It’s no secret that we do take in the odd American Classic to work on that is not a Mustang. We tend to do it only for good customers though, this week is one of those occasions when we picked up this little lady.
Customer Cars
What we have here is a very solid 1955 Studebaker Commander.
The owner of the car has left her standing for a year after it failed to run right when she was last driven. What we have now is double trouble; 1) What was the original issue? 2) Why won’t it start now?
This car’s electrics are some mysterious wizardry that made sense at the time to the designers. This car runs from six volts and with a positive earth. When working this way round you have to keep telling yourself, ‘it’s positive, positive earth’. As it’s only 6v, it can’t kill us, can it? The wiring looks a little dated and the problem could be just about anything with the positive earth making the whole car essentially live. Some of these connections are not original and look a bit fragile.
The first thing was to get the old fuel out of the tank which was a little stagnant and a bit funky smelling. At least with fresh fuel we have eliminated the usual cause of some problems straight away. We were told on pick up that the fuel pump wasn’t working and could we check it out. We took out the pump as requested and it works just fine. As we have only just started on this diagnosis, we will clean everything out that we can on the carb and make sure all is working correctly when we put the pump back in ready to spin her over.
One of the main reason we don’t take on non Mustang based cars, is quite simply the parts availability. Lets say we need a new solenoid to start her up, we would have to order the parts from our equivalent suppliers and that takes research time and occupies space in the garages and yard in the mean time.
On the positive side (pun intended), the underside of the car is remarkably solid for a car of this age.
Looking at the steering, there are multiple links to get the steering where it needs to go.
But, that’s how the cars were in those days, so it wasn’t horrendous by any standards.
The Pear
We promised more pictures of the car, and we have started working on transferring the parts over. First up is look over the ‘Brittany Blue’ paint job inside and out. Adam is checking out the paint job up close to make sure it’s up to our rigorous Mustang Maniac standards. The engine bay in satin black finish and the underside for her underseal.
Adam is unwrapping the other parts of the car which had been painted to check the quality.
Outside is gloss clear coat and the inside has been done the same colour with a satin finish.
The work has started at the rear of the car, the rear quarter trims, just because they were to hand. But we will complete the paint first of the engine bay and underseal.
This car is going to be driven and the now donor car is shedding parts quickly, including any of the parts that have imperfections which we arrowed above. Normally we would replace these for that fully restored look. In this build we won’t be doing that, unless the owner wants it or the part is too badly damaged of course.
Good Guy vs Pratt Man.
We have had two customers this week both with very different outcomes.
First there is context to understand; on the front pages of our WebShop there is a note to say that for next day delivery to work there needs to be a cut off point. That cut off is 11.30am. Here is a cut and paste of that section:
“Opening Hours and Shipping
Having a web shop means we are ‘open’ 24hours a day, 7days a week, 365days a year, saying this, our shipping days are Mon-Fri, with orders completed before 11:30am being sent out the same day, not bad for a ‘small parts distributor’ from the UK. You will have a choice of shipping with either ParcelForce or UPS, for the same price, the reason we let you pick, you know their routes in your area/how close you are to their depot, should you not be in for delivery.”
The customers are two opposing points of view.
Good Guy;
A good customer of ours orders before 11.30am and he gets his parts the next day. The customer sends us a nice email after he got his parts. He didn’t need to and there was no drama with his order. We’re sure he wont mind us repeating what he said.
“Hi
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 …….”
Thank you very much Greig for your email it’s always nice to get some good feedback. We look forward to helping you out where we can with your parts, if you’re not sure what you need, please drop us an email.
Everybody is happy!
Pratt Man;
Pratt is not this ex-customer’s real name, but we will use it for now.
Pratt orders parts at 14.15 on Thursday afternoon and wants next day delivery. The cut off is there for a reason as Parcel Force collects at 14.00 in the afternoon. We need time (hence the cut off point) to allow us to process the customer’s order and package it ready for that collection slot.
As Pratt missed the cut off point, the order was then collected on Friday 14.00 in the afternoon. As Parcel Force don’t deliver on weekends the part won’t be there till Monday. This customer has sent us an email which we won’t post (to save his embarrassment). The email basically goes on to say it should be made clear about cut of points etc. (Which it does say, see above extract.) Adam responded and explained to the customer about the cut off point and address our ‘service’ issue as he had ‘a mechanic waiting to fit the parts Friday or Saturday at the latest’. The customer didn’t want to pay for special next day delivery either. Have we mentioned about the ‘Cut Off Point’ enough yet?
Pratt sent a further follow up email which didn’t get another response from Adam upon which he hit the dreaded “C” (cancelled) button and this customer will now not be able to order from Mustang Maniac in the future.
This Pratt has caused all sorts of dramas and excitement through no fault of our own.
The moral of the story here is very simple; be a “Good Guy” and don’t be a “Pratt Man”. Being a Good Guy gets your parts when you want them along with other benefits of being a good customer like our time to help you out and our much sort after advice.
Mustang Maniac 
Stop Right There
We start this post with the extremely sad news that one of the Motorsports broadcasting legends Murray Walker OBE, has passed away yesterday 13th March 2021 at the age of 97.
Murray was born 10th October 1923 and is of Scottish decent. He has been the staple motor sports commentator for every petrol head from the 70’s onwards. He left the army after the second World War and had successful but brief career in advertising. His voice was first heard in the early 60’s where he commentated on motor bikes with his father until 1962 where his father passed away. They were the only father and son commentary team at the time. He became the chief motor cycling commentator shortly after, then he progressed to rally cross in the 70’s and then British Touring Car Championships in the 70’s & 80’s. 1978 he became a full time BBC commentator for Formula 1 as well as any other motor sports events which were offered to him. He teamed up with (the late) James Hunt, a Formula 1 world champion from 1976 where they became a firm favourite with the fans the world over. He retired in 2001 but still remained a in the public eye with guest appearances and the occasional fill in commentary.
Hi flamboyant style of commentary was legendary with speaking at a fast pace keeping up with the action on track along with his unique animated enthusiasm. He was also know for his many “Murrayisms” (see the list below), when he got so excited and got the odd thing wrong now and again. Nobody minded and it was part of the fun which made motorsport an enjoyment to watch. He would remain standing during the races to keep him on his toes in more ways than one.
Some of those legendary ‘Murrayisms’:
He had many many friends up and down the pit lane with team bosses, drivers like; James Hunt, Damon Hill, Martin Brundle (who he later teamed with for commentary when James Hunt died), Michael Schumacher, Sir Stirling Moss, Jackie Steward, David Coultard and many many other high profile names. His respect was often noted with other media teams around the world, often being a guest of honour at events when he retired or at the talks about his life that he gave.
Perhaps his most famous long term friendship was with Nigel Mansell 1992 F! World Champion who would often been seen together, being professional sometimes for interviews. 😉
One of the most famous moments was when Nigel Mansell won the 1987 F1 Austrian Grand Prix. While standing on the parade truck he banged his head on a low bridge. A large egg sized bump appeared on his forehead. Murray had a now famous interview with Nigel;
“Nigel first of all could you carefully and slowly take your hat off. You’ve got an enormous bump on your head, can you let us see it? Right up there, ooh I’m sorry!”
It was at that point that Murray accidently poked Nigel’s head where the large bump was. Nigel was in pain and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
R.I.P. Murray Walker, you will be missed.
Customer Cars
We have completed our first customer Leed Brakes conversion for free on Pauls’ very nice 1963 Ford Falcon.
First job was to remove the old brakes and doesn’t take Yogi long as it’s almost second nature now.
The master cylinder was removed and all fluids drained out.
The new parts laid out ready for fitting to the existing spindles after being checked that there was no excessive wear and tear or damage.
There the process of building up the rotors to the spindles.
The rotors were fitted into place with the wheel bearings and greased accordingly. Note the special tool we have that doesn’t damage the polished bearing cap.
The callipers are fitted on next.
Yogi with the copper slip coating (before being evened out) to allow the pads to slide into the callipers.
With the brake callipers in place new lines and brackets were fitted to the callipers.
The master cylinder take a little longer due to the confines of the location. The unmistakable brake line works of art can be seen too.
Then we bleed the brakes aligned the wheels to our own secret settings before take it for a test run. On return we checked the bleeds again and adjusted the brake pedal which invariably different from the stock drum position. The brake balance front to rear was set up to be a little bias to the front and then all was good with the world. We can’t go mad with the brake testing as the pads need to bed in little and settle to the rotors for a few miles. But, even at this new stage of fitting, stopping is significantly improved without fade along with a much better feel for the brake pedal.
We had another job which was to fit the Pertronix Ignitor ignition upgrade. This bit of kit replaces the the standard contact points setup for a more accurate electronic solution for fit and forget.
Old points and condenser on the right, new tech on the left. the parts shown located on the base plate of the distributor in their respective positions.
The distributor cam is replaced with a magnetic collar for the sensor to pick up the fire signals, and finally the rotor is replaced.
An upgrade you notice from the outside, but a big upgrade for performance vs stability at a reasonable cost depending on the type of Pertronix kit you want.
Well that’s one car fitted for free, we just need the next car in to show that one as well for you.
Stay Safe & Take Care.
Share this: