeples had the perfect role model to help him resurrect his 1962 Ford Consul Capri

Too good to cut up, this is one amazing father-son revival.

My route into classic car apprecation and ownership was one that will be very familiar to many reading this. My dad Paul has owned so many of these cars over the years, both four door Consul Classics and two-door Consul Capris – the current total is 126 and counting. Basically, I have been surrounded by them ever since I was a baby. I asked that we could meet at dad’s place in Heanor, because it really is a mecca for all things Consul.

Too good to chop up

This particular 1962 Capri is my fourth Consul. Sold in France, it was still in left-hand drive configuration when I bought it as a rolling project back in early 2017. After it came to the UK a few months earlier, it was bought by my friend Alan, who had originally intended to cut it up to use the panels and parts for another Capri that he was building at the time. Alan came to see me on the club stand at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show in November 2016 and asked if I knew anyone that would be interested in buying it, as it was far too good to cut up. I replied: ‘Yes – ME!’ I then took it to the Practical Classics Restoration Show in March 2017, before starting the restoration project ‘proper’ shortly afterwards.’

The hardest part of the restoration was probably the timeline that I ended up imposing upon myself. As mentioned, I showed the car ‘as found’ at the PC Restoration Show and, during the event, somebody asked me if I was going to get it finished in time for the NEC Classic Car Show in November of the same year. At first, I was like ‘no chance’ until I got home and thought ‘could I do it?’. I decided to give it a go and, although it wasn’t 100 per cent finished and it wasn’t registered, it did make it to the show as I’d hoped.

I did most of the work in my dad’s garage, with some tasks being taken care where I work (in a body shop), while I had a firm ethos in mind as the car gradually came together. I tried to use as many of the original parts as possible, while other parts that were missing or needed replacing could be found in my old man’s garage or, failing that, we have a good club that supplied a few parts.

The conversion from left- to right-hand drive was a little tricky, but I didn’t find it too difficult. The most frustrating part of the project actually involved the gearbox. This car originally had a column-change gearbox and someone had tried converting it to floor-change operation instead, so we just dropped another ’box in that we had in the lock-up – it was lovely and quiet, but you could only get third and fourth gears. We tried another spare ’box and, while that worked properly and allowed for all four gears, it was also unbelievably noisy. So we converted the original ’box back to column-change operation and it was spot on. We should have done that to start with!

I painted the inside of the body and under the bonnet myself but had a work colleague paint the outside, in order to achieve the best finish possible. All the effort was worth it, as the car now looks fantastic, while all its intricate chrome trim absolutely pops when the sun hits it.

On the road… eventually

Although the restoration element of the project took a year, getting the finished car fully Uk-registered took me another six frustrating months. It was a real headache getting the car’s registration approved with the DVLA, but I eventually got there in the end. Maybe I was just unlucky, but I really wouldn’t relish going through all of that again in a hurry!

The most enjoyable part of the restoration for me was working with my dad, although it wasn’t always plain sailing. It was also frustrating and annoying on occasion, as he knows absolutely everything about these cars! But seeing the car finished and showing it at the NEC again was extremely satisfying, too.

The previous owner in France began restoring the car, then sadly passed away. Eventually, someone just chucked some white paint on it, dropped in a few bolts to hold it together and put the rest of the parts in boxes. It came to the UK in late 2016. Interior Will got lucky as soap, hot water and a lot of hard work meant it cleaned up nicely inside. The interior is mostly original, bar replacement carpets and a few small repairs to the front seats.

This car is entered into the 2020 Restorer of the Year competition. You can vote for your favourite car in a future issue of Practical Classics magazine. The engine was the only thing that Will didn’t do anything with other than clear out the water ways, fit new core plugs and apply a lick of paint. The engine itself was in the passenger seat and it appeared to have been rebuilt, as you could see the edges of new gaskets. ‘It turned out to be a good gamble in the end,’ says Will. Bodywork The car was pretty straight to begin with, but Will still stripped it down to a bare shell. ‘I chopped the dash and bulkhead out, in order to replace them with right-hand drive panels. I then rebuilt the front end corners of the car as they were the areas that needed the most work.’ I found the picnic basket at an autojumble and, with it being red, I had to have it. The Beatles calendar was a gift – Paul Mccartney’s first car was a Classic.