1972 Ford Granada coupe continuous build/improvement.
Sept 27, 2021 13:27:17 GMT
moglite, toomanyprojects, and 1 more like this
Post by eurogranada on Sept 27, 2021 13:27:17 GMT
So a lot has been going on lately. And I’m feeling like I’ve turned a corner or something. I’m more keen on doing things again, feeling a lot less crippled. I found that confirmed last weekend as well.
I’d damaged the daily transit, also known as H-van, a while back. Now the vacation season was over I sorted that with a mate in the industry (the one whose shop I had my Granada in for most of it’s restoration) and combined some things that had been bothering me. I arranged for my bumper corner to get repainted, ordered a bottle of the body shop’s favourite polish to get rid of scratches in the paint and arranged for getting a signal when the paintless dent removal guy would be on site.
First action: taking off the damaged bumper corner and getting it to the body shop. No biggie. Had to remove the rear wheel to get access for the drill to drill out the rivets, but apart from that it was just two screws and a clip.
While the bumper was there I got the call that the PDR guy was coming tomorrow so I arranged to get the car back there for the day. Thankfully the loaner was available or it would have been a lot leas convenient.
So earlier last week I received my now dentless car and painted bumper corner back and I wasted no time fitting it. I had dreaded driving without as it just detracted from it’s good looks. Having spent much of my time in a body shop gave me plenty of confidence for this easy job. And having friends in the hobby meant I had gathered over time the exact right type of rivets etc. to make this job go smoothly. Car looked so much better complete…
But, the overall look was now appalling. A freshly painted bumper on a dirty van with a clean spot where they had measured the paint colour…it looked bad. But though this car gets washed regularly, it had been years since it’s last real paint care.
Having acquired the polish, Mirka polarshine 20 and a matching mop, I felt it was time to take advantage of dry but cloudy weather and get to work on the paint.
I tried the polish on an old Granada wing first. A short little machine polish at 2000-2500 revs (slowest my machine goes) showed much promise and had relieved a bit of the fear that was instilled over the years for polishing through the paint/clear. I found I could polish longer on any area than I was planning without damage.
Now slightly more confident I set to washing the car. I then clayed it to get more dirt out of the paint. The paint feeling better already. I then started polishing. I wasn’t really happy at first. Hard to describe, but I felt I had polish distribution issues. Whether I put polish on the pad and then dabbed the pad on the panel a couple of times or whether I just put the machine to the car I felt I had uneven coverage and the polish felt like it was hardening/setting on the car while polishing. The polish shouldn’t splatter and it didn’t, but it did powder. Unfortunately there is not much guidance on Mirka polishing products on youtube or other channels.
I persevered though and wiping the access off I could feel and see the deep, rich colour of the car return as well as seeing scratches disappear. Although I had expected a little more of the product in that area. But, I may have just been too careful. Scratches my body guy said would polish out didn’t. But I was reluctant to polish further. And the improvement was such that I felt it was ok. Most of the very obvious scratches were now gone or diminished to hardly visible. Still took me a couple of hours going round the full car and wiping access away. The car now felt very smooth.
I then had to go on an errand and would only be able to return to the car next day to finish the paint protection application. But next day I noticed that touching the car left polish spots behind. A bit like a sticky stain on a table that has attracted some dust. Had I not wiped the excess away well enough? I felt I had. This stuff was hard to just rub off. So I tried to see what washing it would do, and funnily enough that seemed to work very well. You could see that this polish disperses water in a certain way. I washed the entire car again so it could dry a bit while I started the application of the paint protector. I don’t know the brand, but I got it from a friend at a Vauxhall dealership. It’s a red and yellow sponge with the magic potion sandwiched in between. Wet the sponge, poke some holes and apply. I did this only one and a half or two panels at a time so there was time for it to set without sitting too long. Again this brought out the colour and the car felt nice and smooth.
All in all I think I spent 12-14 hours on the job. But the result s great. Only the wheels left to do some other time. These will have to come off for cleaning of the inside and outer rim.
Next day was Sunday. There was a gathering near me in Valkenswaard on the town square. So by 08:00 I had walked and fed the dogs, put on some sacrificial clothes and was washing the Granada. Thankfully that has the same protection on the car and is easily washed. Including drying it off I spent 35 minutes. Considerably less time than the H-van had taken.
Although I still haven’t fixed my (supposed wheel bearing) noise, I went the 15km to the meet anyway. I was there as the 3rd car to arrive. I found a great little spot that also had a good background. Saw many a nice car and some that you’d not expect to be shown with pride, lol. I was amazed at how much attention my car drew and how many pictures were taken or how many people were interested to know what I had done to the car. This crowd could mostly appreciate even the wheels and mirrors. I even got compliments on both these items that day.
