Survivor - auto V6 GT Mk1 Capri....

hainzy · 29-03-2014, 03:13 PM

Hi guys.

Thought I should say Hi on this forum as some of you capri heads might be interested in what I have recently acquired as my next project. Being usually a Holden man, crossing to the dark side will be a good learning curve for me, but I plan to enjoy it!!

I have been looking for a decent Capri project for a while and the Mrs was keen on an auto so this one became available and i snapped it up.

Its a peppermint Green V6 auto GT which is extremely original as far as I can tell. Its a matching numbers car, but it has a replacement V6 in it at the moment. I also have the original engine sitting on a pallet in the shed. It camw with log books and extensive receipt history so plenty of info to trace. It only has minimal surface rust and the body is very good from what I can tell so far.

It has been sitting in a shed for 17 years and still runs. The guy I bought it off said he got it off a uni lecturer who removed a few of the badges as he was scared the students would pinch them in the carpark. Before that its believed it was a lady owner who was the wife of a ford dealer...

The second car I have is a matching numbers 1600 deluxe but unfortunately its been left outside for years and rust has well and truly won the battle so itll be used for spares.

So anyway more importantly, heres some pics... Enjoy.

FERG_51 · 29-03-2014, 03:31 PM

Welcome to the blue team, glad to see you LEFT the dark side lol. By the way love the car it will do up grouse.

Grippy · 29-03-2014, 04:11 PM

The GT looks pretty rust free, just faded. What are your plans for each car?

cosworthfreak · 29-03-2014, 06:30 PM

Doesn't look too bad at all. From the compliance plate it looks like the original trim colour was light saddle (S) with cloth inserts (2), hence S2.

It's likely to have been swapped at some time for the current black interior (especially given the UK spec 'split' rear seat) but if it was owned by a dealer's wife maybe she wanted black and they swapped interiors early on.

It looks like most of the original hard to find things are there, like air box, over-riders, and rare optional spot lamps (with original brackets I assume).

Happy to help out with any advice or bits you need to find. Good luck with it.

Cheers
Jamie

hainzy · 29-03-2014, 09:17 PM

Thanks guys.
No real plans for the blue one as its really badly rusted. Thought i might restore it initially but when I poked around I realised its just too far gone, and then I got onto the GT so never looked back. The blue one will just be for spares while restoring the green one.

Saddle interior for the GT hey? Cool. It will be getting a retrim at some stage down the track but Id like to keep it as original possible. Im guessing Ill do it in the same black though as thats part of the story of the car. Are those back seats more of a UK style than the aussie assembled ones then?

I havent had the carpets up yet but it seems excellent for rust so far. Fingers crossed...

Are the autos rare? Well considering there was umpteen thousands of these cars made I guess nothing is totally rare but Im assuming they were mostly manuals?

What is the air box? Sorry nooby quaestion...

Yep all up it seems beautifully original so Id like to do a respectful resto and keep things as they are. If you want any more pics of anything in particular then let me know and Ill post them up.

Thanks for the help and Im sure Ill be picking your brains once i get around to beginning on this..

Once I have the torana up and running that is...

My little helper is keen though.

And heres the other two ive done up. (If you can excuse the holden factor :-)

nstg8a · 29-03-2014, 09:23 PM

Looks like you know your way round a resto, can't wait to,see the Capri done.

Don't see many of them here. Back home I had a v4 Capri for a while, that was an interesting old beast lol

JC · 29-03-2014, 11:16 PM

Old skool Holden is not really the dark side - they're great old cars. Good luck with the Capri - can't wait to see it done in 2 or 3 years....

whooligan · 30-03-2014, 10:30 AM

Autos are rare, 555 of about 3000. Usually in better condition than the manuals as they were thrashed as much. The auto box drains a lot of the grunt....about 20%!!! But still go alright.

My capri is a factory auto but after an accident last year it will be reborn with a later type 3 manual....hopefully later this year.

We'll done on the purchase and good luck on the resto.

Love to the Torry.....only good Holden's an old one.

whooligan · 30-03-2014, 10:32 AM

Bloody iPad
Always has to post things twice!!!!

earlybirds · 30-03-2014, 11:24 AM

want that rear bench seat !!!!!
bloody good find mate ! & welcome , will be watching with interest !

cosworthfreak · 30-03-2014, 12:33 PM

By air box I meant the air cleaner (metal canister/holder). They were one of the first things you got rid of as a young bloke, swapping for a more open air cleaner. Like other things we got rid of 20-30 years ago (original rims and hub caps, radio), they can be really hard to find again now.

hainzy · 30-03-2014, 08:54 PM

Cheers fellas.

Ah the air cleaner etc.. Makes sense. Yep its funny isnt it how back in the day the first thing you did was rip all the cool factory bits off yr car and put crappy ugly aftermarket stuff on it. Now we pay a fortune on ebay to get it all back where its been rusting in the corner of some blokes shed for 25 years....

Yeah it prob will take the next few years but ill post updates as they happen. Im looking at selling my VH commodore which will give me the proper shed space I need, then Ill get stuck into getting it stripped. Ill prob get it painted fairly quickly cos I have a good relationship with a bloke here who is cool when I just pay the job off over time. So ill get that done then get it retrimmed, while trying to suss out whats salvageable from the interior and what needs replacing.

Also plan to get the engine and box out and have a local bloke have a good look at them. What do you guys usually do with the V6? Do you get them bored out or is there any options for better performance? Not planning to do anything crazy but more oomph is always a bonus. Especially if the auto sucks as much as 20%!! Unfortunately my local old school gearbox bloke has just put everything in storage and gone around australia for about 4 years! But thats how long it might take anyway! ha.

allanv6gt · 30-03-2014, 09:08 PM

Great find.
Rare bits - driving lights, 4-slot Rostyle wheels, overriders , correct instruments (one of mine had 4cyl dials - thought 60mph felt fast, it was actually 70 !!)).
Later style bonnet pins

If/When you wreck the blue one, keep every little clip and do-dad you can. It's amazing what you find you need when you get into the project proper.

Congrats and have fun.

cosworthfreak · 31-03-2014, 12:05 AM

Good advice from Allan re: clips, bits and bobs from the other car.

Getting a lot of power from the V6 can be quite expensive compared with Ford/Chevy/Holden small blocks or the good old Holden red motor. For example, a triple downdraft weber setup might cost somewhere between 2-3k (2nd hand), or a new setup from the UK would be over 5k once you factored in freight, insurance and customs duty. Whereas a new triple weber setup for a holden 6 is less than 2.5k.

allanv6gt · 01-04-2014, 06:15 PM

Luv the litlle helper pics.
I had one of those when I started my project (3yrs into it actually).
She helped me finish the bonnet when she was 18yrs old.......'nuf said.

Other things in life sometimes divert your attention.

MDS69 · 01-04-2014, 08:28 PM

Is this hainzy from Bertie street.

hainzy · 05-04-2014, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allanv6gt

Luv the litlle helper pics.
I had one of those when I started my project (3yrs into it actually).
She helped me finish the bonnet when she was 18yrs old.......'nuf said.

Other things in life sometimes divert your attention.

Ha. Hopin it wont take that long!

My litttle helper is very keen. He loves tools. Ive just pulled up and restumped and rebuilt the floor in the bedroom. Hes been coming in after childcare with his bucket of toy tools and lining them up beside mine and helping out. Hes a trooper!

Thanks for all the replies.

Yep its hainzy from Bertie St. Ive still got the VH. Runs like a dream with the EFI motor in it! Still have the brock engine in the shed though. That VH in your avatar doesnt look too shabby either!

Im also known to frequent mysandman.com, fastlane, and GMH-torana, with ocassional visits to justcommodores.com and aussiev8 among others... Blokes gotta have a hobby!

Yeah extra horses arent really on the agenda. Just hoping to get the most out of whats available. Prob just get it rebuilt locally and see how it turns out!

Definitley handy having the extra car for bits. Have already found a few things that ill be swapping in like boot lock and bonnet trim..

Cant wait to get it in the shed proper and get stuck into it!

