Dan's Crapi project.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Looks like Vista orange. P registration?

[Danthecapriman]

Sorry chaps! I’ve done a bit more to this but not updated here. Work was going well enough but the last month has pretty much stalled thanks to the fucking awful weather.
Here’s the highlights.

Last time I’d got the fuel tank fitted back in place, so the next job was link that back to the engine. Being an old Ford there’s absolutely nothing sophisticated about this bit, it’s simply a long length of pre-shaped plastic pipe with a steel section bent to fit around the front chassis leg and a couple of sections of rubber fuel hose. It was however absolutely filthy and covered in old underseal so I’ve cleaned that all up, fully stripped and cleaned the steel bit back to bare metal before etch priming it and painting it and fitted new fuel hose with new clamps. The fuel hose is actually from a reputable marine engine specialist so it’s fully marked up with the standards and is E10 compliant.

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Fitting it to the car was actually a massive pain in the arse! Where it’s spent the last 5 years or so coiled up it’s started to loose it’s original pre-formed shape so it took a while to un coil it and get it to fit properly again in the right place. I’ve fitted all new plastic retainer clips to the little pegs on the underside of the car and clipped it all up as it should be. Naturally, I’d also planned well ahead and sprayed the entire floorpan (underside) and rear arch/chassis leg with clear Dynax UB wax so the floor was protected but the fuel pipes didn’t get covered in the wax!
The last little issue I ran into was where the fuel pipe connects to the pick up on the sender unit on the tank. Originally this was the plastic pipe that had been heated up so it was soft then forced over the end of the metal pickup outlet pipe and secured using a crimp clamp. I don’t have a way of doing this properly at home so I’ve cut the old melted end off and used a short stub of rubber fuel hose to make the join to the pickup outlet. It seems fine to me and I’ve really tightened the clamps on this bit just to be sure it won’t leak or fall off.
I didn’t get any pics of the finished and fitted part unfortunately!

Another job done is to go over all of the remaining areas of floor pans, wheel arch bowls, chassis legs etc etc with the clear Dynax UB. Being clear, you can still see the blue paint under the car but it’s also extremely water proof now too! Not that it’s likely to ever get wet of course!! There’s still one or two small areas left to give this treatment to but the bulk of it is now done. I’ll probably go over the most rust prone/high wear places again too just to be absolutely safe.

[Danthecapriman]

The next big bit to fit was the exhaust.
Tbh, I fucking absolutely hate doing exhausts on the drive at home. There’s never enough room laying on your back using stands and trolley jacks.
This one wasn’t bad at all though. Everything is clean and goes together well so no real problem.
The exhaust system is nothing special. It’s a bog standard mild steel aftermarket system. I’d already stripped and inspected it last year before declaring it fit for reuse and cleaning it back and painting it. It will start to rust sooner or later, it is mild steel after all, but it’s good for now and also means I don’t have to spend money buying new.
I also had a brand new front pipe to manifold gasket, and full set of new rubber hangers in my spares stash aswell as a new centre box mounting bracket.

The bits:

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I fitted everything onto the car loose to begin with to see how everything fitted and lined up. Once happy it’s a simple case of tightening up the two nuts on the manifold and then the U clamps and centre bracket. I did use a bit of sealing paste as being an already used aftermarket system it wasn’t a perfect fit, but it seems fine now.
Hardest bit was getting the back box to fit up in the little gap under the rear corner and it’s pipe over the axle. I had to stick newspaper and masking tape around the edges of the rear panel to save the paint getting chipped!

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As ever, there’s been loads of odd small bits done but that’s the biggest bits. Now all that’s done I’m going to get a gerry can full of unleaded and put it in the tank. Once I’m happy it doesn’t drip anywhere I’ll fire it up from its own tank supply and let it run for a while and make sure it’s happy. It needs to get hot really as the cooling system needs to bleed itself through and then be topped up.
Next job, hopefully this weekend will be adjusting the drivers door slightly as it seems to have dropped a bit. Getting really close now though.

I’ll also get a rag dipped in white spirit and go around under the car and wipe off the overspill of the brown Dynax cavity wax. You can see loads of little patches of it where it drips and leaks out of all the box sections and sill cavitys etc. Makes a right mess!

[mercrocker]

Good work there Dan....Hardest part to come, though - keeping it like that!

[brandersnatch]

That’s brilliant. You’ll be like a dog with two dicks driving around. Well played.

[richardthestag]

definitely a labour of love, well worth it though

[AutoshiteBoy]

Looks excellent.

[Hooli]

Ready to wheelspin past pubs to impress* girls again.

[Danthecapriman]

Ready to wheelspin past pubs to impress* girls again.

I’m not sure this lowly 1.6 has the balls to even pull a wheel spin!

[Danthecapriman]

Bit of work done on this. Getting time lately has been very hit or miss given the absolutely shite weather though! Must be one of the wettest summers ever so far.

Firstly here’s a crap pic of the fuel pipe in place.

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You can see the new clips, which are the double pipe clip type for later cars. I couldn’t find new single ones so these are fine.

Then fitted the rear view mirror. Dead easy but I’d lost the screws so got a set of replacements off eBay. Fitted it while I had the screws to hand! I’ve also fitted a new reproduction plastic trim cover in correct beige. This actually seems a bit loose, though it won’t fall off. Refitting the rotten original and another grey one all gave the same loose looking finish though so I’m guessing that’s just how they are.

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Then dug out the door handles and other door related bits & bobs. Gave them a wash off and regressed the handles ready to refit.
Here’s a boring anorak style bit of knowledge: you can tell a U.K. car from a German car by looking at the key holes in the handles… U.K. cars have a horizontal key slot. German cars have a vertical key slot!! The very late mk3’s had seperate locks and handles too.

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