Route 66 – parts 7 & 8

Posted on March 31, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We left the lovely Oklahoma on our way to Amarillo, now I have said that I bet you are singing the song? We never asked anybody if this is the way to Amarillo either. On our way out of Oklahoma we stopped of here for a little look around to see some history of the famous Route 66 and a shop with a difference.

We got back on the road and found a great name for a road.

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While we are on the Subject of Mustangs a little know fact about one of our cars. Our 1964 1/2 Indianapolis 500 260cid pace car which was one of only 190 made in hard top came to us from Oklahoma. We have an article all about the Pace Cars click here or it can be found under the “Our Cars” menu heading at the top. This Indy 500 Pace Car is the only known genuine item in Europe and was a complete nut and bolt restoration from the ground up completed by us.

pace10

’64 Indy 500 Pace Car
Across the hood
Inside
Under the hood of the Pace Car

We have seen some sights on the road and when people say they are moving house in the UK this isn’t quite what they mean.

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As we had been traveling for a while at this point we decided that we would stop of for a snack. Well, more like half a cow served up on plate the size of a dustbin (trash can) lid!

Yep thats me
I think i just ate this!

Inside was amazing and everything just seemed to be as big as their steaks. I just had to try the 72oz steak that was just out of this world.

After I had finished feeding my face, stomach arms legs or just about anywhere I could put food it was time to move on. I am sure the suspension is a bit faulty as it seems to be sagging now on the driver’s side. 😀

Next day:

We have seen another famous sight on the road – Tumbleweeds, these things just appear out of nowhere to catch you out. The black blobs on the road are the weeds that just about show up on the pics.

We think this should be the next LAR Traffic Services tow truck back home in the UK! It would frighten the living daylights out of anybody when they see this coming down both sides of the road.

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The next scheduled port of call was just outside Amarillo.

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The Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm. It consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of mid twentieth century Cadillacs; the tailfins) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

After all the walking around for a while it was getting near to another meal, this time we had a light(er) meal in this lovely place at the half way point of the Mother Road and our adventure so far.

Only another 270 miles to go before we get to our next stop over in New Mexico!

Emails:

We have had a few fantastic emails from people following our travels with recommendations and places to visit. We try to look at some of them and see if they are doable in our time frame as it were. Some we have managed to visit such as the Cadillac Ranch, and some we haven’t been able to get to.

Thank you to everybody who has taken time out to mail us. 

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Route 66 – part 6

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We left Springfield and took to the road heading towards Oklahoma and we can notice a definite shift in the warmer weather as we edge closer to Texas. The roads here are just so straight and perfect for a little bit of cruise control for a relaxing drive with not much traffic.

We travelled for what seemed like ages on the long until we got to our next stop at the National Rod & Custom Car Hall of Fame, shown on the map below here.

This place is full of unique works of art and are just amazing to look at. The amount of man hours that has gone into these cars I would like to even begin to count, what a fabulous place.

We had a bite to eat and then hit the road again on our way to Oklahoma, for a rest over. Once we had found our hotel and got ready to go we ventured into the city to look for some home grown American way of life. We found a nice bar where we had a few drinks with some very nice local people who welcomed us in to their evening and conversations.

the city
the bar

Our thanks to the other customers who made sure we had a wonderful evening, jetlag or hangover? Sure it’s only jetlag. 🙂

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Route 66 – part 5

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Our journey had taken us to the outskirts of Missouri to a place called Stanton and the pictures we had taken did come out quite well we are pleased to say.

r66-36

We went to a place called Meramec Caverns which have existed for the past 400 million years, slowly forming through deposits of limestone. In centuries past, Native Americans used the cavern system for shelter.

During the 18th century, the cave was used for extracting saltpeter for the manufacture of gunpowder. In the Civil War era, the Union Army used the caves as a saltpeter plant, but the plant was discovered and destroyed by Confederate guerrillas, likely including the future infamous outlaw Jesse James. According to local legend, James and his brother and partner in crime Frank used the caves as a hideout in the 1870s. One legend in particular claims that a sheriff tracking the Jameses sat in front of the cave, waiting for Jesse and his gang to emerge; however, they had found another exit. In 1933, the extended cave system was discovered, revealing the present 4.6 miles (7.4 km), and was introduced to the public as a tourist attraction in 1935 by Lester B. Dill, who also invented the bumper sticker as a means of promoting the caverns.  In midsummer of 1972, Meramec Caverns provided the cave settings for Tom Sawyer, a musical film which was released to theaters that following year. In the 1998 movie Deep Impact (film) a reference is made to the limestone caves of Missouri as the location of the ARC shelter.

jesse James

Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. Already a celebrity when he was alive, he became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death. Scholars place him in the context of regional insurgencies of ex-Confederates following the American Civil War rather than a manifestation of frontier lawlessness or alleged economic justice.

Jesse and his brother Frank James were Confederate guerrillas or Bushwhackers during the Civil War. They were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers, including the Centralia Massacre. After the war, as members of various gangs of outlaws, they robbed banks, stagecoaches, and trains. Despite popular portrayals of James as an embodiment of Robin Hood, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, there is no evidence that he and his gang shared their loot from the robberies they committed.

The James brothers were most active with their gang from about 1866 until 1876, when their attempted robbery of a bank in Northfield, Minnesota resulted in the capture or deaths of several gang members. They continued in crime for several years, recruiting new members, but were under increasing pressure from law enforcement. On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was killed by a member of his own gang, Robert Ford, who hoped to collect a reward on James’ head.

The entrance to the seven tier tall caves.

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Marker for Jesse James

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After our trip to the caves and learning about Jesse James we found a Walmart for some supplies, what we hadn’t banked on was the selection of arms. Does anybody ever ask “Can I have a hot southern fried chicken and I will take that nice semi automatic rifle with 250 rounds too please”.

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Rebuild & Replace

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Cars have turned up we are rapidly running out of space to store them all, working on them and getting them back to the customers turns into logistical nightmare.  Anyway we have got to the point where the Rust In Piece convertible is now on the lift after we got the engine back in.

convert90

Working on the underside to get it back together again using as much of the original parts as possible from the front suspension and steering.

We are putting new brake hardware onto the axle as they were completely shot to bits and we will not allow them to be used although some people might try their luck.

Customers Cars:

We had Lance’s Gulf Stream Aqua ’65 Coupe in for a little blinging under the hood. He wanted to replace the pullies to some nice billet ones. While he was at it he changed his suspension to a nice positive Borgeson steering rack. As we were changing the pullies we fitted a nice sparkly new aluminium radiator to finish the look off. This is very pretty car under the hood now and kept Yogi quiet for a couple of days.

We hope to upload a video soon of the engine running with the new pullies in place. We let you know once it’s on our YouTube channel, click here for the link.

Rare car:

We mentioned that we will have some pictures of the rare German export model Mustang that were known as the “T5”. We have worked on this lovely car before and we said we are always pleased to have her back.

We have had a few questions about the T5 and we have added an “Article” in our menu about it click here. The car we have here is not badged exactly as they were originally on the rear trunk lid. The lettering “Mustang” was removed and was just blank. But as this trunk lid already came with the holes we asked to put the lettering in place.

The badges on the T5 are no longer made and are a rare piece of badging for the Mustang. Why was it called T5? Because it was the internal project code name at the time.

The interior badges are the same, Mustang was removed from pretty much everywhere including the steering wheel and the glove box. Another nice rare piece is the cover up late that just covered the original Mustang logo.

The interior was lovely condition too.

Adam parking her up

T514

We hope you have been enjoying Adam’s Route 66 posts, we have even learnt some stuff here too. As Adam is away we have had a few customers asking about parts. Please leave us an email for technical questions and we will try to get back to you as soon as we get a chance. You can always still order from the WebShop and Yogette will get them out as soon as she can for you.

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Route 66 – part 4

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Today we are in St Louis for a little look around this lovely place. The Gateway Arch just dominates the skyline at 630ft tall, it even has a tram to take you to the top to look out over the city. The park is a memorial to Thomas Jefferson’s role in opening the Westward expansion to the west. Clad in stainless steel and built-in the form of a flattened catenary arch, it is the world’s tallest arch, the tallest monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri’s tallest accessible building. What an incredible structure.

We went on to find that the old Union Station had been turned into an amazing hotel.

Yes I know I haven’t posted a picture of the car up yet, so here it is.

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Tomorrow we will have something special in mind and hope it comes out as well as it should do.

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Route 66 – part 3

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

The first part of the journey was relaxing once we got going. We saw a sign on our way to the next destination. That sign is the home to American Motor Racing. We were going to stop by but decided it was to far off our track to visit. Next time we will.

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We had a quick stop over at a few places including Isle A La Cache, Willbrook where we found Del Rhea’s the famous Southern Fried Chicken restaurant since the 1940’s. as seen on various TV shows. There was a farm nearby that had a petting farm and this big cock! Being a bloke thing, you just have to have you picture taken with a big cock ready for the innuendo “do you wanna see a picture of my big..” moving swiftly on!

We moved on to a place called Joliet where the Joliet Historical Museum and Welcome centre was located. There was some iron works, Joliet Kicks where I had a pic with the Blues Brothers and a car place called Dick’s who had an unusual way to store cars. The Joliet Welcome Centre had history of Route 66 and some good recommendations of places to visit along the Mother Road.

Dick’s
iron works
Joliet kicks
the Blues Brothers

This place was recommended for a quick bite to eat before we set off again.

As we weren’t in a Mustang I felt strangely drawn to this place called Mustang Corral where I at least had my first fix of Classic Mustangs.

After looking at the cars it was back on the road heading for a final destination of the day and stop over at St. Louis

we are here

A good day for sightseeing. 🙂

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Route 66 – part 2

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

During yesterday’s lazy day we had a look around the town getting ready for our road trip. We just happened to stumble across this well-known establishment while looking for the start of Route 66 with it’s world famous sign.

hoot

We eventually found the sign so we knew where to start from in the morning.

We done a spot of shopping while stocking up on some supplies, I got a couple of T-Shirts one of which speaks for itself. The other which I nearly bought says: “Rich girls break your heart – Poor girls take your money”.

We had a good rest overnight and started the day with a proper breakfast to keep us going. I couldn’t decide what to have, so I just had everything. Lynn on the other hand was much more sensible.

His
Hers

Chicago was also made famous by the quote in the classic movie – The Blues Brothers: “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark… and we’re wearing sunglasses.”  But as we are already here in Chicago we thought this might be a little more like it: “Springfield IL our next stop, our stomachs are full and we’re wearing our T-shirts”.

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Route 66 – part 1

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We are here in Chicago after a not to bad a flight lasting eight hours and ten minutes. What greeted us was worse than we left behind in the UK, snow! A couple of pics from the plane windows shows it’s not that bad, but it’s a little chilly compared to what we were expecting.

After we managed to get through customs etc. we were thinking about the car. Originally we wanted a 2015 Mustang of course, looking at the luggage and possibility of bad weather we decided to swap for a nice new Ford Explorer instead.

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There was plenty of traffic on the way to the hotel for our overnight stop before we spend the day here and loaded up on supplies. We did get stung for $40 to park the car overnight at the hotel though. But when your tired you can’t be bothered to argue.

We are hoping to find the sign for Route 66 where it starts tomorrow, you can’t come all this way without a pic of that can you? Lets hope we find it.

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Route ’66

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

For the next two weeks Adam is on holiday, he tells us it’s a much deserved break for some reason! 🙂 If you need to order any parts the WebShop will be functioning as normal, or call Yogette who will be running the office in the mean time.

The blog is planning to do is something a little different for the next couple of weeks. Adam will be travelling the world-famous Route ’66 in a Mustang with his wife Lynn, what we hope will happen is that he will be posting a couple of pics each day or every other day when something takes his fancy. All this can only happen providing he has a cell phone signal to do so of course. He also wants to see if anybody will catch up with him on the road to say “Hi” and have their pic on the blog too. We shall see.

Anyway this week has been absolutely stupid busy. We managed to reunite three cars with their owners again and a couple of those eagerly awaited pick ups were on Saturday morning. We even managed to take a few pictures of the owners with their cars and we would like to thank them for letting us do so.

First up was Colin who called in to pick up his lovely black Coupe that makes the windows rattle when it starts up or pulls away, a noisy little number who’s exhausts sound pretty mean with the new 330bhp engine. Colin was obviously happy with the sound and the look of the car. Adam was there on hand to explain what had been done so far and how to drive the car for the first 1000 miles or so until she settles down. The last part that we were waiting for was the new Pertronix distributor which arrived late last week. A bit of rush to get it all fitted, set up and settled down, but we got there. We will obviously get the car back from Colin as a standard follow-up procedure for all our new engines, just to double-check all is OK after the 1000 miles to change the oils and run a selection of spanners back over it.

Colin gets ready to hit the road, and we would like to say – “Yes Colin, we could still hear you quarter of a mile away down the road!” 😉

chriscoupe10

Update: 23/3/2015

This little section we incorrectly referred to Colin as Chris. We apologise Colin and as for the daft individual who composed this post we promptly shoved a spanner where the sun don’t shine. Sorry Colin.

Next up to go was a “Hertz Rent a Racer” ’65 fast back, which have been working on when we had a little time in between jobs. A very nice car now that just needed a couple of little bits doing to it here and there. We also have a new member for the Yogi Fan Club too because Andy wanted to have a GT350 fuel cap fitted, as Yogi was about he volunteered to fit it for Andy.

Andy posed for a quick pic by his car before he too hit the road.

Andyhertz9

Shortly after all the departures had gone, we had a genuine and rare T5 returned to us for a little work and some Mustang Maniac TLC. We hope to have those pictures ready for you in the next week or so. We are glad to welcome this little lady back again.

News:

The Rust in Piece is no longer rusty at all, in fact we need to name her something else but we are not quite sure what yet. The back-end has been fitted together and painted, both doors are in place and the starting of the suspension build. This is going to be a nice early car once she is finished.

Lastly to set a record straight.

A comment regarding the Mustang Owners Club Of Great Britain alleged fracas.

We are aware that certain members may, or may not have been banned from the Mustang Owner Club Of Great Britain. The background is that a post was made on their forum that mentioned our own fledgling Mustang Maniac Forum, if anybody was interested that is. The post was made with good intentions to help other Mustang Owners. That post was promptly removed saying that it was not acceptable. Then another post by a different member of the MOCGB was put up to ask why the previous post was removed. Again this second post (after a couple of comments were left) and their subsequent third postings were also removed. We would just like to state that we being Mustang Maniac, had nothing to do with those posts, and we even replied to the post before it was removed. We can’t speak for other people’s actions and what they do, as it’s none of our business. We will not be drawn into this rather sad situation where MOCGB feel that they do not wish to acknowledge our Forum, that’s their choice and we understand and accept that. We are bigger than that to get potentially involved in some sort of petty argument about it. Quite the contrary in fact, we have mentioned their club and their forum on this blog before with no issues at all, and why not? We will even mention them again in the future I dare say. It’s a Mustang movement of members who enjoy the cars and like to network, and we believe that the world is big enough for more than one forum to be honest. We have our target members and the MOCGB have theirs. They have their rules and we have ours. We hope that sets the record straight for anybody who may have heard anything different!

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A Good Prank On TV

Posted on March 15, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Something a bit unusual this week for you in the fact that our sister company “LAR Traffic Services” were on prime time television where our lorry was used for a TV prank on some poor guy. The program was Saturday Night Takeaway hosted by Ant & Dec during their high ratings prime time evening slot. Basically the guy liked his car and our truck was used to lift it up then crush it. The car we damaged was a replica Ford Mondeo of course, but the results were amusing. We have uploaded the video to our YouTube channel click the icon or click here for the quick link. Ant & Dec made a good job directing the chaos, we have some stills from the video clip here.

Snapshot 1

ITV Presenters Ant & Dec

The set up:

multiple cameras
truck arrives
backs up
ready for lift
guy arrives

Confrontation:

argument
car is lifted
Ant & Dec directing the chaos

Kicking off:

serious arguments
car crushed

Of course all turned out well when the guy realised it was a prank.

prank revealed

Customers Cars

This week we had a car dropped into us where the owner said the engine was feeling a little tired and could we do something about it. Of course we can depending on your budget and did! We had an engine rated somewhere between 330 & 350 bhp replaced into the car. The intake and carb were the owners own purchases which we fitted it all together for him. We had the exhaust headers treated via aluminium coating along with the intake. We replaced the pullies at the front with some nice aluminium versions for a little engine bay bling. We recycled as much as we could for the new engine.

First the tired old block was retired.

tiredeng

The replacement was fitted

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aluminium coated headers

This little lady looks and sounds the part now.

Rust in Piece

Not too much this week to show as it has been mainly prep work. More fittings have been attached and the left side lower suspension now in place. We cleaned up the front springs and they are ready for fitting. The rear axle has come back from shot blasting and has been painted ready for the diff rebuild.

News:

Due to amount of stock coming in and out of the stores via the WebShop now we have made some changes to the premises. We have replaced the old roller shutter with a new full width security roller shutter. This will allow pallets to be delivered directly into the dispatch area now ready for stock location or distribution. In fact we now have enough room for a car to be stored in there, we know because we already tried it.

door

Forum:

We have had a few of our good customers now sign up to the forum and we now want to get more people involved. If you know of anybody who has a classic Mustang get them to join us, its free at https://mustangmaniac.co.uk/forum/

Quick links:

LAR Website http://www.lar.uk.com/ or click here

LAR prank video click here, or click on the YouTube logo to go to our Mustang Maniac channel for all our other videos.

youtube

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