Granada organ donor for the 65 Falcon

I'll get to the red paint shortly, but I think here is a good spot to insert where I sourced most of the heavy mechanical parts for the Falcon. Sometime in the future I will post an homage to donor cars with pictures of all the vehicle's who were condemned to the junkyard by my hand. I'm not proud, or particularly thrilled about sentencing otherwise usable cars to the crusher, but sometimes there is no better option towards the relentless and passionate pursuit of my goal.

I picked up this lovely 1977 Ford Granada in the S.F. Bay Area and drove her all the way home to Sacramento. I paid $1400. She had 53,000 original miles, was equipped with a healthy (but smogged down) 302 V8 engine, a C-4 transmission that shifted right and power disk brakes up front. This car also had everything I needed for the 5 lug conversion and more.

                                      . 
The day I brought the Granada home. It was a really nice looking car on this side. Good clean lines and I even like the color. All original paint, 1 owner car. This was around March, 2008.



For brakes, I utilized the rear axle that had hefty drum brakes, the front spindles with disk brakes, the master cylinder, booster, proportioning valve and every single Granada brake line. In short, the entire Power Disk Brake Granada braking system was transferred to the Falcon- no mixing and matching parts. I had to clearance the Falcon's left inner shock tower slightly to make room for the extended booster/master cylinder equipment, but it all basically bolted right in with little effort. I re bent most of the brake pipes slightly, but they were totally compliant.

For engine, I tore down the 302 and overhauled it with new rings, bearings, stainless valves, a Summit Race cam, and an '84 5.0 H.O. factory Ford aluminum 4-barrel intake manifold. I had to buy the correct engine mounts as my car was originally made with an inline 6, but those are easily sourced reproduction parts. I am using stock cast-iron exhaust manifolds for the Falcon that I got from a friend.

For transmission, I cleaned it with Simple Green, replaced the torque converter seal, and installed it as-is.

Interior was a little dirty but otherwise 100% in-tact and in great condition. 

I stored her out of sight in the side yard until I was ready to harvest parts. The birds were not kind to her. She fired right up and I parked her in the driveway for her last bath prior to surgery. This was around October 2008.

Had it not been for the damage you see here on the right, I would have kept this car and put some better wheels on and driven it. The whole right side was swiped though. (Up on stands to drop the transmission.) 

Greasy engine and transmission. 

                                     Granada Disk brakes compared to the drums of the Falcon
                                     

Beefy 8.9" rear axle

 Here's the Granada being towed away. Note that she's now wearing the Celica wheels along with the complete Falcon 4 lug suspension. She was a really nice car and again, had it not been for the right-side swipe, I'd have souped up the engine and changed the rims and had a killer Granada to drive. This was not her fate though.