This week has been very busy again with a much-anticipated delivery of parts from the USA, we were not disappointed with it that’s for sure, but more of that later. We have also continued the clearing up of the yard, a spring clean in the summer. We have also had a more than usual number of cars to look after. Regular visitors will notice the changes to the yard, we have moved some of the long-standing cars, including a rare genuine factory optioned GT that we just haven’t got round to restoring yet, to their new hopefully temporary homes. The cars were all under tents and on the backs of lorries awaiting their fate, or decision. We think the sun and hot weather has made the decisions much easier, either that or Adam got a little sunstroke! Anyway moving on, the space will be used for customer cars delivery and collection, valeting and new larger enclosure for the guard dogs. The skip will be going now as we have two other small skips that we now use. The big result is that we can now even turn our transporter lorries around without any problems at all now, a first for Mustang Maniac.

Customer’s Cars:

We often have cars that have been bought and not much is know about the history of the car. We have a real gem of a rare car and its full history. We now see this car each year for a service and an MOT, we also discuss the next little projects. This really is a fantastic looking car. Thanks to Gary who has kindly given us the following information so we could put it on our blog:

This particular car was built the day before the Mustang launch and was ordered by Ford centrally as dealer launch stock.
Originally when the car was bought it came with very little U.S. history, so after 6 months researching  late last year a real stroke came Gary’s way. A visit to a vintage Mustang forum and a random search for ‘Pagoda Green D code convertible’ was made and up popped a trail from 2007 discussing the colour of the James Bond mustang from Goldfinger. One member commented that “it’s not pagoda green as I had one of those with the rare d code engine in the late 90s”. He came from Terre Haute, Indiana – the last known address of my car! The member was contacted and sure enough, he had owned the car. Over the next few months and with his help and many letters sent to the U.S., since then a full history has been traced from new.
Gary is the 9th owner (including 3 dealers). It spent all of its U.S. life in a 40 mike radius of Terre Haute Indiana and its 99k mileage appears to be genuine. The first owner was a banker from Paris Illinois (20 miles from Terre Haute) and really wanted a dark blue car, but as Mustangs were in short supply at launch he had the dealer paint it dark blue. In the late 70s fashions had changed and red convertibles were in vogue so he had it then been painted red. He part-ex’d it in the mid 80s for a mid 50s Thunderbird. A dealer bought it for his son’s 18th birthday, restored it underneath (which is as it is today albeit with a few local repairs). The son kept it for 4 years and sent me photos of it in red with him proudly sat in it. The 3rd owner was a Terre Haute business man who kept it until 1995 and his son also sent me a photo of it. The 4th owner who was Gary’s  initial contact) checked the vin and realised it was an important, rare early car. He proceeded to have it bare metalled and painted back to its original rare colour of Pagoda Green – Ford only sold this colour for the first two months of production then changed it to Tropical Turquoise. It is suggested that only 200 Pagoda Green D Code Convertibles with White Trim were produced. He also replaced the worn trim and fitted sports wheels. He then sold the car to his attorney (who kept pestering him to sell it) in 2001. The attorney guy was the last U.S. Title owner in the car file when Gary bought it, he had kept it until 2007 only driving it 800 miles. The car then went to Malta via a trader in the UK, where he kept it until late 2012 when it was imported to the UK. It was correctly registered and Gary bought it from the dealer.

Gary has given us a great idea, we would like to our customer cars on our blog with their history. So if you can give us the details we will put them on our blog with some pictures. Who knows we may be able to establish a pattern of movements?

Chris’ i6:

Work has started on Chris’ coupe in the yard at long last. He was seen with a grin on his face and an 18v Snap On impact wrench. The suspension needed to be removed along with all the other bits, so we have some first day restoration pics. There was some helpful hints on how to remove seized steering joints without damaging the threads!

There was some more pics of the work along with the ceremonial handing over of the Mustang Maniac scraper from Mart to Chris with them shaking hands and having a laugh. As John pointed out the looks on the faces were “I’ve done it – you’re doing it”. But some dip stick had deleted the pics during the transfer to the PC for upload. Yes he has been ridiculed, he will be made to take a bath in used engine oil as punishment. 🙂

Acapulco Coupe:

Mart’s Acapulco Coupe is getting more of the pretty bits and functional parts added to the car. The washer jet pump was not working so needed to be replaced. We are at a point now where have given the car a little something special. For a our full restorations we have a little tag placed on the car. We stuck a certificate if you like, on the car to show it has met with our highest levels of restoration for a rebuild project, Mart’s number is 35. We are proud to put our name to our restoration projects and the work we do.

 Stock:

We mentioned earlier in the post that we have had some stock delivered. We have been waiting for these for a while now and ordered a few sets to get us started. These are on now on our WebShop, but the image does not do them justice at all. They are bespoke to Scott Drake Magnum 500 styled wheels which are made from a machined Aluminium Alloy. Available in Gloss Black and a real beautiful satin silver. The wheels had been in stock less than 24 hours and we have sold a set already.

Quick links to the WebShop to buy them here:

https://mustangmaniac.co.uk/part/56/8400/15_x_7_magnum_alloy_wheel__5_on_