1973 Mk1 Capri V8

Some more work needs to be done...



The racecars this exhaust was made for are tube framed racers, with no passenger seat.

So the pipes just turn to the right hand side of the car, about chest height, and exit through the door.

That was not an option for me.

So I modified them a bit...

They make oval exhaust tubing, which is great because that way you can use the bigger diameters without loosing too much ground clearance.

But that still wasn't enough for me.

I wanted no loss of ground clearance at all.

So I mounted the pipes higher in the car, making the underside of the pipes flush with the underside of the car.

They make transition pieces to go from round to oval, but they are expensive.

And also, they are not exactly what I need.

So I made a little tool.





To make the transition pieces I wanted.

The wait was worth it 👍🏻😊
Beautiful work as always. Not a car I would have associated you with to be honest. Not that it detracts one little bit though. Out of all the photos of possible cars you could have built, my money would have been firmly on you and the Alfa Gtv. ...🤣🤣🤣

Before I get too far out of sequence, I need to go back and show something I did earlier.

I modified the front struts for coilovers, and yellow Koni inserts ( the 1st set...)





And put on a nice set of AP racing steel disks, and Wilwood 4 pot calipers.

Thank you Johnny.

Yeah, I would have loved an Alfa.

But out of the 3 front runners ( Alfa, Jag, & Ford ), the Capri was probably the favorite.

So it was just pure luck that one turned up first.

Don't know why...

But those really caught my attention, when I saw the works racers as a kid...

So now I had to connect the two.

I cut some sheet metal.



Made a hammerform.

Sorry....can only add WOW!!

Thanks Strikey.

Ford started to make the 9" axle in 1957.

It was introduced with the full size ford.

At some point they added the 8", a slightly lighter version.

And they made both for many decades.

They came in different widths and ratios, but you wont find the right ratio, or the right width in a junkyard.

Specially now that they are getting rare ( fortunately, I've been snapping them up whenever one came along for a good price, so I'm OK for a while...)

The 8" is much more common in the narrower widths, but parts availability isn't nearly as good, and they are really not that strong.

But there are ways around that...

The 8" had 28 spline axles, which was the same as the smaller 9"'s.

So 8" axles will mesh in 28 spline 9" diffs.

The tubes are different, the outside bearings are too, and also the offset of the pinion shaft ( in other words the driveshaft ), and the sizes of the diffs themselfs.

But the 8" tubes slide into the 9" ones ( kinda, its a loose fit ), so with some careful measuring you can come up with a ~8.5"~ rear axle built up out of junkyard parts.

Combine that with a 3.55 LSD diff out of a truck, and you have a good axle.

Extra bonus...

They made a version of the 8" axle for some Pinto's, which have the same 4X108 bolt pattern as the Capri. ( unfortunately I later screwed up one of my 4 lug axles, so I still had to buy aftermarket ones...)











I don't use the precision ground bar as a welding jig, because I bought a thinner one I can also use to narrow BMC axles.

I tack it, and weld it.

At that point there will be some warp, which I shrink out ( with a oxy acetylene torch and a wet rag)

With the bar to measure with I can get from this.



To this.