Run by: Myles Gorfe. Total Mileage: 299,904. Miles since Jan ’15: 2. Latest costs: £503 for steering linkage and rack renewal, crank adjustments, re-greased hinges, re-fitting missing chrome window trim, new battery, locating oil leak, fitting a solenoid.
It’s been a busy month for the Grannie. Gavin Chide at Dorris Motors re-greased the boot hinges which were sticking again. Having fitted the solenoid I got from eBay, I decided to take the old girl for a spin to see if the performance had improved. The engine started beautifully and the Ford took to the road again. Then it cut out about two minutes into the drive and refused to re-start. There was no smell of petrol and the starter was turning over quite healthily. A quick call to Dorris Motors was all that was needed to get a flat-bed truck sent out to recover the car which only took a few hours. At the time of writing a replacement wiring harness for the ancillaries is in the post, traced to an Dutch seller via eBay. I have noticed an oil leak from the right side of the engine and I will have this seen to while the car is being looked after by Gavin Chide.
Myles. Sorry you couldn’t make it to The Beechwood this month. Leastways Big Terry said no-one new turned up only I wasn’t there because of a nasty incident. I’d retrimmed the roof of my 3 litre Ghia with some vinyl I sourced online Apparently it’s the same stuff Cosmos space capsules used so I reckoned it would be well up to the job. Its a bit thicker than the original but I was pretty pleased with the job so I thought I’d show it off at The Beechwood. Half way there the bugger scalped itself. Vinyl all over the road. Turns out the glue I used was pants. Guess who sold it me? Gavin Chide. Bloody tosser! Don’t say I didn’t give you the heads up. Re the harness. DON’T take it out without checking if yours has the 1″ grommet where it goes through the bulkhead. If it does, you’ll never get another back though the hole without a special tool. I guarantee.
PS. You Grannies looking even tastier in this month’s photo. Have you resprayed the lower valance?
I’m told the re-spray has to
wait until the sills are welded. The brighter look is just to do with the lighting this month.
I got a couple of cans of this great gear from The States called WelD-LaK. It uses Space Shuttle technology and welds sills solid as it paints them at the same time. Only available in Fire Yellow though but I can’t see why you shouldn’t overpaint it. It’s not who you know …..