Mustang Maniac

We’re Off To Sema 2015

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

It’s that time of year again when Mustang Maniac visits USA to take in the Sema 2015 Show which will run from 29th October to November 6th. There will be a few of us going to the States, and as a result the Mustang Maniac offices will be closed from Wednesday 28th October until the Wednesday 11th November. But, the good news is that the WebShop will be open as normal. All orders will still be dispatched as normal and invoiced as normal so there will be no disruption to that side of the business. Please can you bare with us for a short while we temporarily scale down for a couple of weeks. Yogi will be around in the workshops, but will not be taking many calls as the work allocation has already been established in the meantime. The second part of the good news is that we will try to update our blog with some of the good stuff we see to keep you right up to date with the show. You never know we could bring back some new Mustang related stock too, we will have to wait and see in that one though.

Customer Cars:

Alpha red convertible is almost finished now. We will have a full road test, once over again and then she can go. The new custom-made roof has been fitted and looks pretty good up and also covered. Adam was sitting in the car checking things over and all was at it should be. The door cards were also custom-made with red sticking on leather to match the seats. This is one pretty lady that has grown on us since we have worked on her.

The interior looks pretty good and well-coordinated.

Outside speaks for itself.

We had a rare ’67 Coupe with the very nice original front bench seats in place, a factory option vinyl roof come into us for a little work. A very nice optioned factory car.

New product.

We often get asked for an immobiliser to fitted to cars which we do from time to time or an alarm system. But we have a new option which fits in between the two. This is a componant that fits to the battery and is remote key fob controlled. The press of a button will kill the complete electrical system dead. The deactivation will enable all the electrics to be live again. A great option and does not look to out-of-place either. We have a couple of these units and may consider these as a stock item as we are quite impressed with them. The other advantage is that a battery conditioner can still be used on the car without the electrics being live.

Faulty fuel gauge?

We had a car delivered to us after sitting around for 15 years. The fuel gauge was showing empty al the time, circuit testing shows the wires to the gauge were fine. That can only leave the sender itself. We removed the sender and found it had corroded severely. You can see the fuel line on the float and filter.

Remember, offices are closed for a couple of weeks while we are at Sema 2015. WebShop and workshops will be operating as normal as possible.

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Sales, Travel | Tagged convertible, Immobiliser, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Sema 2015, WebShop | Leave a comment

Stock Queries

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

A busy week at Mustang Maniac as ever with lots of things going on behind the scenes. We have been taking many orders now online which is good news for customers and for us. Why? Simply because the stock system updates the the dispatch department, so the order is sent straight out, no need to take phone notes check the stock and pass the the order on. The feedback has been very positive as a result we are glad to say, so thanks to those who have let us know. The majority of queries we are getting at the moment is regarding our NEW popular “Enos” range of products. We are updating the stock and listing the items on the WebShop as we go along. You can also do a search for Enos to see all the range so far and the current stock levels. The examples below show the range and if the product is in stock or not.

The range has proved very popular, the outside mirrors especially having already sold our complete stock. We may be getting some more, but, it’s not guaranteed. If you are after something specific keep checking on the WebShop for the Enos Range or send us an email.

Customer Cars

Acapulco Coupe has had a few questions asked about it here at the yard as well as by email, we try to help out where we can with the questions. The first question we had was the shiny carb now in place. The original 2v carb was replaced with a a Holley four barrell version. The car had sat around for well over a decade and the jets had gummed up along with the fuel pipes, the diaphragms perished and the choke was not working. We decided with the owner, that by the time the parts had been replaced and time spent on it would be cheaper for a nice new one. The other plus part is it’s super polished and looks amazing, it’s a shame to put a big airfilter on it. So the carb was replaced with another 600CFM model (cubic feet per minute). Much more than that on a 289cid could cause “cylinder wash”, or “bore wash” or “fuel wash”. This is a scenario where the cylinders are flooded with fuel which washes away the oil trend dry metal on metal wear takes place. Noisy start ups, fail to start etc. There are formulas to work out displacement vs CFM, planting a big heavy carb on top of your engine may give you bragging rights, but may not improve your engine performance.

We have the before and after pics here.

old 600cfm

New 600cfm

And the close ups.

The follow up to that is Holley or Edelbrock carbs? There is so much debate we couldn’t comment one way or the other. Different mechanics have different ideas, and what works on one car may not be as good on another. How’s that for sitting on the fence? 🙂

The second question was the steering wheel. Mart bought one of our Enos covers for the 15″ wood wheel to stop any damage or dirt getting on the wheel. A good idea for road tests and shunting around the yard. At £8.40 inc VAT, they are a good solid fit, don’t slide around the wheel and very good value for money. They are much heavier and better than some that cost a lot more. In fact the cover on shown here was put on before we even had a chance to get it on the WebShop.

The best part is the cover doesn’t look out of place either.

Posted in Sales, Webshop | Tagged carburettor, Edelbrock, Holley, Mustang, Mustang Maniac | Leave a comment

Tear In His Eye?

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

I would like to start this weeks post off with a big thank you to those of you who have left comments with your congratulations and emails for the new arrival. The new arrival has now been given his name, “Liam”. Apparently a Mustang ’64 – ’68 workshop manual is not good for bedtime stories.

Things here at Mustang Maniac are still as busy as ever and things have improved on the office front now for phone calls a little we are glad to say, but still not ideal. Again emails have picked up and we have responded to pretty much most of them, so another thank you for taking that route with us, it makes our work load a lot easier to deal with.

News

This week we are moving things around and we managed to talk Adam into parting with a Mustang that was getting in the way for the planned new storage area for yet more stock parts. No this wasn’t sold, no this wasn’t part exchanged, this car was going to be scrapped. Yep, you read that right, Adam is scrapping a 1967 Fastback. However he did walk around the car to decide what bits he would keep, engine, axle, prop shaft, wheels etc. To record the event there was a video filmed (which will go on YouTube soon) of the event, as well as some pictures. Those who were standing close to Adam at the time thought they saw a tear in his eye. When Adam was questioned about this rumour he said it was “something in his eye at the time”. He did crack a smile and say I have an idea – “This is now an ‘Enos’ car, I could put on the WebShop“. If you want this “Enos” car we suggest you give him a call quickly, we suspect there won’t be a lot of takers somehow. lol. John was on the fork lift and Mark and Adam were guiding the ~~wreck~~ sorry car to its temporary final resting place.

WebShop

We have sold some of our first “Enos” stock and the feedback is positive that there is an option for some of the stock range now. The WebShop stock applicable is now being labelled up as “Enos” range products, such as mirrors, suspension parts and radiators.

History Lesson part 2

A couple of posts ago we mentioned the Benson Ford cargo ship that was recycled into a home. The post was a popular read, so we have had some more info passed to us regarding Henry Ford and his relationship the water.

Unknown to many, Henry Ford 2 was a real fan of the UK and had a large house on the River Thames in the UK. He also had a motor launch commissioned that would be used to entertain both Ford business guests and his friends. The boat was called “Interceptor” and was powered by two 5 litre 6 cylinder diesel engines which were more typically used to power the Ford D Series truck, also known as the Dorset series engines.

Did you know?

Ford named all UK engines after UK counties – hence: Essex V6, Kent 4 cylinder and Dorset etc.

The “Interceptor” was specially built for Ford during the 60s and was skippered by a Ford employee who stayed with it throughout his career with Ford. The boat also had a cook and butler on board to complete the complement. There was a ‘main saloon’ that could seat 22 people and resembled a board room finished in Ford blue with teak and mahogany panelling. The boat also had a small galley and wheel house along with a rear deck to enjoy drinks on while enjoying the sights of London from the river.

During the ’70/’80s ‘cost cutting’ by the Company’s finance group repeatedly identified that the boat should be sold – but Henry refused several times to sign the disposal papers – unlike other (Ford) Company assets, only Henry could approve Interceptor’s disposal. It was finally sold in the late ’90s after Henry’s death and when it needed a complete and expensive refit.

What happened to Interceptor?

It was bought by a river cruise company, refurbished and is still available for hire on the Thames today. It’s still called the MV Interceptor.

Customer Cars

Mercury

We had a decision-making process who would be the lucky person to get the Mercury to fix up. The decision was made on an important aspect, who would remember the car when it was first built! John was the lucky winner from that very short, singular entry list. It was a fair and logical choice from the list, unfortunately John wasn’t around when the decision was made. 🙂

Seriously though, John got her on the ramp and started to fully evaluate the scale of issues and work involved to get her road worthy. John Started with the wheel areas and found the usual leaking rear cylinders.

But, more worryingly he found the front brake pipes just not really attached to anything, so when you press the pedal everything moves when it shouldn’t. John made a nice job of fabricating some custom-made brackets to hold the pipes in place. Not only do they look good, they are in keeping with the look of the car too. Here are the before and after pics.

dangerous before

safe after

The front disc brakes are from a Granada and retro fitted in the USA. We don’t use these conversions as the pistons overhang the discs and don’t give the ideal even braking pressure to the pads. The wheels also had the odd split pin missing as well.

The next up was the suspension sway bar. The bushings were completely perished and in a real bad way. These had to be removed and replaced.

old bushes in place

new in place & old bush

Chris was volunteered to be lifted to the top of the ramp height while John worked under t he car.

Note to self: There was a lot of volunteering going on this week – must do more of this volunteering of people!

He had the important task of selecting the gears in order to make sure the ignition inhibitor, or neutral disconnect switch to the automatic gearbox was working. This switch was missing from the car and should be fitted to these gearboxes. Often on Mustangs they are bypassed or even removed. John adjusting the switch as Chris moved the gears and turned the car over to make sure all was aligned correctly to make sure the car started only when it should.

Belgium convertible

Alan has rolled up his sleeves or should we say brushed his fur, and got going on the Belgium convertible and started the rebuild of the rear end. Yogi has prepped the rear quarters with some white primer and the inner drop panels of the trunk.

Once the primer had cured properly the base colour coat was applied. Why do we apply colour at this stage?

As the inner quarters go right down to the bottom and would almost be impossible to spray properly. The base colour coat is applied so when the top coats are applied the over spray will not show up and can all be blended in.

There has been more work on the rust war with the ’70 fastback. Again the rear section rust has been cut away to good metal and being readied to take the new panel parts. Sam has been busy with the red oxide again to protect those parts that you normally don’t get to see. He’ says he is in this picture somewhere!

That way these often neglected areas will be protected from the elements and should last ages and not need even looking at for good while yet. The rust has taken hold and is eating the rear chassis without remorse. But Yogi has seen it, formed a battle plan, read the riot act again and is starting this campaign of the war on rust.

Acapulco Coupe

The seats are here at last. Trevor the Trimmer had a delay in waiting for the correct density of foam to arrive so he could custom make the seat padding at the rear. As yet there is no direct replacement for the rear foam, as the material was damaged beyond repair Trevor had his work cut out, (forgive the pun). Anyway the results were brilliant as ever and the wait time for the custom made process was worth it. The centre hump really makes the look of this interior a little special.

When Mart showed up we assembled the parts together and fitted the trims. The holes were made for the seat backs via a locating point and punched out ready.

We fitted the rear and Adam was the first person to sit in the rear as he did most of the hard work and the responsibility of cutting the holes for the seats!

We let Mart get on and bolt the rails and fit the springs to the front seats. He bolted them in and fiddled around to fit the rear parcel shelf in place. The rear shelf was custom-made again to match the head liner from a new but damaged liner we had lying around. Mart, had the honours of sitting in the front seat first of course. We need to adjust them up a little yet, but the idea is there and the car now has working seats.

Posted in Articles, Customers' Cars, News, Webshop | Tagged Benson Ford, convertible, Enos, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, red oxide, rust | 4 Comments

New Arrivals

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This week as been very, very busy so we would like to start of with congratulations to Jayson & Pamela who have had a new arrival today weighing in at a health 9lb 9oz. As yet the new arrival has no name, but this is Adam’s second grandson. Rumor has it that Adam will be swapping out a spanners for some nappies soon!

The week has been seriously busy and we haven’t been able to get to the phone and as a result we have had a few emails saying “you don’t answer the phone”. We would like to apologise in that respect, but as Adam has been away from the offices collecting and delivering cars this week in the lorry, organising and dispatching the stock he can’t always answer the phone. But, a lot of the recent enquiries have been regarding stock information and compatibility, we try to avoid people having to ring us up for this type of query, so try and put all the part compatibility on the Webshop along with the current stock availability. We try to help out where we can, so if you have any other queries you can email adam@mustangmaniac.co.uk or use the contact sheet on this blog, complete the contact section(s) and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Stock:

We have taken a delivery this week of a the ’64 – ’68 windscreens with top tints, these shall update out stock levels on the WebShop as soon as we can. Those waiting for the screens – you will have them very shortly.

We have had our first batch of “Enos” stickers delivered to us (thanks to Lance). And we have started to label up the budget stock. Here we have our “Enos” radiator, not as good as normal top of the products, but it’s aimed at the careful Mustang restorer, or for the restoration trade who could well be selling on the car.

The WebShop will be getting its own “Enos” section soon for those looking for a bargain.

We have a couple of new arrivals in the office downstairs, one we have had for a while now, but we needed the space. So the Harley Davidson 100th Anniversary Limited edition is now in the office.

The other new edition is not a spectacular yet, it’s Jayson’s fish tank. He is currently prepping the tank ready, he couldn’t wait to put something it though.

To watch the fish you have to sit on something, so we have new office chairs as well.

Of course we have a picture of Adam trying out the new office furniture and working environment for comfort. He has his ever faithful guard dogs with him.

Oh that was after he raided the drinks fridge!

Customers Cars:

Another new delivery into the yard this week was this rather impressive 1956 Ford Mercury Montclair which has just landed into the UK. We have been asked to sort this little lady out and make her road legal. We will have to sort the brakes, suspension and the engine. This is not your standard Lincoln 368cci “Y” block engine, this has been swapped out with a rather familiar 302 small block. So we will totally at home with this one. We have been searching around a got a little information here about the car and its history we hope you enjoy.

The Mercury Montclair was produced by Mercury from 1955 to 1957, the M-E-L Division of Ford Motor Company 1958 to 1959 and by the Lincoln Mercury Division of the Ford Motor Company from 1964 to 1968. Its appearance followed the concept show car in 1954 called the Mercury XM-800.

The vehicle name was introduced in 1955 and applied to Mercury’s premium automobile line. Ford historians are at a loss as to where the name originated; the consensus is that it’s taken from the upper class community of Montclair, New Jersey. For 1955 and 1956, Montclairs featured Mercury’s best appointments, extra chrome trim, and different two-tone paint combinations to set them apart from other Mercury products. 1956 was the year that Ford introduced its Lifeguard safety program, and the Mercury Montclair came standard with a deep-dish steering wheel to help protect the driver from the steering column, safety door locks, a breakaway rear view mirror, and optional seat belts and padded dashboards. The dash was redesigned with a new three-tier instrument panel.

The Montclair model line also included the Sun Valley, which featured a Plexiglas “bubble” over the front half of the roof section. While futuristic cars were often featured with clear glass tops on the 1950s, consumers rejected the tinted glass roof Sun Valleys (only 1,500 were produced in 1955) because of the heat buildup in the interior of the vehicles. Following lower sales of the Sun Valley for 1956, the version was discontinued for 1957. In 1957 the Montclair name was pushed down market by the introduction of the Turnpike Cruiser. A new frame was used. Nevertheless it could now be ordered with the same 368 cu in (6.0 L) Lincoln Y-Block V8 that came standard on the Turnpike Cruiser. Fuel economy was not to bad 16.2MPG at 50 mph.

We just love this car and it’s a great place to be, the windscreen curves around you before the door is shut.

The interior has lost its original trim but has had a 70’s (we think) retrim. It’s not out of keeping and works.

Yogi has been finishing of the floors in the Rusty ’70 that is not looking so rusty now. The back end looks to be the next on the list for the big can of whoop-ass to be opened up on it.

Acapulco Coupe

We had started the car up to sort out the running problems and made some tweaks to the carb, unfortunately those tweaks were not quite enough to hold a steady idle when off choke. We did a quick strip down of the carb to have a look to what the problems were . We found it had a few issues inside with corrosion and the seals most showing signs of starting to have their own issues. The fact it didn’t look to great, the cost of the repair kit and the time to do it all we spoke to Mart and fitted a new one on it.

The car was taken to the Geo workshop where aligned the suspension and steering up.

Once the geo was done we decided to have a little fun with Mart this week, we hid his car in a storage workshop and not in the main workshop. He had treated himself to one of our car covers and we stuck one of our new “Enos” stickers on it for him. It was a real treat to his confused face walking into the workshop and his car was gone. He knew we had moved it for the geo obviously, but where? He eventually found it in our storage workshop, his comments when he spotted the “Enos” sticker on his cover we couldn’t possibly print here on a family blog! But, it was shared enjoyable moment and we do think we saw a tear from his laughing.

He opened the bonnet and was well pleased with what we had done, so we were forgiven in an instant and gave us the cookies he bought down with him.

Hopefully this week things will calm down a bit and things get back to normal. Somehow we doubt it though. 🙂

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Parts, Webshop | Tagged '66 Coupe, 303 small block, Acapulco coupe, Enos, Grandson, Mercury Montclair, Mustang, Mustang Maniac | 10 Comments

The Heat Is On

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We have spent many hours sitting in the office catching up on correspondence, stock orders, emails, stock sales etc, we seem to have one of those offices that has hot or cold extremes with not a lot of variation in between. So as a treat for our customers and nothing to do with our own comfort of course, we’ve had Air Conditioning fitted to the offices to replace the manual air conditioning we have had for the last few years – opening the window! These new units are cold air as well as heating and lots of options in between. So now the argument is just what degrees we want the offices to be. The units are so quiet and neat and you don’t even notice them. The units have only been in a few days and already the conversation is “How did we get by without them?” If you want to know the best place sit for the full benefit – move the dogs out of the way, if you feel lucky that is. 🙂

Our good friends at Scott Drake have seen what we have done to our cars using their new line in wheels, so they have decided to feature it on their posts as well:

Our Mustang Maniac Forum

We have had some requests for section on the forum to be dedicated to the sale of second hand parts. This has now been added as requested. Visit our forum to see what other Mustang Owners are selling or posting on the wants list.

https://mustangmaniac.co.uk/forum/

Customers Cars:

The week has seen a heavy repair to a great looking car that had a side impact from right to left. The big gun tools were pulled from storage and used to straighten this chassis out almost where we want it before the jig does the rest. A hydraulic ram is used to pull the back of the car round to point forwards instead of to one side.

You can see the gaps are opened on the right hand side and closed on the left

left side

right side

The tool we used is quite solid bit of kit:

The car is clamped up to the chassis and the brute force will pull the car back front back into position. With most of the work done we could start to think about aligning the panels back up and getting the gaps back to where they should be. Geo and suspension set up will take a little time to make sure the car is as good as new if not better.

As you can see from the new wing’s dry fitting the hood is now aligned up, the hinges back in place, the support braces now sorted out along with many other bits. So far so good, plenty of things to be done yet before we are close to being happy, but the project has got of to a great start.

We often get asked about our Falcon truck, “It’s just for show right?” in actual fact we use it quite a lot, 51 years later it’s still working and used almost on a daily basis. We have some pictures of a late pick up for some parts to be fitting on the cars younger siblings sitting in various workshops. Yes we do use it, a lot!

History Lesson on Recycling from Henry Ford:

The Benson Ford was originally a cargo ship for the Ford Motor Company. The interior was designed by Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison was a passenger. From the time it was built in 1924, the boat was used to transport coal and iron ore across the American Great Lakes.

After being decommissioned in 1981 it was left to rust for four years before the front part of the ship was removed and perched on top of the 18-foot cliff shown below to serve as a really lovely home. The ship’s forecastle was removed, and then that portion of the boat was positioned on a great piece of waterfront property, with its bow extending out over Lake Erie for a water-going effect, and then used by its owner as a vacation home.

The ship still contains the beautiful wood-paneled state rooms, dining room and lounge designed by Henry Ford.

The four-deck, 7,000 square foot getaway home is made out of the ship’s forecastle, and includes the walnut paneled state rooms, dining room, galley, and passenger lounge designed by Henry Ford for his own personal use while on board. The ship-house was originally owned by Frank J. Sullivan, but after trying and failing to turn it into a hotel in 1992, Sullivan eventually auctioned the building to father and son, Jerry and Bryan Kaspar, who still enjoy relaxing there while taking time off from work. It has now been modernized with a garage, a game room, a bar, a state-of-the-art kitchen, and four bathrooms. The 90-year-old US cargo ship is beautiful, as she sits there looking out over her former waterway.

Don’t look down – visitors may need a head for heights if they take a tour out onto the bow of the boat, and see the water way down below.

The four-story, 7,000 sq ft home has maintained the historic and beautiful interior, which has been updated with modern technologies.

Bryan Kaspar said, ‘Everyone who sees our home from the outside, is intrigued to look inside. Everyone who sees this beauty, is amazed at the gorgeous woodwork throughout our beautiful ship home.

This impressive getaway is large, as it includes five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a captain’s office and living room with panoramic views out across Lake Erie . The deck on the fourth floor is a great place to enjoy a cocktail overlooking the lake and the nearby cliffs, and to watch the sunsets is amazing from there. Videographer Nick James, who conducts tours of the home, said, ‘The most incredible part is standing at the helm with the way the boat hangs over the cliff. It actually feels like you are out on the open water.’ I love the history that remains all around the Benson Ford. In the parlor, you can just imagine Thomas Edison and Henry Ford sitting there puffing on their cigars.’ When you’re there, it feels as though you are stepping back in time, and that those two famed gentlemen could appear at any moment.’ An incredible beauty of a long-ago ship, still available for water lovers to see.

Posted in Articles, Customers' Cars, Forum, News, Repairs | Tagged accident repair, air con, Benson Ford, Henry Ford, Magnum 500, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Mustang Maniac Forum, Scott Drake, Thomas Edison | 8 Comments

Enos Is Coming

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

At Mustang Maniac we offer the best quality products at the best prices, we always have done and will continue to do so, and we even have them in stock. Yet again we are increasing our high quality stock range, and these ever-increasing parts storage containers have even started to creep into the offices now. I’m not sure how, but they have.

Note to self; Find more storage space, again!

What is Enos? Due to the odd enquiry along the lines of “do you have the <what ever> part any cheaper?” as they can’t get that same part from anywhere else. We have thought long and hard about this and decided to stock a more limited range of parts we are calling our “Enos Range“. These Enos parts are stocked and intended for the more careful Mustang owners, or for those on a more limited budget for their restoration project. These Enos parts are not quite up to our superior quality of our normal stock parts, but they will still do the job they are intended for of course. Some other suppliers may already be offering parts which will be similar to our new Enos Range, not the equivalent of our high-end range of products. The Enos parts range will be in stock and updated for availability on our WebShop which will change on a regular basis, so be sure to keep checking out the deals as we get them. It could well be that once that stock is gone, there could well be a delay before we replace that range again, if we ever do replenish that stock line again. If we are repairing or restoring your car, we will use the best parts we can, but if you want to use our Enos parts range and we have them in stock, we can use them to suit your budget.

So, for those customers who have asked us if we have anything cheaper and it’s actually in stock, then you will soon have a choice of stock quality and prices. This will be an initial trial run for us to see how things go. Mustang Maniac has again listened to your welcomed feedback and responded, we are willing to give it go for you.

Customers Cars:

The Belgium convertible is getting some Yogi time on the rear section. The rear inner arches were cut away to the good parts, and the rotten parts were replaced with new metal. This would also expose the rear trunk drop to see if they need any welding, which of course they did.

He offered the parts up and cut them back, which were then dry fitted with clamps to the frame then the rear quarters offered up.

Once he was happy he would tack into place, remove the quarter and weld the arches properly.

This means the quarters will be a perfect fit ready to be braised in place. Sam was there to apply a good application of Red Oxide to the inner parts that are not even seen from the outside. This is our commitment to the levels of quality in our work.

In fact Yogi is so pleased with his work he decided to put little note on the car as he knew the pic could well be on the blog. We are sure it was something he had been eating during the day to cause this “funny mood” he was in, perhaps it’s the mating season, who knows?

However, we would like to remind customers: Please do NOT to feed the Yogi in the workshops if you see him. We don’t wish to encourage this sort of behaviour! 🙂

Rusty Vs Yogi:

The ’70 fast back has been getting some new floor parts now after Yogi cut the floors out and the front chassis legs. Sam treated with the Red Oxide and Yogi got on the seam sealer. A fair bit of work over the week, slow painstaking work that has to be right first time.

’67 Fast Back rewire

Adam and Yogi were seen discussing a ’67 fast back that was going through an American Autowire wire harness replacement. They were discussing the modification to the wire loom to take a standard alternator and not a One Wire alternator. This would require a number additional wires to cater for it. The result will be great as original equipment will be used with a brand new loom with additional functionality built-in.

We recommend these kits and used quite a few now for our own projects, if the demand is there we may even start to stock these kits as an item, They don’t come cheap and definitely not an Enos part.

Acapulco Coupe.

This has been going very well and lots of interior parts have been fitted, the aircon unit, centre console, kick panels, trunk back etc. We have even sold our first Enos part to Mart which was just a dead simple 15″ steering wheel cover for his wood wheel. Not that he wants it full-time of course, it’s just to stop any knocks while in and out of the workshops or MOT.

The Enos spec wheel cover does not particularly look out-of-place, and it will do its job.

Posted in Blog, Customers' Cars, News | Tagged Acapulco coupe, American Autowire, Enos, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, rust, WebShop, welding, Yogi | 2 Comments

Presentations

Posted on September 13, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We see so many cars in our yard many look the same, but we haven’t seen this scenario before of having two brother cars of the same model within a few VIN numbers of each other. The cars were made and exported to different countries and now they have been reunited in our yard for the first time in fifty years, what are the odds on that? We suspect they would have been on the production line at the same time, perhaps as one was rolling off the other was rolling on. The first car we had in was from Belgium:

The second car was in from France, the French car requires a fair bit of work doing to it, starting with the rear quarter panels. Yogi has got both the quarters off now and has started on the prep of the inner arches.

While we are on the subject of the Yogi, he has been prowling in another workshop too, kicking some more rust butt in the panel shop. We sneaked this picture of him, we are trying to work out if he getting ready to hibernate for the winter working out which is the best cave (workshop) for himself! We did see him move though, so we don’t think he was asleep just yet.

Presentation:

Sometimes we are genuinely surprised by our customers, this week was one of those occasions where a retired Ford Director came to see us. He presented us with this fantastic montage for looking after his car for him. The montage is a collection from the World Trade Fair 1964. The fair is legendary as this is where the Mustang was famously shown to the world and set the benchmarks for first day sales figures of 22,000 on 17th April 1964, in fact even Ford was shocked at America’s appetite for the Mustang during ’65. It sold an astounding 409,260 coupes, 77,079 2+2 fastbacks and 73,112 convertibles that year. That’s a total of 559,451 Mustangs for the ’65 model year.

The presentation has some words to cover the photographs;

“Back in late 63, Henry Ford 2 commissioned Walt Disney to design the ‘Ford Pavilion’ (an industry first) at the 1964 New York World Fair – where the new Mustang was to be launched.. His idea was to use Ford convertibles (Galaxies, Fairlanes, Falcons and Mustangs) adapted and bolted to specially constructed rails to guide visitors around the vast Ford exhibition – Disney uses this rail type design today on many of its rides. The Fair was opened on April 22 1964 with tickets costing $2.00 and the U.S. Mail issued postage stamps to commemorate the event. A few of these were mailed to customers by Ford featuring Mustang and stamped April 22 1964. Henry and Walt were the first to sample the new Ford/Disney experience. Before the Fair opened officially, Ford launched the new Mustang on April 17 1964 to the press, dealers and customers – customers could then place their orders….and they did in huge numbers setting a new record for a car launch. Interestingly, Ford was the first and only manufacturer to have Mustang launch articles in both the ‘Time’ and ‘Life’ magazines at the same time…a few days after launch Ford managed the ‘full house’ of the top three U.S. publications featuring Mustang when ‘Newsweek’ ran an article in their April 20 issue. All three editions are now rare and highly collectable.”

The presentation now hanging in our boys club for all to see;

On Saturday we had a full house of people here, along with our working guests Chris and Mart. Both were shown the presentation and liked it – a lot. Both stood there for a while (as we did) and took it all in. They had seen photo’s of the glow in the dark badges, but not the real thing. Chris took it off the wall for a closer look.

Chris hiding behind the frame

There was a very funny conversation that took place along the lines of this;

Mart: “Careful with that ’cause I’m having it”

Chris: “Yeah but, I’m holding it – its mine”

Mart: “I’ll fight you for it then” (Mart started laughing)

Chris: “I can run faster than you” (Chris started laughing)

Adam: “I have 8 guard dogs that aint been feed yet!” (Adam started laughing)

With that Chris put the picture back on the wall again. A funny moment caught with all the guys in the boys club during a morning cup of tea. If you’re lucky and get a guided tour from Adam he might let you look at it – he might have fed the dogs by then. 😉

We have some close up pictures of the presentation of the original ticket, First day of issue stamp, and a postcard from the Fair.

original ticket

badges

First day cover

postcard of the fair

We have been collecting some pictures of the World Trade Fair for a while now that people have sent to us and what we have tracked down. Hopefully these will be a little different to the more common images you find.

Lee Iacocca introduces the new 1965 Ford Mustang

We have a link to show what has happened to the area after the World Trade Fair. Click here.

Customer Cars:

Chris had a good weekend getting down to the bare metal after the layers of under seal had been removed. The bare metal has exposed some issues that were covered up by the under seal. As you may remember Mart found all sorts of issues when he got to the bare metal too. Chris is looking a half a floor pan by the looks of it and the rest we can patch up as it’s not that bad. What we haven’t seen for a while is just how dirty these guys get when doing this messy part of the restoration. Keep it up Chris.

News:

There have been some updates made to our WebShop after some great feedback from customers. Now when you select an item to view, the current stock status for the item will be shown. Hopefully you can now order with confidence without having to call us up and check.

Posted in Articles, News, Photos, Service, Travel, Webshop | Tagged guard dogs, I6, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, presentation, production line, Walt Disney, WebShop, World Trade Fair 1964, Yogi | 3 Comments

New Boots

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

The week has seen a number of cars come and go and we managed to take a snap shot of the yard. Were they parked up nicely for a change? We couldn’t possibly say, but they did look great.

Somewhere in the pic lurks a Yogi!

Our beloved KR500 has had a treat – we got her some new boots, we think the rear tyres may have run out of tread for some strange reason! Because we gave her new boots we just had to get our new rims of course.

Customer Car:

We have completed the QTP open header conversion for the Gulf Stream Aqua ’65 coupe (click here for the rest of the pics). We have posted up on our YouTube video channel a short video of the conversion in action where the valves open and shut so that you can hear the difference. The new headers we supplied would make a big difference as well so the power for this car has gone up considerably.

Our YouTube channel click here.

We often get many customers come to look at their cars, if they are being restored they can take a while obviously, but sometimes we have to work out what has been going on, so Lance knocked this new labour rates table up for us:

We make it no secret that we like Herbie’s Bar & Grill, in fact we meet up their each month, now and again we take family there for a treat too, this was no exception when Faye spotter her Grandad (Adam) on the wall for the record holder! It’s difficult to try and explain why you are on the wall more than once though.

Ford Facts:

We have intrigued with Ford’s new Mustang so we have been doing a little bit of homework, here we have a pic of the right hand drive Mustang.

The first right-hand-drive models are already rolling off the production line at Ford’s plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, with first deliveries expected here in November. Buyers have been told that it will take around 12 weeks for the car to reach them once it has left the plant.
Around 1800 orders for the new Ford Mustang have been taken in the UK since January this year.
Huge demand for the new Ford Mustang, which is available to order now and priced from £29,995, means the UK order book for the US-bred performance car is already full into the middle of 2016.
Ford says 70% of UK buyers have chosen the 410bhp, 386lb ft 5.0-litre V8-equipped model, which costs from £32,995 and sprints from 0-62mph in 4.8sec. The final power output is actually 5bhp lower than that of the left-hand drive version. This is due to the location of the steering assembly on the right-hand side of the engine, necessitating a new exhaust manifold, which resulted in a small reduction in peak power, according to Ford. Torque, acceleration, top speed and fuel consumption figures are not affected.
The other 30% of UK customers have opted for the entry-level 2.3-litre Ecoboost petrol engine, which develops 313bhp and 320lb ft. Even this entry-level model can hit 62mph from rest in 5.8sec.
There is the option of either six-speed manual or auto with 55% of customers choosing the manual. The automatic adds £1500 to the list price.
The 5.0-litre V8 will be upgraded to 500bhp within 18 months of the car going on sale. In launch specification, the V8 emits 299g/km of CO2 and can return a claimed 20.9mpg, while the Ecoboost option emits 179g/km of CO2 and returns up to 35.3mpg. US markets will also get a 3.7-litre V6 option.

Andy Barratt (Ford of Britain boss) has said:

“We are now sold out beyond July next year, although that’s not a reason not to go into a dealership and buy one”.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged headers, Herbies Bar &Grill, KR500, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, QTP exhaust system, Tri-Y, yard | Leave a comment

The Unseen Details

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

With the changing weather we get just as many requests to change our customer’s cars. Most of the time it’s aesthetics to make them very personalised then there are tweaks to the engine or performance and handling of course. Every so often we get a change like this recent change. The exhaust system has been converted from the headers to make it an also open header system.

This particular upgrade is an electronically controlled valve that is manually opened via a switch inside the car. The butterfly inside the pipe opens and diverts the exhaust gases straight out by passing the rest of the exhaust system.

This has an advantage of giving more power as there is no back pressure, this will allow the gases to escape from the chambers and pipes as soon as they are burnt. The other side effect is that the car gets loud, very loud. Of course this open header situation would only be used in limited situations like a race track or drag strip. It would have nothing to do with drowning out the little boy racers, or ricers that think that their one inch exhaust pipe, that comes with the mandatory tail pipe the size of a bucket, (also know as a fart can); They obviously think that their exhaust sounds better than pure American Muscle V8. The starting up of such an engine in this situation is not recommended first thing in the morning, especially after the neighbours come home boozed up and making lots of noise. We wouldn’t want you to disturb them just for the sake of it as it could aggravate their hang overs with the sound of Hell’s thunder. Anyway back to the motorised valves, these will require some adjustments to the chassis and Yogi cut some holes in the chassis rails to mount them correctly.

We recommend mounting the mechanism as high as possible to give as much ground clearance as possible. Part of the front pipe needs to cut away from behind the to allow the “Y” junction pipes to fit into place without disturbing the rest of the exhaust backwards. You never know, we may just fit some small turndown pipes on this 289cid, just because we can.

Customer Cars:
The 1970 fastback that Yogi declared a war of rust on has been coming along nicely. The floor pans had been completely removed and the front chassis legs had been replaced. Yogi had a helping hand from Sam who broke the Red Oxide out and started to treat the new metal inside the the chassis legs.

The seat platform and the floor pans were given a good coating to prevent any further rust. A process often missed when restoring with new panel work. The torque boxes were treated at the same time as the welding was done to put the floor pan back in place.

The floor pan in place and ground down for a smooth finish.

The seat platform was welded in place after the underside of the base was treated.

The platform was added and welded into place.

Once Yogi was happy Sam got to work with the brush treating all the inner side of the new floor pan.

Next week we would like to get going on the other side as well. But, like all these things we have a lot of cars due in. Providing nothing takes longer than we think it should then we will be OK. Like we predicted the rust don’t stand a chance!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged fastback, floor pan, headers, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Open headers, red oxide, rust, Yogi | Leave a comment

New Upgrades

Posted on August 23, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We recently had a recent delivery of some wonderful wheels from Scott Drake which are the Classic Style rims, but made in alloy. We have had lots of enquiries with emails asking for pictures of them on a car. As ever we are happy to oblige the requests, one of the cars we fitted the new wheels on we still have in the yard. We must say they look even better on a car, a very clean look update to a much-loved wheel.

Rumour has it the Yogi has sensed the summer is over and getting ready to hibernate we expect, although we had a very nice hot day on Saturday. He has been moving his cave, sorry, workshop around and putting his toolbox’s in the larger workshop. A rare photo here of our smaller workshop with no cars in it. Yogi is in there somewhere!

His newly arranged work shop also has something lurking under cover!

Awesome Upgrades:

Original Mustang radios are around and can be quite pricy, how long they last for is a little bit of a lottery as they could be getting a bit fragile now. We have had a radio purchased as working from the States, but when tested it was dead. An upgrade was fitted into something that now is. The AM band section of the electrics we beyond repair unfortunately, but what has happened now is that a 3.5mm jack plug has been fitted inside the case and plugs directly into an MP3 player. This will give the sounds you want from a classic looking radio. This particular radio was an after market replacement to the Autolite ford units. MP3, podcasts, audio books or radio via your phone all at your disposal now. The cost to upgrade is very reasonable indeed, for an additional functionality of a working radio or upgrade a no functioning radio. Providing that it can be repaired of course. We’ve had our first test unit back and it works a real treat. Here the radio being looked at to work out the fault then add the updates to unit. There are no case modifications give the game away, just an extra wire that can be hidden where ever you like, even in the glove box if you want. You can have that fantastic glow of old school radio with a hidden modern twist. The cable supplied was a very generous two meters or more. Call or email us for more information. Modern equivalents just don’t quite have the soul or looks as the old school radios.

Customer Cars:

We have a snap shot of a man dedicated to sorting his car out. Chris was in the hot sun, with a heat gun! Not the best place to be but he has made some progress. We have moved his gearbox nearer to his car which will stored properly soon next to it.

Modern day now, we have been sent a link from our good friend Gary where at.Ford.com have released some pictures of the new GT350R rolling of the production line.

The accompanying notes to the photo’s says;

One of the most iconic performance Mustang nameplates of all time the all-new Shelby® GT350R roared off the line today at Ford’s Flat Rock Assembly Plant. The new GT350R Mustang is the most athletic Mustang ever, designed to tackle the world’s most challenging roads and race tracks while creating an exhilarating experience for the driver.

“This is a special day for all Mustang enthusiasts,” said Bill Ford, executive chairman, Ford Motor Company. “We have taken the GT350 formula to the next level of innovation, style and performance. Today the legend continues.”

For more details click here: