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

[mk2cossie]

Yesterday at work, all on my lonesome. So decided to have a go at welding up a few bits that needed attention myself

There was a bit of the offside inner sill that had a pin hole, so I filled that in, and put a few tacks on the overlapping panels on the inner sill (no pics of that, so you'll all have to use your imaginations)

Tapped a repair panel gap up close on the inner wing, and joined that up




And tried to fill in the gap just behind the headlight, and promptly gave up




I did manage to open up the holes in the front valance to better match the brake ducts, and filled in the now surplus to requirements holes

[mk2cossie]

Not a huge amount of progress from me I'm afraid to report.
I've been keeping busy doing little bits and pieces tho.
Got some Bonda Primer before Christmas, from a place just up the road from work (and some rust convertor stuff too).
Applied the rust convertor to both front wing rails, A posts and wing mounting panels at the very front of the car













Chopped out the rotten lower section of inner sill panel, and made some new bits for that. Didnt have much fun welding 2mm new steel to Ford tissue paper by myself (and no one present to give pointers). So just got on with that, and yesterday painted all the bits with the Bonda primer
































And a huge thank you to HoTWire for the progress with ProBoards, as all is back to normal for uploading here it seems 😀 

[spot]

Always satisfying to be sticking fresh metal back in the the places where fresh-air and rusty bits once lurked.

[mk2cossie]

So then, where was I?
3 weeks ago, attempting to do a bit more welding, and decided to patch up the wing top area at the top of the drivers side A post







And in the process of doing that, a big ole bit of weld spatter burst out, burnt through my new trousers leg, nestled at my knee cap, and burnt its way out...







I'll save the gruesome leg photo from viewing on here, no one needs to see that!

Chopped out the last few bits of remaining sill upright, and finally made a start on welding in the new sill upright panel that I made seemingly ages ago (and made 2 new in fill bits for the inner sill upper sections)

[teaboy]

That's looking super.

I really don't like doing the wiggly dance when a hot spark goes through the trousers, it isn't much fun.

[mr]

Fair play, that's serious effort going in there. Guess I now know a welder😎.... Keep your phone handy, I'm taking some time out for the rat rod soon lol

[mk2cossie]

Feb 1, 2024 20:10:27 GMT mr said:

Fair play, that's serious effort going in there. Guess I now know a welder😎.... Keep your phone handy, I'm taking some time out for the rat rod soon lol

Don't confuse any of the above with me knowing how to weld

I've only shown the good bits, and none of the misery of blowing through tissue paper thin stuff. Nor any of the massive frustration caused by my lack of patience and not letting the metal cool down

Although I did get huge satisfaction making the holes and swaging them in the panel that will never be seen again

[mk2cossie]

Jan 30, 2024 20:56:44 GMT teaboy said:

That's looking super.

I really don't like doing the wiggly dance when a hot spark goes through the trousers, it isn't much fun.

I decided against standing up and doing the dance, as I knew the spatter would've travelled down in to my boot. And there's no way I can get out of them quickly

[vitesseefi]

I use the elastic sided boots these days ‘cause I can get out of them quick. 🙂

That’s a big job / keep up the good work.

[kh97]

Nice work, i'm currently busy with exact the same spot on my granada

[mk2cossie]

Feb 4, 2024 18:50:08 GMT kh97 said:

Nice work, i'm currently busy with exact the same spot on my granada

I did see your build thread the other day. Thats quite a lot of rust hidden on yours with previous repairs

Also didn't realise how similar the inner wing area is between mk1 and mk2 Granada

[kh97]

I thought the body of a mk2 was mainly the same as a mk1, only the rear quarters, front and rear valance and hood hinges differ.

[mk2cossie]

Where are my manners? Its been 4 days since Saturday, and I didn't update my build thread on Sunday

After fretting about the apparent lack of gas in the welder, my welding friends suggested I just got on with it, as the flow gauge was still pointing in the right direction!
So I drilled all the holes in the sill upright for plug welding that in place, and did a bit of preemptive prep work to make the welding go better.

Drilled all the holes to 5mm to start with, only to discover that was difficult to plug weld and get the upright to remain stuck to the inner sill. So the 2mm to 2mm side of the upright had the holes taken out 7.5mm, and that seemed to work very well...







Had a slight issue with one of the lower ones midway being a git to hold, but got there with a bit of patience. And before end of day on Saturday, flap disced all those welds back ready for the outer sill panel, and gave them a quick weld thru primer as well

[mk2cossie]

Only a small update from me this week. Helping out others at work instead of just getting on with my own thing.

Managed to get the sill upright fully plug welded in, flap disced back, and just given a squirt of weld through primer

[mk2cossie]

Well, today was meant to be spent getting the outer sill (or rocker cover) on.
Only downside being that I appear to have used all the gas on making up a new section for the lower A post










So I had a sort out of my toolbox, got the outer sill prepped for plug welding, and just hung the front wings on the car to keep them out of the way. And took some pics to lift my spirits a bit










Can't remember if I'd posted a pic a few weeks ago of my bracket. But I decided to make a new one from stainless steel for the coolant reservoir

[mk2cossie]

So this week I'm not working.
Although I've been allowed to go in and use the small MOT ramp to get on with my own car

First port of call, was getting the outer sill fully welded on at last, after humping the new gas bottle on to the welder!



















And that then leads on to sorting out the panel gaps and the fairly wonky looking sill...

[mk2cossie]

What day are we on now? Thursday, and the second day in a row of faff. Too many dead ramps at work with jobs waiting for parts, so I was chucked off the 4 poster.

Managed to get the doors on Tuesday before being moved, and now know I need to give the outer sill panel an almighty tweak with a lump of wood and a BFH, as it heads upwards at the middle section around the bottom of the B post

(I'm really not impressed with the quality of the outer sill panel, especially for how much it cost!)

















Although I did fit my coolant header tank bracket in place





And today was spent fitting up some bits to the drivers door whilst I was floor bound 🙃    not taken any photos of todays shenanigans tho. You'll just have to wait til tomorrow for those

[teaboy]

It's all good progress, mate.

Block of wood and BFH are pretty much routine when fitting panels.

I had to use that technique when fitting a very expensive genuine Porsche sill to my 911.

It will be worth the effort when it is done.

[mk2cossie]

Saturday came and went, I spent most of the day at the workshop from about 9am.

Got my finest block of wood out and my copper/hide hammer, and set to giving the sill an adjusting.
Didn't get loads of pictures, but did get one of the drivers door to sill gap...




Got on with the rear arch/outer sill panel



















And returned on Sunday (!) to get on with the bottom of the B post.
Made up a few new bits, and re-used the rear door curved section of the bottom of the B post as it wasn't rotten

[kh97]

Great work!
Can't keep up with your progress.

I'm still working on the same section aswell. I did also spend too much time with trying to get my sill aligned with the doors. My reproduction sill was also a bit curbed which resulted in oneven panel gaps with the door bottoms.

Did you have to remake the dogleg panels or could you just reweld them on?