German Shed Find: 1973 Ford Capri

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As finder Olaf E. quite correctly noted in his submission, this was known as the Mercury Capri in the US, but the Ford Capri in Europe where they were manufactured. There’s an interesting story that goes along with this one; the owner bought an old farm in 2012, and after cleaning out “countless containers of trash and debris” (I love Google translate!) they found a car!

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The seller describes the car as absolutely filthy, but with little rust. It does look fairly solid, but to be honest it would be hard to tell until it was cleaned up–which the seller has said they didn’t and won’t be doing.

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If I had seen this picture first, I would have been wondering if this was one of the rarer RS models, but it’s pretty obvious this is an owner-added spoiler. I wonder how long it’s been in the shed to get this thick a layer of dust. By the way, “shed find” in German is apparently “Scheunenfund.” The seller stresses it a lot in the ad.

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It’s pretty hard to tell what’s going on interior-wise, as I think what we see in the right lower part of this picture is the rear seat, which has me wondering where the passenger seat is. Three pedals are good, though! The dash pad itself doesn’t look too bad–ok, yes, I’m grasping at straws. You’re going to have to really want a Capri to start with this car, unless you have a good but rusty car and need a better body shell.

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The seller tells us they don’t know what the engine is, but that it’s a four-cylinder. This looks like a Pinto engine to me, which would make it a 2000 cc OHC, I think. There’s enough yellow paint on the firewall that I’m guessing that it was the original color. So, the question is, if you’re in Germany (ironically, I leave for Mannheim on Sunday), is this car worth the 2,850 Euro ($3,208) being asked here on eBay Germany? I know that would be pretty steep here for a Capri in this shape, but maybe things are different there? Let us know if you have any insights!

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Comments

  1. angliagt

    That driver’s seat is from a Ford Fiesta Sport.

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    • kenb_g_60

      Yes – living in europe and been working in the carbusiness and classic car business that price is absolutely NOT bad.. had seller cleaned it.. and done some extra work to investigate the condition of rust, engine(ig which it was born with..) and if interior is complete this could easily be a 5-7.000 USD car.. Capri´s especially the v6 UK produced or almost any German built ones are fetching more and more here.. and the front quadheadlamp grille is also in the 800-1000 usd complete range….BTW.. the seats are late gen1 capri seats orginally here in the EU…

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  2. piper62j

    It’s only worth what someone will pay for it..
    These were nifty little cars here in the US, known as the Mercury Capri. Very good gas mileage, but somewhat cheap in construction as I recall… Sort of ” tinny”, if you know what I mean..
    Cool find.. Neat little car..

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  3. JW454

    I worked on these as new cars when they were being sold through Mercury dealers. I saw the 1972~1974 models mostly. I liked the V6 versions or the standard shift 4 cylinders. Only issue I recall was an almost instantly formed rust hole under the battery. Otherwise, fun little cars.

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  4. Neil

    The 4 pot here in Europe could have been either 1600cc or 2000cc – no way of telling what that particular one is. had he posted a photo of the VIN plate we could have worked it from that. The interior is a scary sight. Bodyshell is a Mk 1 – seats are Mk 2/3 and the dash is in bits. One of the scary things about Capri’s in Europe is the non-existence of trim items so refinishing this one will be an expensive and long lasting occupation unless you have the money to get a custom trimmer to make the parts.
    It would be worth saving – but be prepared and have deep pockets.
    As an aside – I used to work for Ford at the Time and the number of build options for the Mk 1 Capri’s totalled over 13,000 possible variations – which made the trim llnes at Halewood interesting places to see……

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  5. sheffield cortina centre

    that’s a 1.6 judgeing by the type of airpan.
    its prob an L trim level due to the black instrument panel with speedo & combined fuel/temp gauges.
    the drivers seat is a late mk2 sport the rear seat is a mk3 sport.
    trunk lid/spoiler is a replica RS one as are the quad lights/surrounds.

    panels can be expensive (even non gen ford) & as said int trim nla new & used very rare.

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  6. Jubjub

    Always had a soft spot for a Capri. Maybe one day.

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  7. Chuck

    I had a 73 Mercury Capri 2600 V6 stick, extremely abused it, bent it a few times, loved that car ( you always hurt the one you love)

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