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

Thanks for that!

Yes mojo is still there, but of course, this week access to the car (as in time to go) is a problem. I did some small things like send of the seat belts for a reweb and repaint the modified trims. I hope to be at the barn tonight and tomorrow afternoon, but it's a crazy week.

I'd really like the wiring/interior trim to be behind me. So I can turn my attention to the dash area and call it ready for MOT.

Haha, if I can keep it all ford, I'll certainly try. See if I can source something. But this can be one of those "when it's up and running" projects.

Wouldn't it have been possible to put some of the cables between the seats? In my car the power for the amplifier runs on the passenger side, audio cables to the amplifier on the transmission tunnel and I used to have some audio cables running along the drivers side sill. I also found it almost impossible to get the sill trims back in place with all the cables tucked in. It is a bit easier when the large RCA cable for the amplifier is located between the seats.

Another week another couple of sessions on the car...

I started my sessions by finishing what I had started...

First was a test of the washer pump after having received some more info. Problem I have now is that using the wire that triggers the 3-time wipe of the windshield wipers to also fire of the washer pump means that when the regular wipers are switched on, the washers also fire upon each park... The info did not provide an answer. I was hoping to use a well placed diode or something to get it to work as I'd like. Still waiting on that. If that fails current thinking would be to brake the connection to the wipers from the footswitch. FAr simpler then adding another switch. Side effect would be having to manually switch on the wipers after spraying.

Next I turned my attention to finishing mounting the inner sill trims over the many wires. Took zome effort but I'm happy with how it got done.

I then went on to binding up all the remaining audio wiring mainly in the boot and testing the bluetooth. The quality was not super and I feared that the sound was out of fase. Testing that however turned out I had it all right and the sound just isn't any better. It's not horrible, but ist not as nice as I'm accustomed to. This binding of the wires took quite some time, but now everything is nice and out of harms way in the possibly hazardous environment that is the car boot.

The seats were next on the list. Mounting them permanently for one and an wiring them up second. Mounting them was not very hard. During the floor modifications I had already taken into account the new way of mounting the seat and adjusted the different mounts to match. I had also created two simple thick brackets to crete the final mount. One point of the seat tracks extends quite a bit beyond the structural braces in the car. So I had made a mounting lug in the braces where the brackets could be attached that allowed the seat thracks to be mounted to them and be secure. Really no more difficult than screwing in 5 bolts.

The wiring of the seats was a bit more complex and at this stage is not complete but functional. The design was to be able to adjust the seats with ignition on (so while driving), but also with no keys present and just the door ajar. This to aid the kids getting in the car without having to actually hand over the keys and having them turn the ignition on or possibly the engine with all possible consequences. I saw it as a convenience and a safety feature. Now this means two circuits join, one of which is switched opposit to the other... So this meant a relay and diodes to get it all safe and correct. As the diodes were missing I for now just hooked up the seats to the door ajar circuit and that works fine.

Adding the door step trims I was so kindly donated by spot and refitting the under carpet and carpets finished the day off. Upon installing the door step trims, I drilled and protected the holes before riveting them in place. They didn't seem to be screwed originally looking at the holes in them. Also I didn't think they'd need to be coming off any time soon. I may not have the Original end pieces that supposedly exist, but I'll finish the installation with a small bead of black caulking.

All of this cleaned up the interior real nice. Doing some under dash work to fit the car kit and some other stuff means the interior is now almost finished. And it by now has come together quite nicely!! I might add.

Two final jobs that I'm having done: the side bolster adjustments and covering the speaker pods. For myself just little things like sun visors (still need to source), front cabin light (refurbed), rear cavin lights/third brake light (custom unit and mount) and the hand grips on the roofline. So the interior is pretty much there.

One exception to that is the inlays on the console. I need to get to work on those. But they are not MOT required so are a bit on the back burner. It's also a grat thing to do with fibre glass, but it's such a messy process that I'm scared to do it. Although I have a spare console that could be used as it's also in dire need of fibre glass.

In summary it doesn't feel like much, but it makes a huge difference in how the car looks and feels. And therefore to my Mojo.

Still now looking at the interior I'm quite happy. It looks the business! The new seats also provide a great seating position with height and tilt, forward/backward, seat back angle and even 4 way adjustable lumbar support. I don't think I'll be sitting lower than Original, but if one is longer I think I added room for that. The head rests function, but when extended to max, hit the roof lining, lol. The seats are also nicely close to the console sides (definitely NO room for wiring!). The seat belt locks moving along with the seat in that respect look even better now.

Somewhere in between I also fitted the final bit of bodywork: the fuel filler flap!

So after this weekend I sort of feel like I'm ready to tackle the final things: Dash, seat belts and washer... and potentially an engine issue. The blinking light on the O/D switch indicates a shifter problem with a solenoid. The fact that it showed up the second I did the dash gauges gives me hope that it will be solved by undoing those. But if that does not change how the engine itself runs, I'll need to investigate further. I may have bitten myself in the but not changing over my known good harness to the new engine. But it ran well on its own loom and I was afraid that by changing the loom I'd possibly introduce problems. And in the beginning the new engine ran beatifully.Anyway, if needed I'll run compression, leak, spark and fuel (pressure) tests. Also I'll hook up my code reader and see if it says anything. But I recall it didn't.

So it looks like MOT and alignment may be coming closer now pretty rapidly... We'll have to see I guess.

In the meantime, have some pics!

























That's it for now I guess...

Thank you so much for these very kind words! I'm not very good at taking compliments I guess, as your words make me feel very humble and even a little sheepishly uncomfortable for some reason...

Your words struck a nerve I guess, in a good way! I still think I'm just doing my thing. In some ways my standards are very high, in others not so much. I refurbed an original interior light for instance by scotching off the "chrome" that was left on it and painting it wheelspray silver... (it does match the dash gauge surrounds thought). It's often a funds thing... What also plays a part is that things you call high standard to me aren't even finished as well as I'd like, lol...

I also see so many Granada's pass by on my facebook, mainly from the UK that seem so much nicer than mine in some ways... They seem sooo clean! I guess mine could really do with a good clean specifically under hood... That sometimes dented my own beliefs.

What my car does have on those cars is customisation. Apart from a very clean v8 conversion most of what I see are just great looking originals. I went full custom on the inside and partially custom on the outside and full custom under bonnet (although admittedly not particularly inventive as Cossies have been done, apart from running original management). Also apart from paint prep and paint, I did most of it all myself. I cut the metal (although not handling the hot glue stick), I made and sewed my own door panels, carpets and even headlining etc.

And what matters most or possibly solely: I love my car and the result I achieved!

Thanks again for this huge compliment.

Thanks!

Keyless entry is something I'll probably be putting in with an alarm system. But haven't decided yet on what.

I have a great feature packed two way communicating alarm system with remote start, programmed start, auto close windows and what not. But it's from the toy category and not really (SCM) certified.

One of the reasons it's not yet in the car is that toyish feel, the other is that my car will be in a garage away from home. There's a mile or less between my house and it, but it does mean I won't be around to hear false alarms due to rodents or anything hetting in the garage through its vents etc. I don't want the neighbouring flats to suffer from my car alarm. Still I want my car to be safe. I may make the alarm horn switchable. That would prevent false alarms from being heard, but the real deal as well...

Ok, PATS key is needed to get the car running, but we all know there are otherways of taking a car. So that is the question I'm still pondering...

Hey Alex,

By the looks of it you must not have received the matches I sent over: or if you did, you had a change of heart. I'm glad to see real progress, and not a just a smoldering pile with a weeping man* stood beside it! LOL

(*Weeping as I did when I asked if we were going to exchange gifts for our first aniversary and you called me names /sniff)

Heres hoping you can finally get to the bottom of those last few niggles before you and the family can really get out and enjoy the car at last.

Best wishes

nice little progress update, and the garden upgrade sounds good as well

As for the seat belts, I take it the reels are standard Granada coupe affair? If so, could you not just bolt the seat belt stalks for the Granada on to the Passat seats?
Or even use mk2 stalks, as they are bolted on to the back section of the seat frame itself

Hmm, are the stalks that are now welded in with a metal tab or just the wire rope type?
If they are a strap type, would it be at all possible to drill a hole to bolt the mk2 Granada type stalks to?

So another week has come and gone... After a little break from the car due to muscle aches, doing nothing for it than sending off the seat belts once more for rewebbing), I decided to make the best of my saturday free time by going to the car. I still had pain in my shoulder, but nothing like it had been.

I reluctantly set to removing the grille for the umpteenth time so I could gain access to the electrical bonnet popper. It took quite a serious tug on the connecting cable to free the piston. And moving it around I could feel the first bit moving freely but when reaching the end of travel I felt it bind again. I put in some penetrating oil and moved the piston around in a twisting motion against it's stop. That seemed to have done the trick. It didn't stick in any of the tests I did. Missing the right connectors to complete wiring the thing up, I left the grille off...

At least that was a positive start to the day...

After that I decided to tackle the dash. It had gotten somewhat more crowded in the barn with other members arriving so that helped keeping me going. It also provided some interludes between jobs so the pace wasn't as relentless as I can sometimes set for myself.

The dash came apart pretty easily. I guess having put it together multiple times helped me there...

Test no. 1 was quicly done: remove speedo signal and start engine, wait for the overdrive light to light up or not after about 15 seconds. It didn't anymore, so that confirmed my suspicion that I had used a wrong feed for the speedo. Unfortunately the engine didn't run any better at all. So the wrong connection hadn't caused the rough running of the smooth V6.

Next I found the right signal wire for the speedo. It had been marked all along in the loom, I had just routed it away and never seen it again. So with that hooked up test two came: a repeat of test one: start engine and wait to see if the o/d light would come on or not. It didn't so that was a step in the right direction. With no way of driving the car out of the barn I still have no way of knowing if the gauge will work, but I confirmed power, earth and signal are all present, so in theory it should now be capable of working if the gauge is not broken in itself.

With at least those results as motivation I tackled the rev counter next. I installed the relay SamJ built me. I verified hooking it up as instructed and tested it. First test showed no reading on the gauge. This promped me to verify power to the relay. It was then I was confronted with how much of a dumba$$ I can sometimes be... Of course I had hooked up the wiring, but to gain access I had unplegged the cluster from its wiring. The speedo of course as an addition is powered separately from that plug so for the previous tests there was no need to hook the cluster back up... So when I realised that I plugged in the cluster and redid my test. Unfortunately it doesn't yet work as it should. It rises some, but sticks below the numer 1 on the gauge and is also not responsive to the revs changing. So this may need some more work/testing.

Anyway, feeling I had made some progress and there still was some time, I found myself at a crossroad. I had the choice of delving in to the last of the wiring, soldering in inaccesible places etc. or checking out why the engine ran rough. As I was really reluctant to get into the soldering, the down to earth attitude of one of my fellow tinkerers quickly forced a decision.

I went on to check on the engine. It had ran fine after the transplant, but ever since it has only been run for short periods of time. Driving on or off a trailer, in or out of the barn, quiclky up and down the drive for brake tests.... not a serious long drive in there for months. I also had had some starting problems with a pretty much empty tank etc... So I felt like this was the best thing to spend some time on.

I quickly checked the oil: all good, good level, no milk, no water... Great start! I had checked the coolant reservoir for bubling or anything and also found nothing. I removed the spar plugs to find ALL of them in less than desirable condition: all were wet from the top (probably from pressure cleaning the engine way back when) with rusty deposits forming and moisture in the plug leads. All were the same sooty black as well. Some were very wet others only a hint of wetness.

I cleaned them all up with a soft brush and I cleaned the plug lead ends as well. Plugs went back in and the engine ran a lot nicer if not perfect yet. At least it picked up a lot smoother and better when the throttle was engaged. It still sounded a bit raspy from the exhaust (I think a backfire a few weeks back killed the back box) giving reason to suspect it was still not running on all six but at least not on 3 or 4 either. It also smelled a lot better, before it was really quickly gassing anyone in close proximity even after a short run, now the engine seemed to be running better the smell was much less pronounced.

I had trouble with the plug lead for cylinder 5 being hard to get seated so my primary suspect is just that... Need a little time to remove the lead and plug to see what's going on there.

At least all this has restored some of the confidence in the car! Which is a good thing... as confidence was running low.

So this Saturday some of my Mojo was restored. Doing the work helped, but also the motivation other barn members possibly unknowingly inspire helps.

So the list of jobs is getting shorter, although there are still a few serious ones on there:
- assemble and fit front seat belts (should be a relative doddle)
- check out spark plug no. 5 (let's just wait and see)
- check out the fans (still never heard them come on)
- check out why dash gauge for water temp is almost at max after only a minutes worth of running (possible mismatch in sender-gauge as it's the scorpio sender not a granada one)
- finish wiring and rebuild dash (reworking power supplies and soldering the final connections, not too hard just quite a bit of work to be done)

And that should see it ready for alignment and MOT (expecting a fail on the brakes though) and realistically also for vacating my spot at the barn... Feels funny to say that as it will be both a happy moment as the car is proven ready for the road, and a somewhat sad as I'll also miss the barn and its members. Though I don't have to and plan on becoming a stranger...

So let's get on with the show, lol!

Sorry for the picless updates recently, I've just been doing so much work....I forget the camera...