The Story of Build 002

The Story of Build 002

Part 8 - Showtime!

24th August 2012

Apollo did the repair to the tailgate straight away for me and he is back home already.

They removed the rear spoiler (that needed refitting properly anyway) and had to

take out the tailgate glass.

Below is a series of photos showing the rust and how well they sorted it.



A bit worse than I first thought	All the rot cut away




Fresh metal being welded in	Hole gone!




Nice and smooth	For a perfect finish!

27th August 2012

Bank Holiday Monday and time to get the centre console re-built.

If you look at a "standard" Tickford Capri without the electric pack

option, the centre console normally holds the electric window

switches, boost gauge and clock.

Behind a typical centre console

Brian Hollins' Build 031 (shown above) is a good example of this.

There is an Aluminium panel with the Walnut veneer stuck to the front.

The gauges are inset behind the metal panel using a

couple of mounting rings - very neat.

Using a metal backing plate to support the whole assembly also means that

the Walnut itself isn't under any strain.

Now the centre console in Build 002 was a one-off, built to

match the original Motorshow car as far as possible.

Early photo of my centre console as it actually left the factory.

The electric window switches and electric pack options

of rear wiper delay and electric mirrors are fitted

up in the main dashboard.

Ashtray trimmed in leather to make a storage box.

The centre console holds the clock and boost gauge,

non-Ford radio cassette player and a pair of

Fischer C-boxes for storing cassettes.

The way Tickford fitted everything in the centre console was a mess

behind the scenes - bent bits of Aluminium, odd tiny screws

and about half a gallon of Araldite!

Worst of all, there was no metal panel and the Walnut was just bolted straight

to the frame of the centre console where it was free to flex and crack!

I wish I had taken a few photos before I dismantled it.

The factory-fitted Pioneer radio cassette player was long-gone and when

I last owned the car, the space for the C-boxes had been occupied

by a graphic equaliser and later, a Tickford badge.

Now I wanted to put it back to almost original, with the only deviation being a Kenwood

radio/CD player in the standard DIN aperture that was already there.

Took about two seconds to track down a set of C-boxes thanks to good old Ebay.

The Walnut veneer was badly cracked and chipped so I passed it over

to our local cabinet maker, John Hamblin.

He did a super job on making some almost-invisible repairs and polishing it.

Meanwhile another friend of mine who works for an engineering firm made an

Aluminium backing plate for the whole panel - it will never flex again!

The repaired Walnut and new backing plate

The following sequence of photos shows the reconstruction of the centre console today.



The re-trimmed frame	Rear view




Gauges mounted to the veneer using a new	Offering-up the metal backing plate to
bracket for the boost gauge (left) and the	check that everything lines up properly
original clock bracket (right)	before going any further




Countersunk M5 bolts to fix the backing plate	The veneer is attached to the backing plate with
to the frame really securely	tiny screws from the rear

Now this little bit of leather is typical of the detail Tickford applied to

the original trimming of the interior

It is sandwiched between the veneer and backing plate

And fills the gap where the centre console will meet the main lower dashboard

Illumination for the clock and new boost gauge sorted out

Back to how it was when it left the factory - gauges set behind

the Walnut and C-boxes level with the front

28th August 2012

The wood that Ford used for the boot floor wasn't exactly top quality and to raise it

so that it cleared the larger pepperpot spare wheel on the 2.8i,

they added a chipboard edge about half an inch wide.

A narrow strip of chipboard after 30 years of wear tends to crumble ever so slightly!

That's much more solid - can't remember the name of the wood, but it's

very hard and came from an Amazonian rain forest somewhere

31st August 2012

Now whoever puts underseal INSIDE a car?

Well someone had, underneath the false boot floor and it took me an age to get it all removed!

Nice and clean now - I even polished it and gave the jack a good de-greasing

Rear washer reservoir cleaned and new plastic hoses, battery terminals protected with petroleum jelly

The OptiMate charger lead exits through an existing cut-out in the battery box and will be covered by the carpet

The boot really does look great - pity it's hidden under a parcel tray most of the time!

The parcel tray is an after-market one, but at least it's straight and not cracked

Close-up of the battery box with the OptiMate lead now out of sight

The rear panel is normally left as painted metal, but Protrim even covered this bit in Wilton carpet

Couldn't put off installing the new interior any longer, so made a start with the rear quarter panels.

Bare rear quarter panel with just the sound-proofing in place

Almost finished - just need to trim around the door frame and put the weather seal back on

Job done and the rear seat base fitted

Thought the best plan would be to work forwards from there, so next came the

back half of the centre console.

Decided to pad the inside of the storage compartment with black felt

to stop things rattling around on the move.

Looks nice..........and serves a purpose

Making sure the re-trimmed console meets the carpet perfectly

Final stage is to add the little pen holder that Tickford made to fill in the gap

Close-up of the pen holder showing Tickford's attention to detail!

Moving to the front of the centre console, Build 002 is unique because of the way

Tickford mounted the electric mirror controls in the main dashboard.

They had to cut away part of the lower dashboard panel to clear the terminals

and there is a little leather cover that hides the gap.

They also completely re-worked the ashtray to make a nice little storage area.

The cut-out for the mirror controls



The cover for the cut-out	NOT an ashtray anymore !

The overall effect

As you can see, it was dark outside by the time I had finished !

