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

I'm sorry spot, I'll stop mocking you publicly, lol!




Truth is.............


This car turns me into a hooligan!!!










I'll keep checking the fluid for a while for sure. But whatever the outcome I'm determined to keep enjoying the car!

Oh and any chance of a meetup as I'm now planning to make the RRG 2019?

Took her to work today....

Smooth sailing, but at 120km/h I do feel I need to balance the drive shaft.

Not tested yet!

Morning traffic and speed limits and all (and I'd like to enjoy the car having a license to do so)...

More testing will be done after doing the post run checks when I get home totday.

With the way people drive these days even speeds of 80 often feel like stupid fast!!

But I agree it will certainly be fun to have a legal go on The Bahn!

So yesterday the appraiser came round. Nice feller! Impressed by the car and the workmanship he was all over it. Top to bottom, but couldn't really fault it for much. I'm apparently more critical of it than even those who need to put a price tag on it.

After checking the car out, hearing it run etc. he complimented me on the things I usually get ripped a new one for: the alloy wheels were very much to his liking as well as the mirror modification. The interior was considered a work of art and very well executed, perfect colour scheme. It's clean, sporty, comfy and just suits the car perfectly (his words).

Inside we talked about the work and the how's and why's a bit more and he valued the car on the spot, a preliminary figure. Considering the work and money spent, the unobtainability of car and reasonably priced parts (prices are mad these days) and several value guides, his end judgement was that I had a condition 2+ car. Where condition 1 is a concours car. He explained mine would never be that as it was modified. But as he said the workmanship means my car was in his opinion as good as a concours car so he called it a condition 2 car, with condition 1 quality level. His price guides were all over the place. The UK one is a bit on the high side, the Dutch on the very low side. So an intermediate was chosen in the German and Swiss valuations. The numbers I saw there were also very high in my opinion.

Then he came down to the figure's and said it's a 20-26k (euro's) car. If something was to happen, you'd either start with a 6k shell and put 15k in to get it where mine is or you'd buy a better start at 10-12k and put a lot less into the car. I could see that and I think that is exactly how it would work out (although in practice I'm sure I'd go for an entirely different type of car given the been there done that factor). We settled on a very decent 21k for the insurance. I have to pay the premium every year so the extra 2-3k on the number would in his opinion only cost me extra money and at this valuation I would not be left in the hole.I Agreed. For now...next valuation the value may be entire different, higher or lower. The environmental lobby generally speaking isn't good for our hobby...

Anyway, I was very surprised that my car was judged honestly as a restomod and am very happy with the outcome. Now we can use it with some comfort, peace of mind...

Alex - I would back up that appraisal - I get requested to value quite a few vehicles both within the Jowett Car Club and externally from the club and being involved within the trade I follow the classic vehicle market closely - whilst I have not see your car in the flesh - I can see from the thread that you have been both diligent & thorough in the execution & delivery of what you have today - I would have readily placed a guide on your car of £16,000 - £19,000 GPB given both the work / presentation of the car and current market values attained for the model

Well, some time has passed again. A crazy time in some ways. We've had pretty severe spells of extreme weather lately (lot's of damage all over but fortunately not for me) and a lot of my time has gone into emptying and "cleaning" the rental garage as I ended the lease and also the house again. The long weekend we had due to a Dutch national holiday was spent tarting up our garden with electrical and lighting. Still between it all some Granada things to mention...

Time goes so fast I sometimes hardly remember what was memorable enough to put in here, but two things I remember specifically. First was having guests after working all day on the (two) hottest day(s) of the year so far to complete the garden electrics and lights. They'd last seen the house before we even started the garden etc. At that time the Granada wasn't home yet. But when they found out is now was, the male half of my guests asked if he could see it. Upon which my wife said "why not take him out for a drive?". At that point I thought what the hell, there's fluid in the back if I need it, let's go!! So within 2 minutes the car was out on the street and we were off. I always become a little more of a hooligan in this car than in any other I've owned or driven, so we had a spirited drive. It wasn't the longest drive as it was already a little late, but it was fun anyway. My friend was very impressed with both look and feel (especially the acceleration that just keeps going). I parked the car up again and left it thinking I should recheck the fluid levels in the morning. At least no fluids leaked onto the drive. Upon leaving the female half also said she was going to nip into the garage as she wasn't leaving without seeing the car. I try not to be the guy who forces his hobby onto others so I don't talk baout my car unless asked to, but it is nice when people show interest of their own!

At that time I still felt a bit unsure about the car. It had developed a slow drip on the cardboard that was underneath and up until then I had had to add to the power steering fluid after each drive... Let's say there was still some doubt in my head about the rack.

Attention shifted to my rental unit. A week ago I had taken out all the easy stuff. Turned out to be some more car loads than expected. That done meant I had left the most difficult items still in there: a large, unwieldy and heavy tree stem saw machine that I stored for my (ex-)neighbour (still friend) and my spare Cosworth BOB engine and box combo on a cradle. This was the engine originally mounted that turned out to have 0 compression on at least one cylinder.
So, again on what turned out to be another insanely hot sunday morning (34 degrees) I started prepping. I had nowhere to put the engine and box combo other than in front of the Granada. But there was stuff there. So out came the Granada again. I shuffled some stuff around thinking I'd try and find a place for it when I get the engine stored. I load the Transit with the engine hoist and some tie downs and went on my merry way thinking this should be easy as the engine was still fitted with the strap I'd used when I put the engine in the garage in the first place and this should just be, as Haynes would say: "the reversal of the procedure".

Well, as usual practice differed from theory. I had the hoist out of the car and set up in no time, engine jacked up quickly as well, but for some reason it would not hang right. It had rotated a bit so instead of being nicely centered it was almost at a 90 degree angle from what I needed it to be. Also the strap would not seat under the safety latch so I was afraid to put too much torque on the combo fearing it may cause the strap to come off. As the Transit is also equipped with a loading platform for a mobility scooter I had to get the engine pretty high up in the air. And in that condition push the combo towards the car. Quite hairy really. Still, with the tail end in the van, some stability came and I could lower the engine a bit. A little more pushing and it was safely in after all. Strapped it down towards both sides of the car so it really couldn't go anywhere, loaded the hoist and cradle and drove home. At home the engine was soon out of the car, but getting the front wheels of the hoist over the garage entry lip, was a little challenging. Thankfully I know something about levers which helped a lot. Engine now in garage I put it away using the jack under the cradle to make sure I could get it as far back as possible (only two steering wheels on it). The repetitive nature of some of the actions bothered me a little in the immense heat with sweat burning in my eyes. Loading and unloading and setting up and folding back in of the hoist got a little tiresome. But the job went relatively uneventful. Although I can't really fathom why over 1,5 hours had passed between start and finish.

The second memorable thing here is that upon driving into my street and seeing my blue monster shining in the sun (as dity as it is), looking pretty tough in it's stance and tire size combo I couldn't help but smile, but really enjoy the moment... Always good for morale.

This was as it stood...


And this is how the spare engine is now blocking me from getting to much of my DIY stuff...





With the weekend now over and my first meeting soon to follow I had to get ready for that as well. I bought a pop-up tent to sleep in (also planning on using this at the RRG), changed the insurance on the car to all-risk (ouch, quite a step up from the 90 euro's a year it was for basic coverage) and off course finally a check of the fluids since last driving the car with my friend.

I'd had a very quick glance at the levels a day or so ago and for the first time since fitting the rack, my little drive had not altered the fluid level(s). I told myself it was also just a short drive, but I'd had drives around the block that were shorter and fluid needed adding. So some hope was on the horizon.

Yesterday evening I opened the garage door, pushed the car back a bit so I could get underneath it from the front and side to have a look see. Sooo nice to just be able to take the half hour spare you have in your day and spend it like this. No hassle, no planning, no driving, walking etc required!
As I started my inspection looking for drips/leaks, I felt I'd better jack up the car for better access. Strangely no drips could be found in all of the suspect places. The one drip on the cardboard was easily identified as the oil pan seal sweating. Oil and filter needs changing anyway so I'm planning on doing that before the meeting. But crucially, the gaiters on the rack sounded normal with no squishy liquid sounds when squeezed at all and all connections and hoses were dry as well. No fluid in pockets in the subframe either that suggest any leaks in the system. Add to that my earlier conclusion of not needing to add fluid after the spirited short drive and things are looking up. I was all set to undo the gaiters to have absolute confirmation, but these results were quite promising in and of themselves so I left them untouched.
One thing I could not explain away was finding one drop of red fluid on both sides of the left hand upper control arm. It was also greasy like fluid had run down its length towards the bal joint. I wiped it all away and investigated, but all hoses and connections in the vicinity are dry. I have no clue as to the cause as of yet, will monitor surely. I've had a gear box coolant hose split a while ago that may show some remnants of fuid now being displaced by use or it could very well be that during rack replacement (or its absence) the one hose that is near the area has been moved about a bit and dripped some. I just can't say. I'll just use the car some more this week to once again monitor the fluid levels and see if the red drops return.

Concluding this elaborate story that tells so little, confidence in the car is growing. It once more starts on the key first try, it always runs, it always shifts, it's as fast as I can expect... it seems to just work.

The only thing I'm changing asap after the meeting (and is why I won't run it at max highway speed) is the front driveshaft. It needs balancing I'm sure. If the car keeps behaving, I'm looking forward to making those small improvents that refine the car...

My thought exactly!

Hi mate

You are definitely not alone in always thinking the worst. I do the same. I had a Jeep. It ticked all the boxes. Big V8, 4WD, Automatic, etc etc. However for some reason I never felt 100% relaxed in it. Always waiting for the next thing to brake.
But do you know what, when I sold it the next owner loved it and thanked me for all the work done to it. It was his most reliable car ever...
So, when I finally had everything sorted I gave up. Don't give up. It's a good car.
Just use it as much as you can to sort the very last little things out.
And how to be less stressful about these things.....let me know when classes are starting,
I will join you in the "how to be stress-less".
It's silly, I have always all boxes ticked, I am an RACQ (ANWB) gold member. I always have my cars serviced before long trips, I carry some tools and spares, I plan trips ahead, I have a mobile, UHF, food and water.
The thing is, definitely, in Europe, nothing is far away. Help is always close by. You might have to wait a few hours but it is close by.
So, why worry? I dunno, we just do....