After several hours I had to head home to other commitments but I had a fun morning. It sort of energized me.
I’d damaged the daily transit, also known as H-van, a while back. Now the vacation season was over I sorted that with a mate in the industry (the one whose shop I had my Granada in for most of it’s restoration) and combined some things that had been bothering me. I arranged for my bumper corner to get repainted, ordered a bottle of the body shop’s favourite polish to get rid of scratches in the paint and arranged for getting a signal when the paintless dent removal guy would be on site.
First action: taking off the damaged bumper corner and getting it to the body shop. No biggie. Had to remove the rear wheel to get access for the drill to drill out the rivets, but apart from that it was just two screws and a clip.
While the bumper was there I got the call that the PDR guy was coming tomorrow so I arranged to get the car back there for the day. Thankfully the loaner was available or it would have been a lot leas convenient.
So earlier last week I received my now dentless car and painted bumper corner back and I wasted no time fitting it. I had dreaded driving without as it just detracted from it’s good looks. Having spent much of my time in a body shop gave me plenty of confidence for this easy job. And having friends in the hobby meant I had gathered over time the exact right type of rivets etc. to make this job go smoothly. Car looked so much better complete…
But, the overall look was now appalling. A freshly painted bumper on a dirty van with a clean spot where they had measured the paint colour…it looked bad. But though this car gets washed regularly, it had been years since it’s last real paint care.
Having acquired the polish, Mirka polarshine 20 and a matching mop, I felt it was time to take advantage of dry but cloudy weather and get to work on the paint.
I tried the polish on an old Granada wing first. A short little machine polish at 2000-2500 revs (slowest my machine goes) showed much promise and had relieved a bit of the fear that was instilled over the years for polishing through the paint/clear. I found I could polish longer on any area than I was planning without damage.
Now slightly more confident I set to washing the car. I then clayed it to get more dirt out of the paint. The paint feeling better already. I then started polishing. I wasn’t really happy at first. Hard to describe, but I felt I had polish distribution issues. Whether I put polish on the pad and then dabbed the pad on the panel a couple of times or whether I just put the machine to the car I felt I had uneven coverage and the polish felt like it was hardening/setting on the car while polishing. The polish shouldn’t splatter and it didn’t, but it did powder. Unfortunately there is not much guidance on Mirka polishing products on youtube or other channels.
I persevered though and wiping the access off I could feel and see the deep, rich colour of the car return as well as seeing scratches disappear. Although I had expected a little more of the product in that area. But, I may have just been too careful. Scratches my body guy said would polish out didn’t. But I was reluctant to polish further. And the improvement was such that I felt it was ok. Most of the very obvious scratches were now gone or diminished to hardly visible. Still took me a couple of hours going round the full car and wiping access away. The car now felt very smooth.
I then had to go on an errand and would only be able to return to the car next day to finish the paint protection application. But next day I noticed that touching the car left polish spots behind. A bit like a sticky stain on a table that has attracted some dust. Had I not wiped the excess away well enough? I felt I had. This stuff was hard to just rub off. So I tried to see what washing it would do, and funnily enough that seemed to work very well. You could see that this polish disperses water in a certain way. I washed the entire car again so it could dry a bit while I started the application of the paint protector. I don’t know the brand, but I got it from a friend at a Vauxhall dealership. It’s a red and yellow sponge with the magic potion sandwiched in between. Wet the sponge, poke some holes and apply. I did this only one and a half or two panels at a time so there was time for it to set without sitting too long. Again this brought out the colour and the car felt nice and smooth.
All in all I think I spent 12-14 hours on the job. But the result s great. Only the wheels left to do some other time. These will have to come off for cleaning of the inside and outer rim.
Next day was Sunday. There was a gathering near me in Valkenswaard on the town square. So by 08:00 I had walked and fed the dogs, put on some sacrificial clothes and was washing the Granada. Thankfully that has the same protection on the car and is easily washed. Including drying it off I spent 35 minutes. Considerably less time than the H-van had taken.
Although I still haven’t fixed my (supposed wheel bearing) noise, I went the 15km to the meet anyway. I was there as the 3rd car to arrive. I found a great little spot that also had a good background. Saw many a nice car and some that you’d not expect to be shown with pride, lol. I was amazed at how much attention my car drew and how many pictures were taken or how many people were interested to know what I had done to the car. This crowd could mostly appreciate even the wheels and mirrors. I even got compliments on both these items that day.
After several hours I had to head home to other commitments but I had a fun morning. It sort of energized me.
