Project 1975 Ford Granada Coupe - Lots & lots of tinkering

[Skizzer]

Oh God yeah, Roman bronze with a tan vinyl roof... that combo is pure sex.

 

I need to lie down.

[TripleRich]

I've now painting everything in epoxy primer (except the underside of the bonnet).  I've learnt quite a bit doing this and hopefully that knowledge will assist me when it comes to spaying the colour on the car.  Before that theres loads more prep to do so it will be a while before the Red goes on.

All the remaining panels that need primer were set out on stands.  I then prepped the bonnet and also panel wiped everything clean.  The other panels were all prepped previously with 120 grit paper.

Mixed up the primer in a 4:1 ratio.  You can see just how thick this stuff is in the can.  I've had to thin it by at least 20% just to get it to spray properly.  On the plus side it's almost impossible to get it to run so even a novice like me can't mess it up.

Painted everything in about 2 coats of primer paying particular attention to the bonnet and doors.  

Very pleased with the drivers door.  I had to do a lot of repairs to the bottom of that.

Left them to bake and will start filling and sanding next time.

[DeeJay]

Don't forget to give the door edges plenty of paint.

[djb222]

Love it, nice work..

[DSdriver]

Mmmm... coming along nicely

[Mally]

Have you got a glass cabinet large enough to keep it in?

[danthecapriman]

Have you got a glass cabinet large enough to keep it in?

Put it in the living room. Throw out TV, replace with mintola Granny. Job done!

[coupso]

I’m late to this thread. Just read the lot over the course of the day. I’m in awe of what you’ve achieved here, it’s off the scale! Very impressive skills you have, wish I had a fraction of your talent and commitment.

 

 

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[mercrocker]

Pretty much sums up my thoughts, too.   It's when the paint starts to go on that you can see just how bloody good this is....

[Pillock]

Very true. The best compliment surely is "I don't know what all the fuss is about, you just went and bought all new panels.... Didn't you?" Bottom of the door is a perfect example of that finish!

[TripleRich]

It’s been a while since the last update.  I've made slow but steady progress on the body prep.  Christmas, customer’s cars and cold temperatures have slowed progress, but I'm heading in the right direction.

I've been spending time filling & sanding all the panels first.  Being off the car they are much easier and more convenient to work on than the shell.  I'm a novice at this so I figured doing these first would be a sensible option.  Theres a few rules and techniques to follow which I'm learning as I go. I'm using regular filler, finishing filler (sometimes called top stop) and finishing putty.

I'm following the below and taking my time.  If I don't get this right I'll be rubbing the paint down and redoing so it’s important to take time to do this properly.

• Feel the panel with your hands and find as many dents and issues as you can
• Any high spots need to be bashed level or low, you can't fill a hump
• Sand the panel down to give the filler something to grab
• Wipe the panel clean and ensure the panel and work area is warm enough for the filler to cure properly
• Mix and apply the filler quickly and sparingly to the relevant areas
• Sand back to desired finish
• Apply more if necessary and sand
• Repeat the process over and over until you're happy with the panel

So far I'm pleased that my metalwork hasn't needed very much filler to put straight.  The worst panel is the driver’s door which is hardly surprising but even so it hasn't needed as much as I thought.  It takes time and I'm finding it very boring but it's got to be done.  Including rubbing all the old paint off the car I've spent 45 hours on the paint process so far.  I'm really looking forward to getting past paint and onto the rebuild!

[dollywobbler]

Remarkable. I think I spent a total of about 4.5 minutes tidying up the sills on my Matiz. You can kind of tell...

[DSdriver]

I learned from a top sprayer that finger tips are incredibly sensitive and the best method of finding any irregularities. They detect what the eye can't see.

If you rub right through to bare metal is it 'do it all again' time: epoxy, primers etc.?

[TripleRich]

The paint should always be applied to a primer so even just applying filler means you need to prime a second time.  As the car was in such a mess of colours with various bits in bare metal I primed first.

 

Once I'm happy with the filler work I'll prime the lot and then check for anything I've missed.  If all seems good I'll paint inside and all the shuts first and then move to the outside.  The outside won’t get much first time round as the gloss will show up anything and I need to check I'm happy before continuing.  

 

It's a lengthy process and shows why getting paintwork done is so expensive.  My car is just a solid red so is the easiest to paint.  Metallic involves more work and from there you get into stuff like pearl which is very labor intensive.

[bangernomics]

How is this going? I’m hungry for updates.

[busmansholiday]

You've not the only one!

[Scruffy Bodger]

I've been thinking the same!

[fordmad80]

Would be good to see a progress report, maybe Tripplerich has been to busy with customer paying resto's

 

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[dollywobbler]

Or maybe it's all finished and he's too busy drifting it around his local car park, showing up the Saxos. (probably not to be fair).

[TripleRich]

Right, time for an update!  I've have been busy working on the car as usual but much of it has been very repetitive boring work.  I've also missed out on a few weekends due to the bloody customers taking up space.  Who do they think they are!

