Route 66 – part 2

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.

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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.

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

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

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!” 😉

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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.

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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

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:

Confrontation:

Kicking off:

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

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.

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The replacement was fitted

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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.

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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.

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The Monster Returns

We have been busy this week with various projects and the fact that we had a glorious weekend means some of our loyal customers get their cars out just for a drive, most of the time they end up here just for a look around and that is fine by us. One of those customers and our good friend has a richly deserved nickname of “Lob Monster”. While working on the back panel of his car our painter saw the amount of filler or “Lob” he was using and gave him some friendly stick. Yogi decided on the name Lob Monster and it has stuck ever since. So much so that his number plates tip the nod to his nick name too. Paul’s ’66 Coupe is a rare beast, as it was built specifically for export, as a result the Vin Code does not have a letter but a number, “3” in this case. The car was imported back to the UK  after 1966 so the number plate suffix of “F” was assigned to the car. The Lob Monster has added some details on the forum as well about the vin codes, click here for the quick link to read up on it. We have a few pictures of the car as it is now, but we will be creating a start to finish of his full restoration and the unusual payment he made to a friend who helped him with the welding at the beginning. So if somebody tells you that all Mustangs must have a letter, you now know better.

(Sorry Lob Monster need more time to get the page up and edited, it will be very soon though.)

Just why did Paul turn up – simple to show us he has finally fitted his new wheels that he bought from us. If you ask him he may have a nice set of wheels and tires up for sale soon. Check the forum just in case he does.

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Rust in Piece

The car is getting the base paint spray over to get it ready for the final coats. The peripherals are being fitted back in, brakes, wires, pipes etc ready for the engine. One of the doors is now fitted up and the trunk lid is being prepped ready for the weather strips.

We are pleased with the progress and how she is coming along now. It shouldn’t be to long before she is finished.

Black to Black

We have had a couple of black cars in and walking past the workshop with the sun shining it made for a couple of nice arty pictures. They do look spectacular when cleaned and polished we must say.

’66 Full restoration

Mart has been a busy boy sorting out his wiring, it has got to the stage where he is putting the switches on the dash ready for the power up.

Adam will be away for a few days this week so he won’t be in the office. But if you wish to order parts the WebShop is still your best bet.

Forum

We have amended the Forum to add the Vin Codes and how they work after we received an email if we could add it. It’s under the newly renamed Technical Questions and Data section of click here for the quick link. Remember to sign up for free for a chat, share your photo’s or ask a question, maybe even answer a question too.

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What a Diff(erence)

The tittle is a play on words, but we liked it. We wanted to share with you a little something we see quite often here at Mustang Maniac. This is a piece of work that we keep putting back due to other priorities, but as it has now been sold we have to get on with it. The rear axle and Diff(erential) had been sitting around for about thirty years now and we needed to be clean up as the axle and diff as a customer was in need of this particular ratio. The oil had gone a little hard and was more like black treacle than an oil. We have seen diff’s on a customers cars that have not been changed since the day they were made. Obviously any lubricating properties have since been depleted and the fact the oil is sticking could lead to wear and tear on the differential itself. Not the cheapest of part to buy so a diff oil change is seriously recommended by us and most times we’re not happy until we know it’s been done. The brake drums had to come off and we removed the complete brake plate from each side, the hardware was replaced a while ago when we started this, but like some things, this never got round to being finished. One side of drive shaft came out without a hint of trouble, the other was a different story, slide and copper hammers were required to give it a little start should we say. Once we have cleaned up the diff and checked it all over we will put it all back together again as we have asked to do.

Just in case you wanted to see what was inside a diff, here’s your chance.

The hardware was laid out nicely so we could see if we need to replace any of it.

Rust In Piece (No More)

As we predicted a while ago this early coupe is now on the home straight. Bodywork wise this car is now rust free, solid and safe, as well as looking factory fresh under the skin. The sills have been repaired or replaced, inner engine bay panels replaced, chassis legs front and rear replaced, complete new floor pans fitted, new firewall fitted. In fact everything from the cowls forward have been replaced as some of it unfortunately couldn’t be saved.

Soon we will be starting on the engine and gearbox to see how they go. Again we wont know fully until we take some things apart and inspect them.

Customer Cars

We mentioned a few blogs ago that we had Chris’ i6 in for a complete restoration. Unfortunately we had to move his car outside temporarily as we need the space for an urgent crash repair to a car. In order to stop the chances of rain damaging the car we have erected a very temporary roof over his car. We have the rotisserie outside with the car now which should be mounted on it soon. Those with sharp observational skills will recognise it from when it last used on Mart’s ’66 Coupe while his floor and chassis work was being done. This type of messy and dusty work is better being done outside in the fresh air where possible for obvious reasons. We will put some temporary sides around the car soon to stop any side rain or damp getting to the car once this work begins.

News

The Mustang Maniac Forum is taking on new members now so we are pleased with that. We hope to add some technical information to the Forum soon as a reference guide as soon as we have some time. We have added a link to the side of the blog as well now to make it easier to get there. Click the logo below for a quick link.

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Click here for the quick link

 

WebShop

We have almost run out of our vouchers and we are hoping to get some more in. If you plan on getting some vouchers soon we hope to have a new batch in by mid-week.

Mustang Maniac Gift Vouchers

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Our New Mustang Forum

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!

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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.

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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.

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

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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!

RUFUS RUFFCUT 2

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!

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Who is the Yogi?

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.

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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!

Yogi

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”!

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

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Speed Dating – Mustang Style

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.

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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.

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Homework

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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