Being Put On Trial

Posted on August 13, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

This week we are going to start of with yet another update on our postage options we offer. We have paid a hefty upfront extortionate fee to Royal Mail, sorry ‘Royal Fail’ to attend our premises every working day of the year at four in the afternoon to collect our orders and deliver them. Not a difficult business model, but it seems that their monopoly, the high costs they have is their their blasé weakness too.

We are now stopping our Royal Fail’s postage offering.

Why?

For the last couple of months we have been getting complaints about deliveries. We as a team have had a few meetings to see if we can improve, or how we can get an improvement to the services offered to us. There has been a few frantic phone calls to Royal Fail with us complaining to them. Nothing has changed so a difficult decision was made.

  • We have no control over their poor service, once it leaves us we – have no control on when it will be delivered.
  • We also have to jump through expensive hoops buying specific size boxes from Royal Fail for different items; small parcel, large parcel, then work out if the item is a large letter or small parcel, tube, then have to weigh them out for different bandings of payments, areas etc etc.
  • There is no consistency of delivery. We have had good reports that items picked up on 4pm on a Friday afternoon and the item has been delivered on a Saturday morning. That is a really great service, we can’t knock that, but that’s an exception. However, the majority of time “First Class” is now [and we quote], “anything from 1 to 10 days”. That’s right we rang up and asked, that is exactly what they told us. That is totally unacceptable for us and our customers.
  • When Royal Fail go on strike which they have done many times over the last year, we haven’t been reimbursed for them not collecting from us as per thhe agreed contract.
  • We have even had the odd job’s-worth employees of Royal Fail stand in our offices measuring the various parcel’s dimensions and checking if it will fit through their plastic guides.
  • They often turn up late and will miss their own last posting times for that day.
  • We don’t always get our expected post from Royal Fail either.
  • We get complaints about Royal Fail’s service, when it has nothing to do with us once we have had the items collected. NOTHING, it’s out of our control. Have we mentioned that already? Are the customers complaining about the products, no. But, they are starting to complain about a service they have chosen from the various options available.

Our contract with Royal Fail was due to be resigned by the end of the month, with a price increase, which we were going to do as most of the customers liked the service that we re-introduced by customer request, even though we as a company don’t like what they offer or the service they provide. Adam called Royal Fail to say that we were not going to be renewing the contract. The Royal Fail’s customer service person at the end of the phone said, “You can’t stop the contract without filling in a form first”. Adam asked – ‘if I don’t pay then what?’ ‘Well we won’t collect from you’, was the reply. Adam retorted with, ‘well I ain’t paying, so it’s problem solved!” It was a short conversation served up with contempt they deserve which they supply to us regularly, their customers.

How did this all come about?

Adam is tolerant man, (of most things), but a “Mr. L…” has now managed to ruin it for everybody, the final straw has broken the camels back, as the saying goes. Mr L. is now on the “C” list pretty much at the top of said list and will not be buying from us again. It has gotten back to us that he has been giving us a hard time on social media for poor customer service. Is it really poor customer service when we respond to emails late at night? If you do find this person online, you could thank him personally for being instrumental in our decision to phase out the Royal Fail postal option for everybody. If this scenario had been a couple of weeks later then the contracts would have been signed with Royal Fail and we would have carried on. So it seems that fate has brought this to a head for us. The story is quite a simple one as follows:

Mr. L’s order was placed on Friday 28th July 2023 at 22:51, which means it wouldn’t have been processed until Saturday 29th and then collected by Royal Fail.

On Wednesday 3rd August 2023 at 20:34 we get an email from Mr L to ask where the parts were: “Hi there, unfortunately my items have not arrived yet reference MM-4xxxx”. That was it. Adam checked the orders and could tell the order was processed and dispatched. All takes time and well after our office closing hours.

Adam responded by pointing out that he (Mr. L) did not pay for a courier, nor did he ask for a tracking service when he made his purchase, he obviously wanted the cheapest option. We then get another email from him replying to Adam with: ‘So where do I go from here? As I needed these parts this week can you send me proof of posting thanks’. Adam again responded saying he would have to wait as it’s now Royal Fail’s process causing the delay, also pointing out that if the parts were urgent he should have used a courier, but he didn’t want to pay for that, nor for a next day delivery option.

