From this to this - Part 9

Now the time has come to really get into the bodywork. Ever since getting the car, I had been trying to source another front RH guard as I thought that it would be impossible to repair the front section of the guard that has been crumpled in on itself. To date, after searching EBay daily, numerous phone calls around Australia & appeals to other club members, I had not been able to find one. This was the major missing part of the jigsaw and without it, I would not really be able to progress with the body or get the car re-sprayed. At one stage, I spent nearly a whole day trying to straighten the front of the guard by various cuts & hammering but, at the end of the day, it really was a waste of time. I had a number of small areas that needed the rust cut out & treated (bottom of RH door, RH real wheel arch, top of driver’s door & a small area at the top of the engine bay), so I spent the time doing these.

Towards the end of February, I was a bit frustrated on several fronts. The biggest concern was the front guard. I had been led on a few wild goose chases especially when I was told by a wrecker at Eumundi that he had some but just before driving there I checked to find that they were for the later model Capri. Just by chance on an internet search, I came across Pegasus Manufacturing at Redcliffe who advertise a number of fibreglass panels for the Mk1 Capri. After talking to them, I could get one made for $220 so with little or no hope of getting a suitable metal one, I drove down to see them. It turned out that he had one already made for a cancelled order and I took my old one down so that they could attach the bracket that connected to the body. There is a bit of history to these moulds as it appears that were the original ones owned by John MacCallum who sold them to Dean of Capri Spares who now gets Andy at Pegasus to make them, along with his horse floats & sideshow clowns. Anyway, after another trip down several days later, I had a guard & this was a major breakthrough in solving the jigsaw.
LESSON 12: Google searches are really useful in finding Capri RH front guards, even if they are fibreglass.

The other area of frustration was the heater fan motor. The local auto electrician, who had originally said it would take a few days, then suggested it would cost the same to get a totally new motor as to rewind the old one. So, I opted for a new motor. I would go down there several times a week for weeks & there was always a delay for some reason. The motor came with no instructions & he spent days chasing up the wiring details but finally I got it back & it was a different size so the housing that held it into the heater would need some modification. I put that aside for the time being as I was going to put all my effort into preparing the body for re-spraying.

LESSON 13: Using newer replacement parts rather than repairing the original parts can cause you some grief. There is a lot more to this story which I will explain later in the story.