rawright’s 1984 Mercury Capri

Installing the new UPR K-member with Viking/Strange coil overs on the RS. Pretty much has gone without a hitch so far.

Just spent the last month and a half doing through floor sub-frame connectors and sound proofing the floor and tunnel of the car. The sub-frames were quite the task and took a lot longer to do then I thought it would. I used a 2"x3" .0125 steel tube to make the connectors, one for each side of the car. I cut into the sub-frame channels and clearanced both sides for the bar I located and cut into the rear frame rail just to discover that they were about 2" off of the front on both sides. This means I needed to custom fabricate a bar for each side. :( I basically did a Z-bend in both bars to make it line up front to back. I tack welded each section to test the fit until I knew it was right.  After I got both sides to fit I finished welding them and cut the rest of the floor so I could install them in the car. I welded both top and bottom and made some re-enforcement brackets for the drivers side seat. After I welded them in I painted the inside and out with a decent quality rust resistant primer. I then proceeded to cover the floor with a good quality Butyl rubber sound deadener. I did double layers in the trouble spots around the trans tunnel. I also did the door panels. Thanx for taking the time to read my post, BTW I also installed an aluminum flywheel and CenterForce DF clutch. All the new changes made a huge difference in the cars ride quality and performance! Robert

Just installed a new all aluminum radiator in the Capri. It looks really nice and runs a lot cooler then the old radiator. Now I just need to find out where a quart of water goes every time I drive the car. I was hoping the new radiator would fix this problem but it didn't.

I decided that while I had the motor out I would repaint the engine bay. I was going to paint the bay white and do the body work to clean up the inner fender wells but had a change of heart when I saw the mess it was going to make of the hoses and other parts that were left in the bay. Plus I was told that white was not the best choice for an engine bay color LOL.

My first job was to fix the cracks in the face. I did a canyon style cut in the air dam face. I also installed 2 pieces of wood in the vent slots to provide support during the repair and to setup for the vents to be strengthened later. Then I taped the front side so I could work on the back.

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!

The RPM Airgap manifold ports were not a perfect match to the Edelbrock aluminum heads so I opened it up and matched it to the intake ports on the heads. This is the first time I had done this but it came out killer and works great! I also port matched the heads to the headers as well. This also improved the performance a bit and let the heads flow better!

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!  

I used epoxy and fiber glass to strengthen and patch the back of the air dam where the crack was. I tried to use bondo to make the repair in front first but as soon as I moved the air dam to repair the crack in the same place on the other side the bondo repair split right at the first repair site. I eventually found a rubberized epoxy bumper cover repair stuff that worked much better and didn't crack when flexed. I repeated for the other crack.

My next job was to add support to the vent area. I picked up some 3/16 steel rod and I used glass cloth at the lip with epoxy resin to create a stronger support to keep the vent open and straight. I was going to use some angle metal to strengthen it but it was going to inter-fear with the new ram air opening fitting properly around the vent.

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!  

BAD NEWSMy old engine block was pretty much screwed! I was cleaning my piston tops when I noticed some pretty bad scoring on the thrust side cylinder walls that I didn't notice when I first pulled the heads off the block. I looked into a new set of SRP forged pistons at .04 over and they are $700! Also if I had the block bored to .04 over, I will have to pay another $200 dollars for the machine work to be done as well. I went ahead and bought another 347 clearanced block at .03 over and I am going to reuse my old pistons and rings because they only have around 4500 miles on them. I took them by a few shops and friends places and they all say they are fine. I got my Eagle crankshaft turned and bought Clevite performance bearings. The motor seems to be working really well so far but the new rear oil seal looks like it is leaking!

My next job was to add support to the vent area. I picked up some 3/16 steel rod and I used glass cloth at the lip with epoxy resin to create a stronger support to keep the vent open and straight. I was going to use some angle metal to strengthen it but it was going to inter-fear with the new ram air opening fitting properly around the vent.

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!  

My best friend Duane Kindoll and his Dad Bob came over to help me get it set up and they were both life savers because as usual there was a problem! The speed shop where I got the crankshaft turned gave me the wrong rod bearings! Lucky for me Bob noticed right away and said "send those fuckers back!" We went and got the right ones and the rest of the build went without a problem.

After the install I went ahead and finished the mold for the ram air induction vents. All I need to do now is cast some fiber glass on it and make sure the vent works on the car. I am hoping I am not going to have to make a mold for each side but that is always a possibility. I tried to make the first mold so that the glass cast on it could be flipped and used on either side. I hope it works LOL

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!  

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!  

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!  

I put Rockford Fosgate 3 1/2's in the dash. I made custom 5 1/4 enclosures for in front of the driver and passenger seats. I put Infinity speakers in those. I put a set of Hertz ECX-690 6X9's in the cargo area and a custom sub enclosure for the 12" JL sub in the back hatch area. The sub is hidden. To power the whole system I used an 1800 watt 5 channel Earthquake amp. The stereo sounds pretty damn good! Thank you for taking the time to check out my car and it's specs! On the next page you will find information on my latest rebuild with pictures of my newly cleaned up engine bay and motor. If you have any questions I will do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I will be checking in on this page about once a week. Please sign my guest book or leave a comment if you have time!