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Welcome to the Ford Capri Mk1 restoration project website and blog

This website tells the story of the nut-and-bolt restoration (really it should have been called complete rebuild) of ‘Zippy’, a 1973 mark one facelift Ford Capri 1600 GT in Sebring Red. This includes a little section on the history on the car, such as the original dealer, where it lived, and a few early pictures of previous refurbishments.

It takes us through the journey of stripping the car down to bare metal and some of the problems, shall we call them challenges or just horror stories, encountered on the way, along with the cleaning, polishing and repairing the trim, interior and quite a lot of the ancillary pieces.

It covers the metal repair, replacement and re-manufacture, from scraping off the thick layers of under-seal, to the repair and replacement of the sills, A-posts, headlight boxes, floor, rear quarters and arches, inner buckets, inner wings and rails, valance, slam panel, scuttle, bumper support brackets, lights and, of course, the two front wings too to name just some.

We also stripped down and rebuilt her engine and transmission chain, but due to the low mileage of the original vehicle, little or no remedial work was necessary. But it does now run on unleaded fuel.

And why do we call him Zippy you might ask? Well, the colour really. My wife started calling it ‘Zippy’ as soon as she saw it, and the name has stuck ever since. Thank you very much Judy.