To cut a long story short, and a number of emails were exchanged where Mr L. was asking for Mustang Maniac to prove the item was sent by providing a tracking number, which he didn’t ask for and didn’t want to pay for. We could interrogate our franking machine yes, but that all takes time. We can prove that Royal Fail picked up the packages as we have CCTV to prove it along with the log of the visit from Royal Fail. Mr. L’s short curt emails was basically calling into question Adam’s, thus Mustang Maniac’s integrity. Mr L even hinted that Adam didn’t know how to run a business. Adam is an honest man and will not tolerate that from anybody. His reputation has been built up over many years of outstanding service to the Mustang community.

So, where are we now?

Adam believes the aggravation that recently been coming his way and the potential of ruining his business’ reputation due to Royal Fail is just not worth it for the cost and their ‘services’ provided. Time spent replying to our customers on behalf of Royal Fail has become unacceptable of late. We shall now be phasing out the Royal Fail options again and our customers will now only be able to collect from us or pay for the courier services, or provide their own collection if they want to. This was the reason that Mustang Maniac stopped using Royal Fail a while ago.

We sincerely apologise to those who are understanding and have had no problems with the services. We as a company have to protect our reputation. Where a ‘partnership’ by contract can jeopardise that, difficult decisions have to be made. We have tried all sorts of things to help our customers and we have put up with a lot. Some of the costs we incur are not even passed on to you, our valued customers. Sadly we have made the decision to stop Royal Fail services for the reasons we have stated. A customer bad mouthing us for poor delivery service is not acceptable. However, very small packages link window rollers or a couple of bolts etc could be Royal Fail at our discretion.

We hope you understand our decision, we will probably loose some custom over it, we can’t help that and will be sad to see them go. We dare say that they will of course they will go elsewhere for their parts, paying the import charges and taxes themselves, then waiting for their delivery.

We appreciate this may upset a few people, hopefully most will understand our decision.

Our Cars

Work is continuing on our ’65 Ranchero, we are starting to add some paint to the shell and some running gear. We hope this week we will have a rolling project once the suspension has all been fitted. Inside the engine bay was red oxide, seam sealed and black top coats.

The etch and primer coats always seem to make the the project jump a few steps forward.

OEM engine bay black applied.

The rear axle has also been getting paint.

We will be bringing you more progress next week.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Our Cars, Photos, postage, Restoration, Sales | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Another Specialist Repair

Posted on August 6, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

We didn’t get a chance to post last weekend due to the some commitments that ran later than expected. But we’re back this week and that’s all that matters. We have taken the ‘car’67 which has had the rear quarters replaced and some anti rust treatment to the paint shop for prep and paint. It will be there for a little while, so in the mean time we have started back on our very own Falcon Ranchero’s full restoration.

We start with a couple of cars ready to go out to their owners when Adam snapped these pictures.

Adam was going around saying a little lyric to himself:

Blue is the colour,
Mustangs are our game.
If you don't know our name,
Then that's a shame!

It’s not often you get get different generations of the same colour side by side.

Customer Cars

We start with a car that has been brought into us with an exhaust that is blowing. Nothing unusual there as these happen. But what you don’t expect is the exhaust to blow after a specialist has custom made the exhaust for you!

We were expecting a little settlement movement which just needed a quick tighten up. When we got the car up in the air we wasn’t quite ready for what we saw. We have seen worse of course, but this was supposed to be a specialist. Don’t ask us who because we are not here to bash other peoples work. The welding was not very good should we say.

They had cut the exhaust tubing to short and used clamps to hold it in place. If they had a welding rig out, why not just weld another bit on rather than make this complete botch job.

How short was the pipe? Not even close is the answer. Cable ties used to hold brake lines out of the way from burning on the exhaust. On top of all that, the ‘pièce de résistance’ was the black silicon mastic. It will blow almost straight away and start to burn. We think the pictures say enough on the matter to be honest.

We will now have to fabricate new pipework at even more expense to the owner. The only advice we can offer is, if somebody recommends a place for work on your pride and joy; have they been there and what does their work look like? To be honest this type of thing makes owning and driving these cars a bad experience, which they most certainly shouldn’t be. Parts for the cars are readily available for pretty much everything, why do these people make it so hard for themselves? We will probably never know.

Our Cars

Our much loved shop truck 1965 Falcon Ranchero has been moved up the work order and we have started to complete the body shell work. The red oxide is multiple coated and allowed to dry, once that is dry then the seam sealer is applied.

Once that has all cured we can then apply our own secret recipe of black underseal.

While the main body was drying we started on the rear axle.

We will be bringing you more updates as we go along.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Blog, Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Photos, projects, Repairs, Restoration | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Warning Has Been Noted

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

We have had a lot of feedback from our post last week about the evil ethanol now in our fuel. As a result we have had a few pictures via email of the inside of their rubber hoses. If it has damaged the hoses, you can guarantee that damage is elsewhere too. We have sold a good few meters of the ethanol proof fuel hose we stock, for either 3/8″ or 5/16″. Various fuel filters for the classics and newer cars have seen a bit of a surge in sales too. We are pleased that the article has made people think to go and check their pride and joy, not because we want to sell you stuff, but from a safety point of view. We have a tip for you; if you can squeeze the fuel lines flat with your fingers easily, check and be ready to change them.

Customer Cars

The ’67 fastback rear end has been the focus this week to get the panels properly welded into place, red lead treated and then another undercoat for premium protection.

Once the red oxide had dried it was time to mask up and add some seam sealer before the underseal.

Our special formula for the underseal is applied to give some proper protection from rust. Yes, they were just red oxide originally, but with the salt and wet weather in the UK, any additional protection is welcome.

It’s at this final stage where missing little bits can allow debris to collect and eventually cause issues. It pays to take your time and get it right.

WebShop

We have been stocking up on a new style starter motors and now have one or two in stock. We have everything from classic to moderns, auto and manual, high torque to standard, top brands to Enos.

The same can be said for the latest batch of K&N filters for all Mustangs from the first to the latest.

We have also stocked up on a few more Holley EFI kits, just a few variations to choose from. As word gets out just how good these kits are, we are starting to sell these more regularly. Performance, efficiency and reliability, what more could you ask for?

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Customers' Cars, Holley, Parts, projects, Restoration, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Few Words Of Warning

Posted on July 16, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

This week we are going to show you just what E10 ethanol does to your pride and joy. Modern day cars are using E10 compatible fuel hoses, which is fine. But, what happens to the inside of the bits you don’t see that aren’t E10 proof? Just over a couple of years ago when E10 fuel was forced on us we posted about the horrors of this E10 ‘fuel’. We posted a few facts as follows:

  1. Ethanol is an alcohol substance, those properties will dry out the rubber components in a fuel system. This leads to cracking and brittle fuel lines, floats, seals and diaphragms, caps off’s etc.
  2. Ethanol is corrosive when in comes into contact with certain materials within the fuel delivery systems and its related storage. This will be things like the flexible joining parts, rubber compounds and also the more worrying aspects of the zinc and aluminium alloys used in carburettors. Yep, your nice new shiny carb will slowly disintegrate inside out.
  3. Ethanol is ‘hydrophilic’. In other words it loves water. Because of the water absorbency properties, the water content enters fuel containers when they are filled up, that’s your fuel tank, jerry cans, plastic petrol cans etc. Once water is in the fuel it forms a chemical mix that causes corrosion of internal parts. As the fuel level in your fuel tank or container drops, water condenses on the cool surfaces of the container, droplets form and run down into the fuel where the ethanol absorbs it.
  4. Ethanol is also a solvent in older or classic car engines. Not such a bad thing you say? Well, the ethanol begins dissolving the varnish and other deposits in your tank and fuel lines. These deposits are then carried to the carburettor or injection system where they can clog the small or tiny orifices involved. The results of which could cause all sorts or problems, over fuelling, fuel starvation, stuck floats, blocked jets, engine stumbling, idle issues, pick up issues and so on.

