Phase One

So who in their right mind would take a perfectly good example of a car, bought in good running order complete with tax and MOT and so forth, and strip it down to bare shell for a rebuild?

ME!!

Well someone has to put something useful onto the website for people to look at!

Where do you start then?......A good question, best just to get stuck in and rip out all the internals. Its a good idea to put nuts bolts and screws into different containers [jars, ice cream tubs, boxes - whichever you prefer!] and label them as to which part of the car they came from [interior, dash, engine, sub-frame etc...]. This makes re-assembly slightly easier, rather than searching for that small black self tapping 10mm screw for the radiator mounting in a box of three hundred fixtures and fittings! Especially if you expect to have gone to bed prior to re-assembly - its amazing just how forgetful you become!

As you can see, once you start taking things off it gets a bit messy. You also find out just how many nuts and bolts the previous builder missed out when they put it together. The previous owner of mine had a bit of a fetish with a mastik gun. It would appear 25% of the interior was stuck in position with it! A bit of a night-mare to clean off too.

The easiest way to remove the engine, considering I had no access to a lifting frame, was to support the front of the car some three feet in the air and ease out the whole front sub-frame assembly [minus the gearbox]. Notice the huge oil spillage? That was because the prop-shaft pinion fell out the end of the box, not advisable ....... especially when you don't notice it until your knees get wet! You can also see the Taunus V6 in place of the usual Essex engine.

Another problem encountered is the state of the wiring loom. As the donor car loom is often used and altered to suit the kit there are often wires extended with taped joints and even bare wires just left not used.  A good idea on removing the wiring is to clearly identify each plug and connection with a tag, you may remember where they go now, but what about twelve months down the line when you actually put the wiring back in?

Unfortunately all too many kits appear finely built until you get down to the nitty gritty. Usually this is down to the builder, once the car is in a running state the enthusiasm to get on the road often outweighs that to finish the many details.

This car was no exception, the MKII Granada dash had been cut up and made to fit - stuck in with mastik - and wiring stuffed into position, literally. Bolts were missing on the water pump cover and exhaust manifolds [mainly due to the bolt-heads being snapped clean off with no attempt to remove the studs], and the starter motor was hanging on a single bolt.

How ever did it manage to run? Well it did...... several trips to Wales, Rugby and Peak district from the Midlands with no problems!!

But hey.........don't take this as a common example of how kits are put together. There are a lot of kit builders who put attention to detail that would make a lego freak envious. But sound advice on buying second hand is inspect the car thoroughly, and check all main engine and sub-frame mounting bolts are tight when you get it home. Any other problems will become apparent on using it.

Two annoying things discovered on stripping the car was a huge hole in the gearbox tunnel area covered in tin plate, the mind boggles as to what this was done for [other than a huge gearbox of some form?]. The second being the boot area in general. The coupe conversion was undertaken using box section steel and, in parts, sheet steel covered in filler, not fibre-glass throughout as expected. Not a major problem normally but since the metalwork hadn't been treated the rust forming will cause big problems with whatever it gets covered with. As you can see the tank is taking up a lot of boot space, a purpose built tank may be the answer. The one fitted is off a Sherpa van - a good square tank for kit cars in general - but not good in this extremely angular boot floor.

It would appear a simple overhaul strip down and rebuild will not be as simple as expected! The hole in the gearbox tunnel isn't too much of a problem, just re-fibre-glass to shape. I don't know yet whether to cut out the coupe conversion and re-do it with fibre- glass, or strip back to bare metal, treat and re-cover with fibre-glass. Either case - a bloody bigger job than envisaged.

The rear lights will have to go aswell , I never really liked them anyway. They're originally off a Mazda RX7 as is the rear coupe door [spares may be a problem but then again MKI Granada spares are becoming rare!]. The boot door I'm not sure about. People say it goes quite well....... I like the idea of the coupe, but the door has curved edges - whereas the Hensen is an angular beast, is the door a contradiction of designs??

So....... what's next after stripping it down? You'll have to wait for Phase 2 on the next update. Come back in a few weeks time.