Hey guys.
Sorry I know its a Ford, so look away if this offends, but here is a neat little resto project I scored a couple of months ago.
3 owners, with the last one being a guy who was planning to do it up, but had it sitting in his shed for 17 years, so really only 2 who drove it. Has full history and very detailed notes on absolutely everything that was done to it. First owner was the wife of a ford dealer apparently and the second was a fussy school teacher who maintained it very well. I found one of his students on a capri forum when we worked out it was his old teachers car. Heres his post:
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.
Pretty cool to have a confirmed history. Its completely original and matching numbers, with all the often hard to find bits. Only thing missing is the windscreen but I have a rustbucket for parts. Just needs a full resto now. Once the Torana's done of course!!
Heres some pics..
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