Never judge a book by its cover….

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

We have created a little variation of that old saying: Never judge a car by its paintwork!

Why did we say that?

We got a phone call from a customer in our office who thought we would be interested in a barn find 1975 Mustang. Originally this car came from New York and was used for a while then put into storage for what ever reason for the last 20 years. To be honest they are not the prettiest of Mustangs and they tend to be quite rusty. To get a good one is also quite rare these days too. First of all we declined and said that we were not interested going by past experiences from what we had seen of them. We were talked into at least seeing it first before we made a decision, with that in mind we thought we could break it for parts which can still make some good money. The car turned up at our yard and our first thoughts we were almost right. It was a little worse for wear granted, but it didn’t look too bad at all. We had a closer inspection and we bought it as a car to keep. The car needs a fair bit doing on the outside front area, but this car has got a serious potential to be a nice car. When you look at the pictures you can see why! At last we found a nice pretty solid 1975 Mustang that is not falling to bits, like we now say, never judge a car by its paintwork!

This model is the 1975 Coupe, 4 cylinder 2.3litre Automatic, with only 54,000 genuine miles on the clock.

How she arrived to us, unwashed and very much unwanted

unwashed

unwashed

We gave her a good clean, but as there were no keys we needed to use a little gentle persuasion to open the trunk!

paint not to bad
good rear end

The best part of this car is the inside which is almost brand new and unmarked apart from the stitching which had come undone on the driver seat

superb dash
excellent doors
seats good apart from a tear

The engine needs a little work but it can be made good and the engine bay along with the car is pretty rust free

m75 3

A great find and we’re glad we listened and took a look after all.

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Classic Car Show Buntingford, UK. 2013

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

Most years we go to the Buntingford Classic Car Show which is a small show compared to some of the other county sized shows. But, we like it there as it’s family orientated event and you meet up with friends and some nice people to talk about cars. This year we took our latest addition to the garage – 1965 Coupe v8 auto with a single exhaust with a red interior. This car was imported over from Las Vegas where it spend most of her time.  We have decided to put her up for sale as we have had a few enquiries if she was for sale, so we thought why not. We have had some serious interest about this one after just one day. There are more pictures on the “For Sale” menu or click here for the quick link.

'65

The show 7th August 2013.

The cars here vary from the incredibly old to the latest Jaguars, bespoke hot rods to American Jeeps. We have taken some photo’s of our customers cars that have also put their cars on show at this event as well.

There are the more serious owners who take the cars to the track and race them, we even supply parts to this racer.

Next car along is a proper AC Cobra that is in a current race series. We took some pictures of this as the cars are rare let alone being raced like they were intended to be. We do like to see the children look at the cars the too, perhaps a budding Nigel Mansell or just an eye with good taste.

The gloriously huge Thunderbird that had to park the trunk deep into a cut away part of the hedge!

thunder1

I was very taken with the oldest car there at the show this year. It’s a 1910 Renault. The owner was chatting to me about this car’s history and it’s really is amazing that the car still exists. This is the only known example of this model in the world and even Renault themselves don’t have one! The car was taken over to USA before the First World War and spent its life over there up until thirty years ago when the owner bought her back to the UK. The car had no bodywork at the rear past the seats as she was used on a farm as a work horse to transport hay and milk. When this work of art was not being used it just stood in a barn. The bodywork has been hand-built over many years, and yet the mechanics of this engine has never been touched since it was made, incredible. The owner takes this car on its annual pilgrimage to France back to the Renault factory where it was originally made, it receives a very warm welcome and you can see why.

There were many cars from many walks of life and the families looked like they were all enjoying the sun. The ice cream sellers definitely looked pleased with the warm weather. Just to show the diversity of the vehicles there how about a v12 trike?

v12 trike

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Time for an Australian Convertible

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

1968 302ci Convertible Right Hand Drive Australian Import.

This is a very unique car we have looked after for a while now. Recently we custom fitted an interior, now that work has been completed we can show the before and after.

The owner of this car uses it for Time Trials. Not the thrashing it around type stuff, but very regulated destinations in certain times etc.

The right hand drive conversion was completed in Australia from where it was imported from. The conversion is pretty good to be fair but there are a few little things we would have done slightly differently. This is a nice example of a 302ci that runs smooth and is not all about the noise and show. The owner just loves to drive and cruise around in it which is how it should be; used and enjoyed.

When we first got to grips with her there was a requirement to make a very bespoke radio console which includes ducting for heating and fresh air into the car. There was a requirement for the turn indicator to have a unique main beam flash function incorporated into the turn stalk, a bit of job to keep it looking stock, but it works very well and we were pleased with that modification. The Time Trial equipment required special mounting and we also added a battery voltmeter to the dash itself, so it was all change for the standard dash look.

Notice the colour of the seats here.

right hand side
wheel and dash
dash
time trial equipment & Volt guage
custom built console

We also fitted a nice rack and pinion steering setup to the car as he wanted a more responsive feel for his driving.

top dwon
underside

The latest requirement was to make some bespoke trim and seating for him. We relished this task and this was the end result. A superb looking car and the interior says a lot about the owner who intends to keep driving this car.

This a real head turner for all the right reasons, a true classic with a modern spin to it that doesn’t look out-of-place.

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Back to ’67 Eleanor

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

Long weekend for the UK this weekend, but it has turned out to be a long week instead of the long weekend. Looking forward to a few days break hasn’t gone to plan as the stock needed updating and the cars needed a bit of a move around on Saturday. The phone was going mad, the office was busy with customers too, but they all were talking amongst themselves while I eventually got round to getting everybody sorted out. I am not sure where that morning went to be honest, it was just a blur. On the plus side, I am sure there have been some new friendships formed as a result of the busy day all due to their passion for the Classic Mustangs. That sort of makes it all seem worth while at the end of the day.

Update on a popular project;

We are now back to the Customer Project Car Eleanor. We have finished making the new fire wall so we could move it back, we welded it in place and now we have enough clearance for the engine. We then dummy mounted the engine into the bay again, still going to be tight with all the other parts on it, but it was in.

fire wall & tunnel
closer view

What did we try to fit into that engine bay that caused us to move the firewall? This superb Genuine factory GT500 v8 5.4 straight from the factory in the USA. The nice thing about these genuine engines is this it has been signed and makes for a great talking point.

Genuine GT500 engine
signed plate

In order to try to keep this car pointing the right way, we are fitting a modern spec Rack & Pinion steering for this car. Again a bit of a custom fit, but well worth the effort. With the amount of power this will be producing, you will need to feel exactly what the car is doing on the road.

modern rack and pinion

modern rack and pinion

The fire wall needed additional work after the engine was in place. Why? We had a slight change of plan to the gearbox that was going to be used. It’s a monster alright – T56 6 Speed. This gearbox was giving us no room to work with. Again, we have fabricated and rebuilt the tunnel to take the transmission with clearance so it can be maintained. We made the provision on top of the tunnel to take the shifter in its new location. We will need to treat and finish the welding properly net week.

inside welding

inside welding and cut out for the shifter

The T56 6 Speed should make this car a superb cruiser and also leave a trail of rubber from the lights if the gas pedal is nailed to the floor.

T56 6 Speed Transmission

T56 6 Speed Transmission

On the lighter side, while the wife was out for the day, when I had a bit of spare time, could I do a bit of cleaning in the house. What a great idea I thought!

So here was my contribution!

new wheel cleaner

Am I joking or not?

We are looking at another car to add to the other little ladies we have here, I will post some pictures if we do.

Quick link to the page for the car, click here, or go to Customer Cars – Project Eleanor.

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’67 Eleanor Poll

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

You can probably guess that we get quite a few requests for the famous Eleanor car to be built from their specifications. There are the official licensed versions and there are the replica versions. We build a few of these replicas with the body kits to the customers requirements. We only use one paint shop as his work meets our high quality standards, and these are a few photos of their work on a such a car. The paint job for these cars has to be top quality and does not come cheap as a result, but what you do get is a something pretty special I think you would agree. Even without anything else on the car, this car just looks the part already.

There are various lengths you can go to with these cars. Here is an example of a car that is spectacular to view, incredible to drive and likes to be polished (a lot) too. If you have the money anything is possible!

Here is the poll for you regarding this ’67 Eleanor:

e16

e15

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Stock Supplies Reorganised

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

Here at Mustang Maniac we like to pride ourselves on stock availability. We constantly get new lines in, trial products to use and custom-made parts etc. We have updated our stores and storage of the parts which has increased yet again. We have added a few photos of SOME of our smaller stock items. The body parts and metal work and shells are stored in another area not at this location. So we thought we would share the view of our reorganisation. We have another few storage areas like this one, these photos show the more common parts we sell that are ready to hand and can be located a lot quicker too.

I’m pretty sure we will have anything you need to service or fix your classic Mustang. Why shop around and wait for your parts when we can deliver to you, or you can just pick up from or stores? We have an extensive range of genuine old parts or second-hand parts if you prefer. We try to cater for all budgets, next time you need parts give us a call or send us an enquiry email.

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Goodbye ’67

Posted on August 9, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

’67 goes to her final resting place

We have got more vehicles in than we expected to have in over the last few days, so we decided to bite the bullet and get rid of a car that we had plans for. The plans were so long ago that nobody remembers what the plans were, and in the mean time the car has sort of rusted in half. We will now take of the good parts like the axle, dash area (still in remarkably good condition), steering, the engine block, glass, and the original trim work. These old parts are kept and reconditioned for customers who want the originals parts and numbers, not the modern equivalents. This poor old car’s bodywork has rusted away quite happily over the last two years or so and it won’t take much to cut up. We hate to do this to any of our cars though. We call situations like this a part donation. This will keep another car going in the future so her parts will live on. The rest of the car will be cut up into smaller manageable pieces and put into the scrap skip. Goodbye ’67.

pulled out from the front
forklift moves to the transport
ready to be cut into smaller pieces
almost the final resting place

During the process of the sort out on a hot day we had lunch, Terry was unable to eat in peace as some of the dogs realised it was food time! Who was in needed the food most we are still trying to work out !! Sorry Terry we just had to share this!

lunch1

We have added a new video to our YouTube channel of a customer’s car engine rebuild. The engine has had white aluminium coated long headers, aluminium heads, bearing valve lifters, a full strip down and rebuild of the pistons, crank, fuel pump etc. The photos are located under the Customers Cars – 302 bored to 308. The video is worth a watch to see it fired up for the first time.

electrics almost wired and starter fitted

electrics almost wired and starter fitted

Quick links:

The Customer ‘s 302 bored to 308 test run photos – click here

YouTube link for the video – click here

Posted in Customers' Cars, Photos | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mastic Mustang (Part 2)

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

Update on the now infamous Mastic Mustang!

It seems as though our little feature on the Mastic Mustang has sparked some interest. With that in mind we have decided to post an update. We have taken the engine out, the transmission out, the fenders off and the front off. This gives us a much better idea of the front end of the car is like for rust. She’s a very fragile patient in the Mustang hospital, in fact we may move her to Intensive Care if we had one! We are going to have to put her on a jig and set the body shell up. We do this by welding cross support struts across the door posts to hold the gaps the same as they are now. When the body is refitted to the replaced parts of the chassis we know that we will have the same gaps for the doors, hood & trunk as before we started.

We started to look at the welded floor pan (we do use that term in the most tongue in cheek way), this was a revelation as the new floor was welded to the poorly rusty parts of the original floor and chassis. We did find some non rusted parts on the floor pan, a few screws that was “holding” part of the floor pan in place. How long before the floor fell out is anybody’s guess. Saying that, we now have a clear idea of the issues that must be fixed on the chassis. She will be fine.

Front off
inside the engine bay
door fittings
trunk area
hidden gems of expanding foam
the true extent of the rotted chassis
started the strip back of the weleded in floor pan
holes in the original floor from screws
dayight

The Gibbs Brand is selling well and we have had some great feedback of the product. Our stores are almost back to normal now as the racking is not as full as a few weeks ago. We have sold all the custom order parts on which helped to make space. With positive feedback for the 2 Speed Wiper Motor we may well start to stock it, the only problem is that it does not fit in with the standard wire loom for the wiper motor due to the live feeds. We will continue to investigate a work around if we can.

By popular demand (Debbie), we will come up with a new guess the car picture when we find a worthy candidate.

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Company Transport Goes Green

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

We are thinking of the environment too

There is nothing quite like the smell of old metal, a big v8 with its throaty growl in your ears and the wind in your hair going through the country lanes. Our new company transport is to encourage people to be environmentally aware as well. Our new company transport gives you two of those things; Yep, you get wind in your hair – going down hill of course, unfortunately no v8 of course, just a gentle squeak from the pedals and the creak and smell of old metal. The squeak can be sorted – who’s got the Gibbs Brand then chaps???

Funny how the guys always choose the cars over the bike! 😉

green

A classic vintage bike

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Shelby Numbered Radiator Hose Kit

Posted on July 28, 2013 by Mustang Maniac

New Line for the lucky ones

We often get asked for Concours Correct parts here at Mustang Maniac. Of course we can get some and people still make the more profitable items that will sell to the bigger mass market of the Mustang owners out there. Understandably these parts can be more expensive. The smaller the market the less chance to sell in bulk and make a profit. But we have a little exception here with this product. As promised I would post a picture of the Shelby Radiator Hose set for the 1965 ’66 ’67 ’68. The more common parts that perish or split over time have been given a new lease of life. High quality hoses for an incredible car.

Fort Part Number: S1MS-8286-A

shelhose

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