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1975 Ford Granada Coupe - Lots & lots of tinkering


TripleRich

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On 2/14/2021 at 4:49 PM, Out Run said:

Apologies if already covered, but are you EverArd Junction on YouTube @TripleRich?

 

On 2/18/2021 at 8:21 PM, TripleRich said:

Yes that's me.  I'll be doing a video on the car once I get it out on the road. 

Huh??

All this stunning work on the Granada, and then you built that railway too?

I probably shouldn't be too surprised - the attention to detail is equally fastidious, on the real thing and in miniature.

Loving the recent changes to the scrapyard scene - MOAR top work!

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  • TripleRich changed the title to 1975 Ford Granada Coupe - 1350 hours of work - On the road!
  • 4 weeks later...
1 hour ago, TripleRich said:

I wont be counting those!  I'm now in the never ending cleaning and polishing phase.  So far it's just a few dead bugs on the windscreen.  I'll stick to driving in the nicer weather.

slap some ceramic coating on it..supposed to make cleaning a piece of p*ss...

and what happened to cars...look at todays identimobiles, and then look at that Granada..Gorgeous...

would you consider throwing a 3.0 in it? or is the 2.3 there forever??

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  • 1 month later...

It's been a while!  Weather the past month was so grim and damp I left the car in the safety of the garage.  Got the car back out this weekend and did a few small jobs.

First was the exhaust rattle which was becoming very annoying.  The exhaust is an aftermarket unit and about the only one still being made for Granada's.  I had a load of fun trying to get it to fit properly when I first installed it.  The rattle is coming from both sides of the system knocking on the carrier for the propshaft centre bearing.  Not much I can do as the exhaust is just so close.  For now I've put some rubber blocks between both silencers and the floor of the car.  These force the system down by a few mm and stop the rattle.  Its far enough down the system to avoid concerns about heat but I will of course be keeping an eye on it.

Checked all the fluids etc.  Checked for any leaks and I'm well pleased it's not losing a drop of anything (so far).  

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Went out for a drive and it was very well behaved, even better now the rattle has gone.  Very smooth and quiet which was just what I wanted from this car.  All that extra sound deadening seems to have really helped.  

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Gave it a decent workout and did about 40 miles or so.  It's a laugh in the bends, handles very well but you do feel like falling out.  I must say I'm very pleased with the XAS tyres.

One job I've been meaning to do for a while is give the vinyl roof a proper clean and remove all the paint and polish residue.  I've also attempted to waterproof it a little with various silicon based products.  There's plenty of epoxy primer on the roof but I'm not taking any chances!  

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Have also booked in for FOTU.  Not too far from me and car will manage alright, should be a good trip.  Been to so many shows over the years but never had anything to show myself.  Looking forward to it.

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8 hours ago, TripleRich said:

It's been a while!  Weather the past month was so grim and damp I left the car in the safety of the garage.  Got the car back out this weekend and did a few small jobs.

First was the exhaust rattle which was becoming very annoying.  The exhaust is an aftermarket unit and about the only one still being made for Granada's.  I had a load of fun trying to get it to fit properly when I first installed it.  The rattle is coming from both sides of the system knocking on the carrier for the propshaft centre bearing.  Not much I can do as the exhaust is just so close.  For now I've put some rubber blocks between both silencers and the floor of the car.  These force the system down by a few mm and stop the rattle.  Its far enough down the system to avoid concerns about heat but I will of course be keeping an eye on it.

Checked all the fluids etc.  Checked for any leaks and I'm well pleased it's not losing a drop of anything (so far).  

20210531_112551.thumb.jpg.170eeceff6a410c911e7a547bc92cce7.jpg

Went out for a drive and it was very well behaved, even better now the rattle has gone.  Very smooth and quiet which was just what I wanted from this car.  All that extra sound deadening seems to have really helped.  

20210530_192216.thumb.jpg.b4483fb264525879c9e0b8eb258d4d0e.jpg20210530_192222.thumb.jpg.58f6a84b29f9358615933acac619ba21.jpg

Gave it a decent workout and did about 40 miles or so.  It's a laugh in the bends, handles very well but you do feel like falling out.  I must say I'm very pleased with the XAS tyres.

One job I've been meaning to do for a while is give the vinyl roof a proper clean and remove all the paint and polish residue.  I've also attempted to waterproof it a little with various silicon based products.  There's plenty of epoxy primer on the roof but I'm not taking any chances!  

20210531_105559.thumb.jpg.372d9ea5159a15ee23914295300981e1.jpg20210531_105551.thumb.jpg.f53eecfb7e2e80c5a8375c9cd283b078.jpg

Have also booked in for FOTU.  Not too far from me and car will manage alright, should be a good trip.  Been to so many shows over the years but never had anything to show myself.  Looking forward to it.

You may well walk away with the top car trophy, although it isn’t a poverty spec version of the model,  can’t remember when I last saw one

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Since the last post I've been making the most of the nice weather and using the Granada to go to work.  Been out in the evenings too and made sure to give it decent workout.

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I've covered another 200 miles and have been keeping a close eye on the car.  For the most part it's been excellent and a real joy to drive.  It's also slowly revealed a few small niggles which is to be expected for any car that's had a restoration.

