Mustang Maniac

Almost Here…

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This is our last full week before Christmas and looking forward to a few days well earned rest. We have some more puppy pictures which are back by popular demand (thanks for the emails). We say goodbye to the Acapulco Coupe, Paul the Paints Mach1 gets a strip down and we finish with a poem from a close friend and loyal customer Gary.

Lime Mach1

The car has some issues that we knew about and wanted to investigate a little more. We started to cut the top part of the cowl away to get a good look at the rust problem that we could see daylight through. The top part of the cowl would need to be replaced as it had gone thin and peppered with holes.

The removed top part showed our worst expectations. The lower cowl had gone rotten beyond economical repair. The top and bottom parts of the cowl have been ordered and coming in shortly. Although the parts are on their way, they are not cheap unfortunately. The simple reason is these cars are not quite at the restoration stage of the 64 – 69 models. The parts are being made now and should get cheaper over the coming years. We had to drill out the old weld points from the rest of the bodywork as normal for this type of job. The left side of the cowl didn’t look much better but could have been repaired if we wanted to.

left side

Just for now we have stopped work on her untill all the parts in place. The other parts of the engine bay have a few issues and on investigation she has had a minor shunt. The top part of the frame is kinked a little and the an inner panel rippled along with a little rusty bit. Nothing that can’t be sorted we have seen much, much worse and this will be a great looker once she is done.

Acapulco Coupe

The car has been passed as road worthy via the UK’s mandatory MOT certificate. It’s always a big day when that bit of paper proves your work is at a high enough standard to be on the road. Mart was down with us for the day so he could ride home with her. Adam managed to get the trusty covered LAR Traffic Services lorry so that she could be taken back to her home. After four years of work and few of those years temporarily at our yard she arrived home with Adam at the wheel as he drove her into Mart’s garage for the first time. It was a nice moment to see a grown man with a particularly huge silly grin. Merry Christmas Mart.

The KR

Adam’s KR was not to be left out, the back of the car was always neat and tidy, but Adam wanted it stepped up a notch. So carpets and boards were fitted to the trunk and she now looks totally different. A little more mellow if you can use that word with this beast of a car.

’67 Fastback

This car was in for some work on the engine. The engine has had some modifications which resulted in there being no oil dipstick. So we had to unpick a little of that work and replace water pumps, belts and add that critical oil dipstick back in place. The owner was pleased with out work and being as it was that time of year decided that he would treat himself to a few more little Christmas prezzies while he was at it. First up was the hood catches which always makes the car look very different. The part number for these catches is S1MS-16892 and can be found on our WebShop click here. Next up was the front spoiler with a part number of C7zz-63001 which again can be found at our WebShop click here. Both are the top quality Scott Drake parts we stock. The difference is an instant hit with this owner. Merry Christmas to you too.

The Puppies

Back by popular demand should we say, we have more of the puppies. It was a very sad time a couple of weeks ago that we had to say a final farewell to Paddy the father of these beautiful pups. He was suddenly taken ill and the incredibly difficult decision to let him go was taken. But, his pups and memory lives on, and as so one of the boys will be called PJ (Paddy Junior). The other pups we will be keeping are called Daisy and Enos.

Ellie the mum with pups

Meet Daisy

We thought we would let you know that we have had a couple of requests for some “Yogi Fan Club” pics to be put on the blog, shall we or not? It would mean that we may have to wake him from hibernation in his cave for the pics!

Yogi Fact:

Did you know that Yogi can smell Jaffa Cakes from about fifty feet away, that just happens to be about the same distance of his ~~workshop~~, sorry, cave to the Boy’s Club!

To finish:

To round of this post just before Christmas, what better way than a brilliant little Christmas Mustang Maniac poem. This was written for us by our very loyal customer and great friend Gary W. We have never had a little ditty composed for us before, so this is a first on our little ol’ blog. Thank you very much Gary, and Merry Christmas to you too. We couldn’t have put it better ourselves; well we didn’t, but you know what we mean.

It’s now time for Christmas and the happiness this time brings
For the lucky Mustang owner, some new chrome, trim and things
Finally at Mustang Maniac comes peace and quiet and calm
Though plans of all the next projects still add to the charm

For Adam and all of the gang and all the dogs as well
It’s ‘put your feet up’ time now with a cheeky drink or two as well
As during this busy year they have brought lots tears of joy
To lots and lots of customers who have an old Mustang as a toy

They fix them up, they paint them and make them all look smart
They stock all the big bits, the oily bits and all the small parts
The love and care and they worry, keeping Mustangs in their prime
And keep their many loyal customers very happy all of the time

So given the extremely busy 2015 that they’ve all had
To put their feet up for a few days really won’t make them too sad
But Adam and all of the gang will be back soon all fit and well
So “Happy Christmas” Mustang Maniac followers have a great “Noel”!

Copyright – Gary W.

Posted in Blog, Customers' Cars, News, Our Cars, Webshop | Tagged Acapulco coupe, Christmas, fastback, KR GT500, Mach1, MOT, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, rust, Scott Drake | 7 Comments

The Spirit of Christmas

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This week we thought we better make an effort to get some Christmas decorations up. No sooner had we finished putting up the single piece of tinsel, (part of Adam’s Enos range,) that we had to put the tree up as well. Throughout the week we have had customers bringing us in gifts. There seems to be a theme here of spirits and (Jaffa) cakes. Those of you that spotted the tree lights will notice that Adam has really pushed the boat out on this one. These are LED stick on strip lights that they use on some of the LAR trucks for safety. Yes he has been sitting there with the remote driving people nuts with the various colour schemes and flashing sequencies. You gotta hand it to him – it works well and they don’t get hot.

Thanks to all of you that have brought us in all the goodies, we appreciate it.

Cars:

We have shown over a few posts the 1964 1/2 coupe that was involved in an accident. We have sorted the panel work out and the bodywork to a point where it can be sent of to Paul “The Paint” to work his magic. We have a large selection here to show you the process. The car arrived and the blocking work started to even out the small imperfections on the car’s metal work.

The paint prep work undertaken on the panels.

The final fitting up of the panels and masking up.

Then the undercoat and top coats are applied.

The engine bay was also sprayed the classic satin black.

Then the prep to put the car back to together again. (one of our favourite pictures of the bunch here).

A few days later arrival at our workshops where we can start to put her back together again.

Now in her temporary home while she awaits some TLC. (Tender Loving Care).

Ford Facts:

We have had some very interesting feedback from the “Ford stories” that we have been running on and of for a while and we intend to make a little “Ford Fact” article soon about it all. but for now here is a little more.

“Money Talks”

By 1912, Ford Motor Company was producing small, cheap cars that sold in their thousands. Henry Ford wanted to develop the UK market and arranged a trip to England with Clara to meet with the Perry family – a wealthy family with motor interests (the Perry Group still owns Ford dealerships to this day). On arrival by steamship, the Fords were met by the Perrys in a new Rolls Royce and were shown key sites in England. They arranged locations for new manufacturing plants (Manchester, Cork etc) and sites for a showroom in London. Once business was concluded, the Perrys arranged for the Fords to meet the Royal family and a number of the gentry around the UK. During a short stay at Warwick Castle as guests of the Earl of Warwick, Clara was impressed with a large and ancient Chinese punch bowl on a table in the great hall of Warwick Castle. Commenting to Henry that if they saw another bowl like that while they were in the UK, she would like to buy it. “Why not have that exact bowl?” asked Henry. “Because not everything is for sale…and that has been in this family’s history for generations….it is a long time heirloom of the Warwick family!” responded Clara. Henry had his agent contact the Earl and ask if the bowl was for sale…..predictably, ‘no’ was the response. Henry had his agent continue to suggest a prices that might be acceptable. The Earl refused a significant number of times until the price Henry eventually offered (many thousands of pounds) saw the bowl sold to Henry Ford. Henry remained convinced all his life that everything had a price. That bowl remained one of Clara Ford’s most treasured possessions. It seems that in some cases money does talk!

Last, but not least:

To finish we have had some diaries made up for us. These have our logo on the front and the handy note jotter on the inside with some nice weekly planning pages. Spend over £50 with us in the WebShop and we will add one to your order free of charge. They are going very quickly, real quick – like thirty over the weekend alone, stocks will run out very soon.

The WebShop will be open as much as we can over Christmas, we have been seriously busy so far and can’t always get to the phones. remember, you don’t need to call us to order your parts now.

Posted in Articles, Parts, Repairs, Webshop | Tagged Christmas, diary, Ford, Ford Facts, Henry Ford, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, paint, spirits, WebShop | 2 Comments

Yogi Goes Mach1

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

The last post from last week we had lots of great feedback regarding the new puppies. This week we are back to cars and no more puppies! I think there will be a trouble if we don’t post more cute pics somehow, so there will be some at the bottom of the post.

Anyway, we have been working on the latest car to the team, this time it’s our very own Paul “The Paint” who has treated himself to a new car. A rather nice ’72 Mach1. Paul has been driving it around for a few weeks and is well pleased with the daily driver as it feels very good on brakes, steering and drive. As ever there are a few niggles that will be sorted out a bit later on.

There was a couple of bits of rust that needed looking at such as the floor pans and wheel arches. Yogi and Paul had a conversation about looking at it properly to see what exactly is going on with the chassis and shell.

While Paul was away from the workshop (or cave that Yogi now prowls) for a day or so,

… Yogi does this all this at the speed of sound. We think somebody has been feeding him blue Smarties or something similar with hyper “e- numbers” in it! We would like to point out that he does respond better to Jaffa Cakes, so bear that in mind if you insist on feeding him. (See what we done there? Sorry.)

Seriously though, it all needed to be done, as we suspected there was some hidden spots that will need some treatment. Unfortunately these things can usually only be found when getting to this level of restoration, which means the car will get worse before it gets better. The top part of the fire wall (arrowed) had a big hole in it, and the support plates need replacing that gives the front part of the car its rigidity.

Paul’s reaction was a picture when he saw parts of his previous daily runner now being swept up at the end of the day! But, we did have some good news for Paul. Yogi has started on the floor pans and already welded some of them in place along with part of the rear quarter work. We will be using as much as possible of the original metal work where we can. It does look like the rear light panel will have to come off as well. We know the windscreen is broken, but it was going to need replacing anyway. As we see all to often, it’s what happens when the glass gets brittle with age.

We have spotted something that was a little odd, the prop shaft.

There is a new page added now under the heading “Our Cars” where “Lime ’72 Mach1” can be found, or click here. We will be updating this page on a regular basis, pretty much like Mart’s “Acapulco ’66 Coupe Full Restoration” page under “Customers Cars” or click here to go to that page, as this is a large page give it time to load!

The Puppies:

As promised we have had lots of emails and comments about the new Ellie litter of pups. Lily has taken a shine to the pups in a big way and looks like she wants one! Mother and pups are doing well and starting to show some of their colours now.

Herbie’s:

We would to thank everybody who turned up to Herbie’s for our Christmas meal. It was a great day and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves.

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Our Cars, Photos | Tagged daily driver, floor pans, Mach1, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Paul the paint, rust, Yogi | 2 Comments

New Arrivals

Posted on November 29, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This week has been very busy as usual, but this time it’s not just the cars we have been servicing and looking after. If we can take you back a few weeks to when Adam was posting some pics of SEMA 2015. Adam mentioned that he may have bought something, however he promised it wasn’t a car. This week we had a container arrive from the USA sort of car sized. We all thought that it was going to be car shuffle time again to find a home for it. More inspection revealed that we could see the back end of a car with a licence plate! Car, he’s bought another car. As we unloaded the shipment he kept laughing and insisting that he hadn’t bought a car, but we could see the back of a car. We thought he was going nuts at this point. Although we hate to admit it, he was right – he hadn’t bought a car at all – he had bought TWO halves of a car!!! When we unwrapped the crates properly we could see just why he had bought what he had.

We knew that Adam has always wanted a pair of these “sofas” and they are amazing, not to just look at but also to sit on. The wheel arches had been filled in with sheet metal work and these sofas are made using genuine Mustang parts. Here they are on their way to Mustang Maniac, Adam had kept these pics to himself for a while for some reason.

The process to make these sofas really is a work of art with expertise to match.

Apparently Adam did what Adam does best, he made a deal or two at the show to get them back to the UK. The back end has been put into the offices of LAR downstairs next to the fish tank. What with the Harley at the other end of the office it’s becoming a bit of a showroom!

Of course the front end is now located in the new revamped offices of Mustang Maniac upstairs. Both the sofas has the correct fittings for the headlights and indicators, the legs are tuned billet and the sofas are pretty amazing we must say. Adam wants to make the lights work front and back, as well as putting exhaust pipes in the back section. That’s his next little project apparently. 🙂

How much does Adam like these new acquisitions? Well, he took the show plates of Mart’s Acapulco coupe freshly back from the Car Show and screwed them straight onto the sofas.

What do people think of them? Well three of Adam’s five grandchildren have seen them and loved it. In fact everybody who has seen them so far like them.

We did say to Adam; “Go and get some more”. Adam’s response was these ones are not for sale (yet), but if the interest is there he could be “persuaded” to go back to the USA and get some more made and shipped over to the UK. If you want one – speak to Adam, but be advised that these ain’t cheap, in fact you can get a pretty good working second-hand car for what these cost!

The office itself has had a major uplift and it all seemed to coincide with the delivery of the new “furniture”. There are new desk chairs, new desks and matching filing cabinets too. The cabinets are actually storing things that should be in the office, and not sorage for steering wheels, brake parts, bits of suspension or clutches! How long will it stay like that we are not sure, but the office does look pretty darn cool right now we must say.

desk and cabinets

Adam likes the new chairs as you can tell. There is a theme with the new furniture, I wonder if you can guess just what that theme is!

Other News:

Ellie has become a mum and had her puppies on Tuesday evening. The very proud German Shepherd mum produced ten pups in total, but sadly one died very early on while the other arrived. But, Ellie and the remaining nine are all healthy and being spoilt rotten as you can imagine. There is nothing quite like the smell of newly born puppies.

We do have some pics of the work we have been doing on the cars this week. But we thought we would leave it today on a cute photo set. Good choice? What will be main post pic be? The new sofa’s or the puppies? The decision will be made in about ten minutes just before this gets posted! Next week – Cars, and maybe more puppies.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged furniture, German Shepherd, grandchildren, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, puppies, Sema 2015 | 10 Comments

Birmingham NEC Classic Car Show 2015

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Last weekend we took two cars to the Birmingham NEC Classic Car Show 2015, the cars had to be there before mid day on Thursday 12th November to be registered in, then the stands and cars could be arranged within the stands which is part of the “Build Up”. First up we had Ken’s beautiful genuine ’66 GT fastback which is used as a daily driver. This was on the Classic American stand and was up for nomination in the “Classic American Car of the Year”. Featured many times in various magazines and a heat winner at previous events. The second car was the first outing in her completed state, the Acapulco Blue ’66 Coupe, which was going to be on show at the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain. It was a very early start and the sun hadn’t even bothered to get out of bed! We loaded Ken’s GT on first and then Mart’s. We would like to thank “LAR Traffic Services” who’s two tiered transporter was used to get these treasured cars to the NEC show and back safely.

Closer to the NEC the inevitable traffic jams started, but at least the other drivers got to take photo’s of the car before they even got to the show halls.

The cars were driven to their stands, the GT went to the Classic American stand where she received a great clean up so a special thanks to everybody on that stand who helped out and made her look top of her game.

Mart’s Acapulco ’66 Coupe on the MOCGB stand awaiting her final position with the other cars.

The MOCGB stand being set up and the final car positions. A big thanks to Chris York who does a great job each year to show the Mustangs of to their adoring public:

The best time to get some pictures was before the public got to see the cars as the busy crowds makes it difficult to take some pictures. If you see the high visibility jackets in the pictures that’s the reason why.

So where do we start? There are literally thousands of cars there at the show, so we tried to take unusual photos of the many cars there rather than fill the pages up with the normal photos, but some you just have to take.

A stand with millions of pounds worth of Ferrari’s lined up, many you don’t get to see, let alone all lined up next to each other. 308, F40, F50, Enzo and the new LaFerrari.

Dino

The ever beautiful E-Types & Aston’s

Then the big boys that certainly need no introduction:

Plenty of replicas and cars up for sale:

Plenty of Racing cars from various categories on show and a few famous racers too like Graham Hill’s BRM:

How about some super famous cars; Liberace’s Gold Golfers Coupe and the John Lennon’s Painted Rolls Royce, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”

The Thunderbirds movie car from 2004, not the original FAB1 Rolls – but an incarnation of it, it just doesn’t seem right without the big Rolls Grill does it? But it was based on a modified Ford Thunderbird.

Some restorations projects on the go here

The lull before the storm in just one of the arenas.

Each day the exhibitors are allowed in what time they want early in the morning. A different coloured wrist band for each day of the show is allocated to allow pass in and out of the building. The exhibitors usually find tea or coffee and get out the cleaning materials. Yes, even though the cars were cleaned a few hours ago they were cleaned again. Dust can get on the chrome and make it look tatty believe it or not. Stock is taken out of boxes and laid on the tables with final adjustments to make it look attractive. Announcements are given over the tannoy for the count downs; half hour, fifteen minutes, ten minutes, five minutes upon which the video loops are turned on and music tracks are turned up. With the final announcement “The show is now open” people scramble to take their places finish their drinks and breakfast, trying to make it all look effortless. The first few members of the public filter through, the exhibitors get ready to greet the public hoping that their voices will last the day. If their voices do hold up you can guarantee that the feet may not. What do they exhibitors get out of it if they are not being judged? Nothing, just the thrill of somebody looking and admiring your hard work, that’s it.

The public was let in from Friday onwards and the cars we took to show were very popular. Of course the GT had her crowds all day, and most of the time was difficult to grab a clear photo from each of the cars. But, on Saturday the MOCGB had a special guest Edd China from the car restoration TV show “Wheeler Dealers”. We managed to grab a few shots of him sitting in our contribution to the club stand, Mart’s Coupe. This pulled in large crowds to see a Celeb’s photo being taken with all the members on the club stand in matching blue polo shirts.

On Sunday we had another visitor to the Acapulco Coupe – Tim Shaw from “Car SOS” tv show. Again this pulled in a large crowd waiting to see another Celeb in the car.

Chris managed to grab a conversation with Tim at the MOCGB stand. The last photo here was a great guy who was exhibiting his car, but was also a dead lookalike for Roy Chubby Brown the comedian. He made us laugh by telling us to “clean the f…. car not just look at it” 😀

The three days was a long three days it has to be said standing on your feet. The public were great except for a just one woman who didn’t look like she wanted to be there with her husband. Her long face matched her coat that was thrown over her bag, which was in turn thrown over her shoulder, this allowed the metal zip to go clattering against the cars. All the hours of hard work and devotion can ruined by a few seconds of a selfish attitude. All of the cars in the show regardless of make has taken many hours and years of work and dedication, not to mention the many thousands of £££ or $$$ to complete in pretty much all cases, especially when the cars are at this level. Selfish? Yes, because when she was asked to be carefull – there was no apology, just a shrug and huff and walked off.

She may only see this:

All classic car owners will certainly see this:

Anyway the public were asking some great questions and took genuine interest in the cars spending lots of time with the guys and girls on the stands. It has to be said that some showed a little more interest than others.

Acapulco Coupe’s first days out with her brand new show board:

At the end of the three days the cars were loaded onto the LAR truck again for a trip back to the yard for a safe storage. We just love this photo:

Back at the yard an eerie silence was broken by the bark of the dogs and two Mustangs firing up going back to the covered workshops for a rest.

We hope that gives you a little idea of what goes on behind the scenes of a car show. That’s apart from the endless cleaning and removing finger prints from paint work and glass.

Other News:

We have found some more photo’s while bringing this collection together of when we were in SEMA a few weeks ago. We will have to do a post with more of those pics for you soon.

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Photos, Travel | Tagged '66 fastback GT, Acapulco coupe, Birmingham NEC, Classic Car Show, Ferrari, John Lennon, LAR Traffic Services, Liberache, Mustang, Mustang Maniac | 6 Comments

SEMA 2015 (Day 4)

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We said we were going to post yesterday the last day of SEMA 2015, but we didn’t get a chance because we spent the night in Las Vegas enjoying the best of the hospitality. So we think we had an excuse as we wanted to sample the culture, as we do each year we are here. So here are the last days photo’s:

We have a Smart car at Mustang Maniac, but ours doesn’t look like this though. We think we might stick it in the suitcase and take it home with us.

We have seen some pretty cool exhaust modifications in our time, but none quite like this:

You want Hemi heads on a Ford block – you got it !

Yeah we have had an email to ask if Adam was working there or not, he says he was?

He says he was networking – this means he tracked down John D’Agostino from D’Agostino Celebrity Kustoms.

This is where we found our potential favourite of the whole show – Elvis’ custom Cadillac. What an incredible car.

We often here the phrase “boys and their toys”, yep we found those too.

Then we found the proper toys. A genuine Shelby Daytona, unfortunately a pocket full of cash wouldn’t by the wheel nuts on this car.

Coming to the end of the last day at the show we moved outside.

Then to celebrate (with what ever reason we could think off) we hit the town. A great night out in a great city.

We done a little shopping today and found a sofa we want in the offices.

All we can say is what fantastic show yet again from SEMA 2015, we are sad to be coming home soon. But not without saying a big, big thank you to all the wonderful people who have taken time out with us over the short time we have been guests here. We love Las Vegas and we love the USA. See you again next year when we will do it all over again.

Posted in News, Photos, Travel | Tagged Cadillac, D'Agostino, Hemi, Las Vegas, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Sema 2015, Shelby Daytona | 2 Comments

SEMA 2015 (Day 3)

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We are starting to find out way around the huge halls now and just keep finding more and more stuff to look at. We decided to start outside again and found some more tuning companies that are doing some pretty amazing things with the 2015 Mustangs, such as the Rocket concept cars.

Adam managed to track down a couple of principles from the Galpin Auto Sports company.

Then there’s Roush – we like Roush, in fact we really, really like Roush!

The inevitable race spec cars:

That brings us nicely onto racing. Yesterday we were treated to some Mustangs destroying rubber. What could be better than that? Simple – two Mustangs destroying rubber, with some nice coordinated stunt driving here.

And not a single Police car in sight, OK there was then!

Moving back inside again after all the excitement and get rid of all the inhaled rubber particles we found more Ford Performance parts:

For something a little something different, how about a car made with nothing but a 3D printer!

We came across a company that was demonstrating their tools and how they worked. Obviously they needed a car and just happened to find a rental car to demonstrate on. We suspect the glass will go back in at some point.

Day four tomorrow of SEMA 2015 and we hope to have more pics for you. We love Vegas.

Posted in News, Photos, Travel | Tagged concept, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Roush, Sema 2015, tuning | Leave a comment

SEMA 2015 (Day 2)

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

After the first day yesterday a refreshing beer was called for, medicinal purposes of course to ease the aching feet. Perhaps we need a pair of these?

Day 2 we focussed on the outside of the event and we were treated to some pretty skilled car shows, and that unmistakable smell of burning rubber and sound of tyres screaming for mercy.

Keeping with the trend so far we have some pretty awesome Trucks on show.

Our favorite truck so far? so many to choose from but this has definitely made the short list! We are struggling to think of reason not to buy this for the new work van!

There were plenty of tuning companies with their engines and cars on show.

Now for the fine-looking cars.

Back inside the halls Chris was said to be “working”, but we wondered just how many pictures you can take on the same profile of a car!

Other pictures where we caught Chris “Working” again. We are trying to find a common factor in the pictures. We just can’t seem to put our finger on it though.

The legendary Grave Digger.

More tuning companies.

We particularly liked this little lady with the nice rear body panels.

The Saleen stand certainly didn’t disappoint either.

Who knows what we will find tomorrow, but we are sure looking forward to finding out.

Posted in News, Photos, Travel | Tagged Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Saleen, Sema 2015, Shelby F150, tuning | 4 Comments

SEMA 2015 (Day 1)

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

The wait was over at long last, the doors opened and crowds of people flooded in to the exhibition halls to fill what seemed for a brief moment, a unfillable huge empty space. We never cease to be amazed at how well this SEMA event is supported each year, and it just keeps getting bigger. Oh, it also gets busier as the day goes on as well!

We went with the flow and took pictures of what ever took our fancy. We had noticed that Scott Drake have released a new Four Lug – Fifteen by Six-inch wheel for the first time. These will fit the Falcons as well as the Mustangs, at last some nice wheels for the six cylinder cars or four lug axles.

We spotted a nice Pony Style seat with a modern twist we quite liked the look of.

As for the cars where do we start? How about some Trucks for a change.

Now back to the Mustangs:

A real nice twist to the ’69 Fastbacks – not an Eleanor this time, but this well done body mod. We think it had tires on was that just the wrapping for the trim?

We came across a pretty special Shelby here today:

And one of the cars we especially wanted to see – the new Ford GT. We can honestly say that it looks as good close up as it does in the pictures.

We hope to get some more pics up for you tomorrow Day 2.

Posted in News, Photos, Travel | Tagged Ford GT, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Scott Drake, Sema 2015 | Leave a comment

Shelby Heritage Center (part 2)

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Adam was wandering around the wonderful Shelby Heritage Center and speaking to people as he does, one of those guys he was speaking to was called Vince Laviolette. It turns out that Vince is the Senior Designer in the Research & Development department for Shelby American Inc. Adam mentioned that he had a few Shelbys and we were given unprecedented access to the behind the scenes workshops and cars that the public don’t get to see. Obviously photos were restricted, but what an incredible experience to be given the guided tour around the facility. We would like to thank everybody at Shelby Heritage Center for their extraordinary hospitality and making our visit something never to be forgotten. Thanks Guys.

There is the odd Cobra lurking about that is being made from the original tooling that will cost the best part of $250,000 if you want one. These new-old cars are old style bodywork with the engine and transmission to fit a budget. They will have airbags for safety and all sorts of modern-day comforts!