Interior (2001)
The interior of D659 DBJ was in pretty good shape all around but I have replaced the original Laser seats with a restored set of half leather Recaros taken from a 2.8 injection Capri. The interior was purchased from Martin at Capri Gear. The drivers seat had some leather parts replaced where it had worn through but the rest are pretty original.. A good clean and a dose of hide food later and they were ready to fit. I have to say that this has transformed the car. OK so it's not strictly original but the Recaros are a vast improvement to the Laser seats. They feel firm and support you in all the right places (although I suspect that they would be uncomfortable for an overweight person). They not only look great but smell good too. This has been the best modification I have made to the car so far.
When the seats were out of the car I gave the carpet a good shampoo and cleared out all those strange things that you find behind the rear seats, including 12p in coppers. The door trims were also replaced with the 2.8 ones so that the patterns matched the seats. While they were out I took the opportunity to waxoyl all those hard to get to places.
I am lucky that the steering wheel leather is in good condition (note that I try to avoid holding the leather area when driving). The gear lever and handbrake gaiters had been previously replaced with leather ones.
The dash itself was a new and unmarked replacement that Terry fitted during the rebuild. The radio is the original Ford push button variety and functions perfectly. However as most of you know it is a pretty poor sound system so I decided to upgrade it slightly. This involved replacing the original Ford speakers front and rear with same size 50 Watt equivalents. I have also fitted (out of sight) a graphic equaliser / amplifier. So the original radio actually sounds much better and belts out a decent volume without distortion. The graphic equaliser is doing most of the work now.
The parcel shelf is a part of Capri folklore and original mint Ford items are worth a packet. They were so flimsy that nearly all of them have become damaged over the years and there is quite a brisk trade in reproduction ones. The parcel shelf on my Capri was actually in quite good shape but I decided to buy a new one. In the end I purchased a GRP replacement from the Capri Club. This needs all the original fittings and carpet squares swapping over. Once it was done the shelf looked pretty good and is difficult to distinguish from the original.
Of course the boot doesn't really get used now the car is in semi retirement. Still the under floor area has been cleaned and the tools put in place. The spare tyre is untouched and factory original.
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