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

That workbench is really looking smart. It seems very practical, at least for clean woodshop work, maybe not so much for dirty engine and gearbox work.
How stable is it when you fold up the table? I would assume it could fall over if you put too much weight on the unsupported side.
nice to read thqt the Granada is performing as it should. That bodes well for the new 2022 season!

So I've been quiet for a while. That is because life has been consumed mostly by work, some diy projects and the clearing of my elderly home (is that correct? I mean my parents house that I grew up in). Mainly the latter has been a huge drain on energy both phisically and mentally.

But, before going more into that, I can say I had an impromptu drive in the Granada yesterday with my wife. Was actually very much fun! The Granada itself is still awesome to drive. That power from the 2.9 bobbie is just so good....
The problem is that I can't drive it without thinking when will it blow up?? I think I hear the distribution getting louder each and every time... And then there are some small niggles that I should take care of but that I just can't put myself to doing: thing like an audio wire that is dodgy and means one speaker cuts out regularly, the fual gauge always reading empty with half a tank or so left and therefore being useless, the cubbies I still need to make to finish off the seat base area, a non operable mileometer, a dodgy wire to the ignition which means that only with a fully charged battery the car will start, otherwise I think voltage drops too far (as the direct to starter hotwire always gets the engine running). Little things really, but they require access in a way that makes them pretty big jobs... Then there's the exhaust that could do with fine tuning as it's louuuud. And then there's the real kicker, due to current fuel prices and the thirsty nature of this engine, I really should look into LPG and while I'm at it building a new/fresh motor. It's just not economic currently. But I don't have the car not to use it...

All of this counters the high, the rush I get when actually driving the thing pretty quickly after parking it.
But, just seeing it looking great in the garage or outside I know I love what I've made of this thing to bits. I love it all... the blunt nose with the huge square lights, the bulky back with the big tail lights, th ebright in your face colour, the beautiful custom interior that suits the car so well, just everything. So I know I need to fix those last items to my satisfaction... but time is at a premium and energy low...


So back to the time between this and my previous update.

I had three projects on the go. I had a (by wife and daughter) long desired cine wall build. Our house got new maintenance free windowpanes, glass and doors requiring new curtains, a piece of missing floor to be added etc. and I had a heater/radiator cover with window sill to build.

I started with the cine wall. A scratch build of a 3.25 by 2.25m cabinet. It was to look like the thing was made of 7cm thick boards. I designed a custom cine wall that in the end consisted of 49 board sections, 99% of which were to be sawn at a 45 degree angle. The structural parts needed to make this cabinet a reality were a further 65 parts. They were made into 18 (I believe) prefab sections that required 3 layers of paint on 3 surfaces so about a 150 painted faces... Oh the joy.... It took me five weeks to make the parts (after work, sports, children) and 3 days during one week to build the cinewall in situ.

So does the new workbench do what I need it do do? Hell yeah! I couldn’t have been more happy with it. It was designed to work in the small footprint I have and be versatile in use and it really turned out to be just that. The sacrificial saw board meant I could make perfect cuts without sawing into my workbench top or losing support for the panel as I was sawing. Very pleasant to work that way. I could move it about where I needed it, I could clamp the boards in the right places so far and The height was even so convenient that a workmate with my small table saw on it lined up with the top of the workbench. Allowing for long board cuts that I didn’t make with the circular saw and rail to easily find support when pushed off the end of the table. Also a luxury compared to how I used to have to work.It’s also movable enough to get it in and out of the garage, although the step in level means I really should create a transitional board to make that more easy.

Why so many parts? Well, 7cm thick planks would be really heavy, hard to find and expensive. So they were made from scratch as hollow planks consisting of a bottom board, a facia and a top board in a U-shape with a structural support in between connecting top and bottom board lengthwise for strength… Add to that the parts needed to actually mount the whole thing together and it adds up quickly.
I’m not one to quickly say I’m proud of things I do, but I’m most definitely proud of this cine wall. It’s also functional in the exact way it was meant. I love the TV location and the flexibility that it’s mount gives me, the fact I can now have my stereo back in action (with new book shelf B&W speakers that give me goosebumps) and the lighting plus hearth.
Is it really finished? Nope, I need to add doors to the lower sections. They are in the making.

Right some images then. The picture uploader seems to make a little bit of a mess of the order (sorry).





































































Next up I’ll quickly show my window sill radiator cover creation. It was made the way it is to aid hot air being able to reach the room. So the top is a combination of an open section that air can get through and a normal flat board section. A small fan system aids that. The front is also made of beams to aid heat dispersal as well as giving a nice look. It was not meant to fully hide the radiator so it’s a bonus have the radiator look a bit ok. As we currently have the sofa in front of it and no intention to switch up the living room staging, it’s a moot point for me anyway now. I do really like the small visible part though. The ladder effect of the small beams is just what I had envisioned. And although not practical now, the thing is so sturdy that one can sit and stand on it!

This thing also took some time to make as the corner where it turns to meet the new window frame is also cut at 45 degrees and it just took about 38 beams over three lengths and obviously a support structure to become what it has. And again, 3 layers of paint on 3 sides of all these parts… It gets tedious lol. Luckily the weather those 2 weeks was superb.

Again, some piccies.









Well that leaves me the new PVC/metal windowframes. It was one thing we had on our wish list for a while. Some of our wooden frames were rotten even though they were visually in good nick as painted 4 years ago. You couldn’t however have a window open as when a gust of wind would grab it, it was likely to shear the fixings from the frames complete with the wood as it had cracks and filled areas. A design flaw if the neighbors are to be believed. Not a problem if kept up, but our previous owner was financially unable to do the required upkeep leading to these issues. So we made the call to use the crazy financial housing market to generate funds. We opted to do the full house including front door and swapping a single garden door/window combination for a two door with side glass combi, which lead to 7 frames consisting of 9 panels.

On our wedding day the work started. Four days were planned, three were needed in the end as the superb weather meant they could work faster than normal. It was messy, loud, intrusive, but the house is more beautiful then ever. I had the week off to aid with on the spot decisions and I used that time to do all the painting on the cine wall and the other jobs like adding a bit of flooring and curtains etc.

As I didn’t do the work, just the constant cleanup and paid the bills, I’ll just show some before and afters…






































During all that, actually it started in November 2021, I had first the remodel of my parents’ new abode. One hundred m2 of flooring and 342m2 of painting later we had them moved in by mid December, but then in January the real job started: clearing their home of 47 years in which they had filled every bit of space. And it’s not a small place to start with… So around all of the above, a 36-40 hour work week and sports 3 times a week I squeezed in one to one and a half day of clearing as well.

Not only has this meant being very busy almost non stop for months now, it’s also proven mentally draining. It’s slow going and there’s just so much stuff there. Every inch won is immediately lost to the next bunch of stuff. Clearing the attic alone has taken almost 4 months. And then there’s the battle of wits, over things that we see as trash and my parents as treasure, but they don’t have the space for it all. The sheer volume and never endingness of the work is hard to deal with. But, after 5 months, we’re getting closer!

That brings us more or less up to date….

I just helped my parents move from the house I grew up in, in to their new house where they have retired on the coast.

Luckily my mum is just as brutally practical as I am and follows the ethos of; if you haven't seen or used it in over a year, it needs hard justification to not go in the skip.

Don't even ask about the storage boxes that are still packed from before they moved IN to that house.

I think they took longer digging through all of the junk just to see if there was anything worth donating/selling haha

I imagine if you can manage to pull off a duel fuel setup that doesn't look out of place on top of the engine, it may help with value a bit.
But I think most people would look at a car like this and justify the extra fuel cost as the price you pay for having a cool old car that sounds great and goes hard.

You lose performance, it's pretty much just about the fuel cost.
They're no longer viable here (Australia) as the cost of lpg has gone up so much and the price of conversions hasn't changed. And you need to keep the system certified every year or two.
From what I understand you still need to run on petrol every so often so seals etc don't dry out.

I suppose ivanhoew would be able to weigh in with experience, as Medusa is pure lpg?

If you use LPG injection, with 1 injector per intake runner, no, not really. I've driven LPG cars for years as a young(er) man (my parents used to run it always) and with the later systems from the mid 90ies, I could not discern if I was running on LPG or petrol. This last system was one of the first LPI systems from Vialle.

I understand that as the LPG has a higher octane rating some even say they see improved performance. These days there are also add-ons to the system that can keep temperature and valve seat recession in check.

I guess it's down to choosing the right system for the application.

The price reduction is mainly because even at record prices currently, the LPG is about 1/3 to 40% of the price of petrol. Even with the cost of a system it would not take too long to earn that back. Given I can get half a system for free and only need to buy things like lines and the tank itself and I intend to do the build myself this is even less of an issue.

We only have an initial inspection for LPG systems and it's probably a part of the MOT as well. But we don't have two year checks on these systems in our country.

Most systems from the mid and late 90ies up, already start on pertrol and swap over after a certain time/distance.

Sorry to hear this...

MeGaSquirt ??

I can't justify the cost of aftermarket ecu stuff really. If I can find it, the original stuff is very much more affordable and it is also 100% geared towards making the most of the engine/box performance combo. It's also easiest to replace like for like as it's all derived from the original donor so pretty much plug and play apart from stripping excess wiring.

I'm not very much into aftermarket ecu stuff, but I've not only got to control the engine, but I also need to control the gearbox. I've also read a lot about issues in supporting the VIS system on the intake. It is more complex than just opening and closing it from x-y rpm as is often implemented when aftermaket ecu's are used. I also would have worries about the maps. Is there one for this engine, probably plenty, but how safe are these etc. I'm not looking to make the car fly either, its performance is fine on the standard ecu.

But I'm not excluding any options either at the moment. I just need to see first how extensive the damage really is to determine the best direction to go.

It may be a little while though before I can get into this due to other commitments for the coming two weeks.