The car.
125/5420 is an Interceptor II, originally specified as Royal Blue with a blue leather interior, sundym glass , voxon 8 track radio/player , air conditioning , town & country horns (air horns) , chromed wheels. She left the factory on 25/6/71 and was exported to the USA. From what I can tell, this specification has not changed in the intervening 40 years, except for a rather poor US respray that appears to have been done in an attempt to cover up previous accident damage (more later). Mileage shown was 5632 miles, though it’s anyone’s guess whether this is really5,632 105,632 205,632 or even more.
After the 4 month long delivery saga, she finally arrived and at last, I was able to look on those curves with my own eyes. From what I could tell, the bodywork was mostly very good with very little sign of rust and few visible “dings” although the shippers did manage to scratch the heck out of the roof. Having checked the fluids, etc. the engine fired up at the first turn of the key but was extremely “lumpy” with lots of spits and coughs – a quick look underneath showed that one of the exhaust pipes seems to have been used as a ja**ing point and thus was more or less completely crushed – NOT conducive to good running. One of the first things that I did, then, was to have a replacement exhaust system made locally, to get an idea of how the engine ran when breathing properly (and to hear that wonderful noise) before work commenced. The result was immediate – lovely smooth running and a lovely burble – I think I’m most definitely hooked!
At this stage, I had to take a decision as to whether to attempt a “quick fix” – enough to get her registered here and allow me a drive or two or whether to just commence the stripdown and rebuild straight away. After much agonising, I decided to do it properly and start the stripdown in earnest but before I could, a whole day was spent running around Dubai with the car on a recovery truck, trying to get my hands on the absolutely essential piece of paper that gave me permission to respray her a different colour. Had I not done that, registration would have proved impossible until she was returned to the same colour as on the import papers! Job done – work could start.
The rebuild.
With the paperwork completed, I could finally start getting stuck into the project to see where I really stood. Quick to come off was the brightwork and exterior trim. The front bumper, having been recently replated, was looking good but inspection revealed the internal welds that betrayed some recent (and none too well done) repairs. Next to go were the headlights, bonnet, radiator, condenser and aircon pipes (system empty). All looked in reasonable condition and 30 mins with some chrome cleaner on the headlight surrounds showed what was possible with a bit of work. At this stage, I also had a go at the chromed rostyle wheels to see their condition and although they are not too bad (except form light rust under the black paint) I will have them rechromed before fitting new tyres.
At this stage, I went back into the engine bay to continue removing ancillaries and gain access to the beast itself. A/c, alternator, oil filter connections and so on went without much of a hitch, as did the complete removal of the wiring loom and fusebox . I did, though, remove the fusebox with all wires attached, for future reference – although the wiring will be replaced, it’s good to see how it goes together. At this point, I realised just how little space there is in an Interceptor’s engine bay – even with a lot of bits removed, it’s still more or less impossible to access some of the fasteners!
To improve access to various bolts, I then removed the power steering pump and part of the column, a/c compressor and pulley, as much of the piping and hoses as possible (some of THEM are just as inaccessible) – including the heater hoses that appear to have been replaced with garden hose! The carb, power steering pump and engine mounts then followed, meaning that the beast would soon be free. Time to go and buy that engine hoist and stand. That again is a long story but suffice to say that after several visits to the local hardware store, I finally had it all bolted together.
At this stage, I would like to pass on my sincere apologies to the now starving family of squirrels whose stash of acorns (4 inches deep) was found hiding behind the brake master cylinder!
Now for the beast itself. Having given up on the rearmost rocker cover nut, I elected to remove it intact but still had to remove an exhaust manifold to gain access to some of the bellhousing bolts. Ah, the bellhousing bolts. Lovely job that. Can someone please advise (for future reference) whether it is actually possible to remove them (the middle ones) without going in through the transmission tunnel (from the inside)? After finally removing those, the starter motor and the flexplate cover (gees, my vocabulary is growing exponentially), off come the flexplate bolts and the beast is free!
