A very busy week with lots going in the yard and we will bring you a story of a behind the scenes pieces of work that is taking the best part of six months to happen, but more on that a little later. We have had a lot of interest in the John Wick car as we always do when she is in the yard. Unlike the film this little lady is not mashed up and sounding like a bag of nails being kicked down the stairs. She was in for quite a big change or upgrade depending on how you look at it.

Customers Cars:

John Wick

The car in the films transmission was an automatic, the car we built was a manual as we were asked to build. Now after a little deliberation the owner, he has decided to swap over to an automatic like the car in the films. What people don’t realise is that swapping over the gearboxes is just the beginning.

So out it was out with the old manual gear box;

Then out with the pedal box, as you just can’t cut a pedal off as such, then remove the old gearbox linkage and centre console.

We reused the original centre console to fit a bespoke Hurst Auto shifter in place instead of the stock build auto gear box lever.

Yogi made up a template for the Hurst shifter and its relevant position to the new gearbox linkages. We had a strip of wood grain trim to match the original factory trim option, the template pattern would be laid and then carefully cut out the new openings.

The console was strengthened with our own little secret process then replaced back into the car. Once everything was secure the shifter was properly mounted.

A new starter motor was fitted as the linkage to the gearbox was fabricated, adjusted and fitted. New transmission cooling pipes were routed to the front for cooling as would have been on the original specification.

Next up was the new pedal box and the throttle linkages to the carb which also had to be swapped over from the manual one.

Once all that little lot was done the finished result is very simple looking, but a lot of work behind the scenes, The neutral disconnect wiring to be integrated to the wiring and ignition loom, the speedo cable, kickdown operation, carburetor settings, brake pedal height all have to be adjusted and set to defaults before a road test, then we tweak the adjustments once or twice more to get to the optimal performance set up for the car.

Apart from the stress and aggravation of the manual gearboxes the autobox will now be smooth effortless and correct to the film now.

Time for yet another road test – just to make sure all is OK of course! 😉

Our Cars

Adam has had his ’66 Hertz Shelby in storage for a long time, after Cleo Shelby had signed it for him he decided to do a little work on her. The car runs but nowhere near how it should, so like most of these things start with the carb which has been sitting there for a for years getting gummed up and rusty. So the man or bear for the job Yogi stepped up to the mark for a strip down and rebuild. The dark art of a carb rebuild, jetting and mixtures will all be required on this 800CFM (yes 800) double pumper.

Before – with the moving parts removed, gaskets removed and all to be restored and checked for any wear & tear before refitting.

After – the carb rebuilt and put back together ready for the refit.

A very special favour for a ‘Boss’ using the world wide Mustang Maniac contacts. 

We have touched on this type of story a few times in the past, but we must stress that this is NOT something that Adam and Mustang Maniac does on any sort of regular basis. In fact this is a very good friend (within the very small close-knit Mustang Maniac inner sanctum as it were), as well as being a loyal customer who need some help. The conversation was had with Adam and he responded. We shall be covering this story as it happens to take you on a documented journey. It may go well with no problems, or it could be a nightmare. We haven’t documented this before but we thought we might share it with you this time as it was customer lead.

‘Thank you Adam for the very special help’,  this customer as he has asked (me) to pass along.

After the loss, well sale of his ’65 coupe, the search for a ‘new mistress’ (as he would say) has been eventful and fruitless for a while with every advert, paper, social media and website had been scoured and trawled over looking for the replacement.

This is the sorry sight of a much-loved car being driven away by somebody else! Rumour has it there was a tear in his eye as she left. (It wasn’t a rumour by the way).

This Mustang Maniac customer was looking for a certain style for his next car, and nothing was standing out, after seeing many in the Uk over many months, the cars over here were just not up to scratch (well there were some with scratches on the paint), or on the other hand just not what he was looking for. Frustration grew and Mustang Maniac steped in and give this customer some exclusive contacts that we use in the USA. The word was put out to Adam’s contacts to look for a likely candidate for the customers spec he had in mind. A couple of weeks later that word was returned with a few pics the new potential ‘mistress’ was found.

Everything was now down to the customer to fine tune the deal, if this was indeed the replacement. The car in question happens to be a 1970 ‘Boss’ 302 clone fastback. The vehicle is quite rare for being a genuine two owner car from new, lime metallic green paint, luxury Ivy green interior, Mach1 package, a rare tilt column and fold down rear seat, factory rear louvres etc. Underneath, she sports a 331ci stroked aluminium headed motor, mated to a TCI reverse manual shift C4 gearbox, hooked up to a 8” rear with 4:11 gears and a posi traction diff.

After many phone calls with the owner, hundreds of detailed pictures of the good, not so good, the bad and a video to help with the decision, the trigger was pulled to release funds for the new car.

It’s well known that importing a car can be a daunting prospect; there are hundreds of shipping companies willing to take your money and bring your beloved car over by any means possible, not all of those options are good ways to bring a car back we might add. So again the customer asked us for some help and we pointed him in the right direction by giving him some reputable shipping companies to contact for quotes.

The process for shipping is from Indiana to Miami docks. Then from Miami to the Uk, we wish him the best of luck in getting it to her new home. We aim to follow this customers journey, regarding transportation, shipping, insurance and registration and how it all goes for him. Once all the paper work and costs have been paid, it’s a case of then getting his new pride and joy to or to us for the Mustang Maniac safety check (see last weeks post) before we let him loose in it on the UK roads. Watch this space for more updates.

WebShop

It’s that time of year where our new delivery of the Limited Edition Mustang Maniac Calendars are in stock for 2019 year. There is a very limit run of these and to get one you just need to order anything to, or over the value of £200 and we will pop one in the order for you, free. Here is a quick preview of the calendar.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

If you order the Mustang Maniac Gift Vouchers for £200 or more you will also get the calendar, remember only while stocks last, once they are gone, there will be no more!

The vouchers are available in £10 and £20 and can be used in the WebShop.

The links for the £10 voucher is here or click on the picture below.

The links for the £20 voucher is here or click on the picture below.

There are only two more weekends before Christmas, just saying!