At the beginning of this year Adam predicted and we posted a few times about the lack of sheet metal. Things are that bad now that Adam told us; ‘Since the start up of Mustang Maniac parts business, we have never had so much stuff on back order, that list is just getting longer and longer now’. As Adam foresaw this, he ordered as much as he could at the time and he even advised our customers to buy now. Many took Adam up on the advice and did order. Some didn’t and it’s those customers are the ones who keep trying to call and email Adam about availability.

Yes, we do have sheet metal for our own projects, because we forward planned it that way. Some customers know this and still try to buy them from us, but they are not for sale. Everything we want to sell is marked up on the WebShop as “In Stock”. If the item is “Out of stock” or not listed at all then we don’t have or we won’t sell it.

Even now with Adam’s contacts and his priority stock allocation, he is predicting that things won’t get back to normal for a couple of years. As we have said before, our regular and loyal customers are and will be contacted once their parts are in stock with us. The sheet metal is coming in to us, but at seriously slow rates.

As we don’t answer the phone because we are an “online” business now, there are certain people that take to social media to and slag us off and give us downgraded ratings. We need to ask a simple question, do you call amazon to order your items? No. To help you, our customers out, we even redesigned our website to help with finding parts and cross reference part numbers to make life as easy as possible.

We had a customer who ordered a few parts after our offices shut at five past five on Friday evening. We then got an irate email saying he hadn’t had the parts Saturday morning. We don’t work 24/7 like the Amazon business model as our parts turnover doesn’t to warrant that type of service. We had to inform the customer that as their part was over a certain size it has to go via 48hr service, not our choice but the Parcel Force rules. Again this wasn’t good enough, Adam was still trying to explain this to the customer via email at eleven at night. Adam had enough by then and now he has applied the “C” button to that ex-customer who will not be getting parts from us again.

Another customer has emailed us trying to ask about an engine intake manifold. Again we don’t answer the phone as people want our knowledge, and then they buy the parts elsewhere. His email stated “you don’t get Covid from answering the phone”. With that sort of rude response, Adam is now ignoring his emails and this lucky customer has also now been allocated the “C” button.

Please check our front page of the WebShop for the delivery services and terms. They say that the customer is always right, Adam agrees that some customers are now right at the top of his growing “C”ancelled list now.

We will always try to respond to your emails as quickly as we can, if you have a specific question it doesn’t have to be asked on the phone.

Question.

As we are constantly asked for advice on fitting parts etc. how would people feel about us setting up a “Premium rate” phone line? The customers calls the number and is charged £1 a minute for the call. We would offer advice and technical support, that way our time is still paid for. If you want legal advice you get charged by a solicitor. Just the same principles as you don’t ring up a builders merchant on how to build your house.

Customer Cars:

We have had a real nice Coupe in to us which had a few issues both fluids related. A fuel leak onto the top of the intake manifold potentially a fire hazard. Then the other was the good ol’ leaking heater matrix and the

Yogi managed to find the first issue pretty quickly.

The fuel squirt is a rubber diaphragm (that seals itself) for some reason somebody had fitted a gasket to the rubber as well, thus creating a problem believe it or not.

With the diaphragm replaced with a new one for the sake of a few pence, the problem was fixed. All that remained was for Yogi to do his dark art magic on the carb and set it up again.

The second issue was a well known problem which is the heater matrix.

A time consuming job for a simple swap out.

Most of the time these are replaced with cheap versions and the problem will come back just as quickly. If you have a leak, don’t cheap out the replacement. This particular matrix was a a good quality one, which had a tiny flaw and leaked from the corner.

With a new matrix fitted the problem was cured, apart from having to dry out the carpet.

Next up was a replacement thermostat housing that still leaked. The old one had seen better days and replacing it was a good call.

However the replacement part is the shiny chrome ones which look great but soon rot out. This one had only been on for a short while but already has started to show pitting at the bottom. We don’t like them but we get asked for them, so we stock them.

We have arrowed the gasket for a the reason of the leak. Although the housing had been fitted correctly the thermostat had slipped down out of the recess and put a lip on the gasket. This means that it wouldn’t seal properly. The more you tighten, the more it will distort and the problem gets worse.

So we replaced the housing and reseated the thermostat correctly. Problem solved.

WebShop.

We have had another little delivery of a carburettor or two.

We also have the rebuild kits for Edelbrock as well as the Holley carbs.

We have also had another delivery of a some cast 6 pot valve covers.

We have these allocated to project cars so they are spoken for and not technically for sale. But, if you email Adam with a reason why you want to buy one, he could be tempted to sell you one!

Events

On the 13th August (next Friday) The Mustang Owners Club Of Great Britain will be at Santa Pod Raceway for a bit of drag racing.

As a result Yogi has been cleaning his beast ready to play.

We know Yogi has been playing with his setup like new drive shafts that we know of. There is a rumour that he has done ‘some small adjustments’ to the diff as well. He has remained very tight lipped about it so far.

We do know that Yogi has extra long wheel studs now fitted, but he has also had the wheel nuts lathed to lighten the weight.

According to Yogi; ‘that should be at least a couple of tenths gain off the line!’ 😉

there area few spectator places available as far as we know, contact the MOCGB if you wanted to watch. The racing has been fully booked for the day for a while now and is always a popular well turned out event. Now we say that, let’s hope it don’t rain.

Take Care & Stay Safe.