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

Two steps forward, and one step back. Sorry to read about your misfortune.
One should think that the fuel issues would stop eventually, and they probably will, but in the meantime...
The interior bits you put together matches very well and blends in to the rest of the car, thumbs up. I guess that is a small victory and something positive to keep in mind when contemplating whether to torch your car or not, and I really hope you don't.
My humble opinion is that you should ignore the rust on the doors for as long as you can. Spend quality time in your car, get it to work properly, go to meetings, shows etc and show off your ride. Few will notice the rust and fewer will care.
In time, you fix the rust by opening up the folded area, it is a rust trap, and will most likely be a problem on any high-price doors you can get your hand on. Remove all rust, use a good primer fold it in place and use penetrating oil on the inside to seal it off after you have painted the doors again.
Sometimes you have to accept that good enough, is good enough, or you will never get to use the car.
I also spent quite some time and money on a total paint job on my former Granada, and it was a pain to see the rust protruding from areas I thought had been well taken care of, but I still used the car and had a few vacations in it and used it as a daily for several years.

That's how it goes I guess. It'll just take me a while to get over the frustration of this happening. And I mostly mean the rust. As I am on a tight budget, I did everything as best as I could and I did not spare a dime on the body and bodywork/paint side of the restoration. Thinking doing it right once is economically sound thinking as opposed to having to redo things because I took a shortcut. That is the thing that bothers me.

The fuel issues are not too much of a worry. A new tank is not a viable option at about 475 euro's. I found that the coating process is not cheap either but at least a lot cheaper than a new tank. For now I'll just monitor the filter and keep a few spares. When timing is more convenient I'll probably coat it.

Thanks for the compliment on the interior. I'm pretty proud of and also very happy with it. It's a cool place to be. The only thing I'd do differently now is use better glue on the centre console outer shell. But hey I have an idea for something even more spectacular in the future. But I'm in no hurry to do that.

Yeah, the doors will have to wait and I'll think about how to tackle them. Maybe just take the skins off these and fix as needed. Saves the expense of additional doors, but also means there will be no doors on the car for a while. Although this job should not need to take weeks. The expensive bit is the custom paint that is on it...and the striping wich will have to be remade and reapplied.

I agree though. First I'm going to get the car 100% finished and niggle free. Just enjoy it as much as possible. Cause every time the engine fires up, I get a big smile on my face.

I'll make a small list of niggles to fix and just work through them one by one. Possibly asking for some help here or there.

I guess we must be at least somewhat of a masochist, lol.

The exact thing you are showing is why I actually started my restoration in 2010. My 3 year old paint looked very similar.

I too will persevere, came too far to quit now. The worst of the frustration is already subsiding. But it's one of those things that for me will never fully go away until it is all dealt with.

I'm going to focus on the good stuff fixing the less good stuff one by one.

Great to hear that the mojo is coming back and progress is being made. Let me know if you need any help with the wiring.

As for the tank - I don't know if they are any better or worse than POR-15, but there are some other products offered by rust.co.uk

www.rust.co.uk/fuel-ethanol-proof-tank-sealers/c28114/

I am going to order some of their epoxy-mastic chassis paint for the buggy, so if you want to try their tank sealer I can add it to the order, save on shipping for you.

Helping one kid with her math homework and the other with practising cycling for his traffic exam has kept me from doing very much to the Granada this week. It's a good thing the dog needs a daily walk in the evening anyway as this is a great excuse to visit the garage for a bit. Last night I took the cd-changer and the multimeter with me...

I quickly confirmed that the ground wire was well connected to ground and that the connector was tight on the prongs. A bit of wiggling and still all good. The same was done with the 12v side and that also kept showing power whatever I did. I plugged in the unit and it immediately came to life. Switched on the head unit and now the cd-changer was once again selectable as a source. One less thing on the list!

It bothers me a bit that I didn't really do anything to fix this problem though. We'll see if this becomes a recurring thing...

On with the next job(s)!

So another weekend has passed. It was a busy one, but I found some hours for the Granada as well. I had hoped to get further, but things just took more time then expected and really I just wanted to do it all right! I had to stop myself from accepting 95% ok as acceptable...

So what did I do? Well for one I chose some simple jobs or at least they were deemed simple before attempting them.

Installing the cd-changer would be a nice simple start I thought. And it was. Power and function quickly seemed restored. It wasn't until much later when I wanted to store the car away for the day that I found out the unit still would not work from the HU. A bit puzzled I thought what the hell, but it was quickly reveiled that I myself had simply forgotten to also plug in the signal wire. Ooops. Well this job is now on the list for next time as unfortunately plugging this in with the unit bolted down is a no go.

Next I swapped the fuel filter for a clean one, which was probably the easiest job I tackled. Next as I was under there anyway, I put new connectors on the ground and signal wires as the new float had spade terminals where the original had female bullet style ones. As I was there I noticed that the fuel pump was a bit loose and I tightened the bolt holding it on. But I need to revisit that in the future. I need to slot a hole in the bracket so number two bolt will fit and the pump is still far enough from the exhaust. Ideally I'd like to fit a little shield at the same time. I'm still pondering how to keep the bolts tight though, as there is about 6mm of rubber between the bracket and the chassis it's bolted to. So there is always a bit of flex there and at the moment this is causing the bolt to vibrate undone. I think I'll try a little locktite on there.

I also tackled another simple job, running two wires from the centre console to the back seat for power. One that is powered upon "lights on" and one upon "ignition on". It started with me pulling the freshly installed ashtray/window operating switch panel part from the centre console so I could find the wires to connect to. That was the easy part. I quickly located what I wanted to use so it would be safe and correctly fused etc. But running the actual wire under the carpet up the console with it mounted turned out to be a real bear. That took me some time but I managed and the wires are nicely hidden from view.

With that latest and final bit of wiring in the car I could once again close up the console. Putting the ashtray back it just didn't want to sit right anymore. So a bit of faffin' about got it how I wanted it again. Now last time I'd had to pull the freshly installed middle insert from the console as it prevented shifting gears as it sat. Just wouldn't engage drive anymore. Well now was the time for trimming back the plastic (without damaging the upholstered part). This took 10 or more retrims as I was very careful not to trim too much. The trimming had to be done right on the edge of what would be visible. Trouble is installing this section is a right pain requring undoing the facia of the gear lever and moving this about as you position the insert. Anyway I got it 95% there. And as I had spend quite a bit of time I was amost ready to accept that as a result. But it kept nagging me in the head so spending some more time I made it fit 100%. Now my gear shifter cover plate I'd shown before also fitted as intended, nice and flat! Felt much happier about it all, even though visually I was no further with this than I was last week. But as a result of things fighting me a little, I by now was running pretty much on reserves.

(careful trimming section 1 of 10)


(result)


I tried my hand at a little CAD design (cardboard not computer) to finally make use of the little space remaining besides the rear seat, between it and the lower side panels. This so I could work on those at home with the car not neccessarily at home. I want to try and fit the power sockets into the small upright between the seat belt reel and the seat. Nice and out of the way. But I'm not really sure what to do with the top part. As those sockets extend quite a bit into the area, I can't use the full upper surface for whatever I will end up doing. Also as the space is quite narrow it limits teh options even more. Now the rear seat has buitl in cup holders so I'm not looking to add those, but I'm thinking of making a small pocket. They can put some stuff in. Their charger cables or a DVD or anything really. I'd like to also make it "covered" so when not in use they aren't visible. This mostly to keep dust out as cleaning such a narrow pocket is Always a hassle. Besides it would look tidy.



Finally I tried getting my rear interior lighting system and third brake light to work. The brake ligth was easy. The rear lighting doesn't want to do what I want it to. I can get either the "door open" circuit to perform as desired or the "12v permanent" circuit, but not both. Problem is the original circuit I'm trying to mimic used two seperate reading lights and a central interior light. I want the reading lights to function as that centre light instead of adding it.







And with that my power level had dropped to zero and I called it all a day. I had wanted to hook up the mic and the carkit and check the gauge voltage on the cluster, but that would just have been too much of a job to start with such little energy. I think that is something I need to tackle as a job for the day, without much else on the agenda...

Still, another few jobs progressed or permanently finished.

is the "door open" a switched live or a switched ground? On the cars I have had power is fed from the fuse box to the lights, and then the ground from the lights is switched by the door switches.

If it works that way you should be able to have a permanent 12v feed to the lights, and then use a SPDT switch to switch the ground from the lights either directly to ground (turning the lights on as reading lights), or to the door switches.

You raise a point that was in my mind the whole time as well. If the cubby gets too narrow it will be hard to get things out of and keep clean as well. Also don't know how valuable a cubby would be that barely fits a pair of sunglasses... As I think that is about the size I will end up with.

The original lights in the Granada are working the way SamJ explains. You have a permanent live leading to the bulb, and the switch dictates which ground you use, either directly to the chassis close to the lamp or via the door switches which again are interconnected.

I tried looking into this SPDT switch, but I was unable to work out a solution where both lamp will work independently and also together with the door switch.