Behind Closed Doors

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

This week sees a cold snap hit the UK, but nothing like the unbelievable temperatures in the USA. Our thoughts are with you guys on that side of the almost frozen pond. A lot of work is going on behind the closed doors of the new office and store rooms. Revised part labelling and stock storage is pretty much now completed. Not that there will be anything different to see even if we took a load of photo’s for you. The shelves are now bursting at the seams, like they always are. We are happy with the new electronic stock picking system that Morgan has been fine tuning and works a treat for walk in customers.

Customer Cars 

We have Chris’ ’66 Coupe which we have been storing for a while now and has now been promoted to the body shop room where The Onion Mustang was previously rebuilt. This car had a couple of rear quarters fitted by a third-party, although they were sort of OK, they were certainly not up to our standards. To be honest, they would have caused issues a little later on, we will explain a little further down. The floor pan was shot after it was stripped back for a close inspection. We thought that we could salvage and patch in new plates of metal, but the rust worm made the metal as thin as aluminium foil in places. It looked fine, unfortunately some of the structural areas near the sills we were certainly not happy with. So a new floor is the most economical way to fix it.

The floor was cut out back to the fresh metal. The front chassis legs look pretty good so that is pretty big bonus for Chris.

Chris had been working hard on the outside and inner panels with the red oxide ready for base and top coat paints.

When we get to the back of the trunk area we will need to check the drop offs and rear panel.

The rear quarters were skinned and not the full rear quarters. The skins involve cutting a line and mating the old and new panels up. This method of repair is notorious for cracking and rusting out at the seam joins. its much better to take out the whole quarter and braze the panels in on the C pillar like they are supposed to be. But, that requires a lot more time and effort as well as a new skill set to do it correctly.

Tip: If you are looking to buy a Mustang, always check inside the trunk for a part skin repair. Feel along the inside of the rear quarter panels to see if you can feel a seam, they should be smooth all the way down from top to bottom.

Ford article for the new 2020 Shelby Mustangs: 

The all-new Shelby GT500 – the pinnacle of any pony car ever engineered by Ford Performance – delivers on its heritage with more than 700 horsepower for the quickest street-legal acceleration and most high-performance technology to date ever offered in a Ford Mustang.

“Carroll was always working on the next faster Shelby, I think he would love this Mustang more than any other,” said Jim Farley, Ford president, global markets. “A takedown artist, the new Shelby GT500 will surprise supercar owners with its Ford Performance racing tech, supercharged engine and visceral swagger.”

Arriving this fall to join its Shelby GT350 stablemate, Shelby GT500 is engineered to attack on all fronts. At the drag strip, it’s set to produce a projected 700-plus horsepower via its first-in-class dual-clutch transmission. At the track, performance improves even more thanks to its race-bred chassis, custom Michelin tires and the largest front brake rotors ever available on an American sports coupe. On the street, its menacing aerodynamic design and Ford Performance driver control technologies make every moment behind the wheel even more exhilarating.

Most powerful Ford production car ever

In the process of making the all-new Shelby GT500 the quickest street-legal Mustang ever, Ford Performance created an exclusive powertrain to deliver new levels of power and torque. “With its supercar-level powertrain, the all-new Shelby GT500 takes the sixth-generation Mustang to a performance level once reserved only for exotics,” said Hermann Salenbauch, global director, Ford Performance vehicle programs. “As a Mustang, it has to be attainable and punch above its weight. To that end, we’ve set a new standard among American performance cars with our most powerful street-legal V8 engine to date, plus the quickest-shifting transmission ever in a Mustang for all-out precision and speed.”

Shelby GT500 starts with a supercharged 5.2-liter aluminum alloy engine built by hand. To keep the intake air cooler and deliver a lower center of gravity, the team inverted a 2.65-liter roots-type supercharger with air-to-liquid intercooler tucked neatly in the V8 engine valley.

Like Shelby GT350, the aluminum alloy block features weight-saving wire-arc cylinder liners and high-flow aluminum cylinder heads, plus larger forged connecting rods, improved lubrication and cooling passages. Beneath that, a structural oil pan adds strength, reduces vibration, and features a patented active baffle system to keep oil where it’s needed. To channel power and torque to the unique carbon fiber driveshaft, Ford Performance leveraged learnings from the tuning of its Ford GT supercar’s dual-clutch transmission. The team selected a TREMEC® 7-speed dual-clutch transmission, which is capable of shifts in under 100 milliseconds – markedly faster than any manual gearbox. This dual-clutch transmission is designed for a number of drive modes, including normal, weather, sport, drag and track, and activates features like line-lock and launch control through selectable Track Apps.

Next-evolution Mustang performance bred from Ford GT and Mustang GT4

To harness the power and torque of the most powerful Mustang ever made for the street  requires cutting-edge active chassis technology, track-bred Michelin tires and Brembo® brakes – all dialed in by Ford Performance.

Shelby GT500 takes advantage of revised suspension geometry, a new electronic power steering unit and lighter-weight coil springs front and rear. Next-generation active MagneRide™ suspension is baked-in, along with the latest in advanced drive mode technologies from Ford Performance. The payoff is the highest-ever lateral acceleration from a Mustang for greater track performance and driver control.

Putting all this chassis hardware to the pavement, custom Ford Performance-spec Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires and more aggressive Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires feature unique compounds and tread. To provide track-ready stopping power, massive 16-5-inch (420-millimeter) two-piece rotors are added – the largest of any domestic sports coupe – plus larger, stiffer Brembo six-piston calipers. With 20 percent more swept area than the Shelby GT350’s, these brakes have more than 30 percent additional thermal mass in the front corners.

Two handling packages with increasing levels capability are offered for the all-new Shelby GT500. An available Handling Package includes adjustable strut top mounts and spoiler with Gurney flap. For the truly hardcore, an available Carbon Fiber Track Package features exposed 20-inch carbon fiber wheels with 0.5-inch-wider rear wheels (11.5-inch), custom Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, adjustable exposed carbon fiber GT4 track wing and splitter wickers with integrated dive plane. The rear seat is deleted to reduce weight.

A functional, menacing design tuned with Ford Performance know-how 

Thanks to a cross-functional team of designers, Ford Performance engineers and motorsports collaborators, the 2020 Shelby GT500 has functional track-hero looks to match its performance capabilities. “With a double front grille opening and 50 percent more cooling pack airflow versus the Shelby GT350, along with the most advanced aero components and downforce we’ve ever offered, every millimeter of Shelby GT500’s fastback design is aimed at improving performance,” said Melvin Betancourt, Ford design manager. Those large angular grille openings and muscular hood combine for a menacing, aerodynamic-led design inspired by modern fighter jet aircraft. The car’s wider front fenders and stance housing Shelby GT500-specific 20×11-inch wheels proportionally align to its rear fenders that hug up to 20×11.5-inch wheels. A standard new rear spoiler and updated composite materials in the rear diffuser result in added thermal management.

The team leveraged Ford’s motorsports technical center in North Carolina and its windshear rolling wind tunnel – where top-tier racing teams test – to perfect the design of the Shelby GT500. Front fascia openings are more than doubled versus the Shelby GT350, while six heat exchangers are stuffed in to increase cooling pack airflow by more than 50 percent. A massive 31×28-inch louvered hood vent features a removable aluminum rain tray for better air extraction and increased downforce.

More craftsmanship, technology and driver comfort

Shelby GT500’s purpose-built cockpit boasts race-inspired premium materials and unique finishes worthy of its world-class power. Premium touchpoints include an available exposed carbon fiber instrument panel appliqué and new door panel inserts in Dark Slate Miko® suede with accent stitching. Available Recaro racing seats with firm side bolstering and pass-throughs for safety harnesses offer the highest level of performance. For those looking for even greater comfort, power-adjustable seating with Miko suede inserts is offered. The all-new Shelby GT500 picks up a 12-inch full-color LCD instrument cluster, while a high-performance custom-tuned 12-speaker B&O® Play premium audio system is available. All of this is controlled via an 8-inch SYNC® 3 touch screen featuring SiriusXM and FordPass Connect™. New colors for 2020 include Red Hot, Twister Orange and Iconic Silver. Painted stripes are available for the all-new Shelby GT500 too.

Building on the legacy of Shelby performance

With a reputation for transforming Ford Mustang into dominant road racing machines, Carroll Shelby, American racer and entrepreneur, took his legendary Mustang GT350 model further in 1967 to craft the first-generation Shelby GT500 with a modified 428-cubic-inch V8 inspired by his team’s 1-2-3 finish at Le Mans.

