'86 Mercury Capri T top
 

I have actually owned this car since November but have not said much about it due to the nature of events around the time i bought it. But now i have been thinking about the car a bit lately and kind of figuring out what needs to be done at min to get it drive able by summer. As to the events...basically two weeks after i bought the car the friend i bought it from committed suicide. It hit me and several car club members pretty hard. He was also building a 1976 Chevy Camaro around the same time in his shop classes in high school. That car is currently in the process of being completed by the car club as a whole as a tribute to him. In a way this build is my own personal tribute to my late friend. That all said...


1986 Mercury Capri T Top

2.3 4 cyl
4 speed trans


Min needed to be running:

Front brakes rebuilt
Fuel system repairs
new fuel tank.
Whatever else is discovered during repairs.

So the goal is to basically go "Roadkill" style on it to get it going to get baseline info.

On to what pics i have for it..

https://i.imgur.com/OgBJUpp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pULjqec.jpg

My cousin had the dark silver over black with black interior version. It was a 5.0L car with a five-speed manual. It was the last year for them and was the equivalent of a Mustang GT or Cobra. I can't remember which. Some of those cars came with the turbo 2.3L engine and auto transmission.

A coworker of mine had the turbo 2.3L engine.

I always liked those more than the Mustang version of the same year. Turbo 2.3 stuff is lots of fun, and the T-Birds and Cougars were also available with them. That would be silly fun with a four speed.
Very sad news about your friend; I'm sure he'd love to know you were banging gears in his old Capri, with an ear-to-ear grin.

Sorry to hear about your friend.
I remember wanting one of those T-top Capris pretty bad when they were introduced.
The little 2.3L Ford motor can be hopped up if desired. I believe the stock carb is a variant of the Weber vari-jet down draft. It has a cross flow head. Add a hotter cam and a set of headers and it should be fast enough to get you in trouble. Not a lot of pesky electronics on it to complicate things. Manual tranny makes hop ups easier too.

'86 I believe has throttle body injection 2.3L with a Mazda transmission.

That would be the RS i believe and the Cobra was simply an appearance package on the GT.

Those were difficult to find even new from what i seen while doing my research on the model.

Thanks Weld

Perhaps one day this one will see a Turbo swap. Have already contemplated a blow through Turbo on it.

Thanks and Yea i am glad it is the carbed version of the car makes it a lot easier to do upgrades. Have already looked at a weber swap. There is also the Offenhouser 4 barrel intake to consider as well.

'86 was the transition year it seems. This one is the carbed version with a 4 speed. I may end up doing a T5 swap to it down the line.

You have an early '86.

The 200ci six cylinder models were harder to hop up. The intake manifold and cylinder head were one continuous casting. To change carbs, you usually had to do some machine work, though there are some bolt on adapters available.
-The other problem was that all the 200ci six models (1982 and later) had automatic transmissions. The need for a tranny kick down linkage limited your choice of carb swaps.
If you like that 200ci six, its better to get a 1964-1966 Mustang. There are plenty of those with manual transmissions still on the street.

That is what i kinda figured. Makes it a lot easier to work on none the less. And if i ever decide to drop in a 2.3 Turbo i can always go the standalone computer route with Megasquirt.

Thankfully this car is the 2.3 4 cyl not the straight six.

I had a first generation Mustang with a carbed 2.3 and 4 speed with power nothing. Biggest issue I had was that it was horrible in snow and I rebuilt the steering rack twice. Honestly thought that Mrs. C would try to learn to drive a stick with this one.

I may attempt to teach my wife how to drive stick in this. Either this or one of the Datsuns i just picked up.. Guess we will see.

The first car I bought at a dealership (Ford dealer in Simi Valley, Cal.--forgot what the name was in '89 when I bought it) was an '86 Capri 5.0 five-speed manual car. It did not have the T-tops, and more odd, it had an air conditioning delete (unless air was optional in those days) which would be unusual in So. Cal. whoever bought it new, unless they lived near the beach where the temps never got into the 100+ F like they did in the valleys of the L.A. area. I had some stick knowledge, but had a friend drive it back to Northridge. The dealership even took in my beat up '78 Trans Am as a $300 trade in, lol.

I loved that car, and it even got me to buy a new '93 GT in late October '93, but with the down payment and 5 years of monthly payments, I should have stuck with the '86 Capri and dumped in cash to a new crate engine (they were selling the 340 HP 5.0s), Tremec transmission and supercharger. I was too young and dumb to know better...

What model of Datsun? Got pics?

"The first car I bought at a dealership (Ford dealer in Simi Valley, Cal.--forgot what the name was in '89 when I bought it) was an '86 Capri 5.0 five-speed manual car"
Its very hard to find a V8 Capri/Mustang from the 80s that is restoreble these days.