I would like to start this weeks post off with a big thank you to those of you who have left comments with your congratulations and emails for the new arrival. The new arrival has now been given his name, “Liam”. Apparently a Mustang ’64 – ’68 workshop manual is not good for bedtime stories.

Things here at Mustang Maniac are still as busy as ever and things have improved on the office front now for phone calls a little we are glad to say, but still not ideal. Again emails have picked up and we have responded to pretty much most of them, so another thank you for taking that route with us, it makes our work load a lot easier to deal with.

News

This week we are moving things around and we managed to talk Adam into parting with a Mustang that was getting in the way for the planned new storage area for yet more stock parts. No this wasn’t sold, no this wasn’t part exchanged, this car was going to be scrapped. Yep, you read that right, Adam is scrapping a 1967 Fastback. However he did walk around the car to decide what bits he would keep, engine, axle, prop shaft, wheels etc. To record the event there was a video filmed (which will go on YouTube soon) of the event, as well as some pictures. Those who were standing close to Adam at the time thought they saw a tear in his eye. When Adam was questioned about this rumour he said it was “something in his eye at the time”. He did crack a smile and say I have an idea – “This is now an ‘Enos’ car, I could put on the WebShop“. If you want this “Enos” car we suggest you give him a call quickly, we suspect there won’t be a lot of takers somehow. lol. John was on the fork lift and Mark and Adam were guiding the wreck sorry car to its temporary final resting place.

WebShop

We have sold some of our first “Enos” stock and the feedback is positive that there is an option for some of the stock range now. The WebShop stock applicable is now being labelled up as “Enos” range products, such as mirrors, suspension parts and radiators.

History Lesson part 2

A couple of posts ago we mentioned the Benson Ford cargo ship that was recycled into a home. The post was a popular read, so we have had some more info passed to us regarding Henry Ford and his relationship the water.

Unknown to many, Henry Ford 2 was a real fan of the UK and had a large house on the River Thames in the UK. He also had a motor launch commissioned that would be used to entertain both Ford business guests and his friends. The boat was called “Interceptor” and was powered by two 5 litre 6 cylinder diesel engines which were more typically used to power the Ford D Series truck, also known as the Dorset series engines.

Did you know?

Ford named all UK engines after UK counties – hence: Essex V6, Kent 4 cylinder and Dorset etc.

The “Interceptor” was specially built for Ford during the 60s and was skippered by a Ford employee who stayed with it throughout his career with Ford. The boat also had a cook and butler on board to complete the complement. There was a ‘main saloon’ that could seat 22 people and resembled a board room finished in Ford blue with teak and mahogany panelling. The boat also had a small galley and wheel house along with a rear deck to enjoy drinks on while enjoying the sights of London from the river.

During the ’70/’80s ‘cost cutting’ by the Company’s finance group repeatedly identified that the boat should be sold – but Henry refused several times to sign the disposal papers – unlike other (Ford) Company assets, only Henry could approve Interceptor’s disposal. It was finally sold in the late ’90s after Henry’s death and when it needed a complete and expensive refit.

What happened to Interceptor?

It was bought by a river cruise company, refurbished and is still available for hire on the Thames today. It’s still called the MV Interceptor.

Customer Cars

Mercury

We had a decision-making process who would be the lucky person to get the Mercury to fix up. The decision was made on an important aspect, who would remember the car when it was first built! John was the lucky winner from that very short, singular entry list. It was a fair and logical choice from the list, unfortunately John wasn’t around when the decision was made. 🙂

Seriously though, John got her on the ramp and started to fully evaluate the scale of issues and work involved to get her road worthy. John Started with the wheel areas and found the usual leaking rear cylinders.

But, more worryingly he found the front brake pipes just not really attached to anything, so when you press the pedal everything moves when it shouldn’t. John made a nice job of fabricating some custom-made brackets to hold the pipes in place. Not only do they look good, they are in keeping with the look of the car too. Here are the before and after pics.

dangerous before

safe after

The front disc brakes are from a Granada and retro fitted in the USA. We don’t use these conversions as the pistons overhang the discs and don’t give the ideal even braking pressure to the pads. The wheels also had the odd split pin missing as well.

The next up was the suspension sway bar. The bushings were completely perished and in a real bad way. These had to be removed and replaced.

old bushes in place

new in place & old bush

Chris was volunteered to be lifted to the top of the ramp height while John worked under t he car.

Note to self: There was a lot of volunteering going on this week – must do more of this volunteering of people!

He had the important task of selecting the gears in order to make sure the ignition inhibitor, or neutral disconnect switch to the automatic gearbox was working. This switch was missing from the car and should be fitted to these gearboxes. Often on Mustangs they are bypassed or even removed. John adjusting the switch as Chris moved the gears and turned the car over to make sure all was aligned correctly to make sure the car started only when it should.

 Belgium convertible

Alan has rolled up his sleeves or should we say brushed his fur, and got going on the Belgium convertible and started the rebuild of the rear end. Yogi has prepped the rear quarters with some white primer and the inner drop panels of the trunk.

Once the primer had cured properly the base colour coat was applied. Why do we apply colour at this stage?

As the inner quarters go right down to the bottom and would almost be impossible to spray properly. The base colour coat is applied so when the top coats are applied the over spray will not show up and can all be blended in.

There has been more work on the rust war with the ’70 fastback. Again the rear section rust has been cut away to good metal and being readied to take the new panel parts. Sam has been busy with the red oxide again to protect those parts that you normally don’t get to see. He’ says he is in this picture somewhere!

That way these often neglected areas will be protected from the elements and should last ages and not need even looking at for good while yet. The rust has taken hold and is eating the rear chassis without remorse. But Yogi has seen it, formed a battle plan, read the riot act again and is starting this campaign of the war on rust.

Acapulco Coupe

The seats are here at last. Trevor the Trimmer had a delay in waiting for the correct density of foam to arrive so he could custom make the seat padding at the rear. As yet there is no direct replacement for the rear foam, as the material was damaged beyond repair Trevor had his work cut out, (forgive the pun). Anyway the results were brilliant as ever and the wait time for the custom made process was worth it. The centre hump really makes the look of this interior a little special.

When Mart showed up we assembled the parts together and fitted the trims. The holes were made for the seat backs via a locating point and punched out ready.

We fitted the rear and Adam was the first person to sit in the rear as he did most of the hard work and the responsibility of cutting the holes for the seats!

We let Mart get on and bolt the rails and fit the springs to the front seats. He bolted them in and fiddled around to fit the rear parcel shelf in place. The rear shelf was custom-made again to match the head liner from a new but damaged liner we had lying around. Mart, had the honours of sitting in the front seat first of course. We need to adjust them up a little yet, but the idea is there and the car now has working seats.