Tops Off For Charity!

Posted on June 30, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

Britain has just been basking in the hottest day of the year so far, and we can pretty much guarantee that the yard will get some soft top visitors, we were not disappointed. Friends of ours rocked at the open invite to the local cafe for an early breakfast, then a mini cruise back to the yard.

Lance in the ’70’s interpretation of the convertible, and Spence in the late ’60’s  version of a convertible. With just a few years between each car, they both had a ride out in each others cars to compare. We managed to capture a little ‘Bromance’  going on and the pair of course played up for the camera. We understand from a reliable source that there is a rainbow coloured version of the photos out there on social media too.

Obviously discussions were had which was the best year for the convertible. All taken in the best of spirits, they never did get to the bottom of who’s car was best. Well, they did depending who you ask of course. As far as Mustang Maniac is concerned – both cars looked great. It was a dead heat for results in the heat of a glorious sunny day.

A little Charity:

Last Sunday a good friend of ours Gary W. sent us some pictures and some words to sum up what was going on for the day;

“It was the Little Waltham Open Garden and Classic Car Show in aid of Farleigh Hospice.

I went last year and it was a great show.   I got an email a few weeks ago from the organiser who remembered my car and asked if I’d bring it along this year.

Part of her request was for me to drive ‘Elvis’ around the village so they could collect donations as we went along.

Clearly I agreed as I like using my old car to raise money for certain domestic based charities.  I also let people sit in it and be photographed with ‘Elvis’ for a donation to the charity.

It was a great day and my car spent a lot of time on idle slowly chugging around the village – it performed faultlessly thanks to the great work and care provided by Mustang Maniac.

A great day was had by all.”

Not a pink ’55 Cadillac Fleetwood, but we think Elvis looked just great in a rare Mustang! Thanks to Gary for taking the time out to send us the Pics and words.

Yogi’s Engine Update:

Next Friday the 5th, is the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain annual trip to the Santa Pod drag strip. Yogi’s engine has been built and is now in the process of being tuned on the dyno.

Yogi has the figures for how many hundreds of horse power he has at the mercy of his right foot. But he is keeping that a secret for now. The engine turned up at the yard this weekend and now Yogi will be getting his car ready for some drag action.

Take care in the sun, and have a beer for us!

Posted in Car Shows, Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, racing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Getting Tied up

Posted on June 23, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We had a visitor this week in a very nice ’73 convertible. This was a looking a little worse for where when we first saw it, but it has now been fully detailed, the colour is back and she looks great.

This shape was not the most popular of styles at the time, but as time has rolled on this model 351 4v Cleveland soft top is a quiet effortless cruiser. These cars now hold their own at car shows and the prices are starting to reflect that as well.

WebShop: 

Mustang Maniac not only sells parts to the domestic market, but we also keep a certain few little things back for our ‘racing’ customers that are not on the WebShop. one of those components is the ‘Tie Rod Adjusting Sleeves.’ now the normal option is the tube that had been cut away with clamps at each end. These are absolutely fine for everyday use. But can cause some issue on the race track.

To counter that problem we stock these steel versions that have been zinc and colour passivated. They are a solid tube with the correct left and right hand threads with the corresponding lock nuts. They are solid in the middle for extra strength where the spanner can go to adjust the tracking.

We have been told by Adam that these will be going in the WebShop soon after we spotted the delivery!

The third option is the new in Scott Drake billet part for their Tie Rod Adjusting Sleeve. This is more expensive and laser etched. The link for it on the WebShop is here.

This is very lightweight and offers that optional bling for the show car or track.

Here are the comparisons.

We have also been asked what our ‘ENOS’ range is. Well it stands for:

“Economy New Old Stock” 

This can be anything that we have left over from a large order, discontinued lines, or budget versions of the more expensive products. Such as emblems, wing mirrors, radiators etc. Ideal for those that are restoring a Mustang with the intention to sell on when completed or those on a tight budget to complete the project.

News:

The new 2020 Mustang has been revealed and it’s going to be a monster!

After making its debut in Detroit in January, Ford decided to keep just about every major detail of its Mustang Shelby GT500 a secret. Now, over half a year later, Ford has finally seen fit to tell us how much horsepower it makes.

Ford on Wednesday finally announced the GT500’s output. Its 5.2-liter supercharged V8 puts out an impressive 760 horsepower and 625 pound-feet of torque. Not only is it the most powerful street-legal Ford ever built, the automaker says this engine is also the most power- and torque-dense supercharged production V8.

Of course, that much power means the V8 will be generating a heck of a lot of heat, but Ford already planned for that. Earlier this year, we learned that Ford leaned on the help of supercomputers to map airflow around the vehicle and find the optimal amount of cooling for each component. If you made the radiator or intercooler too big, it might starve the transmission cooler or the airflow over the engine itself, so Ford crunched a bunch of numbers to make the airflow as efficient at removing heat as possible.

When the GT500 debuted, Ford told us It would be capable of a 0-to-60-mph run in the mid-3-second range, with quarter-mile times under 11 seconds, and that definitely seems doable in the GT500 now that we know the engine specs. Mated to a mandatory dual-clutch transmission (sorry, stick fans), this car is about one thing and one thing only: dominating the track.

The first examples of the GT500 won’t make their way to their lucky owners until the fall, and we’re unsure of the cost still. In late January, Ford auctioned off GT500 VIN 001, and it crossed the block with a high bid of $1.1 million, all of which went to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Posted in Classic Cars, Mustang, racing, Restoration, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Volts That Jolt…

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We start this week with a cautionary note to continue on with the electrical theme from the previous post. This time it wasn’t a modification, more a case of some damage limitation. There’s an old saying that says ‘It’s volt that jolt, mills that kill!’ We will explain more a little further down. This nice rare coloured coupe came in and was reported that it had some ‘electrical issues’ should we say. We investigated and found that the battery had shorted out and was getting very warm, not only that, a wire had burnt through. All of which could lead to a electrical failure as in this case, possibly leading to a fire or worse case; lethal exposure.

The heavy gauge wires were just wrapped in coloured insulating tape, which in this case didn’t insulate enough, handling these wires could kill you or us. Use the correct wires for the job intended, if you are uncertain about what you are doing, please leave it to the professionals. That’s all we can say, we see it often and sometimes we are amazed these cars still keep working.

(On a personal note; A very close friend of mine had a brother who had an accident while he was working under the hood of a car, he touched a wire while trying to start the car. The resulting shock caused his body to spasm violently. That spasm caused him to smash his head onto the hood and cracked his open skull. He died from the head wound, burns and organ while in a comma a couple of days later. He had just turned into his forties.)

Back to the little saying about volts and amps;  it would seem that a shock of 10,000 volts would be more deadly than 100 volts. But this isn’t so! Individuals have been electrocuted by appliances using ordinary house currents of 110 / 240 volts and by electrical apparatus in industry using as little as 42 volts direct current. The real measure of a shock’s intensity lies in the amount of current (amperes) forced though the body, and not the voltage. Any electrical device used on a house wiring circuit can, under certain conditions, transmit a fatal current.

While any amount of current over 10 milliamps (0.01 amp) is capable of producing painful to severe shock, currents between 100 and 200 mA (0.1 to 0.2 amp) are lethal. Currents above 200 milliamps (0.2 amp), while producing severe burns and unconsciousness, do not usually cause death if the victim is given immediate attention. Resuscitation, consisting of artificial respiration will usually revive the victim.  After a person is knocked out by an electrical shock it is impossible to tell how much current has passed through the vital organs of his body.

The point of all this is simple, if you don’t know what you are doing, please leave it to the professionals as we said above. The modern day car batteries for these early Mustangs easily produce 600amps to well over 800amps on cranking. We found this little chart to put this into perspective.

Customers Cars:

Austin Collins had brought his ’67 convertible into us for a few little bits to be done.

First up was a general tune up; timings and that elusive dark art of carburetor settings.

Next up was a little internal TLC, the rear trims needed replacements each side.

Still on the interior, Austin had seen on our little ol’ blog where we previously made some upgrades to bring these old Mustangs into the modern era. Hardly anybody uses the lighter socket these days and it’s a bit of a waste of space, unless you smoke in the car of course. With so much of the modern day connectivity using USB, such as after market SatNav, phones, music players etc. we stock these upgrades as standard now. We replace the lighter socket with a new modern and dual functional fitting. Hidden out of sight it still looks stock and doesn’t ruin the old school look. As a side note the voltage readings can also give you an idea of any potential electrical issues.

The Yogi Mach1

Yogi recently posted this on social media of his new updated engine with the 950cfm carb.

We we have a few more of the engine being built.

We are so looking forward to giving this a good thrashing down our little test route we use, only to 30mph and 70mph of course. 😉

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An Unusual Light Modification

Posted on June 9, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

Back to normal with the blog posts now as the Enfield Pageant has finished and we can put our cars away again, until the next show that is. We may do some more locals shows but we are not sure which ones yet. We could even be making a trip to the Santa Pod Drag Strip too, providing Yogi gets his engine back in time. Then his 50 year old car will show the modern boys just how its done, ripping up the track as he goes down it!

Customers Cars

We have had an imported coupe come into us for a little suspension work, well a lot actually. Coming in from a dry USA state, the pros are that there is no real rust to the metal, one of the cons are that the rubbers tend to perish. The suspension was pretty shot and didn’t drive very well at all, so it was decided a fresh setup to replace the old.

While the suspension was out we renewed the fuel lines as well as they had a few dents in them along with a large piece of perished rubber up to the carb. So Yogi does his thing again.

The new suspension perches gone in with new shocks, the springs were more than acceptable for now.

The the car was then set up using our own Geo settings to make these imports work properly in the UK, road tested and rechecked. We have been asked for these Geometry setup guides many times now, the response is always the same from us; No, we wont give out the settings as we had to work them out for ourselves, that’s for each year and model. So please don’t ask us again, (you know who you are).

The car was requested to also have a UK light modification for the side lights and headlights to be in one unit like the modern cars. We thought about it and done the mod while switching over the headlights to the left side of the road UK compliant lenses.

The standard lights were to have side running lights within them and not change the front indicators as per our bespoke LED setup to be white with amber flashing. this was different to what we normally do, but relished the challenge and they came out very well.

Caption This Photo:

OK, it’s official that some of our readers have a gutter sense of humour (as do we), but we can’t possibly post those responses on a family blog. Paul was amused and took it all in his stride as did we, some of those responses amused us no end.

The best response (that we could post); “Yogi wasn’t in here when I last looked” from Brian Rand. Followed by “I really love my tent!” Andrew Grant. By the last comment I think you can guess where the majority of comments were going. 😀

Posted in Customers' Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Repairs | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Enfield Pageant Of Motoring 2019

Posted on June 2, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

The annual trip to our local big car show; the Enfield Pageant of Motoring didn’t disappoint again this year. Each of the three days we had different cars for people to look at. There was a steady stream of visitors on the Saturday as the sun was out (a very pleasant change), and the Sunday started off well, but then the unforecasted (is that even a word?) rain started to fall, lightly at first then getting heavier through the evening just as Yogi & Paul were getting their tents set up.

We wanted to have a little fun this week. Paul is seen here doing what ever it was he needed to do on the Monday after a couple of nights out camping after a few beers.

Please caption this photo in the comments, it’s just for fun:

The best, wittiest comment will be posted up with your name, just how bad could the comments get? We hope to see a good selection of silly and daft sense of humour that we know our customers and followers have. We will let you know what Paul’s response is as well after he has picked his favorite, providing that we can post such a response. 😀

Saturday’s panoramic view of the field and our stand before we got busy.

Yogi in good mood as we let him out of his cave, he brought along his F150 truck! Rumour has it that the back of the truck had copious amounts of beer for the weekends camping!

The John Wick car got lots of attention, especially as the new film has just hit the cinemas.

On the Sunday we had a different batch of cars.

The white ‘Prototype’ Shelby got a bit of TLC under the hood with a little engine bay detailing. We even had a visitor that told us this wasn’t a proper Shelby! We didn’t argue as he knows best obviously. Not that we are good friends with Shelby American or anything, but what we do we know?

This little lady always turns a few heads too.

The rest of the stand as the cars rolled in.

The other cars that took our fancy at the show, in no particular order.

The car that started the Group B insane rallying, the mighty Audi Quattro and it’s big rival the Ford Sierra Cosworth side by side.

Some beautiful old ladies here.

The rest of the field was for the family and stalls selling all sorts of stuff. Anything from car shells to a parrot!

We think Adam’s wife took him ‘shopping’ around the car show stalls! We don’t need to caption this one, as people who know Adam will know exactly what he is thinking. We definitely can’t put that on a family blog! But, if you wanted to add a comment for Adam’s pic – feel free. You know you want to 😀

All that remains for us is to say a very big thank you to all the customers who loaned us their cars, to our customers who came to say hello, visitors who showed an interest and to our new customers. A couple of them liked our work so much and our attitude for all things Mustang, they are now on the Mustang Maniac waiting list for for a proper restoration job that you would be proud to take to a car show!

‘Thank You‘ for making this another successful Enfield Pageant.

‘Cheers‘

Posted in Car Shows, Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Restoration, Service | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Seven In A Row

Posted on May 19, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

Another busy week of giving our customers cars the once over and services now the car shows are well and truly under way. The last few weekends have been a pretty poor as far as the weather has been concerned, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed for next weekend’s big car show. The Enfield Pageant of Motoring 2019 which is our preferred car show of the year is on over the Bank holiday weekend. There probably won’t be a blog next week either as we will be busy of course, talking to Mustang fans, potential customers, existing customers and everybody in between.

We would love for you to come and see us to say hello and see the selection of cars we will have on our own stand. There will be our cars as well as different customers cars on different days, you will get to see the cars featured on our blog here up close and personal, perhaps a selfie or two with these beautiful cars.

Line Up:

We managed to move some lorries around and made room for a nice area where we stored some cars out the way for a while. We grabbed these pics while the sun was out, is this a Magnificent 7 or not? Very patriotic with a red and white theme going on.

We suspect that you noticed that one of the cars is not a Mustang not a Falcon. We have a beautiful ’63 Ford Mercury Meteor. This car has had some one-off, bespoke and hand crafted parts on this car which are just amazing. This little lady is still wearing her original paint job too!

Even the rear wheels were hand made just for this car.

The engine is a beautifully presented and ticks over like a clock.

In fact Adam likes this car so much he has got his eye on it to add to his collection.

Our Cars

Yogi’s car is also being worked on and has started the front suspension and running gear. There seems to be a trend at the moment for red springs and or shocks, we are not sure what that’s all about though. Apparently according to the bear it will shave of a tenth or two down the strip being red. We think that it’s more likely to do with the fact that he is running a drainpipe for a fuel line actually.

Yogi has opted for a set of our new brake kits, vented, slotted and with the extra drilled option. Straight from the stock shelf onto his car, we don’t think he even put them down before fitting them.

 

Yogi has alleged to have said, ‘I need bigger brakes to hold the new power pack when I do burn outs’ Only on the drag strip of course!! 😉

Make a point of coming to see us and say hello next weekend at the Enfield Pageant of Motoring.

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While You Wait

Posted on May 12, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We had a call from a customer who wanted us to look at the engine mounts on his ’67 Coupe that he uses for Pro ‘ET’ drag racing. That of course is no problem, but the car was on its way to Santa Pod for a weekend of drag racing. Now we don’t work on cars while people wait, the reason being anything can go wrong, things like a rusted in a single bolt could add considerable time to remove and re-tap the threads clean before we continue. If the job takes longer than expected it could leave the customer sitting and waiting. Which is not ideal of course. We also have a little announcment at the end of the post for our Social Media platforms.

Our customer Clive Dandridge turned up in his van and the car on a trailer.

The car still has some great battle scars from the odd burn-out or two. Yogi was impressed.

The car was taken straight into the workshops and Yogi got busy, making the tea. Not really, Yogi already had the parts sitting on the bench ready to fit and all the tools ready to start work.

A little while later the car’s broken engine mounts were out, and the new ones in. Needless to say we had a happy customer who then continued on his way to the drag strip.

Dan managed to get himself to the quarter finals which is an awesome result. Pro ‘ET’ drag racing is where you specify a time that you will run on the pass, the aim is to then run as close to that time without going under it, the closest to their predicted time in each heat goes through. Dan narrowly missed out on his stated time of 13.20 as he ran a 13.19, so close.

Here is Dan adding some more molten rubber to his paintwork!

Well Done Dan!

If anybody is thinking about asking for a while you wait service, don’t bother. We done this as a special for a Dan as he is loyal customer buying parts from us and he needed help or he couldn’t race. We can’t not have Mustangs racing now can we?

Customer Cars:

A good customer of ours takes his Mustang around the world on rallies and raises money for charity.

While on his travels he sent us this fantastic photo:

Is this the real meaning of a pony car? 😀

Our Cars:

Now we can’t mention drag racing without bringing the Yogi Mach1 into the conversation. The bear has been fitting his new flow and return fuel system from his new fuel tank with a built-in fuel pump via a 1/2″ fuel pipe!

With the pipes in now place he then wanted to start with the steering and suspension, just to put the parts on the car roughly to keep them out of harm’s way.

He has even got his hinges and export brace anodised for a little something different.

Parts:

Adam has some of his original date coded intakes reconditioned ready for his stash. Before you ask; no we dont have any spare intake manifolds 😉

Social Media:

We have Facebook, our very own WebForum with a live chat facility with other members and us if we are online at the time, YouTube, Twitter and our own personal Instagram accounts. Unfortunately we are still getting work requests and part queries posted on these platforms which is not the ideal business model of Mustang Maniac as they are not always monitored 24/7 and leading to customer frustration. Going forwards we will not be answering any WebShop part enquiries, or making workshop bookings via FaceBook and FaceBook Messenger. If you need to contact us for anything, simply email us at:

sales@mustangmaniac.co.uk

The emails are even monitored outside of our normal business hours as well, so it’s much quicker and a more direct, personal response with an audit trail of what has been agreed. We have mentioned may times before, that our stock for the WebShop is accurate, especially as we have just moved. If the part says ‘In Stock’ then honestly the part is genuinely in stock. Around 90% of our calls are asking if something is in stock believe it or not! Mustang Maniac is moving with the digital age and make thing automated, the telephone is very old fashioned now days for shopping online.

Posted in Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Mustang Maniacs Group, Parts, Sales, Webshop, YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Trio Of Beauties

Posted on May 5, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

With car show now under way we have had some good weather which has bought out a nice selection of Mustangs for us. Nothing to exciting just the usual service stuff, oil, plugs, points and MOT prep etc. In one day we a had a few ’67 & ’68s ready to go back on the road. They still look as good today as they did then, if not even more so the rarer they get.

Customer Cars

We have a very nice ’71 Ford Torino into us for a little work. This included some rear springs, new shocks front and back and a LED conversion for the lights. We don’t get many of these into us, but Yogi was quite happy to drive this lady around for the road test.

Simple but elegant interior is a very nice place to be especially with the bench seat.

We were tasked with the rear lights to be amber flash to make them a little more UK spec legal without changing the stock look. The normal red lenses proved to be a challenge as the Amber didn’t show through as well as we liked.

So we had a thought, change the back up lamps to be amber flash when needed. This also gave us the clear lens for the amber to use as well. A little re-wiring and box of bespoke tricks sorted that out. And while we were at it we also made the front sides white with amber flash as well. We took this short video to show the difference it makes to have bright LEDs in place. We were quite pleased with the results for our first Torino conversion, makes a change from the Mustang conversions we regularly do.

Yogi decided that he needed an extra road test just to make sure the LEDs worked while on the road, we think he liked it!

Our Cars

Or should we say our trucks? A few of our very own LAR trucks also needed a little TLC and some servicing. So Yogi had a little change this week and worked on some bigger trucks. Not his normal cup of tea, but a change is as good as a rest so they say. We didn’t think that you wanted to see a load of hydraulic lines and under cab engines, so we didn’t bother to take pictures for you.

Have a good bank holiday from all at Mustang Maniac. 

Posted in Car Shows, Customers' Cars, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Midweek Jolly

Posted on April 28, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have taken a day out of busy schedule to have a boys day out. We were invited to a very secret location with some pretty tight security attached to it. We had a guided tour and all the wraps were taken of the cars for a better look and we could sit in all the vehicles; American, European and UK. We could open the hoods do what ever we wanted in fact, which we certainly took very full advantage of. We have sat where world-famous and household names have driven those very same vehicles. There are some truly spectacular cars, trucks and vans there in mint condition that looked like they just left their production lines and never been fiddled with or molested with. Some of our own questions were answered as well. We were allowed to take all the photos we wanted, we took over three hundred on the day in fact on just one camera, but we’re not allowed to post them up here for you due to security issues for pretty obvious reasons. In a way it’s a real pity we can’t share them with you, but we must respect the requests of those who allowed us (the honour) to see these priceless vehicles in the first place. The vehicles included the last of the production models off the lines, one of only six cars made, one of only two cars made, prototypes, director owned vehicles, pre production vehicles, world rally cars, sports cars, F1 cars, cars that have appeared on the TV, news bulletins and the subject of some documentaries. Endless vehicles of historic importance where ever we looked, even the original small-scale models used for pre-production sign off by Henry Ford himself had handled we also got to hold. A couple of things we are not even allowed to mention either 😦 We spent the day there and had unlimited access to what ever we wanted; the workshops, fabrication areas, we were even shown how to drive a Model T, we held the original models and the engineers blue prints for some of the most iconic and classic cars Ford has ever made. We even got to grips with the very first workshop manuals, awards, world championship trophies, classic memorabilia, photo albums and plaques for some of the cars too. Such a great day and to be honest overwhelming with so much to see, we could have stayed there for days. We even had a cup of tea made for us.

We can only say a very big Thank You to ‘Boris’ for making it all happen. 

Our Cars

We have been working on the Secret Project Car which has been productive, but it has all been about the panels and ground work ready for the panel prep. So even if we showed you some pics they wouldn’t be any different to the others we have posted so far.

Yogi’s Mach1

Yogi has taken out his engine, gearbox, front running gear, in fact anything from the windscreen forward in fact. He has been working on the underside for a little tidy up and refresh. The old under seal removed, fixed a small patch fixed and red oxide painted wherever he could put it, including himself.

He then prepped the engine bay with red oxide, primer and gave a nice black coat of paint.

The re-assembly has new brake lines, hoses and wireloom wrapping. Even a little ol’ billet battery tray gone in too.

The hood hinges have been freshened up and fitted.

According to Yogi; The engine has been “looked at” and will be on the dyno to “check out a few things”.

We don’t know about you, but the secrecy thing going on in that yard is like something out of spy movie. 😀

Short and sweet this week, back to normal next week.

Posted in Articles, Classic Cars, Mustang Maniac, Our Cars, Photos | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Check Up

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

Well its Easter Sunday and we hope that all your chocolate eggs haven’t melted in the glorious sunshine that we have here in the UK, it certainly makes a nice change. Anyway the show car season is rapidly approaching and we have the usual influx of pre-season servicing. We thought that we would start with a customers car that had a small issue that turned into a bigger problem, but nothing that we haven’t seen before and a fairly common problem in fact.

Pro Street 

Marcus noticed a small leak that appeared to coming from the water thermostat housing. You can always tell a leak from this area as the top of the water pump has some nice little pockets to collect the fluids in. After cleaning up the leak and leaving for a few days and not starting the car there was more fluids filling back up again. A leak like this not under pressure can be an issue, but travelling to a car show or accidentally nailing it of the line with a few revs on could be enough to blow the leak into a waterfall and dump your coolant all over the engine bay and over the road. So Marcus contacted us and asked us to look at it for him as it appeared to be coming from the water pump itself.

Like all these things we investigated and discovered the water pump gasket did indeed have some issues. We removed the water pump and the timing cover had some blocked water ports too. While the covers were off we checked over the timing chains and other components to make sure all was OK. The decisions were made to replace both and paint them up to match the engine block again. Pics here of the old corroded water flow ports that would restrict the water cooling efficiency of course.

old
new
old
new

As with all these things we had all the parts in stock, the covers themselves, gaskets, seals and all straight of the shelf into the workshop. The covers were painted and allowed to dry, the gaskets were prepped and the covers were all put back together again. The rebuild of the pulleys were next up along with new pipes, caps, clips and hoses. A new billet water thermostat housing completed the bling which matched the rest of the car’s under hood theme going on.

We filled the car with the mixture of fluids and let her run up to temperature. A quick road test to make sure all was as expected and recheck when we got back. We gave Marcus the call to say his car was ready for collection. So within just 48 hours the car was fixed and back with the owner again, that’s the diagnosis, parts, painting, refitting, fluids and road test.

During the car’s collection Adam explained and showed what had been done to fix the problem.

And of course we just had to have a little video of car leaving the workshop!

Once again we had another happy customer. It just goes to show that it’s best to get these issues checked out sooner than later. Especially after sitting around over the winter.

Customer Car: 

On a similar theme we sent out a new water thermostat housing and gasket to replace one that was leaking. The leaking part was a cheap Chinese part that looked good and purchased from the internet, but it wasnt up to the job two years later. The age-old saying ‘Chrome don’t get you home’ would certainly have been the case here with a huge failure just waiting to happen. The swap over work was carried out by the customer with no problems. He sent us these pictures just in case we were interested. The leak has now stopped with the correct parts!

You can see why this part started to leak, and who knows where those chunks of metal ended up that had corroded away or broken off? It’s a cheap part for a reason we guess.

These parts may look good for a while, but it also needs to do a job. A lot of the time cars that are resold quickly have these pretty bits on them to make them look good, but after a while they will bring their own problems. Thanks to “Mr. X” who didn’t want to be named, but supplied us with the photos.

Our Car:

The secret project car has had a few more bits fitted and is now common knowledge, with Yogi doing the fettling of the parts to fit. The door workings are in place and now working. The rear light moulding has been test fitted and then the old rear panel sections are to be cut away.

Articles:

 As if we didn’t know – Ford Mustang Claims Title of Best-Selling Sports Coupe in the World for Fourth Straight Year

As Ford marks Mustang’s 55th anniversary on this National Mustang Day, enthusiasts everywhere are celebrating the world’s best-selling sports coupe for the fourth consecutive year. From Australia to Peru, Mustang reigns as the best-selling sports coupe in the world for 2018, selling 113,066 cars, according to data from IHS Markit. 2018 not only marks the fourth straight year of Mustang’s global leadership as world’s best-selling sports coupe, but also as best-selling sports car in the United States, where Ford sold 75,842 Mustangs last year.

“We broke the mold when Ford launched the Mustang 55 years ago,” said Jim Farley, Ford president, global markets. “Nothing says freedom, the wind in your hair and the joy of driving like Mustang; it’s an icon. The roar of its V8 on a spring day, there’s nothing better. No wonder it’s the most popular sports coupe in the world.”

Mustang was available for purchase in 146 countries in 2018, based on worldwide Ford sales data. More than 500,000 sixth-generation Mustangs have been sold worldwide since 2015, with the pony picking up an additional half point of global share last year to capture 15.4 percent of the segment. This was fueled in part by the new Mustang Bullitt, which exceeded global sales forecasts by 25 percent. Global sales data are based on IHS Markit 2018 total new vehicle registrations for all sports car segments. U.S. sales are based on 2018 industry reported sales.

New High Performance Package for 2020 Mustang Delivers 330 Horsepower and GT Hardware

Strengthening Ford’s performance reach for 2020 and just in time for the pony car’s 55th anniversary, the new 2.3L High Performance Package for the entry-level Mustang EcoBoost® creates the most powerful four-cylinder sports car offered by an American automaker. This is the result of a unique EcoBoost engine powered by Ford Performance and upgraded handling components from the Mustang GT Performance Package.

“The Ford Performance Focus RS 2.3-liter engine is a high-revving marvel, and anyone who’s driven this EcoBoost engine instantly loves how quickly it responds and delivers power,” said Carl Widmann, Mustang chief engineer. “When our team got the chance to try this specially built engine in a Mustang, we immediately agreed, ‘We have to do this.’”

Reminiscent of development of the original Mustang in 1964, the car began as a five-person skunkworks project in the Ford Performance garage. Following an experiment with a Focus RS engine swap, the Mustang team leveraged Ford’s quickening product development times to accelerate and complete the design-to-approval process for the 2.3L High Performance Package in under 10 months. Available on the entry-level Mustang EcoBoost fastback coupe or convertible models this fall, the Mustang EcoBoost package was developed to feel at home both on thrilling mountain and coastal roads and even on the most precise autocross courses thanks to its Mustang GT brakes, performance tires, and chassis and aerodynamics hardware from the Mustang GT Performance Package.

Most powerful EcoBoost engine yet in a Mustang

To make their project a reality, members of the Mustang team traveled to Valencia, Spain, home of the Ford Performance-tuned 2.3-liter engine, to convince plant management to build a new variant of the turbocharged four-cylinder specifically for Mustang. Then, with the Ford Performance-designed engine as a starting point, they tuned the EcoBoost to more broadly and responsively deliver a projected 330 horsepower and 350 lb.-ft. of torque achieved with premium fuel (per the SAE J1349 standard). Having secured production of the die-cast alloy block and high-performance cylinder head, the engineering team specified a 5 percent larger 63-millimeter twin-scroll turbo compressor and a larger radiator, then calibrated the engine to run both Ford’s 10-speed SelectShift® automatic and 6-speed Getrag manual transmission. The 2020 Mustang 2.3L High Performance Package is designed to run 0-60 in the mid-four-second range on premium fuel, with top speed increasing to 155 mph, a 10 mph gain over the 2019 EcoBoost Performance Package and 34 mph faster than the base EcoBoost Mustang.

“It’s not just the horsepower gains over the standard 2.3-liter EcoBoost, it’s the broader torque curve that delivers 90 percent of peak torque between 2,500 and 5,300 rpm, which is 40 percent wider than the base EcoBoost engine,” said Widmann. “Plus, horsepower holds stronger up to the 6,500-rpm redline – enabling more usable power and torque for enthusiasts and weekend autocrossers to enjoy.” Helping to deliver 143 horsepower per liter, the new 2.3L High Performance Package includes a fully active quad-tip exhaust system with a signature tuned sound.

Packed with enthusiast hardware

The new 2020 2.3L High Performance Package feels sharp and nimble, with an aggressive road-holding stance, near-balanced 53/47 weight distribution and fully independent suspension, plus chassis and aerodynamic upgrades from the Mustang GT and its Performance Package. For greater steering precision, the team added an alloy strut tower brace to stiffen the chassis at the front. To improve stopping power and fade resistance, the 2.3L High Performance Package adds larger four-piston fixed calipers with 13.9-inch front rotors from Mustang GT. It features a 32-millimeter sway bar up front and a tubular 21.7 millimeter bar at the rear. New performance calibration tuning is applied to the electronic-controlled power steering, antilock braking, stability control and five driver-selectable drive modes. For improved cornering, a 3.55:1 limited-slip rear axle is included, plus package-specific 19×9-inch machined-face aluminum wheels and 255/40R summer tires. For an aggressive look, the new EcoBoost 2.3L High Performance Package includes a large black front splitter and belly pan, plus brake cooling ramps from the Mustang GT Performance Package – add-ons that also work to reduce front-end lift and improve brake cooling. A blacked-out grille with offset Mustang tri-bar pony emblem, 2.3L High Performance Package side badges and magnetic gray side mirrors and raised blade rear spoiler add to the performance look, while a unique metallic gray stripe crosses the hood. An engine-spun aluminum instrument panel with oil pressure and turbo boost gauges, plus a serialized dash plaque highlight the interior.

New EcoBoost Handling Package

Increasing lateral acceleration grip and stopping power, the available EcoBoost Handling Package includes semi-metallic brakes, specially calibrated MagneRide® dampers and a TORSEN® 3.55:1 limited-slip rear axle. Wider 19×9.5-inch premium painted aluminum wheels with 265/40R Pirelli P Zero™ Corsa4 summer tires provide traction, while a 24-millimeter solid rear sway bar, up from 21.7 millimeters, improves handling balance. The new EcoBoost Handling Package is available exclusively on the 2020 Mustang EcoBoost fastback coupe with the 2.3L High Performance Package with either 6-speed manual or 10-speed automatic transmission.

New smart technology, colors and more for 2020

FordPass Connect™, now standard on Mustang for 2020, allows owners to interact with their vehicles via a smartphone. Using FordPass Connect’s phone application, owners can locate their parked car, lock and unlock it, and check vehicle status, such as fuel, oil levels and maintenance alerts. For automatic transmission-equipped Mustang models, the system has a remote start feature. The availability of these features varies by market.

Available SYNC® 3 with AppLink™ adds enhanced voice recognition communications, 911 Assist and two smart-charging USB ports. Four new Mustang colors for 2020 include Grabber Lime, Iconic Silver, Red Hot Metallic Tinted Clearcoat and Twister Orange. New 17-inch sparkle silver-painted aluminum wheels now come standard on the base 2020 Mustang EcoBoost.

Sources: https://www.at.ford.com/en/homepage/news-and-clipsheet/news/2019/4/best-selling.html?cid=BOC-2019-04-18  https://www.at.ford.com/en/homepage/news-and-clipsheet/news/2019/4/mustang.html?cid=BOC-2019-04-18

And Finally;

We have seen a new sign ready to go up in the Yogi cave. We are not sure who has said what, but a picture does indeed speak a thousand words. Well, in this case just thirteen words in fact. You have been warned 😀

Have a good holidays and any left over chocolate can be found a good home down the yard!

Happy Easter to all our customers and followers. 

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