bigdaz27

I didn't want to put a modern stereo in my Granada so I brought a vintage pioneer ke-1300 Which was new old stock, I modified it buy disconnecting the tape head and pre amp to limit any distortion, and soldered an aux lead to the board so now when I put a tape in it cuts the stereo and plays the aux instead of the tape and sounds amazing and looks like good to did take a bit of head scratching tho, so aftermarket of the right period is another option and will probably be better quality and cheaper then a genuine ford stereo

I brought my first mk1 for £150 in about 1997 One owner 27k, my mum made me sell it because I hadn't passed my test, so about a year later I brought a mk2 estate with a 1600 xflow for £50, I used to get spares from I think his name was Ian Harwood or something like that nice chap, he used to scrap good 4 door and estate shells because he couldn't sell them lol

The problem with trackers is they use gps, and gps blockers aren't expensive and some just plug in the cigarette lighter socket, I'm sure there not legal but if your stealing some poor sods car your not going to care, you can buy the type of trackers they use on eBay and unfortunately they cheep and pretty good

Face lift mk2 Granada bumpers front and rear and the black plastic type end caps don't have to be new as long as there in good condition a mint o\s rear door would be good to,

The insurance have offered £2500 which I'm pleased with and Ive got someone who has come highly recommended by the Granada guild to fix her and all the other repairs for an extremely reasonable price so ever cloud has a silver lining

Ok on Thursday I was pulling out of a petrol station I was looking up the road nice big gap went to pull out and the car in front of me didn't go my fault 100% and this is what happened I'm absolutely gutted inner wing is all creased But I've been told but people in the Granada guild it can be fixed so fingers crossed, I'm thinking the insurance company will right it off cat c or cat d and I will buy her of the insurance company and get her fixed hopefully there will be enough money to sort the damage plus the other repairs that need doing, I can't tell you how upset I am I saved up for 2 years to buy this car I've been a big fan of old fords since I was a kid, but divorce and bankruptcy ment I couldn't afford to own an old ford until two years ago I got my life back on track so I saved and sold my daily driver to buy the Granada, hopefully she will be sorted soon, The pre accident photo was a week before

I think high tone was the first one I tried they didn't want to do it, I tried somewhere called manor garage to they didn't want to know either I thought someone that worked on classic cars would be the best people to try but apparently not, I went to one body shop and the chap said it wasn't worth doing and to pack the hole with Seam sealer and fix the arches with fibreglass lol, another said they would only do it if the painted it to he refused point black to leave it in primer which makes me a little suspicious, I plan to get the car resprayed next year once the rest of the body work is sorted,

Here's a better photo, everyone seams to do mig welding so I assumed that was the best way

Changed the location, that's what's put me off doing welding before I'm not sure I would get it to look as nice as I would like and safe of course, it's just very frustrating keep going around body shops getting the same answer, the mot runs out the end of July so need to find some one soon, I went to see someone today who said he could repair the sill end and the bits of rust on the arches for £60 if I did the grinding and filling which seams to cheep to me, he said it would only be a couple of hours work and he would grind out the rust and put a neat plate over,I'm guessing it would be an mot type repair, he was uses oxi oxy acetylene type welding which put me of a little

My Granada needs a little tlc it's never had any welding before so a good start I suppose I think I've been to at least 10 body shops and I'm getting a little frustrated I either get sorry insurance work only don't want to know because it's not there idea of a prestige classic car Or they clearly don't have the skill set to do the job, now I want it done right and look like its never been or at the very least look neat, now do I keep looking for someone do to the job for me or buy a welder practice and do it my self I'm quite a hands on person and have taught my self to do lots of things like reinstalling a fire place in my living room building engines and lots of other things so I'm sure I could tech my self to weld even tho my last attempt was a bit of a disaster I never really practiced just thought it looked easy and just jumped in hacking at the car with a grinder and welder properly made an ear of it, anyway with the wounders of the Internet and YouTube and being older and having more patience and not having my nagging ex wife lol I would be grateful of any advice here's some photos so you know what I'm dealing with I removed the paint and under seal the last photo is the one I'm most concerned about its the end of the sill inside the rear wheel arch

one site I looked at wanted £25 lol

The site I went to wanted £7 I thought that was expensive for a bit of paper, I'm sure it would of been better quality but no ones going to notice, well apart from you lot as I told you lol

as you don't have to display a tax disc anymore I thought it would be cool to get a replica one that would of been on the car when new, I'm a bit tight and didn't want to pay so I found a picture online and cleaned up the pixilation up with photoshop which took hours lol I think it looks cool, I'm sure I'm not the first to do this but thought I would share

I would like to think arena Essex will invite them,I might go at watch

That's how I feel about it, most of them would need hell of a lot of work to go back on the road I'm guessing, there not stupid people they know what's worth money, my Granada was intended to go racing but the chap that was going to race it thought it was to good