Project 1975 Ford Granada Coupe - Lots & lots of tinkering

[Guest bangerfan101]

Whatever you do. Don't skip the steering wheel that's just chucked in the back. Banger racers will pay £100 plus for that

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Following this thread is a bit like watching F1 on the telly, I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks it would be easy and I could do that if I'd got all the gear.

Covieniently forgetting that I have none of the skills to go with it.

[Dippy]

Its great to see you taking the time and effort to repair this fine car properly.

 

It must take alot longer butt welding your patches rather than overlapping them but its worth the extra time and hassle for a neat finish.

 

I willlook forward to more updates.

[TripleRich]

Some more progress made today.  I finished removing the outer arch from the inner and then started to clean up the inner and see how much could be saved.

I was hoping to save the lip but its pitted too deeply.  Better to replace as much as possible while i'm here so I've cut it all off.

Next I finished up welding and grinding the sill closer.  It's a pain to get to and I couldn't grind down the welds as much as I'd hoped.  I'd much rather the repair be too thick than too thin from excessive grinding so I've left it alone.  Once the stoneguard is on you wont be able to tell.

Once the arch is sorted the bulk of the work on this side will be complete.  I'll then move to the other side and continue with the repairs to the underside.

[TripleRich]

Some digging around in the spare wheel well revealed further rot in the seam where it attaches to the rear wing.  I cut it out with an air saw and set about replacing it.

The two rusted pieces are spot welded together and have curves, creases and folds in them.  The replacement took over 2 hours to make but did at least look like the original.

Again access isn't great but I did manage to weld it back in place and also made up a replacement section for the lower wheel tub.  Once the welds are cleaned up I can put on a replacement inner arch.

This is the sort of stuff that really chews up time in a restoration.  Replacement wings and sills are reasonably quick to fit and make a big visual impact when done.  This stuff has to be cut and shaped by hand and attached to the remains of various panels.  Hopefully I'll have the arch repair complete within two more days.

[HillmanImp]

This is going to be far too nice for a Granada coupe when it's finished. When they were only a few years old, my memory of them is scruffy and dirty looking, parked outside chip shops and pubs.

 

Commendable work though.

[TripleRich]

I've got 4 coupe rear arch repair panels so this allows me to use 2 of them to make inner arch repairs.  First I cut out a repair section from one of the panels using an air saw.  I made a generous cut and then continued to offer the repair up to the car and shave bits off until I was happy with the overall fit.  I then removed all the old paint from the repair with a 120 grit roloc disk.

Once happy I tacked the repair in place leaving about 2 to 3 inches between each tack. As I worked my way round with the tacks a big hammer was used to get the repair to fit flush with the repairs I made last week to the wheel tub and spare wheel well.  The tacks were then ground flush to the car.

Then I welded the repair in making sure that I was getting decent penetration and fusion of the series of tacks that make up the weld.  This is not always easy as the car is over 40 years old and the repair panel is probably about 20.  The age makes the metal easy to melt away so its important to have the welder dialed to point were the metal will hold on.  Pausing briefly after 5 or 6 strikes of the welder also helps to avoid melting the metal away.  I keep the pause as short as possible so to keep the weld hot making it easier to regain fusion.

I'll grind the weld down and paint with POR next week.  Then the outer arch can be fitted up and welded onto the car.

[danthecapriman]

That is some really nice welding! Great work.

[Guest bangerfan101]

Excellent work but the big question has to be.

 

Why a left hooker?

[TripleRich]

A LHD Granada wasn't exactly what I was looking for but I liked the car, knew I could fix it and most importantly it had all those precious spares included.  I've driven some rather large american stuff on UK roads and the LHD didn't really bother me.  Latest american experience was this which I've just finished reassembling.  What a car!  Never had such a stupid grin on my face whilst at the wheel.

[UltraWomble]

POR 15.... Ah, you know you've got some good stuff the moment you see this:

And this is on their website:

WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS CHEMICALS KNOWN TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO CAUSE CANCER, BIRTH DEFECTS OR OTHER REPRODUCTIVE HARM

[TripleRich]

I ground the weld for the replacement inner arch down and finished up with a roloc disk.  Came out quite well so I gave it a lick of paint ready for the outer arch the be trial fitted.

I also finished up some welds at the bottom of the wheel tub.  I use a power file for this sort of work as you have a lot more control as opposed to a grinding disk.

Next I set about removing all the old paint from the replacement outer arch.  Coupe arches are different to saloon so i'm lucky to have them.  These panels are aftermarket and were probably made in the 80s or 90s.  You certainly wont find them for £15 anymore!

Once all the paint was removed I fitted it for the first time.  It will fit but needs some work before that can happen.  The flat fold where it meets the sill is at an angle and the lines haven't been pressed properly.  This is typical of most aftermarket panels so a few hours work will be needed before I can start welding.

After a bit of work with hammer and dolly it now fits much better.  I scribed around the edge and cut away some more of the car to allow it to fit.  Once clamped in place I can start welding.  Ran out of time though so gave the inside a lick of paint and finished for the day.

[Skizzer]

Serious skills here, not to mention patience. Massive respect.

[TripleRich]

Managed a full day on the car on Friday.  Got in early and cleared a space for the car in the fabrication shop.  The plan was the get the wheel arch completed and painted, about 8 hours of work.

First job was to hang the repair panel on, check for fit and tack to the car.  I cleaned off the old paint around the area to be welded.  The car has never been repainted so getting rid of any paint is quite easy.

The repair and the wing are only 1mm thick and warp like crazy if you're not careful.  About 3 strikes from the welder in one area is the limit.  I did my best to maintain the profile and minimise any distortion.  I have got some slight distortion so a smear of filler will be needed when prepping for paint.

I then rolled the car over and puddle welded the outer to the new inner I fitted last time.  I punched holes in the lip before fitting the panel to make this possible.  Originally it would be spot welded but access means this is not possible when repairing this area.  I also sorted out the lower back corner where is meets the spare wheel well that I repaired previously.

Then after a final sanding down with a 6 inch 80 grit disk I applied a small amount of chemical metal to the areas of the welds that needed it.  This smooths out the repair before any filler and paint is required.  Another 10 years of practice and I shouldn't need to perform this step.

Another sanding session to remove any excess.

Finally a coat of POR to complete the job.  

Quite happy with the result.  Not too much distortion and what there is can be masked with a skim of filler later.  The lines of the car flow correctly through the repair which should mean minimal filler work when prepping for paint.  Time was 5pm so cleared up and went home.  The car is now up to 278 man hours, but I am now in sight of doing the repairs to the other side. 

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

Superb stuff.

[Guest Hooli]

278 hours sure explains why proper restorations cost so much.

[Sigmund Fraud]

278 hours sure explains why proper restorations cost so much.

 

...and why so many professionally* restored* classics are made of equal amounts of metal and filler.

[somewhatfoolish]

And this is on their website:

WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS CHEMICALS KNOWN TO THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO CAUSE CANCER, BIRTH DEFECTS OR OTHER REPRODUCTIVE HARM

 

Pretty much everything causes cancer in the state of California, including getting up before 8 AM, the Sun newspaper, Quorn mince, reality television, nettles, really big wasps, cheap marmalade with no bits in it and small yappy dogs.

[Dippy]

Great work again, can you paint over the por15 you have used on the outer arch or is it just for temporary protection.

[Liggle]

Awesome work

[strangeangel]

Lucky, lucky car.

[wuvvum]

How much would this restoration cost if you were doing it commercially for a punter?

[Guest Lord Sward]

Given your metal working and welding skills, are you not tempted to start to add strategic metal and welds to increase structural integrity?  Or is this a SFQ?

[Mally]

How much would this restoration cost if you were doing it commercially for a punter?

 

Check Rich's earlier post, 4 Dec 2016.

[TripleRich]

I'm now doing all the little jobs on the drivers side.  These take quite a while but I'm forcing myself to do them now before moving onto something else.  First I removed all the underseal from the chassis leg at the front.  In addition to the factory stuff somebody had put even more over the top so it took over two hours to remove.

With that painted in POR I set to an issue with the drivers door.  The door fits quite well but the leading edge of the sill doesn't quite line up with the door edge.  The shut line between the door and wing should continue unbroken right through the sill to the bottom of the car.  I cut out a small piece of the sill and welded a new bit in line with the door edge.  I repainted inside the sill with POR after grinding the weld back.

It now looks about right.  The door, wing and sill all have even gaps and sit on the same level as each other.  

I continued playing with panel fit and tidying up & painting various areas.  I've got the rear wheel tub and various other little bits to do next.  Then I'll move onto some bigger jobs in other areas.

Nice to see the car together on one side for a bit. It's even mostly the right colour!

[TripleRich]

Today I removed all the underseal from the rear wheel tub.  Again there was loads in there and is took a few hours to remove.  I've yet to find a quick & easy way to remove it.  A twist knot wire wheel in an angle grinder seems to be the fastest way so far, but its a very messy method.  Heat just melts the stuff and a scraper and hammer takes far too long.

While I was there I started to take a look at the chassis leg.  The side was suspiciously puffy so needed cutting off to see what remains.

The answer was not much.  The rot has gone through both layers of the leg and taken some of the floor with it.  I'll be cutting a larger bit of floor out from inside the car and then replacing from there.  The leg looks ok inside so far, just the side was affected.  Strange place to rot as its a high point and normally wouldn't get water trapped in it.  Given the amount of time the car sat for I expect its just sweated from 20+ years of storage.

Took quite a while to remove so with little time left I painted up the wheel tub in POR.  Love getting the paint out, feels like progress!

[TripleRich]

Today I continued fixing the rotten floor over the chassis leg next to the wheel tub.  I cut out a much bigger section of the floor to make sure all the really rotten metal was gone.  Whats left has some slight surface corrosion wihich will be covered in POR and cavity wax when finished.  I also unpicked the seam where this part of the floor is attached to the wheel tub.

Using cardboard I made up a template and fabricated a new bit of floor from 1mm steel.  The new bit is made of two parts that replicate what was originally there including the flange that meets the tub.   I used a metal folder and shrinker/stretcher to get the seam and curvature to match the existing floor.  The rear half is the boot floor and the front half is the rear passenger compartment.

Getting to this area was a pain as you can see below.  I ended up being inside the car lying down to do the welding.  Not recommended when the car is swinging on a body roller!

Managed to weld it in ok and once ground down it will be seamless.  Now the floor is back I can make up the repair sections for the chassis leg that runs underneath. 

[eddyramrod]

Breathtaking work!

 

Shameless plug: have you spotted my posting in the Wanted/Offered thread, consisting of a box of used Granada bits, miscellaneous?

 

If you care to collect, you can have them and there might even be something in there you can use.  I no longer have a Granada and am very unlikely to ever have another, so fill yer boots!

[TripleRich]

Thanks for the offer, but will have to decline. The mezzanine floor over the workshop is about ready to collapse with the amount of bits I've got.  I'm going to have quite a lot left offer when I finish the car.

 

Only bits i'm short of is new coupe door seals and genuine ford mudflaps.  If you have those I'll set off tonight!

[eddyramrod]

I'd love to be able to say oh yes, come on up, but I'm afraid i don't have any of those, at least as far as I know.  I genuinely can't remember all the stuff that's in the box(es).  Anyway, brilliant work so far, keep it up!