Spare me working on vehicles.

[ruston]

Ah yes!......best invention was the convoluted cylinder head bypass hose. I used to keep,a couple of spares in the boot

they had some perculiarities....

rotting under body seam trims due to the electrolytic reaction on the clips....de-seamed mine

battery falling through bottom of box

lower rad hose swap...this awakened my interest in gynaecology

speedo,cable snapping

sliding windows jamming

wire pull door handle

the list goes on

Shims in the ball joints, front brake adjustment, rear hanbrake quadrants and levers, and one of the worst if you did not have the gear-clutch removal and primary gear oil seal.  Nackered primary gear ripping the clutch plate to bits; usually requiring new crankshaft or the process started sll over again.

 There is much more .. definitely a car you could serve your time on , but I loved them.

 

[Geoff1946]

Making a distributor cover from a rubber glove, - one lead per finger, to try to keep rain out.

 

[revjames]

Ahhh makes me think back to the times in the 80's when I use to regularly change engines in my Capri's and Cortina's could practically (but not quite) get inside the engine bay when you were working on them as there was that much room.

I knew what every wire and hose was for, I now lift the bonnet on a car and I'm lost.

i don't miss the rust that use to be on my Fords though.

I could get the gearbox out of a capri or cortina in 20 mins - on my own

 

[Evans Electric]

Looking back I seem to have owned  1000 Cortinas  .  I think the flashest  one  was a Daytona Yellow  2ltr Mk 3  .

Mk 4 Estate was useful  .

So much room in the  engine compartment  , I rented it out to an immigrant family   .   

 

[Sharpend]

I could get the gearbox out of a capri or cortina in 20 mins - on my own

Two of my favourite fords. 

 

[kerching]

Two of my favourite fords. 

Mine was my 1974 MKII Capri 1600 GXL or GLX in 'Stardust'

got it in '77 for my 21st

it had to go in '85 when second child arrived...too much hassle frying to get two tiny ones in the back of a 2 door

 

[Tony S]

too much hassle frying to get two tiny ones in the back of a 2 door

? ? ? ? ? ?

Isn't there a law against this.

 

[Evans Electric]

Well you know what Kerch is like.. :innocent .he was once asked if he liked children ,  in his best W C Fields voice  his answer was  " Of course I like 'em  ...fried or boiled  but I couldn't eat a whole one !   "     

 

[kerching]

It's not my fault I was born with phallangus gynaecologus 

 

[revjames]

I have had a Mk2 Escort - written off when a whole barn roof blew off in the night and landed on it. 2 mark 3's the second being a 1.6 ghia - very nice, quick too. 2 mark 4 cortinas and then a mark 5 which was pretty much the same thing. Only had 1 capri and it was a 1973 1600GT in yellow with a black bonnet. Loved it. All the RWD fords had a problem in common, the gearboxes didnt last.

 

[Doc Hudson]

Looking back I seem to have owned  1000 Cortinas  .  I think the flashest  one  was a Daytona Yellow  2ltr Mk 3  .

Mk 4 Estate was useful  .

So much room in the  engine compartment  , I rented it out to an immigrant family   .   

Did I just notice an admission to the source of the UK's immigration problem? They were all coming over to live in the promised warm dry environment of Evans's Ford Cortina engine compartment!

Doc H.

 

[Evans Electric]

Thats right Doc ....they were still in there when it went to the crusher. 

 

[ProDave]

My first car was a Mk 1 Escort. It went pretty well for it's little 1300cc engine. Then I "did" the  prat mobil Capri thing, Only kept that 2 years before deciding practicality was more important than pose value. That got me into Landrovers, Range Rovers then eventually Subaru's.

 

[Sharpend]

Oh there's no pose value with Landrovers range rovers or scoobies! 

 

[ProDave]

Oh there's no pose value with Landrovers range rovers or scoobies! 

Neither is there pose value when your Capri, loaded to the hilt with camping gear gets bogged down and stuck in a ditch on the track to the camp site.  That was the nail in the coffin that made me get a car that could do things rather than a car to pose in.

 

[OnOff]

Neither is there pose value when your Capri, loaded to the hilt with camping gear gets bogged down and stuck in a ditch on the track to the camp site.  That was the nail in the coffin that made me get a car that could do things rather than a car to pose in.

Ah yes, following a friend's Mini that took that hairpin bend like it was on rails...my Capri didn't! 

That icy bend that put it it in multiple spins and bust the half shaft on the kerb...

Taking off Bo & Luke style from that unseen humpback bridge and cracking a leaf!

And looking GOOD doing it!

 

[ProDave]

Same track to the campsite had such a steep hump back bridge, that with the long bonnet on the Crapri you could see nothing but sky. You had to take it so slow because you had no idea which way the road went after the bridge, or if anything was coming.

 

[OnOff]

Same track to the campsite had such a steep hump back bridge, that with the long bonnet on the Crapri you could see nothing but sky. You had to take it so slow because you had no idea which way the road went after the bridge, or if anything was coming.

I dread driving my Capri again down my narrow country lanes!