1984 Granada BOA; small progress & Civic 25/10/24

would you not consider powdercoating it? there are so many finishes available now.youve probably spent half your adult life making and keeping that inlet smooh and shiny .

after maybe a couple of hours, I think I have exhausted the hand polishing with wet and dry

I have however got to this stage before giving it a final going over with Autosol Shine and taking the bits to polish on Daves Dads evil bench mounted polishing machine

I did try a bit on the front with some Blue Be Gone polish, that is very runny and resembles bird poo
But this is where I'm currently at

Hopefully a quick drop post of a pic

What washer bottle,the mahhosive ghia one or the smaller one? I can check what's left of my stash to see if I've got one.

I haven't forgotten the old girl, just not had much time to tinker lately with the weather as it is and the evenings being dark when I get in from work. Although they are now thankfully getting lighter

Went and saw Dave to get some sheets of stainless steel for mounting things in the boot to. Went down there armed with my cardboard templates to transfer across to some freshly guillotined sheets to take to with the angle grinder

This one is to fill the gap between the boot floor and the quarter panel instead of refilling it with expanding foam



And this one is for mounting the amplifer upright between the boot floor and the parcel shelf next to the O/S/R inner wheel arch



The eagle eyed viewers may also spot there is a little sub loom on top of that above as well, that is the new loom for the fuel pump. Will bolt up next to the battery and goes more or less straight from the battery to the fuel pump mounted on the inner edge of the spare wheel well


Went to the swap meet at Arena Essex on Sunday in the hopeful search of anything, and only managed to get a Ford script badge similar to what I used to have. Also now have a nice little pile of parts to get around to fitting up



And shall run a new battery lead front to rear that is a proper size to crimp some tube terminals to as well, as the current audio spec stuff is 20mm2 instead of 25mm2 that the terminals come in

Managed to sneak a few more hours on the ole girl on Saturday, before a mad dash to Bluewater to get things for Mothers day

Got the drivers door adjusted so it sits in the hole better now and doesn't donk down on the striker. Think something in there must've adjusted when Dave done the inner sill repairs at the lower section of the A post

Both the front wings have now been blasted back to bare metal, and the results aren't actually too bad. The nearside front wing is having the aerial hole welded up, and a repair to the edge of the front that is just behind the indicator unit

Tried the offside front wing on for fit and panel gaps, and it would appear to be a genuine wing possibly fitted to a pre facelift model












In doing this, the drivers door decided to throw a wobbler and the section that was welded in years ago has rotted through and struck out just below the side moulding 

So I may be fitting this door skin sooner rather than later






Also managed to line up and drill the holes for the washer bottle, so that will get some rivnuts installed on the inner wing and that can be bolted in.
Gave it a bit of a tarting up as well, got rid of the bits of plastic from when it was moulded originally and got rid of the grottiness inside and out.
Made a right ole mess in the kitchen sink doing that, then Mum said you need some elbow grease :roll:
To which she then went in to the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of elbow grease and a metal scouring pad. Worked an absolute treat on the outside of the bottle, and by no means looks new but is a vast improvement over the scabby looking thing I started with ert

Elbow grease is good stuff, I've used it to de-grease engines before now. And it's nice to see an update on the ole' beast!

Aerial is being moved to the drivers side wing, so that it doesn't get twatted by all the trees and bushes around the lanes

Managed to get a bit more done on Sunday just gone though. Managed to re-align the drivers door so it shuts nicely now, and doesn't have a gaping hole at the top of the window frame juh

Aerial wiring feed through the offside inner wing, complete with grommet and taped up to make it more water tight than it was



Managed to make up the sub amplifier brackets as well







A tad of wiring management as well



And swaged the 8mm cupro nickel fuel pipe for the nice new fuel fittings to go on (if any one on here has made brake pipes up in cupro nickel/kunifer, then this is worse. and the vice mounted flaring tool was used on the ground held with a pair of ancient mole grips )





Also managed to line up and drill the boot lid for this





And even retensioned the bootlid springs. Although they are now both on the highest setting and still don't raise the lid when popped![/quote]

Thank you very much. I will try to keep the updates coming, but enthusiasm is a bit low at the mo.

Hopefully got a friend coming over to do some lead loading on the lumpiest parts of the car in the next few weekends

And Dave is hopefully sorting out the fuel line components for me today