Project 1975 Ford Granada Coupe - Lots & lots of tinkering

[TripleRich]

Cheers Dan.  I look forward to more progress on your Capri when the weather comes back.  I'm trying to catch you up!  I need to get a move on with the mechanical side of things.

[Spottedlaurel]

Fantastic work, a pleasure to watch it come together and to see you maintain your patience and care when I'm sure there must be the temptation to rush and finish it off.

You're more than justified in taking a break - it's remarkable how you've stuck at this after doing the same thing throughout your working week.

[twosmoke300]

The attention to detail on this is simply amazing . A real craftsman at work . Love the colour too . 

[TripleRich]

Thanks for all the comments and interest guys.  It really helps keep the motivation going knowing there's a group of people interested in seeing the exploits of a crazy bloke who appears to live at work.  I'm looking forward to getting out and about with it next year.

[purplebargeken]

It's been quite a while but it is all coming together now. These are such lovely looking cars and you just don't see them anymore. 

The standard of your work and attention to detail is stunningly brilliant.  It is going to be even better than when it rolled off the production line.

Fabulous. 

[mullett471]

On 9/8/2019 at 5:26 AM, TripleRich said:

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.

Did you flat & polish before you started reassembling the outside trim, grille, lights etc...?

I can't recall you saying you did and to my untrained mind, I would have thought it would be better to do the flat & polish before the reassembly?

Absolutely love the work you have done by the way, you must be well chuffed to have got to this point and eager to FINALLY get it on the road!

[TripleRich]

I've made some more progress over the past two weeks.  Few more bits have made their way onto the car and I've started polishing the paintwork.

I've not polished the paint until now for two reasons...

• I didn't have the balls to take 1200 grit sand paper to my paint job
• I needed to perform one or two additional bits of paint correction and they are now complete. (I missed a nasty ripple in one of the rear wings and needed to fix it).  Tried living with it for 2 months and couldn't stop looking at it all the time. 

First up the washer bottle bracket which was very rusty/damaged has been repaired and painted.  I've already polished what I can of the engine bay.  When new the finish in here was very poor and it's one of the reasons for all those scabby Ford engine bays years later.  I've got a good coat of paint in here and it's shiny so I'm already beating the original factory.  I will continue to hand polish various areas under here as and when I get the motivation.

Next I've fitted the rear windows.  This is probably the worst bit of design on the whole car.  The window is held in by the pop out catch at the rear and two very small bits of metal on the B post.  With the window popped open it eventually falls out while driving so they will remain shut from now on!  This is a well-known fault with the face lift coupe.

I've also fitted the remaining trim pieces inside the rear of the car.  Starting to look quite nice in here now.

Polishing the paint is a slow and scary process.  I've never done it to this level before but it won’t polish itself so I've made a start.  All the bits I've put on the outside of the car so far have been chosen because they don't really get in the way of the process.  There is nothing fitted to the sides of the car so I have access for polishing.  

Here you can see the finish as it is off the gun.  Deep shine but plenty of orange peel and when you start looking there is a fair bit of dirt in places.  I expected this as I'm a novice painter.

First thing to do is use a de-nibbing tool to remove any spots of dirt & dust.  I'm using 2000 grit on the tool as it's what’s in stock.  You end up with loads of little dull spots after completing this.

Next I use 1200 grit paper on a DA with a soft interface pad.  This takes down the orange peel and also removes any small bits of dirt and dust.  Be careful of the edges!

Next I move to 1500 grit on the same tool and sand until I have a flat matt finish.  All the time I'm terrified of seeing primer but if you study the picture I'm really removing only the very top surface of the paint.  There is no danger of rubbing through provided I stay off the edges and stick to the method.

Next I move onto 3000 grit 3m Trizact disk.  This removes all the 1500 grit scratches and starts to move us back towards a shine.

After this I should have gone to a 6000 grit Trizact but I didn't have any.  I've ordered some so will have a go next weekend.  In the absence of those I moved to polishing using 3m green & blue pads/compounds and a decent polisher.

Not bad for a first go.  I didn't make any major mistakes but due to lack of confidence I've not fully removed the orange peel near the edges and a few small areas.  I also needed to spend more time on the polishing stage.

I'll revisit the again with 1500 and follow up with both Trizact disks.

Here's a comparison.  Before on the left and after on the right...

Will take me a few days to complete this, nice boost to confidence as I didn't mess it up!  Was more worried about this bit than the actual painting.

[mullett471]

6 hours ago, TripleRich said:

I've made some more progress over the past two weeks.  Few more bits have made their way onto the car and I've started polishing the paintwork.

I've not polished the paint until now for two reasons...

• I didn't have the balls to take 1200 grit sand paper to my paint job
• I needed to perform one or two additional bits of paint correction and they are now complete. (I missed a nasty ripple in one of the rear wings and needed to fix it).  Tried living with it for 2 months and couldn't stop looking at it all the time. 

Lol..answered my question..good luck with the rest of the polishing..it looks like it will come up great?

[Austat]

Great work TripleRich! I have been interested in this restoration for a while as my late Grandad had a Granada (or a Consul Ghia, unsure) as a company car back in the mid-70's. Sadly, I doubt that APU 642L still exists anymore.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

3 hours ago, Austat said:

Great work TripleRich! I have been interested in this restoration for a while as my late Grandad had a Granada (or a Consul Ghia, unsure) as a company car back in the mid-70's. Sadly, I doubt that APU 642L still exists anymore.

 

That's a lovely picture, I particularly like the hubcaps, which incidentally mark it out as a Consul. There was never a Consul Ghia so this is either a 2000 V4 or 2500 V6 . That and the 3000 GT was the entire Consul range ( in the UK ) 

[danthecapriman]

It was a 2.5 and died in 1983 by the looks. Bloody nice car though!

[treehugger]

Is the coupe back on the road yet? Not seen this thread for about a year. Hell of a colour!

[AndySnapper]

Have you seen this video on You Tube?

 

[ETCHY]

Superb job it's going to look great when it's back together.

Interesting about the back side window design. A mate of mine had a Vauxhall Chevette hatchback & that had them done a similar way just held in by tabs at the front relying on the catch  - utter crap, whoever thought of that should be shot.

[Jenson Velcro]

This is looking absolutely fantastic and has been a great read to date. I would be terrified of using the car when completed though as I would be afraid of marking it after all the hard work.

[TripleRich]

3 hours ago, Jenson Velcro said:

This is looking absolutely fantastic and has been a great read to date. I would be terrified of using the car when completed though as I would be afraid of marking it after all the hard work.

I try not to get worried about what might or might not happen out on the road.  If something does happen I've got plenty of spares, half a tin of paint and some tools.  Fixing a dent, scratch or mark is easy enough as it's a solid colour.

[TripleRich]

7 hours ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Great work TripleRich! I have been interested in this restoration for a while as my late Grandad had a Granada (or a Consul Ghia, unsure) as a company car back in the mid-70's. Sadly, I doubt that APU 642L still exists anymore.

Nice car, would have impressed the neighbours back in the day!  Looks to be a Consul L as it has a few options like the vinyl roof, mirrors and the Consul specific grille.  GTs had Granada grilles and base models wouldn't have had the vinyl roof so it's probably an L.

[Austat]

On 1/17/2020 at 9:38 AM, TripleRich said:

Nice car, would have impressed the neighbours back in the day!  Looks to be a Consul L as it has a few options like the vinyl roof, mirrors and the Consul specific grille.  GTs had Granada grilles and base models wouldn't have had the vinyl roof so it's probably an L.

 

On 1/17/2020 at 1:50 AM, NorfolkNWeigh said:

That's a lovely picture, I particularly like the hubcaps, which incidentally mark it out as a Consul. There was never a Consul Ghia so this is either a 2000 V4 or 2500 V6 . That and the 3000 GT was the entire Consul range ( in the UK ) 

 

On 1/17/2020 at 1:59 AM, danthecapriman said:

It was a 2.5 and died in 1983 by the looks. Bloody nice car though!

Thanks guys for the info, I was unsure whether or not it was a Consul or a Granada, so it's good that there's more info on the car. My dad really liked this car as a kid back in the mid 70's, especially because he was a fan of The Sweeney.  He also recalls that my Grandad had a Datsun saloon at one point as a company car, describing it as one of the higher end spec models (so possibly a 240K or a C130). 

I have a question regarding the Consul/Granada cosmetics, what is the difference between the LHD headlights and the RHD headlights?

[TripleRich]

Got quite far flat & polishing the car today.  The bonnet, boot lid and drivers side are now complete.  About 6 hours of work.

First I spent some more time on the bonnet and got it looking better.  Pleased that most of the surface imperfections on this panel have now gone.

Next up was the front wing.  The shape of panel means I have to take more care and use a combination of machine & hand polishing.

First pass with 1200 to take the top of the orange peel off.  I then use the finish below as a guide coat for the 1500 grit stage.

Second pass with 1500

3000 grit trizact disk

6000 grit trizact disk 

Polish with 3M green mop & compound

Worked my way down the car and did the door and rear quarter.  The quarter took a long time, its huge!

Then the boot lid

That completes the drivers side.  I'll do the other side next week.

Very pleased with the result.  Removed most of the orange peel & surface imperfections in all the panels I treated.  Looks like a professional job now, amazing what you can do with the right equipment.  There were a few bits I was worried about but they just polished away.  Good learning experience all round, looking forward to the other side.

[Tickman]

That is looking brilliant as usual

[schonker]

Just fantastic mate

[Broadsword]

I think we have run out of superlatives on this thread, so I will simply say well done. So pleasing to see it so far along now.

[mat_the_cat]

53 minutes ago, TripleRich said:

Brave man! It really is looking great, just when I thought it couldn't get any better.

[Sudsprint]

Such a great thread this

[PhilA]

It's always a scary prospect taking abrasives to paint but the results can be really rewarding.

 

I had to give a wry smile at "now it looks like a professional job", like it didn't before...

 

 

Phil

[mk2_craig]

Just spent an hour or so over the last day catching up with this project, what a brilliant read! On top of the work put into the car, there must be a fair bit of effort associated with photographing progress then uploading and typing out the commentary, really good that you’re going to all this trouble and sharing it with us. 

[Mike D]

Fantastic work, what a great colour

[Asimo]

Orange orange peel!

I had no idea that new paint had to be flatted and polished like this. Do car makers do this as well or is it just necessary for restoration perfection?

[Parky]

My favourite thread on here for sure, absolutely loving the work and learning loads too.  Tempted to hand paint a car one day, be interesting to see if using similar techniques will get a similar finish.

Quick question though - what sort of paint did you use?  2k with a clear coat on top?

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Asimo said:

Do car makers do this as well or is it just necessary for restoration perfection?

New cars paint is sprayed onto new metal, then baked. Noway the robots would be allowed to spare paint to run, sag or peel.