Welcome to the journey through time for the not so newest addition to my car collection, my 1969 Ford Capri 3000GT.

 

The story so far.

 

After moving to Australia from the home of the All Blacks, in 1998, and selling my 1974 Capri 1600ohc to my Father, I was without a classic car for the first time in my car owning life. I always browsed the classifieds for Capri cars and parts, and kept the phone numbers for future reference, but finally I saw a deal, I had to check out, just around the corner from my Western Sydney home. It was in grey acrylic primer, and had been bought from a police auction, and I assume It was a dumped car after being stolen or paddock bashed. It's description by the Police disposal notice, was a 1972 3000GT V6. It was a pre facelift Australian assembled model. When I got it home it took me an hour to remove the seats, as they were rusted solid to the floor. The seats themselves were totally collapsed, the passengers window had been broken, and water had rotted the car from inside out, meaning the car had no rust in the usual places, but weird places like inner arches, and internal corners, not usually exposed to weather had rusted extremely badly. If I had known what I was in for I wouldn't have even considered buying it.

 

The panels were rusted beneath the 2 or more mm of filler (not much, but enough to cover a multitude of sins). Some areas looked as thought they were OK, so I didn't strip them. That came back to bit me on the behind big time. After removing one wing, and repairing rust in all the places I could find, I began the body work. The body appeared to be bashed about allot, not easy for someone with no panel beating experience at all. A block of wood, and a claw hammer did well for me.

 

I'm sure I've used more filler than a professional would recommend, but it is pretty good now, except for the rear quarters which were never quite the right shape, so I'm stripping them, and reshaping them, as you can read about in the captions below the pictures. Recently I enquired about the history of the car with Ford Australia, in Melbourne, They confirmed with me that the car is in fact a VERY RARE 1969 3000gt. These cars were only made from September 1969, so to find a 1960's V6 Capri is very good. Almost makes the work worthwhile! If anyone in Australia recognises the Rego Plate number, a car you recognise, or owned, please let me know. The car looks like a facelift now with smaller side vents, different headlights and tail lights. I'd be very happy to know any of the history of the car.