1972 Granada Mk1 coupe build - Still going... 14-10-2024

Thanks, having the mojo back is a very welcome thing indeed. I don't think it is just from now beoing able to really work on the car again. I think a lot has to do with where I ended up and how I/my car was welcomed there as well.

On the subject of brakes I have a short list of things to do/check:
- check for and fix all leaks
- check the pedal is pushing the pushrod the required travel (as I went from manual to automatic and used a Taunus/cortina pedal although that seemed to end up in exactly the same position)
- re-adjust the rear brakes
- bleed carefully with a pressure bleeder

My rear brakes seem in perfect order (except for the weeping cylinder I found), yet one side has noticably more trouble with the self adjusters on the rear brakes than the other. I will look into that as well. Also in looking at photo's of the brakes when being dismantled versus now, I think I see the variable pushrods were extended further then they are now meaning there should be some more adjustment.

I'm hopeful I'll get to the bottom of it soon.

Well...... Yesterday was a complete bust!!















Remind me to take the keys to the workshop and the car (same set) with me when I plan on doing stuff!! Yes. I'm an idiot!



In my defense though, they were in my normal winter coat as I usually only change into something more suited to this tinkering I'm doing when I arrive at the shop. This time I thought I'd just as well put on the dirty tinker winter coat at home.... Bad decision. To make the most of my travelled miles, I dropped in on our year round campsite one mile up the road to see how my caravan and tent were holding up... They were all in good shape so that at least comforted me some.

I'll get a do-over this saturday...

I did similar, drove 100 miles to where my caravan was parked, was just about to get out of the car and said to the mrs 'you got the keys'? she gives me 'that look' and says 'no I thought you had them'... Normally we carry a set each.

Haha, you make my useless trip sound a lot less bad, 100 miles, ouch!

I've solved the caravan thing by just leaving a set of keys in the car permanently. Opening the caravan is easy though, all I need is half of a scissor to stick into the lock cylinder, but locking it that way is way harder, lol. Yes, we've done that once in the distant past as well...

Another week has come and gone. After having been at the workshop without keys earlier on this week I was determined not to let that happen again. Having had other commitments for my usual Friday afternoon tinker time, I was also determined to make the most of my Saturday!

So the night before I grabbed all I thought I could possibly need and put it in my Transit. Ready for early next morning I sure was. I even had shopped around for some vinyl paint, exhaust seal compound and an elusive 90 degree npt to 8mm fuel pump connector.

So I was up at 7... ready to go at 8 and at the last straw motor factor's at it's 8:30 opening time. They didn't have what I needed so at 8:45 I was at the workshop. Loaded with my keys thanks to a certain friends comical checklist I entered and turned on the light. After spending a couple of minutes getting ready to start by taking some stuff from the transit I went to work.

I had decided to start on the rear brakes. I took the drums, sanded away some ridging caused by powdercoating residue. Now I was sure the drums had no lips to catch the shoes on or to cause them to have to be turned in further just to clear the drums. So I adjusted them out as far as I coud with the drum still slipping on. Applying the handbrake a few times to be sure the shoes are centered I checked for drag. I felt the drag was excessive so I turned the shoes down a notch. With a slight bit of drag I closed the drums after giving everything a final look over and a quick clean. The handbrake clicks a few times but is pretty short in it's throw. It really locks the drums well. So that should see the brakes sorted with the exception of bleeding them and checking the pushrod throw on the MC, something I forgot in the heat of the action.

After that I went on with cleaning up the underside of the car. That is clamping down the fuel lines, applying sealant/glue and clamps to hold the lines away from sharp edges that they can rub on etc. Also applied some exhaust paste to the 6 exhaust connections. I used it to cement around the joints. One should really apply before shoving the pipes together, but as I'm past that stage I just cleaned up the joints and pushed the paste into the tiny gaps to create a seal. Should be ok now. It took a long time to get the lines exactly as I wanted them and clamped so I felt comfortable with it. Drilling holes, using official ford clamps etc. But I got it done to the extent that I was happy with it. But that took a good part of my day.

I must admit, at 10:10h a couple of other guests arrived. That meant making some acquintance and having a chat. That took away a bit of time as well. But that's also what makes working in there nice.

My next quest was the steering rack pin. By now the shops most experienced welder was on site and as he asked me about fuel lines I asked him for a little help welding. So with intrepidation on the job at hand the welder was warmed up, a suitable nail was located, a washer and nut added for ease of gripping. The first try went awry. The weld hadn't enough hold on the pin and the nail broke loose. Even more hesitant to try a second time as it was a tricky weld on a very small surface area, we rewelded the nail. An extra weld was added hoping not to have fused the rack end itself along with it. Another tap on the pliers and the nail came out with a jerk....we were amazed to find we had succeeded!! The nail came out so violently that we were sure we just broke the welds again. Yet inspection of the nail showed it had the pin attached! That was a high five moment for sure. And I felt also an immediate bonding moment. Nothing brings people together faster than success on a joint effort!!

Oh nothing but the subsequent Hamburger fest that followed our small victory! Yes, this time sausages and hamburgers, me sticking to the burgers. The social thing there is also very nice. Although it was somewhat unusual for them too, as my coming to the shop has somehow sparked some more interest in peoples own projects...Hey that's my view and I'm sticking to it, lol. So more people are there now on a saturday than have been for the past months I gather!

So with that out of the way I whacked at the securing ring that was now free to move. It was still tight but came of. And that was that. No Obvious reason could be found for the leakage. Next step: contacting the rebuild guy and see what he has to say.

I had just enough time left to go ahead on one more job. I decided to put the first of the door panels in. I chose the drivers' side. I put the clips in and put the panel in place. It fit great! And I decided to tap the pins in and secure the panel to the door. I was soooo pleased with the look. Although for the large door I do feel the arm rest is pretty short. I may have to make my own one day. But it depends on how it looks with the door closed. I do not have much clearance between door and seat.

But, just today when I was walking downstairs to my server rack at work it hit me.....like a punch in the gut. I forgot the water barrier between the door and the panel. I have bought plastic sheeting for it, but forgot to apply that completely. Now I have to do just what I had hoped never to have to do (as it may damage the panel) which is getting all the clips undone and removing the panel... It'll have to wait untill the door can open wider though as the tool to undo the clips can't get in there now. Thankfully my car won't see a lot of water, but I need to fix this. Two steps forward one step back!

It does look good though! My homemade panel!

In the end I did a good bit of my list, but not as much as I'd have liked. Still, I'm happy as most things I did (except for the door), I did once and for all. No need to revisit it for a long while I hope. That does feel good!

So that was the weekend gone. Tonight is my regular tinker night so I'll see what else I can get done. Every thing I do hoewever little is moving forward towards the end.

Have some pics:

The door card looks even better now that it's actually on the door with that fantastic blue paint to set it off against

I think the arm rest may interfere with the upright of the front seats if it were longer than it currently is tho

Hey Cap78,

Wow, that must have taken a little while reading those 39 pages!

Thanks for the compliments! Always nice to see someone appreciate my strugglings, lol. Nah of course it wasn't all a struggle, but in general, as much fun as I had doing so, it was a lot harder than it looks. And I now know there is a huge difference between doing a rolling restoration or a body off (depending on the type of car)or full restoration! A car has a lot more components to track when you decide to go full resto as compared to doing for instance just the front or rear suspension systems.

I am very happy with how it is turning out and if I do say so myself, I like it better than a stock example. I feel especially my custom interior (even though it is still conservative and period in look and feel) just lifts this car to a different level. Using a BOB engine with 207BHP is also a nice addition as is the electronic autobox which is very smooth! The goal was a beautiful fast and still comfortable cruiser. I think I nailed it on all counts except maybe the comfort bit as all PU suspension makes for a little harder ride.

I now I'm not alone in the setbacks I experienced. I read here more often about engines needing repeated replacement or tear down. Your story is just another confirmation and testimony to the perseverence one needs to do what we do. To me though, it was probably the most trying thing of all. First off I'm no mechanic. I'm a DIY all round tinkerer. Also engines are heavy mothers to slap around. Then there is the little amount of room for working on an engine in situ. So yeah that got me down and took months out of my "schedule". But, however low the low was at that time, upon first (and subsequent every) start-up it was all in the past.

I'm happy to be moving forward again. I feel like I'm now getting somewhere. Still plenty to do, but at least I'm progressing!

Now only to find time to get my Original springs blasted and ready for fitment in hopes they will carry the heavier BOB a bit better. And to get my steering rack rebuilt. That would be major milestones. And with the bottom of the car now 99% ready, it would mean the car would be mobile and on its wheels again!

