As you already know, everything’s a project. This is particularly true for the front of the car, especially for the bumper and the winch. I had ordered a few original Capri bumpers, but none of them was in a perfect shape, so I had to get my hands really dirty to make them look like they suppose to. I wanted them to be black, to get a nice contrast with a vibrant car color, but also to avoid re-chroming which is quite expensive.

As for the winch it was one of those things that better to have and not need to use, than don’t have when it is needed the most. My curiosity often takes me off-road and from time to time I get stuck in mud or having problems with extremely steep heal and end up getting pulled with tractors and off-road vehicles, while also stopping people to help with the pushing. Since for my purpose I don’t really need real off-road winch, I got mill-spec Winchmax ATV 3000lbs Winch with Dyneema rope. Because Capri doesn’t have a winch mount (go figure), it needed to be done.

After the laser cutting, I realized that original number plate mounts won’t work, so I cut them off.

The cross beams were also marked for drilling and cutting.

The desired angle achieved and ready for welding.

I also rounded the edges of the original bumper mounts, just because I wanted them to be pretty as well.

This round magnet was perfect for marking the grinding area.

I forgot to design the hook mount in the laser-cutting blue print, so this piece of some failed idea was cut, bent and prepped for welding.

Some spot welding from one side.

Some welding from the underside.

Welding from the top.

Some grinding, sanding and hand filing later.

All done. Looks like it was always there.

Whenever I get some sort of help from someone, whether financially, whether with some machining, I intend to immortalize them in the build with their initials. In that fashion I engraved the initials in the winch mount itself.

Base plate ready for sandblasting and powder-coating.

The original mounts got this triangle of the same thickness, so I can reinforce and triangulate the crossbeam.

They got welded.

The welds were sanded afterwards, so the whole mount can slide in the chassis.

For the fog lights I decided to make a sliding mechanism, so they are retracted behind the number plate when not in use. For that purpose I used stainless steel because of its corrosion resistance and stiffness.

A printed stencil was placed and the crossbeam was marked for the drilling.

I also countersink the holes, so when the strengthening insert is placed, there’s room for a stronger weld.

All the inserts ready.

And welded in place.

Aligning the inserts.

Welding.

All done.

After the grinding.

Grinding and cleaning the welds.

Everything is cleaned and machine brushed. Ready for sand blasting and powder-coating.

A detail of a plate.

Together with the bumper mount I decided to tackle the bumpers. They were fairly straight but had some issues that required my attention.

After sandblasting the imperfections were obvious. See the wobbly upper line.

There was also the issue of stretched and deformed metal. Probably the result of some minor accident in the past.

Some more details of wobbly lines.

Reparation was done in couple of different ways. The first one was heating the 2mm steel.

And then hammering things in place, some on warm metal and some on cold metal.

Since I did not want to pay million billion dollars for the original number plate light, I decided to plug the holes.

After cutting it to size, it was hammered in curvature as close I could to with the cheapest set of metalworking tools.

Close enough.

Tacked in place.

Fully welded.

Some more hammering in place.

Sanding the welds.

This is the kind of sanding disc I like to use for the finish, because it doesn’t dig holes like the laminated one.

Detail of the hole and surface imperfections around it.

Some welding, grinding, sanding.

Much nicer already.

A production nick probably.

Welded some material.

Fixed!

At some point the bumper was pulled and the material was stretched, so while hammering I could either get the bumper bent in one direction or the other. It was just too much material, so the decision was made to cut it and shrink it by 1 mm.

Fully welded.

Also I tackled the issue of the sunken line that was probably imperfect from the factory press.

After some grinding and sanding, I must say that I was really pleased with the result.

The detail of the original tool marks from the factory press.

Little grinding and sanding.

Hand sanding for the final touch.

Acceptable looking bumper.

Other side detail.

Finished bumper and ready for powder-coating.

Another angle.

Creating the winch hook latch was a challenge for itself, since I did not have access to the milling machine.

I come to this brilliant and totally unsafe method of using the press drill like a lathe machine.

While fully protected in case something goes wrong I turned the rubber cylinder in place.

It worked perfectly and the mount was ready for the installment.

A mock-up of the setup.

All the parts that were fabricated for the winch have been powder-coated and ready for the assembly.

Bunch of stuff.

Mounting bolts for the fog lights were shortened to size.

Holding on by a hairline.

Some filing.

Internal aluminum spacers.

After zinc-plating the bolts and anodizing the spacers. Loctite glue, together with washers, was used to hold the mount in one place.

Tightening screw was turned and the retainer was inserted to stop the thumb nut from falling off.

All bolts were torque tighten together with the Loctite usage.

I used rivet nuts for the plate holders.

The stainless steel bolts that I decided to use for bumper montage weren’t as shiny as expected, so the decision was made to do something about that as well.