 

Right now the car looks like this.  I've done quite a bit of paint prep to it but as I'm very inexperienced in doing it I've booked the car in with the painters to finish off some of the more challenging areas.  Once complete I will try to paint it myself but again I'm very much prepared to hand over to the painter if I get stuck.

 

 

It's exciting times so I've gone through all my spares that came with the car to establish if I'm missing anything seriously important.  It's also given me a chance to organise the parts ready for the reassembly process.  I found some really nice bits I didn't even know I had like these genuine S lamps which go for stupid amounts of money on eBay.

 

 

Work has also been very busy.  We finished the Austin 16 which went home just after Christmas.  The Mexico is painted and part way through reassembly with me along with the 205 GTi.  The bastard Rover P5 has pushed me right to the ragged edge by constantly malfunctioning and leaking.  I've spent a serious amount of time under that thing.  It's going to Spain so I'm not letting it leave until I'm sure its going to behave itself for the owner.  Various rot boxes have turned up so there’s been plenty of stripping and fabricating going on and the painters are turning out shells faster than I can build them, all good fun.

 

 

I'm making a start on the mechanics for the Granada so updates will be more regular.  Once the rebuild begins I hope to make some videos to accompany the updates.  Once it’s painted you'll be surprised how quickly it'll move on.

 

Cheers for now

[danthecapriman]

Great to see an update Rich! Some lovely lovely cars there and your Granny is looking sweet too!

[Noel Tidybeard]

is that mgmgb the same colour as Mark Evans's?

[TripleRich]

Time to get started on some of the mechanical things for the car.  I spent the day dismantling the front and rear sub frames and despite the corrosion managed to get everything loose.  The car was last taxed in 1994 and last moved under its own power at least 10 years ago.  As you can see years of neglect and sitting idle have done no good.

I need to replace or refurbish the brakes, joints, lines, seals, bearings and most of the bushes.  I'll also get everything powder coated or painted while it's all apart.  The Mk1 & 2 Granada differ quite a bit from the rest of the cars Ford sold at the time.  As you can the suspension at both ends is independent and there are quite a few parts.  Its not particularly complex but very time consuming to dismantle when compared to something like a Capri or Escort.  Hardest part is removing the front springs and half shafts, everything else is easy and held together with huge bolts that wont shear.

Oh and the handbrake cables rot into the back plates and are a right bugger to get out.

The brakes need a complete overhaul.  Rust is everywhere to the point that the friction material on all four shoes has fallen off.

I remove the differential as a unit and will look at it later.  These are tough units and this one has only done about 50k.  Amazing that such a massive heavily built diff was coupled to just over 100hp.  You won’t find that in cars of today.

The rear end is now broken down.  I just need to get the bushes out and pull the wheel bearings.

The front sub frame takes longer to strip.  Took plenty of reference pics and salvaged the brake lines so I can copy the shape when making new ones.

The springs come out with a bit of a struggle, with the right tools its much easier but you still have to be careful.  Obviously an impact gun is essential for taking these sub frames apart.  You'll be there forever and end up hurting yourself with spanners and ratchets.   

 

Still more do but the bulk of it is now stripped and much easier to work on.  I've got to get this all cleaned up and painted, replace all the knackered parts and check the diff over. Its nice to be working on something different.  The engine is waiting for me in the corner and I look forward to putting that back together.

[Sir Snipes]

Pretty sophisticated chassis for mid 70s, assuming there are no design flaws hidden in there.

[danthecapriman]

Pretty sophisticated chassis for mid 70s, assuming there are no design flaws hidden in there.

They are pretty good and robust really, as Rich said above. The only issues I’ve ever had are the handbrake cables rotting into the back plates and becoming one piece!

The front suspension set up, the worst bit imho is the front track control arm bushes where they come through the main subframe right at the very front. From factory they have a bush made of like a yellow/orange foam type stuff, which after this long rots and rips out. When it goes it allows the front track control arm to move forward and backward which is made even worse under acceleration or braking! The foam stuff they were made from is shit really.

My old mk2 estate did this one day and it came as quite a shock when it first went! I knew what had happened and managed to drive home still but replaced both bushes with polyurethane replacements which won’t (or shouldn’t!) fail like that.

Much more effort was put into the suspension on the Granada than the lesser Fords though and it all works well imho.

[TripleRich]

Continued working on the mechanicals yesterday.  Main goal was to remove all the bushes/oily bits so I can send this lot for blast and powder coat.  Getting the bushes out isn't too difficult provided you have access to a press.

There are two metalastic bushes on the car that are quite hard to remove.  They only come out one way and that way is impossible so you have to grind off the top hat and then it will push out the other way via the press.  Even so they fought me for every mm.

With that done I set to breaking down the front and rear hubs.  Everything here is very rusty and many parts were stuck on.  I had to use the press to get rear back plates off after removing the bolts.  I'll be replacing as much as I can mechanically.  The rear wheel bearings were probably fine when parked but that was 25 years ago.  The seals are missing or perished and plenty of rust flakes were visible in the bearing grease.

The front hubs are also in a poor state.  The brake disk is part of the assembly and should separate with a tap from a screwdriver (after removing the bolts and hub nut).  These ones were so rusted I had to just beat the crap out of them with a hammer until they finally came off.