So working towards that and completing the interior.

Update time!!

My steering rack is now at the pro's to get rebuilt. I added spares so the chances of being able to fully restore it are best. Will cost a pretty penny, but if that finally makes the car MOT able, it'll be well worth it. At the moment the focus is on the dash.

I also had another evening session working on the dash. After initial fitment, I had trouble getting the bottom plate in place. I put the ecu on it and that made it hard. In my evening session though I had it done in five minutes. So that meant I could get on with fitting all screws and building up the passenger side dash. It felt good fitting those parts and although it took some adjustment, I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.

I had a few days off work as the kids had vacation, so I also had some tinkering time. I had some plans of which installing the dash binnacle and finishing the dash was most important. Well, well prepped I made my way to the workshop. The Transit was loaded and I picked up everything I still needed on my way. Before 9 o'clock I was on the scene and getting ready to dive in. And so I did...


First thing was the hard plastic oil line. The end fitting was off from the disassembly and now needed to be put back on. That as a first job turned out to set the mood for the day. It went awfully wrong. The hard line was so hard that I couldn't get the fitting in. I tried boiling water, I tried lubrication, I tried heating the line with a heat gun, I tried heating the fitting with a heat gun, I tried a lighter. I simply tried it all, but it wouldn't go on. Too hot and the line would melt or kink, too cold and I got even less far. One hour gone... I decided to just fit the binnacle without the oil line on, as it isn't attached to the engine anyway yet as that requires some modification on the engine side.


I then set to fitting the binnacle. Connecting the last three wires for the odometer/speedometer and fitting the dash wiring to it. Turned on the lights, no lights... I should have been welcomed by a sea of blue... I bypassed the rheostat as that had been troublesome. All connected up again, still no lights. Tested another dash light, the one for the heater "display" and it was dead also. Checked the fuse and I must have shorted out something as the fuse was broken. Replaced and there were lights, yay! So I set to mounting the binnacle. At which point it wouldn't go in at all. Turns out the replacement dash is a later year and the binnacle sections are shaped differently. With some persuasion I had it in, but then it wouldn't go all the way in. It needed to go deeper another 4 centimeters. When I accomplished that I found that the binnacle would not seat on its mounts as the external extra wiring for the additional leds I fitted now fouled on two metal sections of the dash. Out with the binnacle for the umpteenth time. And out with the dremel grinder! I cut away the offending sections leaving just the mounting tabs. Also thinning them down as much as I could to not foul anything themselves. With the binnacle and dash prepped it should have gone in well. And it did! Yay... Checking the lights reveiled one suddenly missing. One of the indicator lights had fallen from the back. I found it on the bottom tray. Putting it back meant removing the binnacle AGAIN! Another try and it was where I needed it to be and it was tightened down. And then the light check reveiled that a wire to a led had broken from the many times in and oud of the dash.


By now it was mid afternoon and I was highly frustrated. It should have been so easy yet it was nothing but misery. I gave up for the day. Took the binnacle home for resoldering and cleaned my work area and put my materials in order under the car.


I took anne shopping for the gift for my sis in law who's opening her newly built pharmacy to which we were invited (including a fancy dinner at the greek). I also decided to go back Friday morning to have another go at the dash.

On to Friday. I went to the shop, warmed up the soldering iron and while waiting for that to reach operating temperature I chanced the oil line fitting again. Still not much luck. I decided to file down the barb on the fitting a bit. Take some of the sharpness off in the hope of getting the line to seat better. In the end it did, but not as far as Original. I applied some glue to be sure it would not come off anytime soon, but before doing so I gave it pull and it didn't come off. So I have enough confidence in it to use it.


I then soldered the led wire back on and now the binnacle was ready for fitting again. I now prepared for hopefully a final try. With the oil line now complete I found that it wasn't in the right spot. I had lead it to the wrong side. Correcting that was not hard yet fiddly. With it attached I put the binnacle back in. I now had plenty of experience yet still it would not just slide in easily. It really does require an effort and the exact right positioning. Still it was now in and...all lights were still operable. At that point I was pretty happy.


I moved on to the steering wheel covers. I had to incorporate not only the electric mirror switch, but also the PATS sensor for the Original coded key. That wasn't as easy as I had liked either. The sensor has an awkward box shape to it that didn't really fit anywhere. And I wanted it hidden. So basically only those in the know would know where to hold the coded key to disable PATS. I got it done and it worked.


