These post won’t need any introduction as it’s quite obvious they are from SEMA. We got a batch of pics arrive in no particular order. So I will try and sort them out; outside, Mustangs, Ford Stand, trucks etc.
Outside
Celeb Spotting
The Ford Stand
Adam found a relative of Yogi’s waiting at the ford stand for him.
Trucks
Mustangs
Eleanor
Paul Walker’s Ford Escort RS1600 Mk1
Other
Adam did find a truck just for Yogi though;
Depending on when we get the next batch of pictures we will bring you SEMA Day 2.
The start of the SEMA journey 2019 has begun. Adam & Lynn have taken a flight to Los Angeles hired a car and then traveled to Barstow where they were going to stop overnight and ready for SEMA the next day.
On their way they stopped of at a couple of places of interest, on of which is this place full of big trains, not quite running on steam more like diesel! Adam had his eye on a couple ‘couple of little trucks’ that he could use for LAR Recovery too.
A couple of stops for some food saw a previously visited diner. A couple of places they didn’t try.
Adam did say that the waiter service was a bit slow though.
Stopping of at Whiskey Pete’s Casino in Primm, Nevada they found the Bonnie & Clyde ‘death car’.
At 9.15am on May 23rd, 1934, the notorious Bonnie and Clyde were gunned down in a police ambush as they were driving a stolen 1934 Ford Deluxe near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana. Immortalized in Arthur Penn’s 1967 Oscar-winning film, starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde are still considered the most famous gangster couple in history. Their story goes back to the height of the Great Depression when they met for the first time and entered a world of crime.
Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, sometime between 1932 and 1934, when their exploits in Arkansas included murder, robbery, and kidnapping. Contrary to popular belief the two never married. They were in a long standing relationship. Posing in front of a 1932 Ford V-8 automobile.
It was 1932 when Bonnie and Clyde began a crime spree that lasted for 21 months and resulted in 13 deaths. In addition to this, they committed several bank robberies, burglaries, kidnappings, and automobile thefts. However, May 23rd, 1934, was not their lucky day as they were killed by the police in a hail of bullets. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow had no chance of survival and died as they lived, by the gun.
While the story of Bonnie and Clyde ends here, the 1934 Ford Model, 730 Deluxe Sedan in which the outlaws were killed, became an instant celebrity after the police had returned it to its original owner.
The Trail’s End” was on a road deep in the piney Louisiana woods.
The criminal couple stole the now famous 1934 Ford Deluxe from Ruth Warren of Topeka, Kansas. She bought the car for $835 (15,000 in today’s worth) in March 1934 and in April it was already stolen by Bonnie and Clyde. One month later, the car reappeared, but it had over 160 bullet holes and was stained with Bonnie and Clyde’s blood.
No wonder the car had so many bullet holes since each of the six officers that ambushed the notorious couple had an automatic rifle, shotgun, and a pistol. The officers emptied all of their weapons and, since they knew who they were dealing with, they even kept shooting at the car after it had stopped.
Their gunfire was so loud, that the posse suffered temporary deafness all afternoon.
The 160 bullet holes and the duo’s blood were just a tiny problem for the owner of the car. When Ruth Warren went to reclaim her stolen car she was shocked to find out that she had to pay $15,000 to get it back. At least that was what the local Sheriff, named Henderson Jordan, told her. Warren decided to sue, so she hired an attorney, named W.D. Goff, to represent her and with his help, she managed to win the case and finally get her car back.
In the years that followed, the car was leased several times, and it was displayed at the Topeka Fairgrounds. In 1945, it was sold for $3,500 (nearly $50,000 in today’s money) to Charles Stanley, who used the death car as a sideshow attraction at his traveling carnival. Stanley even brought the car to the Nevada race track where he allowed people to sit inside it for the price of 1 dollar.
When Stanley retired in 1960, he sold the famous car to Ted Toddy for $14,500 (nearly $120,000 in today’s worth), and he also had to sue a man named Johnny Portemont to prove that the car he owned was the 1934 Ford Deluxe in which Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died. He won the case, and the court prohibited Johnny Portemont from exhibiting any other car except Toddy’s car as the “true” Bonnie and Clyde death car.
The death car again changed its owner in 1977 when Toddy sold it for $175,000 ($725,000 in today’s worth) to Peter Simon II, who displayed it at his casino Pop’s Oasis in Nevada. About ten years later, the casino closed and he sold the car to the owners of Whiskey Pete’s Hotel and Casino in Primm, Nevada.
The infamous Bonnie and Clyde death car has been touring across the country for the past 30 years, but, mostly, it remained in the lobby of Whiskey Pete’s Hotel and Casino in Primm, Nevada, where it can be found today. The car is not the only Bonnie and Clyde artifact that can be seen at Whiskey Pete’s where visitors can also see Clyde’s bloodstained shirt which he wore the day he died.
Arriving at the overnight stop.
Adam decided that he needed to see into the future, it was bright – apparently he’s going to SEMA.
After a busy day it was time to relax;
There will be some pics from SEMA itself as we get them. Watch this space.
As you read this Adam will be a good few thousand feet in the air on his way to the USA and looking forward to the SEMA 2019 show. Before he left he done a few little videos for us about his 2016 ‘Enos 350’ spec Mustang which will be going on YouTube very soon, but we grabbed it first straight out the editing suite for the blog. Speaking of videos we start with a serious clip on how not to do an upgrade yourself!
Customers Cars
There is so much you can do to Mustangs to improve their look in the wheel area; beauty rings, rim swap outs, alloy wheels, white letter tyres, roll the arches, tub them etc. One of those tweaks is the addition of wheel spacers. Readily available with various thicknesses from 3mm to 5mm which we also stock. Fitted correctly with the correct studs and nuts to hold the wheels in place, they don’t pose a problem and can change the look of a car. However, if you don’t know what you are doing it can be dangerous and cause serious issues with the car stability. This couple of second snippet of video shows you what we mean!