Carroll Shelby called the original Shelby GT500 “the first real car I’m really proud of.” Today, that legacy continues with the third-generation 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 – the most powerful and most advanced Mustang ever.

We at Mustang Maniac think that Ford & Shelby America need to give us a GT500 so we can show it off sorry, promote it for them. We would drive it sensibly and not drive it like we stole it. Well, most of the time anyway. Do we want one? Oh, yes!

It will prove to be a worthy successor to the fabled Mustang and Shelby badges.

Source: https://www.at.ford.com/en/homepage/news-and-clipsheet/news/2019/1/shelby.html?cid=BOC-2019-01-14
Posted in Articles, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Restoration, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Pro Street Repaired By Pros

Posted on January 27, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We would like to start by saying a big thank you for the emails regarding our post last week for our new offices, and to the customers who have visited us with positive comments, and a nice little idea that we will try to do as well. It does seem as though our new look is exceeding our expectations.

Customers Cars:

The Pro Street car has been worked on over the last couple of weeks and the progress is clear to see. The old rusty areas identified on the chassis legs which have been cut away or removed.

The inner fenders were ground back to see the extent of the rust worm. The depth of the previous filler was quite clear by the old VIN number.

The repairs were hand fabricated by Yogi to fit exactly what he needed to save on an extensive strip down. The floor repair panels were painted with red oxide and welded into place.

Further coats of red oxide added once all was in place. The front chassis legs were pretty good except for the outward facing sides where the bumper bolts located. These were removed and painted inside before the new plates were fabricated and welded into place.

The shock towers needed some work around the base again with custom fabrication.

Work on the inner fenders at the top required some custom patch plates to be made, welded and ground down for a seemless look.

With everything in place the inner fenders and floors were treated to more red oxide to protect the new metal and exposed metals.

The suspension needed a little TLC after being checked and lubricated before being fitted back to the car.

A quick reminder of the before and after.

As we have said so many times before, they may look a mess when we get going by ripping them and cutting them apart, but they always look the part when they leave. The big difference between us and a lot of others out there is that we show our work because we are proud of our reputation, quality of work and customer satisfaction. The customer also  has a record of their work by referencing our blog, or work diary as it has been refered to by a customer who had a restoration done by us.

A recent email testifies;

“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.

Thanks very much to Kev for taking time out and leave the message for us on our Facebook page.

Posted in Blog, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Repairs, Restoration | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Mustang Maniac Moves

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

The exciting news we have been teasing you about since the end of last year is that Mustang Maniac has moved. OK, so it’s only into the unit next door, the entrance to Mustang Maniac is now to the right of the main roller door not the left. You can’t miss it, honestly you can’t. Now there is no more going up stairs to the office, instead a nice customer friendly ground floor reception area.

As far as anybody is concerned nothing has changed for the Mustang Maniac business, except that we now have a new customer area and storage locations.

The address is still exactly the same, but Adam explains that he has taken (Mustang Maniac) to “the next level” ready for his next business plans.

There is a new reception/show room, a nice place to relax, chilled refreshments and a display area. This was a huge task over the recent holidays and is still being updated, with lots more stuff to go on the walls as yet. We have a couple up so far.

There has been wild rumours that the first thing Adam got to work in the new offices was the card machine for transactions! 😀  We can neither confirm, nor deny that this was true.

The broadband, 24/7 CCTV recording, full monitored premises alarm, individual lockable storage area doors, keycoded door and guard dog patrol areas were done the same day opened the front door as it were. The locksmith was a busy boy that day.

New front signs going up.     Thanks to Linards for getting them ready at such short notice.

The reception and seating area has a TV showing some project works of Mustang Maniac or the original Mustang adverts (thanks Chris). Adam now has customer information support screen located by Morgan to show any walk-in customers the parts they require before they are picked from stock. A small point, but nice touch for the plethora of combinations on the Mustangs.

Morgan’s working in her reception area where she can deal with call in customers, bookings for the workshops, prep and dispatch for WebShop orders, now all from a single place.

Seating is provided by Mustangs of course. Adam and Yogi talking to a customer while he was watching the wall mounted TV of our restoration projects.

Adam’s office is now at the back where he can work without being disturbed by the busy WebShop orders, he can still have a private conversation with the customers if needed. Yogi pop in to his desk where he can log the parts he has used, while Adam can invoice and quote for the jobs and manage his business.

Adam’s office decor, (so far):

The all important stock:

Morgan has done a great job and organised the stock into multiple rooms with colour coding and all cross referenced. The quick turn over parts are in the rooms directly behind her.

The rest of the stock, brake parts, electrical, lighting, door parts, emblems, hardware and fixings, transmission, and suspension parts like shocks etc. are organised based on car area location and colour coded on the upper floor. Larger body work parts like engines, gearboxes, axles, exhausts, body panels, seats, carpets, glass, wheels, tyres etc. are still stored in secure units at the yard. These pics are only some of the stock that has been transferred over at the moment, with more to follow. They may look the same boxes, but we can assure you they are all different crate locations.

Morgan has developed a mobile electronic method for efficiently picking the parts and works very well, we snapped this pic of her getting an order ready for customer call-in collection.

On seeing our new location, a very good friend of ours donated this rare Chinese metal toy for our display case. Thanks to GW for the donations, we appreciate it.

We look forward to seeing you in the new shop and reception.

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Tip Of The Iceberg

Posted on January 13, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

No sooner have we rebuilt The Onion Mustang and we made space for our next project. This comes in the form of a very nice ’68 Coupe Pro Street 302ci. We first saw this little lady in back in October last year where we made our first evaluations of the car. The car is in pretty good condition with a few rust issues like most of them at some point in their lives. The main painted part of the car has a few minor issue that can soon be sorted out without too much trouble. We say Pro Street due to the rear end being pretty much maxed out and tubbed, with some skinny front end tyres as being the first points to notice.

Both Yogi and Adam had a good look around the car with some recommendations depending on budget which would mean that there would be discussions later on between the owner and Adam on how best to proceed.

Some clever work was done on the rear chassis rails to move them over in order to cater for the massive rear tyres. Not a very common mod, but we have seen variations on this theme before.

The trunk was equipped with the race spec small fuel cell and trimmed out very nicely.

The guys were interested to see what was under the carpet when trying to evaluate this type of work. But, you can’t just rip out carpet on somebody’s pride and joy of course just to have a little look. So things like this can hide the odd unexpected bad spot.

Under the hood was neat, tidy, well presented and made a rather nice noise that got Yogi’s attention as she pulled into the workshop to be lifted up on the ramp.

The main reason the little lady came in was for some potential cosmetic work on the body. Like all these things, until you get into it you never know what you are going to find. A customer of our summed it up very well;

“Rust is like an iceberg, you never know what’s under the surface”.

The fenders were taken off the car and the inner fenders marked up for attention. Yogi got the car on the ramps and set to work on the problem areas that they had identified, pretty much they had expected, but certainly not the worst they had seen.

The chassis legs will need some attention as they attach to the floor and obviously we need to see what condition all that was in before final decisions can be made.

Like The Onion Mustang, the floor was made up of  a patchwork of metals, and the patches were more like tin foil in places. The trouble is when you get to this stage you have to keep going until you find a solid metal section(s) to start from.

With all the bad metal out the full extent of the repair can be seen.

This is nothing that we haven’t seen before and we will surely be seeing it again. With all the rubbish having been cleaned out it doesn’t look half as bad to be fair.

We have a couple of foot wells at the front to be replaced so far which is no problem, but we will need to go round the rest of the floor to see that all is well. If we have to patch too much it will be more cost-effective to swap out the floor pan itself.

As we have said so many times before, we are quite confident that this little lady will be back ripping up the road in no time. It takes a little time and a lot of knowhow that’s all.

Other News:

There has been a lot of work going on near the main offices and we will be letting you know all about that very soon. I’m not supposed to give anything away, so I picked this little pic doesn’t do that, but it gives you a clue!

It’s all very clever stuff!

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

Off She Goes

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

Exciting times this week as we see The Onion Mustang sat in primer for a while and then ready for transporting out to our paint shop, the first time she has seen daylight for a year or so now.

The final red oxide and seam sealing gets some Mustang Maniac TLC.

Yogi started masking the car up ready for primer and blocking down again, his favorite part of the paint process. Like all these projects, nothing seems to happen for weeks as the prep work takes up the time. Anybody can bolt a fender on, but the gaps need to be set properly to make the car look right. That’s either cut the metal away or build it up to make the gaps consistent.

We can say that as we have learned from experience and listened to what the customers want with their cars. We were briefed that the convertible chassis should be solid and not wallow around as it were as most convertibles tend to do. We will now show you a little trick we have perfected; an additional plate welded into place to strengthen the front end up. We use various thicknesses and sizes of plating depending on the requirements.

The pics we grabbed as the engine came out to show the additional torque sections. We won’t show it all, as it’s our secret and experience that has perfected the little additions. Of course if you see the car at a car show then you can have a look for yourselves.

How many other restorers would think of, or even do this type of work based on a conversation of requirements with the customer?

After masking up comes the all important etch stage.

After the etching Yogi does his inspections and preps for his favorite part of painting, the primer.

In what seems like a pointless waste of time the primer was then again blocked down before the proper paint job. That way we know that all was well and we managed to smooth out any uneven panels. The car was wheeled out into the yard waiting to go on the covered transportation truck.

Next time we shall see her she won’t be an onion, she would be a pearl.

New Stock Lines

Adam is always talking to people regarding his stock and what he can sell. As Adam had made his grandson very happy at Christmas as he now also owns a Mustang like his Dad and Grandad who ‘has lots of cars’ as the little guy would say. 😀

Yep, Adam will be selling these ride in electric Mustangs soon on the WebShop to the lucky little ones who want to be part of the Mustang scene too.

Just how cool is this?

Watch this space for more details!

Import Update.

We mentioned before the end of the year that we will be bringing you updates on a customers car he was going to buy from the USA. It turns out that the vendor has now been reconsidering the sale of his car after all. So the vendor needed to be sure and make up his mind, so money was discussed again should we say. The end result was long conversations on the phone where our customer has pulled out of the deal. Yes our was customer was gutted, but at these points in negotiations buying a car is a business transaction. It has to be treated that way or you could be taken advantage of letting your heart rule your head. It takes a strong decision to back out of something when you have set your heart on something, we have all been there. If our customer decides to go for the USA sale again we will continue the saga again. So for now it’s ‘case closed’, to be continued?

Adam treated himself at Christmas and then made a video of it to reflect his passion for Mustangs!

The question is – was he joking????

Posted in Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Restoration, Service, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

New Look Blog Is Here

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Mustang Maniac

We didn’t need to post this today, but while we were working on the blog we thought why not, it can’t hurt to spread a little good feeling now and again, can it?

(It’s also a good excuse to check the post function is working properly too!)

 

We have finished the little details of the blog and testing now, hopefully it’s all good in the world of Mustang Maniac blogging again, if not let us know we will let our Media team know and give them an earful to go with their hangovers!  We decided to not change to much visually for our readers except that it should look a little tidier and cleaner now. But behind the scenes it makes our life a lot easier.

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New Look For The New Year

Posted on December 30, 2018 by Mustang Maniac

Over the next day or so we shall be working hard by updating our little Ol’ Blog behind the scenes. Things may appear and disappear along with some information being updated. Don’t worry the WebShop will still be working as normal so you can order your parts as normal.

The theme we were using is now no longer being fully supported and things started to become problematic with what we wanted to do. With any luck you will see a few subtle changes, but things should look cleaner if all goes to plan.

By the end of tomorrow everything will be working as it should we hope, that is if our media team of geeks stop drinking the beer! 🙂 So if you click on something and it doesn’t work, please try again later. FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter etc. will all need to be configured as well.

Thanks for you patience in the mean time.

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Posted on December 25, 2018 by Mustang Maniac

Just a very quick post to say have a great Christmas & Happy New Year. We just couldn’t let the holidays go by without a Mustang related Christmas post now could we?

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A Proper Rub-Down

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Mustang Maniac

We are coming to the end of the year and we have now worked out the last opening time for the Mustang Maniac offices; they will be closed from midday 21st December until the 2nd January 2019. The good news is that the WebShop will be running as normal as far as we are concerned, but the rest depending on the post and other services etc. If you need any last-minute purchases or gift vouchers, make sure you order within the next few days to be sure of Christmas delivery. If you try to call us after the 21st December there will be nobody there to answer the phone, honestly there won’t be anybody to help you. But, if you email Adam he may respond when he gets a chance over the Christmas Break.

Customer Cars:

The Onion

This week has been all about Yogi getting the Onion ready for primer and paint.The huge amount of work being done for the prep of welding has now come together. The bear has been in the body shop with the welding equipment and we have gone old school, just as the car would have been built. More red oxide paint is used to cover the metal inside. The front of the car has an engine in place, it’s not the actual engine to go in the car, it’s a rare and a very much sought after 351ci Cleveland 4v 4bolt, that Adam said ‘I just found it laying around’!!!

The dash area also red oxide and prep ready for welding in.

The dash section is a critical structural element of the car and needs to be done properly to help the chassis rigidity especially on a convertible.

With the spot welds in place it looks totally original as per the original builds.

We mentioned above the ‘Old School’, We are sure you have seen this before from us, but we will show it again to you as well as the customer. The traditional brazing we use is like what the original cars had when they were first constructed. It’s a small detail, but it shows the attention to detail we give to our restorations and another skill set.

With the sections in place and final painting, the seam filling begins. A process often overlooked by some, but not us.

The engine bay to the body of the car welding.

With the panels fitted at the back of the car and trunk in place, it now means that the bear can body prep to remove any minor high or low spots on the body work, also making sure all the parts are flush and even to each other. A true skill to get right.

With the car suspension being fitted last week, a couple more bits have now been added.

The attention to detail includes some zinc plating to the pedal bracket which looks amazing, but nobody will see unfortunately.

John Wick

The car is now fully back together and has a quick road test, we need to do a little more to give it the Mustang Maniac feel then she will be back with her owner.

WebShop

Adam has found a rare part pipe from the USA for a Cleveland engine. Adam doing what he does best decided that he could do little better and make it more widely available.

The original;

The bespoke made Mustang Maniac Mod;

The new mod pipe is thicker and stronger than the original. The new part features a knurled end that goes into the engine block, the other end has ribs to hold it in place onto the heater hose clamp. The coating has also been zinc plated. All small changes but will make a huge difference.

We will have a break on blog as well until the New Year.

Mustang Maniac wishes all our customers, followers & readers;

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

Posted in Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Parts, Restoration, Sales, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Taking Out A Pedal

Posted on December 9, 2018 by Mustang Maniac

A very busy week with lots going in the yard and we will bring you a story of a behind the scenes pieces of work that is taking the best part of six months to happen, but more on that a little later. We have had a lot of interest in the John Wick car as we always do when she is in the yard. Unlike the film this little lady is not mashed up and sounding like a bag of nails being kicked down the stairs. She was in for quite a big change or upgrade depending on how you look at it.

Customers Cars:

John Wick

The car in the films transmission was an automatic, the car we built was a manual as we were asked to build. Now after a little deliberation the owner, he has decided to swap over to an automatic like the car in the films. What people don’t realise is that swapping over the gearboxes is just the beginning.

So out it was out with the old manual gear box;

Then out with the pedal box, as you just can’t cut a pedal off as such, then remove the old gearbox linkage and centre console.

We reused the original centre console to fit a bespoke Hurst Auto shifter in place instead of the stock build auto gear box lever.

Yogi made up a template for the Hurst shifter and its relevant position to the new gearbox linkages. We had a strip of wood grain trim to match the original factory trim option, the template pattern would be laid and then carefully cut out the new openings.

The console was strengthened with our own little secret process then replaced back into the car. Once everything was secure the shifter was properly mounted.

A new starter motor was fitted as the linkage to the gearbox was fabricated, adjusted and fitted. New transmission cooling pipes were routed to the front for cooling as would have been on the original specification.

Next up was the new pedal box and the throttle linkages to the carb which also had to be swapped over from the manual one.

Once all that little lot was done the finished result is very simple looking, but a lot of work behind the scenes, The neutral disconnect wiring to be integrated to the wiring and ignition loom, the speedo cable, kickdown operation, carburetor settings, brake pedal height all have to be adjusted and set to defaults before a road test, then we tweak the adjustments once or twice more to get to the optimal performance set up for the car.

Apart from the stress and aggravation of the manual gearboxes the autobox will now be smooth effortless and correct to the film now.

Time for yet another road test – just to make sure all is OK of course! 😉

Our Cars

Adam has had his ’66 Hertz Shelby in storage for a long time, after Cleo Shelby had signed it for him he decided to do a little work on her. The car runs but nowhere near how it should, so like most of these things start with the carb which has been sitting there for a for years getting gummed up and rusty. So the man or bear for the job Yogi stepped up to the mark for a strip down and rebuild. The dark art of a carb rebuild, jetting and mixtures will all be required on this 800CFM (yes 800) double pumper.

Before – with the moving parts removed, gaskets removed and all to be restored and checked for any wear & tear before refitting.

After – the carb rebuilt and put back together ready for the refit.

A very special favour for a ‘Boss’ using the world wide Mustang Maniac contacts. 

We have touched on this type of story a few times in the past, but we must stress that this is NOT something that Adam and Mustang Maniac does on any sort of regular basis. In fact this is a very good friend (within the very small close-knit Mustang Maniac inner sanctum as it were), as well as being a loyal customer who need some help. The conversation was had with Adam and he responded. We shall be covering this story as it happens to take you on a documented journey. It may go well with no problems, or it could be a nightmare. We haven’t documented this before but we thought we might share it with you this time as it was customer lead.

‘Thank you Adam for the very special help’,  this customer as he has asked (me) to pass along.

After the loss, well sale of his ’65 coupe, the search for a ‘new mistress’ (as he would say) has been eventful and fruitless for a while with every advert, paper, social media and website had been scoured and trawled over looking for the replacement.

This is the sorry sight of a much-loved car being driven away by somebody else! Rumour has it there was a tear in his eye as she left. (It wasn’t a rumour by the way).

This Mustang Maniac customer was looking for a certain style for his next car, and nothing was standing out, after seeing many in the Uk over many months, the cars over here were just not up to scratch (well there were some with scratches on the paint), or on the other hand just not what he was looking for. Frustration grew and Mustang Maniac steped in and give this customer some exclusive contacts that we use in the USA. The word was put out to Adam’s contacts to look for a likely candidate for the customers spec he had in mind. A couple of weeks later that word was returned with a few pics the new potential ‘mistress’ was found.

Everything was now down to the customer to fine tune the deal, if this was indeed the replacement. The car in question happens to be a 1970 ‘Boss’ 302 clone fastback. The vehicle is quite rare for being a genuine two owner car from new, lime metallic green paint, luxury Ivy green interior, Mach1 package, a rare tilt column and fold down rear seat, factory rear louvres etc. Underneath, she sports a 331ci stroked aluminium headed motor, mated to a TCI reverse manual shift C4 gearbox, hooked up to a 8” rear with 4:11 gears and a posi traction diff.

After many phone calls with the owner, hundreds of detailed pictures of the good, not so good, the bad and a video to help with the decision, the trigger was pulled to release funds for the new car.

It’s well known that importing a car can be a daunting prospect; there are hundreds of shipping companies willing to take your money and bring your beloved car over by any means possible, not all of those options are good ways to bring a car back we might add. So again the customer asked us for some help and we pointed him in the right direction by giving him some reputable shipping companies to contact for quotes.

The process for shipping is from Indiana to Miami docks. Then from Miami to the Uk, we wish him the best of luck in getting it to her new home. We aim to follow this customers journey, regarding transportation, shipping, insurance and registration and how it all goes for him. Once all the paper work and costs have been paid, it’s a case of then getting his new pride and joy to or to us for the Mustang Maniac safety check (see last weeks post) before we let him loose in it on the UK roads. Watch this space for more updates.

WebShop

It’s that time of year where our new delivery of the Limited Edition Mustang Maniac Calendars are in stock for 2019 year. There is a very limit run of these and to get one you just need to order anything to, or over the value of £200 and we will pop one in the order for you, free. Here is a quick preview of the calendar.

January
February
March

April
May
June

July
August
September

October
November
December

If you order the Mustang Maniac Gift Vouchers for £200 or more you will also get the calendar, remember only while stocks last, once they are gone, there will be no more!

The vouchers are available in £10 and £20 and can be used in the WebShop.

The links for the £10 voucher is here or click on the picture below.

The links for the £20 voucher is here or click on the picture below.

There are only two more weekends before Christmas, just saying! 

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