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

Just a quick note today...as I'm quite excited. I feel strangely tingly inside from what is about to happen.

Tomorrow afternoon my Granada Mk1 body shell will be delivered to the workshop fully blasted and in the bare metal!!

I can't wait to go see it! Unfortunately work is in the way and I'll probably see it in the evening at the earliest and by then it should be primered. But pictures will still be provided!

I'm most curious to find out how well the blaster could get rid of the underbody curse word still on the front inner wings and in some small areas of the rear inner wheel arches. He was a little concerned he wouldn't be able to get rid of it all. And off course I want is as clean as possible with as little extra effort of my own.

The body panels will probably follow in a week. Story here is the same for bonnet and bootlid: in order to blast the parts without ruining them apparently some edges and flats will be left alone for me to strip with the da sander and 3M strip disks. The doors and fenders are thermically stripped and will be fully bared by that proces after a very light blasting.

On a side note, I have also prepared not only the new fasteners to be sent off for coating, but also all fasteners that were on the car originally including door hinges, bonnet hinges etc.

Should leave for coating just after the weekend depending on when I receive the final quote.

I'll try to upload some images asap.

Well, just heard that because of extremely nice and dry weather, the car has just been returned to the workshop!! I'm currently awaiting it's first pictures...

My body man tells me it is very clean and that most of the underseal curse word has been succesfully removed.

The story for what is left is that it is so rubbery that the media bounces off without doing very much. Apparently blasting works best for hard/tough surfaces and less for bouncy stuff. But I'm told I can be very happy.

Although, a lot of rust has been reveiled! Fortunately most of it was known to me. I believe without seeing for myself that there is only one spot unbeknown to me beforehand.

The shell is currently being primered or is that primed?

I won't be able to visit untill tomorrow evening...

To get back to what you said: I was a bit dissappointed, yes. But the guy doing the blasting is a former car restorer and by nature very careful with metalwork for cars. I tend to believe that what you are saying is right and that everything can be done, but we're on a budget and for my money's worth he did very well. Although he really is frimly apposed to blasting hood and bonnet frames all the way because it will show through on the other side on the panel itself according to him, no matter how much care you take. I guess/am told he's just really anal about it. I have no idea of his preferred media or blasting pressures, sorry.

As far as the panels being done fully or not in his words was also down to how easily the layers let go... If it's easy going he'll do it all, if not he's on the safe side...

Pics soon I hope! I'm soooooo excited!

So finally have some images to show of the car after blasting and being primed.

All in all I'm pleased. Perfectly clean? No it is not. Some of the rubbery or very sticky stuff has left some marks but overall it's pretty clean. The area's that are not perfectly clean will be addressed as I work on them.

The car is now fully primed. They put 8,5 liters of mixed primer on.

About the state of the car...well let's say it had a few surprises for me. one or two were really unexpected.

On to some pictures!

Straight from the blaster to the paint booth (photo's courtesy of my bodyshop and not all perfectly in focus).





















Now primed (slightly better pics).



Expected: left rear sill to wheelarch corner


Expected: crude previous repair


Unexpected: rather thin inner right rear sill


Different view of left rear sill to wheelarch


Expected: left rear outer sill


Expected: spare wheel well


Unexpected: floor edge rusted so thin it blasted through. Plate itself is still attached to rear panel, but needs a nice new continueous weld


Expected: previous repair where weld was ground to thin resulting in large area's of blast through


Overall nice and solid


Unexpected: small holes in water tray under windhield on dash side


Pretty nice


Boot floor edge rotted away due to presence of foam


Unexpected: right rear wing corner


Overall nice and solid


Expected: right rear sill to wheel arch


Unexpected (and not sure how to deal with this yet): crude previous repair to inner wheel arch lip


Expected: small roof repair


Expected: some areas to fix on the inner wings, but no new surprises



My daughter hopes to one day be cruising with me again in this mean machine...


Pretty solid rear


Slightly dented


Very nice roof


Overall dash


Inside rear very nice


Overview of car in shop


So, there you have it, the blasted and primed body. A lot of work to do just to get to factory fresh. And to add to that: I need to mod the floor area for the front seats and need to add bracketry for the rear seats. I also want t try to add a scoprio aircon unit to the dash/tunnel area, but they are huge so .... If it'll fit it wil mean even more fabrication and welding...

Hope you enjoyed the update.

My fasteners and hinges etc are now off to be blasted/prepped and then coated. Will probably be 2 weeks and then I can start rebuilding the front and rear subframes. Cool stuff and a x-max holiday oming up! Although that is usually pretty filled with other appointments.

Before:




Anyhow: good stuff is about to happen!

Thanks, maybe not as epic as others, but to me it is quite a journey and an achievement even to this point.

Nice work. For the age, that's a very good shell I would say.

Be careful with that roof repair - warping the roof through welding heat could become a huge nightmare.

Are good quality wheelarch repair sections available for the Granada? If so, the 'unexpected' repair might warrant a new section let in.

The rear arch in this shot looks to have been replaced before - seems to have been done ok but worth checking the joint inside the car to ensure all rust was removed first


By the way, what is the indent on the rear wing for? At the bottom, at sill level. I was thinking jacking point, but I notice there isn't one on the left side wing

Keep up the good work!

John

Very nice project!

I love the modernizing done with the engine and the Passat CC interior. Those seats are very comfortable and sporty at the same time.

Looking forward to follow your progress

Thanks, next friday I'll be working on the modifications to the floor area to fit the rear seat and seatback. If time permits I'll also look into fitting the scorpio airco/heater units.

And probably some arrangements are going to be made to get the welding going.

Another week has gone by and some more progress has been made...

Last friday I went off to the workshop to work on my car. I had planned on fitting the dash, reseatching the placement of a scorpio heater and aircon box and starting fitment modifications for the rear seats.

Basically that's just what I did. Along with generally helping out in the shop. But I did more....

Looks like the heater/aircon thing is going to require extensive bulkhead modification. But it might work if I can get the wiper motor moved to the right about 60 cm. Some more thinking and testing to do, but so far I'm not dissapointed.

I fitted the rear seat base in place and it too will work out nicely. Gives me room to finisch the transition between seat and side panels in a nce and usable way. I also marked out the rear seat fitmen, but wil have to finish up the actual mounts. They will need some design still.

Then my day changed a lot as I was told to go get my blasted bolt on panels from the blaster. What a mojo boost that was!!

Contradictory to what the blaster had said 99% of all panels was blasted totally clean!! Only the hood had a few layers more paint etc. on it which made the blaster decide to not try and blast it all off in order to preserve the panel. The inner part of the outer surface was left partially blasted.

I loaded all the panels in my Transit and took them straight into the paint booth. I helped prep them bu blasting them with a shot of air, wiping them with tackrags etc. The painter then primed the lot (and that on a friday afternoon at half past four!! Dedication!)

Feast your eyes on these...

























Pics of the modificationwork will foloow when there is slightly more to show!!

Another step forward!

Thank you!

Yes the wings are very solid, one is perfect and the other has very small work required. And the best thing is these are 70-ies originals, no reproductions.

As far as cutting the bulkhead is concerned, I don't really have a problem with it. To be honest, the v6 was never able to really heat the car very well with it's original heater. The scorpio one is very effective both as heater and as aircon. I'm already into modifying my car ever so slightly so I don't have a problem with changing the car to make it better. And I've got all the parts for a scorpio system and they are readilly available should I need parts.