Nothing else needs to be said. If you’re not sure about it, let the professionals do it.
Our Engines
Somebody emailed Adam a while ago when we were talking about our new stocked engines. He was quite blunt about engine rebuilds thinking that we sort of made it up about our range of date correct stock! Adam’s response?
‘Nahh mate, – we ain’t got no engines, just like you say’
There’s no strokers, no 351 Clevelands or Windsors, no big block anything, no inline 6s or custom built engines anywhere! We don’t have any 302 crate motors either come to think of it. 😉
Those who know Adam also know that he has engines, gearboxes, heads, blocks etc. stashed all over the place, these finished examples were stored here just for now while the space was made in the engine shed for the new addition or two.
WebShop
Mustang Maniac is now getting much more supplies for a lot of the newer mustangs in stock which has swelled enormously as a result. As we like to test the parts ourselves before we sell them, Adam fitted his new Smoked Lens 2016-2018 LED rear lamp swap out. He filmed it all on his own at the time. This video will be up on YouTube soon. But, we have it here first:
Shelby Tags
A new stock item has arrived for the GT350 Shelbys. These door tags look amazing and just what you need for that full restoration.
Email for further information as these haven’t been added to the WebShop yet.
Mystery of the horse carpet – Solved!
We posted that we couldn’t work out how the Mustang horse carpet came into Adam’s stock pile of memorabilia. Well we now know thanks to an email and a photo.
This was taken at he Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain’s stand at the Birmingham NEC a number of years ago. It being the horse carpet was raffled of as a prize. The person who won the carpet later had a conversation with Adam where the carpet exchanged hands. It was forgotten all about until space was made to store some engines (that we don’t have) on a temporary basis. We still don’t know what to do with it.
Next week may not be a standard weekend blog, but there may be some SEMA posts though. We will just have to wait and see how it all pans out.
Over the next few weeks the blog may be a little erratic. Adam is leaving for SEMA 2019, every year this is Adam’s favourite business trip. The SEMA show is from Tuesday 5th November to Friday 8th November. Once the contacts have been met, caught up with friends, deals been made and new products sourced, there will be a few days holiday after the show while he is in the USA. We will be bringing you some photo’s of SEMA when we get them. Adam’s access to emails will be limited and the time zones could mean responses at all sorts of hours. Also due to the NEC in a couple of weeks, there may or may not be a post that weekend.
The clocks went back this morning so we are now in official winter time. Not many Mustangs come out to play and have been ‘Winterised’ as Adam would say, tucked up in their safe warm storage places. So over these dark winter months we get to work on our own projects. One of which is a private job for a very good friend of ours and wishes his project to remain offline for now, we will respect that of course. But, lets just say Yogi’s metal work skills have come into play, a lot! The other thing that can happen is that cars which have seen the summer out can come in for some serious project work such as our first car here.
Customer Cars:
We have a ’67 Coupe in with a swap out and recondition required.
This little lady has had a 351W swap out at some stage in the past and the customer wants to keep that level of power still.
The replacement is to be one of our reconditioned 351W slightly breathed upon on engines. The other recondition was going to be the C4 transmission. Although we have these in stock ready to go, the customer wanted to keep his original transmission and get it reconditioned. We agreed and that will be going of to our UK Engineering company to be worked on over the coming weeks.
When we have her back we can bolt together and road test.
Hood Scoop
The customer of this car wanted a replacement hood with a scoop without loss of strength. Carbon fiber would be great, but costs are mental money. So glass fiber supported by a steel frame was the way to go. Considerable saving on weight and the results are top quality. Black spray job on fiber glass is never easy but as you can see this is spot on!
We now have an important message regarding our sheet metal parts. The WebShop has now been updated to only sell sheet metal to “Trade”. Thanks to a particular customer that has managed to ruin for everybody else now, Adam has now changed his approach to the parts. It seems that customers are complaining that they are damaged and bent. They aren’t of course, it’s the pressing marks and stamping creases. This caused Mustang Maniac a lot of aggravation, time and we ended up out of pocket through no fault of our own. We will bring you the full story later, once Adam has calmed down. As a result this was seen to go up outside one of his workshops the next day!
If you intended to by sheet metal parts from us, you will need to supply the details of your “Trade”, which will be checked by us, or already have a Trade account with us! Our sheet metal terms and conditions have now also been applied at the check page.
Adam might and we mean very little chance, might change his mind in the future, but considering his reaction – we doubt it very much.
LED’s
We have some real nice Mustang Maniac bespoke H4 replacement LED headlight bulbs come into us and this is the first of the batch. They are not cheap, but these are white and bright! We have yet to trial these on our own cars, but from what we have seen so far these will be popular. A straight H4 LED bulb, not just for Mustangs either. Canbus friendly 12 -24 volt fitting. We are very excited about these.
Lost & Found
A few years ago at the NEC car show there was a large Mustang Carpet on display that had many feet walk over it in the course of the weekend. During a recent clean up to make room for some more reconditioned engines this was found; a one off custom made mat.
Adam has no idea how he has come to have it, but here it is, in it’s full grubby state. Adam isn’t sure what to do with it now. Was it stuffed into a car that Adam transported back from the show, was it a present, or did somebody dump it, we don’t know.
We see plenty of ‘mods’ on Mustangs some good and some not so good should we say? Mainly because the customization is; a) they are easy to do and personalize and performance of your car, b) unfortunately it’s to cut corners. A good example of cutting corners are the following examples after the nice Park & Pic, and it’s something we seriously don’t recommend as common sense prevails, we hope.
