Car of the
month
Car of the
month
March
Kev's Red GT
The car was advertised in a local sales paper. All the advert said was that it was a 3ltr Ford Granada with a manual gearbox, price £150. so me being the first to ring, I was straight down to see it but first picking up a friend on the way in case of buying it. We arrived at the mans address and was taken to a back street garage. There it sat surrounded by a lot of other cars and junk. It was started up and driven out and then it hit me, it wasn’t a Granada, it was a Consul GT !!!!! My mate got very exited and said “buy it! buy it!” after speaking to the man, he told me that he had six other people after it so I did not more than pay the asking price, knowing that I could not get it cheaper. We then set off for home, me in the GT after getting some petrol.
After ten minutes of driving, I put the heater on and suddenly the car filled with smoke, we stopped and it turned out to be just a lack of use. After getting home it was put in a garage and left. The car was then put on the road about a month later after I killed the mk2 I was using (oops!!!)
So on with the story, after doing a lot of overtime at work the date was set for the work to start. The day finally arrived and the first thing to go was the vinyl roof (it was passed its best) then the back arches were replaced but as the old ones were being removed we had holes come through at the bottom (water trap). Oh bugger! More money, more overtime. After these were patched up the work continued and new arches were put on. While this was being done, I was removing the glue off the roof as it would react with the new glue, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, ½ a gallon of petrol and four Stanley knife blades and five hours of swearing and sweating later, the glue was off.
The next was the wings, I had got one new wing and one very good second hand wing to replace them with. (thanks Mick) The old wings were removed and showed no damage or holes in the inner wings. (thank God) So before they were put on, I under sealed the inner wings. The outer wings were temporarily fitted. Next was the driver’s door, the one that was on wasn’t that bad but I did have one that was better. (thanks Richard) So it was put on while I did this, the passengers side sill was replaced as this was going in a few places.
The next was the bonnet. The one that was on the car was really rotten across the front and I had got a very good one to replace it with, (thanks again Richard) It did need the front right corner patching up. When this was done, it was put on one side.
After this was done, the spare wheel well needed some patching up, yet more money. This was done, the wings were attached with a lot of moving and pushing, we were finally happy and the bolts fitted.
We then took out the front and rear windscreens and now we came to the good bit. The car was masked up and primer was sprayed on. The car now very yellow but it did look good! After this had dried, it was rubbed down and re-primed then came the original colour (Seabring red NOT orange) At this stage I was outside the garage stopping any one going in and ruining the paint. After a few hours hour’s, the car was dry and we then fitted the bonnet as this was painted off the car due to its size. The next was the new vinyl roof. The arrangements for the man to fit it had been made a few days earlier. He arrived a few days after the car was painted and set to work. I didn’t see him finish it but it did take him about eight hours (you can’t rush a good job) I went up the next day and to say I was happy would be an understatement. So we put the windscreens back in and paid the bill. (that hurt) I drove it home and put it back in the garage. Then came the final part, all the chrome was put back on with lots of grease underneath. The headlights were replaced with new one found at an earlier show, indicators replaced again with new and all with stainless steel screws. The bumpers were then put back on with yet more grease, the next was all the door handles, this done I then took on the job of replacing the screen chrome surround. This was a sod to put in, it took me four to five hours and I ended up with very sore fingers. This completed I fitted the interior after a good clean up and the last job was to get the wheels repainted so off came the tyres and down to the paint shop. A few days later, I picked them up. After getting them home, I painted the red on the them, this done the tyres were put back on and fitted back on the car. That was it, car finished, well nearly, the engine is next but that’s another story.
By Kevin Alford
IF YOU WANT TO BE CAR OR THE MONTH FOR APRIL, MAIL ME SOON!!!!