The (not so) Secret Project Car

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We let the secret out last week about Adam’s secret one-off, bespoke hand-crafted project car that we know nothing about. As much as we would like to tell you more we have been sworn to secrecy now, so don’t ask us – ask Adam. With the (not so) secret project car out of the workshop, we have grabbed a few more pictures with some one-off bespoke parts being made just for her.

Our Cars

The Secret Project Car

Adam is also using some castings from his very own (privately owned) moulds for his Eleanor kits. However, we do know that this is not going to be an Eleanor. As Adam says; ‘I have done that (Eleanor) to death, with us being one of the first to do it. I didn’t really want to do another one. Instead this car really will be a one-off, bespoke and hand crafted car’.

For those with an eye for detail; something subtle is happening to the windscreen area, the standard moulding clips have now gone. Adam has something hidden away, which will be a first and pretty special for this car. Who knows, maybe we could start a trend?

We will bring you more as we go along on the ‘SPC’, or Secret Project Car as things take shape.

Customers Cars

The Onion

We have been asked about ‘The Onion’ Mustang by a customer who popped into the shop. Well we can say that the build at home is coming along nicely. The interior has had the ‘Fatmat Magamat’ fitted up to the firesfall and some way up to the cowl area.

The engine has had a colour passivated Serpentine system now fitted, along with matching coil bracket and timing pointer.

The HT leads are ThunderVolt with the retaining clips inverted as they look better. The headers are midlength JBA 1650 ceramic coated which fit nicely around the Borgeson steering.

The bodywork has a had a little treat as well, chrome plated side pod grills.

Engine Rebuild

We have been tasked with a six pot engine rebuild. It’s not something we do on a regular basis, but sometimes if the money is right we will take the project on.

Even the rocker covers are dismantled to be cleaned thoroughly.

Almost done and starting to look a lot better with a little hint of Ford blue paint added.

Thank You

A big thank you from us regarding the supportive comments via the blog, emails and personal conversations that we have seen, and also had at the yard regarding our point last week for us being work ‘selective’. It wasn’t an easy decision, we have a pristine reputation that we are proud of, and we need to think carefully about what we will deal with going forward.

Have a good Easter (next week) from all of us at Mustang Maniac, don’t eat too much chocolate, drink beer instead!

Posted in Classic Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Our Cars, Restoration, Service | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

He knows That We Know

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We have a lot of project work requests in at the moment and we have had to be quite selective about the type of work that we will undertake. We are seeing more and more of the ‘fix this restoration that somebody else has managed to mess up’ scenario. As a result of us being selective we have been moaned at for those decisions. We will of course start and finish a project we are tasked with from the beginning because we know our work is top quality. But, for us to keep putting right other people’s issues, it’s not what we are about. The end project can end up not being exactly how we would like it to be, that alone is pretty disheartening for us who have a real passion for these beautiful cars. We are not in it to make a fast buck, we do it because we care. To put right some of the ‘bigger problems’ we would need to do lots of work, and that costs money in order to get the customer what they wanted in the first place. As the money had been wasted elsewhere to start with, there is little in the pot for us to fix the broken as it were. Some cars we just don’t want to put our name to them, because we are proud people. We hope you understand our decisions on some of the work we could and will turn away in the future.

Customer Cars

The SPS coupe we had been working on has now left the yard. We were tasked with replacing the floor pans and the front end of the car where we needed to. The rear was undertaken elsewhere and we haven’t much to do with that end of her. The car was taken to her next stage in the restoration process, paint. The transportation was provided courtesy of LAR Recovery with a maiden trip of their new truck.

This is an amazing photo, it shows two classic Fords, one glistening away looking pretty cool, the other a shell that needs more body work prep in order to paint, but she too will look like that when she comes out in her new colours.

The Secret Project Car

One-off, bespoke hand-crafted project.

Adam has secretly moved a shell that he has had lying around at the end of last year and moved it in a workshop and locked the doors. We have seen him go into his workshop and not come out for a few hours at a time at the weekends and late into the evenings. We have not been told who this is for, where it is going or anything about it in fact. Except we see a little sign stuck on it that said ‘One off, bespoke hand-crafted’. Adam knows that we know it’s there. All we can say is we have grabbed a few pictures of it. We will be updating you on the car, as and when we sneak in for a little look. 😉 When we ask Adam about it we get “It’s a secret. It’s one-off, bespoke hand-crafted project”.

Well the secret is out now and we are looking forward to seeing this little lady take shape. We can’t tell you anymore, because we simply don’t know, so watch this space!!

A few funny pics.

After last weeks post about the poor workmanship, we had a few memes sent to us all based on a similar theme, a couple we can put on a family orientated website, some we definitely can’t! Thanks for the pics, keep them coming we enjoy them.

That sort of says it all really.

We finish with a request! 

We have been inundated with requests asking if there are any ‘dirty’ pics of Yogi. Ok, it was one request, we can’t be sure, but we have a sneaky suspicion that it was Yogi’s wife.

So here it is – a dirty Yogi

Another pic for the Yogi Fan Club 😀

Posted in Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Restoration, Service | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Prep & Paint

Posted on March 31, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We have had a more sensible week managing our workloads and getting our cars out a little earlier than expected, we even rewarded Yogi with an extra tea break.

Park & Pic

This rather nice ’67 302 Fast Back which came in for a service, tune up and a sort out a vibration. Everything went well and we managed to cure the vibration which was due to the new prop shaft.

Yet another very happy customer.

Customer Cars

The SPS (Six pot Sprint) has got her base coat on and the new panels. We didn’t get any pics of the panels going on as Yogi had them done before we realised. The seam sealer has been put on, red oxide paint has gone on anywhere that needed to be painted by us in order for her to go of for paint.

The shell is now ready to go for paint.

And how not to do it!

Bare in mind that this car was a recent and total restoration.

We have shown in the past seriously poor and dangerous workmanship that we have put right. We now have another one. Like before we will not be naming names, who the owner is or even what the car is. Brand new parts were fitted by said person and it looks like that they have no concept of what is going on. The car was said to vibrate a bit, make noises and handles strange! We have had to replace those new parts again.

The bushings on a suspension are there to isolate vibration between metal parts. These parts were so over tightened that they squashed and split the bushings.

They say a picture speaks a thousands words, unfortunatly these pictures are screaming very bad words!

Then we get onto the brakes. We certainly wouldn’t let a car go out like this if it has supposedly been ‘restored’.

These front brakes fair no better with the pad fixing bolt snapped and a fixing is missing.

Plumbing is hardly on properly and unsurprisingly we have a leak.

Then there is the power steering pipe which is about thirty centimeters to long.

Basic car electrics where this is not difficult, however they still managed to use the wrong connections.

Our stance on things like this and a little advice (again);

We are not here to start naming and shaming with rivals in the business, we don’t need to. Even if you ask us who done the work, we won’t tell you who done it. We will also not tell you who to go to, or not to go as the case may be in order to get your work done, that of course is your choice and decision. We are only showing these pictures for your information on what to look out for. But, please do your homework before you part with your hard-earned money. You may end up having to part with more of it to put it right again, as we have seen many times in the past. Ask to see their previous work(s) and seek independent recommendations from people who have had work actually done by them where you can.

Other News

Yogi’s daughter Beth has done some amazing fund-raising reaching over £800 for a great and often overlooked cause; ‘Sands’ – Stillbirth and neonatal death charity. Their link is here: https://www.sands.org.uk/

You can read Beth’s sad story here or click this link;

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/beth-matthews5?utm_id=124

Beth raised the money by jumping out of plane in a tandem skydive. Here she is in action.

All went very well and Yogi is a proud, if not very relieved dad.

Well done Beth!

Posted in Customers' Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Park & Pic, Repairs, Restoration | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Empty, But Not For Long

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

Our regular customers know that we will help out where we can with their cars, not just the Mustangs. We have a rare beast with us for a little TLC from Mustang Maniac. To top all that, it’s up for sale as well! Adam will not have anything to do with the deals being made, so you will have to speak to the Mick owner. Adam simply hasn’t got the time answer any questions on the truck, and before you ask – No, he isn’t taking anything from the sale, this is a favour for a good customer to help him sell it. This week’s Park & Pic features the Studebaker truck for sale.

Park & Pic

This is a 1955 Studebaker which has won all sorts of awards around the world. when you see it close up, you know why. She has come into us for a couple of little bits and general once over before she is taken to abroad to a show where she could be sold.

To explain what this car has it’s much easier to let you see the show board.

The car is amazing to look at and has to be seen.

With the air ride all the way down.

The rest of the truck;

The engine bay is clean and tidy to match the rest of the truck.

The inside has the same levels of details as the outside, and is a very nice place to be.

What does she sound like, watch the video to find out.

So, if you are interested in the truck or want to know more the contact Mick via his email below, the truck won’t be here for long, if you’re interested don’t waste time.

Europipework@aol.com

Customers Cars

We done a little tease last week about a Coupe we have called the SPS. The Six Pot Sprint Coupe has been hand stripped by Chris over a period of time ready for the next stages. Alas, after his hard work the stripped down floor revealed a little more problem areas than we had hoped.

So the decision was made, new floor pan. As the car is being restored on a tight budget, any unnecessary work where we can work with what we have, is the order of the day. We have patched rather than replace whole panel(s) to keep as much original metal as possible.

Some of the inner fenders needed a bit too much work and couldn’t be repaired safely.

Some of the critical stress points we were not going to take chances these parts were replaced.

With the rust out we can get to the point where the floor pan goes in. Next week we will bring those pictures for you.

We have a very rare picture for you here. This is Yogi’s cave with nothing in it. OK we cheated a bit, the cars we moved out in order to get the Studebaker onto the ramps.

Meanwhile on a Sunday Adam gets a little peace and quiet and lots of lovin from his dogs.

Posted in Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, dogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Rolling Out

Posted on March 17, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

The main work for the Onion Mustang has been completed and now she is now a rolling restoration. A massive milestone in any restoration in fact, the car will now be moved to another workshop so that the rest of the project can be completed in a quieter atmosphere, and should be well out of harms way. The car looks amazing and attention to detail is so easy to see, we don’t need to tell you. just have a look at the pics!

Park & Pic

We are going to make this a honoury Park & Pic this week, even though she has not been finished yet.

Editor’s Note:

From the pic above, I think a nice set of Magnum 500s in chrome would look the absolute business on the car. Just like these on a previous beautiful restoration. Click here for the full story on this car’s rotisserie restoration.

What do you think, any other suggestions?

Yogi has now plumbed in the engine and gearbox doing more bespoke, hand-made, one-off workmanship.

The rest of the bodywork has been bolted into place and gapped once she was sitting back on the floor with her own boots on.

We then were able to wheel and steer her out into the yard for a little photo shoot.

In case you had forgotten what she looked like when we started, the before and after:

News:

Heritage-Inspired Grabber Lime Arrives for 2020 Ford Mustang

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, Ford is unveiling Grabber Lime for the 2020 Mustang. More potent than kryptonite, this high-impact green inspired by a vintage Mustang color from the 1970s is sure to leave other muscle cars green with envy. “It’s lime green on steroids,” said Barb Whalen, Ford color and materials manager. “This color traces back to a Mustang heritage color while bringing it forward with more modern, dynamic pigments and bold new energy.”

Grabber Lime is one of two new feature colors available across the Mustang lineup for 2020; Twister Orange is the other. In addition, new Iconic Silver and Red Hot Metallic will freshen up the new Mustang palette, including for Shelby GT350 and Shelby GT500 models. “These bright, vibrant retro colors are trending in design – in home furnishings, sportswear and even appliances,” said Whalen. “Aspirational and confident, they are fun, youthful colors that make a statement of how you want the world to see you and who you want to be. And your car is an extension of that.”

source:  https://www.at.ford.com/en/homepage/news-and-clipsheet/news/2019/3/green.html?cid=BOC-2019-03-15

Did you know?

When the 2020 Shelby GT500 goes on sale later this year, it will be the quickest-accelerating, most aerodynamically advanced street-legal Mustang ever, thanks to virtual testing in supercomputers and 3D printing.

Borrowing best practices from more than a century of racing, Ford Performance designers, powertrain and aerodynamics engineers functioned as a virtual racing team to test hundreds of designs both digitally and physically. They used state-of-the-art digital and additive manufacturing prototyping tools as part of a mission to make the ultimate, most advanced performance street-legal Mustang of all time.

“We created and studied designs among the engineering teams and proved out different strategies long before we built our first prototype cars,” said Matt Titus, Ford Performance vehicle engineer. “Not only did this improve the effectiveness of the designs, it dramatically reduced the time it took to develop the GT500 – and the costs associated with that.”

Every millimeter counts for the Mustang Shelby GT500 to deliver on downforce, braking and cooling targets. The team leveraged Ford’s vast resources of advanced design simulation tools, including the Ford Performance technical center in Concord, North Carolina, and rapid 3D prototyping systems at its Advanced Manufacturing Center in Redford, Michigan. To physically validate the improving designs, Ford’s wind tunnels in Michigan and Windshear rolling wind tunnel in Concord were also used.

Real-world testing still matters, so the Shelby GT500 team ran extended high-speed tests on some of the most notable racetracks across the United States – including Virginia International Raceway, NOLA Motorsports Park and GingerMan Raceway – to refine the aerodynamic designs and help the all-new Shelby GT500 deliver the fastest track times ever in a production Mustang along with improved driver control for greater confidence behind the wheel.

We are starting to work another car, a coupe this time with some major metalwork being done on it. We have given this car the name SPS – Six pot Sprint. We shall bring you pictures of that next week.

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Park & Pic, Restoration | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Heart Goes In

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

This week sees more intense work on The Onion Mustang, Yogi has been doing his thing with the brake and fuel lines before the engine and gearbox are fitted and get in the way.

The suspension has been fully installed with the new brake lines connected to the brakes in all four corners and then bled fully.

There is an electrical fuel pump going to be used on this engine as the carb requires it, we won’t give that bit away just yet though. 🙂

The Engine was craned over to the car and lowered into place.

Paul, Mark & Yogi maneuvered the engine into place to sit on the engine mounts, the car was then raised up so that bolts could be threaded into place.

The engine bay started to rapidly take shake with the export brace and the radiator going in.

The fender splash guards and hood reattached completed front end for a while. Now that the engine was in place the gearbox was bolted to the back of the engine.

With the car able to sit on her own boots, the first steps for the steering have also been taken.

Yogi got a grip on the handles (see what I did there?). Nice new ones attached to the doors certainly give the car a little character.

We hope to continue with the onion this week, maybe squeeze the odd little job in for a break now and then. All of a sudden The Onion starts to really look the part.

Posted in Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Restoration | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Black Is Back

Posted on March 3, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have seen the return of The Onion fully painted back to the yard. We wasted no time starting the rebuild within the hour after we checked the checked the car over.

The shell has gone straight into Yogi’s workshop and the panels are safely stored out the way where they won’t get damaged until we need them.

In slightly less a week we have moved along at a rapid pace. The previous test fittings and adjustments that needed to be done before the paint has saved a huge amount of time and parts bolt straight into place.  We are now almost at a rolling shell stage, the rear axle is in, the front suspension is going back on.

Its worth pointing out here that the Spax shocks are in Red, That’s because we have had these made especially for Mustang Maniac. Nobody else has these shocks, they are custom-made and bespoke to us. Black and red? Oh yes!zinc,

 

The front springs and red shocks looks pretty damn cool as well.

Yogi has already got the brake master in place and has started his custom build, one-off, hand-made and bespoke brake pipes for this car. Remember that no two cars are the same when the bear does his thing with those brake pipes, there is always something unique somewhere.

The attention to the detail is now starting to show with the zinc plated parts and the Ford logo bolts.

Prep inside the car for the matting going in before the pedal assembly is fitted.

It wont be long before this little lady will be a rolling chassis, couple of days maybe.

Exciting times.

Lego Article

While we are on the subject on building things we have been sent some information about another Lego product. You may recall we built a mini Lego model a little while ago for the newer Mustang.

We even built a huge 1:18 scale part build model from DeAgostini, link here for the full build project.

Well, Lego have now gone back to the to the beginning of the Mustang DNA with their version of the 1967 Shelby.

Words from the Lego Site: https://shop.lego.com/en-US/product/Ford-Mustang-10265

Discover the magic of an iconic 1960s American muscle car with the LEGO® Creator Ford Mustang, featuring dark-blue bodywork with white racing stripes, bonnet scoop, printed Mustang grille badge, GT emblems and 5-spoke rims with road-gripping tires.

Developed with input from Ford, this authentic replica comes with optional add-ons for customization, including a selection of license plates, supercharger, rear ducktail spoiler, beefy exhaust pipes, front chin spoiler and a nitrous oxide tank.

You can even adjust the lift of the rear axle for an extra-mean look! Remove the roof panel or open the doors and you have access to the detailed interior with handsome seats, radio, working steering and a mid-console gearshift.

Store items in the trunk or lift the hood to reveal a detailed big block 390 V8 engine with battery, hoses and air filter detailing.

This advanced building set has been designed to provide a challenging and rewarding building experience full of nostalgia and makes a great centerpiece for the home or office.

  • New-for-March-2019 special elements include 5-spoke rims, 2×8 brick with bow, 1×3 mustang logo tile, 2×4 bow with ‘GT’ Emblem.
  • Measures over 3” (10cm) high, 13” (34cm) long and 5” (14cm) wide.

This model doesn’t come cheap, weighing in at an eye watering $150. But, it could be a bit of fun to build it. Unfortunately we have our hands full with the real thing at the moment.

When we mentioned it to Yogi he simply said, I don’t need Lego with an instruction manual – I got The Onion, that’s Lego stuff for real men without an instruction manual!

(Didn’t he mean bears? Ed.) But he does have a good point! 😀

Posted in Articles, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Onion Colour Revealed

Posted on February 24, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

Busy week with three separate deliveries of parts for our WebShop stock. Some of it is already allocated for a our little project, the rest of it being stored away eventually ready for our customers. As Mustang Maniac has new premises with lots of storage space for stock, he has ordered more than usual. We also happen to know that Adam doesn’t like to see empty space where stock should be!

The Onion Mustang

Thinking back to how many layers of bodge jobs we removed from this car, now we are at a stage where we are replacing the old layers with lots of new layers of paint.

We can now reveal the colour of this little lady is going to be black.

The doors have been seam sealed ready for the primers and top coats.

After masking up the inside the paint is applied. Black is notorious for being one of the most difficult colours to paint as it shows every ripple, bump and imperfection. Hence the attention to prep with lots of block coats.

Depth of shine looks like you want to dip your fingers in the paint.

We suspect it will be another two weeks before we get the Onion back to us then we can run full steam ahead to get this lady ready. We’re looking forward to seeing her with the new colour back at the yard we must say.

More Customer Cars

Back at the workshops we had a lovely little ’73 convertible which came in for a new steering box and little once over by Yogi.

The road test showed a big improvement on the handling and feedback to the steering wheel. As the weather has been pretty good, we had to do an extended road test – just to make sure that everything was spot on of course.

Posted in Classic Cars, Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Repairs, Restoration, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Pro Street Goes Home

Posted on February 17, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We have done our little bit on the Pro Street Mustang and the customer is pleased with the results. The car was parked up ready for collection Saturday morning, Marcus and Adam discussed seat belts and a solution found which should make a nice improvement to the comfort of driving the car.

The previous work was to remove the old rotten metal and replace with new and repaint. If you can’t see it, we have done our job well.

Yogi, decided to replace the fuel line as he was not happy with it and of course he fabricated a one-off, hand-made bespoke fuel line just for this car.

Yogi also decided that the car needed a little extra something was needed when the fenders started to go back on. His choice? A set of Ford stamped stainless bolts and a little polished stainless bolts makes all the difference. Only a few quid extra on the bill, but the subtle difference makes it all worth while. There is a little black sealer between the inner and outer fenders which we hadn’t cleaned just yet. We advised Marcus to drive the car for a little while to settle the fenders down, then after a couple of hundred miles remove the excess and no more sealer should show.

While outside we had a pic of Marcus with his nice new clean lines engine bay.

Another (new) satisfied customer whom we look forward to seeing again. We believe there could be a couple of little more jobs, but nothing that needs doing right away. We just want Marcus to enjoy the car for a while before we have her back. We took a little video of Marcus leaving for his trip home, we’re pretty sure he won’t mind. 🙂

We have been asked what this car sounds like, well turn up the volume to find out and enjoy this lovely idle.

Adam’s New Toy

Adam and LAR have decided that they needed a big power pulling vehicle to pick up lorries and winch etc. The name of the new lady – “Babby”, and Adam says that this 6 x 6 truck is just “simply, simply lovely”.  The crane hoist and all mechanics are remote-controlled from a box hanging around your neck, so you can see exactly what is going on while operating the controls. Did we mention it has a twelve litre Rolls Royce engine as well?

OK, it’s not a Mustang, but this is a serious truck and lets face it – every bloke and a few ladies of course wants to have a go!

Posted in Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Restoration, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

New Layers For The Onion

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have an update on the The Onion Mustang and how it was getting along in the paint shop. All is going well so far (not that we expect anything less) and the car has taken a number of steps in the right direction. We expect another couple of weeks or so until we get her back to us ready for the rebuild.

She arrived looking not to bad at all then she takes a turn for the worst, as we would expect at this stage. Bodywork comes of then goes back on again a number of times, bodywork is subjected to blocking coats, fillers, more coats, etch primer, and more blocking. All just to get a flawless finish to paint. Believe it or not, painting is hardly any time in comparison to all the prep work involved.

(My own personal favorite of the car so far. Ed.)

Masking outside and inside the car ready for the paint.

With most of the blocking and filler work completed its time for some proper primer.

We can’t wait, well for two weeks anyway until we get her back. Have we divulged the colour yet? That’s a little surprise for a future post.

F100 Truck Rewire

Trucks we don’t deal with a lot of the time, but we were asked if we could re-loom this classic F100 truck. We had a little space as the The Onion Mustang wasn’t due back just yet, so we slipped her in for the customer and it gave Yogi something a little different to do.

We used our Hot Rod wire loom kit which was more than enough to cover the minimal requirements of the truck. A day to strip out the loom and a couple of days to prep, route and finish the loom.

We brought this little lady up to date with some rather nice LED lights too while keep that important stock look. Like all LEDs they never seem to come out to well on photos though, trust us, they are bright!

We think it’s a job well done and well worth the effort to get a modern set of wires in the truck for reliability. We don’t always keep these looms in stock, but we have the odd little gem laying about. 🙂

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