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1975 Ford Granada Coupe - Lots & lots of tinkering


TripleRich

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  • 2 months later...

I've been away for a bit but still hard at work on the car.  Since the last update I've spent another 27 hours on it.

Much of the work over the past month or two has been very repetitive so I've held off posting endless pictures of sanding.  So since the last update I finished up the filler work on the rear quarters, fitted all the panels, set and checked all the panel gaps and fully fitted the front wings with sealant and new bolts.  I also did lots of localized bits and bobs all over the car.

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Then I set to prepping for the first stage of actual painting.  This involved rubbing down the inside and engine bay with 500 grit paper by hand and it took ages!  I continued doing this and catching anything I wasn't happy with along the way.  Anywhere I rubbed through the primer was touched up later on.

So with that done I could finally get some paint on the car.  I'm painting the inside first and will do the outside later on.  I've never painted a car before so I hoped to learn some valuable lessons while doing the inside.  The inside doesn't really matter in terms of finish as most of it is covered up on the completed car.  

I came in early this morning (while it was still cool outside) and finished up the last few bits of prep.  Then it was time to go into the booth and spend another 45 minutes panel wiping everywhere clean.  I've also run an airline around the car many times to blow away as much dirt as possible from those hard to reach areas.  Happy I could do no more it was time to mix up some Carnival Red (the cars original colour).  This stuff came with the car and has never been opened.  Its 9 years old but was still in fine shape and more importantly it probably contains some decent chemicals unlike the modern stuff.  I've got about 7 litres so enough to paint the whole car twice.  I'm using a proper air fed mask and was very glad of it, this stuff absolutely stinks!

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Mixed to the usual 2:1 ratio and added 20% thinners.  Set up the gun to what I thought was about right, dived in and started painting.  I really enjoyed the process and learnt a lot doing this, especially gun control.  The old paint covers very well and has a very deep shine.  Its hard to get it to photograph properly as the orange comes through on camera.  In the flesh its more of a tomato red rather than the orange on the pictures.

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|t feels amazing to have reached this stage after over 4 years of work.  The pictures are of course very flattering and make it look brilliant.  There is dirt in a few places and of course being a beginner I got a few runs but its all lessons I can take with me to the outside of the car.  I started inside the passenger compartment and as I became more confident and had a better feel for what I was doing I moved to engine bay.  Very pleased with the results and should only need a cut and polish in a few visual places to finish off.  I did 3 heavy coats of paint everywhere as I have excess.  Inside it probably only needed 2 but 3 felt better. 

Looking forward to finishing the rest of the paint, reassembly its not too far away now.

Oh, I've also been going back through the thread and re-uploading all the pictures so they display properly.  About half way now, should be back to normal soon.  Cheers

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amazing work :)

37 minutes ago, TripleRich said:

Oh, I've also been going back through the thread and re-uploading all the pictures so they display properly.  About half way now, should be back to normal soon.  Cheers

on the picture front, you dont have to reupload everything, but if you click on a small image so it opens full size, and the click on it again so it opens in a new window/tab

and then copy the URL of that image into the post your editing it will get embed full size :)

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Another early start this morning.  My painting attempt on Saturday came out quite well and more importantly it has dried properly.  I was a bit concerned given the age of the paint but it's turned out to be brilliant stuff.  I must say it's given me a much needed boost seeing some colour of the car.  I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel!

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Moved the shell out of the booth and started prepping the insides of all the various panels.  Again I used 500 grit as most of this is unseen so finish isn't super important.  Also used red scotch brite for those annoying shapes and pressings.

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There's a fair bit of over spray on the floor of the booth so I gave it good clean out.  Set the panels out on stands and panel wiped everything clean.  I also wet the floor to keep dust to a minimum as I'd quite like to avoid dirt on the inside of the bonnet and bootlid.

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Starting the get the hang of it now.  As before I've applied 3 coats thinned to 20%.  I dialled the paint volume back a bit on the spray gun to avoid runs and I think I've got away with it.   I've also remembered to do all those annoying little parts that are often forgotten during the painting process. 

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Next stage is to mask up the shell, guide coat, prep the outside, prep the panels, fit the panels and finish the painting.  Then I've got a fair bit of satin black to do which I'll leave until the end.  About another 3 or 4 days of work I'd say.  Cheers

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Brilliant work. More satisfying doing it yourself especially with all the correct gear. I am hoping to paint my 76 manta myself but I have a barn and a very dusty atmosphere but painting it myself would be better in respects of personal achievement. Well done sir. 

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Today I prepped and painted the bonnet.  It's come out quite well which is good as its such a big part of the car.  I've also painted the filler flap and the build plate which lives in the engine bay.

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Spent the rest of the day doing lots of masking and spraying satin black.  Started off with the parcel tray area which is black to hide body colour from the vents in the parcel tray trim that covers this area.  I've used soft edge tape to create a faded edge similar to the original paint that was on the car.

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Next was the radiator box and lamp panel.  This is black to stop you from seeing body colour through the front grill and headlamp trims.

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Also did the seat mounts as these are not covered by the carpet.

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Also did the small vents on the quarter panels.  The window frames here also need doing.

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Finished up doing the dash support which is colour coded to the interior.

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Still have the sills, rear window frames and back panel to do.  Once those are done the paint will have had plenty of time to fully cure ready for a flat & polish.

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