1984 Granada BOA; small progress & Civic 25/10/24

[mk2cossie]

After going on an extended walk this morning, and then proceeding to be lazy after lugging my beloved Panasonic CRT to the tip

I managed to draw some plans up for the speaker pods on the parcel shelf

[mk2cossie]

So today I managed to get some more chopping up of the consignment of 18mm MDF I got the other weekend

After Dad rummaging through his sheds for many wonderful (And noisy) ways of cutting the MDF, I settled for a good old trusty saw and manual labour.

And a rickety old knockoff workmate as well for support!
Managed to do not too bad a job for a cack handed left hander! Just need to decide whether to have the pods 5 or 6 layers thick
Also had my official quality checks done by my ginger assistant as well

[mr]

Your car is pre 91.....you don't need a cat on that

[mk2cossie]

Well, last Thursday (a week ago already! Time flies by when you have so much fun back at work ) I managed to pester my dad to be helper and get the rear screen fitted back in the car.

Much fun was had, and a bowl of warm water with Autoglyms finest shampoo as lubricant for the seal got it in!

Also managed to turn the air quite blue with the choice words I have learnt over the years







So that's one big hole filled and hopefully a lot more water tight for the car over winter. Also means I can now see how much the parcel shelf doesn't fit now, and how high the speaker pods can be

[mk2cossie]

Obviously, after getting the rear screen fitted back in my fabricated parcel shelf no longer fitted!
So after several attempts to-ing and fro-ing, attacking with my little polishing tool and a big sanding block I got to here....



And after working out how tall the speaker pods could be, mocked up like so

[mr]

nice. id be tempted to slip something into the big centre shelf void though. maybe a power cap or a fire extinguisher etc.
what are you going to cover it all with? that speaker carpet stuff they use on subs? I only ask as that stuffs hard to keep clean,stuff gets stuck in the fibres.

[gess]

It is always a bit fiddly to fit a self made parcel shelf, the measurements are hard to get 100% spot on.
Have you considered tilting the pods forward by a few degrees? I guess that could look nice. What are the round holes in the shelf for? And what ere the rectangular holes for? Vent from subwoofer?

[mk2cossie]

Nov 23, 2018 7:53:00 GMT gess said:

It is always a bit fiddly to fit a self made parcel shelf, the measurements are hard to get 100% spot on.
Have you considered tilting the pods forward by a few degrees? I guess that could look nice. What are the round holes in the shelf for? And what ere the rectangular holes for? Vent from subwoofer?

I shall see how they are as boxes first, and then possibly tilted tops in the future

The round ports are where the speakers were originally, and I've just ported the pods in to there for a bit more volume and space to let them breathe. The rectangular hole in the middle is a storage cupboard thing, the flap for it will be attached to the shelf itself. And it was an utter swine getting the shelf trimmed to size just enough to fit in there, more so when I've covered it

The rectanular holes in the speaker pods aren't going to be left open, there will be a laser cut bit of plywood going on the top to slightly recess the speaker grill, and the tweeter will be flush mounted to that

[mk2cossie]

Nov 23, 2018 6:45:07 GMT mr said:

nice. id be tempted to slip something into the big centre shelf void though. maybe a power cap or a fire extinguisher etc.
what are you going to cover it all with? that speaker carpet stuff they use on subs? I only ask as that stuffs hard to keep clean,stuff gets stuck in the fibres.

There is no point putting an extinguisher in there, what use would that be when I need it in a hurry

And no need for a power cap either, as the battery is less than 3feet away from the biggest amplifier, and both of those are digital anyway

It will be covered with some of the finest faux suede curtains I posted a few pages back that I got from Amazon

[mr]

faux suede should look spot on, i've got a big sheet of it in green for my rear seat too.

[eurogranada]

Are you not going to angle the speakers a bit more to the passenger compartment? I once basically made what you have now and then cut through them at an angle on a band saw. This makes them less boxy and less upright... getting the sound more into the compartment.I don't have a pic anymore but hope you get what I mean.

[mk2cossie]

Nov 26, 2018 15:12:10 GMT eurogranada said:

Are you not going to angle the speakers a bit more to the passenger compartment? I once basically made what you have now and then cut through them at an angle on a band saw. This makes them less boxy and less upright... getting the sound more into the compartment.I don't have a pic anymore but hope you get what I mean.

I shall see how they perform as they are first, then version 2 may be angled at the top

What I should've done is just bought some hi-fi bookshelf speakers and chopped the back off them. Would have been angled and well made then, and most likely veneered in a similar colour wood to the door card inserts

Also, it is a tad tricky making speaker boxes with an angled top when they are layers of 18mm stacked up

[eurogranada]

I understand. For reference, I glued the individual layers together and let that cure fully. After that I sanded the layers to look as one smooth block before cutting on the band saw. Worked pretty well. Only a little tweaking to get them to sit fully flat after cutting by running them over an A4 size piece of stuck down sandpaper.

[mk2cossie]

Nov 27, 2018 6:59:44 GMT eurogranada said:

I understand. For reference, I glued the individual layers together and let that cure fully. After that I sanded the layers to look as one smooth block before cutting on the band saw. Worked pretty well. Only a little tweaking to get them to sit fully flat after cutting by running them over an A4 size piece of stuck down sandpaper.

The next step is to screw/glue the layers together. So that cutting the bottom is always an option I guess

Trying to remember what I did with the staple gun for the last parcel shelf, or if I borrowed sommeones

[mr]

i've got an air nail/staple gun you can borrow if you need it bert. thinks its loaded with the long narrow staples or long nails but I guess they take a selection of gunning things

[mk2cossie]

My friend got me a new cooling fan at the beginning of the month, so I thought I ought to make an attempt at getting that fitted up and work out new oil cooler mountings.
The old fan brackets were alloy, and hadn't agreed too well with the stainless steel rad brackets and machine screws.
3 of the main ones came undone, plus the rubber mounts for the old cooler (which is still fitted to prevent loss of ATF in the meantime) but the offside lower cap head would not budge, even with a bit of hammer action or torx bit wedged in to it.
So out with the 80 grit disc on my hand held battery polisher and ground the head off!
That left enough thread sticking out of the rivnut to get a pair of grips on and just unwound it out
New brackets chopped out at my friendly welders and bent up to shape and drilled by myself. Bit of angle grinder action saw them trimmed a bit to shape and they seem to work a treat
Fan fitted in place



And cooler in front of it

[mk2cossie]

Steering wheel has been demolded and the dashboard wiped over as that was rank as well. And have now placed a box of granules in the rear to see if that helps absorb some of the moisture in the interior.

Fitted my new bootlid rubber, and removed the spacer washers I had previously fitted to adjust the panel lines
Also thought it wise to chamois the inside of the glass as much as I could, and also check the boot. Only to discover the bloody spare wheel well almost full to the brim with water
Hoping that was when the rear screen wasn't fitted, so shall monitor that more closely now!

Inbetween moments of looking after my brothers motley crew over the last few days, I managed to get the parcel shelf trimming started



Just the 3 holes to cut/tuck the Alcantara through and attach the parcel shelf box lid.

Also managed to get the fan and oil cooler properly mounted up as my order of stainless nuts and washers turned up on Thursday







Just need to rescue the fittings off the old cooler or order up some new black alloy fittings

[mr]

My car suffers mould.sufferred even worse when I was working on it in the garden under a cover.buy a bucket from the pound shop and fill it with cheap salt.trust me,leave that in the foot well and the could will stop .I need to get another bucket full as mines sat still and will be for a few months.

[johnthesparky]

The fug lives up the farm in a 16’x8’ shed, we’ve put a vent into it to allow a bit of airflow.

We up there yesterday and we had some mould on the seatbelts and steering wheel, was quite surprised!

The corsa gets a bit damp, we put a tub with crystals inside which seems to get most of it. Can’t find any wet patches, but when I washed it the other day noticed the door runners were wet quite far in, so wonder if enough moisture works past to cause the condensation (?)

Anyway, nothing very constructive to say... happy new year

[mk2cossie]

Thank you johnthesparky

I'm hoping it was just because it is outside under a cover all weathers, and it was moisture that had snuck in whilst the rear screen wasn't fitted

It has been left uncovered the last few days, and appears to be fairly good in there at the moment.
Shall update with a few more pics on here today hopefully