Mk 3 Ford Capri - My restoration project - MK III - A complete overhaul of the suspensino and underesealing the car

Going to start at the rear and work my way forward, this is the car up on jacks for the first time, the first time I saw underneath the car properly
These are the MOT failing springs, completely knackered - I did buy second hand multi-leafs, in the end changing my mind for the 2.8i single leaf (stiffer) springs
Rear axle caked in shite
Minor scab here
Spring hanger - a tried and tested place for rust to hang out on a capri
First the axle was to be removed
Not an easy job what so ever, only one bolt of the eight came off as it should the remaining all sheared.
Axle out
Cannot get those bloody shocks off
I did plan to leave them in situ, however decided later to buy some Gaz shocks all round, so they would have to go - somehow
A lot of crap build up
Hammerite
Axle clear - petrol tank next
messy
Petrol tank removed
On with cleaning the tank up and checking for holes as I go
Zinc'd
Top half coated in bitumen
Bottom half sprayed in Rover Stone Grey
Next on with cleaning the underside and sealing
Cleaned and treated ready for painting
Zinc 182
Two good healthy coats of the stuff
Every nook and cranny
Starting to look in good shape here!
I'd left the bump stop mounts, as they'd rusted on, the plan was to remove them later and treat that area seperate.
Moving down towards the front, more cleaning and scrubbing
Fully clean
Two coats of Zinc
The Next coat is stone chip, now that the underside has been treated and zinc'd, I wanted to protect that layer from any abuse the road throws at it.
Two generous coats of this, I was quite high when I got out from under the car
Right the way through to as far forward as I'd zinc'd
Next is the top coat of Underseal. I had planned to use bitumen, however it's not as easy to apply. This coat needs a looking at every year, to make sure there is no ingress of water.
Also used a spray can of Waxoyl, to get into all the places my brush couldn't.
I painted the first coat on and it looked terrible, so added a second coat and adoped a 'stippeling' technique, which gave it a matt finish
During the painting the prop-shaft had to be removed, it looked like it had been stood a while as there was a line of surface rust down one side, decided to renew.
Stripped back and zinc primered
Then sprayed in Rover stone Grey the same as the Diff
Back in place with the underseal
The start of the shiny goodies, treated myself to some new Gaz shocks, will do the same for the front. These are adjustable ones - so you can alter how hard or soft the shock is
Poly bushes throughout, will firm up the handeling
Starting to put everything back together. Tank back in place with painted tank straps
Made my own tank hooks out of coach bolts and bending the head 90 degrees
Mock up of the rear anti-rollbar and the poly bushes
The roll bar in place
Gaz shocks fitted
One of the MOT failure points was the exhaust was blowing excess gases from the centre box Once built up, a new engine will be on the cards, so there is little point buying anything new for this exhaust system. Gun gum filled the holes nicely
Smooth and sealed, although I can't test it until back on the car!
I had started going down the route of some second hand multi-leaf springs, however, as I'd bought new Shocks, it would be a waste to use saggy springs. Instead I upgraded to the 2.8i Single springs
The single springs are a heavier poundage that the multi-leaf springs. Here I'm painting them Rover Stone Grey over a coat of Zinc Primer
The Poly Bushes in place, after months of buggering about with the poly bush company.
I spent the whole evening getting the spring into this position, I had it in and out the hanger 5 times before I finally got it to line up!
Picture of the rear spring shackle and poly bushes.
With both rear spring in place I've added -2 inch lowering block. Hindsight would now suggest they are too much, however I won't really know until the car is back down on all 4 wheels.
Next the diff, some idiot (me) had painted it black hammerite then silver hammerite, only for the paint to react (the silver wasn't real hammerite), had to strip it back to metal again. Gave it a proper coating and sprayed it Rover Stone Grey
Another afternoon just trying to get the Diff into position, here it is lined up with the new poly bush bump stops. These are later cut down as the car would sit on them otherwise.
Not making things easy for myself, it was at this point that I decided to change the diff cover, the one that I knew had a hole in it. I just couldn't face taking the diff out to put it back in again
3.75 Atlas Diff, as it's a 1.6, this ratio is quite good for brisk accelleration.
The old diff cover off...
...and the offending hole
New diff cover and plates from Fostek. The plates go inbetween the torqued screws and the diff cover, apparently to spread the load more evenly rather than concentrated around the bolt head. I was sold as they look kinda cool.
The cover comes powdercoated, so a quick rub down and a lick of paint...
...Rover stone grey no less. And a poly handbrake bush, that will server no purpose other than looking good. As you can see from this picture, it doesn't even fit very well!!
New Diff cover and plates in position
Springs and lowering blocks in position
All ready for lowering the car back down now.
It's down, but, bloody hell it's low...
The lower the better
Yikes that is low
Turned the car around, backed it into the garage to start on the front. Only to be hampered with seized nut after seized nut...
The front legs, will keep these, however they need a good tidy up. The springs and shock will be replaced.
Front steering arms and front anti-roll bar
Looking back at the underseal
Front anti-rollbar removed
Steering arms next, at this point the grinder came out, as everything was seized solid.
Preping the front anti roll bar, removed all flakey rust and started to paint after treating for rust
After much grinding, managed to remove both front legs from the car for an overhaul
Spring clamps to remove the springs - obviously
Springs and top mounts removed, discs, hubs and disc guards next
Old saggy springs
Now with the hubs & discs removed
These are the disc guards, in two minds to put them back once all is fixed up, I guess they're there to stop stones getting into the caplipers, however modern cars don't have them.
Decided to treat them and paint them anyway, I can decide whether to use them at a later date.
Covered in Krust
Fully treated
The new parts desk
With the legs out of the way, I could easily get at the steering rack. The rubbers holding this in place have now perished, so poly ones will replace them.
Primning the top mounts and disc guards
Hammerite on the top mounts
Took an angle grinder to the legs taking off all the surface rust (there was a lot), then treated, this is them in primer
Hammerite on the front anti-roll bar, couple of coats
These are the legs freshly painted in High Temperature Paint, unfortunatley not Rover Stone Grey! But Silver
Painted the spring mounts in hammerite
Thats the make over done on the legs, next job is to remove the inserts and replace with some new ajustable Gaz ones
Top mounts all painted up
Next job on the list, the Bearings, this was a nightmare job and a nervous nightmare job at that, getting the old bearing guides out without damaging the hub was stressfull enough. Then had to get the new guides in, without damaging the new guides or the hub! These are the old bearings and Guides
Using a brass rod bought from eBay for a costly sum of £1.99, I used it to gently tap the new guides into place. Each guide took on average 1hr to get into position.
Each hub has two guides and of course you have two hubs.This is the outer guide finally in place
The new bearing kit
Then treated the hub to some VHT paint, these won't be seen, however this will help stop and further surface rust...
... and it looks good.
Next TCA's. To get the N/S Track Control Arm off the car, I actually cut it in half with my grinder, hence a new set of TCA's. The new ones come with rubber bushes, removed and binned them straight away...
.. and poly bushes are the order of the day
Along with new Track Rod Ends, that I also had to grind off due to seizure
Painted the disck guards in High Temperature Paint
Started treating the front of the cars underbelly, here it is back to metal and krust covered
First coat of Zinc 182
Both front wheel arches have now been treated and zinc'd
Second coat of Zinc 182
second coat of zinc 182
Ready for Waxoyl and underseal
The front Anti-Roll bar, orignally, I'd painted in Hammerite, however it reacted with the paint underneath and stayed soft, and as I couldn't fit it in my oven to bake it, I had to strip it back to bare metal, as ever, I forgot the before/during pictures!
Painted, this has a better finish than hamerite, so quite pleased I made the effort to sort it.
fin
TCA Polybush
Painted the cross member in hamerite
Wobbly close up
Exhaust removed and first coat of zinc to the rest of the underside
Coat of Stone Chip to protect the Zinc Coating
Missed a bit...
Next is underseal. I cannot reach the top of the transmission tunnel, because of the gearbox, once all is painted and finished, the gearbox will be removed, so I'll finish this part then.
New goodies! These are the front adjustable shock absorbers. There is a key that fits onto an internal rotating shaft that adjusts the softness/hardness of the shock.
And new spring to go with it, these are 2 inchs shorter than the stock ones, and bonus they're blue!
and 1inch lowering blocks, the 2 inch blocks are a bit to low with the single leaf springs, these should bring the back up to the same height as the front.
Started work on removing the old dampers from the front legs, this proved time consuming, after they'd been in situ for 25 years they didn't want to budge
Old shock out, and pissing oil everywhere, also nice paint work destroyed by vice!
With the paint damaged, I decided to strip the legs back again, as I was never happy with the silver finish anyway.
Painted in first coat, much happier now
New VHT paint
After two hours rebuilding the front shocks I'd realised I'd forgotten any form of bump stop, wil have to take them apart again, I think I'll invest in some dust boots as well.
Since this photo was taken I've taken the legs apart and found that I can't use the OEM bump stops as the bore is too large. Never mind, I've ordered some fancy ones
Got myself a new ARB bracket as mine was knackered
All painted up ready to mount
Coat of underseal freshly applied
Only one arch done, still plenty to do, I now have all the bits to put it back together once painted, if enough hours are put in.
Started re-attaching the front anti roll bar.
New poly bushes, they're pretty stiff!
New track control arms in place, and a wider shot of the lovely underseal I'm still removing from my hair one week on.
New TCA bolts as well
Lovely, very happy with progress, legs on next
Put the wheel bolts back into hub, after much calculations (head scratching) i realised I don't need exteneded bolts, bonus. First squeezed them through with a vice and an over sized socket, then screwed them through with a washer and the wheel nut, down side was it ruined the paint, however you'll never see this.
Packed the hub with CV grease and placed inner bearing in with seal.
Attached the new solid brake discs
Hubs, discs and now calipers in place
Steering arms attached, however I've since worked out, that this car has a bent steering arm, not dangerous or a concern, however over the years the tracking has been adjuated for this, now you can turn the wheels to the left more that the right, will need to sort.
Calipers in place, everything torqued up, decided not to add the disc guards to aid disc cooling
New alloys on and fit, woo hoo
And down on the ground after many months.
As she rested tonight, I'm only 11 days over the fairly relaxed deadline.
Spent the day with the car out on the drive, removing the 2 inch blocks and putting in place some 1 inch jobbies, have now managed to get the front 5mm lower than the back, which is perfect. Both front and back springs will bed in and lower even more once driving. Very happy and I've acheived the perfect stance. Skinner rubber will also lower the front more.
treated behind the slam panel, underneath rad cowling then painted in zinc