Is this what you mean by original driving light brackets? They look pretty original to me.

WOGBOY69 · 06-04-2014, 07:25 PM

Hi matelooks like you found a good one here . I think i saw this one on ebay for sales it looked the goods .
But anyway injoy the good times . I finished about 2 years ago . But i am still working on pits ata time .. Love it . That green will look tuff to keep it the same .

allanv6gt · 06-04-2014, 10:23 PM

Lights look right (Lucas Wipac) but the brackets don't seem quite right.

JM666 · 02-05-2014, 02:44 PM

Hi There. Great find. Your paperwork doesn't say that this car was once owned by a chap called Gray Merryman does it? I'd swear that this car is the identical twin of his Auto V6 GT that he had when I was in High School in Sydney(1977-82). He was a yank who had this car and at the time that I was finishing school he had just imported a 2 litre V4 that he had spend $$$ getting the rust out of. He let us take the green auto for a drive in our HSC year on a school camp. Great fun. It woudln have to be a chance because they only mad about 500 odd auto V6's and that paint option and NSW rego would tend to narrow it down. It did have the driving lights but i can't remember about the overriders. Gray would have to be about late 70's or 80 now!

hainzy · 03-05-2014, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JM666

Hi There. Great find. Your paperwork doesn't say that this car was once owned by a chap called Gray Merryman does it? I'd swear that this car is the identical twin of his Auto V6 GT that he had when I was in High School in Sydney(1977-82). He was a yank who had this car and at the time that I was finishing school he had just imported a 2 litre V4 that he had spend $$$ getting the rust out of. He let us take the green auto for a drive in our HSC year on a school camp. Great fun. It woudln have to be a chance because they only mad about 500 odd auto V6's and that paint option and NSW rego would tend to narrow it down. It did have the driving lights but i can't remember about the overriders. Gray would have to be about late 70's or 80 now!

Hell what whaddayaknow hey!?? How cool is that? Small world...

Apparently the guy I got it off got it off a uni lecturer so that makes sense! Its been sitting in the shed for 17 years since.

What else can you tell me about the car? Would love to know any other memories. Cheers.

JM666 · 03-05-2014, 03:05 PM

Hi Hainzy, well what do you know. I thought as much. I was in High School from 1977-1982 and the whole time, Gray was a Geography and Commerce teacher there. He came over from the US when he was a teen I think. I am not sure if he purchased it new (I see you have the logbooks so that should tell you) but he obviously owned it at least from 1977 to 1989 (the date on your Invoice). He was always happy to talk to us about it, and when we were 16 we got to take it for a rum on a School Camp we went on (on access roads on private property. He was fastidious and a real careful owner. He only bought the V4 because he wanted a manual and didn't want to bastardise the V6. The car was garaged at night and weekends and parked on the school grounds in North Sydney during the day. It had no rust in it in 1982 (unlike my 12/70 V6 Auto rego BE 560 if any one knows it's current whereabouts) which I bought in Feb 1983 (straight after school) and did up, and my 5/70 V6 manual rego BCY 788 which I replaced it with in Oct 84. I have been around capris since early 83 and now have my third one (3/71 GT V6 Manual - no rust JM666- hence the login ID).

I fell in love with Capris when I was 5 years old and saw a white V6 GT that lived down the end of our street in 1970. But alas dad being a Kingswood man, I never got into one until a couple of us 'befriended' Gray in High School - even though we didn't do his subjects at the time!. Every time I get in a Capri the 'smell' off Gray's comes back. He kept the car in good nick and being a middle aged owner, the car never got flogged and was well looked after. I think that the extra dial on the console was a post Gray ad on, as he kept the car 100% ridgy didge original. In that way he was really ahead of his time, as everyone else was putting Celica 5 Speeds into them in the early 80' and then when Supras came along in the later 80's they were a popular mod. Because after those couple of drives of Gray's V6 Auto, I realised that it had heaps of power - not nearly the 10-15% less power that many people say over the manuals, I was happy to get a good auto as my first V6 when I found it in early 1983. The Borg Warner 35/3 is a good transmission.

I also loved the colour of Gray's capri (is it peppermint green?) Anyway where about are you located. You should have a lot of great stock bits to do a great resto. Looks like you have lots of finicky bits that are really hard to come by now. Happy to exchange details. you can get me on: jmacsol1@yahoo.com.au .

If you ever run out of enthusiasm and want to offload it, please let me know.

John (JM 666)

hainzy · 03-05-2014, 08:59 PM

Cheers mate. Great memories! Thanks for painting a nice picture of what it meant to you. I have the same thing when I smell my torana. It reminds me of when I was younger and stupider and we all used to bail into the back of a mates SLR 5000 and hang laps all night, doing stupid things like driving with the lights off, picking up girls from the street and driving along the grass medium strips, driving drunk or unlicensed etc etc.. Stupid teenage stuff that we were lucky to survive unscathed; as were other road users! But that now is thankfully, just a memory.

Great that he looked after it so well. As you said; it's amazing that cars like this survived the eighties unmodifed! He certainly was meticulous. I'll post up some of his notes. He documented every little thing done to it! Teachers hey!?

I believe he was the second owner. The first was a mrs Harrison, who was supposedly the wife of a ford dealer.

I have the car in Ballarat so if you are in vic or ever want to come for a look you're most welcome.

And yes I do believe its peppermint green.

hainzy · 07-05-2014, 12:43 PM

Hey guys do all Capris have the chassis number on the front radiator panel as well as near the strut tower? My blue 1600 has the two numbers, but the GT only seems to have the one near the strut.

Should there be one here somewhere? If there is ill be careful when sanding back for new paint etc, but i cant see one there at all? Cheers.

cosworthfreak · 07-05-2014, 06:15 PM

For 1971-72, the chassis number was on the drivers shock tower, although on a different part of it than yours is. That placement was where the 1970 cars had the engine number stamped, and they had the chassis number stamped on the slam panel.

Because yours was made earlier in 71, I suspect that whomever stamped it was used to stamping 1970 cars, or maybe that's where they started stamping the chassis number before they changed to curving the number around the strut top opening. I'd have to double check when that change started.

There shouldn't be a number on your slam panel, but there will be a 4 digit number on the passenger strut top, which I suspect may represent an overall build number sequence for Capris in a given year. I don't really have enough info to be sure of that though.

Cheers
Jamie

flooded one · 07-05-2014, 06:27 PM

gee you do a good job on your cars!!!

hainzy · 08-05-2014, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildrider

gee you do a good job on your cars!!!

Thanks mate. Takes a while, but if it's worth doing it's worth doing properly!

I can't wait to get stuck unto this capri, but I need to sell my commodore first so i have the shed space.

hainzy · 08-05-2014, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosworthfreak

For 1971-72, the chassis number was on the drivers shock tower, although on a different part of it than yours is. That placement was where the 1970 cars had the engine number stamped, and they had the chassis number stamped on the slam panel.

Because yours was made earlier in 71, I suspect that whomever stamped it was used to stamping 1970 cars, or maybe that's where they started stamping the chassis number before they changed to curving the number around the strut top opening. I'd have to double check when that change started.

There shouldn't be a number on your slam panel, but there will be a 4 digit number on the passenger strut top, which I suspect may represent an overall build number sequence for Capris in a given year. I don't really have enough info to be sure of that though.

Cheers
Jamie

Thanks Jamie.

Had a bit more of a look and you're right. There is a four digit number on the other side. Bloody hard to read though. The surface rust under the bonnet really wants taking care of!

hainzy · 08-05-2014, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by allanv6gt

Lights look right (Lucas Wipac) but the brackets don't seem quite right.

Here's a better pic if that helps. Cheers.

kiwicapri1 · 11-05-2014, 03:08 PM

nice find , I also have a GT here in Kiwiland only problem is here is that my side gt stripes are missing ( car never had them ) I would love to put some on , if you havnt all ready removed them, is it possible for you to measure the size and length of them so that I can get some reproduced ( rare spares here in NZ don't stock them )
Thanks very much cheers Tony