This week as been very, very busy so we would like to start of with congratulations to Jayson & Pamela who have had a new arrival today weighing in at a health 9lb 9oz. As yet the new arrival has no name, but this is Adam’s second grandson. Rumor has it that Adam will be swapping out a spanners for some nappies soon!

The week has been seriously busy and we haven’t been able to get to the phone and as a result we have had a few emails saying “you don’t answer the phone”. We would like to apologise in that respect, but as Adam has been away from the offices collecting and delivering cars this week in the lorry, organising and dispatching the stock he can’t always answer the phone. But, a lot of the recent enquiries have been regarding stock information and compatibility, we try to avoid people having to ring us up for this type of query, so try and put all the part compatibility on the Webshop along with the current stock availability. We try to help out where we can, so if you have any other queries you can email adam@mustangmaniac.co.uk or use the contact sheet on this blog, complete the contact section(s) and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Stock:

We have taken a delivery this week of a the ’64 – ’68 windscreens with top tints, these shall update out stock levels on the WebShop as soon as we can. Those waiting for the screens – you will have them very shortly.

We have had our first batch of “Enos” stickers delivered to us (thanks to Lance). And we have started to label up the budget stock. Here we have our “Enos” radiator, not as good as normal top of the products, but it’s aimed at the careful Mustang restorer, or for the restoration trade who could well be selling on the car.

The WebShop will be getting its own “Enos” section soon for those looking for a bargain.

We have a couple of new arrivals in the office downstairs, one we have had for a while now, but we needed the space. So the Harley Davidson 100th Anniversary Limited edition is now in the office.

The other new edition is not a spectacular yet, it’s Jayson’s fish tank. He is currently prepping the tank ready, he couldn’t wait to put something it though.

To watch the fish you have to sit on something, so we have new office chairs as well.

Of course we have a picture of Adam trying out the new office furniture and working environment for comfort. He has his ever faithful guard dogs with him.

Oh that was after he raided the drinks fridge!

Customers Cars:

Another new delivery into the yard this week was this rather impressive 1956 Ford Mercury Montclair which has just landed into the UK. We have been asked to sort this little lady out and make her road legal. We will have to sort the brakes, suspension and the engine. This is not your standard Lincoln 368cci “Y” block engine, this has been swapped out with a rather familiar 302 small block. So we will totally at home with this one.  We have been searching around a got a little information here about the car and its history we hope you enjoy.

The Mercury Montclair was produced by Mercury from 1955 to 1957, the M-E-L Division of Ford Motor Company 1958 to 1959 and by the Lincoln Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company from 1964 to 1968. Its appearance followed the concept show car in 1954 called the Mercury XM-800.

The vehicle name was introduced in 1955 and applied to Mercury’s premium automobile line. Ford historians are at a loss as to where the name originated; the consensus is that it’s taken from the upper class community of Montclair, New Jersey. For 1955 and 1956, Montclairs featured Mercury’s best appointments, extra chrome trim, and different two-tone paint combinations to set them apart from other Mercury products. 1956 was the year that Ford introduced its Lifeguard safety program, and the Mercury Montclair came standard with a deep-dish steering wheel to help protect the driver from the steering column, safety door locks, a breakaway rear view mirror, and optional seat belts and padded dashboards. The dash was redesigned with a new three-tier instrument panel.

The Montclair model line also included the Sun Valley, which featured a Plexiglas “bubble” over the front half of the roof section. While futuristic cars were often featured with clear glass tops on the 1950s, consumers rejected the tinted glass roof Sun Valleys (only 1,500 were produced in 1955) because of the heat buildup in the interior of the vehicles. Following lower sales of the Sun Valley for 1956, the version was discontinued for 1957. In 1957 the Montclair name was pushed down market by the introduction of the Turnpike Cruiser. A new frame was used. Nevertheless it could now be ordered with the same 368 cu in (6.0 L) Lincoln Y-Block V8 that came standard on the Turnpike Cruiser. Fuel economy was not to bad 16.2MPG at 50 mph.

We just love this car and it’s a great place to be, the windscreen curves around you before the door is shut.

The interior has lost its original trim but has had a 70’s (we think) retrim. It’s not out of keeping and works.

Yogi has been finishing of the floors in the Rusty ’70 that is not looking so rusty now. The back end looks to be the next on the list for the big can of whoop-ass to be opened up on it.

Acapulco Coupe

We had started the car up to sort out the running problems and made some tweaks to the carb, unfortunately those tweaks were not quite enough to hold a steady idle when off choke. We did a quick strip down of the carb to have a look to what the problems were . We found it had a few issues inside with corrosion and the seals most showing signs of starting to have their own issues. The fact it didn’t look to great, the cost of the repair kit and the time to do it all we spoke to Mart and fitted a new one on it.

The car was taken to the Geo workshop where aligned the suspension and steering up.

Once the geo was done we decided to have a little fun with Mart this week, we hid his car in a storage workshop and not in the main workshop. He had treated himself to one of our car covers and we stuck one of our new “Enos” stickers on it for him. It was a real treat to his confused face walking into the workshop and his car was gone. He knew we had moved it for the geo obviously, but where? He eventually found it in our storage workshop, his comments when he spotted the “Enos” sticker  on his cover we couldn’t possibly print here on a family blog! But, it was shared enjoyable moment and we do think we saw a tear from his laughing.

He opened the bonnet and was well pleased with what we had done, so we were forgiven in an instant and gave us the cookies he bought down with him.

Hopefully this week things will calm down a bit and things get back to normal. Somehow we doubt it though. 🙂