A small update is due I guess.
Motivation was actually very high since getting word that the steering rack would be coming back soon. Still I must report not much has happened yet. I had one good session of pain on it though. As well as doing some small stuff.
I did get the rack back with some more delay. The rack apparently turned left much easier than right. The difference was felt by the rebuild guy and proofed with an actual steering wheel attached. He felt it was an excessive difference and was also sure he could fix or at least improve on it somewhat. So I gave him some more time and he did a third rebuild on it. A couple of days late, I got word that the rack was now working well as it should. He was happy with it and sent it off to me.
I received it a bit worse for wear, but at least it was now setup properly and fluid tight. Although that has to be proven still.
By now I have painted the damaged parts. The rack looks decent now, but it has suffered a little in appearance from first building it. Ah well, most of it is hidden very far away underneath the engine anyway. And it's not that it looks horrible...
But in between I actually did some work to the Granada. I had the new springs delivered for the front and I wanted to check the travel of the brake pedal was enough to push the full MC piston in.
So I set to work on that. I undid the nuts and took off the MC. I confirmed the travel of the MC and subsequently the travel of the pedal and in turn the pushrod in the booster. The numbers matched so that should not cause the brake pedal dropping to the floor with engine on. It must have been air I guess. I've sort of ruled all other causes out. Feeling good about knowing for sure that the custom pedal setup was not at fault, I moved to another task.
I set about changing the springs as I had borrowed the correct tool for it from a friend. Should be easy right? Well it wasn't. Getting the springs compressed far enough to get them in and out was a challenge. In the end I succeeded, but it wasn't nearly as easy as I remembered. Although second side went much smoother. Practise makes perfect right?!
I had a hairy moment when I thought the car was going to drop on me, as a result of undoing the compression on the springs while the lower arm was still fully supported by a jack. This propelled the car upwards shifting the weight and stance of the stands... Quick thinking meant nothing happened, not even brown tracks.... The springs are in. One needs to settle a bit better, but that will no doubt happen as soon as it is forced through the motion. It's just hard doing that with the car on four stands. With two wheels on it's not moving so much.
Lastly I had also received new rubber mouldings for the rear screens that I had hoped would solve all my issues there. To name them: providing proper seal without sticking out to far at the back (almost level with drip rail whereas the front is tucked in nicely underneath the drip rail). The first issue was fixed, a proper seal was provided. The second was also addressed, the window could sit a bit more tucked in under hand pressure. The hinge however di not pull the screen in any further. Also a side effect was that now between the screen and the chrome moulding a body colour strip was seen. The thicker rubbers supplied earlier cover this up and look better for that reason. Frustrated as hell I turned my attention to pictures of other coke bottle coupe's. I quickly found that I was trying to do something that ford hadn't designed as such. I found that in most pictures, with a marging by how much, the rear screens showed the same phenomenon: front tucked in nicely, rear almost level with or at least close to the drip rail. So I finally relented and tought I guess this is how it's supposed to be. I guess having the car apart for 6 years meant I had no reference in memory and was taken by surprise when I saw the look thinking this can't be right. But even pictures of my own car with the windows clued shut (as they tend to fall out) showed this. So now I can soon fit it all together and not worry about it anymore!
I also worked on my freebie seatbelts. I de-rusted them and primed them. They are awaiting their final coat before being shipped off to a rewebbing company. I did strip my spare belts down for the so needed correct clasps etc.
Also no pictures so far due to dead cell battery. Will update when possible!
But then things got weird.....
My daily driver is a just short of 15 year old transit van. It drives well with less then 200.000km's on the clock. But last years MOT had Always been an expensive proposition and now it needed (and got) a new shifter cable and would also soon need rust treatment, fixing of a coolant leak, fixing of an oil leak from the oilpan, two new tires and odds and ends... So rather unplanned we started looking for another car...
That quickly led to finding only 2 in the country that fitted the bill. This model isn't yet widely available second hand with dual cabine. With interest in them seemingly high judging by the number of people having stored the cars in their favorites, we needed to act. So act we did. Sleepless nights followed: should we really or should we wait, it's not like we were talking small change so we went back and forth a bit.
In the end we decided to visit the dealer and just talk. See if we could get past the Obvious price difference we came to via e-mail.... Well. the pictures will answer that question....
The new daily driver will be picked up Friday after we have transferred the current disability provisions in the boot to it. It's a young second hand transit custom champions edition, so it's got the most powerful engine and most luxury spec, added to by the previous owner still.
So that is why all Granada time was consumed by the old and new car. The old one needed some work to be presentable and the new one wasn't around the corner so checking that out took some time as well.
The guilt of not having spent the time on the Granada even though now one of the most important parts were present has been haunting me. So tonight I'm attacking the car and will try and get it in and buttoned up (apart from re-seating the engine as I need more hands for that).
