We reached a bit of milestone this week where our ‘favour’ project that had turned into ‘big bodywork’ project for us was completed. The car was taken out of the body workshop and moved her into a different workshop. Now that she is in her new location the car will be prepped for paint, and then gets to be put her back together again when she returns. We will bring you the story and the pictures in a future post once the owner and a very close friend of ours has collated all the details, history and of course the photos.

Customer Cars

Last week we showed the suspension being overhauled and the Borgeson steering being fitted. Next up was the engine which had a few issues all of which when added together can cause problems. The engine was not warming up correctly simple investigation showed no thermostat in place.

The fluids were checked and didn’t show any cross contamination, always a good sign. We replaced the thermostat and the housing in order to get the car up to the correct operating temperature. Only then can we look at the running and tuning of the engine.

Next up was to sort out the fuel lines, they were swapped out for some nice braided versions to match the theme of the engine bay.

A nice glass slim inline fuel filter fitted high enough out the way from road damage was used instead of the usual plastic replacements we so often see. This gives the first indication of the quality of the fuel flow to the carb. Stock filters are fine, but you can’t see the fuel or flow when trying to diagnose problems.

Next up was to check quality of the sparks, all basic stuff so far. We found a mixture of plugs, not an ideal combination, they were different makes and clearly of varying ages should we say. The plug gaps were different which would have an effect on the detonation of the mixtures in the cylinders. The plugs were replaced with correct heat rating and gapped for the aftermarket MSD ignition which was already installed.

Timing and carb tweaks and a little Yogi know-how sorted her out and now runs well and we are happy. Just the road test before a little final tune up.

Project Resto Mod

We have been posting some pics of Adam’s Resto Mod project built from the ground up with only a shell to start with. Ideas come and go, and many ideas are tried out on the car to see what works. The car has now been moving into the body workshop where Yogi can get his teeth into the build. The hood already fitted is one of three that Adam had made just for Mustang Maniac.

The big choice for this project is the engine, potent power from a V8 or from a six pot ‘Ford Barra’ engine. Yep – we did say an inline fuel injection ‘6 pot’. These are not the standard 200Ci from early Mustangs and the like, oh no. These engines are Australian spec and renowned for their build strength and power handling capabilities without anything being done to the block itself. So strong are these engines that you can change the valve springs, a little something else (our secret for now and bit of know how), then bolt a turbo to it. Without opening the engine up you then have a 700hp engine just from off the shelf parts that cost not a lot – from a stock Ford inline 6 pot! These ‘Barra’ engines have been known to run a standard quarter mile in the high 7 second range, and that’s super car territory! They have been dyno’ed with a proper built cams to just over 2000bhp – yes, two thousand BHP! Will it, would it be enough to tempt Yogi to drop two cylinders in the eternal quest for power?

Some mysterious badging has appeared on the project, instead of Mustang – ‘Barra’?

We will be talking about these pretty incredible engines in another post. But for now, Adam has three of these engines, all awaiting their respective projects. As far as we know, these are the first Ford ‘Barramundi’ engines to give them their full name to arrive in the country, let us know if we’re not. Very little is known about these engines in the UK, but it looks like they are not going to be our little secret anymore as we have just told the world via the internet. Yes, these engines will fit in the Classic Mustangs, we have researched and spoken to ‘various’ people about them. With a little Mustang Maniac Modding they will fit.

Those with a sharp eye for detail will notice the bumper. This is not fibreglass, it’s a genuine steel bumper, de-chromed and de-bolted, but fitted as normal to the trunk area via bolts. How? our little secret. 😉 The tops of the bumper have been filled in to give a solid piece look. [Note from the editor: lots of secrets goin’ on here].

This is going to be one amazing project, subtle but very different to anything we have done before. Exciting times. 🙂