Capri XL-R 3000GT

Any discussions about the history of the road going cars
User avatar
ZA Perana
Posts: 7313
Joined: Sun 15 Jul 2007, 18:01
Location: Cape Town

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by ZA Perana » Thu 06 Aug 2009, 08:26

Awesome pictures, in fact 5 wing you have posted a lot of great pictures on the forum, thanks. Interesting that the Meissner work was done outside the factory as it was my understand that Meissner and Ford had an agreement whereby the Meissner parts were distributed by Ford to its dealers.
Alfa GTV 3.0
Ford Capri Perana V8
Chevy Lumina Supercharged

Wait not for tomorrow to do what can be done today, live each day for one knows not what the next day may hold.

User avatar
five.wing
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu 16 Jul 2009, 16:36

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by five.wing » Thu 06 Aug 2009, 11:17

Thank you for your kind comments regarding the pictures I have posted ZA Perana. Below are some additional photographs of the Capri.

This Capri was one of the very first 3000GT XLR’S built in South Africa. I specifically delayed my purchase of a Capri 3l until this XLR model was available.

Following is a brief early history of this specific vehicle. The Ford Motor Company of South Africa never performed any nonstandard modification work on production vehicles coming off the assembly line. The Meissner engine modifications would normally performed at Ford dealerships after retail sale and were sold with the normal Ford new vehicle warranty. In the case of my Capri 3000 XLR, I made sure that the engine was sent to the engine teardown section after it was initially assembled on the assembly line in the Struandale engine plant. The engine was then fully stripped and reassembled by myself and a tear down technician with all bolts torqued precisely to specification. At that stage I slipped in my Meissner MV1 camshaft which I smuggled into the engine plant. I guess that was the only engine to come out of the engine plant with a Meissner camshaft. I could not fit the four barrel Holley carb at that stage because it would have been noticed immediately. I then had a make sure that the engine was not fitted to another vehicle and went into my Capri. The engine was well tagged and shipped to the Neave vehicle assembly plant.

In the meantime the body shell was being put together in the body shop. This was the only Capri to come out of the plant with two exhaust pipe archways in the lower back panel. I got hold of a standard back panel prior to the body being built and carefully cut and folded an identical archway in on the right hand side which normally contained no exhaust pipe archway. The reason I did this at such an early stage is because I didn’t want to interfere with the integrity of the paint work after the body shell had been painted. That in itself is another story.

I personally supervised the construction of the body shell and made sure that extra spot and gas welding was performed on all metal joints. The completed bare metal shell then spent extra time on the metal finish line and after that left the body shop with out one blemish on it. Needless to say the body shop general foreman was glad to see the back of me. I was working in product quality assurance at that time and it gave me a little muscle when I needed it.

I was now to become the bane of the paint shop general foreman’s life. This is where the car really had special treatment. I made sure the body shell was a very well dipped in the red underbody primer tank. There was no electro coat primer in those days. Red and gray body primer was then applied wet on wet, the body baked, the primer then wet flatted down, and that whole process then repeated with another two coats of primer, the body baked and then once again wet flattered. No other body shell was ever put through the primer process twice as was done to this Capri. The interior and boot floor were fully covered with heat fusible pads to act as sound deadeners. These melt to take up the shape of the floor when the body shall go through a bake oven. The complete underbody was then rubberised. Only the wheel arches would normally have been rubberized.

Now on to painting a final colour. I had selected sapphire blue as my colour of choice. After the first coat of sapphire blue was applied and baked, I deliberately rejected all the paint which resulted in the blue being flattted down and another coat of sapphire blue applied and baked. The end result was spectacular. The total paint thickness with the double primer and double enamel on the vehicle was 10 thou and it had a fantastic depth and gloss to it. I think Ford definitely lost money on this one.

I then made sure my specially built engine with the Meissner camshaft was fitted to the vehicle. Other modifications performed outside the factory included the fitment of an engine oil cooler, Grenada steel camshaft gear, Meissner inlet manifold with 4 barrel Holley carb ( I’m fairly sure it’s a 450 CFM), lowered rear suspension, dual exhausts with free flow boxes on each bank, vented front disk backing plates, 6J chromed Rostyle rims, sports steering wheel, the additional rectangular Lucas spotlights under the bumper, front spoiler, rear window louver, Capri E back panel, double front anti roll bar (which I removed prior to sale), ammeter and a vacuum gauge in the center console. She turned out to be an absolute beauty and I thoroughly enjoyed the years I had with her. I entered the car in quarter mile drag races and she performed very well. Unfortunately the 3.08:1 rear axle ratio is a little high for quarter mile dragging. She would finish the quarter mile at 6000 RPM in third gear doing 160kph. The rear axle ratio was ideal for top speed and cruising. She would easily run at 200kph on a flat road. There was very little that could keep up with her in those days. I wish I had a recording of what she used to sound like when I opened up.

I eventually decide to sell the car because I was single at the time and had a free company car. The Capri sat in the garage week after week never being used. Besides, our government in its infinite wisdom had imposed an 80 kph general speed limit in this country and I had already appeared in court for driving my Capri at 88km an hour on a dual carriage way in the middle of nowhere!

Whoever has that car now is indeed most fortunate and I hope she is soon restored to her former glory. I would love to hear from the current owner if he happens to read this.
Capri 122.jpg

kiwicapri
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue 06 Nov 2007, 02:48

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by kiwicapri » Thu 06 Aug 2009, 12:57

What a fantastic looking car, and very informative story. I have realy enjoyed reading this post. Not often an owner of a car can recall exactly what they had done to there vehicle, yet alone be involved with the entire process of building it from scratch. I did wonder it the rear tail light garnish panel was a 3000E item. I have a good freind with a 3000E and from the pictures it did look the same. Might i ask what the front spoiler is off? Was it a specialy made period item or is it a modified Fairmont GT item? I have seen a few Perana's with the same sort of spoiler on them. I have a couple of early Capris myself. One of them is an Australian assembled car. From my association with them, i would like to ask you this. The black outs and side stripe are the same as used on the 1969 Australian 1600GT. Did Ford South Africa copy them, or were they imported/made under licence from Ford Australia?

This car must have been a real head turner in the day, and a hunny to drive. I love driving mine, but after years of restoration, i'm not keen on driving it the way i would have 20 or so years ago, up on 3 wheels.

Those pictures sure do bring back some fond memorys of a miss spent youth!

Thanks for the great pictures and a great piece of history.the current owner will have one hell of a cool car. :D

User avatar
five.wing
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu 16 Jul 2009, 16:36

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by five.wing » Thu 06 Aug 2009, 15:16

Thank you for your kind comments ZA Perana. Writing about the car has certainly brought back many fond memories. She was a real head turner and a pleasure to drive. In those days the roads were fairly quiet and you could open up a little if you wanted to. You just had a keep an eye open for Plod lying in the bush. Unlike today most of the people on the roads could actually drive a car and people were generally very well mannered.

I am unfortunately not familiar with the Australian R pack Capri the options. I believe that the South African R pack was fairly unique to this country. I believe that the side striping was a local innovation. From what I can recall the XLR diferred from the XL in the following areas:
1. Hood pins.
2. Hi back tombstone front seats.
3. Leather gear shift knob
4. Matte black grill, rocker panel, hood and upper back panel in the taillight area.
5. Factory refitted rectangular spotlights.
6. GT Side striping. If I recall correctly, the metallic green Capri may have had gold GT stripes. It was so long ago that the memory starts to fade after a while.
7. XLR Fender badges .

All our Capri CKD sourcing was from the United Kingdom and only Fairmont and Ranchero CKD was sourced from Australia. I have a feeling that the stripes were locally sourced from 3M.

My recollection is a little vague on the sourcing of the front spoiler and think you may be quite correct in that it could be a Fairmont GT. rear spoiler that I adapted to fit the Capri. I know that I was reluctant to fit it and it wasn’t done for the aesthetics. Unfortunately the Capri had a tendency to become a very light in front at “speed“ if you know what I mean? I fitted the spoiler in an endeavor to pull the nose down at high speed and it seem to work fairly well producing the desired result.

The current owner of that car is certainly fortunate because no other Capri built at the Port Elizabeth plant received that kind of very special treatment. What the body shell had done to it can only be done at the very start of its life and cannot be built in later. The fundamentals are therefore right and that shell should last someone a long time if it is looked after.

I would love to see pictures of your car’s sometime.
Capri Interior.jpg

kiwicapri
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue 06 Nov 2007, 02:48

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by kiwicapri » Sat 15 Aug 2009, 03:04

Thanks for the great history and pictures. Have scans taken from an Australian sales brochure, dated 1969, the cover of the parts book dated 1969, the revilvant page etc. You can see where your friends green car got the gold strips from, and where the idea came from. I suspect Ford Australian had some input/supply arrangment for quite a few things. I will upload them as soon as i work out how to reduce them down to below 500mb

Anyway, as always, great to see these cars and some fantastic history unfolding.

Regards

Wayne

kiwicapri
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue 06 Nov 2007, 02:48

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by kiwicapri » Sat 15 Aug 2009, 03:38

Pictures as prommised
Attachments
scan0006.jpg
scan0004.jpg
scan0002.jpg
scan0006.jpg

User avatar
henryk
Posts: 416
Joined: Tue 04 Sep 2007, 11:36

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by henryk » Tue 01 Sep 2009, 10:56

To Five.wing


Please let me have your E mail adress again.

Tried to E mail you pics of the restored Y151 Escort as well as my own Escort Perana, but mails keep coming back.

Regards



Henry
Escort's Forever !

User avatar
ZA Perana
Posts: 7313
Joined: Sun 15 Jul 2007, 18:01
Location: Cape Town

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by ZA Perana » Tue 01 Sep 2009, 12:54

Have also tried to e mail 5 Wing and and also e mails come back?
Alfa GTV 3.0
Ford Capri Perana V8
Chevy Lumina Supercharged

Wait not for tomorrow to do what can be done today, live each day for one knows not what the next day may hold.

User avatar
five.wing
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu 16 Jul 2009, 16:36

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by five.wing » Fri 18 Sep 2009, 07:49

Hi Henry,

I apologize for the delay in responding to you. I have been on holiday in East London for the last three weeks .

