Hi there,

I'm new to this website as I was searching for a place where I could find help with the next stage of my car's restoration. I'm hoping this is it!

Just a little bit about me: I'm 33 and have loved fords for as long as I can remember. I'm married to a very sweet wife who unfortunately is chronically ill ( she has rheumatism). Together we have to kids, a 4 year old girl and a 2 year old boy. Past year from 25/7/07 was spent treating cancer in my 4 year old who was unbelievably close to death more often then I care to recall. Now things are going a bit better so my hobby is getting some attention again. The next 50 days nothing much will happen I guess as we are about to enter the final but tough stage of treatment.

I'm not writing this to get your sympathy, but it's a part of who I have become now.



Back to the car!

After having owned and restored this 66 4,7 liter (289ci) v8 mustang to concours condition valued at 22,500 euro, I had to let it go to buy a family car. A sensible car. Off course I didn't get what i had put in, but hey, that's just the way it goes...



But, although I was prud of my brand new family car, I just missed tinkering on some old vehicle too much. So after a year of not owning an oldtimer, I bought this:



This is a 1972 Ford Granada Coupe with at that time a 2600 V6, 4 speed.

Within 600 kilomters the engine developed a problem which was expected to be a wiped cam lobe (it had 1,5mm valve clearance on one cylinder). It turned out to be a hardened valve seat coming loose.

Closer examination of the car itself had also reveiled several rust problems, but the price was also adjusted accordingly, so it wasn't that it came as a surprise.

As the car was very standard looking and I had already gone the "standard" route with my Mustang, I formed the plans according to which I was going to restore it. I envisioned a look for the car and decided what I was going to do to it. Basically I was going to start with an engine replacement to get the car mobile again and do all the mechanicals and the bottom of the car after that. It was how I ended up working night on my parents driveway (they have a carport).

I started my quest by aqcuiring an identical 2600 engine. At that time I didn't think I could do any other engine swaps. A time and confidence issue. I found a replacement that had only run 12640 km's and had stood most of 30 years at a police impound lot. It looked like this:



I quickly took it apart to the last part and discovered that apart from a rust damaged cam ( a follower had rusted to the cam and eaten a crater in the lobe) it was in excellent condition. The vendor arranged for a cam, but my parents donated me a kent cams sportier cam.

I put everything back in with new gaskets and a new cam set and then it looked like this:



And this:



You can see the T9 five speed that I also found to be an easy fit upgrade. it was a reconditioned example and has been trouble free.

But, as this was now a good looking engine, I couldn't with a clean conscience fit it in the dirty engine bay. So that is how I came to start a full restoration.



I took out the front subframe with suspension as a unit as this was easy without an engine in the engine bay. I then stripped it to parts and cleaned, blasted, painted, coated and replaced everything important. So all new steering joints, bushes, brake discs, lowering springs etc. In the meantime also updating the engine bay itself.



When being assembled it looked like this:



And this:



I then did the same to the bottom of the car and the rear suspension.



With the car finally back on all fours, it was time to put the engine back in. Mind you I don't have technical training I just learned as I went.

We put the engine back in in under 45 minutes. Completing the buttoning up process in another 2 hours.



Unfortunately my radiator appeared to have suffered from cleaning and upon startup displayed a pin hole leak.

I needed a friend to find out why the carb was drawing in false air (a pipe on the carb was he culprit), but after that the car would run from 600 revs without dying. It was further adjusted and MOT'd without a hitch.

Then the body work was started. I stripped the car at the welders house and had him get on with it. I still need to learn how to weld myself. He did a fine job. An impression of the work done:















Then it was time to get it to someone who could paint it cheap. My family situation always means very small budgets...

Transport followed in style:



And then the painting and prepping process was started. I decided to paint it sea gray 2006 focus (this work was carried out in 2006 so the colour was brand new).

I also had my doors and fenders coated by cataforesis. It should prevent rust from ever forming again, but this time ( I know know 2 years later) they didn't do it as well as on my mustang.





Prep well underway and rustproofing the inner fenders:









Then it was time for colour! Boy was I excited. I was becoming father for the second time at the same time so I was not able to do anything myself and every night after long hospital days, it was a joy to receive pictures of the car's paintwork and subsequent rebuild.

These guys were so great that they at no charge (!!) did the assembly of my car simply because they loved them as much as I do and because they understood that I would have absolutely no time while the car's first outing was already planned and only 14 days away!

I still am amazed at that fact and still am thouroughly grateful!

This is what I was shown:







I was off course elated!! My god choosing a colour is hell, but it turned out very nice. Some responded that it would be boring, others loved it from the start. I was one of the believers and with every bit of trim put back on I was more and more conviced.





I picked it up like looking like this: Great but dirty as hell!!



After washing it that evening:





Boy was I pleased!

I now had to refit the gathered black consul GT interior and paint the headliner. Not too difficult and very rewarding!!

It took second best of meeting at it's first outing:



After looking like this all weekend:



At that time it was finished for a while and I just drove it. enjoying evey minute!!

But, I wanted to make the car a bit more user friendly by adding an EFI system that someone hooked me on when I picked up the car. It was cheap and easy to fit. Time once again ment that i had that person fit it.

It was the EFI system as fitted to certain models of 2800i scorpio granada in 1987/88.

On my car it works great although fitting it was more trouble then expected. It looks like this under my hood (before I completely removed the engine again to redo the under hood area as a result of all the sanding dust etc.):



Now it looks clean like this:



I am now working on my interior, it will be fully custom, panels made by myself. Seats are professionally recovered. I have been working on this for 1,5 years no, just don't have the time to finish it. I intend to finish it end of summer.









Basically that is the restoration so far...

I'm here to find info on putting in a cos V6 with an Mt75 attached. That will be the next project after the interior is finally finished.





What do you think??

 

Loving it!

 

Looks awesome mate!!

 

excellent mate, top work

 

looks brilliant

 

real nice

 

 

gorgeous.

will be perfect with the v6, i'm sure someone will be able to give the relevent information you need.

 

Great job you have done there

 

Nice looking motor

Paul

 

hats off to you mate, thats a fantastic job done on a fantastic car, that can only get better!! Keep us updated with its progress

 

look good Alex
I like what you thit whit it
I no it will run nice whit that V6 Cos
Looking for wan my self

Chees Wiebe
P.S Hope to see you at Lelystad

 

lovely work mate,but the wheels let it down

Nice set of image split rims with an anthricite cente or something simular would do the buisness imo

 

Well done mate,that looks spot on

 

Thanks,

I won't be in Lelystad, cause my daughter has her "make a wish" day. And she really deserves that and it's a family day. It's also the last day of easy treatment. From that day on we face 50 days of horrible chemo therapy.

@ the others who have responded: Thanks a lot for the comments!!

 

I don't know what kind of rims you're now describing, cause I aint very much into that.

But, the wheels are something that you either love or hate. My idea behind them was that they look more modern then the period rims, but not too modern. I kinda like the spiderlike legs in the rims. And they were affordable on a small budget.

But one day I may go for something else. Trouble is it is hard to get an idea of what something will turn out to look like on the car. I will be painting the center nuts body color some time in the near future. And I have noticed that I am very critical of rims. I see so many cars with rims that make me feel queezy that I just know it will not be easy to select someting different.

Anyhow, first things first: interior finishing and then the cos v6 conversion...

 

Credit to you mate, very tidy.

Oh, and welcome to Pf by the way...

Ed.

 

old school + new school great project ;P

 

first off welcome great project youve got there keep the updates coming when you get chance and i hope things start picking up for you and your family from now on

 

Something like this mate, but with a anthricite coloured centre

 

Well as threads go.... this is one serious revival.

I should first appologise to never having gotten back to this thread even after the first two days of it being up. Especially since it was well received from the responses.

I had started this thread to show you guys (and gals) what I was going to do to my Granada coupe. Mostly as it's a bit of a dinosaur between all the sierra cosworths, foci, escorts etc. And partly because it was to be my way of keeping sane while we were treating my daughter (4 at the time) for cancer.

Unfortunately the latter took over life until well into 2010. By then I'd forgotten about Passionford and found a new haven (or should I say heaven) for my classic car passions or just plain old ford passion.

I just recently finished my restoration after a 6,5 year build. And that somehow prompted me back to this thread.

I just want to show it got done and what it looks like now. I'll tell a little of the tale, but if more is desired I can add either the link to my ramblings elsewhere or add some history here.

So what did I build:

1972 Granada Coupe GXL, 2.9i V6 24V (BOB) with A4LDE (BOB) autobox on ORIGINAL BOB management including PATS.

Styled after the muscle car era of the late 60ies early 70ies. Painted in a twist on 1970 Grabber blue with added pearl, now called A$$hole blue metallic.

Exterior factory look was kept, with virtually no deviations from Ford's design except for the wheels and mirrors. I mean I did not add spoilers or bumpers but kept true to the ford shape. I did add some stuff. I changed the Consul grille for a Ghia one and I added the original chrome overriders on the bumpers. I also modded the fiesta 2008 and up electrical door mirrors as they are more practical and have several nice features like heated and electrically foldable. The wheels are slightly more modern, yet still a bit oldfashioned. In their current new colour sheme, I really like how they suit the theme and car.

Interior was changed to fully custom, yet a complete change of direction from the initial plans. Interior is now black. Seats are from a curse word Passat CC and I changed the floor pans of the granada to suit them. They are leather and 12 fold electrically adjustable as well as heated. The rear seats now fold as well, giving access for transporting larger stuff. I chose this interior for its sporty look and the 2+2 nature of the rear seat with a cubby where normally person 3 would sit. I felt that matched well with my coupe body style and me being a dad to two kids... It was a lot of work to fit but well worth it. I made my own headliner having no previous sewing experience. I also constructed my door and rear side cards and alcantara inserts from scratch....I even sewed my own carpetting!

Engine wise I traded/sold my BOA cosworth in favour of the BOB. This was purely based upon the desire to go automatic and do something up until then less often done: a BOB on BOB management! Finding a decent one proved a bit of a challenge so I own about 3 of them now. Only one is running flawlessly and in the car. I used most of the BOB stuff from a donor car. So radiator and fan arrangement are original to the bob so they work the same as well. Driveshaft is a combination of granada rear and BOB front end.

Anyway, a lot of work went in to this but going at 1 afternoon and 1 evening a week it's not a fast process.

Car was stripped and blasted so I really built from scratch. Mechanicals also: stripped blasted, powedercoated and reassembled with mostly all new running gear (bearings, PU bushings, brake calipers, shoes etc.).

Anyway time for some pics...






















And a short clip (there's more on my "channel").

Let me know what you think and if you'd like to see some more of the actual work done.



Alex

 

I really like that. Nice colour too.

 

Really really impressive build. I hope your family are fit and well.
As for the car car, I love the new interior but prefer the old exterior colour. It does looks great now, I just like the grey more.
What's the next evolution?

 

Thanks!

Yes, family is ok. As good as it will get for us at least and steady, no surprises. It's amazing how some things have turned out, really. And I'm grateful for that!

I too really loved the grey exterior. But the paint was a moonscape and needed attention. A full respray actually. And spending so much cash on painting the car the exact same colour was not something I saw sense in. If I had to do that, I'd be choosing a new colour.

I had really wanted ford's pearl white as sold on the seconde generation (fiat platform) KA. But as a three layer system paint that was simply too expensive. Also while I was planning that and working toward that every brand put some sort of white pearl colour on every vehicle they made. When even the disability moped based cars were being delivered in such a colour I knew I had to do something different....

I've always been a fan of gloss, of metallics and of dark colours. Purple had been a consideration for quite a long time. Panther black as well. But I thought that would make the car very dark.

I also felt the muscle car inspired look of the car deserved something more bold, something flashy. After a long think I came up with the one colour that I loved and would match my criteria. As it was I had a sample old audi wing painted. It was a solid colour so I wanted to add the sparkle of a metallic, but more subtle. So I opted for fine pearls in the mix. Now when the sun is out it has a slight sparkle and in some artificial light it flops very slightly to purplish...

And she does stand out now! I get almost only positive reactions to my "vision in blue".


As for the next evolution.... I think it wil stay this way for a few years. Possibly for many years. Things to come are finishing of the interior bits (final details) and possibly rebuilding a cossie BOB to as new condition. The car is a very nice quick drive with the Bob engine and box. Off the line it feels a little slow as the autobox gets going, but it subsequently just keeps going and going and going. I have no problem putting large distances between me and other road users at the lights etc.

The cossie engines do have their flaws, so I may also start looking into american made ford v6's or in a few years the 6 cylinder ecoboosts.

But for now.... I'm fine with how she is!

 

Wow some incredible work you have done especially when you say you learned as you went! The cars a credit to you. I love those seats especially the back ones!! Hope your daughter has recovered, best wishes