I continued to break further items down and now have a nice pile of stuff ready for blasting.  Looking forward to putting these back together.  Was hoping to take a look at the diff but ran out of time so will do that next week.

[Minimad5]

Blimey.

Some absolutely amazing work going on.

 

Looking spot on

[TripleRich]

Today I finished stripping down the remaining small parts left on the sub frames.  All of that is now ready for sand blasting and powder coat.  As tempting as it is to start on things like the engine I stuck to the plan and put the diff on the bench for a look.  Its very rusty and I expected to have a few problems with it.

There is no drain plug on these and obviously I need to change the oil at the very least.  The car only did about 50k before coming off the road in the 90s so I expect the oil has never been changed.  I need to remove the bolts holding the aluminium cover on which will allow the oil to drain.  I can then take a look inside and make sure everything is rust free.  I've seen these get very bad internally if moisture has got in there.  One customers diff we had was so pitted inside we had to junk it and use a different one. 

Taking the cover off proved very troublesome.  Galvanic corrosion has ruined the bolts and six off them sheared right off.  The corrosion is so bad that the cover remained stuck fast to the remains of the bolts.  I can't get violent with the cover as it will likely break so the only option is to drill out the bolts and gently try to tease the cover away.

 

Its not something I enjoy doing.  Some decent drill bits, steady hand and eventually I drilled out the worst of the bolts.  I drilled a 3mm pilot first and followed with an 8mm bit to finish.  I find I have more opportunity to get the hole in the right place if I pilot drill it first.  You only get one shot at these sort of jobs.

After a few hours I managed to get inside the diff.  Was pleased to see that it was still full of oil which has preserved the internals.  I'm not looking for signs of wear as these are very heavily built units.  I was worried about corrosion from the years of sitting but the oil has done its job well.  I now have a new problem.  I don't really need to take this thing apart now I've seen the condition but those bolts need drilling out.  Crap and swarf will fall into the case and potentially damage things in the future.

So I decided to take the diff apart back to the pinion.  After I'm done with the bolts I'll thoroughly clean it out and re-assemble.

It didn't want to come out but after a while I did eventually persuade the main assembly to shift.  I'll replace the half shaft seals upon reassembly as they have dried out.  Apart from that its in good shape and I shouldn't have to worry about back lash or settings as I've left the pinion alone.  Two of the bolts did wind out with some grips but the rest remain stuck in there.  More drilling required next time.

[TripleRich]

The painters have managed to spend some time on the shell and I'm making progress with the mechanics.  The work on the shell is concentrated around the rear quarters.  I had to do a lot of repair work to these so they were always going to need some filler to sort out.  I managed to get close but struggled to get the contours right.  Much easier to let somebody who actually knows what they’re doing finish it off.  This side is now basically complete and is in guide coat right now ready for some final checks.  The other side is a few hours behind and the rest of shell was reasonably straight so I've managed to do those easier bits on my own.

I've continued with the diff.  It's taken much longer than expected thanks to those six bolts that sheared off.  Got lucky with two of them and managed to wind them out.  The others were drilled or had a big nut welded onto them.

Once complete I had a casing I could actually use so I cleaned it down and powder coated it black.  We just recently got one of those DIY powder coating kits and so far we're quite pleased with it.  Also cleaned back the rear cover and painted that in the normal way.

Next time I should be able to put the diff back together.  After that it’s probably the engine or gearbox that'll get looked at.

[TripleRich]

Progress on the car has been steady.  A great deal of work has been put into the shell and panels by the painters and myself.  Without their help I would have struggled and been much further behind.  Applying and sanding filler correctly is actually quite difficult and I've learn't a lot over the past few months.  Currently have another Mk1 for company, you can see the differences between LHD & RHD below.

 Most of the help was focused on the quarter panels.  While these were being done I worked on various easy areas around the shell that needed smoothing out.

Then after we had completed the work I re-primed the shell and was very happy with the results.  A few tiny areas needed finishing off so I put the shell aside to do those bits later.  Next were the panels which I also got some much needed help with.  I put a few days work into these and past them over to the painters for a good going over.  Once happy I re-primed these and will give them a final check before painting at a later date.  

Here you can see how much work has gone into the various panels.  Many were dented and beaten up from years of storage.  You can see there are many skims of filler in a number of places to finish them off.  All this takes hours of feeling, filling and sanding.  None of these panels have filler trowelled on, most has been sanded off leaving thin skims which can be seen below.  Any serious dents or damage were beaten out when I did the metalwork on the car.  

I went over them again this morning and put another few hours of filling and sanding into each panel before getting everything ready in the booth for primer.

First impressions look good but I wont know for sure until I have time to go through them again.  

Spent an afternoon on the shell doing the last few bits to the quarter panels.  These need another shot of primer now and with that we should be ready for colour.

Its been more work than I expected but all those hours of prep will pay off when I spray on the red.  Looking forward to it but as always there's no rush and if it needs another day of sanding it'll get another day of sanding.

Cheers