Enfield Pageant 2014 (Part1)

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

Part 1 – Traffic lights!

 It’s that time of year again when the event organisers book space for the dedicated Classic car enthusiasts to bring their pride and joy to the classic car shows. Last year was glorious weather and the show was busy. This year the UK bank holiday rain curse hits again. The rain kept a lot people away as they didn’t want to get their cars wet which we can understand of course. The thunder and lightning at one point made the tents very popular. Once the downpour had finished the bright sun came out and people were walking around soaked in the sunshine. Such a strange day. The visitors that did make the effort came to see the war years themed event which was informative, and had a few nice bits of memorabilia in there. On our pitch we had a total of nine cars which included customers cars that had been loaned to us for the show, we would like to thank you very much. Al bought his “Coz I can” Mach 1 with him, we had the equally famous 1000bhp UBB Mustang which was shown on 5th Gear and driven by Vicki Butler-Henderson on the show. The KR replica was there again, we had some great compliments about all the cars and we had a steady stream of photos taken with them. There was our traffic light cars as it was pointed out to us (red, amber & green), and it was also said “I wouldn’t like to come up against any of these at a set of lights!” The Falcon Ranchero was a popular car which we have just had sign written as it’s the company pick up with style. We have taken a number of shots of the pageant around eighty in total with a number in reserve. We will post again over the next few days to make it a more manageable read.

We will start with our cars we had, we had a nice stream of people visiting us and we had a crowd around us at one point that were calling for us to start the UBB up. We did of course oblige and nobody could hear a word! We have a video of it starting up and we will post that on YouTube along with some of the other things we need to post on there as well. Don’t worry we will let you know when we do. Which one is the UBB (in case you didn’t know as we took the stickers off),  it’s the one where the engine is too big to fit under the hood and had a hole cut in the high-rise hood to allow it to shut!

There was a nice selection of trucks at the show, and we took some pics of the more unusual ones:

It was interesting to see the reactions of the visitors to our cars on display, there was the younger generation interested in the UBB and the white Shelby, the older visitors were looking at the classics.  All appreciated the Mustang brand and we even gave away a few of our Mustang Maniac key hooks.

Car that needs no introduction was there from the London Motor Museum:

In part 2 will have some pics of a wonderful Greyhound bus, some American and British classic cars too.

We have added another five wallpapers for you to download and hope you enjoy them. We were asked if there would be more so somebody obviously knew about our new menu for the photos. So as requested the wallpapers are here but also at the Menu bar under downloads.

Quick Links:

UBB 1000BHP on 5th Gear click here

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An Offer Accepted!

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

We like to think that that everything we have here at Mustang Maniac has a value. that value will be worth more to some than others. We had a project lined up and we have been keeping some parts for that project. But a customer came along and saw what we had and made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. So we put it all on pallet for him and waited for it’s collection. The guy was very happy, we were happy to have sold some parts, but on the other hand, the project had in mind may just have to wait for a little while longer now. What am I talking about? Well, we just sold a genuine 1969 Boss 302 Engine, Gearbox and it’s matching headers. The engine is the real deal with the screw in core plugs which were the give away for this particular engine along with the very specific manifold. Somebody has got themselves a very nice pallet of goodies.

I was also made an offer for this little beauty. It’s my own secret little project, but I will give you a sneak peak as I took it out from under wraps! Of course providing the right offer came along, I might just be tempted to sell it.

secret2

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Ready To Race

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

They say things come in pairs, here at Mustang Maniac we’re not so sure. We think a new addition to our fleet of cars, goes well with our other racers which have recently been given some stripes, there is a good reason for all this, we hope to have some more news very shortly! First the new addition to our fleet which shouldn’t need any introduction. This little brute has a modern 5 speed manual gearbox, nice set of under dash gauges and drives as good as she sounds. This is a real monster of a car and the exhaust note just has to be heard to be believed.

But, just to tease you a little here are some pics of the Mustang Maniac mean machines. Which one would you pick for a blast around a track?

Bullitt (UK) Remake Link (must watch):

A customer of ours has done a brilliant job of this promotional video for the Silverstone Classic Event 25th, 26th & 27th July 2014. Click on the link here to watch it, sound up and full screen.

You just have to see this!

http://youtu.be/5xeTrqOALGc

New Stock:

We have now got – sorry did have some new wheel nuts in. The first batch has sold in out in days, we are waiting for some more  to arrive. They look brilliant, and the design is a slightly smaller socket which means if you have wheels like these then you don’t have to keep taking the centre caps off to change the wheels. Contact our webshop on www.mustangmaniac.co.uk

Our first freebie download:

For all our readers a big thank you and to say thanks we have uploaded a high quality wallpaper “Twins” from the above photo set. Please feel to download it and use as your new wallpaper. If you like the idea let us know and we will upload some wallpapers, give us some ideas and we will see what we can do for you.

Click the link here or go to “Downloads” menu.

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The Custom Look

Posted on May 4, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

The major advantage of these Classic Mustang cars is the way they can be customised to your own personal taste. We have had a few superb examples in this week of such customisation. To start with we have had a Fastback in with a custom made red leather interior with embroidered pony on the seat backs. The carpets are nicely edged, the door cards to match, dash, headliner bar at the back and the speaker kick plate all custom finished. This is one quality and very well done interior.

The quickest way to change how a car looks (without paint) is the wheels. Here we have one of our old cars with an old set of Wolfrace rims. We swapped them out with the stock set of steels, white walls and the correct wheel trims. We will let you decide as each to their own taste of course, with these things, there is no right or wrong. Only the purists would have screamed sacrilege I expect!

The street race look with Wolfrace

The stock cruiser look, same car with a very different personality.

wheels6

We have had another car in for a our bespoke LEDs ’64-’66 bespoke rear lights kit upgrade. As soon as these come in they go on the cars, we even have a waiting list for these kits now as they are so popular. You can see these in action on out YouTube Channel by clicking here.

drive
indicator

Of course we have a lot of cars in new and old. This car is similar to ours but his has red racing strips on her. The difference is striking, would you want to take this on at a set of lights?

what lies beneath?

Try making these sort of changes to a modern car would be a real pain to say the least. But who is to say these changes from the stock look are right or  wrong?  We just love them all.

Don’t forget to visit our E-Shop http://www.mustangmaniac.co.uk

 

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Keeping On Track

Posted on April 27, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

There are Mustangs that look the same but drive very differently and a lot of it is down to the tracking or geometry of the suspension alignment. Some cars look great but don’t drive like they should which ruins the experience, then others look as though they will be a nightmare but are wonderful to drive. When we build a car from the ground up, replace suspension or fix a crash repair. The time spent in our geometry workshop is critical to make sure the driving experience will be the best possible, and predictable. This week we had to sort out a car that didn’t handle too well,  we sorted it out but it took a little time as we had to keep adding and removing the shims to align it all up as is the case on the earlier models. We took some pictures of our equipment in place to check the Camber, Caster & Toe. Once finished it was like driving a different car.

Cars:

We just had an unusual Mustang in for a little work doing it. This is a stage 2 Roush, you don’t get to see many of these little ladies around. Nice example and certainly looks like it means business.

The Alpha Red Mustang has had bit of work done on her, the disc brake conversion has also been fitted and we were pleased with the way this fitted into place. You can expect a little problem somewhere, but this was straightforward text book fit.

brake lines
dual cyclinder
disc brakes
rear
balance valve
custome brass fittings
engine mountings

With the brake in place the time for her dummy engine fitting in case we need to adjust anything, before the final bolt downs. This engine is another custom build with out standard aluminium sprayed headers and a chrome intake for a little something different.

Check out our Webshop for prices of the disc brake upgrades and the parts we have used so far.

http://www.mustangmaniac.co.uk

 

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Short Weeks

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

Easter week for us has turned out to be very busy and we are trying to squeeze in 5 days work into four for the next couple of weeks. That is often easier said than done unfortunately. We have had nearly all the parts delivered for some of the cars. We have had new stock in as well as an unusual newer generation Mustang for some minor work to be done on her. We have decided that we are going to recommend that when we do an engine rebuild or restoration we would like to have aluminium sprayed exhaust headers used. This will protect the exhaust, they don’t discolour and look amazing even after a year. For the relatively small cost and the big difference it makes, we think it’s worth while. We have added them to the 302 – 350bhp we will be fitting into our convertible project car.

aluminium sprayed
302 – 350bhp

We detailed this engine and fitted the aluminium coated headers, and after a year they look as good as new. Of course we can fit the polished stainless version, but they will go blue and require a lot of cleaning to keep them looking in top class condition.

still looking good

Cars:

We have had the seats arrive from the upholsterer and the full leather seats look perfect in the car and the smell on new leather in a classic car is really an amazing smell. The seats are black but the flash on the camera has lightened them up a little. We have also sent the centre console away now to match the seats as we wanted it to all match. Although what was there was fine, but we wanted that little extra special touch. The scuff strips will be fitted once the inside seating and console are finished. That’s it. she’s as good as done.

Stock:

We have had some great looking parts in this week. For those who want to detail their engine then we have some nice air-filters for you.

plain
“Shelby”
“Cobra”
Black & chrome long

We have had some nice fill chrome rocker covers come in as well, we have a variation of these in black and chrome which also looks fantastic on the car.

 

all chrome

all chrome

Lights:

It seems as though we have a theme over the last few months of custom lighting again. We produce out own custom-made LED light kits, but this time we had a request for mirror lights. Now these are nothing new and you can buy them off the shelf, but not ours. We have had these made specially for us in Amber lighting instead of the standard red. They make a difference to say the least. We understand that some people will like them and some won’t. We have them so give us a call for more details. We will putting up a YouTube clip of the lights working and a sequential bonnet set too.

Off
Amber

 

As it’s Easter we will have observation test – it’s not hard honestly.  Last week we mentioned we were going to do a little spring cleaning and we have stuck to that. So we decided to see if you can spot the difference on these two pictures.

Yep, we pulled out the white Shelby GT350 for a blast. She responded well to a little road test where the acceleration, gearbox and temperatures were all checked. A little fact for you, did you know that the gearbox on this car does not go into fourth until 110mph under heavy acceleration! Not that you can try that on our roads of course, but on tracks etc. it’s an awesome ride. We even took a customer out for a spin in her to as he showed some interest. He needed a little sit down and some fresh air when we got back. It was a brisk road test to say the least.

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Classic Or Modern?

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

This week we had a couple of real nice guys from Ford Motor Company UK pay us a visit. They were after some parts for a little project they have on the go, all of which will be revealed next year. We obviously know what it is now, but it’s not for us to say. However, we can say that the wait will be worth it. We did find it quite surreal that Ford (Motor Company UK) are getting some parts from us for their cars here in the UK. We welcome trade enquiries as it were and I hope we will be doing some more business with them too. All the best with the project guys.

Spring Clean:

The weather has remained good at the yard and we have managed to give back some cars to their loving owners. We have decided to do a bit of spring cleaning and make some space (again) for yet more stock that we had from the “Barn Finds“. We had another of our lock up garages open and spotted a similarity by accident of a picture we had taken earlier, our modern classics are a bit dusty to say the least and boxed in, literally. There are gearboxes, boxes of parts and stuff that we couldn’t find a few days ago that we put in there a few weeks ago. We decided that it will be time get the wax out and spring clean some Shelbys up, then give them a blast down the road, just because we should. They looked pretty sorry for themselves all covered in dust, they could almost be our own barn finds in fact. The photos, there is the Old School Classic Shelbys and the New Generation Shelbys and people are a little divided on the choice. Given the choice what would have?

Classic
Modern

Cars:

We have had a very nice ’71 Mach1 come into us this week for a little TLC to sort a couple of little issues out. Not often you get to see a genuine good conditioned Mach1 and we have added plenty of photos of this one on our Customer Cars – ’71 Mach1 or click here for the hyper link.

The ’66 Coupe full restoration has had another good day on her when the owner came down to work on the clean up. We told him that as he was our “volunteer apprentice”, no electrical tools allowed. I’m sure we see his bottom lip quiver and tears well up. The reason being we wanted to see exactly what we are dealing with and sometimes mechanical tools don’t always help to be fair. Towards the end of the day when the under seal and everything else had been stripped away, we did use a few tools on some test patches to see what the metal was like under the rust. Quick link here.

We hope to have a nice update on the KR Replica next week!

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London Marathon Charity Run

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

We need your Help!

A friend of ours is running the London Marathon this Sunday 13th April 2014. Andy Hedley is running in aid of a really great cause for Visually Impaired Children called “LOOK”. The charity has a mission “to improve the lives of families with Visually Impaired children and young people by providing support, information and activities with a view to helping them gain the best outcomes in life and reach their full potential”. Their website is http://www.look-uk.org/

Andy is trying to raise a healthy £1000 for the charity and he has already raised half of that figure to date. Here at Mustang Maniac we are proud to sponsor Andy, please donate anything you can to help Andy raise his target figure for his charity.

You can donate via his link:  www.virginmoneygiving.com/MustangdeBlanc  Andy uses his car to help raise funds his charities, what car does he have?

Mustang charity

 Thank You. Adam.

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Differences

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Mustang Maniac

We have been making some changes at Mustang Maniac in order to make things run more smoothly and efficiently. We are getting lots of orders now from the Web Shop and as a result we have taken on our new Office Manager: Beth, but her nick name is Yogette (pronounced – Yo-get. It has nothing to do with her going to get stuff either before you ask her). Beth has been brought up with cars and the sounds of American Muscle Cars ever since she can remember, so it was an obvious no brainer choice for us to welcome her to our team. Beth had made her mark with us after a day or so as she couldn’t find some of the stock as Adam was working on a car. As a result she has re-labelled the entire small parts stock room. This small difference has not only made her life a lot easier, but ours as well. If you ring up and get a woman’s voice instead of Adams, don’t worry she really does work here.

We have taken a few pictures of “Yogette” as she was proudly looking for a place to hang our new Silver Award from Scott Drake. “I also want the Gold Award to go with this one!” said Yogette with big a big grin on her face. So it looks like we will have to find a place with some space next to it then ready for the next one.

Yogette holding our award
sorting the Web Shop invoices
more formal
lunch time with some of the other staff 🙂

We have also had a new metal security door fitted to the front of the office which we will have sign writing with our logo so there is no mistake of the Aladdin’s cave you are now entering. Hopefully next week we shall be posting some pictures of our new “Barn Find(s)”. We are a little sceptical of some barn finds as they seem to be to good to be true, but what we have more than enough dust to show it has been laying around for a while!

Here is a little teaser for you.

NOS headlight parts covered in dust

NOS headlight parts covered in dust

The 1964 1/2 & 1965 Differences

At Mustang Maniac we can tell an original 1964 1/2 model from a 1965, some even say there was no such thing. But, there was a difference and we have listed a few of the important ones apart from numbering here etc. Our original Indianapolis 500 Pace Car, which can be found here, is a another such example of a true 1964 1/2 car.  We often get asked what those differences are between the years or models. So as a little educational piece we have decided to list some of those differences along with some pictures to show you where those differences are. What prompted this post? Well a very nice ’64 1/2 has come back to us for some work to be done on her and we thought as she is to hand, and the camera is nearby why not take a few pics while we are taking a look over her.

How can we tell this is a genuine ’64 1/2 model? Well, there are some very subtle differences that we will point out here on this car. Some or all of these may appear on your car for a 64 1/2 model. It’s a known fact that the product line would use up what it had from the Falcon to Mustangs. It’s not inconceivable that consecutive number cars would have different fixings as the parts were used up and replaced by the newly fabricated Mustang parts.

Engine:

1964

March 1964 = C                    April 1964 = D                    May 1964 = E                        June 1964 = F

July 1964 = G                        August 1964 = H                September 1964 = J            October 1964 = K

November 1964 = L             December 1964 = M

1965

January 1965 = A                February 1965 = B              March 1965 = Q                    April 1965 = R

May 1965 = S                        June 1965 = T                     July 1965 = U                        August 1965 = V

Date Timeline.

Production began March 9, 1964 and ended August 17,1964 with only Coupes and Convertibles were manufactured during this period.

Only Generator equipped cars were produced during this period.

Date codes are OCO through OHO, (found on the VIN Data plate).

64half19

Engine Displacement & Code.

170 cubic inch 6cyl 1bbl “V”

260 cubic inch 8cyl 2bbl “F”

289 cubic inch 8cyl 4bbl “D”

289 cubic inch 8cyl 4bbl “K” (Available in June of 1964)

Under the Hood:

Generator.

The first thing is the “Generator” and not an alternator. The generator sits quite high up on the block rather than the traditional place to the left of the block under the rocker covers. (Note towards the bottom of the picture here.)

64half9

Dip Stick.

This is mounted on the passenger side and is very long. See pic above.

Horns.

The traditional place for the horns were larger and located on the front frame and not bolted to the front behind the grill at the front. The twin horns also had the relays on the side of the inner wing to cope with the larger horns.

64half12

Power Steering.

The power steering is called an “Eaton” model and is a very distinctive design before the more horizontal barrel design was used later on.

64half10

Brake Reservoir.

The brake switch is mounted on the on the master cylinder itself.

64half11

Body Work:

Hood.

The hood has stiffening skirts (flanges) and is quite different to the ’65 onwards.

64half13

Headlight Extensions.

The headlight extensions have a bevels that match the profile of the hood.

64half14

Hood Bumper Stops.

These rubbers are recessed with a cross head screw and not a domed. (See pic above).

Gas Cap.

The fuel gas cap has no security cable

Logo’s.

The fender “Mustang” logo was 4 3/8″ long but was later lengthened to 5″

Interior:

Door Locks knobs.

The Door knobs are colour-keyed to interior, changed to chrome in 1965

Fresh Air Vent.

The knob under the dash for the Fresh air on the drivers side is marked with a White “A”

64half15

Dash.

Instrument Cluster has Red “GEN” light (Generator), later 1965 models had Red “ALT” light (alternator)

64half17

Heater Blower.

The heater blower is two speed with the “OFF” position located in centre

Carpet.

The carpet had colour-keyed rubber heel pad, no toe pad, as in later models

The carpeting stops at rocker stiffener plate, colour-keyed vinyl under door sill plate

64half6

Shifter.

There is a smaller “T” handle on automatic transmission equipped cars. (See above)

Seat Belts.

The front Seatbelts are secured with an eye bolt

Seats.

The passenger seat was fixed into position with no fore/aft adjustment

 Web Shop

Don’t forget if you can’t find what you are after on our Web Shop www.mustangmaniac.co.uk then please give Adam or Beth a call to see if they can help you out with your request.

 

 

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