Spring Clean

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This week has been very busy again with a much-anticipated delivery of parts from the USA, we were not disappointed with it that’s for sure, but more of that later. We have also continued the clearing up of the yard, a spring clean in the summer. We have also had a more than usual number of cars to look after. Regular visitors will notice the changes to the yard, we have moved some of the long-standing cars, including a rare genuine factory optioned GT that we just haven’t got round to restoring yet, to their new hopefully temporary homes. The cars were all under tents and on the backs of lorries awaiting their fate, or decision. We think the sun and hot weather has made the decisions much easier, either that or Adam got a little sunstroke! Anyway moving on, the space will be used for customer cars delivery and collection, valeting and new larger enclosure for the guard dogs. The skip will be going now as we have two other small skips that we now use. The big result is that we can now even turn our transporter lorries around without any problems at all now, a first for Mustang Maniac.

Customer’s Cars:

We often have cars that have been bought and not much is know about the history of the car. We have a real gem of a rare car and its full history. We now see this car each year for a service and an MOT, we also discuss the next little projects. This really is a fantastic looking car. Thanks to Gary who has kindly given us the following information so we could put it on our blog:

This particular car was built the day before the Mustang launch and was ordered by Ford centrally as dealer launch stock.
Originally when the car was bought it came with very little U.S. history, so after 6 months researching late last year a real stroke came Gary’s way. A visit to a vintage Mustang forum and a random search for ‘Pagoda Green D code convertible’ was made and up popped a trail from 2007 discussing the colour of the James Bond mustang from Goldfinger. One member commented that “it’s not pagoda green as I had one of those with the rare d code engine in the late 90s”. He came from Terre Haute, Indiana – the last known address of my car! The member was contacted and sure enough, he had owned the car. Over the next few months and with his help and many letters sent to the U.S., since then a full history has been traced from new.
Gary is the 9th owner (including 3 dealers). It spent all of its U.S. life in a 40 mike radius of Terre Haute Indiana and its 99k mileage appears to be genuine. The first owner was a banker from Paris Illinois (20 miles from Terre Haute) and really wanted a dark blue car, but as Mustangs were in short supply at launch he had the dealer paint it dark blue. In the late 70s fashions had changed and red convertibles were in vogue so he had it then been painted red. He part-ex’d it in the mid 80s for a mid 50s Thunderbird. A dealer bought it for his son’s 18th birthday, restored it underneath (which is as it is today albeit with a few local repairs). The son kept it for 4 years and sent me photos of it in red with him proudly sat in it. The 3rd owner was a Terre Haute business man who kept it until 1995 and his son also sent me a photo of it. The 4th owner who was Gary’s initial contact) checked the vin and realised it was an important, rare early car. He proceeded to have it bare metalled and painted back to its original rare colour of Pagoda Green – Ford only sold this colour for the first two months of production then changed it to Tropical Turquoise. It is suggested that only 200 Pagoda Green D Code Convertibles with White Trim were produced. He also replaced the worn trim and fitted sports wheels. He then sold the car to his attorney (who kept pestering him to sell it) in 2001. The attorney guy was the last U.S. Title owner in the car file when Gary bought it, he had kept it until 2007 only driving it 800 miles. The car then went to Malta via a trader in the UK, where he kept it until late 2012 when it was imported to the UK. It was correctly registered and Gary bought it from the dealer.

Gary has given us a great idea, we would like to our customer cars on our blog with their history. So if you can give us the details we will put them on our blog with some pictures. Who knows we may be able to establish a pattern of movements?

Chris’ i6:

Work has started on Chris’ coupe in the yard at long last. He was seen with a grin on his face and an 18v Snap On impact wrench. The suspension needed to be removed along with all the other bits, so we have some first day restoration pics. There was some helpful hints on how to remove seized steering joints without damaging the threads!

There was some more pics of the work along with the ceremonial handing over of the Mustang Maniac scraper from Mart to Chris with them shaking hands and having a laugh. As John pointed out the looks on the faces were “I’ve done it – you’re doing it”. But some dip stick had deleted the pics during the transfer to the PC for upload. Yes he has been ridiculed, he will be made to take a bath in used engine oil as punishment. 🙂

Acapulco Coupe:

Mart’s Acapulco Coupe is getting more of the pretty bits and functional parts added to the car. The washer jet pump was not working so needed to be replaced. We are at a point now where have given the car a little something special. For a our full restorations we have a little tag placed on the car. We stuck a certificate if you like, on the car to show it has met with our highest levels of restoration for a rebuild project, Mart’s number is 35. We are proud to put our name to our restoration projects and the work we do.

Stock:

We mentioned earlier in the post that we have had some stock delivered. We have been waiting for these for a while now and ordered a few sets to get us started. These are on now on our WebShop, but the image does not do them justice at all. They are bespoke to Scott Drake Magnum 500 styled wheels which are made from a machined Aluminium Alloy. Available in Gloss Black and a real beautiful satin silver. The wheels had been in stock less than 24 hours and we have sold a set already.

Quick links to the WebShop to buy them here:

https://mustangmaniac.co.uk/part/56/8400/15_x_7_magnum_alloy_wheel__5_on_

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Coupe, Magnum 500, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Pagoda Green, Restoration, Scott Drake | 1 Comment

A Bit On The Side

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We have been blessed with glorious weather this week and as a result managed yet another tidy up of the yard. This time we had an agenda to get Chris’ i6 from round the back to the front so we can start work on it. Not in the workshop? Nope, we have a car in the panel shop at the moment taking up the space, but we want to give Chris a chance to get on with his car. The first job is to see what is underneath the car which require plenty of scrapping and grinding and filling. If you remember we had Mart’s coupe at a similar stage about eighteen months ago. Now Chris is stepping up to walk that same long path. The dirt and dust will be outside so better for Chris and the workshop. The car has had the axle removed so was sitting on axle stands at the back. The present and unique problem of how to move a car that was rolled in had to be solved? Adam got the forklift out and had an idea. Pick up the back via chains and wheel it round. The second problem was that the car was half on a rotisserie that need to be removed in order to move it. We had some very welcome guests down who kindly gave up their time to help out. Spence and Paul thanks very much for your help. The car was moved to the main yard where it was perched while the areas were made clear.

A space near the fence was cleared for Adam’s resto mod project, and next to it Chris’ i6 was going to get a new home for a while. We will be making an enclosure to keep them dry and away from the elements. The car was again fixed to the forklift and moved near to its new home.

It was turning out to be a complete nightmare to move the car into position on a chain so Adam had a back up plan B. move it via the forks.

The weight of the car was very front heavy so it required a very technical balancing act!

Chris taking a ride in his own car

The car was dropped on the axle stands and the more genuine technical work to bolt it to the rotisserie.

With the car bolted up and balanced we turned the car over and for the first time Chris was able to look at his work for the next few months. There was of course plenty of innuendo around having a bit on the side, let alone having two bits on the side at the same time. Yes we know its corny but we found it funny (again). anyway, the centre bar was bolted in place and a celebration cup of tea was required to go with the melted chocolate cakes, Chris was volunteered for the tea duty honours, well it was his car after all.

Chris did point out that one part of the car wouldn’t be rusty, right where the oil leak was.

Other News:

We had a guest vehicle brought over to us to have a look at, not our immediate field of expertise, but not a bad car on first glance – a Pontiac GTO that was parked up next to 66 convertible.

We have a couple of cars awaiting collection in the main workshop and grabbed a couple of pics of their ghostly presence.

Mini Article:

Firstly a big thank you to Gary W. who is an Ex-Ford employee from a senior position. Gary often brings us in his incredible knowledge, as well as some very unusual items. This week was no different as we were asked what this was: Obviously Ford, we thought employee tag, we were close. Gary informed us this was an employee tool tag. The Tag or Chit or Crib was taken to the store when a specific tool was required, the employee’s Tag was hung in the borrowed tool’s place. Thus denoting who had the tool and where it could be located. Once the tool was returned the tag was given back to the employee. We have a seen a single note that says there were five tags per employee. We haven’t seen this confirmed anywhere else yet. We have been looking for more information on these fantastic little pieces of history and found the following incomplete information so far: The Ford River Rouge Complex (commonly known as the Rouge Complex or just The Rouge) is a Ford Motor Company automobile factory complex located in Dearborn, Michigan, along the Rouge River, upstream from its confluence with the Detroit River at Zug Island. Construction began in 1917, and when it was completed in 1928 it had become the largest integrated factory in the world. From what can gather they started in 1932 they were still using them in 1954. They switched to a plastic photo ID sometime later, we are not exactly sure when though. They used most of the letters from A to Z, but so far only found these references: A – Motor building. B – Motor building, paper. C – Plant, Tank engine, Power plant, Specialty Foundry. N – Stock, Blacksmiths. W – Crankshaft, Dies, Jigs. We would love to know the full list of the codes that were used, if you have any information or correct what we have found to date, then please let us know. We would like to have a little article in it’s own right. Thanks again GW for another little piece of the jigsaw, Gary gave us four tags which were given out to our very lucky guys who would honestly appreciate them.

Update 12/7/2015:

Comment from Gary 17:14

Hi, thanks for mentioning the tags in the blog. The reason I personally think they are very special is that the River Rouge plant complex was the very first motor factory built to handle the complete process of building a vehicle – from making steel and cast iron through to wood processing, casting, pressing and assembly. Henry believed that was the only way to make the cars affordable – and he could control every stage. He also wend the mines producing the ore and the forests growing the timber. So the Rouge was where our beloved car business all started. Up to that point various factories and suppliers worked to build a car. From that point all future car makers would try to emulate the Rouge. If the tags have ‘R’ stamped before the word Rouge they are the very earliest tags…so come from the pockets of Ford workers who were in the business from the very start! History is great eh? Gary

Thanks Gary.

Posted in Articles, Customers' Cars, News | Tagged Coupe, Ford, fork lift, I6, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, R. Rouge, tool chit, tool crib, tool tag | 9 Comments

4th July Celebrations

Posted on July 5, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Firstly we would like to wish all our friends on the other side of the pond a Happy 4th of July, we hope you had a great time and are not to full of apple pie! For us we had an unusual weekend as we had four of our cars on display. This was no ordinary car show, this was to help out a lovely local school called Little Munden Primary School. Mustang Maniac was approached to see if we could help out with an annual fete at their school by letting them borrow a car or two for show. Being as it was 4th July and we obviously have lots of American cars how could we refuse? We decided a selection of old and new both Mustang and pick up trucks. Early morning meant two cars delivered and a shuttle car back and forwards.

On our way

We arrived with the first delivery at the school to see them setting up for the fate and lots of smiling faces.

It wasn’t long before Chris picked up a couple of passengers from the school gate to the cars park up area, they looked to be enjoying the short trip.

The next trip was the fast cars, we had the Shelby GT500KR and the always popular UBB (which stands for Ultimate Bad Boy), Mustang packing a monstrous 1000bhp. Of course people say to us, “Got a Mustang, bet you don’t pass many petrol stations!” With these to ladies that not to far from the truth, but we prefer to say “It’s SMILES per gallon, not miles per gallon.” It was mentioned to us that these cars could be heard coming through the country lanes to the school, but they could be right.

Munden6

It wasn’t too long before the cars got their first visitors of Staff and PTA from the School.

We understand that the school had a great day and we were glad that we could help out.

5th Gear and our UBB:

Both these videos and a lot more are on our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/mustangmaniacuk

Other News:

We often get cars from all over the country delivered to us for various work, this one was a little different though, this 66 Convertible had come all the way over from France specifically to us to complete some work on her. Quite what she needs we have to analyse, but first impressions are it’s not too bad.

Under the hood we got to see something that is not that common, double support braces and an expansion tank for the radiator.

We are looking forward to working on this car just to show Europe just how good we actually are!

Posted in News, Our Cars, Photos | Tagged 4th July, America, apple pie, Munden, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Shelby GT500KR, UBB Mustang | 4 Comments

Illegal Aliens!

Posted on June 28, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

When we work on the cars we find all sorts of things, the odd dime here and there, the usual rust, paperwork, bird nests etc. But, we’re glad to say that it’s not very often that we get to see this sight. It’s a little difficult to make out from the picture, but the material all piled up is an old vermin nest! The floor pans on the car are shot to bits and need replacing of course. The seats were removed and their seat bases. When we opened them up we found the nests and a dead vermin, we say vermin as we can’t tell if it’s a mouse or a small rat, the decomposed body didn’t leave a lot to work it out from. Needless to say we safely disposed of the carcass. We suspect the mouse (we will call it a mouse for now,) had got imported into the country with the car. These pics are looking into the car and floor pans, well where the floor pans should be at least. The nest was made from the firewall sound deadening material, obviously the mouse, got in through the rust hole and starting taking the material out to make a nest. Clever creatures, but not very welcome when trying to restore a classic car.

Although this looks a complete nightmare, we have seen worse and it can all be fixed. The weather was a nice and we got a few cars out to be cleaned and Chris came well prepared with his flip-flops – you’re rockin’ that look Chris we must say!

half done

We had a drop in on Saturday with the mean green machine, the timing was out a little and Yogi looked at it straight away, obviously gaining more members to his Fan Club!

Under the hood is a work of art too, when this was put together Yogi hid all the wires from the engine bay as much as possible.

To set the timing up the power has to come from the battery, as the battery is in the trunk Yogi came up with an ingenious solution, a board inside the car! The interior of the car has some ’69 seats in it instead of the standard ones which make it quite unique.

Every so often we see a car that is little temperamental with the electrics, it’s understandable of course as the wiring is now over 50 years old on some of these cars now. The wires become brittle, earth points have lost the conductivity etc. So we can either replace the like for like looms in the cars for those who want a stock look. Or, we get the American AutoWire kits which are becoming more and more popular. The reason is quite simple, the wires replace the original, and add lots of options into the mix as well. Power windows, electric fans, lots of auxiliary wires, fog lights etc. all without having to break into the main loom itself. The old fuse boxes have 6 fuses, some of which are can be difficult to get hold of.

old

new

But the newer ones have the blade fuses with flashers and relays all set up ready to be used. What did this loom go into? This pretty little lady which is just begging for a ride out in this lovely sunshine.

We often get asked is Herbie’s worth the effort going? We always answer of course it is. There is a good turn out and lots of classic and new cars. Even if you don’t have a Mustang it’s a great place to look at them outside of a car show. These were pics were taken today, and yes we are bang up to date with the blog! Thanks to Lance “OCD man” for the pics. The cars:

The ‘Stangers have taken over Herbie’s and the food is great quality and good value for money too.

We thought we would finish with a pick of a couple of cars awaiting collection by their owners, rather a ghostly looking pair.

We have added some Articles to the blog; “10 Rare Mustang Facts” and “50 Cool Mustang Facts“. Well worth a read.

Special thanks to Gary W. for the great information.

Posted in Blog, Customers' Cars, News | Tagged ghosts, Herbies, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, nest, timing, Yogi | 2 Comments

A New Helper

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

A slightly sad week to see the Highland Green ’67 fastback go back to the owner after we have got the car to a rolling a shell. The owner wants to complete the restoration themselves, which we can of course understand. Tuesday we loaded her up and shipped her off. Yogi’s hard work is surely to be appreciated when she is unloaded at the other end.

We often have visitors to the yard, this weekend was no exception. Adam’s Grandson Jack, (Yes – Adam is a Grandad) came to help us out in the yard. We had some work to do on an LAR lorry where he was helping out in the cab pressing pedals when asked, the extra pair of hands or feet can really come in handy. Jack was also given the important tasks of putting the new stock arrivals away in their correct places in the store rooms. Adam says that he has been a “great help this weekend”. Jack seen here sporting the Mustang Maniac work clothing. It will only be 6 long years before Jack can learn to drive, but he has already singled out a car that he wants: the Shelby KR no less! We can’t say we blame him with his impeccable taste, but there is a small problem – it’s Adam’s!

Jack’s first car?

growing into it!

Keep dreaming Jack there is a queue for that car or you can just start saving up for your own one 🙂

Thanks for your help this weekend Jack.

Throughout the year there are many car shows sadly we can’t get to them all, but we try to be there in spirit at least. A couple of Weeks ago at Brands Hatch racing circuit there was American Speedfest 3. We had Yogi representing MM there and the other half of the Bully Brothers Spence took his too. There was lots of photo’s being taken but we have picked the more unusual ones rather than just sitting in a field.

Of course we have to have the standard lined up in field shot, there was some promotional girls welcoming the visitors to the circuit.

Crossing of the Queen Elizabeth Bridge in Dartford Kent.

yogi tries a rolling refuel!

Taking pictures of those taking pictures of you.

Special thanks to Chris and Paul “Lob Monster” for letting us use your pics.

Customers Cars:

The Highland Green ’67 car has been featured over the last couple of weeks in order to get her back as promised. But we haven’t forgotten the Acapulco coupe. Glass has started to go in and now looks a little more like a finishing project, hopefully the rear glass will be going in this week too. Jack even got in on the act to help Mart fit the rear quarter windows! Not sure what is next on this little lady but it could be more glass or the interior if it’s back from the trimmers.

Posted in Customers' Cars, Photos | Tagged '67 fastback, Acapulco coupe, brands hatch, Highland Green, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Queen Elizabeth Bridge, Yogi | 3 Comments

Time Flies

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have got back to the cars that needed finishing off and the time has just flown by. Yogi was working hard on the glorious Highland Green ’67 Fastback which will be delivered back to the owner on Tuesday if all goes to plan. The car has had some real nice mods fitted to it which will make subtle differences, and they will also make the handling that much better too. Brake lines finished and bleed for a solid pedal, and all joints on the suspension have been greased and tested.

We also fitted a nice upgrade to the cars in the form of a centre hand brake, stainless steel lines to the rear drums are fitted as standard.

centre hand brake

underside fittings

stainless hand brake lines

The steering column is a very nice and not so common tilt option. The handling of the car is important to the owners so as well as the Mote Carlo bar under the hood the rear end has had an adjustable sway bar fitted too. Again not so common but does make a difference.

The wheels are on and we now have a rolling chassis to get to work on putting her back together again.

Our yard also had the pleasure of Yogi’s Mach1 too, a little trip out on the nice days. The car had a few minor tweaks to the carb and needed a road to make sure it was all was OK. The results we have posted on our YouTube channel and also have here for you. Ever wondered what it’s like to run this car at Santa Pod drag strip in a Mustang (which he does)? Watch this and find out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIIW0cX-1Pw

We even managed to grab a few picks under the hood, but don’t tell him! 😉

You can read all about Yogi’s car that featured in Classic American magazine here.

Customers Cars:

We have been working on the Acapulco Blue Coupe to get the lights working and bumper on this weekend. The lights are stock on the outside but has LED’s on the inside. This enables us to run amber indicators and was as the red side and stops lights. Not required on our MOT tests due to the cars age, but it will make it safer regardless.

rear light

LED board

fitted

front lights

The rear bumpers can be a complete pain align correctly, but a few tricks of the trade got this bumper to line up better than a lot of other we have seen. Yes we know the gas cap is wrong we will change it soon.

Feedback:

We have had some pretty good feedback from the Kroon Oil we are now stocking on the WebShop, at £33.60 for 5 litres is also a pretty good deal too, click here for the quick link.

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Our Cars, Repairs, Webshop, YouTube | Tagged Acapulco coupe, LED's, Mach1, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, tilt steering column, WebShop, YouTube | 3 Comments

Half Price Mustang

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We have got back into the swing of things and we have been completing a lot of service jobs and not too much on the restoration front. We decided this week that we will give you a lesson in Mustang advertising for something different.

We will start with a little quiz – What has a Poodle, 5000 litres of foam and a Mach 1 Mustang got in common?

The answer is: A Sony advert!

The need for the advert:

Back in July 2007 which wasn’t long ago but seems ages in the terms of technology, a new Sony Pan-European marketing campaign was launched to demonstrate the breadth and depth of the company’s HD proposition and to educate consumers about the intricacies of the new High Definition technology. While there was currently high awareness of HD, there was still a significant lack of understanding amongst consumers, with only 59% having heard the term ‘HD Ready’ and 13% knowing about ‘Full HD 1080’. The Sony HD marketing campaign aimed to educate and inform consumers about the benefits of HD which we now take for granted. The campaign consisted of TV / cinema advertising, in-store branding, a targeted online PR campaign, dedicated HD Flash microsite and a ‘Guide to HD’ DVD which tried to provide consumers with an insight into the full range and benefits of HD.

About the advert:

The ‘Experiment’ (as it was called) campaign, produced by Fallon London, consisted of a sixty-second film and a shortened thirty-second film advertisement and three print executions, this was supported in-store with materials developed by WAVV RAPP Collins. The soundtrack was set provided by Iron Maiden’s – Can I Play With Madness. The ad was directed by ‘Pleix’, ‘Experiment’ shows Sony testing its HD products to the limit with a variety of unusual and creative experiments. An Apricot Poodle, classic 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1, custom-built industrial bubble machines, neon half-pipe and 5000 litres of foam all serve to create the craziest spectacle that only the very best HD equipment could capture. The ultimate aim of the ‘Experiment’ was to demonstrate how only Sony could offer High Definition like no other. The advert follows the progress of the test poodle inside the Ford Mustang as it passes through a series of experiments. Handycam camcorders record the entire process, Cyber-shot digital cameras photographed the key moments, BRAVIA televisions played back the live action while engineers analysed proceedings on their VAIO.

The Guardian Newspaper ran a story with Sony and this is what they had to say at the time:

“Sony has created an ad featuring a 1970 Ford Mustang, a poodle and 5,000 litres of foam to showcase for the first time in one film the extensive range of high-definition television products the company offers. The surreal-pan European campaign, set to Iron Maiden’s Can I Play With Madness, aims to educate consumers about Sony’s “lens to living room” vision of an HD future. In the ad various Sony products are shown capturing, or displaying, images of a bizarre scene featuring a poodle sitting in a 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 on a neon-lit half-pipe, while the car is covered in 5,000 litres of foam. Sony’s ad features a wide variety of products including the PlayStation 3, Bravia TV, Blu-ray discs, Vaio computer, Cybershot digital cameras and Handycam recorder. The ad itself, created by Fallon London, the agency behind the “Balls” and “Paint” commercials for the Sony Bravia, is called “Experiment”. David Patton, Sony Electronic’s outgoing senior vice-president of communications for Europe, said the company was dedicated to an HD future and that 70% of its revenues already came from selling HD-ready products. “HD is Sony and Sony is HD,” he said. “We wanted to show how across our range of products there is the ability to edit, record and watch using Sony HD products. Full HD represents the future of film, television and gaming and yet we’re finding that consumers are still unsure when it comes to understanding the relevance of key components such as HD1080 or Blu-ray disc,” said James Kennedy, the general manager for marketing communications for Sony Europe.”

The Advert:

Click the here for the hyperlink to the video on our YouTube Channel.

About the Car:

The car was a genuine 1970 Mach1 Mustang (5769cc engine) imported into the UK. The car was cut in half just for the advert. Little detail is know about the exact origins of the car, we do know that is was supplied by Carolina Classics and was supposedly first registered 27th august 1971. The company wanted to buy the car back after the advert, but apparently didn’t realise it was going to be cut in half. The differences in colour here we suspect are down to exposure and light, but the advert shows the car as orange and not red.

jgf23k Probable for the first time ever we are going to show you the car as it was genuinely cut in half.

The car interior shows all the details of how it works.

behind the dash

clock cut in half

The engine is held in place by a series of welded supports to stop the engine falling over or out of the car. There is no gearbox in the car, it would have been nice to see that cut in half as well.

hood closed

radiator

inside the rad

inside the engine

The car does indeed have four wheels, the two standard wheels on the left hand side, and two small wheels on the right hand side. The steering is fully functional to move it about.

A lot of people thought that the car was a CGI fake or that it never happened. We can assure you it did – because we own it.

The contents of this post was prompted by moving the car away from the way wall where it has stood for a number of years now. Chris T, came to see us yesterday so we told he that we had a genuine Half Price Mustang Mach1 up for sale. He looked quite excited – until he realised it was literally in half! But, he still eemed to like though.

Half price? Well we are not so sure, we were hoping that somebody could tell us, a car that featured in a famous innovative advert at the time and a true one of a kind.

Employee of the Month:

We have not run this category before, but congratulation to Mark AKA “Ruthless” hard at work. He often tells us that he is busy “knocking his pipe out!”

Late News:

Congratulations to Ken, a friend and customer of Mustang Maniac who was at American Speed Fest today at Brands Hatch. Ken has won the Classic American Best Mustang in show.

Even Later News:

It’s Herbie’s time once again. We have pencilled in 28th June for the usual beer and burgers and all things Mustang. Please feel free to join us. (Thanks to “Lob Monster” for letting us know).

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged American Speed feast, employee of the month, Herbies Bar &Grill, high definition, Mach1, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, ruthless, Sony | 10 Comments

The Art Of Painting

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

The week after the Enfield Pageant is always a bust week tidying up and putting things away where they should be. Cars being worked on were moved in order to prep the cars for the Pageant, trucks transporting the cars have to be moved around and given back to LAR & SMR again. While we were moving things around we got the call from our friendly top class painter Paul. A car he had been working on was now ready to be delivered back to us. A customer owned 1967 Fastback that needs a full rebuild from bare metal. Paul had etched the car ready for the primer. (Thanks for the pictures Paul.)

The car is painted in the classic and loved Highland Green, and for those that didn’t know, Highland Green is the same colour as Steve McQueen’s Bullitt Mustang.

Multiple layers of primer added to the cars and then blocked back down again. A light coloured coat is applied to check the high and low spots.

The bodywork is masked up and paint is built up before more fine block work. Again the attention to detail is unsurpassed.

The car in various stages

The car was delivered back to us and put on the ramps in the workshop where Yogi got to work on the rebuild pretty much straight away, almost before we managed to grab some pics.

The attention to detail here is that the side detail vents that are fitted have the gaskets missing, allowing water to cause issues on the bodywork and inside. We make sure we fit those gaskets, here the subtle difference is not really noticeable, but such is our attention to detail.

The classic mistake made my so many painters on these cars is the undersill, a concours fail, if you are going that route. From the factory the paint stopped at the underside and a visible black line should be seen. Such is Paul’s level of detail.

The customer is still a little undecided about just how much work we will be doing on the car at the moment. But, we have been told the suspension, steering, brakes and rear axle are to be fitted in order to make this into a rolling chassis.

The rear diff is a very nice special build Truetrac limited slip upgrade.

The steering is getting the Borgeson Power Steering Box upgrade too.

The interior is a work of art too, the roof, floors inner arches all painted, in fact where the carpet and body panels go the paint goes there too.

The last part of the bodywork is the rubber seals in order to complete the final gaps.

The next job on her we shall have to wait and find out in due course, along with the final engine spec too.

We are going to show you some rare pictures not usually seen as the hood is closed so you don’t think of it. If anybody has tried to fit a hood spring to the hinges they will now the power of the springs and that they are not easy to fit. When the hood is up the spring is retracted so little or no pressure, but when the hood is closed an immense leverage is used to open those springs. You just don’t want to mess with these springs!

retracted open hood

stretched and closed

hood down

hood up

Adam is seen checking more paint colours are what the customer required that had come back to the yard taken from another Fastback. The colour is correct so the rubber is going to fitted to the trunk and given back to Paul ready to final gap the car.

WebShop New Product:

Modern day engine oils have come on leaps and bounds without a doubt for modern cars. Yet the old classic still have particular needs. We recommend the 20w – 50 formula. We currently stock two oils we recommend:

Pennzoil – click here for link

Kendall – click here for link

However, we are pleased to say that we now have a distribution to agreement to stock Kroon-Oil Classic Multigrade Motor oils. This oil is designed to meet the exacting American specs and has also been developed for the Classic Car owner of the 60’s, 70’s & 80’s. The oil is cheaper than the USA counterparts, but in no way a lesser product. We like this oil and would recommend it.

Kroon – click here for link

We are in a nostalgic mood today so we thought that we would share and leave you with this great rare photo.

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Parts, Repairs, Sales, Webshop | Tagged 20w-50, Bullitt, Enfield Pageant, Highland Green, Kendall, Krron, LAR, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, paint, Pennzoil, self etch primer, SMR, Steve McQueen, Yogi | 2 Comments

Enfield Pageant Of Motoring 2015

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

The Bank Holiday Enfield Pageant was almost upon us. We loaded the three cars up on the trailers, one was a drive on drive of for the Acapulco Coupe and the other was a double stack of the 65 “A” Code Coupe and KR GT500.

We arrived the evening before as ever in the motor home and made our stake on the pitch we have each year. We left the Coupe under cover for the evening just in case it rained. As the coupe has no glass in her just yet and we didn’t want a mobile swimming pool in the morning. We used a selection of the LAR and SMR vehicles to help us out for the weekend.

Bright and early the next morning the sun was out and the cars started to appear and park up in their allocated spaces. We started to set up the Media area which consisted of a large LCD screen in front of the motor home to show the progress so far of the Acapulco Coupe and a selection of “Music” from Chris’s iPod coming from a pair of speakers next to the RV.

We were promised a few cars of our customers to turn up and support us, we weren’t disappointed and over the three days we had a nice selection and was bursting at the seams at one point. We had our valour down to clean the cars to top showroom conditions. We promised him to get him on the net so promise kept. Thanks Paul for a great job as ever.

As if by magic our promised cars started to turn up one by one, almost as if they knew a little valeting was going on. So we just said carry on cleaning till they stop. Of course the guys will never say no to a little extra TLC on their cars.

Adam had his grandchildren come along to help out and keep an eye on the proceedings proudly displaying the corporate image and just in case anybody was in doubt who she was helping. 🙂

The guests and fellow petrol heads started to arrive and look at the cars and we had lots of questions and plenty of complements on the cars. We had great feedback for our WebShop and how well it was working, the increasingly popular Forum and of course our Blog.

During the days we even got up on the RV roof to take a few pictures.

John did say that he wanted a couple of pics of the “Workers”, we tried to find some, but we only came across these two suspicious characters posing for photos, Ken & John! 🙂

We had a lot of interest around all the cars on display. We had a car for sale which had a number of enquiries as the project Acapulco had a number of heads looking inside to see how they we put these cars back together even before we had fully set up.

Most Amazing Story of the weekend:

Paul’s AKA “Lob Monster” ’66 Coupe had a couple of visitors who were a little more interested than usual. When Paul went over and spoke to them. It turned out that they were the previous owners of the car of, 30 years ago! Such an amazing story that Paul struck up relationship with them and they should be sending him some photo’s of the car even before Paul got hold of it. Such a small world and what were the chances of that meeting? If they had of turned up on Sunday Paul wasn’t there for that day and they would have missed him. The owners kindly agreed to pose with Paul (on the left) for pictures with the or should we say “their” car. Incredible story.

The day started to cloud over at about 11am till 2 where the rain came down and only the die-hard petrol heads were about and us running around putting a cover over Marts Coupe. We all gathered in the RV and waited for the rain to go. Eventually the sun came back out and so did we continue where we left off. We had a wander around and took photos of just some of the other cars in the show. The main tent housed the music for the day with live bands and the prestigious cars. This year was another good year as Beaulieu Motor Museum provided a couple of great cars of the few days.

Original Race Spec AC Cobra:

Thanks to the guys at Beulieu who kindly broke a little tradition and let us behind the ropes to take some proper photo’s of this spectacular car. The last race this car was in had a bit of pile up and pretty much destroyed the bodywork. At the time AutoCraft were still making the panels under the official licence and rebuilt the body to the exact specs of the original of course. This all means that the car is currently valued at £1 to £2 Million GBP with its heritage! Yes, we have taken a few pics here but it warrants it we think.

Everybody recognises the outside, but ever seen inside the real deal?

The Next day the guys had the Original General Lee “Lee1”. Again this car needs no introduction and a few pics to do it justice with some interesting facts.

Some of the other cars that took our fancy over the few days. Some even had our sponsorship!

Sunday morning we had a treat of a full English breakfast. Eggs fresh from Adam’s chicken at his home and local bacon and sausages, tomatoes mushrooms – well you get the picture. How did it all go down? Very well and Adam’s culinary skills improve each year. The double yolker was a hotly contested conversation.

Double yolker

Enfield Pageant is not just a car show, there are the numerous auto jumble sales pitches and stalls of all sorts of things, you name it, they got it.

The American scene is quite large at these shows and we have a great relationship with many of the clubs that appear each year. We had this lovely Edsel next to us that had a few issues and wouldn’t start. Adam offered his expertise and sorted out the points issue and the car was soon on its way. The screwdriver wedged in the carb was to dry out the flooding prior to the proper fix.

Here’s a petrol head trivia question for you?

What did Edsel and Mustang have in common?

The answer:

The failure of the Edsel project enabled Ford to use the Edsel machinery to be modified to take the new tooling for the Mustang. The result was that the Mustang appeared long before the time it could have done!

As Adam was often away from his loyal dogs they were always on the look out for him. When he came back for a cup of tea the end result was obvious. A picture can speak a thousand words.

Last, but definitely NOT least.

A special “Thanks” to everybody who had supported us over the weekend and made us a success again. In no particular order they include:

Ken, John, Yogi, Chris, Paul “Lob Monster”, Lance “OCD”, Ian, Spence, Paul “The Paint”, Yogette, Martin, Paul the valeter, Mart “SatNav,” LAR and SMR. If I have forgotten anybody – I apologise, but it’s getting late and I need some more of those beers, that I hid at the back of the fridge!

A great weekend and thanks to all those that came to see us and made it all worth while.

See you all again next year.

Posted in Blog, Cars For Sale, Customers' Cars, Forum, News, Our Cars, Photos, Sales, Service | Tagged Blog, double yoker, Edsel, Enfiled Pageant, full English breakfast, LAR Traffic Services, Lob Monster, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Mustang Maniac Forum, OCD, SMR, trivia, WebShop, Yogi | 3 Comments

Need Gas

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We have been busy preparing our own cars this week ready for a yearly trip to the Enfield Pageant of Motoring. It’s held at Enfield Playing Field, Great Cambridge Road, Enfield EN1 3PL. we always try to make a point of attending and showing of some quality Classic Mustangs. We shall be having our over sized hospitality motor home there again, along with a selection of our cars and our Customers cars too. We are planning a little something different this year for our restoration projects in the form of some multi-media interaction, we hope it will work out as we plan it to. If you are planning to come to this great show that has all sorts of cars on display, we seriously hope that you will pop along to see us and make a point of saying hello. Mention the Blog and the Forum to Adam.

Unusual item:

We often have cars in the workshop that need a clean out and we find all sorts of things, dead rodents, birds nests, newspapers. We often find the odd Dime here and there if we are lucky. During a clean up recently of the trunk area hidden away, we found a real rarity that we hadn’t seen for a long time. This great little item was in the form of a fold out banner that was with some documentation. The Banner simply says “Send help” one side and “Need Gas” the other. We suspect that you would just fold out the side you need and leave it under the wipers or in the rear window depending on your needs at the time. There is also a few guides on the reverse of the banner on how to be a good driver etc. Fantastic item in mint condition. It looks like they were originally from Ford and came with the car from new. If anybody knows any more about these and where they came from how many etc, please drop us an email.

Customer Cars:

Not too much this week as we have been preparing our own cars and getting them ready. But we have done a little more work on the Acapulco Blue Coupe, We fitted an export brace to the car and used our custom designed bolts. Yes we know they are not correct, if you want Concours look then we have those too. But these bolts are very similar to the bumper bolts with a polished stainless steel head. The difference is that the bolts do not have a square collar at the top. these are rounded into a slight conical shape, they are tightened up and pulled into the holes of the brace. The export brace should be fitted to a strengthened part of the bulk head how they should be with an additional welded thick plate as we had done on this car. This saves messing around to file out round hols into squares, but this way still gives that look coach bolt look. We are pleased with this result and always nice to have for a little detail.

The HT leads and the rest of the wiring still needs to be completed of course, but we managed to start her up without any of the ignition wiring. Firstly we sent Mart on mission to get some fuel, and he even managed to returned back without getting lost for a change 🙂 In case you are wondering the petrol station was only 2 miles away! The car was fueled up and we drained most back back out of the tank from the drain hole to make sure no debris was in there. The car was cranked over a few times in order to get the fuel pumped up to the carb and check the starter was going to spin over under her own power. We then set the distributor to TDC for the timing and hot wired the spark to the coil. The car was spun over and she coughed into life. The timing was manually moved around in order to get the car running and warm up where she was comfortable. About ten mins later we set the timing correctly and adjusted the carb settings. The sound from the Flowmasters was a magical tone, the look on Marts face was a picture and said it all. We then left him to it to sort out the wiring again to make it look neater. Plenty more to do on her yet, but the first milestone has been reached – Flame on! If you are going to the Pageant we hope to bring this little lady along so you can see the progress for yourselves.