Motivation was actually very high since getting word that the steering rack would be coming back soon. Still I must report not much has happened yet. I had one good session of pain on it though. As well as doing some small stuff.
I did get the rack back with some more delay. The rack apparently turned left much easier than right. The difference was felt by the rebuild guy and proofed with an actual steering wheel attached. He felt it was an excessive difference and was also sure he could fix or at least improve on it somewhat. So I gave him some more time and he did a third rebuild on it. A couple of days late, I got word that the rack was now working well as it should. He was happy with it and sent it off to me.
I received it a bit worse for wear, but at least it was now setup properly and fluid tight. Although that has to be proven still.
By now I have painted the damaged parts. The rack looks decent now, but it has suffered a little in appearance from first building it. Ah well, most of it is hidden very far away underneath the engine anyway. And it's not that it looks horrible...
But in between I actually did some work to the Granada. I had the new springs delivered for the front and I wanted to check the travel of the brake pedal was enough to push the full MC piston in.
So I set to work on that. I undid the nuts and took off the MC. I confirmed the travel of the MC and subsequently the travel of the pedal and in turn the pushrod in the booster. The numbers matched so that should not cause the brake pedal dropping to the floor with engine on. It must have been air I guess. I've sort of ruled all other causes out. Feeling good about knowing for sure that the custom pedal setup was not at fault, I moved to another task.
I set about changing the springs as I had borrowed the correct tool for it from a friend. Should be easy right? Well it wasn't. Getting the springs compressed far enough to get them in and out was a challenge. In the end I succeeded, but it wasn't nearly as easy as I remembered. Although second side went much smoother. Practise makes perfect right?!
I had a hairy moment when I thought the car was going to drop on me, as a result of undoing the compression on the springs while the lower arm was still fully supported by a jack. This propelled the car upwards shifting the weight and stance of the stands... Quick thinking meant nothing happened, not even brown tracks.... The springs are in. One needs to settle a bit better, but that will no doubt happen as soon as it is forced through the motion. It's just hard doing that with the car on four stands. With two wheels on it's not moving so much.
Lastly I had also received new rubber mouldings for the rear screens that I had hoped would solve all my issues there. To name them: providing proper seal without sticking out to far at the back (almost level with drip rail whereas the front is tucked in nicely underneath the drip rail). The first issue was fixed, a proper seal was provided. The second was also addressed, the window could sit a bit more tucked in under hand pressure. The hinge however di not pull the screen in any further. Also a side effect was that now between the screen and the chrome moulding a body colour strip was seen. The thicker rubbers supplied earlier cover this up and look better for that reason. Frustrated as hell I turned my attention to pictures of other coke bottle coupe's. I quickly found that I was trying to do something that ford hadn't designed as such. I found that in most pictures, with a marging by how much, the rear screens showed the same phenomenon: front tucked in nicely, rear almost level with or at least close to the drip rail. So I finally relented and tought I guess this is how it's supposed to be. I guess having the car apart for 6 years meant I had no reference in memory and was taken by surprise when I saw the look thinking this can't be right. But even pictures of my own car with the windows clued shut (as they tend to fall out) showed this. So now I can soon fit it all together and not worry about it anymore!
I also worked on my freebie seatbelts. I de-rusted them and primed them. They are awaiting their final coat before being shipped off to a rewebbing company. I did strip my spare belts down for the so needed correct clasps etc.
Also no pictures so far due to dead cell battery. Will update when possible!
But then things got weird.....
My daily driver is a just short of 15 year old transit van. It drives well with less then 200.000km's on the clock. But last years MOT had Always been an expensive proposition and now it needed (and got) a new shifter cable and would also soon need rust treatment, fixing of a coolant leak, fixing of an oil leak from the oilpan, two new tires and odds and ends... So rather unplanned we started looking for another car...
That quickly led to finding only 2 in the country that fitted the bill. This model isn't yet widely available second hand with dual cabine. With interest in them seemingly high judging by the number of people having stored the cars in their favorites, we needed to act. So act we did. Sleepless nights followed: should we really or should we wait, it's not like we were talking small change so we went back and forth a bit.
In the end we decided to visit the dealer and just talk. See if we could get past the Obvious price difference we came to via e-mail.... Well. the pictures will answer that question....
The new daily driver will be picked up Friday after we have transferred the current disability provisions in the boot to it. It's a young second hand transit custom champions edition, so it's got the most powerful engine and most luxury spec, added to by the previous owner still.
So that is why all Granada time was consumed by the old and new car. The old one needed some work to be presentable and the new one wasn't around the corner so checking that out took some time as well.
The guilt of not having spent the time on the Granada even though now one of the most important parts were present has been haunting me. So tonight I'm attacking the car and will try and get it in and buttoned up (apart from re-seating the engine as I need more hands for that).
) i had my engine running as well 
