73 Mercury Capri

I've had this for a while now, just posting up a few pics of the project, it will be a restoration.

Picked up in Waco TX about 2010, 23,000 miles, manual V6 GT

Trunk floor is rotten through, sat in a yard for 10 years, damn shame.

Found this tidy shell in far off Michigan, yeah Michigan

Now to combine the two

Aussie front treatment is this, would like to go that way

Bo Seton

Great to see another Capri project!

Will this be a straight restoration or a resto-mod?

leaning toward full restoration, I think these will actually increase in value and un-modified will be fairly hard to find.

Oooo, glad to see this moving forward!

I loves me some '73 Capri.

How difficult would it be to acquire the AUDM headlights and such?

Not sure but I do have a few contacts.

Man, both of those cars look pretty nice. 23,000 original miles is astoundingly low. "Early mechanical failure, stashed in barn/garage" sort of story?

Is the headlight treatment a bolt-in change, should you decide that you want it as original in the future? Since you're talking about restoration and future value, etc.

Not sure on the headlight buckets, but I suspect it is all bolt in, the US was the slow one to get non round headlights back in the day.

Those are "Dagenham" headlamps, I've never heard them referred to as Aussie-anything before. So Europe may be a decent source for them as well, if anyone is looking for them. I always liked the round lamps in pairs... I envied the Dagenham sourced flat hoods myself, although the power bulge isn't the worst thing in the world.

Are you sticking with the Koln 2600 or going with some other engine? I always had this perverse idea that a Kent 1.6 with a Roots-type blower would be great with a five speed trans and fuel injection.

No its all staying the way it came mechanically, I do want the wheels on the white car though.

Fresh suspension, engine is almost new, trans the same, freshen the clutch and rad.

The rusted shell is going to be less original

Because Race Car

Aussome! more info on weight of trailer ?

That's the same trailer you pulled up the hill at the Mitty last year Karl

random photo op

pres589 wrote: Those are "Dagenham" headlamps, I've never heard them referred to as Aussie-anything before. So Europe may be a decent source for them as well, if anyone is looking for them. I always liked the round lamps in pairs... I envied the Dagenham sourced flat hoods myself, although the power bulge isn't the worst thing in the world. Are you sticking with the Koln 2600 or going with some other engine? I always had this perverse idea that a Kent 1.6 with a Roots-type blower would be great with a five speed trans and fuel injection.

The so called Dagenham flat hood is the stock 4 cylinder hood in Oz, the power bulge hood is the stock GT unit.

Nice project. There's only one of those around here.

They always look so much smaller in person. I always expect them to be more Mustang-sized, given the Mustang-like styling.

I LOVED mine.... all 3 (2 - 73, and a 74)

HATED lower front control arms... TRY to redesign this (resto-mod).... keep all the original mounts, and mounting points and make something so the sway bar doesn't double as the locating(track) arm.

There are a few out here(Northwest) as vintage racers... Usually running some kind of tweaked 4.

A book you might want to try and find...

this is the cover of mine

another cool book... useful for inspiration

oh... and one more book....

I am aware of these guys.

http://www.teamblitz.com/

I am probably not going to do any mods to the car, defeats my purpose, besides I have about 12 Race/modified cars, a couple of stock restorations sounds good.

I have an original set of '77 steel wheels (5 in total) with (4) trim rings and (4) center covers. They need some paint and a couple of dents out of the trim rings, but I don't need them.

I also have a Type E (4 speed) and zetec that bolts to it, that I was going to put in mine.

PM if your interested in anything. ...I should post these in the classifieds...

I think the one mod I'd consider is a change to 14" wheels to get a slightly better tire selection vs. the stock 13's. It's easy to change back as well. Another might be a serious ignition upgrade to breakerless, like a Pertronix unit with some kind of CDI box and a good coil. An external mirror on the passenger side would be nice as well.

After that, I could see leaving one pretty much stock.

It's gonna be neat no matter what you do to it. Such a rare bird these days--and an oddly handsome design, IMHO.

"Oldschool euro streetracer" would be sweet...

aussiesmg wrote: Aussie front treatment is this, would like to go that way

I believe that's Lee Shepherd's car.

Its actually from England, but same front. Owner brought it over to the U.S. with him when he moved here. It's a beauty. The parts for the front might be easier to source from England, or talk to Norm at Team Blitz. He may have them.

Personally, I think the U.S. sealed beam set up looks better. I know guys in England want our set up. The quad sealed beam is what was used on the RS 2600/RS3100.

This is the car on which I learned to drive stick. Memories.

Ross Blake thanks off fb