Ford Capri pre-show prep (cuppa tea warning)

[Stuart]

This car and job warrants a detailed thread, if you'll excuse the pun, so grab a cuppa if you intend to read all of it, or just skip to the pics if you like
The car was booked with me some time ago, and over those weeks Pete and I had discussed what he was looking for and looking at the photos already posted on here and Facebook, I had a pretty good idea of what laid in store for me (always nicer than getting a surprise in this game).

We'd agreed a rough budget and timescale for the work, so all we had to work around was the weather conditions on the day. My normal walk around the car gave me the following insights into the job ahead.

As you can see the car was fundamentally quite clean overall, but the exhausts were letting the side down, and a few other areas of the car looked a bit flat.......totally understandable bearing in mind the car is nigh on 30 years old and lives outside!
Gorgeous Compomotive alloys with Toyo R1-R tyres

Tired paint on the offside front wing showing some scratches from some careless engine work

As the brief was to get the car looking as good as possible within the time available, Pete allowed me to use my discretion with what needed doing. Inner arches that had never been polished were on the hitlist!


The engine bay was pretty tidy overall and bears testament to how Pete maintains his cars.

Vert-de-gris or previous polishing crud? Possibly some of each

Pete said it gets driven 'properly' so with our country roads in East Anglia, this was no surprise!

The gorgeous Recaro interior was in great condition (thankfully) but in order to keep it that way, we agreed on a full valet and protection for the seats, carpet and trim



One pretty severe bird bomb on the back by the rear spoiler had etched the paint quite badly, so that would need some TLC

These just had to be blitzed.......especially with the rudest of noises they make!!

Let's get started!!

[Stuart]

Pete's trademark front headlamps usually feature crosses marked out by electrical tape. These look pretty cool but once they've been in place for months and gone through heat cycles several times, the resin that adheres them to the glass was an absolute mother funker to remove

I degreased the engine bay using an all-purpose cleaner and ensured that this was applied to a cool/cold engine first, and then rinsed it off with low pressure water next, clearing up any mess with microfibres as I went

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Next up were the exhausts. They were cleaned using a number of products including tar removers and a little bit of magic that is excellent at breaking down carbon build up.....et voila

All panel gaps were cleaned, as well as the boot, bonnet and door shuts

Engine bay cleaned and protected



Time to get onto the paintwork and polishing stage

[john B]

Looking good so far........I do love those old tail wagging Capris....... fond memories of owning one myself...

[Stuart]

To save myself some time, I decided to mask up the black trim on Pete's car. This isn't always necessary when polishing by hand but in this case, I didn't have any time to spare at all (this followed a comprehensive wash routine)

As you can see in this photo above, the paintwork is already showing a fair amount of reflectivity even after just one pass with a gentle polish

Next up was the alloys and tyres; time to protect and reflect!


So with the entire car polished, it was time to demask and make sure that I was happy with the improvements made and check that sufficient time remained to stay on target


I was really pleased and more importantly, so was the owner!
Next on the list was the seats, carpets, mats, dashboard and control panel and the door cards.........

[Stuart]

Trademark stripey carpets were a doddle on this thick pile matting and I'm delighted to say that the Recaro's came up beautifully both in terms of leather and fabric





The rubber mats you saw earlier were deep cleaned, treated and popped in to protect the carpets.
Finished photos after just over 7 hours of work







If you made it this far then thank you for reading this. I've tried to include some of the detail involved to highlight what goes into my work, but also what improvements can be made in relatively short periods of time too. My aim is always to get a proper understanding of what the client wants, but also to make sure that the car is easy to look after for the next few months. Hopefully this thread goes some way to explaining how I do that

[john B]

Bloody hell Stu thats a very nice job....looking at the pictures you would think the car is a restoration job.....
And those wheels are so nice and suit the car perfectly..

Top job mate I bet the owner was chuffed to bits!

[mikeb]

Top work mr staples and a beautiful looking car brings back fond memories of blasting round southend sea front in my 3000E mk 1

[Stuart]

Bloody hell Stu thats a very nice job....looking at the pictures you would think the car is a restoration job.....
And those wheels are so nice and suit the car perfectly..

Top job mate I bet the owner was chuffed to bits!

Very kind John. To be fair, Pete does keep his cars in excellent order from what I have seen so this was a pretty good starting point. As he intends to keep the car for a while, I expect that he'll continue his investment into her and a full restoration isn't out of the question at that stage

Top work mr staples and a beautiful looking car brings back fond memories of blasting round southend sea front in my 3000E mk 1

Cheers Mike What with the coupe shape, big throaty V6 and lovely touches like the opening rear side windows I just fell in love with this thing as the day went on The wheels often make the car and with Pete's I think that they compliment the lines and colour so well.

I was looking forwards to this one for ages, and it was well worth the wait

[pablo]

Great job as always. I would image this was at the Classic Ford Show at santa pod yesterday.

[Ben]

Amazing job - you're getting good at this