Park & Pic
This nice little 1973 351ci convertible owned by Jeremy came into us for a to do list of little niggles. Nothing major, just the Mustang Maniac once over, adjustments and once over.
Customer Cars
Transmission lines
We had a car in recently that the owner wanted to have the transmission line replaced. Not a request we get that often to be honest. But, when we swap out transmissions we like to change them for new ones where the budget allows. Yogi got this car up ready to undo the lines and what he was met with caused him to down spanners and make a cup of tea. The transmission lines were made of rubber for large sections.
There are a couple of points here, there has been multiple leak points introduced and the rubber will perish eventually leaving you stranded when the transmission fluid gets dumped all over the road. Attaching jubilee clips to a rubber pipe which is under pressure in order to stop leaks will need to be tight. If you over tighten you will cause the pipes to crush or weaken the rubber, the fluid then can’t be cooled properly thus a potential to cause more gearbox issues. Not being tight enough it will leak and slowly dump transmission fluid where it stands or over a period of time.
These metal sections of pipes were hand made and they were not in their correct route. On top of that they were cable tied to other lines. Having metal in the open will also aid in cooling as the air rushes over the pipes going along, rubber will insulate the fluid. The rubber section of pipes are also dragging on metal work which again will weaken the rubber eventually leaving you stranded with no transmission.
So the best place for this mod? We seriously don’t recommend that you do it.
More cutting corners
Another 351ci mod. for this we can’t see any reason for it. The part is only a few pound/dollars which will just screw in. this part has been manufactured to fit in place and is made of a soft copper pipe. Again to jubilee clip the pipes to it could cause the pipe to crush as copper is known to be a soft metal.
LED Upgrade
A very popular upgrade for our customers are the LED upgrades we offer. These will allow your turn indicators to be used as white side lights and then amber for turning. The main headlights were swapped out with the with addition of a couple of relays and our wire loom wrap to give that much sought after OEM look.
The side lights are subtle and really make a nice difference to not have the amber lenses on the front valance.
The colours don’t show up so well on the video, but you can certainly see the difference.
For a list of the various options on the WebShop click here or follow this link.
This week we have a ’67 year old lady in the yard with a bad tick and smoking problem. Not quite as the title suggests, but a pretty sickly ’67 Coupe. The problem was reported to us that the engine has a ticking sound noise to it as well as smoking quite badly.
The car was put into the workshop and we instantly took the valve cover off to find a loose rocker. We could hear the ticking as we backed her into the Yogi cave.
When you have a problem like that you could take the heads off the engine while the engine is in the car, but sometimes it easier to whip out the engine and work on a stand to work out exactly what has gone on and see the extend of a the damage. That’s exactly what Yogi did.
The engine was out and an inspection of all the rockers was checked. We found a double nut on a rocker which was to obviously help with the stripped thread on the stud where the nut should have been.
With the rocker off and an inspection of the stem it shows some serious wear and tear do to it becoming close. This was not helping matters for the engine top side and explains the ticking. The engine ran, but not very well.
We have arrowed the stem damage for you.
That amount of damage could cause the valve to bounce on the piston or bend it so the head was to come off.
It’s easy to see the problem end of the cylinder head as it’s all fouled up. On close inspection the cylinder has worn to a whole and now we can see the reason for the smoking.
So now the owner has a situation. We can rebuild the engine as part of our service which will need an overbore and new pistons etc. Or take a crate engine replacement. We have a selection of specs to choose from with our date coded correct rebuilds or a more generic replacement engine. The choice is a difficult one, but it depends on the what the owner wants, a driver or a correct dated engine as well. We are now awaiting further instructions during this difficult time of this ladies life on the road.
WebShop:
We have been asked; ‘do we really supply Ford dealerships’ with parts? The answer is YES. It’s not a regular thing as they have their own stock obviously. However if they need a genuine Ford part it’s quicker to get it from us than wait for the import time and effort. We have in the past helped Ford by supplying parts for a restoration vehicle they were working on. Our contacts and shipping schedules are quicker that the big boys most of the time!
Batteries:
We now have a stock of our own branded 3000 series batteries for the later model Mustangs. That’s the models 2005 to 2016+ They can be ordered by clicking here from our WebShop.
MM-Bat-15/16
Plenty of power at 550 CCA for the new generations with our unique ref number: ‘MM-Bat-15/16’
These batteries feature the status inspection window for easy checking and a handy tuck away carry handle. the dimensions are; L 24 CM, W 18 CM, H 19 CM Top of battery.
MM-Bat-15/16
MM-Bat-15/16
MM-Bat-15/16
MM-Bat-15/16
MM-Bat-15/16
MM-Bat-15/16
MM-Bat-15/16
We can compare the Group 24 batteries with the later gen batteries for you.
The Group 24 (MM-BAT-64/70) is a little larger and has a first gen Mustang on the top. The newer generation battery (MM-Bat-15/16) has the modern generation mustang on top
MM-Bat-64/70
MM-Bat-15/16
Now you don’t have to worry having to pay silly money for a top quality 3 year warranty battery.
Great News:
Our good friend and customer Mart Dawson will be showing his ’66 Coupe at the Lancaster Classic Car Show at the Birmingham NEC 8th – 10th November 2019 in the highly contested finals of ‘Pride of Ownership’.
We know that he would love to have you go along and say “Hi” to him during the show days. He will talk for England about his car and his Mustang Mates! The awards are voted for by the visitors over the three days, maybe drop a vote in for him while you are there, it would be nice to see some American Muscle win the day.
We wish Mart all the very best at the show, even to take part in this category is a huge achievement anyway. Well done Mart.