With all that said (again), we had a car into brought into us to be taken for an MOT after it has been stored for some time. It wasn’t running very well at all, maybe 5 out of the 8 cylinders is what it sounded like. We did as we were told and booked the car in for an MOT. Now, all credit due to the owner, the car doesn’t need an MOT, as it’s exempt due to the age. However most responsible owners want to know they are driving a safe car.

The car was taken down the road to the test centre where all of a sudden a pungent smell of fuel suddenly filled the cabin of the car. Adam pulled over as soon as he could and got out to have a look. Looking down the road there was a trail of fuel following him with a puddle getting bigger by the second under the back of the car. Adam looked and could see that there was a stream of fuel pouring out the tank. Instinct was to plug the hole with his finger, and luckily Adam had his phone in a pocket and managed to call the yard for somebody to bring out a box of rubber bungs while he was laying in some fuel. The car was in a layby just a few miles down the road from the workshops and within minutes help had arrived. The hole was plugged and the car was quickly taken back to the yard with the rescuing car following behind to keep an eye on things.

The car was put straight up onto the ramps for a good look. To make the car safe the car was drained of fuel and stored safely, for now. The smell of it will mean that we will have to dispose of it properly. There wasn’t to much left of the fuel as a fair amount of it was down a dual carriage way, and also down Adams arm. If somebody had thrown a lit cigarette butt out their car, there could have been fire, with some serious injury – that isn’t worth thinking about. The sender fitting was removed from the tank where the guys could see that the electrical connection from the sender in the tank had rotted away and just fell out.

The fuel line rubber pipe was removed and Adam cut it open to see what was going on, believing it to be the ethanol causing the problems. He wasn’t wrong, the pipe was in a bad way too.

The pipe looks like something out of a H. R. Giger Alien horror movie. The ethanol had eaten through the pipe’s inner wall and was almost through the outside wall. With a sudden loss of fuel from the pipe splitting, the car would have stalled and ground to a halt, all with fuel pouring out. Another fireball accident waiting to happen if there was a bad enough rear end collision. The inside of the fuel tank was a mess and will need a new one, as does the sender. You only need to see the damage the ‘fuel’ has caused on this car. You can see the yellow coiled wire going to where fitting should have been.

The carb was taken apart to inspect what was going on, the still image below was taken from the video at the time where float chambers needed to be picked off before cleaning.

The carb needed a full clean out and a full seal kit to rebuilt it. We’re still not sure how the carb’s seals hadn’t leaked to be honest. As the inside of the fuel tank was like this too, we just can’t get in there to clean it.

So what are we saying? If you haven’t already digested the points above then this fact may shock you. Petrol has a shelf-life of six months if stored in a sealed container at 20 degrees – or just three months if kept at 30 degrees. The more it’s exposed to heat, the more quickly it will go off. It has also been noted on many motoring organisation websites, that E10 fuel has a shelf life of up to three months. So if you store your car over the winter like we all do, then the car’s fuel system is under attack from standing ethanol.

You can add fuel stabilisers to help of course, but we have found that even after a short period of time the fuel goes bad and the cars tend to run like a bag of ol’ nails. We’re not exactly sure how long this car had been stored before it came to us, but it was bad. We think that a some fresher fuel was put into the tank in order to bring it to us. All the fuel lines will have to be replaced, all the rubber hoses will need be E10 proof and fuel filters need to be replaced.

We are not trying to sell you anything (although we do sell E10 fuel pipes), or create panic with a horror story. What we have shown here is a very real problem with the E10 rubbish fuel forced on us. If you haven’t replaced the hoses on your classic car and you use E10, or if your pride and joy has been stored for a while, we seriously recommend that you go and carefully check the the full fuel system before you drive. The best way to store your car for any considerable time? Empty the fuel tank.

This particular fix is going to be an expensive hobby for the owner, fuel lines, seal kits, fuel filters, sender, and fuel tank along with our time and effort to clean everything and put it back together again. Use E10 stabilisers as a minimum, or even better just use premium fuel without much ethanol in it.

Please check your fuel lines!

Posted in Articles, Mustang Maniac, Restoration | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

How Cool Two

Posted on July 9, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

With the hot weather generally staying with us in the UK the we had a loyal customer brought his pride and joy back into us with a requirement for a little extra cooling which we will get to shortly. We are starting to upload some videos to the WebShop to show the parts working like the our LED indicator lamps which can be found here. We are expecting more of these to be uploaded shortly. Thanks to one of our regular customers who asked for a video if we had one, so we thought – lets add them to the WebShop so everybody can see.

Customer Cars

We recently custom built a performance engine for a customer who has brought it back to us for its first full service with an additional request for some ‘extra cooling’. There area number of things that can be done, the first being the radiator. The more rows the radiator has the better the cooling as more air is drawn over the pipes. We removed the old radiator along with the shroud and battery tray as the new radiator wouldn’t fit with the standard battery tray.

The radiator was straight forward along with the new shroud.

There are few other things that can be done to help with the cooling, like better fan blades, bigger fan blades, spacing of the fan to the radiator, water pumps, coolant type etc. depending on what your engine needs and budget of course.

Did You know?

Every now and again when we sell a new radiator fan get asked, “Why are the fan fins set a disproportionate distances?” The answer is quite simple – noise. The uneven spacing changes the harmonics and makes it more pleasing to the ear. The uneven spacing of the blades doesn’t make any difference to the efficiency of the air flow if you’re wondering.

’68 Coupe Braking issues

A customer had asked us to sort out the braking issues on their car after a new master cylinder had been fitted by another garage. Nothing wrong with that of course, as long as they know what they are doing. It became obvious that this garage didn’t and this setup could have been quite dangerous in a real emergency.

The brake lines were fitted the wrong way round. The picture on the left below is how it was plumbed in by the other garage, on the right is the correct fitting along with some of Yogi’s signature plumbing. The new lines not only look better as they fill the void, but they are higher quality lines with new fittings.

If you’re unsure – DON’T mess with brakes. That’s all we can say on this one. check that the garage you are taking your pride and joy to actually know what they are doing. Needless to say that the car now stops how it should do after a couple of little adjustments were made. Another happy customer. 🙂

’69 Stop & Go

Here we have Lance’s car into us for some more little tweaks, although he did say he wasn’t happy as he got caught in shower on the way to us and the car got wet. Although we think it was just an excuse for him to get the cleaning stuff out again!

The car already has an Holley Sniper kit fitted and he loves it. What we fitted now is a new throttle linkage to keep the throttle cable straight, just because he can. This should give a slightly smoother feel to the loud pedal.

With the throttle sorted, we also fitted a Radium fuel pulse dampener and a billet Holley ten micron fuel filter.

All well and good having the performance there, but it’s always advisable to match the power with the appropriate stopping power. With that in mind Lance went for EBC Redstuff performance brake pads.

His old pads were removed although they had little wear on them.

Now that the new pads have been fitted we have already been told by Lance, ‘after the pads bedded in, there was a noticeable difference to the stopping power for sure.’

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Holley, Repairs, YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How Cool?

Posted on July 2, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

As the hot weather continues in the UK we had a timely special order arrive and spent a couple of days fitting it. We have a sold a couple of these air con units in the past and had the car trailered back to us shortly after for us to complete the install for them.

Customer Cars

A ’65 fastback was due an upgrade for a bit of cool air inside the car. This is not the most straight forward of processes as there are lots of steps involved.

First up the radiator needs to be drained and an ideal time to check the quality of the coolant, if it’s even remotely dirty, or hasn’t been changed for a few years now is the time replace it.

The centre console has to be carefully removed as they can become brittle. Removing the inside of the glove box can make life easier when removing the heater matrix box. Dislodge the cowl rubber collar as they are more often than not stuck in place.

The heater pipes can either be cut or uncoupled from the engine block as they need to be pulled through the firewall as they are attached to the heater matrix inside the heater box. There are four studs and nuts that hold the blower motor motor for the heater box in place under the dash.

The aircon kit has just one or two bits to fit.

There is a knack to fitting these kits, so we won’t be giving all our secrets away. The unit will bolt into the same place as the original unit, but this time the heater matrix will come through the firewall.

We have our own reinforced compressor bracket which we use as it’s a bit more substantial. The unit can be a awkward t get in place and bolt into place on your own. Route the pipes round the back of the engine ready to be fitted to the pump unit.

Next up is the radiator and the plumbing. The good thing is that these old cars already have the space to be fitted and cut outs, so it’s just a case of bolt them into place.

Condensor and the rest of the pipework to go in place then the wiring to integrated into the wiring loom. If there is a standard two-belt crank pulley system that will need to be swapped for a three-belt system. The belts will need to aligned up so that they run true to the centre of the grooves.

Ducting under the dash for the airflow isn’t too bad making sure that you don’t kink or split the pipes. The coolant radiator can be refitted and plumbed back, mix the correct antifreeze and purge the system of air.

Finally fill the system with the refrigerant and test. The car was taken on a road test to make sure the compressor was working as it should and the belts seat correctly on the pulleys. On the odd occasion the radiator fan may need to be upgraded if the air being pulled through both radiators isn’t enough. So far it looks OK with the fresh coolant mixture. The final look of the kit doesn’t look wrong or out of place in the engine bay.

As these cars only tend to come out in the nice weather, having a working cold aircon unit makes for driving these cars that little bit more comfortable.

Stay Safe & Keep Cool!

Posted in Customers' Cars, Mustang, Resto Mods | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Trust Us

Posted on June 25, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

We’re back this week after a week off for the UK’s Father’s Day, although the work didn’t stop in the workshops. After we had posted about the phenolic carb spacers and the benefits of low heat transfer we have sold out, but more are on order and we should get some within the next delivery. We have had a couple of emails to say that the spacers have helped with hot starting since they have been fitted. We would say that if you are fitting a 1″ spacer, make sure there is clearance under the hood first.

Customer Cars

The ’67 has come along as planed and no problems that we haven’t seen before which are simple enough to fit. We have a few little tricks for panel fitting, we can’t possibly divulge on how we get these sheet metal panels together like a satisfying Lego kit. We take measurements twice and fit once.

The trunk drop offs on the rear chassis legs are tack welded into place then the inner and outer wheel arches fitted.

With the wheel arches welded into place, the rear quarters are test fitted and they fitted fine with only a minor tweaks to be made, which we expected from experience.

All sheet metal is the fully welded and spot welded where it should be, with Yogi doing his thing.

The rear quarters and rear light panel dry fitted and ready for the full welding.

Our Intellectual Property:

We’re are not sure if we have had one person sending us multiple emails from different accounts, or the emails are genuine asking for us to post our tracking settings for the classic Mustangs. Sure you can get them from various websites, but remember one thing. Those settings were for USA roads and the tyres of the day. We have taken considerable time and effort to get the tracking right for the UK roads and modern tyres. We are very sorry as we have mentioned in the past, it’s not something we are going to share as it’s our hard work, trial and error to get them right. Posting those tracking settings would be like Coca Cola posting their recipe! If you get the wheels aligned properly, it will make a big difference.

Trust Pilot:

Mustang Maniac can now be rated on Trust Pilot. There are a couple of five star reviews on there at the moment, but it shows an average of 3.7 stars. Even our most basic maths deems that to be wrong. There must be a reason for it somewhere. We try our best and if you think we do, show us some support.

Pets and hot weather:

Don’t leave your dogs in the car even for a few minutes. You know how hot it gets when you get in a car after it has been in the sun for a while. Imagine sitting in that car with a fur coat on and no air. The temperature of a hot car can reach as much as 40°C when outside temperatures hits just 21°C, posing significant risks to a dog’s health and wellbeing.