Spend the day going through some of the niggles and giving everything underneath a good look over.  Well worth doing as you'll find stuff you didn't know about.  In my case I found a small brake fluid leak from a fitting that needed tightening a bit more.  Well worth taking the time to give things a thorough going over during your first 1000 miles of driving.

Checked over the engine and pulled the plugs.  I'm no expert when it comes to reading plugs but these certainly look happy to me.  Timing looks close too with a colour change right on the 90 degree part of the strap.

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I also tightened the rocker covers as they were starting to weep a bit of oil.  Checked the fuel filter and changed a section of line I wasn't happy with.  Also performed various other small jobs.

A bigger job concerned the diff.  Whilst driving in 3rd or 4th gear at anywhere from 20 to 40mph there was a noticeable whine from the diff when you let off the throttle.  I decided to sort it out as it can become quite annoying once you notice it's there.

To fix I need to tighten the pinion nut a faction more.  The will increase the preload and reduce or stop the noise.  On a Granada this is a pain to get to as you have to split the diff to reach the nut.

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Drop the driveshaft, unbolt the diff from the beam, removed the large rear bushing bolt, remove the bolts attaching the extension housing to the diff and you can then tighten the pinion nut.

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I marked the position and added a touch more preload.  Put everything back together and went for a test drive.  Pleased to say 90% of the noise has been eliminated, I'll keep an eye on it but I'm happy I managed that on the first go.  It's not something you want to do twice!

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On 6/5/2021 at 11:04 PM, High Jetter said:

Proper shakedown, following a stunning resto. If you get a sound 1,000 miles on it you can be confident everything is as it should be. Sale, or keep?

I'll certainly be keeping it for the time being.  Working on it for as long as I have got me very attached to the car.  I did consider selling if it turned out to be problematic, dull or difficult to drive.  Truth is I love driving it and would drive it every day if I could. 

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  • 1 month later...

I've done about another 300 miles since the last post.  Generally using it as a car and mostly going back and forth to work.  As the weather has been getting increasingly hot I've noticed the engine temperature creeping up a little bit each time.  

Was out for a jolly on a hot evening and the temp climbed over the 3/4 mark.  This resulted in some quite spectacular vapor lock which lead to me being stranded in the middle of nowhere!  I took the airbox off to have a look and the carb sounded like frying bacon.  All the fuel in the engine bay was either boiling or full of bubbles.

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While the engine didn't actually overheat the fuel just couldn't handle the heat.  Modern fuel boils at lower temperatures than the old stuff.  Results are vapor lock being a much more common issue than it used to be.  Nothing I could do apart from wait hours for the car to cool.  So with it getting dark I phoned a mate and got a tow home via his trusty Rover Tomcat.  Unfortunately it was so dark I didn't take any more pictures.

I've jammed the thermostat open as a temporary measure.  Car now runs at a quarter on the gauge in 30 degree heat and seems just fine.  I've ordered a cooler stat and that should solve the problem.  One fitted was an 87 so I'll go down to an 82 and see how things go.  Apart from that I've no major issues and the car seems to be running very well.

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  • TripleRich changed the title to 1975 Ford Granada Coupe - 1350 hours of work - First FTP!
1 hour ago, TripleRich said:

I've done about another 300 miles since the last post.  Generally using it as a car and mostly going back and forth to work.  As the weather has been getting increasingly hot I've noticed the engine temperature creeping up a little bit each time.  

Was out for a jolly on a hot evening and the temp climbed over the 3/4 mark.  This resulted in some quite spectacular vapor lock which lead to me being stranded in the middle of nowhere!  I took the airbox off to have a look and the carb sounded like frying bacon.  All the fuel in the engine bay was either boiling or full of bubbles.

20210717_213650.thumb.jpg.844ecd05805a825cecab51917819f9e7.jpg

While the engine didn't actually overheat the fuel just couldn't handle the heat.  Modern fuel boils at lower temperatures than the old stuff.  Results are vapor lock being a much more common issue than it used to be.  Nothing I could do apart from wait hours for the car to cool.  So with it getting dark I phoned a mate and got a tow home via his trusty Rover Tomcat.  Unfortunately it was so dark I didn't take any more pictures.

I've jammed the thermostat open as a temporary measure.  Car now runs at a quarter on the gauge in 30 degree heat and seems just fine.  I've ordered a cooler stat and that should solve the problem.  One fitted was an 87 so I'll go down to an 82 and see how things go.  Apart from that I've no major issues and the car seems to be running very well.

Basically exactly the same as happened to me on the M1 the other day.  Thankfully being injected meant the cool down required was minutes rather than hours (reckon it was just in the lines between the distributor and injectors themselves that it had boiled).

Some foil lagging on the fuel lines will be getting added and I'm pondering an electric helper fan which I can kick on at a lower temperature than the stock one to help keep air moving.

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2 hours ago, TripleRich said:

....While the engine didn't actually overheat the fuel just couldn't handle the heat.  Modern fuel boils at lower temperatures than the old stuff.  Results are vapor lock being a much more common issue than it used to be....

Wonder if adding Tetraboost to the petrol might help?

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