Out With A Bang

Posted on July 10, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have a story where tiny part which literally costs nothing caused a major failure. There was a two car Mustang convoy, a husband and wife team driving. The lead Mustang was driven by the wife and the husband following in his Mustang. The lead car was forced to come to a very abrupt stop with no power. A little background to the failure was the distributor itself. Each distributor has a drive gear on a shaft held in place by a pin. This gear is rotated which then rotates the shaft which has the rotor arm attached at the top under the distributor cap. When the rotor makes contact with metal parts of the distributor, this completes a circuit for the timing of the spark as it rotates in the distributor cap. That gear’s shaft pin had sheared and allowed the distributor to effectively freewheel with the rotor arm not spinning inside the distributor. Within a few split seconds there had been a significant amount of fuel still being dumped into the engine’s cyclinders and exhausted back out and mixed with some hot vapours, all without being ignited. The unburned fuel and hot vapours were clogged at the exhaust mufflers without any real pressure to move them out the exhaust system.

Left is the arrowed space where the pin should have been. The video shows the gear spinning on the shaft.

The next sequence of events would see the gear re-engage just enough to spin the rotor arm again. This allowed a spark to fire in the wrong cylinder and at the wrong time. The end result was a massive backfire which then ignited all the unburnt fuel and vapours lurking in the exhaust. Such was the force of the ignition of the unspent fuel and vapours, the pressure had blown apart a relatively new muffler fitted by us and expanded the muffler on the other side. The force of the pressure observed from behind by her husband; the force of the shockwave had lifted the rear of the car up and had a pretty spectacular shower of flames and sparks.

Luckily the driver was quick to react and pull the car over safely, promptly followed by her husband. He checked that she was fine and had a quick look under the car and realised it was temporarily dead and would need to be towed to us.

Now rumour has it that it sounded like a gun had gone off inside the car such was the volume of the backfire. Contrary to her belief at the time, her husband didn’t fire a .50cal at the back of her car. We can confirm that there are no bullet holes on the back of her car. 😄

Moving on, the car was lifted up on our ramps to see the full damage to the exhaust. The mufflers were removed and replaced with the same set up. We have to say that we have never seen a backfire of this scale to blow apart a couple of month-old pair of mufflers.

We inspected for any additional damage and once we were happy we replaced the distributor. We cranked the engine by hand to make sure all was well before we fired her up. The timing was reset and she purred like a kitten.

Classic leMans (part 2)

Paul sent us some more photos of the classic race, but it was a bit late to include in last weeks post, but we do have them here for you.

Thanks to Lob Monster for sending us the pics of what turned out to be a great weekend which was had by all.

No sooner had they got back from their travels that they set of for this weekends Santa Pod race weekend.

Paul did state “it feels like he has lived in a tent for few weeks”. Coming up soon is the Mustang Owners Club of GB who will be having a Santa Pod race day of their own. We will be bringing you some pictures from that as well.

WebShop

Adam has now sourced a selection of 2015 – 2017 brake calipers for the Mustang ecoboost. These will be added to our webshop soon.

Next week Adam will respond via this blog again about shipping costs as we had a rather uninformed email ‘demanding’ we explain our costs. We will be showing you the shipping charges for a pallet to the UK. So if you want to know what it cost we will show you exactly we we pay to get your parts to the UK.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, racing, Repairs | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Trips Away

Posted on July 3, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

A few of our customers have more than one Mustang in their possession, more often than not they own a newer Mustang and a classic Mustang, the later of which we are their service providers of choice. We had a slight twist on that this week with a newer Mustang coming into us with a problem.

Park & Pic

A good friend of ours Derek also owns a ’67 convertible (which we look after for him), brought his S197 into us with a little problem. He was due to take the car for a trip to Germany, but he wasn’t happy with the feel of the brakes so he bought it into us for a look over.

He reported that the car was suffering from a noise and vibration under braking. Modern Mustangs are cars that we do sometimes service, but you have to be a very good customer of friend to get the servicing. We prefer to use years of experience and a good good ear to tune our cars and not just a laptop in, where’s the fun in that? Saying that, the basic principles of the mechanics are the same.

We took his car out for a quick test and we confirmed the issues and more importantly experienced it for ourselves. Unless you can detect the problem, here, see or feel it the problem, it’s so difficult to diagnose. Trying to find out exactly where the issues were coming from needed a little more investigation up on a ramp. We got her up in the air and took the wheels off starting with the left hand front where we thought the problems were coming from.

First up we could also see that the brake pads would benefit from being replaced.

The noise issue was the bearing which needed to be replaced, as a great stockist that we are, we picked one of the shelf and took it to the workshop. With the bearing setup in place we could check the rotor. As we suspected it was warped.

The decision was made to upgrade the brakes to a set of our vented EBC kits. The rotors and a set of performance pads were chosen.

We cleaned up and then replaced the right hand also side checking the bearing which felt fine. We put the boots back on and took her out for a little run to gently bed the brakes in and get a feel for them.

We were happy, the vibration had stopped and the noise gone. Job done.

Weekend Away

For something a little different this week and maybe continued next week depending on the updates we get. We have a picumentary (yes we just made that up), by our very own Paul B – aka Lob Monster. He has joined in on a weekend away which was arranged by Classic & Sport Car Magazine to attend the ‘LeMans Classic’ taking his ’66 along to the race.

As they were going camping careful packing was going to be needed to make sure the beer didn’t get broken.

Once they had arrived at the meeting point, Paul tells us there was a nice selection of cars ready for the next leg of the journey.

The journey was going via a ferry from Portsmouth to Caen. We have some great pics here of the loading up of the cars ready for departure, a mobile car show in fact.

Once they landed on the other side of the water, they had a ‘pleasant drive through some amazing countryside scenery’ to the next meeting point and breakfast at Putanges-le-Lac.

The final leg of the journey they arrived at the campsite and managed to grab a pic or two of the cars arriving.

After the obligatory beer it was time to get the tents up and make yourself at home for the weekend.

With the cars still racing at 3.30am on Saturday morning the guys got up early for a wander round the venue.

They spotted this rather nice ’69 Shelby which was up for auction with a reserve estimated to be between £80k to £120k.

There were so may places to park cars that it took the guys just over six hours to get around it all.

The equivalent of the Mustang Owners Club in France had this real nice green example.

Looking around the pits and some of the cars, the guys liked these.

Paul even managed to blag a pass and decided to put the Porsche guys to shame by parking next to them. A great shot this one;

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, daily driver, Mustang, Park & Pic, Photos, racing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Stay Cool

Posted on June 26, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

Another warm week in the UK and it makes a pleasant change to have a continued run of ‘summer’ and not just a few days. It has to be said that we have had a couple of people puggin’ (moaning) about the warmth when they have come to our offices. Perhaps it’s a coincidence that we have sold a few radiators this month. Of those orders a couple have been our upgraded radiators with improved cooling. We have a couple of little pointers on hot weather driving as well if it helps.

Park & Pic

A unique and bespoke colour called “Dragon’s Blood” on this ’69 which was mixed and painted by our very own Yogi. The colour brief was to be a unique colour, but also to look correct for the year. This car has appeared on a few fridge magnets and the odd postcard and many forums. The car is owned by a good friend of our Spence who brought her in for a service and once over.

Summer Driving Tips

  • Check and top up your radiator to the correct levels using the correct antifreeze mixtures.
  • Carry some ready mixed radiator coolant in your trunk. Try not to top up the radiator with plain water, only do this is an emergency to get you home.
  • Believe it or not, most anti freeze products are also summer coolants.
  • Check what type of antifreeze you have, green or orange etc. They can’t be mixed, a couple of products can be mixed with any colour such as Prestone.
  • If your car starts to overheat, pull over as soon as you can and allow it to cool down naturally.
  • Once you have pulled over and the engine has cooled down, look for signs of leaks, cracked radiator, leaking water pump, split hoses etc. This should determine if you have just had a random run hot episode or you have more significant problems.
  • Don’t undo the radiator cap straight away. Due to the water pressure which keeps the water from boiling, releasing that pressure turns the coolant to ‘flash steam’ which will burn you.
  • Never be tempted to top up a hot engine and coolant with cold water either; the sudden change in temperature could crack the engine block. You will be in deep for a new engine.
  • Driving a very hot car continuously could cause a gasket to blow or even distort the cylinder heads. If you do the later, then you are in for a bundle of money to fix it.
  • Check your oil level as it’s not just the water that keeps your engine cool.
  • When in traffic make sure that your Mustang is not to close to the car in front. Sitting up close and personal to the car in front will draw the warm air in from the exhaust in front and can increase your temperatures. Sit at least half a car back to allow the air the circulate.
  • Don’t constantly rev your engine stationary. It may sound great, but it increases the temperatures.
  • When pulling away in traffic, this is not a cue for a standing quarter mile start, pull away gently.
  • When you are driving and you notice the temperature rises, turn the car inside heaters on. It sounds counter intuitive, but the water is drawn away from the engine thus allowing it cool a little longer.
  • If the temperature rises turn on the heaters as the water is drawn away from the engine, allowing it cool.

Customer Cars

We have a 65 fastback in with a for a couple of front strut rod bushes and some new rear brake cylinders. The bushes are perished and definitely need replacing.

The rear cylinders are straight forward enough to swap out. It’s also a good time to replace the brake fluid while you bleeding the system.

We finish with a great (genuine) little article in the press which is doing the rounds on social media.

Whoever wrote it, you have our respect! 👍

Stay Safe & Take Care!

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Back To Front

Posted on June 19, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

A very hot week in the yard at Mustang Maniac and we could do some of our work in the sun which makes a nice change. We have a couple of cars this week both ’69s where the owners wanted to remain anonymous which is absolutely fine by us, they are more happy to show the work being done as long as we don’t identify their cars, so we will respect those wishes.

Customer Cars

The first ’69 has had their old rusty fuel tank flushed out and checked for any holes or rust, all was fine. We still need to clean it up a bit, but not really worth it until all the parts are fitted and checked to be working. That will be done after the road test, which is a perk of the job! In order to help the fuel get pumped up to the front of the car with a ‘degree of enthusiasm’, an internal electrical fuel pump was added just after the sender, the fuel filter sits just outside the tank and bolted into place.

Up the other end under the hood after the fuel arrives with a bit of vigour, a fuel regulator and fuel return filter were added. Nothing to outrageous and in your face, but if you know what you’re looking at then it tells you; all is not stock!

This steady and regulated fuel flow makes it much easier to set up carburettors in both cold and hot conditions. The fittings are not fully finished just yet, but we took the pics before we left for the day with them in place. Could this car be heading to Santa Pod for a day of Mustang racing? We couldn’t possibly say or know for sure, but it could be!

The other ’69 was to have a new heart transplant in the shape of a new 351w going in. The replacement engine was to have as much of the old engine bolted back onto the new engine as possible, so as not giving it away as being a completely new engine. When the car came into us it had a real bad rattle and some rather bad knocking!

We took the head off the the side of the engine that we had narrowed the noise was coming from. The inspection showed that we found a conrod cap bolt was broken so the piston was hitting the head. Damage was clear and already done. It works out cheaper for a new engine rather than rebuild the original. That’s after you take into account the specialist labour costs, parts, then the waiting time while it’s being fixed. So sensibly the latter option was taken up by the customer with a date correct replacement.

We wheeled the replacement out into the sun to be worked on fitting the fan, fuel pump, pulleys, alternator, oil filter, plumb fittings, sensors etc. were all bolted back into place where they could be reused of course, and not worn or damaged after we had checked them.

With the intake manifold bolted into place, we could add the carb and coil.

Next up will be the final plumbing pipes, electrics and HT leads early next week. The distributor and carb will be dialled back to defaults before we settle the engine back into the car. Why no test rig? Quite simple really, we have seen this engine running after the rebuild before we put it on the shelf as back ‘in stock’ as it were.

There is something quite exciting about seeing a new engine ready to go into a car!

Stay Safe & Take Care!

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On The Button

Posted on June 12, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

We have had a lot of positive reactions to what Yogi had done to the back of his Mach1 with the black light panel and the smoked lenses being fitted. We managed to sell a few sets as a result, something we wasn’t quite expecting. After we posted about them a couple of weeks ago, we had been asked at the Enfield Pageant just how easy is it to fit our bespoke LED light kits to their cars. Firstly there is obviously a difference between years and their fittings, but the principles are the exactly same. If you choose a set of our LEDs without sequential you won’t need to worry about the sequence control button. As luck would have it we had a car in for a set of our sequential light kits for a ’69 model.

Park & Pic

This is a very nice ’69 convertible that we fitted our sequential LED light kit.

The process was to remove the old lenses as we were going to fit new ones, but you need to keep the rear light housing.

Our LED lights have a subtle button on the back of one of the light housings that allows you to change the type of sequence that you want. You just need to work out which side of the car you want the button and drill a small hole big enough to pass the button through. Make sure the hole is far enough back to allow the new light board to sit correctly in the housing if you want the button near the edge.

Push the button through the hole and tighten the locking ring.

That’s pretty much the hardest part all done. Connect the new wiring pigtail to the light unit and then screw the new cluster into place after the pigtail has been passed through the standard hole on the light fitting.

Screw the complete unit back into place on the light panel and your done. A totally stock look with very clear intentions to those behind. We have a video below for the various sequences you can choose for your lights.

Yogi was standing off to the side pressing the button to show the options. We have already told him to do it a little longer next time for a better idea of looks. We couldn’t film again as the car was picked up shortly after we fitted them.

Customer Cars

We have a ’67 that was going to get a new engine off our shelf to be fitted into the car. We started underside making sure all was pre oiled ready for priming.

The old engine is taking of the parts we could use onto the new ones and replacing any worn or damaged parts. Adam & Yogi seen bolting the new parts to the engine.

A pair of our date correct cylinder heads we bolted to the date correct block so it that the engine is a correct date coded engine. The engine was painted with engine paint before it would be fitted back to the car.

The engine was bolted back into the car along with plumbing, electrics and aircon. We spin the oil up to the top of the engine with our own home made tool without having to crank the engine so that everything is lubed up. We then set defaults for distributor and carb and fire her up.

After a few seconds of cranking over to prime the fuel we could then fire up properly. She fired up on on the button as expected and here we have Yogi blipping the throttle to take off the choke.

With the default settings she still sounded good, but we had to set timings etc. after warming the engine up properly. Then we could road test that all was as it should be.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

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Weekend Away

Posted on June 5, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

Last weekend we didn’t put a post up as we were at our local car show – Enfield Pageant. The weekend involves us having a large pitch where we have our friends and customers turn up on either day where they can show their cars alongside ours. This makes it one of the biggest pitches for american cars in one place.

On the Saturday we also had an American contingent join us so there was a real mixture.

We had a little break after some car cleaning before we put up the Mustang Maniac gazebo. Yogi and Paul took some time out before the influx of visitors came into the show area.

On the Sunday we had different cars and friends with us. The weather wasn’t quite as good but we had a very nice couple of days.

We would like to thank everybody that came to see us throughout the weekend.

We have a few more random pics we liked.

Customer Cars

This week is a short working week with the ‘Platinum Jubilee’ in the UK giving us an extra day bank holiday for the celebrations. We didn’t get much done this week trying to catch up with deliveries of stock. We did manage to get a GT exhaust system fitted to a car. This system we have fitted comes straight from our stock and has the correct resonators which seen either side of the fuel tank. Often these resonators are not fitted for some reason, may costs? But, they do give a distinct sound to the HiPo engines and the GT’s engine tone.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

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How Much????

Posted on May 22, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

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.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

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Above & Beyond

Posted on May 15, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

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”!

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Park & Pic, Photos | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Back To School

Posted on May 8, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

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.

WebShop

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.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Customers' Cars, Parts, Repairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Comet Has Landed

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

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.

WebShop

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.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Our Cars, projects, Restoration, Webshop, YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments