A Cheeky Offer

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

Hot of the heals of last week’s post we had a number of emails along with a few visitors to the yard and the wanted to take a look at the Hawaii convertible Mustang. We left them to it to keep social distancing and they liked what they saw, they were very impressed with all the paperwork. They did make an (cheeky) offer, but it was not up to Adam’s expectations for such a great example of a Fox Body Muzzy. The guys did see the funny side of the photo being took while they gave the car a real good once over, then a second and third over!

Like we often say, the car isn’t actually up for sale, but money talks in the Mustang Maniac yard and the car could be yours. We are waiting to see if these guys will up their budget and drive of in this little lady.

Our Cars

Yogi has now started to pick up the Project Resto Mod we have in the body shop. The car is being prepped for some paint shortly.

But first Yogi was rubbing down, filling, and rubbing down again. All this takes time, and any shortcuts here will show later in the project.

With the base sanded to a glass like finish the etch was added.

Then a base primer was applied.

Eventually the car was pretty much ready in primer.

There was key coats applied, rubbing down, more filling and more primer.

There is still plenty of rubbing and prep work to be done before Yogi is happy with it.

The smaller parts of the panel work are also given the same love and attention.

Other News:

COLOGNE, Germany – Ford has announced that the limited-edition, high-performance Mustang Mach 1 will be available to customers in Europe for the first time ever.

Making its European debut at Goodwood SpeedWeek taking place in West Sussex, U.K, in front of a global virtual audience, the Mustang Mach 1 is the best-handling production Mustang ever offered to customers in Europe.

Performance is boosted to a level worthy of the iconic Mach 1 moniker with enhanced aerodynamics, a specially-calibrated 460 PS 5.0-litre V8 engine and uprated cooling for improved track capability.

The Mach 1 is also the first production Mustang in Europe available with a high-performance TREMEC six-speed manual transmission, featuring rev-matching technology for seamless down-shifts and an upgraded oil-cooler system for high-demand performance driving. Customers can alternatively specify Ford’s 10-speed automatic transmission, featuring an upgraded oil-cooler and recalibrated software for optimised performance in road and track driving conditions.

A unique suspension setup further enhances road performance and track-readiness. Specially-calibrated MagneRide® dampers and bespoke springs, anti-roll bars and bush specifications deliver improved control and response under high cornering loads. Retuned electric power-assisted steering (EPAS) software enables the Mach 1 to offer the most precise steering of any Mustang in Europe.

The result is the fastest production Mustang around a track ever offered to customers in Europe.

In addition to its performance credentials, the Mustang Mach 1 brings exterior design that recalls the iconic Mach 1 Mustangs of the 1960s and 1970s, with bold bonnet and side stripes, performance-derived body-styling and unique 19-inch alloy wheels. The limited-edition model is available in a unique set of eight body colour, stripe and contrast-line combinations, echoing the distinctive design of the original car. Each Mustang Mach 1 is individually numbered with a distinctive plaque according to its build order.

“The original Mach 1 delivered the ultimate in production Mustang performance and proved itself with success in motorsport,” said Matthias Tonn, Mustang Mach 1 chief programme engineer for Europe. “The new Mach 1 is the most capable Mustang ever to reach Europe, with track-ready ability and a unique style that is more than worthy of wearing such a legendary badge.”

Source:https://www.at.ford.com/en/homepage/news-and-clipsheet/news/2020/10/iconic-ford-mustang-mach-1-debuts-at-goodwood-ahead-of-european-.html?cid=BOC-2020-10-16

Yogi obviously has a ’69 Mach1, when we asked him what he thought of this launch? “I’ll see it in my rear view mirror on the drag strip!” 😀

Guest Blogger Results:

The poll from last week shows that the you liked the guest write up on our blog with just over two thirds of the votes. We will look to do more of them in the future for you. I think it’s a great idea as it means that I don’t have to do so much at the weekends. 😉

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Hawaii 5.0

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have something a little different for you in the way of our blog contribution. We will have a guest blogger who wrote the story of a very unusual and rare car with a very lucky owner. More on that later for you, but first a mystery car arrives in the yard…

Hawaii 5.0

As the heading suggests we have a link to the great TV series all be it a tenuous one. We see this little lady which was parked up amongst Adam other little gems. We grabbed a few pics of it before it was moved around. Why is it here? What is it’s purpose? We asked Adam and he just said – ‘All will be revealed in good time…’ This Fox-body Mustang spent the early years of her life in Hawaii as a Hertz rental car for fifteen odd years. The car was then purchased from Hertz and shipped over to Spain for a couple of years, then eventually it ended up in the UK. The car’s incredible condition is due to its previous locations in hot climates without a doubt. Not only that, the car has a genuine 34,000 miles from new! Convertible for those rare summer days this is a beautiful car, but not to everybody’s taste and we get that. As the years go by, these cars just seem to look better and better or is it just us?

Under the hood is pretty much all original with many of the items that are normally missing for some reason or another.

How does it sound? Awesome, and starts right on the button.

https://videopress.com/v/1KvXOave?preloadContent=metadata

The interior looks in absolutely mint condition, just like it was from the factory.

How do we know the real mileage? Well, with provenance like this little lot, there is no question it’s all genuine. Just incredible.

Now for our guest writer, our very own Mark L.

…….. and now were going to take you from Hawaii 5.0 to Madagascar  …. Madagascar Orange to be exact. A rare paint option from Ford for 1968 model year under their “Rainbow of colors” promotion.

This extremely presentable example is now in the ownership of “Lucky Tony” from Milton Keynes (more on the “Lucky” moniker later). After decades of hankering for a classic Mustang Tony was in a position to realise his dream earlier this year and chomping at the bit to get one of his own. Though no stranger to desirable cars Tony was new to Mustangs and sought our advice. One of our associates here at Mustang Maniac advised and scanned classified ads with him and accompanied Tony to view potential vehicles. To his credit, Tony heeded all advice and even when frustrated at the seemingly constant “no it’s a shed” he never allowed his heart to rule his head …. the car had to be a good one and we’re pleased he stuck to that ethos when he could so easily have let eagerness steer him blindly into a rusty money pit.

Then this particular car came on the market and was located up “T’north” (ed. up north of the country for our American readers), by some considerable distance. Tony could only view it on a Sunday, but alas his ally in the search could not make it that day. It was agreed that Tony would go up and view the car and would pay particular attention to certain areas known to be previous or potential trouble. If he wasn’t sure he would video call and seek advice before making a decision.

Clearly Tony had listened and learned a great deal during the previous months search as he viewed the car and felt confident enough to buy, insure and drive the car home. Later he brought the car to Mustang Maniac for a a check over. Adam gave the car his usual fastidious check and pointed out that there were a couple of things that required attention and also suggested a few things that would improve the car and enhance the driving experience. He punctuated his look over by saying “Well …. we’re going to have to name you “Lucky Tony” now … cos you’ve bought a very solid car, with no Mickey Mouse welding repairs ….. it’s a good car and it will be better”. It was nice to see the weight lift from Tony’s shoulders and a mile wide smile appear. 

The car was booked in to have the few issues addressed and begin the process of improving an already nice car. The car came back recently and was given to Yogi to perform his magic on. First was a niggling wheel bearing and a new brake caliper fitting kit to replace one that had previously been incorrectly fitted.

This mistake unfortunately had made the brake pads less than optimum so they were also replaced. Luckily the discs themselves were unharmed.

Then the bear fitted all new shock absorbers and a set of 4.5 mid eye leaf springs. The front spring perches were found to be living on borrowed time so replaced, the rear brakes were cleaned and adjusted, a Monte Carlo bar added and a headlamp relay kit wired in.

Then a larger sway bar to stiffen up the front and the steering valve and linkages were regreased and tightened up. A much improved steering wheel was added for aesthetics just before Yogi took the car to the alignment shop and locked and bolted the doors to tap in his secret camber/caster and toe settings. Lastly a small wiring fault to the hazards was attended to.

Lucky Tony turned up to collect the car before we’d finished the phone call to say it was ready and upon collection a plan of action was formulated for a few further upgrades in the near future … while we scoffed his biscuit bribe (clever man).  The plan is to upgrade to a superior Borgeson steering box and possibly performance front coil springs once Tony has some miles on the car.

A short while after leaving we got a message to say :

 “Hi Guys,

1000% better

I drive the car now … not the car driving me and me trying to stop it going in a hedge lol

Enjoyed every minute of the drive home”

We like that kind of feedback, not so much because it makes us feel good about what we do but also because it’s great to see someone finally get what they’ve wanted for a very long time and it lives up to their expectations. Now we will move forward with “Lucky Tony”… to exceed them.

Nice car. Well done Tony.

Great write up from Mark who was there to welcome the car into the yard with Yogi to give the rare beast the initial once over.

Should we do more guest writers for our blogs? 😀 Let us know in the poll.

Covid

Due to the UK’s Government lockdown for the next four weeks into December, we will be following the guidelines set out for us. The work in our workshops and blog updates could be affected we just don’t know yet. Watch this space for updates and above all:

Keep Safe!

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Keeping Ahead Of The Game

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

We have been getting a few enquiries to the this Blog asking us about stock levels. Our WebShop has all the stock listings and is a real time update. The stock is updated immediately that somebody orders an item, it’s a completely automated process. You can always email us on sales@mustangmaniac.co.uk if you want a special order made for you that we have access to.

Stock:

We mentioned about a big batch of gearboxes that had recently been delivered. Well now we have some more date coded correct cylinder heads reconditioned and put into storage. These are lurking in the depths of the Mustang Maniac’s storage units.

These are just the latest batch, there are others hidden away too. These little gems are already like gold dust, so to be rare gems.

Remember these are not for sale at Ebay prices. Get your wallet out with big wad of cash and maybe you could tempt Adam into selling a pair. 😉

Our Own Brand Lowering Kits

Adam has now received all the components for the second batch of Mustang Maniac lowering kits. These consist of the solid lowering blocks, the longer U-Bolts and the nuts to complete the kits. Here we have Scott Drake’s kit and our own kit on the right.

The bag above shows our latest batch of two hundred nuts just for the lowering kits.

Customer Generosity.

Every now and then we get a given some great gifts from out customers of unique and rare items that we display in the offices where we can. Recently a customers was in his loft and discovered this little gem.

A diorama of a Mustang garage with a working light. The attention to detail in this model’s scene is amazing.

We don’t know much about this item. If anybody could shed some light on it that would be great. Or was this a one off hand made scene? Regardless is a great item to have and we always appreciate items that our customers donate to us.

Covid:

We are not sure what is happening or will be happening going forward with the Covid rules. Tier this or Tier that, mini break or circuit break it doesn’t make much sense at the moment. We are continuing to abide by the legal requirements as a business. Going forward with our work loads and blog updates we will just have to wing it for now. Nobody knows what is going to happen in the future. Mustang Maniac is and will remain 100% committed to our staff and customer safety. If you can order via the WebShop that would be the safest thing for your parts requirements. We will arrange local pickups by appointments only for now.

Keep Safe!

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Expert Or Expertise?

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have had a car in that is overheating and are on their fourth radiator. The problem is from the engine block that is depositing sediment into the radiator and blocking the the narrow pipes. In order to prove the fact Adam has got out his knew gadget to take a photo of the problem for the customer.

Thermal Imaging was a super expensive technology a few years ago, but this has now filtered into the automotive market at reasonable costs to make diagnosis easier. The radiator was scanned and clearly shows the cold spot on due to a blockage on the left hand side of the radiator. This quickly narrowed down the issue and Mustang Maniac started the flushing procedures of the radiator and water ways to try and fix the problem. Really and truly this engine needs to come out for a strip down and sort out.

That may full tear down may have to wait until we get the go ahead from the customer, but for now we shall try a few old school tricks to make her run cool again, if not it’s a new radiator again.

Stock:

Gearboxes.

We mention that Adam has been getting his gearboxes reconditioned and stored, well we have new batch arrive and now gone into the Aladdin’s cave of hidden treasures.

There has even been a couple of manual gearboxes properly restored such as this four speed Top Loader fitted with a Hurst shifter.

When a good customer of ours asks for a something to be brought in especially we go out of our way to make it happen for them. In this instance the customer wanted to swap out his Manual gearbox for a automatic. A few weeks later it was built to the customer specs and arrived with us long with our other stock ready for fitting.

To finish up our little gearbox stock level update, Adam came staggering out of the storage room to find his transport trolley had been moved from where he left it.

Adam’s devoted and loyal dog Shelby was on the look out for the culprits, we’re pretty sure that she was gonna make somebody pay for it!

Shocks:

Adam has had a new line of shocks come in from Scott Drake which are their low pressure versions. These new ’64 – ’73 lines are already on the WebShop, the fronts can be found here.

The rears can be found here.

As our WebShop states; “These low-pressure gas shocks are an affordable upgrade from the original factory hydraulic shocks. These shocks are ideal for the daily driver that prefers a smooth comfortable ride over performance. For a more spirited driving we recommend Drake’s performance high-pressure gas shocks.”

Spax have now replenished us with another supply of unique personalised shocks in red. These red shocks can only be purchased through us. Adam is opening this batch to check for quality control.

Postage

We said that we are now using second class Royal Mail as some customers don’t want to pay the courier rates. That’s absolutely fine, but don’t expect it to arrive the next day as one customer complained about. Remember you have the choice for some items on how much you want to pay vs how quickly you want it. The little lot going out yesterday afternoon with a mixture of options including signed for or not;

The pilot has come to an end and we have decided to continue the service. We shall of course continue to monitor the feedback which so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Thank you to everybody who has taken time out to let us know what you thought of the options.

On a slightly negative point we don’t normally post about customers, but we felt we had too on this occasion. We will not be disclosing any details of what happened, but this customer needs to see a more public response as they keep sending us emails. The customer that has just been allocated the “C” button and has been repeatedly contacting us again. We honestly appreciate your apology thank you, due to the previous unpleasant experience from yourself with unreasonable expectations, we can assure you that we went over and above our normal excellent customer service we provide including a considerable expenses to ourselves, we even let you keep the item and gave you a refund. We will not be providing any more parts to you going forward or responding to your numerous emails. We’re sorry that the other suppliers are out of stock for the items you are requesting, please try other parts suppliers or you will just have to wait for your new “preferred supplier” to get the items in stock for you.

Expert Or Expertise?

We recently had a a customer complain to us that that their light up Mustang kick plates for the door sills was not working. We have had no problems with these items and fitted a few now without problems.

The customer insisted they were faulty as his “Expert Electrician” said they didn’t work. So they were returned to us and we opened the package to check them. We were hit with a tell tale burning smell.

Not only did they blow the transformers once, they did it twice! We never claim to be experts, as we are always learning. But, we do however have considerable expertise in classic Mustangs. We can confirm their experts ‘diagnosis’ that these transformers are not working. However we have never blown any up yet!

Keep Safe.

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Shake, Rattle & Roll

Posted on October 11, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

We have had some trouble shooting to do this week for customers and to be honest it was pretty evident what the problems were at first look. We have couple of videos and one of which is truly shocking. Turn up the volume and enjoy these little gems.

Customer Cars:

Clutch Judder:

This little lady had an issue with some clutch judder. This can be a worn clutch, face plate, bearings etc. In this case it was all of them! If you want to get your money’s worth this is pretty much the limit.