With that out of the way I should be able to fit the binnacle cover to finish off the dash. It was wa very tight fit, but it went in pretty well. Only a minor paint blemisch to fix from the clips scraping the dash. I must say it looked awesome in there. I so love the look of my dash now!! Only niglle is that it somehow puts some pressure on the light switch for the city lights. So to turn off the lights I have to touch the cover a bit. A small tweak will fix that. But I put that down to the slight differences in dash years as well.


With the cover in it was time to add the matching blue semi retro radio. It's a late 90s or early 2000s model. It is able to display old style vu gauges on its OLED display. I then made the demo video....of course, the gauges have yet to be proven operable, so it may have to come out once again. But at least not today.


Feeling somewhat better after the immense fight the dash had put up, I moved on to correcting another mistake. Forgetting the water barrier foil on the door before fitting the door panel. I by now had also found that one arm rest bolt would not catch on it's bracket so the arm rest was only half mounted. I really had no option but to take the panel off. I was dreading that as I was fearful that the clips would come out of the panel rather than out of the door rendering my hard crafted custom panel useless. As my neighbour had once given me a very nice and useful tool for just this purpose I gave it a shot. Turned out to be doable. 10 clips died in the process, sticking in the door, but not killing the panel. So with the panel out of the way the clips were removed and replaced in the doorpanel as well. I cut some foil and investigated the arm rest issue. Apparently I have trouble counting, as I put the clip that holds the screw in one hole too far back... With that fixed and the foil glued in place, I replaced the door panel. This time the arm rest screwed down well and I felt better still.


With that complete and the dash in, I decided to call it a day. It was early afternoon so I considered myself Lucky and also felt that continuing would probably jinx the work to be done.


And that is where I am now. I looked into the next job on the list and felt it was going to be a tough one. I need to find the holes for the console brackets through carpet and 1cm thick undercarpet. There is no way to poke a hot nail or something through from below as there is just too much in the way in the form of a gearbox and exhaust and driveshaft. So the only option: do this with the seats out. As the seats are bolted over the central carpet so I can't lift it with the seats in place. Yet there is no room to open my doors far enough to get the seats extracted. I plan on removing the rear seat base, undoing the passenger side seat and putting that on its side in the back of the car. That should give me access.


Then I left and this weeks tinkering was done. I do feel progress was made, yet not enough given all the hours put in. Still any job done is one less to do right?


I guess I'd better show the pics and video...




















And what you still had coming is how I did the speedo conversion in the binnacle...

I think I already showed you some of my work in getting a stock Mk1 Scorpio (you called that granada still) to fit the Granada cluster.
Binnacle start
Binnacle work continued

I had come to this point, where the gauge fitted.


I had also designed new speedo faces as decals. So I wanted to fit them. In trying I ruined a gauge. The needle is so stuck on these gauges that in trying to pull it off, I just pulled the whole shaft up through the gauge destroying the delicate internals. A new one was found quickly. But now a serious exersize began. The new mk1 gauge was different, a larger circuit board being the biggest hurdle.

I took it apart.



As the needle has to stay on the gauge, but I have to replace the mechanism I had to cut both gauge faces.


At the time it was unplanned, but in hindsight it was a blessing as the gauge I had turned out to have a broken gear so the odometer wouldn't ever have worked.







I put it al back together , soldering the small print to the new gauge mechanism using the new gear. And then I put the new face on. It's not perfect, but now in the car with the deep recesses it looks great and any imperfections aren't so Obvious.





This makes us up to date...

Plans for next week are fitting foil for the passenger door, fitting the door panel and arm rest. Finding the holes for the console as that would finish the dash area. After that I'm doing the rear windows, and will work back to front in the interior finishing it off. And I'll probably have a good think about what all needs to be done from this point on. The list is getting shorter but the order of doing things is getting more important.

As soon as the rack is back, I'll put it back in as well. We'll see how well all this will go.

Thanks for looking I hope people are still with me...

Alex - One job completed is one job less, just try not to think about the amount left to do.  I'm a tiler by trade and I had a shop floor to tile with 3,600 tiles.  My initial thoughts were how long is this going to take, I'll never finish it (I was on my own).  I did'nt think how many I had left to complete the job, I just thought as each one that I laid was one less.  Keep your spirits up - you are doing a FANTASTIC job.