1st September 2012

Thought I would amuse myself first of all with removing the flaky

high-temperature paint on the turbo.

What hadn't already flaked off was stuck like glue.

About half a dozen Dremel wire wheels later, I decided enough was enough

and it was time to call it a day.

Ready for surgery.........."Dremel please Nurse" !

An hour and the entire stock of Dremel wire wheels in Yeovil later !

One of the bolts securing the bracket for the intercooler had previously

sheared-off so it was time to drill it out and fit a Riv-nut.

I replaced the bolts with stainless steel dome-headed ones that look far nicer

and I will gradually swap other bolts the same way in due course.

The bolts look good, but the bracket needs repainting at some point

Back to the interior and time to get the door cards on at long last.

The green and brown wires are for the speaker, orange is 12V for the door light

The door card aligned really easily and just took a few minutes to secure

The new Kenwood speakers look much better with stainless cap-head bolts rather than black screws

Driver's door card was just as easy to fit - interior finished !

Overall, I am so pleased with how the new interior has turned-out.

It was a lot of expense and hours of work, but worth every penny.

Just going to be very careful that nothing tears the leather on the seats,

no dirty hands on the steering wheel and "slippers only" on the floor

Just as well I bought some floor mats from the Capri Club a while ago.

The floor mats will protect the Wilton Carpet and aren't too bad a colour match

Whichever way you look, the view is great !

2nd September 2012

Haynes Rare Breeds Show

I've been to a lot of car shows over the years, both as an exhibitor and visitor.

The Rare Breeds Show at Haynes Motor Museum was without doubt,

one of the best-organised and friendliest I've ever attended.

We arrived at stupid o'clock so that there would be time to get Ticky polished

and ended-up being the first there, parking right at the start of the aisle

where everybody would be walking past.

The event organiser, Caroline Coombes who is a member of Haynes staff,

came straight over to meet us and dish out the free goody-bag that

is given to each entrant including a nice Perspex commemorative

plaque and a large bottle of Autoglym polish.

The volunteer marshals came over and chatted too - it all really set the scene

for what was to become a very memorable day!

Next car to roll up and park beside us was a 1963 Ford Consul Classic,

owned by a chap called Ashley from Bristol.

Ashley has owned his car for the past thirty six years and it

is used as daily transport - fantastic!

Polishing done, we headed off with our new friend Ashley for a well-earned

exhibitor's bacon roll and coffee in the cafe.

While we were busy stuffing our faces, Graham Gillings arrived

with his stunning Ford Racing Puma.

The marshals had sensibly allowed Graham to squeeze in beside me, so we

returned to see the two Tickfords together and coincidentally,

the only three Fords at the show as well.



The two Tickfords !




The three Fords !

If you look closely, you will see a laptop under the bonnet.

It's my new engine management system, but it means you have

to drive around with the bonnet up!



Not really..........it was a 3 minute PowerPoint slide show scrolling the history of the Tickford Capri!




A bit flash..........but people seemed to enjoy reading it !

Being able to tell the Tickford story that way meant I was free to answer specific

questions while others watched the slides.

It turned out to be really useful as at one point, Michael Penn who is the museum curator,

came over to see what was going on and I was able to have a long chat with him

about Tickford and put my case for Haynes taking over organising the

now-defunct Yeovil Festival of Transport that used to be the

best 3-day car show on the Planet.



A400MOD was a big hit with everyone..........Graham..........get your bonnet up mate !

The interior received a lot of attention and I was beginning to worry about

all the camera flashes fading the leather!



I don't think I am ever going to get bored looking at this !

All three of us decided to take part in the afternoon classic car run - a gentle

jaunt around some of the local villages, main roads and country lanes.



Being started off by the marshals




Our little convoy was led by a 1935 BSA
followed by Ashley's Consul Classic and Graham's Puma




Bringing up the rear was a Volkswagen and we were joined by a mystery MK II Cortina




These are the only circumstances when it can be acceptable for a Puma
to be driving in front of a Tickford Capri :-)

Although Graham's car has a 200bhp Nitrous Oxide kit fitted, so I may not
actually have a say in the matter !




Haynes had chosen a really fun and picturesque route for us




Returning to the show ground - no casualties and we only got lost once !

You can always recognise a quality event - after the car run and prize giving ceremony, all the

entrants had the opportunity to gorge themselves on a cream tea, laid out in the Haynes VIP

Suite - the scones were enormous and only matched in size by the volumes of cream

and strawberry jam in the pots - a real credit to the catering staff.

A field of 70 cars attended the day, with a good range between vintage and modern.

Here are a few photos of our personal favourites.....................



1928 Studebaker - the last one of its kind and in mint condition




An immaculately restored 1948 Lea-Francis




A beautiful 1952 Bristol 401




At the other end of the age range, a 1992 Toyota Sera that was originally designed as a
concept car for the Tokyo Motor Show and based on a Toyota Starlet






A stunning little FT Bonito kit car - the only one built in the UK for competition use

So overall, Ticky's first outing had been a brilliant success.

Not least because we had made two new friends, Ashley and Graham,

who we will definitely be seeing at other shows in the future.

Also, I had never really given much thought to the Ford Racing Puma, but having

had the chance to inspect Graham's - what a fantastic car!



Ashley and me beside his 1963 Consul Classic




I have a new-found respect for the Ford Racing Puma

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