Disclosure: This site may receive compensation when you click on some links and make purchases.

Success Story: 1978 Ford Granada ESS

Reader Trevor H recently sent us photos of his Ford Granada. If it looks familiar, that’s because we featured it back in January 2017. You can read Jeff’s post here! We always love hearing about the classic cars we’ve helped find good home’s for, so we are glad to hear this Ford ended up with Trevor. I’ll let him tell you a little bit about his find below.

From Trevor – It was thanks to your article I found this car! And yes I swapped the SS badges for GT badges. She’s been a good daily driver and I couldn’t be happier with it, believe it or not.

The car wasn’t an ESS and I knew that going in, this is my third Granada. Since I owned my first Granada in high school I’ve fallen in love with them.

We want to thank and wish Trevor the best of luck with his Granada! If you’ve ever purchased a find after seeing it here on Barn Finds, we would love to hear about it. You can send your success stories to us at mail@barnfinds.com!

Comments

  1. Avatar KSwheatfarmer

    Like that jade green paint job.Had it on my 76 Cougar high school car. Such a family resemblance from the Granada to the LTD in those years. Glad to see Trevor is proud of his ride and taking good care of it. Heard Ford isn’t even going to make cars as we know them other than the Mustang next year. Every thing changes eventually.

    Like 7
    • Avatar glen

      I saw a white 76 Cougar today, very nice.

      Like 1
  2. Avatar Dick Johnson

    The pride that Trevor has in his car says almost as much about him as the pics of the B- 17 do. “Keep ’em Flying.”

    I’m a sucker for jade green machines. My own “Jade Grenade” ’67 Sporty was the beginning of my bias towards this color.

    Like 3
  3. Avatar Chris

    I love hearing about folks that really enjoy their cars, especially when its not something crazy expensive. Great to enjoy the hobby.

    I took my Dad up in a B-17 in Arizona 18 months ago. We rode in the nosecone together, there is absolutely nothing like the sound of those radial engines. It was the last plane flight he took. Here is the view the bombardier sees.

    Like 19
    • Avatar Dick Johnson

      Outstanding. It was my pleasure to have flown a couple of warbirds for many air show seasons. It’s not often that we get a chance to rewind time back several decades. To be able to see sixty years dissapear from a veteran’s face was the ultimate honor for us.

      Like 5
      • Avatar Chris

        Yeah, my Dad was a retired USAF Captain. That flight was not cheap, but the best money I have ever spent. The plane was in beautiful condition and the last one with functioning superchargers. I bunch of senior retired guys maintain it perfectly at a hanger in Tempe. I was surprised how smooth the flight was, and with no bombs on board I think we only needed 500 feet of runway to take off.

        Like 3
  4. Avatar Old Phart

    Ford Grandad.
    Perfect for grandparents everywhere.

    Like 3
  5. Avatar Carl

    Familiar. Yup.

    I worked in SF for a special lines aka high risk insurance company at the time of this car. I was the Claim Manager. We had an “office” car. usually used by the resident VP. It was a Granada. More than likely a base model. but fully equipped. From time to time I got the use of it. Nice transportation.

    At one time, BART went on strike. More or less stranded several of us that lived in the East Bay. A smart and generous VP gave us use of the car to get to work. We met at a Bart park lot and then took turns doing the the driving. Nice car, nice ride, nice folks.

    Carl

    Like 3
  6. Avatar Gay Car Nut Seattle

    Lovely looking car. I remember when the Ford Granada was on the US market. I was too young at the time to drive, but I’ve always found them to be quite attractive looking cars.

    Like 0
  7. Avatar booya

    A toast: Love is blind!

    Like 3
  8. Avatar Ken Nelson Member

    Glad it’s in such fine shape. Had one as a co. car in Detroit. Took it thru a car wash once, and the power brush peeled the fender antenna out of its hole from rust, and the car was only a couple yrs old! Only good thing it did for me was when I was about to hit a dog which suddenly darted away from its owner – no leash – and ran across in front of me with only time to hit the brakes once. I slammed them on, but knew I was going to hit him dead center and still moving fast enough to kill him, but somehow i realized the front end had dropped like a rock with braking and was going to smear him so lifted my right foot completely. I heard horrible banging under the car as I went right over him, looked in the rear view mirror, and he was up and running to his home across the street – bloody but still alive! I stopped & went over to the owner to see how the dog was. Unbelievably he had nothing broken, so the extra front end clearance on rebound seemed to have saved him. Of course the girl owner was upset, but I figured her not having the dog on a leash was a dumb mistake, and my maneuver and the strong rebound of the Granada – a V8 – had increased the clearance substantially – & maybe the shocks being not that good had saved the dog!
    As for the co. car – I considered it a sawed-off version of the fullsize LTD I had before the Grenada. I had to have a co. Ford at that time as most of my training work was with Ford Engine in Dearborn. Then switched to Chrysler minivans when we put plastic fenders on the LH sedans in 1990.

    Like 1
  9. Avatar Miguel

    I have nothing to say here.

    My favorite car is the Pinto.

    Like 2
  10. Avatar Kenneth Carney

    Bought one off my landlord in the ’90’s.
    Mine was a creamy yellow with a cream
    and brown interior. The 250 straight six
    ran great so long as I kept the plugs clean
    and properly gapped. The engine had many miles on it and the valve guide seals were pretty much shot, but other
    than that, the rest of the car was very
    nice for its age. Mrs. and I added a
    7-speaker stereo system with a 150
    watt pre-amp and EQ. For its size,
    the car rode great–like any larger car
    of the day and my back was thanking me
    for buying it. Wound up selling it to a young kid who rolled it 21/2 times before
    he finished paying for it. Thankfully, he
    wasn’t hurt, but my wallet sure was. I
    never sold a car to anyone on time ever
    again!

    Like 1

Leave a Reply to KSwheatfarmer Cancel reply

RULES: No profanity, politics, or personal attacks.

Become a member to add images to your comments.

*

Get new comment updates via email. Or subscribe without commenting.