We have some big updates on Customer Cars this week, business related news for Mustang Maniac and news of new products for later Mustangs. A kind and loyal customer has donated something pretty special Mustang Maniac History Collection, that’s just been made up as this post is being prepared. 🙂

The John Wick Car

We posted a little while ago how the floor pans were covered in sound proofing sheets, now we have taken another huge step forward. The rest of the car that needed to be sound proofed has been done ie. the wheel arches, these are always difficult due to the angles and shapes involved.

While the windows are out the head liner has to be fitted, Yogi got busy and spent a day fitting it and the rest of the evening getting the glue out of his fur, he told us the glue had made the cup of tea permanently stick to his hand! We are not so sure on that one. 😉

Next up was the wiring, the kit comes with everything needed to wire the car back up with a new fuse box, relays and accessories. We managed to salvage some of the original under dash loom once we had checked it was all OK and we were happy with it. The lower dash was then fitted and looms run out to the engine bay. With everything out-of-the-way it makes life so much easier to complete the intricate jobs.

The trouble is you can spend a complete day doing things like this and it looks like you have done nothing. The secret is all the small steps and preparation, such as where the cables are going to run, what else need to be attached with the loom, where the looms will run to and from etc.

Here are some before and after shots of loom work. This kit requires a 1-wire alternator, but with our know how we can wire these kits up safely with a standard alternator. This doesn’t look like much, but the work involved to remove or add some wires and re-crimp into the original fittings is a dark art. The solenoid is almost ready for the final connections and the loom to be wrapped with our own loom tape for that authentic stock look.

With most of the climbing around inside the car done we could fit the carpets. Again this looks like just throwing in the pre-cut  carpets in place, but you have to trim and create the fitting.

The rear of the car has been completely wired up now and the fuel tank has been fitted in place. The outside of the car has seen the new handles fitted so we can open and shut the doors properly now.

The brakes are all in place now, bleed and the special Yogi treatment performed on the brake lines.

Did You know?

Each car’s brake lines that Yogi has to fabricate are subtly unique, that’s just how Yogi likes it apparently, works of art so he says! Unless you want the standard routing of course which he will do for you too.

Golden Convertible:

This lady has been into us for some serious pampering as only we know how. The car need a whole heap of work doing to her as she was a little tired. The work consisted of a new C4 transmission, rear shocks, leaf springs shackles and bushes. At the front we are going to further improve the handling with new shocks, spring perches and rubber bushes. With the new transmission in place we could fit the new exhaust, boxes and re align it all back up again.

Once all the work is done there will be plenty of life left in her yet and she will feel like the new car again.

Mustang Maniac History Collection

We have been donated some rare Corgi made Mustang toys which are always welcomed.

The second part of the donation is something very special indeed. We had not seen these before let alone actually own one.

These small and beautiful key rings were made during the World Trade Fair in 1964 for the launch of the Mustang. They are no more than an inch wide plus the chain itself.

What we understand is that when you went to the 1964 New York World Fair you could get your car plate made up with its number on a World Fair mini key ring. The cost went as a donation to the US Vets fund. The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) purchased The ident-o-tag company in 1941. License plate key chain tags were used since 1938. The New York based “Lost Key Services” was among the first. There were other advertising tags used too, but you had to order the tags. The DAV was able to get the various state motor vehicle departments to co-operate with them and give them the mailing lists of the people who registered their cars. The DAV mailed tags with your license plate number on them and asked for a donation. The premise was that if you lost your keys, the finder would drop them into a mail box, and the DAV would return them to you. The program continued from 1941 through 1975, and was ended because of a “right to privacy” rule. It’s incredible to have something from that very important World Trade Fair that was actually produced there and also relates to a real person who visited the fair. Special thanks to GW for the information and donations, we seriously appreciate it.

To match all of that, we aim to bring you something very special soon. We have been speaking to somebody who bought their fastback from NEW in 1965 and had it shipped over to the UK in 1966. They still have that same car and all the provenance that went with it. The owner of the car attended the world trade fair in New York itself. We hope to ask some questions with him to bring you a first hand account of that whole Mustang experience.

Mustang Maniac Offices:

The offices at Mustang Maniac always seems to be at the back of the queue when it comes to reliability for our broadband service and telephones. We won’t name them of course, But The name should be easy enough to guess. All the Office ordering, invoices, internet services and telephones are run through the broad band. Yet again we have had an outage where the phones were disabled and we were unable to work. To stop this happening again we have invested in Satellite broadband as a back up. It won’t be brilliant, but at least we can still keep the WebShop working and process your orders. More expense that we shouldn’t have to incur, but if you can’t trust something you have to do something about it.

New Parts

To cater for our customers with the new Mustangs, our suppliers and good friends from USA – Scott Drake are introducing a sale on their new products for the 2015/2016 Mustangs. We haven’t had full details of the costs yet .but we will do very soon. Some of the new parts include:

California Deck Lid Panel for Mustang S550

Aluminum Pedal Covers

550R Aluminum Strut Tower Brace Mustang S550 GT/Ecoboost

AlumaLift Hood Strut System Mustang S550

Billet Parking Brake Handle Cover

Comp Series Fuel Door

LAR Tyre Services: 

The sister company to Mustang Maniac is LAR Traffic Services who have now launched a brand new service to run along side their recovery. That service is a road side tyre service, changing, fitting, inflating, balancing etc. They will be operating to start with in the Essex, Herts and North East London areas. All the details can be found here on their Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/lartyres/