My e-mail address is: zs5ag@telkomsa.net

I look forward to receiving those pictures of the restoration of Y151.

Many thanks,
Regards,
Alan (five.wing)

HKGTS186S
Posts: 929
Joined: Sat 04 Apr 2009, 17:18

Re: Capri XL-R 3000GT

Post by HKGTS186S » Fri 18 Sep 2009, 15:58

five.wing wrote:Thank you for your kind comments regarding the pictures I have posted ZA Perana. Below are some additional photographs of the Capri.

This Capri was one of the very first 3000GT XLR’S built in South Africa. I specifically delayed my purchase of a Capri 3l until this XLR model was available.

Following is a brief early history of this specific vehicle. The Ford Motor Company of South Africa never performed any nonstandard modification work on production vehicles coming off the assembly line. The Meissner engine modifications would normally performed at Ford dealerships after retail sale and were sold with the normal Ford new vehicle warranty. In the case of my Capri 3000 XLR, I made sure that the engine was sent to the engine teardown section after it was initially assembled on the assembly line in the Struandale engine plant. The engine was then fully stripped and reassembled by myself and a tear down technician with all bolts torqued precisely to specification. At that stage I slipped in my Meissner MV1 camshaft which I smuggled into the engine plant. I guess that was the only engine to come out of the engine plant with a Meissner camshaft. I could not fit the four barrel Holley carb at that stage because it would have been noticed immediately. I then had a make sure that the engine was not fitted to another vehicle and went into my Capri. The engine was well tagged and shipped to the Neave vehicle assembly plant.

In the meantime the body shell was being put together in the body shop. This was the only Capri to come out of the plant with two exhaust pipe archways in the lower back panel. I got hold of a standard back panel prior to the body being built and carefully cut and folded an identical archway in on the right hand side which normally contained no exhaust pipe archway. The reason I did this at such an early stage is because I didn’t want to interfere with the integrity of the paint work after the body shell had been painted. That in itself is another story.

I personally supervised the construction of the body shell and made sure that extra spot and gas welding was performed on all metal joints. The completed bare metal shell then spent extra time on the metal finish line and after that left the body shop with out one blemish on it. Needless to say the body shop general foreman was glad to see the back of me. I was working in product quality assurance at that time and it gave me a little muscle when I needed it.

I was now to become the bane of the paint shop general foreman’s life. This is where the car really had special treatment. I made sure the body shell was a very well dipped in the red underbody primer tank. There was no electro coat primer in those days. Red and gray body primer was then applied wet on wet, the body baked, the primer then wet flatted down, and that whole process then repeated with another two coats of primer, the body baked and then once again wet flattered. No other body shell was ever put through the primer process twice as was done to this Capri. The interior and boot floor were fully covered with heat fusible pads to act as sound deadeners. These melt to take up the shape of the floor when the body shall go through a bake oven. The complete underbody was then rubberised. Only the wheel arches would normally have been rubberized.

Now on to painting a final colour. I had selected sapphire blue as my colour of choice. After the first coat of sapphire blue was applied and baked, I deliberately rejected all the paint which resulted in the blue being flattted down and another coat of sapphire blue applied and baked. The end result was spectacular. The total paint thickness with the double primer and double enamel on the vehicle was 10 thou and it had a fantastic depth and gloss to it. I think Ford definitely lost money on this one.

I then made sure my specially built engine with the Meissner camshaft was fitted to the vehicle. Other modifications performed outside the factory included the fitment of an engine oil cooler, Grenada steel camshaft gear, Meissner inlet manifold with 4 barrel Holley carb ( I’m fairly sure it’s a 450 CFM), lowered rear suspension, dual exhausts with free flow boxes on each bank, vented front disk backing plates, 6J chromed Rostyle rims, sports steering wheel, the additional rectangular Lucas spotlights under the bumper, front spoiler, rear window louver, Capri E back panel, double front anti roll bar (which I removed prior to sale), ammeter and a vacuum gauge in the center console. She turned out to be an absolute beauty and I thoroughly enjoyed the years I had with her. I entered the car in quarter mile drag races and she performed very well. Unfortunately the 3.08:1 rear axle ratio is a little high for quarter mile dragging. She would finish the quarter mile at 6000 RPM in third gear doing 160kph. The rear axle ratio was ideal for top speed and cruising. She would easily run at 200kph on a flat road. There was very little that could keep up with her in those days. I wish I had a recording of what she used to sound like when I opened up.

I eventually decide to sell the car because I was single at the time and had a free company car. The Capri sat in the garage week after week never being used. Besides, our government in its infinite wisdom had imposed an 80 kph general speed limit in this country and I had already appeared in court for driving my Capri at 88km an hour on a dual carriage way in the middle of nowhere!

Whoever has that car now is indeed most fortunate and I hope she is soon restored to her former glory. I would love to hear from the current owner if he happens to read this.
Capri 122.jpg




Nice pics of the Capri , the best one is out the front of the Ford building.
AUS Muscle and RSA Muscle closely related !!!

Post Reply

Social Media

     

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests