Adam’s Crystal Ball

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

Cast your mind back to May 2021 when we posted Adam’s a stark prediction(s) which were as follows:

‘If you are think that you need sheet metal for your project – BUY IT NOW. There is a shortage of panels for our classic cars in general; that’s Falcon & Mustang. But, it’s not just Ford that is suffering, it’s other makes as well. Prices for sheet metal is expected to rocket up in price.’

That prediction has more than become true, in fact Adam has now said, ‘the prices are still going up, almost every day’. People are moaning to Adam that prices are to high for them and want them at the ‘old prices’. But, we still have to buy the stock in at the new prices, we just have to pass those increases on to our customers. We try to squeeze it as much as we can, it’s just not viable to buy high and sell at a loss. We hope you understand that it’s not just us, food, fuel especially, metal, wood, imports and shipping costs have all gone mad.

Can we see this trend slowing or stopping? Adam predicts that ‘regular price rises are here to stay for a while now, especially with the Russia / Ukraine situation unfolding. It’s not just sheet metal, virtually everything we import now has gone up, some items two or three times the original cost’.

We have now had to update the WebShop on how it works for special orders and back orders. Now the process is automated so that the stock system will email you the parts are back in stock. At that point the costs of the part will be available to you. A recent order we placed for a special order part was $100 and by the time it has landed to us we had been invoiced $120. It’s just insane, we can only urge you to buy it now when you see it, don’t wait. Is this a Mustang Maniac sales pitch? To a degree yes, but for the right reasons to our customers. We have noticed that people are being much more careful with their orders and we are selling more cheaper parts rather than the quality parts we recommend. The more costly parts we hold multiple items of, we shall start to look at those stock levels.

Customer Cars

This day a month ago we posted a story about a ’66 Coupe that had a hit and run number done on her. Well we are pleased to say that she is back with us along with her new coat of paint and replacement parts. We are pleased with her as another beauty saved from the potential scrap yard.

As we said at the time we will sort her out, and we have. The paint looks great. We have to do a couple of little fine tune adjustments to bumper and headlight so we are happy. But, she could go back on the road right now.

Nobody will ever know the destruction this little lady endured! Just in case you forgot, this is how she was when we picked her up.

Born Free

We have an old friend back out of storage ready for the new season of car shows. Just a little once over, to make sure all is good with the girl.

The scoop had a custom artwork sprayed onto her, that’s sixty hours of work you can see here.

What you don’t see unless the sun catches it at the right angle on the sides; the right side says ‘Born Free’, the left says ‘Runs Wild’, very subtle piece of work.

Not quite the standard 302!

Inside, the dash has been upgraded to Dakota Analogue set which isn’t a cheap hobby.

WebShop

We mentioned a couple of weeks ago about somebody ordering two window rollers each day rather than eight in one go. Well, it seems as though we have given one customer an idea, he ordered two lots of parts just under £50 on the same day, within minutes actually. Our system flagged him up and Adam contacted him to say that’s not quite the spirit of the free postage. The customer had ‘forgotten to order a couple of bits’ and had to order them. This type of blatant abuse could spoil it for everybody if we chose to withdraw the free postage.

Believe it or not, we have received a complaint about our ‘free postage’. Yep, we sent it free and they complained it didn’t arrive fast enough, like the next day to be precise. We emailed the customer back to say that the part was ordered on a Sunday afternoon, so the item wouldn’t be picked up until Monday afternoon. Then it’s down to Royal Mail’s five to seven days delivery time. Can we please reiterate that free postage is Royal Mail’s postage and not a next day delivery. If you want next day delivery then it’s a courier service that we offer. We mention this (again) just to manage your expectations. We try and get the orders out ASAP for you.

Our Stock

Adam has done a deal with Walker and is now an agent for them. We have started to get some parts in from them, mainly the carb rebuild kits for now. We have ordered some plug leads, ignition parts etc. which should be with us soon and be on the WebShop, some are already in stock as we post this up.

We have had another delivery of Leeds brakes as well as we sold nearly all our previous stock within a couple of weeks.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Car Shows, Customers' Cars, For Sale, Mustang Maniac, Parts, postage, Repairs, sheet metal, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Our Mustang Vin & Door Tag Decoder Launches

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

Last week we had a little fun with our very own “Sherlock” story and we had some funny little messages and the odd meme as well, we can’t possibly show those on a family friendly site. So just a little thank you for the interactions with us. We also had some comments about “Mike the Moron” one of those comments came back with the “customer is always right”, really? To be a customer don’t you have to buy something first? Our very own Sherlock got out his trusty Snap-On magnifying glass and deduced that the comment could well have come from Mike – what do you think? 🕵️‍♀️

WebShop

Mustang Maniac are pleased to have launched our new Vin Decoder to great success. We have now done as we promised and added the Door Tag decoder too. As far as we know, this is the first time that any interactive vin decoder has been designed for both classic Chassis Vin and the classic Door Tags has ever been available to this level of accuracy in one place. To top that if we can, this Vin decoder also looks up the Modern era Mustangs too. Absolutely amazing piece of work. It has been developed for over a year behind the scenes on and off.

Within the first couple of days we had nearly 300 codes looked up on our decoder. We are seriously proud of this feature and has taken a LOT of work to compile the data behind the scenes into a database from all the sources we could find. Once that was working we then have to have that replicated onto the WebShop page as well. We will say it again, if there are any errors or additions you need to have added, drop us an email and we will get it added. We aim to make this the best Mustang Vin Decoder that there is out there!

We have other little plans for this Vin Decoder which will build on this very solid base we have created. Watch this space.

Customer Cars

We have been asked for some special orders that fall outside of our normal WebShop services. For those loyal customers we will go above and beyond for them.

Recently we have a customer who wanted a change of tyres and brought his car to us for a service and pre car show season once over. We ordered in some new tyres fitted and balanced them for him.

The second example is to fully refurbish a customers original gearbox that was dropped in to us. This was taken to our specialists who strip down, replace and setup the gearbox for us.

Before we get inundated with requests, we will only do this for some customers and they know who they are. If you are the type of person from a far away region of the UK and order a couple of window rollers with free postage every day, we won’t be offering this extra level of service to you.

Our Cars

The wolf has taken a fair amount of time this week we have been finishing the underside in order to rear end running gear back on. The custom made and strengthened 8″ diff has been fitted. We are also using our new supply of our own specification U-Bolts and lowering blocks.

For those who like a little bit of technical details here they are:

The U-bolts and spring plates are “zinc and colour passivated” this is a zinc plating followed by a superior chromate conversion. Not the new ‘Greta’ friendly wishy-washy trivalent conversion. The industry test standard for this electroplated treatment is a salt water solution at 60psi for 90hours without penetration or corrosion to the base metal. So we suspect that this will outlast us all, especially as the original parts that are still on some cars were bare uncoated steel and still in use, but nowhere near as pretty as our parts.

The lowering blocks are black anodised to a below surface depth of around 20 microns. Again this treatment prohibits any oxidisation, especially as oxidisation is promoted where aluminium and steel share a close proximity. These will also look this good for years to come.

The rear drums are having our custom made 2 1/2″ brake setup.

The front end has had the lower arms fitted and the Borgeson steering is starting to go in as well.

We had an eagle eyed reader message us to say that the lights are the standard 67/68 lights. We admit it, the description was our forward thinking. It should have read something along the lines of we plan to swap the 67/68 lenses out with the 69 equivalents, which will then sit flush in the housings when we have finished. Last week’s post was done in a bit of a rush and came out quite late as you probably realised, the reason being is that there was a power cut; well that’s my excuse anyway! (There genuinely was a power cut).

News

Mustang Wins Daytona 500 For Second Straight Season as Next Gen Era Gets Off to Perfect Start for Ford Performance.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL, February 20, 2022 – The NASCAR Next Gen era has gotten off to a perfect start for Ford Performance as rookie Austin Cindric gave Mustang its second win in as many starts by capturing the 64th Annual Daytona 500 Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway.

After Joey Logano drove his Team Penske Mustang to a win in the car’s debut event two weeks ago in the Clash at the Coliseum, Cindric did the same in the 500 as he won in his first start as driver of the No. 2 Ford.

“I knew I had the car to do it, but there’s so many things that have to play out correctly and putting yourself in position,” said Cindric.  “Sometimes you have to force people to help you and I definitely didn’t expect any help throughout the day.  I did get some from the Fords, and I think Ford has done an incredible job with this new car and it’s obviously shown the first couple races.  I’m just proud to be able to hold off those runs at the end of the race and it means the world to me to be able to sit here and say I’m a Daytona 500 winner.”

Cindric found himself as the leader when caution came out on lap 196 of the scheduled 200-lap event, resulting in a two-lap overtime finish.  He got some help on the restart from teammate Ryan Blaney and maintained the lead as the field took the white flag, signifying the final lap.  It stayed that way until they came off turn four, but Cindric was able to take the checkered flag first as cars bounced off the wall and each other across the finish line.

“It is a dream,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports.  “To see how well this Next Gen car raced today after more than two years of development is great for the sport.  But then to have that Ford teamwork and see everyone working together was really special.  It’s a long season, but to win the Clash at the Coliseum and now the Daytona 500 for a second year in a row is a great way to start.”

Mustang, which has been recognized as the world’s best-selling sports car each of the last two years, is in its fourth season competing in the NASCAR Cup Series. It has now won 36 races in 109 career starts.

Cindric is the 14th different driver to win the Daytona 500 with Ford, which has now won “The Great American Race” four times in the last eight years. 

About Ford Performance

Ford’s racing program is part of the Ford Performance organization based in Dearborn, Mich. It is responsible for major racing operations globally, including NASCAR (Cup Series, Xfinity Series, Camping World Truck Series), IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, FIA World Rally Championship, Virgin Australia Supercars, Formula Drift, NHRA Funny Car, off-road desert racing, and sportsman drag racing. In addition, the organization also oversees the development of Ford’s racing engines, as well as the outreach programs with all Ford Clubs and Ford enthusiasts.

About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan, that is committed to helping build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams.  The company’s Ford+ plan for growth and value creation combines existing strengths, new capabilities and always-on relationships with customers to enrich experiences for and deepen the loyalty of those customers.  Ford designs, manufactures, markets and services a full line of connected, increasingly electrified passenger and commercial vehicles:  Ford trucks, utility vehicles, vans and cars, and Lincoln luxury vehicles.  The company is pursuing leadership positions in electrification, connected vehicle services and mobility solutions, including self-driving technology, and provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company.  Ford employs about 184,000 people worldwide. 

Source here.

From Mustang Maniac: What a result, Well Done Ford Performance Team!

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Mustang, News, Our Cars, Parts, projects, racing, Resto Mods, Restoration, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Our Detective Work

Posted on February 20, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

We have had a couple of people notice that the WebShop front page has changed. Gone is the picture of Mustang Maniac inner sanctum of staff, to be replaced by a vin look up!

We have been working hard for a while now to get together the most comprehensive Vin Decoder for Mustangs out there. We are also looking at the door tag decoder to also be added soon as well. As you can imagine, the code behind these lookups is a real monster. If you notice any errors please let us know and we will update our tables behind the scenes.

As there are a lot of variables for these Vin Codes we are trying to take the guesswork out of it for you so you can order the correct parts. Unlike our very own ‘Sherlock Holmes’ who has been on the case of a customer and has come up with some amazing deductions. See later on in this post!

Why is this Vin Decoder here?

Well, we get asked will this fit my car or what one should I buy with all the options? The answer is that if you put in your unique vin code, this will take you to the sections only relevant for your car. This will save delays and give you an accurate itinerary for your car what it originally came with. If parts have been swapped out, then a little common sense will be required!

Our Cars

The wolf has now started to get the front end suspension in place. We have had to make some mods in order to make fit what we wanted to put on her.

The shocks are little different to standard fit!

The electric window mechanics have been fitted in place.

Those that know their Mustangs will spot that the back up lamps are flush on the 67 and not recessed further back, a subtle change. Now that the inside has had some black Dynamat we can grommet the holes and get the seat bases in.

All Things Stock

We have had a double load of stock arrive which was completion of the stock, radiators, grills, brake kits sundries, panels etc. These have been taken to the stores and are yet to be sorted out.

People may complain that their parts are damaged on delivery. We will always try to help out where we can ass it’s not the customers fault. Sometimes we are a customer too, but for us when we have a damaged side of a pallet that is wrecked, we won’t get these grills replaced for free! This was the first one we had to gently prise out from the stack without damaging the other smaller items wedged in amongst them now. A batch off ten we ordered, we will be lucky if we get any that are usable! Adam thinks that this pallet was loaded by catapult onto the ship.

Mike The Moron

We have a tale to tell about an ex-customer who has never bought anything from us and now never will be buying from us either. How could this possibly be? Buckle up for this one, as it’s not only out of order on this person’s behalf, it almost gave us a bad reputation due to somebody else’s incompetence. We need to set the record straight and you can have a laugh along with us at Mike.

So this ‘customer’, we shall refer to him as “Mike the moron” for now. Mike has never ordered from us before by the way. Mike started of an email chain with Adam towards the very end of last year, to ask if Adam had a non-Mustang fuel tank in stock and the other bits to go with it. Adam being the helpful guy that he is and full of the upcoming Christmas spirit, checked the availability with his supplier as he was preparing an order about to go into them, perfect timing in fact. Adam emailed Mike the cost of the special order part and the extra bits he would need that we already had in stock, the total cost would be around £500 rounded up slightly. Mike emailed back fairly quickly to ask Adam if there was anything could be done about the “VAT” and when would he get the parts. Adam replied with “yes you can pay the VAT or not pay the VAT and won’t get your parts”. This sort of questioning is a red flag for Adam, but he let it slide this time as. Rather than delay our own order, we placed the order along with Mike’s fuel tank to save any delays. Another week went by and then another email from Mike to ask when are we expecting the part to come in. Adam responded with “early in the new year”. This was to take into account of the driver shortages and other shipping delays we were all experiencing at the time.

On the 4th of January (first working day of the new year), an email arrives from Mike to ask if his parts are there yet. Adam responded again quickly with ‘they should be with him by the Friday of that week’. The order did indeed arrive as we expected, we emailed Mike with all the links to the parts that he would need that are now on the WebShop so that he could order and pay for the parts. Mike never placed the order and there was no other contact to ourselves. We left the part on the WebShop as part of our stock.

A couple of weeks later we got a chase up email to ask where his bits where. Now remember that he has been getting our emails absolutely fine up to this point, he tells us that our previous email had gone into his spam folder, it can happen. We resent that original email to Mike so he could now go ahead and purchase his parts. Due to the email tennis delays, somebody else had seen the fuel tank and purchased it from our stock. Mike wasn’t quick enough to buy it.

We explained what had happened and ask if he still wanted the fuel tank. Mike confirmed that he did. Once again Adam ordered all three of the remaining stock of these fuel tanks from his supplier. Adam thought that he could do with a spare tank for his own Mercury which will need replacing at some point. Two weeks later the revised order arrived again as expected and were all placed into stock where we emailed Mike (again) to say the parts were now back in stock and to order them sooner rather than later.

Since then Mike had been on our very own Facebook Mustang Maniac Chat Forum and he was tearing lumps out of us as a company, generally laying into us and giving us abuse for our poor customer service. Mike was now claiming that ‘he’ was the one that was messed around by us. The best bit of the whole story; Mike blamed us for not being able to buy the car now. Yep – Mike didn’t even own the car he wanted the fuel tank for. Mike also forgot to mention to anybody that he has never paid for anything from us. Needless to say Mike has been given the very big “C” button, and he has banned from our chat forum for his lame efforts.

Moral of the story is – Don’t be a Mike!

Please toolet us know us if we are being harsh on Mike the Moron.

Postage!

Mustang Maniac has listened and trialled the free postage option which has been very well received on the whole and people have behaved themselves. This week we have had two requests to provide the tracking numbers for their packages. We need to point out that ‘tracking’ is not a free option for postage. If you want that method of tracking please can you specify this is your preference of postage? We have our regular options, Royal Mail and couriers.

To end with a smile;

Detective Adam ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Longmore has been on a case of a customer and has some incredible deductions. Sherlock has noticed a trend (well, the stock level algorithm notified him actually), with a single customer in a particular far region of the country. You know who you are! 🤨 This customer had ordered two window rollers with free postage. Nothing wrong with that at all, except that the cost of the rollers are less than the postage costs. The next day two more rollers were ordered on free postage and sent to the same address.

This is where our very own ‘Sherlock’ made the first of his stunning deductions; a car is undergoing a restoration. Anyway, the third day two more rollers and the fourth day a further two more were ordered with their free postage options. So the case in question is that eight rollers were ordered during the week, all to the same address.

Sherlock has amazingly deduced all on his own, that this customer has worked on a front window one day, then while sitting down admiring his handy work sipping on his coffee, he thought that he would order the rear window quarter rollers for the next day’s work. This is why he had repeated his order for each ‘day’ of his hard work.

Sherlock has now asked asked the question; ‘why not order them all at the same time as it would still be free postage?’ Conspiracy theorists are asking ‘Is this a genuine customer or a competitor trying to put us out of business?’ Needless to say Sherlock will be getting in touch with the individual to say that we have rumbled his game of restoring the windows of his car! We could also help to get a batch order for him.

Sherlock’s final and blog stopping deduction while using his Snap On spyglass is that; it was the ‘mechanic’ who was ordering the parts!

🤦‍♂️ Can we suggest to sticking to fixing the Mustangs Adam?

If anybody has a deerstalker hat they want to donate to our very average sleuth, you know where we are!

Those that know Adam will be aware that he has indeed been on a Murder Mystery evening where he got the culprit literally within a few minutes of looking at the characters and the evidence in the room! That’s a genuine true story. If you ask him he may tell you the story if you pop into the offices one day.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Blog, Forum, Mustang, Mustang Maniacs Group, Our Cars, Parts, postage, projects, Sales, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Head Turners

Posted on February 13, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

Last week we posted about the really nice ’66 Coupe that had a hit & run which came back to us for repairs. We have had a number of messages to say it was a terrible thing to have done, and it looks like it’s not that uncommon! We have to say what is happening to this world? Perhaps Covid has something to do with it affecting people’s brains.

Customer Cars

Eleanor! There you go, one word that says so much about a car. We have had our previous build back in with us to fettle it down now that it has been driven for a while. Why, Things settle down and bed in. Squeaks or rattles can develop on a new build so it’s not anything we haven’t seen before, and we sort of expect it and recommend bringing a new build back to us after a couple of thousand miles for once over.

We will put this lady up on the ramps and go over all the nuts and bolts to make sure everything is done up and where it should be.

Every time we have a movie car, Go on 60 seconds, the original Mach1, the 60s remake or John Wick we get lots of comments from visitors to the yard and the posts, mainly how much to build one?

As for costs? That depends on your budget of course, big block or small block, do you want the NOS tank, high torque auto, or manual, interior in leather etc. the list goes on.

A great car that will turn heads even 22 years later after the film came out!

John Wick

The engine has been bolted into the car now. The gearbox bolted straight onto it and now we will just fill the fluids, check the basic timings and fire her up.

In the back window of the John Wick car?

Our Cars

The Wolf

It’s been a while since we showed you what was going on with the wolf project. We are starting to put the hardware on the car, black chrome handles.

Scoops are now bolted into place. There are some great ideas we have for the scoops, we just need to design and get them made. We haven’t seen it done before but we like to push the bounderies.

We are putting the front valance on and of course will have our LED, white drive lights and the turn indicators in the same lens.

Under the hood we have our stainless steel hood springs. and some anodised bolts

Stock

Like buses our back order items are starting to arrive again. This time we have just a couple of pallets from the last order. While we were getting ready to put on the system, we asked Adam what was in there and where are we going to put it? His answer? ‘I can’t remember, but we will soon find out’. Are we running out of space?

The last lot of stock has been put away now for the more delicate items.

Got any carburettors? Just one or two.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

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

This Makes Us Mad!

Posted on February 6, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

There is nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your pride and joy getting wrecked by some plank who don’t care. Contrary to what people may think, we don’t think pound notes when we see things like this, we feel the pain of the customer as we understand. This week we have dropped what we were doing in order to get a car sorted out for a lovely couple.

Customer Cars

This ’66 Coupe was a genuine two car owner from new from California USA on it’s original black plates before the current owners bought the car here in the UK. This car is a real honest car, and was unmolested by upgrades and is as it should be. It even has the original smog filter still in place.

This is the owners only car and is their daily driver. The owners popped out for the day where they parked up went about their business as they normally do. When they came back to their beloved car, there was this damage from a hit and run. We can only assume that the damage was done by a lorry by the way it went through the original fenders like a can opener along with the grease marks! The type of scumbags that do this to a modern vehicle and run of without leaving details contact details makes us mad. When those ‘people’ do it to a classic car, regardless of the make and model, it’s much, much worse as you can see that these old cars are obviously loved and cherished.

Adam was sent an email to show the damage and was asked if he could pick the car up and take it back to the yard. We obliged and promptly started on working out what could be saved, what need straightening, and what needed to be replaced.

Yogi is doing his thing here with a new front fender and valance from our stock to replace the original metal. They are being fettled into place and being shaped to fit the car’s lines. Some gaps will need to be built up and others opened to make them look right. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen many times before. In fact after the damaged parts were removed, when we measured up and checked it all out, structurally the car is still straight and sound where it needs to be.

Where possible we try to re-use the OEM parts and replace what we can’t salvage. It’s easy to see the new sheets of metal which are in stark contrast to the colour of the car.

There needs to be a few more days work on her yet before she gets a new coat of paint and we can start putting the trim and parts back in place.Once we finished, it will be as good as new.

WebShop

We have some new additions of stock from Holley which include some of the following;

Mr. Gasket, which can be found here. Anything from a full small block engine gasket set to an oil breather cap. We really rate the quality of these gaskets and hope to get some more shortly.

Our ever popular 600cfm Street Warrior range here, in both manual and electric choke options, we had SIX of each when this post was prepared, with one in a customer basket ready to go.

Sniper EFI fitting kits and accessories. We also have some carbs in which have been reserved for back orders.

Patches

On a side note, not strictly our stock as such, we have some Mustang Merch. We have some embroidered Tri-Bar patches at £5 each, and the Mustang or Ford logo ovals at £3. If you are interested drop us an email to order. We may even start to stock these as an item if the interest is there. Ideal for t-shirts, trunk bags, coats etc. You can even buy our logo if the urge takes you!

We can even take special orders for patches too, again email us with your requests.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, daily driver, Mustang, Parts, Repairs, sheet metal, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Variations On A Theme

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

We would like to thank those of you that responded to our last post about the ‘courier damaged brake disc’. It seems as though our assumptions were confirmed by many of you. Some of the comments we couldn’t leave on the blog as they were a little colourful should we say. We have demoted the ‘new’ customer to ‘ex-customer’ with the big “C” cancelled button applied.

Customer Cars

This week Yogi has completed the installation of the replacement 351c into the car and we have had a test run before we tune up properly and set the carb.

Here we have it running and she sounds sweet even with our startup default settings.

Borgeson Swap Out

The car has now had the swap out completed and we just a final road test to make sure all is good and we are happy with it.

The last thing to do on the car is the refitting of the centre console. It was left on the back seat as the owner couldn’t get it to align up properly. Not a big job by any means, but it can be niggly to get right. We got it fitted and all looks good inside again.

Adam was deciding which labour ‘rate’ to apply 🤣😂

Small Block Choices

The Cleveland 351 4v was sitting on the engine stand ready to be fitted into the car as soon as we could make space in the workshop. In the meantime we have a customer supplied rebuilt engine which will be fitted to their car also sitting on a stand.

What would you choose, the 351 or 302? There are of course Pros & Cons to each engine!

Yogi prepped the customer’s 302 engine with oil and made sure everything was as it should be. This is something we always do before we fire up the engine. We have designed our very own tool to make this happen without even starting the engine. We can then hand turn the engine over to make sure it’s all free before we fit the spark plugs. That way we know we are not starting a dry engine which could damage the engine and cause a lot of wear and tear in those first few seconds.

Did You Know?

It’s a fact that 70% of engine wear occurs on a cold start up! So when you see a somebody start their car and rev the nuts of it (literally), smile to yourself knowing that they are causing unnecessary wear to their engine.

WebShop

We have had a delivery of some nice – something different external mirrors. These are wired into the indicator loom and will flash in unison to show your intentions to the vehicle behind.

Ford Article

Mustang Maniac are please to see that Ford are going to race the Mustang as a works team in IMSA.

Ford Performance to Develop Mustang GT3 Race Car to Compete Globally; Will Compete at Daytona in 2024!

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Ford Mustang, the iconic sports car that created the pony car segment, will lead Ford’s return to global sports car racing as Ford Performance prepares a new GT3 race car for competition in 2024.

Ford Performance revealed plans for its all-new Mustang GT3 race car that will compete in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) 2024 race season, including the 24 Hours of Daytona.

The new Mustang effort, announced in advance of this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, will be a joint program between Ford Performance and long-time racing collaborator Multimatic Motorsports.  It will feature both a two-car factory-backed IMSA GTD Pro works team managed by Multimatic, as well as customer Mustang race cars for the GTD class starting at Daytona in 2024.

“Mustang was born to race from the start and we’re thrilled to introduce the GT3 version to compete head-to-head against some of the greatest manufacturers in the world,” said Mark Rushbrook, Ford Performance Motorsports global director.  “With 58 years of global endurance racing heritage, including NASCAR and Australian Supercars today, we are ready to take Mustang to the next level of global performance.”

“Multimatic Motorsports is the perfect partner on this project for us,” said Rushbrook.  “Not only have they worked with us to develop numerous customer Mustang programs in the past, but its work on the Ford GT program and the new Bronco® DR customer race programs has shown together we can provide championship-level race programs for Ford and its customers.”

“We’re excited to work on this new IMSA program as well as the GT3 customer program with Ford Performance,” said Larry Holt, Executive Vice President of Multimatic Special Vehicle Operations.  “We have a long, great working relationship with each other, both at the highest levels of professional sports car racing, and in developing competitive customer race program and vehicles.  We appreciate their faith in us, and together, we can’t wait to show the world what’s coming down the road with Mustang.”

The new Mustang GT3 racer will be powered by a Ford 5.0-liter Coyote-based V8 engine developed by Ford Performance and built by long-time racing collaborator and world championship winning team, M-Sport of Cumbria, England.

The two organizations have a rich history in the FIA World Rally Championship and recently collaborated on the development and preparation of the Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1, which finished 1-3-5 in its debut race at the Monte Carlo Rally this past weekend.

“We are delighted to be broadening our relationship with Ford and extending it into the racing world after a very successful 25 years together in the World Rally Championship, which is once again delivering stunning results with the Puma Hybrid Rally1,” said Malcom Wilson, owner of M-Sport. “M-Sport has a wealth and depth of circuit racing knowledge and expertise, particularly from our GT3 programme that used an M-Sport developed V8 engine for GT3 that powered us to victory in the 2020 Bathurst 12-hour race and 2019 1000km of Paul Ricard.

“Our most recent engine project has seen us become the official British Touring Car Championship engine supplier which also uses Ford engine architecture,” Wilson added. “We are very excited about working directly with Ford Performance and Multimatic on the Mustang GT3 and will be working very hard, leaving no stone unturned as we join forces to fight for more victories around the world.”

The race-specific powerplant will continue the heritage of high performance naturally aspirated V8s in the Mustang platform.  The engine will carry the heart and soul of the world-renowned Ford Coyote® and have performance and packaging modifications to make it championship ready for world class GT3 endurance racing.

The new Mustang GT3 race car will feature bespoke Short-Long Arm suspension front and rear, rear-mounted transaxle gearbox, carbon fiber body panels, as well as a unique aero package developed to meet GT3 targets.

Ford and Multimatic will make both factory-backed and customer-ready GT3 Mustangs available to teams from the start of the 2024 season.

Joey Hand, one of the winning drivers in the 2016 Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Pro class in the Ford GT, is going to be one of the test drivers for the new program, as well as continuing on in his role as a development driver and coach for Ford Performance.  As part of that, he will also drive six NASCAR Cup road course races in 2022 in a Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang.

“It’s awesome to be on the ground floor of another amazing sports car racing program with Ford,” said Hand. “As much as I like to compete and win on the track, I also enjoy being part of the development of new race vehicles like this Mustang.  We did a lot of testing with the Ford GT program, so it will be great to be working again with a lot of the same people at Ford and Multimatic as we get this car ready for competition.”

New Mustang GT4 On The Way Too

Although the Mustang GT3 for IMSA is new, Ford and Multimatic confirmed that the successful Mustang GT4 customer race program will continue into the future, with a new Mustang GT4 expected to debut in the 2023 season.

“It’s important to us to continue to support the Mustang GT4 effort as well,” said Rushbrook.  “We’ve had a lot of success both here and in Europe with the current Mustang GT4, and we look forward to being able to provide our customers with a brand new car for competition in the GT4 category starting next season.  We’ll have more to say on that in the near future.”

The new Mustang announcements for sports car racing adds to a series of new racing Mustangs coming in the near future for Ford Performance.   The 2022 Next Gen Ford Mustang will debut in the NASCAR Cup series Feb. 6 at the LA Coliseum and then at the Daytona 500 two weeks later.  And Ford Performance is developing its new Gen 3 Mustang for the Supercars Series that will debut at the start of 2023.

Source: https://www.at.ford.com/en/homepage/news-and-clipsheet/news/2022/1/mustang-gt3-race-car.html?cid=BOC-2022-01-28

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Articles, Customers' Cars, Mustang, racing, Repairs, Video, Webshop, YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hammer Time

Posted on January 23, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have had a car into us for a conversion and an engine rebuild. Then Adam has had an interesting conversation with a now ex customer who has been awarded the dreaded “C” button. We will get into that little later. It’s well worth a read and you tell us if we are right or wrong!

Customer Cars

This ’68 has come in for a little work on the steering. OK a lot of work on the steering, a swap out to the Borgeson setup.

First it’s out with the old;

Unfortunately, this is as far as we have gotten with it, but it will be finished next week.

On this subject; we have been asked why are we more expensive than others when we fit these kits. The simple answer is – we do it right! When fitting these kits there are a couple of things that need to be done to make them fit properly. Incorrect fitting will damage the “rag joint” and will wreck your set up. We also use upgraded bolts, custom anodised fittings (arrowed), just like in this swap out we done towards the end of last year.

As this was an aircon car it needed a couple of extra bits to make it fit to just look and feel right. We are not going to say what those adjustments are as that is out secret(s) we have developed. The steering column needs to be adjusted otherwise the steering can be pulled up or you run the chance to squash the rag joint. In essence what you are paying for – our experience. You can’t buy it of the shelf, but we have it for hire.

351 Cleveland 4v

we mentioned in a previous post that we had a constantly over heating engine and was smoking like a chimney. We had our UK engineers acid dip it and rebore to 0.30 over with new pistons. The crank was measured and spot on to specs so it was polished and reused. There are also new valve guides and reconditioned heads. The cleaning for these engines is the worse part. We need to make sure the oil and waterways are spotless.

Yogi gets to work with painting and building up the engine in stages.

New water pump, oil pressure, water temp sender, thermostat and housing, bolts and a part that we had made just for us as they are no longer available, the 67 – 70 water bypass tube.

We fitted correct core plugs, new gaskets, harmonic balancer.

The exhaust manifolds have been painted black to match the engine with super high heat resistant paint.

Now we have another engine ready to go into the engine storage shed.

Hammer Time!

Here’s what happened; we we had a company order a set of front discs from us and we shipped them out via our normal services. A few days later we get an email to say they had been damaged or ‘must have been dropped by the delivery’. They wanted a replacement set of discs. Obviously such events are out of our control and these things may happen as they are a heavy bit of kit.

They arrived back at the offices, the box was fine! So we took the package into the dispatch room to investigate further. As we unpacked them there was no damage to the outside of the rotor, very strange.

We flipped the disc over to the inside and there it was, massive damage.

The casting had splitered and cracked off.

What amazed us was the amount of damage was located in the middle area of the disc. Our initial thoughts were that this has indeed been dropped onto a hammer about a dozen times by the looks of the damage. Possibly dropped into a hydraulic press that was working. I doubt we will ever know.

A little heads up that we don’t make very public; for parts like these, high value or rare items, we check before dispatch. 1) all the bits are there, 2) the item is fit to send out and not damaged. Perhaps we need to take photographic evidence as proofs before sending. That’s a drastic step and time consuming considering the number of orders we send out. It shouldn’t be necessary to be fair, but we may not have a choice.

The reason we check is exactly for this eventuality. We have no idea why this part was so unlucky enough to be dropped this many times, in the same location, in a recessed part of the rotor. We can only wonder why.

Adam was not impressed that the part was “dropped” and did not send out new parts. The money was refunded and the (ex)customer has been allocated the “C” button and is now a proud owner on the “C” list who won’t be buying from us again.

So, that leaves the question what happens to the part? It gets taken to the scrap skip and the company has lost a chunk of money as it can’t be resold and we can’t use it either. As a business model that’s not sustainable. Mustang Maniac has to make, (trigger warning) a “profit” just in case this happens. Other than that we could add the loss to the rest of these parts which will go up and people moan about the cost of the parts again.

Were we right? Should we have even given a refund or said no? In the interests of customer service we refunded. Can you imagine the furore on the social media? ‘Look what we got sent by Mustang Maniac etc’.

WebShop

It’s no secret that Mustang Maniac like the front disc and rear drum setups on the Mustangs. It can never hurt to have a little extra stopping power at your feet. With that in mind Adam has sourced a new range of 2 1/2″ rear brake drums. This offers quite a bit more surface area for the rears. These drums are stock looking, but pack a punch.

First the drums come with a backing plate with both left and right hand side handbrake fitting. They also come with the brake cylinder.

Inside, the brake shoes are huge, all new springs and upgraded hardware for the self adjusting system. These need to be on show to be honest!

We have already sold two sets of these and will be on the WebShop soon. They won’t be the cheapest rear drum set that you will buy, but you are getting a lot for your money.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Parts, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

From Russia With Love

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

Back to normal at the yard with the WebShop being updated over the Christmas break and the workshops being rearranged for the cars to be worked on. We have had lots of positive feedback for the minor changes to the items where we show the real time number items in stock. We have also had a number of people asking us for sheet metal to complete projects. We are being very careful about the allocation of our panel stock. Some orders have been fulfilled from our back orders with a few more to be completed hopefully this week.

Customer Cars

’65 Fast Back Time Trial

This little lady is being prepped ready for her next adventure, a trial across Russia! We are so pleased to see this car being used and enjoyed all around the world.

The front brakes have been swapped over and fitted with some heavy duty pads, which was a ‘no brainer’ to advise the owner.

The rear brakes have been completely rebuilt with all new parts.

The diff has been opened, cleaned and inspected while we removed the half shafts. Bearings and seals were replaced before refitting.

Metal Mayhem

Yogi has been in the panel workshop and removing the back of the car, literally. As we took the rear quarter off we could see that the rust worm has done its best to wreak havoc everywhere. The quarter was to bad on the outside when it was first done, but over time the damage from inside was showing under the paint. A rare sight to see the original panel part number too.

The inner arches will need replacing.

With the inner arches removed back to the frame, it’s clear that we would have to rebuild the back of the car with new metal.

When you are this deep into a strip down, you just have to keep going until you find some good metal to tag the new stuff onto. Patching will cost more in time and effort than it will be to replace the metal. What’s left of the bigger chunks of metal before they hit the scrap skip.

It’s nothing that phases us, regular readers will have seen photos like these before. Then a few posts later we show the car rebuilt and looking as good as new.

351 Block Dies

This engine has been a problem for a while. Budgets from the owner didn’t allow us to do a full strip down. So it was done best as we could at the time. The problem was overheating.

The waterways were clogged and not flowing the water around the block properly. In the picture above right you can see the ‘temporary’ core plugs that had been in the block for so long they had started to fall apart. When the plugs were removed the root of the problem spilled into the yard.

No amount of flushing would get this back to where it should be, we had done it a couple of times in the past. It was better, but has never right, it soon clogged up and damaged a couple of radiators in the process.

Sometimes enough is enough and you just have to stop throwing good money at a partial fix. The owner has taken our advice and gone for a engine swap. There will be more power, the engine will work as it should and no more overheating issues.

Sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind to customers in their own interests. We will do what we are told, sometimes we just have to be brutal.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Parts, Restoration, sheet metal, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

We’re Back For 2022

Posted on January 9, 2022 by Mustang Maniac

First things first, we hope you had a good Christmas break and lets hope we can start to get some sort of normality back in our lives this year! A big “Thanks” to those of you who kindly dropped gifts over to us and your kind wishes for the holidays, it was much appreciated.

We’re back in the driving seat (well office chair actually) again with our first post of 2022. If you’re anything like us, last year was a tough one with restrictions, shortages and rising costs. The year did seem to fly by when we look back at where the time had gone. Over the holiday break Adam was around the yard sorting through a large heavy pallet of stock to be put away and working on the WebShop.

We do have a New Years Resolution though; we are aiming to upload more YouTube videos of our products.

Customer Cars

We are always getting asked what the stock exhaust sounds like on a first gen Mustang. Most of the time we are fitting big fat loud exhausts. We have plenty to choose from and sometimes we have to start a few cars when customers can’t make their minds up.

We have the ’66 Coupe back on the ramps for new exhaust system where the owner has chosen the stock option. We have people complaining that the exhausts don’t fit properly. We have never had that issue and we are showing you the correct set up including the clamps which should be sideways for clearance.

Each side of the engine from the manifolds.

To the first section with the H-Pipe setup.

Mounting of the rear boxes and the clamps.

The sideways on with the car shows that the exhaust system hardly drops below the from chassis arms, highlighted with a couple of lines on the first picture. Even at the rear the boxes don’t hang low to scrape over the ground.

But what do they sound like? Here we have the video we have just uploaded to our Channel on YouTube. You can find lots of other little videos to demonstrate our products.

WebShop

We have recently fitted one of our new products to a customers car; our T Park Locks which can be purchased here. A simple and stealth security option we recommend.

Other stock just in

Adam had a delivery just before the new year where his back order of rear springs have now turned up along with a some panels.

A fairly short post this week, but we should be back to normal from next week.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Parts, Repairs, Webshop, YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

From Us To You…

Posted on December 24, 2021 by Mustang Maniac

From all of us at Mustang Maniac, we just wanted to say thank for your support this year and we look forward to seeing you all in ’22.

What a year it’s been, Covid on and off, a few of us had caught it and we’re still here. We have gained some great new customers, we have put a few (ex) ‘customers’ on the “C” list. We have listened to what you said; we have updated the website, we have introduced free postage, we have even sold some sheet metal to customers. We have upped our social media game, we now have staff just to deal with that for us keeping you up to date on deals. We have started to stock all 50 plus years of Mustangs, widened the stock range for Falcons and other early Fords. We have created partnerships with new suppliers giving you even more range and options depending on budget. We have re-invested in Mustang Maniac as the home to Mustangs and the UK’s Premium Mustang Supplier.

Above all we have been honest with you on everything we do. So when we say a “Big Thank You, to all our Customers and Friends for your support” – We mean it!

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Classic Cars, Mustang Maniac, News, Parts | Tagged , , | 5 Comments