Last week posted a poll for the ‘complaint’ that we had. It turns out that we needn’t of worried as all of you that commented didn’t think it was a complaint in the first place. We received some the comments of support on our blog as well as our FaceBook page. The poll’s result were a not so surprising result of 99.14% who wouldn’t want to pay extra for a pristine box from 230 votes when we last checked this morning. A big “Thank You” to all of those who voted and and left us very positive and supportive comments, even from the USA, Europe as well as the UK, we really appreciate it. However, we will still listen to the less than 1% of you out there; if you want a pristine box to put your product box in, we can arrange that for you and we will advise the costing of the extra packaging as a result, once we have sourced the correct box as we won’t have them in stock for obvious reasons. If you still want this additional cost when you order, just leave us a note to say that you want additional packaging and we will confirm the costs as it will need to be customized and our time to deal with your request, therefore it won’t cheap. We would also like to point out that such requests could also delay your parts for dispatch as we need to source the appropriate box like we said above. In our last post we mentioned that we can’t of course be held responsible for how the package is handled by the courier after it has left us, but we take all the precautions we can to make sure your package arrives on time and undamaged. Contact us first to see what can be done for you via email: sales@mustangmaniac.co.uk
Park & Pic
A nice ’66 Coupe brought into us for a little Mustang Maniac TLC treatment. Not often you get to see racing stripes on a Coupe but they work well here and the white wall tyres providing the finishing touch.
Customer Cars
We have been tasked with sorting out some problems with a six pot Coupe for suspension work to improve the handling and some wind up work. The suspension perches had different bolts in them.
We replaced the front springs and a nice pair of Spax adjustable shocks. Anybody who has tried to use spring compressors will twitch at one of the pictures. We too didn’t like the market versions, so we made our own, no more worries about the tensioners slipping off the springs, the best part is that all the tension is wound up from the top of the shock tower in the engine bay. Before you ask; no we don’t sell them, but for the right money we could make you a set!
The next job was the window regulators in the doors and one in the rear. Most of the time culprit is the plastic window rollers that run up the guide rails inside. They go brittle, crack or just disintegrate over years of use. We sell these here, if you are doing anything to your windows, we recommend changing them – just because it makes sense and they cost very little and we have one or two in stock! You just know the window will get stuck at the wrong time like when it starts to rain.
old window roller
new window rollers
The window mechanisms were worn with excess play as well so they also got replaced, out with the old in with the new.
If your lucky the door cards can come of in one piece, most of the time the card just crumbles away due to age.
The worst part is the removing and re-installation of the glass is without causing damage to the paintwork. Realigning of the door glass takes patience to get right and can take hours, especially if all the glass is removed from one side with nothing to work from as a guide.
WebShop
We are now starting to ramp up the stock we hold of the serviceable parts of the newer Mustangs as well. That’s oil, brakes, filters, pumps etc. We can now reveal that certain Ford dealerships didn’t have in stock the brake parts they needed for servicing of a customers car. Where did they get their parts from? Yep, they ordered the Genuine Ford Parts from us here at Mustang Maniac. (I bet the customer didn’t get the boxes either!)
Trigger Warning: Some of our new stock has been opened to check the parts, contents and quality before we stock them.
Let us show you what we mean regarding some of our stock:
Oils – Check
Filters – Check
Brakes – Check
Four piston and the Brembo 6 piston calipers.
We also have a massive selection from our partner; EBC Brakes for all the 1964 – 2019 Mustangs and all in stock.
Alternators – Check
We also stock a full range of alternators with various power ratings for your needs for all Mustangs 1964 to 2019. Various pullies, serpentine or V-belt.
Water Pumps – Check
A huge range of various years, all straight of the shelf.
Suspension Parts – Check
Original Reconditioned Gearboxes – Check
Date correct and certainly not our Enos brand prices.
Original Reconditioned Engines and Parts – Check
Date correct parts, again definitely not our Enos brand.
We aim to have the best Mustang Stock you can imagine all from the shelf. We are expecting 100 days of rain over the next couple of months. Is somebody trying to tell us something? Drive safely in the wet and check your wiper functionality no matter what car you drive.
Thank you all again for your overwhelmingly positive support and feedback.
This week we have been left scratching our heads at the sign of the times here at Mustang Maniac. Do we actually post the following or not, a brave decision was made to be totally transparent about it, so here it is:
News:
It’s no secret that we have moved to an online sales service for an important reason. In the past we had been getting many phone calls regarding how to fit a part, or how to diagnose a problem. Not that we mind that too much if the part was purchased from us, but we draw the line at people who aren’t our customers asking how to fit these parts. They were ordering the parts from elsewhere and then call us wanting our advice and guidance. Lets just put this into perspective for a few scenarios; would a solicitor give you free advice on a legal matter? Would a garden center talk you through how to put up a shed and prepare the ground? Would an electrician talk you through how to install a three way switch in a room? Do you phone amazon asking how to tile a bathroom? The answer is certainly a NO, even more so if you have never been a customer or spoken to them before. So, like mentioned above we said we stopped that service as our time is our money at the end of the day. It was a few that ruined it for the many genuine customers. If you buy the parts from us and want help, email us and we will help you when we get a spare moment.
The situation we find ourselves in is complaints. We can take complaints and we pride ourselves on sorting those rare occasions out very quickly, refunds or replacement parts. We have even replaced parts that the customers have broken at our own expense, just for good customer service.
Complaint 1
We had a customer order some brake parts from us, so we packaged them and sent them out. The next thing we are alerted to is a a social media post of a damaged packaging box, before we were even notified or even had the chance to respond. Here is that post;
The item in question is the Bendix box on the left that has been crushed. Inside is a set of heavy brake shoes that were undamaged, it’s just the box that is damaged. To be fair the the guy didn’t name us to start with, but went on to name us after other posts prompted the guy to post our name. There were others on the post that said, some boxes are not up to the job considering they are shipped from other countries before going into our stock which is true.
Our heavier items are stacked in our large storage at the back of the yard. On a rare occasion a box may get crushed under weight. To stack them individually is not realistic for a company like ours where space is a premium. Here we have a random few pics of some of our more heavier items stored on racking. The lighter more fragile items are stored carefully in storage trays and bespoke storage boxes and racking depending on the part size of course.
The items are not thrown around, but are racked based on weight. If we don’t care for our stock, in simple terms we can’t sell it, then what is the point of having the stock. We too receive damaged items shipped to us for our own deliveries, some items damaged beyond resale, in those cases it’s cheaper to just throw that part away rather than ship it back for a replacement. That loss of stock is at our cost and our choice of course. We don’t mention this as it’s part of business when dealing with freight. When we have called the suppliers in the past we get told;
‘Are the parts OK? If it’s only the box, then what’s the problem?’
We go to great lengths to make sure our parts are the best they can be, but sometimes through no fault of our own packaging is damaged after travelling thousands of miles from another continent to be with us in the UK. We don’t remember this box being like this when we packaged it up, perhaps it was roughly handled by the courier service we use due to the combined weight of the parts causing the damage? It looks like we will never know. Given the chance we would have just the sent the customer another packaging box, carefully taken apart folded flat and sent out to him. The partsleft without a box we would then use ourselves, it’s not a huge problem at all. It would have been nice to have had the chance to respond to the customer before a social media frenzy starts up.
Note: We will often open deliveries or packaging just to check the contents are complete and we will continue to do so. We also do this on a random basis for our own quality control. Those items will be resealed and are still brand new parts that have never been fitted.
Complaint 2.
A customer ordered a H pipe exhaust part for his car. These parts are made of mild steel and come into us untreated. The customer has complained that there was a little surface rust on end of the pipe and wanted a discount. This was easily solved as the part that was ordered was the wrong part anyway. The customer wanted us to pay for the return of the part. We gave the customer a full refund. If the part was correct, a small surface rub with a wire brush would have solved the problem for him. One the car had seen moisture on the road the rust would have started to show again anyway. It’s these parts by nature are treated to hold cold extremes and often water and moisture from the engine as well. This just wasn’t worth the hassle of arguing about.
We have even had a customer upset that we didn’t deliver their product on the same day after they ordered mid morning after our collections had been taken by our courier. They were more than welcome to collect the same day but declined, but for £9 they wanted a few hours delivery. Sorry we can’t provide that sort of service, unless you want to pay a lot more than £9!
Dilemma;
So, what we have here is a serious change of attitude from Mustang Maniac, We listen to what is being said and move with the times accordingly. So we now have a poll and the outcome of which will determine our thought process.
Unlike the Brexit vote (if you voted leave) you vote will count. We propose that we will charge extra for repackaging in a pristine box the original box and parts. Considering that a young girl on the internet is campaigning about excess global warming and packaging etc Do you really want that? We try to be as ‘green’ as possible but it appears that if people are complaining about a damaged box, we need to rethink strategies, or do we? Are we being unreasonable?
We created a poll for your answers. What do you want us to do?
Did you know?
There are millions of parcel journeys each day and the average parcel delivery driver in the UK has 250 deliveries per day.
It stands to reason that one or two parcels will not receive the careful attention it either deserves or that has been paid for by Mustang Maniac.
Mustang Maniac only uses the most appropriate packaging – from an environmental, protection and cost perspective and carriers with a good record of performance, but they cannot plan for events like the above.
We don’t want to criticize the van drivers as they have a tough job to do…so we do our best to work within the situations we are faced with.
Adam has written the following a couple of weeks ago and will be going onto our WebShop shortly which we hope will make things a little clearer for all out customers;
Mustang Maniac Mantra…….how we work
Mustang Maniac has been a passion of mine for many years and has grown out of my personal hobby and into a thriving professionally managed business.
I have learned a lot over the years about the ownership, repair and restoration of all classic Mustangs and Falcons – and I am still learning, but I think it’s really important to set out exactly how we operate here at Mustang Maniac so there can be absolutely no confusion………
We do know best…….. Over the years we have got to fully understand our business of Mustang and Falcon Parts along with our wide range of other services.
We have made the mistakes we always try to prevent you from making….. we’ve used parts that don’t work or are poorly fitting and we always try to help you avoid them…..but that does require you to seek our advice up front – and then listen to it.
We often provide advice for it to be completely ignored… then, frustratingly we get asked to help in solving the issues that arise from not heeding our advice. It drives us mad!
Often the best and most cost effective solution to a Mustang/Falcon problem does not seem to be the easiest/cheapest option…. In many cases there doesn’t seem to be the budget to “do the job properly” but in most cases the money is found to “put a bad job right the second time around”. It drives us mad – do the job once and do it properly!
Quality comes at a price… we do offer a limited range of budget friendly parts, but our priority is to sell good quality, thoroughly tested parts from our list of respected suppliers. While these parts may appear to be more expensive their quality will provide many years of reliable service. We know that because we use those parts on our own Mustangs and Falcons!
We make our own parts… some of the parts needed to restore or repair Mustangs and Falcons are no longer produced or, if they are, they are not to the high quality standards we demand – so we arrange for them to be made here in the UK by local craftsmen and engineers.
Are our parts expensive?…. in some cases they might appear to be, reflecting the efforts, trouble and expense we have gone to to get them and then shipped to parts warehouse. If it’s the cheapest parts around you are looking for it might save you time and trouble to look elsewhere for them.
We carry the parts in stock…. unlike a number of parts suppliers, we carry all all of the parts we sell ‘in stock’ with the latest stock situation featured on our website. If we say we have it then it’s in one of our parts bins waiting for you. All this stock does come at a price and to carry that stock we have had to buy it from our suppliers, ship it to the UK and pay all freight and duties.
We don’t use the cheapest shippers…. like all of our business, quality and reliability is key to how we operate. We select our delivery agents based on performance and reliability first and then try to get the very best deal possible from them. Our parts are properly wrapped and labelled so you get your parts undamaged and when you expect them. It’s quite simple really!
Our advice is free…. yes we are mostly happy to offer our customers advice on all things Mustang and Falcon, but we do ask you to contact us by email. That way we can deal with the queries when we find the time. If it’s just a bit of advice you want but would rather buy your parts at the cheapest store then we probably aren’t that keen to help you. It’s always best when buying cheap parts to discuss them with those experts who are offering them. We do tend to be a bit reluctant to help after those cheap parts have been bought, fitted and failed!
We strongly believe in the truth – tell it how it is… if it’s the facts about a Mustang or Falcon car, part or process you want then we offer it with as few words as we need. If it’s ‘sales speak’ or a ‘heavy sell ‘ you want then it’s best to look elsewhere. We tell you “what’s true” and not “what you want to hear”. It really is the best way!
We don’t offer discounts…. well, if you are restoring a Mustang or Falcon and talk to us at the start, we will happily supply all the quality parts you need (from our vast stock here in the UK), when you need them and we can talk about prices as well. If we have an honest and open discussion at the start of your project we are happy to support you in any way we can. Having that discussion after you have been let down by other suppliers or you are just buying a single part you can’t get elsewhere won’t help either of us!
I have tried to be as open and honest as I can here with the way I do business.
We are honest and helpful people here at Mustang Maniac and will always do our best in whatever we do.
If you have strong issues with any of the above then it’s very likely you might be happier buying your parts elsewhere….if they genuinely have them in stock.
If, like me you like to understand who you are working with and how the business works then I am sure we will get along just fine and we will be very happy to support you with our parts and services.
Adam Longmore
Mustang Maniac
Enough of all that it’s now time for the cars,
Customer Cars:
We were talking about a a car that needed a water pump and an ungraded braking system. We are nearing the end of the project and here is what Yogi has been up to with the Brakes under the hood.
Webshop
The next exciting part supplier we now have on board is the ACPline of products. They produce and supply us with previously unavailable parts for Falcons as well as Mustangs. We are expanding their lines of stock as we speak to offer more choices.
Things like Falcon chrome rear bumpers, radiators and trims. Our first order arrived and Adam opened most of the boxes to examine the products are as good as we hoped.
We listened to the fact that customers wanted more Falcon parts. We sourced and we stocked. Please vote and let us know what you think. Were these complaints justified, do we need to move with the times, or was this just a random example?
We are not here to put people down, far from it. Any tips or hints to improve our service are always considered, we hope you all understand.
Exciting times for Mustang Maniac with new products and new lines coming in. We continue that this week with a new supplier for us with a different take on similar parts. We have had a couple of emails asking us about a couple of additions to our WebShop. Most notably the Daniel Carpenter and the ACP references. We will explain we will explain later on in the WebShop section.
Customer Cars
Last week we posted about the car that made Yogi cross. Well we have been doing more work on her and finding more things that need to be sorted out. Talk about doing poor ol’ Yogi’s little ol’ ‘headdie’ in and making him ‘cross’! The reason being this car didn’t need to be like this at all. The previous person on this car made life hard for himself and produced a terrible car as a result. As we have said many times before, do your homework who you want to look after your car. In some instances if the car is that bad, we won’t touch it. We have turned away cars in the past that were dangerous and we wanted nothing to do with them.
Anyway, we have changed the water pump over for the correct part and looks great already.
With the pump in place Yogi checks the spacing for the pulleys and the radiator. The current fan wouldn’t produce enough displacement of air movement so a more efficient version was fitted as the old one had been butchered somewhat.
A new double pulley, fan, correct spacer, shroud and radiator fitted.
With all the new parts in place, the distributor was refitted, pulleys belted up, correct rubber hoses fitted and fluids added. No bodges, just correct parts bolted straight on just how they should be.
While we were looking around we found that there was a strange slab of steel on the gearbox that had been ‘made’. The correct replacement part is also here for a comparison.
Just why do people do it? We also needed to replace the selector rod mechanism as it was showing signs of some distress should we say.
Next up will be tuning and road testing before we let the owner have his little lady back, she will feel like a new car. All these changes made Yogi smile again, because it’s now a Mustang Maniac serviced car.
We say these things like that because we want the owners of these cars to share our passion for these cars too. If you have a car that gives you grief all the time you won’t enjoy it and constantly be worrying when it will next let you down. We want our customers to look forward to driving these cars for many more years to come. Just don’t get cross, get Mustang Maniac on the case to sort your car out for you.
We tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear!
We want to give as much choice as possible to our customers. Adam has been busy behind the scenes making deals and doing what he does best to get the quality parts to the UK. The down side of course is that Adam has to pay shipping, import duty and taxes just like you do. The up side is that Adam does it a few times a month so these parts are in stock so you don’t have to do it. One of our new lines is Daniel Carpenter Mustang Reproductions.
Daniel Carpenter Mustang Restoration Parts
We are now stocking a selection of these parts with lots more to come soon. These are top quality parts from the USA, just as Scott Drake are. Both are top quality parts of course or we just wouldn’t stock them. However the parts made by Daniel Carpenter can be slightly different styles and finishes. A good example of this is the leaf spring mounting plates. Here we have a comparison of the Scott Drake and the Daniel Carpenter parts.
Daniel Carpenter Left, Scott Drake Right.
As you can see, the DC (Daniel Carpenter) parts are more angular and flatter, where as the SD (Scott Drake) parts are more rounded and slightly larger. Both will do the intended jobs without a problem, but it’s down to preference at the end of the day maybe costs? More side by side comparisons.
If you want to be that little bit different for a part that most people won’t see, you now have that choice.
We also stock a selection of the DC weather strips for the trunk lid. these look exactly the same as the SD parts, but the rubber is softer and approved by the Mustang Club of America as well.
The Windscreen weather seal is concours approved. A soft rubber seal that can make all the difference if you are competing at that sort of level at car shows.
Not just the bigger parts either, parts you won’t even see;
The parts you might see if you look hard enough;
So rest assured that if you pick a Daniel Carpenter part, you know that; a) they are top quality and b) we use them ourselves. We will be stocking more parts soon, so keep an eye out for new stock.
Batteries
We posted last week about our new range of Group 24 Classic Mustang Batteries. Our 3000 ’64 – ’73 series are creating quite a stir. We have had enquiries as well as sales. The answer to question; “Will you be supplying newer style batteries?” is Yes. We are in the process of getting them to us and being branded now. We will reveal them very, very soon on our Blog right here.
The second question was what year does the Group 24 battery fit? The answer is also on the WebShop now, but the classic battery MM-Bat-64/70 also fits all models, 1964 – 1973.
We have also got a few variations of parts for the Resto-Mod guys out there. Getting ‘tired’ of the same old stock part for a gear shift handle? Look no further as this part has rubber tyre tread pattern on each side for something a little different.
Yet more exciting ACP news in the WebShop next week, with even more choices to our stock!
Some very exciting news is coming on on our blog over the next few weeks, but if you scour the WebShop you could find them before we tell everybody! The first bit of exciting news is that Mustang Maniac has expanded their front line staff. So we would like to welcome our new recruit Gary. This pic will be going onto the WebShop front page soon, but we thought we would tell you first because we pinched the picture. 😉 (Only because the WebShophas a head start on new stock lines before the blog at the moment.)
So we have left to right, Adam, Morgan, Gary & Yogi.
Gary is learning the ropes with Morgan, but as you can imagine there is a lot to learn, the cars, computerized stock management, stock locations, our suppliers and most importantly our customers. So while we have Morgan and Gary we could be a little better at answering the phones if you want to book in your car for some special Mustang Maniac service.
Adam’s new vision for his parts store is also being heavily revised, we are going upmarket. Yep, Mustang Maniac wants to move away from the cheaper end of the market parts that many competitors are using. We want to stock the best possible quality parts we can find to put on your cars. That means our parts are premium quality. If you want cheaper parts there are other options, we want the best for us and ultimately you, our customers. We know these new lines are good because we fit them to our cars, we test them first before we sell to the public. The Enos range is still there of course, which is aimed at the more frugal, economical buyer or somebody just wanting to sell on a car with a working part. These Enos parts are clearly marked as such. The choice for parts is now entering into an exciting new stage. We will have more on the new stock lines a little later and will continue over the next few weeks, but first the cars.
Customer Cars
Not many things make our Yogi ‘Cross’, but we have recently had a car in that made him face palm when he saw what was going on. He even had a cup of tea while just staring at the mess.
The car came in with issues with the brakes and cooling among other things. We have seen this old school brake conversion that was common a few years ago, but we hadn’t seen it for a while and we thought it had all been changed by now. We were wrong on that count. Adam had spend many hours trying to locate these parts, but now he stocks all sorts of EBC brakes he managed to locate the part numbers and original manufacturer. He will not divulge that information as it took him many hours of of looking through many part catalogues to try and find it, so he doesn’t see why he should do all the research and let others reap the rewards of his knowledge, especially to some of the competitors. They will just have to work it out like we did.
So this car is a solid car, but has many issues of getting your wires crossed and letting things getting out of control. The previous ‘work’, a term we will use very lightly here fitted the wrong water pump, that meant that the pipework was wrong for the radiator which itself was then plumbed into the wrong radiator for the car.
Removing the fan we see more examples of poor workmanship, cross threaded bolts used as spacers! Simply fitting the correct water pump would mean that everything fitted correctly and to you wouldn’t have to spend hours bodging things together. Time is money at the end of the day.
We noticed a strange sound from the front of the engine this was down to timing chain cover being slowly eaten away. You can see the levels of swarf or shavings which was ridiculous.
Eventually some of that swarf will get into the timing chain and could cause catastrophic failure of the engine.
Things get worse, believe it or not. The wrong master brake cylinder fitted and piped straight to the distribution valve. When the cylinder was removed we found a valve screwed into the bottom, just why?
Here the old brakes were sort of working, but not helped by the spring perches having seen better days as should we say.
The car is now getting a proper disc conversion with a servo being fitted as well this time. Yogi will rip out the criss-crossed brake lines and redo them properly, Yogi loves a bit of brake line work. The new set of brakes going on make it look better already.
That’s where we are at the moment on this little lady. This sort of work makes us all cross in fact and gives restoration services a bad name.
There is a new button at the top of the WebShoppage: “Special Offers“. This is for our snap sales, special offers on stock when Adam feel like it or for promotions. On the page you can see the latest deals that can change throughout the day or be there for a few days or a week.
Keep checking back to our new page to see what you can pick up at a bargain price. 😉
New Product Line
We start with the latest line of Mustang Maniac; Group 24 Classic Mustang batteries – ’64 to ’70. In the past there has been many batteries that fit of course, but many required some modifications, over the top hold down brackets, poles around the wrong way or not bolted in at all. Mustang Maniac 3000 Series of batteries will fit correctly in the stock battery tray. They have the correct pole positions and have plenty of power of 630 CCA (Cold Cranking Amps) to get you going.
MM-BAT-64/70
Our range has a 3 year warranty so you know they are a top quality battery. Power details are as follows.
MM-BAT-64/70
MM-Bat-64/70
MM-Bat-64/70
3000 Series Battery Group 24
The best part is that the battery case has the correct lip which will hold it in the tray correctly without modification to the stock bracket.
MM-Bat-64/70
MM-Bat-64/70
MM-Bat-64/70
There is a status windows for the battery to show the health of the battery on a red, amber & green scale. Along with a fold away carry handle.
MM-Bat-64/70
MM-Bat-64/70
MM-Bat-64/70
The part number for this battery is MM-BAT-64/70 this will be on the WebShop very soon. What if you don’t want to see our Mustang Maniac branding? Well these batteries are also 100% compatible with the Autolite replica tops. Here we have one of the top on top of the battery.
The poles are correct for the Group 24 battery and the replica Autolite battery top.
On top of that Adam has slashed the price to less than half price of the Autolite tops if you want to purchase one at the same time, or if you just want a top for your current battery. When the batch of tops has gone the offer will be no more, so get in quick while they are in stock.
More next week on some amazing new lines and stock. 🙂
“Adam is the UK’s leading Mustang Expert, highly recommended by the club and work out of a Mustang Disneyland with piles of spares, lines of parts cars, and treasures….”
Quentin Willson – Classic Car Magazine June 2015.
“Mustang Maniac in Ware has done a really cracking job detailing the engine, fitting new suspension, replacing both floors and now she’s solid, shiny and sweet driving.”
Quentin Willson – Classic Car Magazine June 2015.
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“Adam and the team, with a very special mention to Al, have had my car for a few weeks to carry out its annual inspection, MOT and to fix some jobs they had discussed with me last year. Having just collected it from them today (Fri 07/08/2015), it runs better now than it ever has thanks to the care, attention to detail and ‘other magic’ they know. As usual the whole process has been completely painless – it’s a great feeling to know that the people looking after my old car think as much of it as I do…so I have absolutely no worries leaving it in their capable hands. This time they completed all the jobs on my list as well as rectifying a few more that I never realised were an issue, thus saving me from future trouble. I would strongly recommend Adam and the Mustang Maniac team to anyone wanting proper experts to look after all their Mustang needs….then you can simply leave them to it in the knowledge they will always do what’s best for these lovely old cars”
GW – retired Ford Motor Company Director
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“Mustang Maniac are the font of all knowledge. Adam is always there with advice and parts I need. My one stop Mustang shop. The standard of workmanship from his team is unmatched in the trade”. 101% recommended.
http://onemanandhismustang.com
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‘Adam and his team cannot be more helpful, not only do they do what you ask to be done, they go be-yond and actually replace/repair or correct things that you would never know should be done. Always lend and ear, and get you out of tricky situations…I wouldn’t take my classic mustang anywhere else”!
Lance Barrington.
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“Wow! As soon as I arrived at Mustang Maniac I knew I my car was in the right place. The service was so efficient, professional and boy do Adam & the Team know their stuff! I couldn’t recommend a company more highly. I even drove away with a tear in my eye – and this time it wasn’t the exhaust fumes!”
Liv Davidson
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“Chaps, what a difference, a lovely drive back home and even floored it for a while which chucked 40 odd years of leaves and crap out of the vents. Great fun at last!
Thanks again for all your time and attention spent on the car you guys have done an amazing job.
Cheers.”
Jon O’Leary
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“The work that you guys at Mustang Maniacs have done on the car was phenomenal – differences you have made since you got it and did a couple of days work, Pulls and accelerates noticeably better – absolutely beautifully and even sounds better. The brakes also seem to work so much better and it handles and steers so so much better in the bends and straight – no more steering wobble or unnoticeable !!! Petrol consumption is also so much better – really very noticeable indeed.”
Adam Dabrowski.
“First of all thank you for your hospitality and the rubber aerial seal and the keyring. The drive home was an absolute pleasure. I enjoyed driving the car before, now I LOVE IT. You and Alan definitely worked your magic on the Stang. You have transformed it from a good car to a great car. I will be your life long loyal customer.”
Mitch Rustem
“Just a brief email to say thanks that I was made welcome on arrival and the effort for taking the time to show me around the workshop and meeting with the mechanic (Alan I think) who ran through the work and set up he carried out on my car, this felt a very personnel service indeed. This is testament to your knowledge and love of Mustangs and how you operate your business.
My Mustang felt so much more driveable with all the little tweaks done. The brakes felt so much sharper, I didn’t have to apply the regular 120lb of pressure to stop. The steering was much more tighter, it held the line on the motorway with no shaking at speed. The handling has improved threefold and actually goes where you steer now. I didn’t realise how poorly she handled until Mustang Maniac put it right. All the cosmetically components and upgrades have given me a huge smile. Absolutely love it.
Thanks again for making my Mustang a good drivable car. I will be back for the next upgrades and advice at some stage as a returning customer. A very happy Mustang owner.”
Paul P.
“Mustang Maniac done some suspension work on my 1966 Fastback in went in with the usual old car problems lots of noises and bangs and worsted of all lots of body roll, they fitted a new pair of front shocks and springs a new 1” shaw bar and they sorted some other jobs that needed doing, the car now looks great with its new shocks and springs and it is sitting right but best of all it’s driving like a completely different car to how it went in I’m really pleased with their service”
Kev Rushworth.
I have had a few orders from you now with many more to come and I would just like to say what a fantastic service you provide shipped on day of purchase received next day on every order 1st class the best
If only the Americans could take a leaf out of your book
Regards
Greig Duffill
Mustang Maniac 
