The workshop has only been working for the later part of the week as Adam has taken a break for the week and Yogi has taken a few days off himself. We will be back up to speed next week again, but there may not be a blog upate due to the Enfield Pageant being back on again this year over the bank holiday weekend. We will hope to have a number of our cars at the show, along with some guest appearances of a few customer cars too. We seem to have one of the bigger private stands there over the weekend each year, it would be good to see you there, if you can make it to the show make sure you drop by and say hello.
Customer Cars
We had a ’66 in to us for an exhaust swap out. The existing exhaust was modified to fit, not the best fit we have seen, but to be fair they made it fit. Like all these things it was only fit for one place.
The hangers were welded to places that shouldn’t of had them welded to, so they had to come off. To get the exhaust of we had to cut it off in places and not just unbolt it.
When we sell our exhaust kits, we seriously recommend that the customer buys the correct hanging kits at the same time. Two reasons; 1, being the time it saves to bolt in place. 2, the amount of frustration it saves. The hanger sets do cost a bit, but they are adjustable for various styles and sizes of exhausts.
We don’t have any final pics just yet as it was late in the day. But you know it will be fine just like the other systems we have fitted.
’68 Engine Swap
We have a ’68 in with us due to a miss fire on number two cylinder and a rattle. The owner has said that he would rather have a reconditioned date correct replacement engine. We pulled it out of our engine stock shed ready for the replacement. We suspect the cylinder has a dropped valve by the sounds of it, so not a quick fix.
We like to remove the bolts and keep them to where they came from, here is a little sneak peak of Yogi’s organiser for such tasks.
We started to remove the plumbing and wiring and get the lift plate in place ready to pull the engine out.
The the engine hoist was hooked up and in a few minute it was out and on a stand.
We will have a look at the damage to the engine a bit later. But for now we are ready to drop the new engine in place.
Yogi’s Car
While Yogi has been off he has been working on his own car, swapping the rear light panel out for a new satin black paint version. The original colour scheme on the left pic below, and his new smoked rear lights de-chromed style.
Yogi sprayed the panel himself at home and we can see him fitting it up here.
With the lights fitted it looks quite menacing.
The Mustang Maniac ’69 LED light clusters were put back in behind the lenses for a much clearer modern effect.
That just leaves the before and after shots:
Yogi is confident that the new light panel will be admired by everybody he races as he disappears down the drag strip!
Other News
We had a good customer of our Derek who has a ’67 and a 2006 Mustang’s who dropped of his car to us for some work. It’s at this point that Adam gave him a rough estimate of costs involved as The photo was taken, this terrible rumour is still to be confirmed. 😀
A big thank you to Derek for being such a good sport and having a laugh with us.
This weeks blog was going to be a catch up on the standard run of the mill stuff we do, servicing, upgrades etc. But, this morning we have dcided to a little bit of a rewrite to the blog to give you an update on what has been going on today.
Earlier Adam was contacted via Whatsapp to ask for help. A company ‘up north’ that offer driving days with a ’65 Mustang and they needed some help. The problem was that the starter motor on the car had packed up and they had no way of starting it. The car earns its living by having people drive it on a daily basis and experiencing the joys of a Mustang track day thrash around. By having the car out of action, the company would lose money. A game of WhatsApp tennis started earlier today, but a problem arose when the owners didn’t know which starter motor they had as there are a couple of alternatives.
The decision was made to buy both variations, Adam would then take back and credit them for the one they didn’t use. The guy was super happy, especially as Adam agreed to leave the parts in a twenty four hour manned office for him to collect the parts as and when it suited him. That way the car would be ready for first thing Monday with the bookings and no dramas.
Not many people would or could go into the parts store and get a pick multiple variations of parts, ready for a Sunday morning. Yes, they could order from the States and get it over the pond to here, but there is a delay of around forty eight hours or so providing all goes well. Then which version of the starter would they buy? In these situations it would make perfect sense to buy both to be on the safe side, the down side is that they are stuck with the other starter. So, to use one of them makes it an expensive purchase, much more than our price in the first place.
Although we get a bad rap for our prices which is unjustified in our minds, we have probably the best Mustang parts stock in the UK, all off which are off the shelf same day.
Park & Pic
This car “The Grinch” is owned by a good friend and customer of ours. The car was in for a little fettling by Yogi. Nothing wrong with the car we must add. But, we think Yogi and Spence are up to ‘stuff’ ready for the upcoming Santa Pod Race day.
Customer Cars
A car was dropped into us with some strange feelings going on with the brakes. The car was diagnosed with a faulty brake booster and a leaking reservoir. You can’t mess with these things and they needed sorting out.
If there are any doubts, its a full strip down for a rebuild or replace. You can’t afford to botch the brakes for safety reasons. Although, it has to be said that we have seen some rather ‘interesting’ takes on brake safety from other specialists in the Mustang restoration field. Here the old booster was removed and the rust had made the metal rather thin in places.
The new Leed Brake set was took to the workshop ready for fitting and bleeding.
The reservoir was put into the vice ready for some basic bench bleeding. This is often an overlooked step, the thinking is that the standard brake bleeding will do the job, it wont. Well, not for a fair while at least.
The new booster was fitted into place after the bench bleeding.
The reservoir was then bolted into place and the brake pipe plumbing was re-attached.
The last step is to then bleed the brakes at the wheels, adjust the brakes, re-check the levels and then adjust the pedal. Only once we are happy can we then take it for a road test.
Articles
Hertz and Shelby American announce a three-year custom car partnership, kicking off with exclusive 2022 Shelby edition Ford Mustangs.
Beginning this summer, this special production run of history-making vehicles will be available for rent at select Hertz locations across the U.S. The collection includes Mustang Shelby GT500-H fastbacks modified with 900+ horsepower and Ford Shelby Mustang GT-H fastbacks and convertibles, each created specifically for Hertz. The vehicles pay tribute to the original “Rent-A-Racer,” the legendary 1966 Shelby GT350-H, and builds on Hertz’s legacy to give customers the unique opportunity to drive elite, high-performance vehicles they can’t access anywhere else. The Mustang Shelby GT500-H will be available in Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix and Tampa. The Mustang Shelby GT-H convertibles and fastbacks will be available in Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Tampa.Each of the 2022 Shelby Mustang Hertz models will be instantly recognizable with unique styling enhancements that celebrate a rich performance heritage.
Nineteen of the Shelby GT500-H fastbacks will wear shadow black exterior paint and six, to honor Shelby American’s 60th anniversary, will be clad in oxford white.
The Shelby GT-H fastbacks and convertibles will be available in rapid red metallic, oxford white, carbonized gray and shadow black exterior paint. All will be set off with gold “Le Mans” dual racing stripes and set of special rocker stripes, along with Hertz Edition and Shelby 60th anniversary emblems. Inside, Shelby and Hertz logos are on the seats, sill plates and floor mats; a numbered badge will be on the dash and under the hood.
The supercharger on the Shelby GT500-H is gold hued for Hertz’s livery.
Starting with Ford’s world-class Shelby GT500, the 5.2L fastback boasts 900+ horsepower, aluminum forged mono-block wheels, performance spec tires, tinted windows, Shelby GT500-H badges, driver- and passenger-side stripes and much more. Shelby cut 30 pounds by replacing the stock hood with a vented, ultra-light dry carbon fiber one that is also much stronger.As with previous models, the 2022 Ford Shelby GT-H will include a Borla cat-back performance exhaust for the 5.0L V8.
Both convertibles and fastbacks will have staggered wheel kit. The Shelby GT-H rides on 20-inch aluminum wheels wearing all weather Michelin tires and is also fitted with a unique Shelby-designed deep-draw hood, upper grille, fascia winglets and tail light panel.
Shelby American will complete the cars at its assembly facility in Las Vegas and document them in the official Shelby American Registry. With production limited and exclusively destined for Hertz rental fleets across the country, the special-edition cars will give Hertz customers a truly exclusive driving experience.To learn more about the new Shelby and Hertz program,
Looks like Adam will have to get his wallet out to buy one of these to complete his “collection”!
On a Saturday at Mustang Maniac it’s usually reserved for catching up with the work from the week, stock replenishing, cleaning, invoices etc. and more often than not a few friends drop by for a chat. This Saturday was different and it was a trip to old school.
We had a frantic email from a customer who was in a bit of a state. Adam called him very shortly after reading it. The customer told us that his car was dropping gearbox oil and he was due to go on holiday in the car to Europe early next week. We agreed to get his car in to us as he didn’t live to far away and would drive it carefully after topping up the fluids. He informed us that the gearbox rear gasket was leaking. We hold a few variations on the ’69 gearboxes so it could be sorted. Usually they just need a little tweak up or worst case scenario replace it, not a to bad a job. The car arrived and we took it straight into Adam’s workshop up on the ramps. The problem was indeed from the rear tail housing gasket, what we didn’t know at the time is that the gearbox was from a ’95 and not a standard ’69 gearbox we were expecting, just a minor detail that we wasn’t told about at the time. We didn’t have any of those particular gaskets for an AODe (electronic overdrive) box in stock. We don’t sell hardly any of these as they are not that common to be honest. We had no choice other than to go old school and make it for him.
The car was also a convertible which means that there was bit more involved due to the additional strengthening required.
With all the bits off that we needed to get off, we could get to the bell housing and removed it along with a little cascade of gearbox oil. We were hoping to copy the gasket, but we had a problem, it just disintegrated.
We were now deep into the fix and needed to make a new gasket from scratch without a template. The bell housing was put onto an old gasket sheet Adam had laying around. We place the bell housing on the material and drew around the outside to get the basic shape and cut it out. The bell housing was then put into a vice to hold it still while the inner dimensions were crafted out. Creating gaskets this way required an additional pair of hands, a steady hand, lots of patience and a bit of trust to make sure nothing moved while the inner dimensions were being cut out with a sharp blade. The photographer was also acting as the health and safety inspector, not adding much value to the job in hand to be honest! 🤦♂️
With the basic gasket cut out the bolt holes were marked up and carefully stamped out.
With the gasket now a custom made to measure item it was cleaned up then another final test fitting to bellhousing. Once we were happy that all was good, the prep for refitting the gasket back to the car was started. Both contact surfaces had to be absolutely clean ready for the new gasket in order to avoid contamination and potentially give rise to another leak.
We have a little trick to hold the gasket in place while parts are maneuvered into place, something we would rather not share. For information though, you shouldn’t ever use a liquid gasket maker for fear of it getting into the gearbox itself and damaging it. We have seen it – don’t do it.
With everything checked and tightened up, the prop was refitted to the gearbox bell housing and the other end tightened up to the diff.
The gearbox mount and the custom made bracket for the AODe to fit in this car were up next and bolted back into place.
Everything was checked over again ready to go. The car was started up and warmed the gearbox oil as you should. We then added the oil to replace what had been dumped on the way over and into our oil bucket during disassembly.
We had an email from the owner this morning to say that he had placed a drip tray under the gearbox checking for leaks as soon as he got home. When he checked this morning there wasn’t even a single drip in the tray. He was a really happy chap and has packed the car ready for his adventures. 😀
Adam doesn’t like to be in these situations where he doesn’t have off the shelf stock to hand, He has already placed an order for a few and a couple of variations to arrive soon on the next delivery.
We pay UPS ‘extra charges’ to collect from us everyday of the week, so that the orders can go out same day to our customers. However, on Friday (6th) they didn’t turn up by their scheduled collection time. We called UPS (a number of times), to find out what is going on. We were promised that the collection would still take place, it’s just that the driver was little delayed. At 6.30pm they still hadn’t turned up and Adam was not happy. If Adam had a swear jar, it would have gone from empty to overflowing within a few hours. We pity the poor person who answers the phone to Adam tomorrow, they’re going to have a very bad morning as a result. It’s not gonna be pretty and we suggest that they should “record their call for training and monitoring purposes”. It would be a perfect training tool on how to try and calm a customer down and failing because you didn’t do the job you are paid to do. Pick up parcels and deliver them – simple.
We can only apologise on UPS behalf for their incompetence and any delays to your orders. Sorry.
We are now also stocking more and more Fox Body parts as they become available as well as our own stock which can be found here. The page gets added to on a very regular basis, we now have some of our own decals for your car just added.
Everybody knows about the Bermuda Triangle so we would like to propose the UK’s alternative, the “Hertfordshire Hexagon”. We mention this little fact because we walked into the workshop and there it was, something had appeared out of nowhere, we don’t even know when it arrived. Unlike the Bermuda Triangle that makes thing disappear, we seem to gain cars!
We didn’t see a truck with a car on it arrive, so this must have driven in at least from the main gates to the workshop.
We caught up with Adam and asked him about the car, his response? ‘I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about laughing as he was walking away’.
Of course we know it’s Adam’s new toy, for what purpose we don’t know, yet. However this Mercury Comet is a solid little car. Cosmetically not to bad and she still sports the original paint. It does need a little loving inside, but this is a nice car. When we find out more, we will obviously let you know too.
Customer Cars
An old friend was back with us for some work due to some overzealous MOT test centre. The car was taken out of winter storage and taken to an MOT. The first thing they picked up on was indicators. They were not amber as the EU rules dictate.
Here we can see the lights being taken out ready for the LEDs.
Unfortunately due to the Shelby set of rear lights this turns out to be a little more expensive than usual due to the shear size of the lights.
We do of course stock a EU compliant set of LEDs which instantly sorts the problem out and it just so happens it was our last set in stock until we get some more in, soon hopefully. Our LEDs are super easy to fit and very neat no too. Link to the Shelby LED light kit here.
The camera never really pays justice to the amber lights but they are bright and full length of the cluster. The red drive and brake lights are all separate and also the full length of the cluster.
We do have a a video uploaded to our YouTube Chanel here or watch the video here for now.
We have had a number of enquiries from a couple of posts ago about our seat rail extenders. We are just waiting for the next batch to arrive then they will appear on our WebShop. We wasn’t expecting the amount of interest they have already generated to be honest.
Vicious Rumours!
We have heard through the grapevine that “Mustang Maniac is winding down”. We can categorically deny this rumour. What we can work is that somebody has not been able to buy products from us due to them being a messer and having the “C” button applied to their name. We also cross check the postal address as well by the way. This person is obviously disgruntled with not being able to buy from us so thinks we are running down.
NOPE – we are just dropping the people who aren’t even our customers that just want our information and buy elsewhere as we are ‘to expensive.’ We also stopping sales to some customers that are abusing our free postage offer as well.
Don’t believe what you hear out there.
Trust us, our WebShop still has strong sales and we have even seen a year on year increase of sales due to the home projects out there being helped along by the dreaded Covid.
This week we thought we would explain to you a thought process on an unusual issue we were asked to look at. The problem was on a ’66 Coupe that we had in for a few upgrades to be done at the same time. The seat base was made 2″ lower, the car was lowered, LED lights fitted and the problem itself was a vibration speed related which was mentioned to us. The best bit this week is that we also get to show some pictures of Yogi at work, just for his Fan Club!
We started inside where the seat base was lowered to give that all important head room in these fairly low roof line cars. There are no pics of the seat adjustment as it’s a bit of a secret how we do it, and still manages to retain that stock look.
We were told that the rear brake for the hand brake or ’emergency brake’ wasn’t working properly. We removed the wheels and drums to see what was going on in the drum setup. We have arrowed the broken self adjusting cable which caused the issues. The cable was replaced and the springs refitted. While we were into the drum we checked through the whole thing to make sure all was working.
We checked the other side which was fine with no signs of damage and working as expected. We adjusted the brake shoes on both sides ready for the road test a little bit later.
Our very own lowering block kit was fitted, link here which the customer had asked for. We took the car for a road test to make sure that everything was good with the lowering and handling as we expect. The seat base being lower down does make the cars more pleasurable to drive.
All was good with the car with regards to the upgrades we had done and the brakes were working properly and just as we expected. However the vibration was not quite what we expected, it certainly had a different feel to it. Our first thought was prop shaft.
We had the car up on the ramp and had a look over for any play. There was play in the UJ at the diff end of the prop shaft. Adam just pulled an old prop from stock that we know was fine to see if that cured it. The swap out was done and road tested.
Nothing had changed. The original prop was swapped back and the UJ changed as it needed it.
We knew the tyres were fine as we supplied and had them balanced. The half shafts were pulled out and we checked the bearings.
One side was bad the other looked to be a recent replacement and felt fine. Here Yogi checked the bearing and we filmed just how bad it was, sound as well as the movement. (Turn the volume on to hear an bearing about to implode.)
Yogi carefully cut the old bearing off and checked the shaft for wear or damage. A steady hand and finesse is required if you are going to cut these bearings off, you only need to go almost through the bearing and a tap the bearing with the hammer which will break it away from the shaft. One slip and you damage the shafts. We certainly don’t recommend doing this at home.
We got a new bearing and took it along with the shaft to our bearing press.
Here in this video below you can see the bearing being pressed onto the shaft.
Another inspection after the bearing was pressed into place was to make sure it sits correctly and feels right. We could also see that the wheel studs were odd too. Three on one side that were 1/8″ longer than the other two, they were replaced to be a matching set. Believe it or not, the slight difference in weight could make a difference for balance.
The shafts were then fitted back into the axle.
The new wheels fitted back onto the car.
With the car up in the air we ran the car in gear to see if we could feel the vibration, frustratingly it was still there. The car engine was run out of gear and it certainly wasn’t the engine balance. As the time ticked on to signal the end of the day, a cup of tea was to be had before going home with Adam, Yogi and Stu to have a chat about was was going on, and the next steps for tomorrow.
Back the next day and the plan was to swap the shafts out to see if they were slightly out of true. That made no difference, the replacement shafts of ours made no difference, again ruling out the shafts themselves. The only other thing was the differential itself. Adam got a replacement diff for Yogi and was fitted into the axle. A static run with the car in the air was done with the original shafts now back in place. The gentle test run looked promising without the vibration we had seen before, time for a proper road test.
The road test had now proved that it was the differential itself. All the original parts were back on the car except for our own diff which was now in place. We need to speak to the owner to see what he wants to do about it going forward now that we have found the problem.
Sometimes you just have to go through the parts one by one until you get to the actual cause of the problem. All the little things we found on the way to the actual answer of the problem won’t help, a process of elimination can sometimes be the only way to cure and troubleshoot these sort of problems.
Not only do we cater for the great American muscle cars, we are now starting to hold Mach-E parts and service parts as well. Ford refer to the Mach-E as a ‘Mustang’, much to some people’s dismay, but a Mustang it is. Click here to go to the page for a list of the parts we currently stock.
We mentioned last week that we are now selling more of our own branded products. We have now started to apply our own branding for those parts to make it easier for our customers to know that nobody else makes these parts.
Keep an eye on the ‘Mustang Maniac Products‘ page as it’s getting added to on a weekly basis.
On this day fifty eight years ago in 1964 at a World Trade Fair which was held in New York, a historical event took place. Within those huge grounds, 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants a certain Lido Anthony “Lee” Iacocca (Left pic below), took to a stage on behalf of Ford to announce their latest model car called “Mustang”. Originally the car was predicted to sell around 100,000 vehicles yearly, still an optimistic number at the time. In 1965 Mustang became the most successful vehicle launch since the 1927 Model A. Incidentally Plymouth launched their latest offering the “Barracuda” sixteen days earlier and certainly caught the public’s attention. During that first year of launch over 400,000 Mustangs were sold; the one-millionth Mustang was sold within two years of its launch, a record that still stands today!
Happy Birthday Ford Mustang.
New Products & WebShop
As you probably know Mustang Maniac produces a number of items ourselves. From special one off items to bulk made items that you can’t source now days. We have more parts than we originally thought, so we have now created a page specifically for our very own products. Simply located on the WebShop as ‘Mustang Maniac Products‘. We are adding to this page all the time, and we have a brand new product just released that isn’t even on the page yet. See below for a detailed look at it.
Seat Extension kit for extra legroom in a classic Mustang
We have made a product after a customer had asked us if such a thing existed. We confirmed it did but not officially. We managed to source some dimensions and set to work making our own better than we have seen before. We made a couple of prototypes for size and fit, then we settled on what we believe is the finished article. We gave a seat rail extension kit to Mart where he agreed to document the full fitting process for us also on his own website called onemanandhismustang.com to show how easy it was to fit the kit. We will guide you through the basics on how to fit the kit, but if you get stuck or want some more in depth pictures, Mart’s step by step guide is located here.
Fitting Our Seat Extender Kits
The seat extension runners allow an additional 2″ or 4″ legroom and yet still retain the stock movement of the seat to adjustment handle on the original runners. The extension rails are made with cut out recesses to ensure a flush and tight fit to the original seats rails. To get the additional length you want just screw in the collar studs to the threaded holes. These studs have a collar a quarter of the way down, the shorter thread screws are fitted into the extension bars, the longer thread will be going back through the seat base using the original holes.
Remove the rubber grommets from under the car and remove the four fasteners using a deep reach 1/2″ or 13mm socket on the fasteners that holds the seat in place. That’s if the original fasteners are being used.
Tip:
Fold the back of the chair forward to the seat base as if you were getting out of the back seats. This helps to balance the weight of the seat and allows the fasteners to be removed without the chair tipping back making removal difficult or even bending a seat stud. Keep the fasteners safe as they will be used again to refit the seat back into place.
The extension bars have to be fitted to their correct left or right hand sides and the right way up. Looking at the seat from below the right hand side has the seat movement handle and a extending bracket. This side will need the cut out sectioned runner to be fitted, as the pics below.
You can either attach the studs at this point or later the choice is yours. Use a fastener on the original seat base and tighten up securely.
Now is the only modification you will need to do on the whole process. Cut the exposed thread of the original seat stud off flush with the top of the fastener as shown in the right hand pic. You can use a junior hacksaw or a rotary tool to cut the thread down to size.
Note: Once you do this the studs will not be long enough on the original rails to be bolted back to the seat base should you wish to revert back without the extenders.
You will notice that there are holes, recessed holes and threaded holes. The standard holes are to allow flush fitting of the bars to the seat rails where the rivets are. The recessed holes allow for the original seat studs to be held flush to the bar. The threaded holes are for the studs position where you want the actual length of the extension to be.
Below shows the third hole down which is recessed and where the original seat stud(s) will go through.
The top hole is the 4″ extension the second one down is the 2″ extension shown in Red.
Yellow arrow shows the location for the seat rail rivets.
Teal colour arrow shows the seat stud holes.
Again repeat the same steps for the other side seat extension.
If you want the full 4″ extension use the top threaded holes, for the smaller 2″ extension use the second hole down. Fit the second stud at the bottom half of the rail extension use the threaded hole just above the larger hole (for the rivet) for the 4″ extension, and the 2″ threaded hole is below the larger hole. If you are in any doubt measure the original seat stud gap and apply the same gap to the 4″ or the 2″ stud holes.
Refitting The Seat
Take the seat back to the car and drop the studs through the original holes in the seat base and carpet holes. From there screw on the fasteners from underneath the car to hold the seat in place. Refit the carpet spacers and then tighten up the seat properly. Replace the rubber grommets and the job is done.
If you are conscious of the additional runner showing, just move the chair forward again and they will be out of sight. All in all a total of about an hour to fit plus the spray time if you want to colour code the extension rails. As. we said earlier, these kits will be on sale soon.
The verdict was that ‘nothing needed to change, good to go and fitting was a breeze’.
We also hope to film the fitting of these kits and place it on YouTube channel.
Customer Cars
Attention to detail we pride ourself on. here is a good example. We were working on a customers car and the rear light wiring had been modified or butchered. So Yogi tidied it up; the left picture was the before, the right picture is after. Sometimes the simplest of things makes all the difference.
News:
Dearborn– For the seventh year in a row, Ford Mustang – which celebrates its 58th birthday this Sunday – is the world’s best-selling sports coupe, according to Ford analysis of registration data from S&P Global Mobility.
Mustang retains its sales crown for 2021 led by the pinnacle of 5.0-liter V8 performance, Mustang Mach 1, and the track-ready Mustang Shelby GT500, the most powerful street-legal Ford in history and the most advanced Mustang ever for street, track or drag strip use.
“When enthusiasts around the world get into a Mustang, they unlock that feeling of freedom and experience the open road,” said Kumar Galhotra, president, Ford Blue. “That feeling, along with iconic design, awesome powertrains and a passionate global community all contribute to making Mustang a sales leader for the seventh year in a row.”
According to Ford internal data, the United States remains home to the strongest demand for Mustang representing 76% of global sales. Other markets that saw growth in Mustang sales in 2021 include New Zealand, up 54.3%, Brazil, up 37.3%, and South Korea, up 16.6%. For those who wanted a Mustang of their own, customers retail orders nearly doubled in 2021 compared to the year prior.
Ford looks to continue this momentum with five new special editions in the lineup, including Mustang Ice White (also available on Mustang Mach-E), Shelby GT500 Heritage Edition, GT California Special, Coastal Limited and Stealth. From Mustang EcoBoost to Shelby GT500, there is a special edition at every performance level for muscle car enthusiasts.
Mustang gains eight new color options for 2022 as well, including Ford Performance-exclusive Code Orange on Shelby GT500, while Brittany Blue Metallic returns specifically for Shelby GT500 Heritage and Coastal Limited models. Additional new colors are available across the lineup – including Atlas Blue Metallic, Cyber Orange Metallic Tri-Coat, Dark Matter Gray Metallic, Eruption Green Metallic, Grabber Blue Metallic and Mischievous Purple Metallic.
Mustang Mach-E, the newest member of the Mustang family, also had a successful 2021 as one of the hottest products at Ford. In addition to a strong first full-year of sales, the Mustang Mach-E earned a trophy-case worth of press awards, including the coveted North American Utility Vehicle of the Year honor, Car and Driver’s 2021 EV of the Year, 2021 Wards 10 Best award and a 2022 Kelley Blue Book Best Buy Award. Mustang Mach-E was also recently named a finalist for the 2022 World Car of the Year.
At the beginning of the year we said we wanted to try and post some more videos and last week we did just that. The new video was to demonstrate our new stock of the Precision exhaust kits we now have in stock. The upshot of the video was that we had lots of views, a number enquiries about the kit and we sold a few after they heard the sound on the video. We will also take on board that we should have made the video a bit longer. It has been noted and we will try to make sure that’s the case going forward. Thanks for the feedback.
Customer Cars
The Pear was last week’s Park & Pic feature and we mentioned we needed a couple of tiny little tweaks which were completed not problem at all. We were able to complete a full detail on the car before Ian the owner came to pick her up to take her back home.
Here we say goodbye to “The Pear” with Ian in the driving seat, looks like another happy customer driving away from Mustang Maniac’s yard. 😃
You can’t buy smiles like that, it’s what makes all our job worthwhile.
’67 Updates
On another ’67 we have in with us for some loving where we needed to replace the dash gauges as the originals had seen better days and was a prime candidate to get the LED bulb update while we had the dash out.
The black dials were swapped out with the more modern white dials which compliments the brushed aluminium look of the dash with its new chrome. We love this look, it’s not everybody’s taste and we get that, but it’s a very clean and fresh look well worth the effort.
The modern blue LEDs look amazing in this white chrome combination.
On the outside we have a billet aerial fitted, again a modern take on old technology.
Billet fuel cap for a subtle difference denoting the model of vehicle not just the make and brand.
Under the hood we replaced the old fuel line and filter with a Yogi special custom line. The filter has now been placed much lower down and earlier in the fuel line as it comes into the engine bay.
The old school T handle valve cover fasteners were looking a little cluttered and tired, they were replaced with a nice set of ARP bolts for a much nicer look and more secure than the T handles that tended to vibrate loose.
Under the car, off came the old rotted out cherry bomb boxes and pipes. They were replaced with one of our off the shelf exhaust systems (along with the corresponding hanger kit), were fitted for a much more natural sounding Mustang rumble in their place.
Some cosmetic, some functional updates, then the exhaust to improve the drive of the car. A little tune up of the carb for the new exhaust and fuel line, after which she runs much better now.
NOTE: We get asked (alot) if the exhaust hanger kit is really needed as its expensive. The answer of course is no you don’t need it, but we seriously recommend you do have it for two reasons. 1) it will fit properly without adjustments. 2) it will save you a huge amount of time and frustration.
WebShop
As we are partners with Walker we have had some more parts arrive with even more choice for our customers. Here we have a the plug lead set that Adam has been checking. We ordered the one or two for stock purposes.
A Little Teaser!
‘Mach -Enos’. What’s that all about?
Adam has little project and we will reveal all soon. 😉
Last week there was no post in case you were wondering as Adam and Yogi took time of for a spring break. With that in mind there wasn’t much was going on in the workshop, but the WebShop was still completing its orders as normal. So were back this week with an update on a car that will soon be back its owner and is the Park & Pic this week.
Park & Pic
The Pear is star of the post this week, a worthy lead story too.
Do you remember this little lady that was in need of some TLC?
Well, the owner came down to take a look over his restored car and Adam took Ian (the owner of this lovely car) out in her for little shake down road test.
Here is Ian with his car looking pleased with his lady. A lot of work went into this project, but it was worth it and will last a good while longer.
We’re not 100% finished with the car yet, but hopefully some time this week Ian can driver her back home where she can be pampered again. A real pleasure to work on such a big project and see these stunning results.
Thanks Ian for letting us post her up for you. 🙂
‘67 Coupe
We have coupe in with us for some replacement brakes both front and rear, replace some brake lines, some new spring perches. The car wasn’t handling or stopping to good.
The rear brakes when we inspected them had the shoes on the wrong way round.
We will get these cleaned up and sorted out to their correct configuration. The rear brake lines across the axle were in a bad way so Yogi ripped those off.
Then a little Yogi magic creates a new set of lines, distribution block and flexible hoses.
While the old front brakes were off it makes it easier to swap out the worn spring perches that were in a pretty bad way. We have our own design spring compressor that can safely lift the springs to allow us to work on the perches without a full strip down. The perches were rusted in place and took a little effort to get them out, with a little know how they were soon out ready for the new ones.
With them out it’s clearly visible to see that the bushes were shot to pieces on both sides.
The new ones will improve the ride somewhat and track the properly going down the road like it should do.
We have the front brakes to complete, a dash replacement and upgrade along with a couple of other little bits that we will show you next week.
We have had a delivery of an exhaust kit or two earlier this week, no sooner had we unwrapped the pallet when we took one to a ready and waiting ’65 coupe recipient. These exhaust kits are are for the ’64 – ’70 years and these pipes have a 2″ bore.
We have uploaded a quick video on our YouTube channel as well to let you hear what they sound like. This setup are not as loud as aggressive as some other makes we stock, but these pipes will still give you that classic V8 Mustang burble for a nice relaxed cruise.
We have been busy doing more of the pre-season’s once over and MOTs for cars now emerging from storage. We managed to grab this shot of a couple of cars head to head in the workshop waiting for their slot to be worked on. Due to some recent deliveries (a lot of deliveries actually), we didn’t grab as many pics as we hoped to. So this will be a short and sweet post we’re afraid.
Our Stock
Adam has had to get creative with places to store more of a new line of items. A cupboard we had for storage for heating and kitchen parts has now been re-assigned! We asked where the other bits were just in case we needed them, Adam said “the’re in a box somewhere!” But, if you asked him where a tie rod end for a ’67 was, he would go straight to it! 😂
The other parts are being stockpiled as well. Shelves have been added that can only be reached via a ladder. These are for the not so quick sellers and for the more delicate items like trims etc. To be fair these latest deliveries are to fulfill our backorders, and we shall be emailing the list of customers over the next day or so. Thanks for your patience, but the delays were out of our control.
Complaint?
We have little tale this week to finish up with a smile. We had an email from somebody who claimed to not having received their order from our “USA arm”. This was news to Adam as he said (sort of quoted), ‘we don’t even have a ****** USA arm!’ Thiose that know Adam will understand it was a bit more colourful than that. As this is a family blog and we couldn’t say what he actually said.
Anyway, Adam emailed the guy back who had stated he only had part of his order and wasn’t impressed. Adam had put the guy straight and that we didn’t even have an order for him in the UK. The guy came back and said it was a mistake and he should have checked! Fair comment, and the conversation was all good at the end of the day. Thought for you, what if this person had of marked us down on our ratings due to his lack of diligence? We wouldn’t have been impressed to say the least.
Last week posted the ’66 coupe daily runner being returned to us after the repair coat of paint. One of the last things we do is a geo setup. The car is aligned up to our very own parameters specifically for our UK roads. Once the car is dialled in we then take her for a little drive to make sure all is good with the car. We’re pleased to say that although the damage looked horrendous on first instance, luckily it didn’t cause any structural damage and stability of the car.
The car was loaded onto our covered transport and strapped down safely ready for her journey back to the owners. Being a covered transport it will mean that the car is delivered in the best possible condition at the final destination. The other bonus is the big reveal of the repaired car at the other end when the customer can see her back to her former glory.
We have mixed emotions when the cars leave us. Delighted they can go back to the owner, but sad they leave us, as that car becomes part of our DNA, if that makes sense?
Our Cars
The “Wolf” has taken another forward with the performance slot and drilled brakes on the front being fitted for superior stopping power.
The steering rack has been fitted with top quality, the fittings are just too good to be under the car.
The car is obviously going to have the upgraded Borgeson power steering kit which will give a modern day car driving experience.
The interior has had the heater matrix fitted and the pipework passed into the engine bay.
The sound proofing is often overlooked for the firewall, but it does make a difference inside the cabin. The pedals and brake mountings are then bolted into place.
An Idea!
We have our Park & Pic segment which is well established on our blog. We’re wondering if we could turn it up a notch with you our readers and customers. Would you like to send us a picture of your car maybe with yourself or family with the car and a little paragraph about the history of the car, did we work on it? Do you have any tips to share with other owners? We could give you your fifteen minutes of fame. If we get enough interest we could do the little article every couple of weeks or once a month. If you think this is a good idea then let us know.
The idea was given to us by a customer who spotted these little ladies in our newly refurbished car park to the offices and our WebShop.
The customer later told us, “I would love to know the story behind those cars.”
“Adam is the UK’s leading Mustang Expert, highly recommended by the club and work out of a Mustang Disneyland with piles of spares, lines of parts cars, and treasures….”
Quentin Willson – Classic Car Magazine June 2015.
“Mustang Maniac in Ware has done a really cracking job detailing the engine, fitting new suspension, replacing both floors and now she’s solid, shiny and sweet driving.”
Quentin Willson – Classic Car Magazine June 2015.
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“Adam and the team, with a very special mention to Al, have had my car for a few weeks to carry out its annual inspection, MOT and to fix some jobs they had discussed with me last year. Having just collected it from them today (Fri 07/08/2015), it runs better now than it ever has thanks to the care, attention to detail and ‘other magic’ they know. As usual the whole process has been completely painless – it’s a great feeling to know that the people looking after my old car think as much of it as I do…so I have absolutely no worries leaving it in their capable hands. This time they completed all the jobs on my list as well as rectifying a few more that I never realised were an issue, thus saving me from future trouble. I would strongly recommend Adam and the Mustang Maniac team to anyone wanting proper experts to look after all their Mustang needs….then you can simply leave them to it in the knowledge they will always do what’s best for these lovely old cars”
GW – retired Ford Motor Company Director
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“Mustang Maniac are the font of all knowledge. Adam is always there with advice and parts I need. My one stop Mustang shop. The standard of workmanship from his team is unmatched in the trade”. 101% recommended.
http://onemanandhismustang.com
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‘Adam and his team cannot be more helpful, not only do they do what you ask to be done, they go be-yond and actually replace/repair or correct things that you would never know should be done. Always lend and ear, and get you out of tricky situations…I wouldn’t take my classic mustang anywhere else”!
Lance Barrington.
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“Wow! As soon as I arrived at Mustang Maniac I knew I my car was in the right place. The service was so efficient, professional and boy do Adam & the Team know their stuff! I couldn’t recommend a company more highly. I even drove away with a tear in my eye – and this time it wasn’t the exhaust fumes!”
Liv Davidson
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“Chaps, what a difference, a lovely drive back home and even floored it for a while which chucked 40 odd years of leaves and crap out of the vents. Great fun at last!
Thanks again for all your time and attention spent on the car you guys have done an amazing job.
Cheers.”
Jon O’Leary
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“The work that you guys at Mustang Maniacs have done on the car was phenomenal – differences you have made since you got it and did a couple of days work, Pulls and accelerates noticeably better – absolutely beautifully and even sounds better. The brakes also seem to work so much better and it handles and steers so so much better in the bends and straight – no more steering wobble or unnoticeable !!! Petrol consumption is also so much better – really very noticeable indeed.”
Adam Dabrowski.
“First of all thank you for your hospitality and the rubber aerial seal and the keyring. The drive home was an absolute pleasure. I enjoyed driving the car before, now I LOVE IT. You and Alan definitely worked your magic on the Stang. You have transformed it from a good car to a great car. I will be your life long loyal customer.”
Mitch Rustem
“Just a brief email to say thanks that I was made welcome on arrival and the effort for taking the time to show me around the workshop and meeting with the mechanic (Alan I think) who ran through the work and set up he carried out on my car, this felt a very personnel service indeed. This is testament to your knowledge and love of Mustangs and how you operate your business.
My Mustang felt so much more driveable with all the little tweaks done. The brakes felt so much sharper, I didn’t have to apply the regular 120lb of pressure to stop. The steering was much more tighter, it held the line on the motorway with no shaking at speed. The handling has improved threefold and actually goes where you steer now. I didn’t realise how poorly she handled until Mustang Maniac put it right. All the cosmetically components and upgrades have given me a huge smile. Absolutely love it.
Thanks again for making my Mustang a good drivable car. I will be back for the next upgrades and advice at some stage as a returning customer. A very happy Mustang owner.”
Paul P.
“Mustang Maniac done some suspension work on my 1966 Fastback in went in with the usual old car problems lots of noises and bangs and worsted of all lots of body roll, they fitted a new pair of front shocks and springs a new 1” shaw bar and they sorted some other jobs that needed doing, the car now looks great with its new shocks and springs and it is sitting right but best of all it’s driving like a completely different car to how it went in I’m really pleased with their service”
Kev Rushworth.
I have had a few orders from you now with many more to come and I would just like to say what a fantastic service you provide shipped on day of purchase received next day on every order 1st class the best
If only the Americans could take a leaf out of your book
Regards
Greig Duffill
Mustang Maniac 