The prop shaft, gearbox and exhaust were removed before we could drop the gear box out. The flywheel was worn and showed the signs of the judder on what should be a flat surface, this one had a lip where it had worn.

The clutch itself was well beyond worn with bits broken off.

Adam got a “Full” clutch kit straight from the shelf and took it to Yogi in the workshop where he was taking the rest of the worn parts of the car.

Not cheap, but when things get this worn there is no option to replace. Yes, we could of taken the flywheel to be skimmed, but that would have taken lots of time and getting on the cost for a new one!

The bearing for the clutch was worn as well as this video shows.

Suspension Issues:

A customer has brought in their car to us with a diagnosis of it’s making a strange noise from the front.

So we got her up on the ramp and found this on the video below. No words needed!

The trouble of having this much movement invariably lead to worn or damaged parts elsewhere. After seeing this Yogi went off for a cuppa shaking his head. A potential accident waiting to happen, it wouldn’t have been a pretty when this lot would eventually let go!

Water Pump:

Lastly we had a car with a ‘funny noise’ coming from the front with a bit of a water leak. It was quickly nailed down to the water pump and it was replaced. While the worn one was sat on the bench we filmed this for you. It’s a little quiet, but you can hear the worn bearing.

Our Stock:

Adam has now had yet another batch of nice date coded auto and manual gearboxes back from being fully refurbished. All sitting on the shelf ready to go, maybe. However, if you ask Adam if has any gearboxes he will simply say; “Nope, ain’t got none”.

Tip: Like we said last week, get your money out and you might, just might be able to talk Adam into selling one to you. But, don’t hold your breath though unless it’s a proper wad of money.

Brakes:

We have now got a full range of brakes for ’64 to 2020 Mustangs all of the shelf. We also stock the full range of brake conversions by well known and different brands; vented, slotted, drilled or both. We can also offer you different price points from budget ranges to the more discerning customers who demand performance parts that our customers expect.

Cars For Sale;

We have had a great response to our worst kept secret from last week of selling cars. We have now got a nice list of names in our database who are looking for cars from us. We shall now be actively looking to match our customers up when the situation arises.

So, we need to end the post by saying a big “Thank You” to those of you that sent us emails saying you like the idea of “buying with confidence” from us, and could they go on our list buy & sell lists. It seems that cars that are sensibly priced, with a known history, known service record and respected top quality workmanship from Mustang Maniac says a lot when you want to buy a car.

Oops. (A note from the editor)

Last week it was spotted that the post started with a Heineken logo. Their slogan is; “It refreshes the parts other beer’s cannot reach.” It seems as though this was a draft version, see what we did there? The error was quickly replaced with the correct Carlsberg logo. After I had finished writing a hundred lines of “I must not mix my beers up on a blog, and I’m Sorry”, I was allowed back on hallowed blog pages on Mustang Maniac.

Keep Safe everybody as we are on verge of a second wave of Corona 😦

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We Don’t Sell Cars – Or Do We??

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

We have a slightly different post for you where we can make a service of ours more public. there is a great advert by ‘Carlsberg Beer’ where they say; ‘We don’t do (what ever it may be), but if we did…’, then the they show a perfect Utopia for that scenario.

With that in mind Mustang Maniac doesn’t sell cars, but if we did….

(Spoiler Alert: We do!!)

In the trade it’s well known that Adam has some cars, in fact lots of cars! He doesn’t actively sell cars via adverts, Facebook or other social media platforms. However, if you did walk in with a desire for one of his cars, and the money to match that desire, then you can pretty much buy anything from him.

Unlike some other Mustang sellers who simply import the cars, tidy them up a bit and sell them on for straight money profits, we on the other hand actually care about the customer experience and the enjoyment of these cars going forward.

What we offer is unique service tailored for the buyer and the seller. We know so many people as customers, our list of contacts is extensive as you can imagine. Until now this has been a very private process we haven’t made public, but we are now getting more and more requests for our services. So we will put it out there that this is what we now do. Just like some car sales are now selling the easy parts to get hold of, we are now going to open up our services for car parts with car sales too.

Firstly we only sell cars that we know the history of. Cars that we have looked after, serviced or restored for a period of time. When the time is right for the customer they let us know and we deal with it for them. It could be to move onto a different car, buy another car or sell one of their cars, whatever those circumstances may be. We then look through our database to see who is looking to buy or sell a car. We get in touch with them and become the intermediary for the sale. A bit like a Mustang Owners Dating Service for quality cars.

What do we get out of it? Simple, loyal customers who will come back to us again and again. Recommendations for us and more customers.

Here’s a story of the latest sale we facilitated. A unique ’70 coupe which we have looked after for quite a while and we have known the previous two owners, was coming up for sale. The car was nicely converted to a right hand drive with a custom paint job, this is a stand out car in any crowd as it stood.

We had some visitors to our yard who enquired about a car and spotted this little lady. We informed that it was going to be up for sale very shortly and we were doing some pre-sale prep work on her. They were very interested and so we got in touch with our Mustang Maniac Sales Consultant who liaised between the seller and the buyers. The new customers wanted a few things done to the car to make it a little more unique with some satin silver stripes and a scoop to name a couple of things.

We arranged for the car to be customised to their requirements. Once we got it back to the yard we gave the car our now very respected specialist pre delivery detail service, the results are amazing and this is one cracking looking car.

The comparison before and after:

The owners Stacey & John (left and right in the pic below) were pleased with the results and managed to grab a shot of them before they drove away. Adam in the middle with our sales consultant at the front who made it happen for them.

Why buy and sell through us?

A no brainer really. We are the country’s premier Mustang parts supplier to the trade, Ford themselves and of course our customers. When you buy from us you know the following:

  • When we handle the sale for you, we filter out the tyre kickers Sunday time wasters.
  • We have previously worked on the car and know its history.
  • We can supply you with what you need – straight off our very well stocked shelves.
  • We can offer you the countries top after sales advice, parts and service.
  • Above all we care!

We will only sell genuine quality cars at a genuine prices. If you want us to sell your car for you and we haven’t seen your car before, don’t bother to ask us. Those customers of ours who are looking to buy or sell, send Adam an email at sales@mustangmaniac.co.uk to see if we can help you out.

Have you ever brought a car and have to take it somewhere else to be fixed properly? We’ve had plenty of those quick turn around cars from various places through our workshops, putting right other peoples work as we have shown on here many times in the past, without naming names of course. We want you to have the best experience possible with your car for parts, service and now sales providing you meet our criteria that is, why go anywhere else?

Keep Safe.

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Shocking News

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

Ok it’s not shocking news, it’s great news if you want a Bilstein Shocks for your Mustang.

Our Stock:

Adam is now waiting for his first full delivery of shocks to come from Bilstein to us, hopefully in the next week or so. We have a very a limited supply of 2015 to 2020 Mustang shocks from Bilstein (below), but more are definitely on the way. 🙂

They can be bought as just a front set, rear set or a complete kit. Fronts here:

The rears set:

Anybody who knows about Bilstein products won’t need us to tell you that these products sit at the very top of their game for performance.

Adam has got a little wall embellishment for the offices as well.

The stock range has has been increasing even in these difficult times. But some parts are becoming increasing harder to find and keep in stock.

We would like to point out something to the first time customers who have been a little less than ‘understanding should we say’. We have had a couple of enquiries as to why our stock is sometimes more expensive than other suppliers. The answer was explained to a customer in our offices by Adam. The conversation went along the lines of this:

Customer: I want to buy (xxxx), but So and So has it £35 cheaper than you.

MM: Sorry, but that is our price, we are even squeezing our own margins at that cost.

Customer: I won’t pay your prices.

MM: No problem, the parts are in short supply, you don’t have to buy from us.

Customer: But I want the part.

MM: Why didn’t you buy it elsewhere if you can get it cheaper?

Customer: They haven’t had any in stock for a while now.

MM: We could be even cheaper than So and So if we don’t have them in stock either.

Customer: Will you match their price?

MM: Nope, we don’t price match. I take it you don’t want the part then?

Customer: Do you take Credit Cards?

That was a genuine (part of) conversation that took place in the Mustang Maniac office. The customer walked out with the part and he paid the price. We don’t rip people off, we have noticed an increase in prices due to the shortage of some parts. Luckily we have plenty of them. Even Ford dealers buy parts from us!!

Customer Cars:

Last week Yogi was taking apart a damaged engine, which was test fired on the rig and then put back into the car. Here the engine was primed with oil to make sure all was OK.

Then it was fitted back to the car. Plumbing was to be fitted and all the electrics to follow of course.

So far the new beating heart is making all the right noises.

Our Cars:

The Falcon has had some interior work done to her in the shape of the gauge cluster and trim.

The outside trim has been colour coordinated with the dash

We even managed to grab a pic of Gary applying some TLC to bring the paint back to life again.

With the Covid lockdown process about to take hold again, now is a good a reason as ever to get the parts in for the little projects you have on the go. Unlike some, we do have plenty of stock at our WebShop.

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Company Car

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

This week things have calmed down a little and we have been rearranging some things about in the workshops, we shall be bringing pictures of that rather large project soon, but we wanted to get it looking nice first before we shard it. So watch this space. 👍

Customer Cars:

We had a car come into us with an engine that was not running well and making some odd noises being reported to us. So it was time to investigate what was going on.

We listened to where it was coming from and we eventually nailed it down to bottom end of the engine. Definitely not a good sign.

Yogi and Adam decided that the best plan of action was to pull the engine out and see exactly what was going on with an engine strip down.

The engine was put onto a stand and Yogi started on the dismantling looking for any clues as he went along. The bottom was drained of fluids and still no clues for the actual cause just yet.

The intake was removed and then over to the heads.

With the heads removed we couldn’t see any issues to start with.

We started to crank the engine over by hand and then all was revealed.

Now that the found the problem was found, we needed to work out what was best for the customer. The best plan of action was to get one of our ‘off the shelf’ short block engines and start to rebuild with the good bits we could salvage.

The heads we’re replaced and then the time-intense task of setting the valve clearances and getting the timing chain on.

The intake was fitted and torqued up.

With the top built it was time to flip over for the bottom end of the engine to be rebuilt.

With the engine in effect built with the main components the exhaust headers we’re fitted.

This week we shall get the plumbing fitted and then onto our test rig to fired up with a default setting to make sure all is good before we fit back into the car.

Our Cars:

It’s well known Adam has plenty of cars and he likes to get rotate them a bit. So when Gary from our office started to get the bug and showed an interest in Adam’s Falcon the deal was struck. Gary was to have the car as long as he keeps it road worthy. Obviously all the parts from Adam to restore and keep it going. What a fantastic way to get into classic cars.

So Gary started the clean up and strip down inside.

The interior needed some TLC regarding the gauges and steering wheel.

The car was cleaned and put into the workshop to get the soft top working and greased up properly.

The top was filthy from storage dust in the barn, so Gary put in some serious hours to get it clean and looking new.

These Falcons are great cars and fun to drive. The major advantage is that these cars were what the Mustang was based on and share many of the parts.

We shall bring you more of this project as it progresses. As Adam said to Gary, ‘All good things come to those who wait’. Now Gary drives around in a desirable rag top Falcon, how’s that for a company car???

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Mach1, 2, 3 & Mach-E

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

We missed last weeks post as we (OK me) was at a car show and was stuck getting out so things got delayed. Sorry. Anyway we have a rather unusual situation of having a a Mach1 times three with us.

Park & Pic

A first for us here, but it warrants the change from a single car taking the lead.

So which is the favourite year, the blue or green ’69s or the ’70? To tease you even more on the response the green ’69 and the yellow ’70 are both genuine Cobra Jets as well.

Let us know your favourite, we couldn’t possibly say, we love all Mustangs. 😉

Customer Cars

We had some work to do on each corner of another car where the rear suspension needed to be replaced, the old shocks and springs were replaced with Drake performance and our standard stock four leaf springs.

The front springs and shocks were replaced.

The old brass brake lines were also replaced and with some of Yogi’s nickel line work to tidy things up.

The rears also had a new handbrake cables fitted and adjustment of the rear shoes.

A Spring clean in the Summer

Adam has had a move around at the workshops where Yogi is moving his bear cave to a bigger new improved version for more cars. We will upload the photo’s of it soon once it has been painted and fitted out.

That process of cleaning and clearing out uncovered Adam’s Snap-On tool box from thirty years ago. He moved it up to his Truck workshop and decided to give it a clean.

The box had tool in it so he decided to clean everything out and put it all back again. Apparently this is good for the soul to find out where some of his tools had gone.

Adam also put all his power tools on the toolbox and even ‘found’ a brand new (spare) 3/4″ drive impact gun which he thought he had lost. The rest of are lucky if we find that missing 10mm socket or in our case the 1/2″ socket!

Have you ever found a ‘right result’ (as Adam would say) when you cleaned out your tool box?

Other News:

We often hear that the recently released Mustang Mach-E is not a Mustang as it’s electric. But, we have been sent a link to a real electric Mustang – The Cobra Jet 1400. Unlike the seven litre Cobra Jet monsters above this is Cobra Jet is all electric. In fact this is what the Mustang Mach-E should have been. Range? Who cares? As long as it gets past the 1/4 mile that’s all that matters. 😀

Employee of the Month?

Adam has a notice board now in the ‘Boys Club’, for reminders etc. but it’s being used for other things at the moment. We don’t know who put these notes on there or where they came from. Looks like it might be a little tit-for-tat in response to puttin’ Yogi’s car up for sale perhaps.

Congratulations Mark on being the Employee of the month, taken on the way back when the MM boys had a day out. Such a light weight!! 😀

Not sure what will appear on the board next – but we’re looking forward to it. 😉

Keep Safe.

Posted in Customers' Cars, Park & Pic, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Out With The Old

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Mustang Maniac

This week we a nice little coupe come into us for a little of our own speciality in house detail service. The car was a little dull and needed a little TLC from our man. Yogi continues on his reconstruction of the ’69 Mach1 suspension.

Park & Pic

This ’67 Coupe with a proper engine in it is now with us. We don’t have the before and after pics of the detail, but we have a selection of the after and (err) even more after pics.

Customer Car

The ’69 Mach1 had the botched carb blank of rubbers ‘fitted’ and this is what it looked like. OK, might be partially hidden under the air filter but that is no excuse to be honest.

Yogi has re-routed the fuel line with the proper metal pipe and improved the look no end all very subtle stuff. Out with the old:

In with the new Yogi custom pipe work:

The running gear has had a beef up on the sway bar to our popular 1″ version.

The steering upgrade will be in shortly but first the brake servo was out, we are not sure (as this is written) if it’s to go back in again or not.

The new steering starts to go back in:

The rest of the running gear follows with springs, perches and shocks.

The owners will think this is a different car when they get back into her for the first drive!

Customer Kindness:

A close friend and customer of our returned from the USA with this tankard which he donated to our Mustang memorabilia. Thanks to Gary W. for the item. We would love to know more about this item.

This pewter tankard was made in UK, sent to Geneva (possibly) and ended up in the States:

The dates don’t seem to tie up with anything specific, but if you take the USA date format it becomes 3-9-1966. Was this something to do with ’66 Le Mans win? Perhaps somebody could give some theories and let us know as we’re not sure. Currently the tankard resides on Adam’s desk in the main office holding a collection of pens, I’m pretty sure one of which is mine! 😀

Posted in Car Detail, Customers' Cars, Park & Pic | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments