Books of Knowledge

Christmas Choices?

We promised ourselves that we would not mention Christmas until December, we are one day early but we couldn’t wait with these. It gets to this time of year where we have the spouses of Mustang owners call us for ideas. As you can imagine that is seriously difficult thing to answer, but we think we may have a couple of little ideas that are around the £6 – £15 mark!

We have over the years had some requests for books, manuals and diagrams on the Mustangs but we have never stocked them for a few simple reasons. There are many people who sell Mustang related books, and price is always the issue, obviously the buying power of the big online traders could make us uncompetitive on a few items by comparison. There is also the vast number of different picture guides, restoration books, hints and tips books, in fact we have seen pretty much all of them. At the SEMA show this year we saw a few things that had caught our eye. These manuals being one of them, they are aimed at a slightly different market to the usual market type. The facts and wiring diagrams are aimed at the DIY enthusiast yes, but also at the collectors too, the manuals are full of facts and figures for each year of Mustang specifically. They would look great in a nice binder for reference purposes. The wiring diagrams are by Scott Drake who lead the way with their products and these wire diagrams will not disappoint. So we now stock a limited number of these and so far I have sold a few before I had the chance to post them on the website or the blog. They were seen by customers in the office stacked on the desk. We think these would make excellent Christmas gifts for that Mustang enthusiast who wants something a little different.

We also have a dedicated “Boss” facts manual, a nice pictorial Rare Finds book and the ultimate VIN number guide to all the little plates found on the early Mustangs and Cougars called “Early Mustang & Cougar Tag Book (1965 – 1973 models)” If you wanted to know what options, where and when your car or its parts were manufactured then this is the benchmark to beat. Give us a call for our availability on these guides.

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1972

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1973

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Boss Mustangs

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Rare Finds

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The Mustang & Cougar Tag Book

Prices start from as little as £6 to a very reasonable £15

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A Real Classic From 1946

A customer has left in our possession this beautiful and awesome example of a right hand drive, New Zealand build Ford Mercury Eight flat head from 1946. The engine is running a little rough hence why we have her here and we will sort that out. This engine has two water pumps, two top and bottom hoses, distributer that sits in front of the engine, 6v electrical system and side valves. A little research was needed on this beauty to find out what we needed to know in order to fix her. The body work is in great condition and has been well looked after. The ventilation is unique if not a little basic, you have two choices on or off for left or right side depending on which little door you open. the de-mister area couple of slots just under the windscreen. This is a little bit different to the muscle cars we are used to, but we are pleased to take her into the fold to be looked after. What a find and we wonder how many more are out there? Let us know.

Other News:

This week we have been taking strides on the now becoming legendary “Mastic Mustang”. There has been some real interest in this little car on how she is coming along. We have updated the page under the Customers Cars – 67 Mastic Mustang with the work we have done to remove the rotten floor and sills. Some nice welding work from the guys is getting her back in shape. A little way to go still but she’s moving along, soon we hope under her own power again. Once we have finished with this little lady there will be no more mastic, just majestic!

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Our Metal Mustang

We’re back and after a week as I suspected it’s raining. I have come back to pile of phone messages and it has taken a couple of days to get back into the routine of work. We have bought back some nice stuff from the SEMA 2013 show and have made a few more contacts over there again. What becomes of that we shall see as those relationships develop.

The guys here have been doing a great job with the current projects on the go. The KR replica project has started full time so I will post some pictures of that project very soon. The other project that has been waiting for the jig is the “Mastic Mustang“, now the car is finally on the jig she is coming along as we expected and not too bad. As we are cutting away sections and floor pans out, it’s critical that the body stays in shape especially for a convertible and there is no other way than support the car on a proper jig.

We now have in our yard that has just arrived, a great example of a rare 1946 Mercury Eight (flat head) from New Zealand build by Ford. We will be doing a little engine work on her and we will post some pictures of this excellent condition car once we upload them. We think it will be worth the wait!

New functionality for us is a laser cutter for some of our metal fabrication. Being a typical bloke you can’t help but have a little play, so here is a photo from one of the office windows that has a Metal Mustang logo we produced (just because we can). There is a very small slightly tongue in cheek difference on this metal Mustang compared to the original. Anybody spotted it?

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We have another happy customer we are pleased to be dealing with, he has had some updates done on his Gulf Stream Aqua coloured ’65 Coupe from the Ford ’68 colour chart, it certainly looks the part. This Coupe has had a front brake disc conversion, new power brake servo, pony interior, 17″ American racing wheels and a Shelby grille. One of the best parts of this 289ci auto is the sound from the twin Flowmasters. We will be having her back soon for the LED lights upgrade and some work on the upper control arms.

You can see more of the Gulf Stream under the menu: Customer Cars – Gulf Stream or click here for the quick link.

Quick links:

Customer Cars – ’67 Mastic Mustang Convertible. Click here, we have a couple of pictures here for you of what we have been up too on her.

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Goodbye Blue Sky

We have had a great time at SEMA 2013 and it’s always difficult to leave. I just thought I would share a final photo before we arrive back to the UK rain. Here is an unusual picture of Las Vegas during the day and not the more common night shots.

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SEMA 2013 (Part 3)

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Our final day here and we managed to track down this Mustang 1965 Fastback full shell. We were impressed with it we may be investigating this further 🙂 We will be back in the UK soon.

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SEMA 2013 (Part 2)

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Its just as busy as yesterday and we have looking around again and found some more interesting cars. We tracked down a few more Mustangs and some other nice Fords. Rather pleased with the car jump though as I wasn’t sure if it would look OK.

Hope to get some more photos soon.

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SEMA 2013 (Part 1)

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We have been looking forward to the show and we haven’t been disappointed so far. We have of course been around the Mustangs and there are some spectacular examples here. It’s busy as we expected but we have managed to catch up with a few familiar faces.

We hope to have more pictures soon.

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The Mustangs

The Weird & Wonderful

The Unusual

I wonder what the lag is like on this Turbo?

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Great idea run flat tyres – will they take over?

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I have heard of a bike chain – but this?

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A car show is not a car show without a little burnin’ rubber

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SEMA 2013 & WordPress Family Award

SEMA 2013

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This year is no exception to our annual visit to the SEMA show in Las Vegas we look forward to this show. This event is a “Trade” only show for new products, cars, tools & demonstrations etc. We get to meet some great new people each year and get to try out their latest innovations along with just about anything auto trade related. We get to see some new Mustang parts as well, we may be adding new lines to our stock as a result of the people we meet, we just don’t know and that’s the great thing about this show.

If you are lucky enough to get to go there please catch up with me to say “Hi”. We are hoping to post a few pictures on the blog from the SEMA show to keep you up to date what is going on, that all depends on the technology working of course. We hope all will be back to normal in the UK from the 10th November. In the mean time I will have a limited access to email while I am at SEMA for any urgent issues that can’t wait till then. Thanks for you patience in the mean time.

For more details on the SEMA show, their website is here:  http://www.semashow.com/the-sema-show

Our unexpected WordPress Family Award

This morning was an unexpected nice surprise, reading the blog stuff (when we can that is), before I got into work. Our blog has been nominated for an award after a short space of time we have been up and running! We are a little taken aback as we never expected to get an award. Our blog is very much business related with an old school personal touch added. I would like to thank Debbie Nuessle from http://hoodscoop03.com/ for the kind words on her blog and the thought for us on this side of the “Pond”.

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The rules are this;

1. Display the award logo on your blog.

2. Link back to the person who nominated you.

3. Nominate 10 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience and family

4. Let your 10 Family members know you have awarded them

5. That is it. Just please pick 10 people who have taken you as a friend, and spread the love

Some people don’t take the awards some do, there is no offence taken if you don’t acknowledge, at least we show some appreciation. So here is where I hit a problem; the blogs I would nominate some have already been nominated. We don’t have time to follow many blogs as much as we would like to, but here is our list in no particular order:

1) Mart – http://onemanandhismustang.com/ – some great posts and walkthroughs of his restoration ’66 coupe.

2) http://garglinggas.com/ – a good all-round petrol head blog

3) http://autothing.wordpress.com/ – another petrol head blog

4) http://smilespermiles.wordpress.com/ – yep, another petrol head blog

5) http://minimemotors.wordpress.com/ – guess what – another petrol head blog

6) http://ronscubadiver.wordpress.com/ – photographic site with some great pics.

Thanks again to Debbie for the nomination who also gets our vote., you’re more than welcome to visit us for a tour!

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Moving With The Times

New parts update…

Those who visit our blog and website know the huge amount of stock we hold for these classic cars. New items are made and we get a supply of them, they then sometimes stop production again for a while and the parts become difficult to get for a while. We have been reliably informed that these companies make a batch of parts at a time when the demand is there to save their costs. this approach is fair enough and makes economic sense, but doesn’t always help the stockists or the customers, so we get our hands on what we can. However our web page takes a little time to get the correct catalogue part numbers, pictures and prices on the order pages so you can buy them online. As a result we are now going to try a process to help out. Where a new stock line that comes in that is worth the special mention, we will post it on this blog FIRST! Of course we are not talking about posting every nut, bolt and clip we get in, that would mean we would be posting everyday if we did. The more significant items we would choose would be such things like radiators, brake boosters, steering racks, glass, lights, engines, panels, bespoke parts etc.

What we hope to achieve here is the rapid response to our stock which you can call and ask for details on delivery and prices. It may take a week or two before the same items appear on our online stock pages. We hope this new process will move us with the times and as a result will appear on our Facebook pages and Twitter too so you won’t miss out. We will also post them under our (new) title menu called “New Stock Parts”, these will be small pages of photos (just unboxed or unwrapped) along with a quick description within their categories, we may have to add more categories of course in order to help you find them. If there is anything you want us to announce to the world just drop us an email and we will see what we can do for you. Customers may be on the lookout for particular items and this would mean you don’t have to wait as long for new parts. We shall see how it goes!

Please, let us know what you think of our new process.

We had a large order arrive this week and we now have some new lines in stock, some are on a trial basis to see how they sell others will be our regular lines.

Radiators:

These radiators are top quality with the original look of the rounded top. We have also got a more basic model in as part of the range.

Oil Sumps for 289 – 302ci:

These quality sumps have arrived at long last and we now have them in stock in Ford blue, black and bare metal. We also got a supply of some high performance oil sumps which have the oil compartmentalized to avoid oil pick up failure.

Brake reservoirs:

A selection of third-party dual reservoirs have arrived, these are in full chrome finish, or the option of the see through plastic top like modern-day spec vehicles. A couple of these have already gone from our stock!

C4 Auto Gearbox:

These gearboxes have been reconditioned to our highest standards, with new machined replacement parts inside that allow the gears to be fully aligned for that smooth gear change you expect as if fresh from the factory. We have fitted a number of these units now and everyone of them has been spot on with no issues at all. We also have the fully reconditioned torque converters as well to go with these gearboxes. Fantastic product for a very (very) reasonable cost.

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’64 – ’66 Cowl Replacement

We recently found a few more pictures of work that we done a short time before this blog was thought of or born that we thought we had lost. We decided to share the pictures we have with you even though we don’t have the full before and after set. But you do get to see the idea of what we achieved anyway.

It’s a problem for the very early cars that have a rusty cowl, ’64 – ’66 had theirs welded in place. The later years you could remove a bit easier. With the earlier years there are two things you could do; Hope it stays OK or do what we do here at Mustang Maniac. We have now perfected a good technique to get the old cowl out, replace it with the treated and repaired original, or fit a new one as the case may be. The original bodywork is refitted without damage.

The process in steps

1) We take everything of at the front of the car to fully expose the top grill and cowl that is welded on.

2) We then remove the welding and take of the grill without damaging it

Cowling removed from the car with the grill back on top for reference.

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3) Two options here now is to either replace with a new unit or repair and treat the old cowl ready to be put back in.
4) The underside of the cowl was sprayed while off the car to match the bodywork paint.

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5) We put the cowl back on the car and re-weld it back in place. The remaining area is masked off and the primer is applied.

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6) We allow to dry  fully and then apply the top coats as required to match the original bodywork colour.

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7) Once dry and cured, we then put the wipers back in and all the under dash equipment.
8) Last step is the top grill is put back on, welded and covered as the original was. This is followed by the fenders and the hood etc. which are all re-aligned back into their correct positions.
This cost-effective repair that we achieve without the re-painting the outside is worth the effort and costs involved. It’s not the easiest of jobs, but it’s worth doing if you have cowl leaking issues etc.

Give us a call for a quote.

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