If you see a dog in a car that is in distress, try to locate the owner, if they can’t be found. You should call the police or an emergency hotline such as the RSPCA’s 24-hour cruelty line – 0300 1234 999 to report the situation. If the dog is looking critical try to open the door, but the dog could be in distress and lash out. As a last resort smash the window to save the dog. BUT, it is not legal to smash a window as it would be classed as criminal damage. Yes, you could argue the case in court, but you can’t take it for granted that it was the right thing to do.

Stay Safe & keep your pets Safe!

Posted in Blog, Customers' Cars, dogs, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Hot Stuff

Posted on June 11, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

The hot weather has finally landed at the Mustang Maniac yard which we are pleased about. Yet heat can have a negative affect on fuel in a carb system, which we will get to a little later.

The yard is getting another tidy up to make space and a little bit or reorganisation. Some of the sheet metal storage has been moved around again, not a quick job as you can’t afford to damage it, and the storage also needs to be a controlled environment to stop rust.

Customer Cars

The warm weather makes rust coating much easier as the windows are open, a fresh breeze for ventilation and drying. All makes things dry much faster.

The ’67 fastback is getting the red oxide coats to stop rust appearing from the inside out.

We’re almost at the point for fresh metal to be welded and brazed in place. Then the slow process of paint prep.

Wheel Maitenance

When you have your rear brakes changed or adjusted make sure there is grease where it should be. These shoes are designed to move on the rear plates, the heavy metal on metal could make an unwanted groove as the picture below would start to show. The correctly grease will also ensure that the brakes don’t seize. The last thing you want on any car.

Here the grease is applied where it should be, not on the shoes faces themselves!

Rough Running

We have a loyal customer bring their car into us for rough running issue and and a possible starter motor. We had a look at the carb and adjustments, that soon told us that the carb was worn and we couldn’t hold a stable setting. We removed the carb to find that the gasket needed replacing as well. We have also swapped out the smaller metal spacer for a phenolic heat resistant 1″ spacer. These spacers help to prevent heat from the hot engine being transferred to the carb which can cause fuel evaporation. These 1″ spacers help with a smoother air fuel mixture, which in turn helps with more power and mid range torque in the four barrel hole configuration.

With the new shiny Edelbrock carb chosen click here, it was fitted and tuned for the for the 1″ spacer, purchased here. The owner will notice a smoother power delivery while driving with this new improved setup.

The car now sits at a nice stable idle, when we took her out for a quick road test, there is a much more positive feel to the power band. This wasn’t a cheap fix, but a gradual loss of performance is difficult to detect as you become accustomed to it.

Remember:

If you’re out in the hot sun don’t forget the sun screen, and keep an eye on the pets for any dehydration symptoms.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Repairs, Service, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Future Of A Car Show

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

Last week there was no blog as we were at the Enfield Pageant of Motoring our local show. In the couple of days we were there was some confusion around who was delegated to taking the photos of the show. This only came to light when we were preparing this post and asked for the pics – as a result we have none of this show, which is a bit of a balls up to say the least. We are putting it down to the fact that we had a great time in the nice weather, no rain for a change and we had lots of people to talking with us. We had some customers showing their cars with us, our cars and some new visitors that came to see us. We even had a couple of people trying to buy cars of us at the show. So a big thanks to everybody who stopped by and said hello.

It looks like that the Enfield Pageant in that location could be the last one after 44 years. Thanks to the London mayor Sadiq Khan, Sad D!ck Can’t has decided he wants to expand the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) as far out to Enfield and more. So the revenue that the massively popular show brings in to the community will be lost from that location. Who will want to pay £12.50 just to drive to the show, then pay another £5 to enter with their car? Even worse if you turn up with four adults in a car for a day out, that’s £10 each + the £12.50 which will probably be more next year anyway. All of a sudden it becomes an expensive day out. The ULEZ is being expanded to cover pretty much all inside the M25.

The initial reason for the ULEZ is that the air pollution is bad from vehicles. We suspect that more people are dying everyday due to knife crime, drugs, gang killings or grooming gangs than there are people dying from car emissions. Perhaps Sad D!ck should concentrate on sorting out his out of hand crime wave, and leave the cash cow motorist alone. We would be interested to see what you guys think about the ULEZ and it’s proposed expansion is effectively killing of car shows. Would you go if you had to pay the extra charges? It goes up all the time, where does the money actually go? We are seriously thinking will it be worth it going forward. Perhaps we should get a big car transporter, wedge as many cars on there as we can and pay once.

Park & Pic

‘The Onion’ was back with us Saturday morning, just to pop in and say hello and have a cup of tea with us. She’s still looking and sounding as good as ever. We asked the owner about his FiTech as he has had it for a fair while now. He said “All the thousands of miles I have done so far, it hasn’t missed a beat. One of the best upgrades I have put on it.” Our thoughts on these kits is exactly same, they are getting better as the software matures and they self learns over time.

Customer Cars

The ’67 is having the back end stripped away and looks like we have found some good metal. The car has been in the UK since it was new, so it has been exposed to some rather harsh elements over the years in the UK.

The rear chassis rails are good, but the drop off metal wasn’t. We will treat all the surfaces with red oxide as we usually do to prevent rust worm going forward.

So now we have a good idea of the starting point, we just need to tidy up before we start to put the metal back together again.

The irony of this picture?

We have literally swept many cars up this way, and this certainly won’t be the last. Some of the metal was in a pretty bad way.

Adam took a quick video clip of the thin tin, noting that ‘That’s gone a bit thin then, looks like we might need a new panel!’

With a lot of new sheet metal being required we delved into our own little stock pile.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Car Shows, Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Park & Pic, Parts, sheet metal, Video | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Check Up

Posted on May 21, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have had a car in for a a repair and sold parts for a similar problem. We’re talking rubber fuel lines that perish with the nasty E10 fuels forced on us. Here are a couple of facts about the storage life of the ethanol added petrol. When E10 is stored under shelter in a sealed container it will last one year. Once a seal is broken the fuel has a storage life of six months at 20°C or three months at 30°C. Here is the worrying part; the storage life of petrol in equipment fuel tanks or your car – is one month! When your car has been standing over the winter, the Ethanol content of the fuel will start to break down the rubber and seals that are in contact with the fuel, especially on older rubber.

We strongly recommend you check all rubber fuel hoses for damage before driving after a long period of hard standing. Once the system has fuel being pumped around you could develop a leak, depending on where the leak is, you could end up with a fire in your pride and joy’s engine bay. Or you could end up with a a rather large puddle of standing fuel which has all sorts of consequences of its own.

We suggest that if your fuel lines are looking old, cracked or damaged in any way what so ever – replace them. We stock Ethanol proof fuel lines 3/8″ here or 5/16″ here. Once the hoses have been changed to the ethanol proof style rubber, the E10 fuel should be fine in your car, apart from maybe a little timing if your car is sensitive to the ethanol.

Customer Cars

The ’67 Fastback that is having new rear quarters has been stripped back even more. We could end up taking the back completely off the car if we can’t find a solid starting point for the rebuild.

Obviously when we replace the quarters we put them back how they are supposed to be fitted, braised. We will bring you those pictures nearer the time.

The rear light panel has seen better days and the dreaded rust worm has had a field day at the joints. Nothing we haven’t seen before and she will be as good as new again. This type of work is time consuming and the attention to details, even those you can’t see makes the difference a few years down the line.

WebShop

We have started to get a few of our original Carbs refurbished ready for sale or fitting a little later on to our projects. This particular carb 4100 has been fully reconditioned for a customer and will run as good as new. The brief was to keep it’s patina so it didn’t look our o place going back into the rat style engine bay.

As they are a loyal supporting customer we obliged and got it done for them. The customer was happy as it arrived sooner than we expected back to our offices. The bonus was it arrived neatly packaged with one of our own ready for stock.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Customers' Cars, Original Reconditioned Parts, projects, Restoration, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments