Our New Mustang Forum

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

A very exciting week for Mustang Maniac, behind the scenes for the last few weeks we have had a small group of guys working hard on our all NEW Classic Mustang Forum. I would like to say a very big Thank You to ALL of the guys involved who have made this possible. I might even let you have ~~some~~ one of my Jaffa Cakes!

Mustang Maniac are moving with the 21st Century and we can hardly believe it ourselves, firstly there was the Website which has now evolved into our ultra efficient WebShop with Gift Vouchers functionality. Next up was the blog, where we share our work, tips, photos, projects, news and hopefully a little fun. Now we have our next big step the MM “Forum”. This forum will be old school Mustangs based, where you can share ideas, problems, solutions and help your fellow Mustang enthusiast out. We will be on there too posting and answering where we can and we have the time. The Forum’s motto is very simple; “Be Nice” as all posts will be monitored. On the Forum we are not interesting in what you have for sale such as, “2 buckets of Lego £5” or “super spin abc washing machine, 15 years old £30”. Etc. But if you have a 351 Cleveland for sale – then we want to see that. If you have taken your ride to a show we want to know about it, if you planted a pack daffodils in auntie Mary’s flower pot, then we don’t want to know. The whole idea is that we want to engage and help owners of the Classic Mustangs era ’64 to ’70. Special features could well be added to the Forum depending how it takes off in the future, if you have some ideas of what could go on the forum, let us know via a message or email. Of course we know there are other forums out there, we even belong to some of them, some very good, some not so good and some of the others just want to be chat site or be negative.

We like to think our Forum is a clean modern looking environment, made by us, just for you – because you asked.

Our Forum is free for all to join from all over the word, unlimited posts, unlimited help or guidance, but above all, a network of enthusiasts who share your interests. Make the forum yours and get out of it what you want. The new Forum is held on our own servers and will be secure and that means; No spam, No pop up adverts, No third party pain. This is an evolving forum that has just been released to the world, hopefully the Forum will look after itself going forward and be a big success. We have also added a menu button at the top of the blog to allow you to jump straight there.

Welcome to our Mustang Maniac Forum, click here or cut and paste the link below to your browser and add as a bookmark.

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

Some screen shots.

We look forward to seeing you there.

“Rust In Piece” Convertible update.

This little lady is turning out to be another popular featured car. The front end has been now been rebuilt, with emphasis on details of cleaning the welding up and making the repairs disappear. The metalwork has now been prepped with primer ready for top coat. Such a difference now compared to how she came in. We pride ourselves in making these rusty old cars into fabulous motoring works of art again. This lady will live on for another 50 years at least now.

The floor pans have now been cleaned up.

The back of the car has now had the light panel refitted ready for the rear valance to be fitted.

Customers Cars

The ’66 Coupe restoration has now hit the slow part, wires! This will take a few days to sort out, but these things can’t be rushed If you want a good looking job.

The Yogi Fan Club

Yes last week had a little fun and mentioned Yogi, it’s true we have been asked who he is and this week a couple of emails to say the cartoon of Yogi was funny, but can we have a real picture. As ever we oblige and we found a picture he has on his own avatar and forum pages!

We would like to point out that any similarities of the picture and Yogi are intentional, except that our Yogi don’t have a green hat!

Posted in Blog, Forum, News, Repairs, Webshop | Tagged '66 Coupe, 21st century, convertible, floor pan, Forum, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Mustang Maniac Forum, rust, Rust in Piece, WebShop, wiring, Yogi, Yogi Fan Club | Leave a comment

Who is the Yogi?

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This week has been a productive week with the “Rust In Piece” project coming along well with the front end now been replaced and put back together again. The final welding and clean ups of the welds are to be done this week if all goes to plan. The underside chassis legs front and rear are in place and welded up to the new floor give the structural integrity back to the car.

The rear section has been strengthened with the rails under the light panel being replaced ready for the rear valance to be refitted.

Customer Cars:

The race car project has been worked on this week by Yogi with him busy refitting the front suspension and steering being fitted.

Just for Fun:

Ok, as much as we hate to admit it, we have been asked for a picture of our “Yogi” as it’s an unusual name. You may be surprised to know that Yogi is not his real name of course, oh and he doesn’t live in Jellystone Park either, but we will oblige those couple of emails by posting a picture as requested. Yogi can often be seen lurking around multiple Mustangs in his cave, if you stray into his cave make sure you shut the door behind you, he don’t like getting cold! However, we would kindly ask any of our very welcome visitors to our workshops, please do not to feed the bear!

In fact we may even start a Mustang Maniac Yogi Fan Club!

Quiz:

A while ago now we posted a small picture of a car and asked for you to let us know what you think it is. We decided it’s about time we done another one. We think this is pretty difficult, so we will give you a clue, this car is a “real one off”!

We will see how it goes, before we give the answer to this one, maybe next week or two.

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Our Cars, Photos | Tagged convertible, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, quiz, race car, steering, suspension, welding, Yogi | Leave a comment

Speed Dating – Mustang Style

Posted on February 12, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We are pretty sure that everybody is aware that this weekend is Valentine’s Day. To celebrate the day Ford have released a fantastic prank video with a twist. Most of the time the videos on YouTube feature blokes with fast cars scaring the living daylights out of the unfortunate ladies sitting in the passenger seat. Ford have turned the tables on the men, they have a top female stunt driver let loose in a 2015 Mustang. The blind date sets up the men with a not so innocent shy young lady. The results are hilarious and you just have to watch this three-minute video. Enjoy. 🙂

Click on the YouTube logo below to take you to our video channel.

We have plenty of little gifts for a your loved ones online or at our stores.

Our popular WebShop: www.mustangmaniac.co.uk

We wish you all a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Posted in Video | Tagged blind date, Ford, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, prank, stunt driver, Valentine's Day, YouTube | 2 Comments

Homework

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

A busy week here at Mustang Maniac big projects continue on the “Rust in Piece” and to an engine refit with a set of LED light upgrade at the rear on a car we have had for a while now. Apart from the busy days with work on the car Adam has been doing some homework. Most of the time he will only read Mustang related Magazines, articles or books being “Haynes” style, every so often an odd American car magazine. This week has seen him wandering around with a book in his hand, looking at a car looking at the book and wandering off again. Why? Well the Race car is back from a paint shop and now needs to be fitted out. The car is going to be entered into the highly competitive world of Classic Car racing, the car will need to conform to the FIA Regulations. The regulations are a mine field at the best of times, but they are very strict on what can and can’t be used in racing. As such we need to make sure this car fits with the rules. No extra strengthening here or no lightening there etc. on this car. We originally had the car come into us with a modified bodywork so that had to be changed for the current rules. Then it was sent of to be dipped of all rust and then painted. The paint job is a very nice paint job considering that it’s going racing and will probably pick up a few knocks in her future life. We are expecting the FIA representative to take a look at the work soon and sign of the car as meeting the required standards.

As the car arrived to us

Arrived back after the strip dipping

Once some of the panels were repaired we then released the car for paint and she came back looking like this. The hood is fitted with a full set of pins to hold it in place rather than the standard hinges. This will probably be the prettiest car on the start line. We have even taken a few arty pics with the USA flag and chequered flag we have on our wall. We hope this little lady will see plenty of those in her forthcoming career.

The interior and underside have also been given some nice attention too.

Rust in Piece – Continued.

This has seen a lot of popularity from the responses we have been getting so we will be giving more updates on this as we move along with the project which is going very well so far. The front firewall has now been replaced along with the corresponding panels and the sill fronts have been welded into place. We tried to rescue the bottom of the pillars that were offering no structural support at all, but we had to replace them.

The rear section wheel arches were rusted badly and a hole strip had to be cut away and replaced with new strips of shaped metal and welded into place. The drop panels have been welded in and we need to complete the outer arches and finish it all off for a final clean up.

drop panel

metal being shaped and fitted

new metal in place

chassis

Customer Cars

The ’66 Coupe full restoration has taken another step forward with some specialised sound proofing being added to the flooring, this will make a huge difference to the car, especially as the exhausts are expected to be on louder side of standard should we say.

The drivers fresh air vent and wipers have been fitted as well.

air vent

Export

We have a fine example of a car that has been brought back from Europe and we have been asked to look her over for anything that needs doing. This is a genuine export car with an I6 engine. We will grab some more photo’s of her soon, but here is nice shot we took after the first road test late yesterday.

Posted in Customers' Cars, Our Cars, Photos, Webshop | Tagged 2 speed wiper motor, Coupe, export model, FIA, FIA regulations, I6, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, paint shop, race cars, rust | Leave a comment

Snow Swap

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We have been hearing a lot about the snow in the USA and we are expecting it too. This week we have had a few flurries of snow but nothing major. So just to make our friends on the other side of the pond feel at home we took a picture. Lucky for us it was raining earlier so it didn’t get a chance to settle luckily.

We having been working on the “Rust In Piece” convertible again this week and made massive progress by cutting the front off as the panels were to rotten to salvage. The floor area has been cleaned up and replace with a complete floor pan and all the relevant fittings. The safe and sure way is to replace the parts and start from a solid foundation. This is exactly the same principles we used in the now wonderful “Mastic Mustang” posts. This will be another nice car once we finished with her.

Old look set of the front of the car.

The floor pans now in place.

The bits we didn’t want? Well they were added to the scrap pile.

During the week we had a call from a good customer of ours to say that they wanted to pick up their car from our storage. This was fine by us of course, but as a result we had a swap round with some of the cars. As if by an unscripted choreography the cars were moved and replaced back to their homes, just for now that is!

John’s regal wave!

The cars were all tucked up safe and sound to avoid the snow!

Customers Cars:

’66 Coupe full restoration has taken a big step forward with the engine being settled into place and looks pretty good. The next jobs will be to get the under dash fittings in place.

We have been looking at the state of the fuel tank and removed the sender to drain the remains of the old fuel that was sitting at the bottom. The sender was removed and we decided that this one had seen better days. The fact is that when you are at this level of restoration then the last thing you should do is put in a rusty old fuel tank, the rubbish and rust thrown through the engine could cause chaos with the carb, and possibly damage all sorts of items let alone block the fuel lines.

If you find that your fuel gauge is a little erratic then check the sender!

Posted in Customers' Cars, Our Cars | Tagged choreography, convertible, engine, Falcon, fuel, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, scarp, sender unit, snow | Leave a comment

Rust In Piece

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

We are dedicated to our customers and they will always come first for us. We offer our best advice and help where we can depending on the budget available. We often get cars that have been started and get to the point where the owner can’t continue and needs help. We also get cars that just need a little tweak here and there or a service. This week we have a car that has been neglected underside and out of sight. The car is rusted badly on the chassis and fixing this is our priority before we look at the cosmetics of the car. The car will need some major repairs that will out way the original cost of the car. But, sometimes we do things just for the love of it as well as the challenge of course. The Mastic Mustang posts was a good example of rust to reborn metal, and now we have this 64 1/2 convertible in our care for virtually the same reasons. As per the title of this post “rust in piece”(s) was rather apt as its rusted for sure, but we will piece it all back together again. Some would have taken this little lady to the great scrapyard in the sky, not us. We will do this project proud and get her back on the road. Why? Just because we can. The work has already started in earnest and we have removed the rusted floor and exposed the panels and holes that need repairing. Due to the nature of the work and delicate state of the chassis structure we have mounted it straight onto the jig to keep her still and in place while we strengthen and weld her back together again.

floor removed

bad sill

panel to be removed

panel replaced

rubbish inside the chassis

under the rear seat

front chassis

bumper irons

removed metal so far

Like all things this will be a lovely car once it’s finished, the panel work is looking to be pretty good and we really look forward to doing this little lady proud.

Other Cars:

We have been working on Mart’s car and his disc brake upgrade kit he was after has arrived from the USA and has already been fitted to the front spindles. Upgraded steel braided brake pipes were the only choice here to make the car looking as good mechanically as the paint job.

The stance on the car was to be more neutral rather than the traditional nose up stance, so the high performance upgraded springs have been fitted to set of performance shocks to match the rear shocks.

The steering and brake lines have been added and Yogi seemed to be enjoying himself getting the underside of this car finished. We must say that Yogi does love the artist element of his brake pipe work, each car is different depending on the build, unless it’s going to be concourse. How can you tell it’s Yogi’s work? We will let the pictures tell the story.

Treats

We often have visitors bring us goodies in for us such as Jaffa Cakes, or big bones for the pack of dogs etc. Recently we were given some treats for the dogs, they were exceptionally well-behaved for some reason.

In the Office:

It’s often said that “many a true word are spoken in jest.” A kind customer has had some desk signs made for us, the customers that have seen them all say the same thing,”That’s so true!”

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Photos, Webshop | Tagged 1964 1/2, disc brake conversion, dogs, Jaffa Cakes, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, performance shocks, rust, steering, suspension, Yogi | 2 Comments

Fordite

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

This week a good friend of ours and a former Ford Motor Company employee has kindly donated us a pretty cool item. That item is called Fordite or Detroit Agate or Motor Agate, but it’s all the same thing. There are many places where this can be obtained even from the Mopar boys but it’s still generally called Fordite. What is nice to know is that the sample we have is from the Ford factory at Dearborn in Michigan. There are many web sites out there that will turn these waste and beautiful chunks of solid paint into recycled jewellery, paper weights or ornaments etc.

We have found out a little history on the subject but many websites all say the same thing: The original layered automotive paint slag “rough” was made incidentally, years ago, by the now extinct practice of hand spray-painting multiples of production cars in big automotive factories. The oversprayed paint in the painting bays gradually built up on the tracks and skids that the car frames and panels were painted on. Over long periods of time, many colourful layers of paint built up there. We have also found out that it’s not just the tracks where this agate was formed, but also the ventilation ducting above the units. Fine particles of paint were sucked up through the ducting fans and was also formed there too. This would also eventually cause problems of the same nature, more Fordite.

These layers of Fordite were hardened repeatedly in the ovens that the car bodies went into to cure the paint. Some of these deeper layers were even baked 100’s of times. Eventually, the paint build-up would become obstructing, or too thick and heavy, and had to be removed. As the story goes, some crafty workers with an eye for beauty realized that this unique byproduct was worth salvaging. It was super-cured, patterned like psychedelic agate, and could be cut and polished with relative ease! Sadly, the techniques that produced this great rough many years ago, are no longer in practice for health and safety reasons, along with efficiency and cost effectiveness reasons. Cars today are now painted by way of an electrostatic process that essentially magnetizes the paint to the car bodies. This leaves little, or no overspray waste. Sadly once this wonderful material goes it will not be replaced.

A lot can be told from the individual Fordite samples, the car plants tend to have layers of primer in between the coats of colour, even the trend of colours will determine their age, such as more vivid colours of the sixties, or to the more basic rustic colours of the van plants etc. A fascinating story and a little piece of history in each sample. How long will it be before this stuff ends up behind glass in a museum because of the lead content perhaps in some samples? We also know that this has been recreated perhaps forged even with a deliberate spray build up.

Customers Cars:

It seems that we have a very, very lucky customer. Chris had bought his wife a Fox bodied 5.0 Mustang has just had his car MOT and it passed fine.

We had noticed the car was running a little rough then started to get a lot worse. We knew about the oil leak from the rocker covers and we were going to replace the gaskets for him. While we were at it we would also give the car a much-needed service. The first job was to remove the rocker covers and we found that a complete corner of the gasket was missing from one bank of cylinders. Easy enough job to fix but a real pain to do if that makes sense, as the centre inlet manifold was attached to all sorts of cables and sensors we didn’t want to disturb. On the classic cars it was a simple case of unbolt the carb, remove it and you had full access to it all. The gaskets were replaced and no more leaks.

Second job was to change the spark plugs and they were rusted pretty badly, we soon found the reason for the misfires and pour running. Something we had never seen before in all of the years we have been fixing these classic cars. A broken spark plug. Not just the ceramic which we have obviously seen, but the complete bolt flat fittings had broken away as we started to undo it. Now as it turns out we knew they were going to be tight so we soaked them in Gibbs Brand lubricant to free them all up. We managed to get enough of the spark plug undone so we could get a selection of tools down to the bottom of the spark plug and gently work it to ease it out. Best case scenario was what we had, it came out. The worse case was to take the head(s) of and get it out, while you were taking one head of you may as well do both. That would have been an expensive service! Luckily it wasn’t to bad as the rest of the service went fine, it just took us a while longer to get the bottom of the spark plug out.

News:

The WebShop has had more reclaims on our Gift Vouchers we are pleased to say. We have even had visitors to the shop and they have even commented on how neat and tidy it all looks – now that is first for Mustang Maniac!

Posted in Customers' Cars, News, Photos | Tagged Dearborn, Detroit Agate, ducting, Fordite, Jewellery, MOT, Motor Agate, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, overspray, spark plugs | 1 Comment

Mustang GT350R Press Release

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Shelby GT350R Mustang:

The most Track-Capable production Mustang ever built coming to the U.S. & Canada later this year.

 A combination of changes to aerodynamics and suspension tuning to the new Shelby® GT350R Mustang leads to most race-ready road-legal Mustang ever

 Significant engineering innovations result in weight savings, aero improvements to benefit on-track performance; Ford is the first major automaker to introduce carbon fiber wheels as standard equipment on Shelby GT350R Mustang

 New Shelby GT350R, a limited-production performance Mustang, will be available later this year

DETROIT, – Ford today (Jan 12th 2015) unveiled the new Shelby® GT350R Mustang, the most track-ready road-going production Mustang ever built.

In 1965, Ford and Carroll Shelby developed a road-racing version of the popular Ford Mustang – the Shelby GT350 Competition model. Lighter, more powerful and with a highly developed suspension, it is one of the most iconic racing Mustangs ever produced.

Arriving later this year, the new Shelby GT350R has been designed and engineered in the same spirit, delivering never-before-seen track capability from a Mustang – thanks to innovations in aerodynamics, chassis engineering and light-weighting.

“The Shelby GT350R Mustang is a no-compromise car in the pursuit of maximum track capability,” said Raj Nair, Ford group vice president, Global Product Development. “It is a thoroughbred street car making use of technology and ingenuity to deliver performance few enthusiasts have ever experienced.”

The car features the first-ever production V8 from Ford with a flat-plane crankshaft – the most powerful naturally aspirated engine Ford has ever produced – plus a specially tuned suspension. It is fitted with revised spring rates and antiroll bars, lower ride height, unique track-tuned alignment settings, revised bushings and jounce bumpers, cross-axis ball joints in the front suspension, and revised calibration controlling the MagneRide dampers.

“The Shelby GT350R Mustang is a car with the nimbleness and power delivery you want on a road course,” said Nair. “This isn’t just about horsepower. The Shelby GT350R is an all-around balanced athlete – one that is extraordinarily precise and agile.”

Track technology for the street

Lightweight carbon fiber wheels are standard on Shelby GT350R, making Ford the first major automaker to introduce this innovative wheel technology as standard equipment.

Carbon fiber wheels have been offered on only a handful of exotic supercars and will benefit Shelby GT350R performance by shaving critical unsprung weight and reducing rolling inertia. The 19×11-inch front and 19×11.5-inch rear wheels provide approximately 13 pounds of unsprung weight reduction per wheel and offer higher levels of stiffness than equivalent aluminum wheels.

The lightweight wheels will be shod in Michelin’s top-shelf Pilot Sport Cup 2 high-performance tires with rubber compound and a construction unique to Shelby GT350R. This combination of incredibly stiff and light wheels with bespoke tires offers customers exceptional steering feel and levels of performance.

Weight reduction in pursuit of performance

Ford engineers delivered against aggressive targets for weight reduction on the Shelby GT350R. If a part did not make the car faster around a road course, it was considered for deletion.

Items removed include air conditioning, the stereo system, rear seats, trunk floorboard and carpet, backup camera and emergency tire sealer and inflator. Exhaust resonators also have been removed for weight savings with the benefit of creating a sharper exhaust tone.

Shelby GT350R is more than 130 pounds lighter than the Shelby GT350 Track Pack model, which has proven its durability in multiple 24-hour racetrack tests.

For customers seeking more comfort in their Shelby GT350R, Ford is offering an optional Electronics Package. Included is dual-zone air conditioning, 8-inch touch screen with navigation, seven-speaker audio system, turn signal mirrors and more.

Aggressive aerodynamics

Shelby GT350R has been optimized for aerodynamic excellence. Details including the hood vent for heat extraction and lift reduction, underbody belly pans front and rear, an aggressive diffuser, vented wheel wells and turbulence-reducing fender vents, wheel air curtains and side skirts all remain on Shelby GT350R, but the car’s downforce capability has been increased.

Revisions to the front splitter maximize downforce, while an all-new high-efficiency carbon fiber rear wing has been added in anticipation of competition. The wing moves the vehicle’s center of pressure rearward while improving downforce and lift balance – ideal for high-speed track work.

“Shelby GT350R’s highly efficient aerodynamics, innovative light-weighting and world-class chassis deliver a truly spectacular driving experience that makes you feel like a professional racing driver,” said Kerry Baldori, Ford Performance chief functional engineer.

World-class powertrain

The new 5.2-liter dual-overhead-cam V8 engine is the first-ever production V8 from Ford with a flat-plane crankshaft – an architecture typically found only in racing applications or exotic European sports cars.

Unlike traditional V8s, where the connecting rods are attached to the crankshaft at 90-degree intervals, this design evenly spaces all crank pins at 180-degree intervals to optimize high-speed engine breathing. It is the most powerful naturally aspirated production Ford engine ever, with more than 500 horsepower and more than 400 lb.-ft. of torque.

An air-to-oil engine oil cooler typically found only on race cars maintains engine temperatures under the most severe conditions, as does a standard cooler for the six-speed manual transmission.

A Ford-tuned limited-slip Torsen differential with 3.73 axle ratio is optimized for cornering grip and straight-line traction, while an electronically modulated rear-mounted air-to-oil differential cooler maintains ideal temperatures during track driving.

Dedicated R design details

Aside from carbon fiber wheels, larger front splitter and rear wing, Shelby GT350R features distinct design details. Exterior touches include red painted brake calipers, red pin striping at the edges of the optional over-the-top racing stripes and Shelby GT350R badging. Inside is high-contrast red stitching, Shelby GT350R badging and the D-shaped steering wheel fitted with a red center mark at the top.

New breed of performance

The limited-production Shelby GT350R will be available in the United States and Canada later this year, and is one of more than 12 new Ford Performance vehicles coming by 2020.

“This is the pinnacle of performance Mustangs today,” said Dave Pericak, director, Ford Performance. “The Shelby GT350R Mustang lays the groundwork for a story that will play out for years to come on the track and the street.”

Artist’s board to the Track

We can compare just how got the artist impression was of the GT350R by these drawings and the real thing.

Have we ever mentioned that we want one? well, we do!

Posted in Articles | Tagged aero, carbon fibre, Detroit, GT350R, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, performance, Street Legal Mustang, Track day | 5 Comments

All Change…

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

Here at Mustang Maniac we pride ourselves as an evolving company; We have listened to few comments and we are working to improve things. So we would like to say apologise to our customers that have tried to get hold of us via the phone to find it takes a while or have try again later. We don’t mind making the apologies as we know it’s short-term. I will try to explain, the WebShop is steadily increasing in popularity and orders are increasing we’re pleased to say. Taking orders over the phone means we then have to get the order, update the stock and then prep the order for dispatch. Sometimes both Yogette and Adam are sorting and dispatching orders, sometimes Adam is dealing with customers cars so that only leaves Yogette to man the phone and prep the orders. Both of these examples can mean delays in answering the phone. So to help this situation we are investing in some staff, we are going to be creating a Dispatch room with access to our computerised stock location and management system. Someone will be dedicated to getting the WebShop orders together, wrapping and dispatching them to our customers. We will have some pictures of the new room and staff soon, once it’s all up and running of course. In order to get this done some very long hours have been put in over Christmas and the New Year. Stock has been moved around, massive stock tagging and organisation has been undertaken in order to make this work. We have even found stock we never knew we had. 🙂 We are also thinking of upgrading the phone system to try and help out. We have a few pictures of one of the rooms that has been reorganised so far with the new bin locations now been updated on the WebShop.

Customers Cars:

We are working on a few cars at the moment, but the main job has been to get Mart’s car off the trolley and onto some ramps properly to work on her. Yogi has been doing a good job on the fuel line before the major parts get fitted and make it awkward. How do we know? Because we have done it so many times before, past experience that’s how. Stance of his car needs to be considered at this early stage. Traditionally the Mustang has a slight up in the air stance at the front, over the years as the leaf springs sag at the rear and the hood up stance becomes more pronounced. Mart wants to have a more neutral look on stance, so he has gone for our top of the range 1″ lower high performance springs at the front compared to the stock stance springs to help him get that look. These are not cheap springs by any means, but boy do you get what you pay for and these springs are well worth the money for the extra handling alone.

The front of the car has had the suspension fitted, which is the new upper and lower control arms, spring perches, 1″ anti roll bar and all bushes, tie rod bushings etc. At the rear the new leaf springs fitted, the stainless steel leaf spring shackles and bushes, the new shocks from a little while ago and all the bushings. The axle has been mounted and bolted into place with new U-Bolts.

New heights:

While Yogi was working on Mart’s car a visit from Terry & John at the end of the day for a chat and catch up turned out to be a good laugh. During this sequence of photos we are wondering how Terry’s height has improved. Now we are not saying anything was amiss here, but suspicions were raised when a number of different sized boxes were strangely stacked where he was standing! Needless to say a good way to end the day – on a high if you know what we mean. 🙂

Blog:

We have added a new Menu item called “Cars for Sale – WebShop“. This will have links to cars that we currently have for sale and we start with a mighty beast – 68 shelby KR 500 ‘tribute’, click here for the quick link and all the photos from this series. This car is just more than the “Tribute”, as it has modern components and put together by us from the ground up. A spectacular car to drive and not for the faint hearted. From the turn of the key to the last roll of the wheel this will make the hairs on your neck stand up.

Posted in Blog, Cars For Sale, Customers' Cars, News, Sales, Webshop | Tagged Adam, car stance, Cars For Sale, computer, high performance, KR GT500, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Mustang ride height, Shelby, springs, stock, WebShop, Yogette, Yogi | 5 Comments

Back To Work

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Mustang Maniac

First post of the year so it has to start with Happy New Year of course, we hope you all had a great Christmas. While we are on the subject of Christmas we would like to share our amusing gift of the year. We won’t say who bought Adam the T-shirt, but it has been his favorite item of clothing since. Anyway moving swiftly along!

Customer’s Cars:

We have had a customer’s car come into us which he has bought for his partner as a present. The car needs a little tender loving care and an MOT of course. Most people tend to get a puppy or a kitten for Christmas, but this lucky lady owner got a 5.0 v8 Pony. The interior is in excellent condition and the paint should buff up just fine. We are having a look over the underside and mechanics for any work that may need doing. From what we have seen – so far so good. We don’t mean things like broken headlight etc. as that is a simple fix before anybody mentions that!

For the last proper post before our Christmas break Mart’s Coupe (from one man and his Mustang), had just come back from paint as an early Christmas present. Yeah we gave him a surprise as it’s always nice to see the smile on the owners face when they get their pride and joy back. this was a little different as a lot of the hard work was all done by hand, and the fruits of that labour intensive job are wheeled back into a work shop. As promised we have a few more pics of his car taking her to a temporary new home.

As Mart’s Coupe was returning we swapped it out for our ’67 fastback shell that was ready for another top class paint job. The customer has told us what colour it will be, but we will keep that a secret just for now, only untill it comes back completed of course. We will of course post some updates of this one being completed too.

To sum up the end of the year, we were busy with projects and the WebShop is getting busier all the time. We have already had some of the vouchers used online and so far they have proved very popular. The emails So much so that we are going to have to create a dedicated dispatch area as the office is no longer suitable. That is in the process at the moment and we will bring you pictures of that soon. We tidied up the yard yet again which seems to be never-ending job at the moment, but during the clean and tidy up we just happened to look over to one of our workshops and took a couple of pictures of our customer’s car at different times of the day. Very sinister looking in fact!

Video:

We have uploaded a new video to our YouTube account of the 1964 Ford Mustang production line. The video for Martha Reeves and the Vandellas – Nowhere To Run was filmed at the plant, due to production requirements Ford refused to stop the production for the video. The result was during the 2 minutes and 45 seconds it took to film Ford made a new car! click here to go straight to the video or click on the YouTube logo below for our channel. We have taken some screen shots of the video for you to look at here. It’s worth watching just for the great song anyway.