The hot “C” word of the moment “Corona” is dominating everything we can do and everything we will continue to do for now. We are very busy with our stock going out as fast as we possibly can, but like we said before we are reliant on logistics. If the orders aren’t picked up we can’t deliver – simple as that we hate to say. A couple of emails haven’t been that understanding of these unprecedented times should we say and thus received an explanatory email from Adam about the situation. One customer wanted us to leave their items outside for them. We are fine with that if you let us know, but they didn’t know when they could pick it up. When we said we need a time scale, they got a bit grumpy when we said we are not allowing the public into our premises for our own and your own protection. The funny part – they are not our normal customers, these are people who can’t get their parts anywhere else due to the additional import charges making some stock scarce. We will not be selliong to that customer again. We need to make a living too, if you wan’t it cheaper as others are stating – then please feel free to order from them. As Adam says “I can be even cheaper than them, if I haven’t got it in stock!” We can safely bet that the order won’t be as quick as you expect should we say?

The latest pallets we had ordered before all this virus lock down kicked off, have now been delivered, the sting were expecting was pretty harsh for the final duties to be paid. The pallet with the rear springs on cost us just over four figures (£) and the other pallet a little under that. To put that into context that’s additional charges just for shipping to the UK, on top of the normal costs to import to the UK. The increased base prices per item with our retail costs being applied will unfortunately have to get passed on to our customers for the time being. When we get asked why these parts are now more expensive than before, that is the reason. On the plus side, there are a lot of Mustangs that are going to get some visits from the Easter bunny this weekend. 🙂

Blog News:

While the Corona Virus keeps us all inside we have scaled back our work loads, thus we don’t have so much to report each week. So our little ol’ blog will be coming out every other weekend for a while – Just until we get back to normal.

Customer Cars:

We have finished working on the ’67 Coupe with the last parts going on.

A much nicer car drive now and many of those annoying little niggles have now gone.

World News:

24/3/2020 – Ford Motor Company said that it is working with 3M and General Electric‘s healthcare unit, as well as the United Auto Workers labour union (UAW), to ramp up production of urgently needed hospital and safety equipment. 

Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and respirators are in short supply as hospitals and first responders have mobilized to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The pandemic has also left healthcare authorities worried about a shortage of hospital ventilators, which are necessary for the many COVID-19 sufferers who have difficulty breathing. 

Ford is testing and developing a new face shield for healthcare workers. It’s also planning to make 100,000 of these shields per week with production ramping up within days

What Ford, 3M, and GE said

In a press conference on the morning of 24th March 2020, Ford explained that it has been working on several different efforts since last week:

Ford and 3M are collaborating to manufacture powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) at scale. These are battery-operated protective devices that provide filtered air for healthcare workers and first responders who may be exposed to the virus for several hours at a time. Engineers from 3M and Ford are working quickly to adapt an existing 3M design to incorporate parts (such as blower motors and switches) that Ford has on hand.

Ford manufacturing engineers are also working with 3M to help increase production of other PPE equipment, including N95 masks.

GE Healthcare is working with Ford to engineer and get regulatory approval for a simplified version of an existing GE ventilator design that can be put into mass production quickly. The simplified ventilator will be built at GE factories, and may also be built at a Ford manufacturing site as well. 

Ford is preparing to test a new transparent full-face shield for medical workers and first responders. Ford’s U.S. design team, together with UAW-represented workers who have volunteered to work while Ford’s factories are closed, have already produced 1,000 of these shields for testing at Detroit-area hospitals. Ford expects to manufacture about 75,000 shields this week, and over 100,000 per week thereafter, at a subsidiary’s factory in Plymouth, Michigan. 

Ford is also working on a separate effort, not involving GE, to produce ventilators in the U.K. in coordination with the British government. 

Ford is bringing 165,000 unused N95 respirators back to the U.S. from China, where they were sent earlier this year, and will make those available to hospitals while it works to acquire more. 

Dave Jacek, a Ford 3D-Printing technician is shown here wearing the the prototype face shield for the Healthcare Workers. Image source: Ford Motor Company.

It makes you feel human again to thing that these major players in the market are pulling together to help each other. Ford have managed to start and produce the masks, yet here in the UK they are talking about getting things in place shortly.

Our News:

We have some work being done to our Resto Mod Project which we will bring you next time, in the mean time – here is a little teaser;

If you can’t take the Mustang out – bring the Mustang in!!

We can only say one thing really which has been echoed around the country, “Stay home and save lives”. Go and clean your car(s) or go fettle and tinker, go take a nap in your car if you must feel the need to bond with it again, tidy up your tools and put them neatly in the tool box(s) box. Do what ever you like – Just stay at home.