81 ford granada marquis (miscellaneous)

Here are a few miscellaneous items that didnt really fit into any other catagory

Entertainment system

The original radio was an AM/LW unit with only one speaker in the centre of the dashboard, had no cassette player and wasn’t even stereo, so I fitted a modern DAB, Bluetooth, FM, MP3 four speaker radio that is made to look like an oldschool radio but with all the modern conveniences and fits the original mounting points, it actually has more features than I know what to do with.

Fuel system

I had to reconfigure the fuel system as you might expect because the original engine was carburetted with a low pressure 3 – 6psi (0.20 – 0.41 Bar) lift pump driven off the engine and low pressure plastic pipes, the “new’ engine is fuel injected with a high pressure 40 – 60 psi (2.75 – 4.14 Bar) pump and corresponding high pressure fuel lines.  I fitted a high pressure pump and filter behind the rear differential near the fuel sender unit for ease of pipework and replaced the fuel lines with cupronickel ones, I also sprayed over them with black Waxoyl when finished so they didn’t stick out like a sore thumb.  Final part of the fuel system was fitting the inertia cut off switch in the boot behind the spare tyre and jack.  One slight problem that manifested itself after using the car for a while is because there is no fuel chamber inside the fuel tank around the fuel pick up pipe, when the fuel level gets down to around a quarter and starts sloshing around more, it occasionally momentarily allows the fuel pump to draw a little air, not quite sure this is actually solvable except to keep the full tank above a quarter full.

Cabin heating

At the start of this build I knew the heater pipes were going to be a pain because they would end up buried deep behind the engine virtually impossible to get at, I fitted the heater pipes first and then dropped the engine in, well now they have come back to haunt me.  In April 2022 after getting the car out of winter storage the 40 year plastic heater matrix decided it had had enough and starting to seep which is a slight pain but I was half expecting it.

I removed the old plastic heater coore by simply cutting off the pipes inside the car, undoing the two securing screws and pulled it out.  I then made up some reconfigured pipework and brazed/soldered it onto the new heater core.  The next job was to make up some pipework to go through the firewalland connect with the pipes off the engine, I used a couple prebent 5/8 inch (16mm)  aluminium 90 degree elbows and welded them to a piece of flat bar stock, drilled a couple holes and bolted the assembly to the firewall using a piece of foam to seal against water ingress.

 

Headlights

As mentioned on the Ford Granada Marquis hompage this car was originally sold in Belgium where they drive on the right side of the road, now the car in in The U.K. where we drive on the left side of the road it menas the low beam headlights now “dip” towards oncoming traffic instead of towards the curb, so I had to mask out the part of the headlight lens that deflects the beam.  Eventually when a pair of right hand drive headlight lenses appear on Ebay at the right price I shall replace them.

My breakfast

It’s Sunday morning, 7:30, clear blue skies, the suns out, 50 degrees F (10 degrees C) and what better way to start the day than with breakfast at The Lillypool Cafe. The best breakfast in The West Country

more information about the ford granada marquis

Please follow the links below to find out how the 1981 Ford Granada Marquis was created. (Click on pictures to see at full size)