Getting Into Gear

Posted on March 26, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have finished a couple of customer cars as well as doing some more work on our own shop truck Ranchero. We’re pleased to have had some new stock which has been on back order and unavailable for a couple of years now.

Park & Pic

We have completed a LEED Brake refit to a ’64 1/2 Coupe that had some issues after a DIY brake kit fitting.

Those with a sharp eye will have noticed that this little lady has had some modern Mustang wheels fitted and some small wheel spacers as the customer requested. It’s not very common to see new wheels on a Classic Mustang, but it can be done.

This was the initial installation of brake lines which we ended up replacing.

These pics are the completed brake lines from Yogi, it’s all very subtle of course. But, if you don’t notice it straight away, then we have done our job properly to blend in the new parts in with the car for a natural stock look.

Customer Cars

Another loyal customer had started to get some gearbox issues and asked us if we could help him. We agreed and got his complete gearbox reconditioned with new parts for him by our very own specialist engineers.

The original gears were worn and the bearings had seen better days, but everything had lasted quite well considering the age and use of the gearbox.

Here are some close ups of the old gears and worn teeth.

Our Cars

Our 1965 Ranchero has now had the underside completed sealed in red oxide, then proper seam sealer followed by a couple of coats of our own recipe for the black underseal.

We shall the car back up the right way this week for some more prep work.

WebShop

We are pleased to say that these wheel studs are now back in stock here after being unavailable for a few years. We found them at the bottom of this large randomly packed delivery box.

We are pleased to have our consignment of ‘heated’ front ’64 to ’68 clear windscreens here. This batch has been allocated to a number of customers and we should have them listed in stock soon after we have checked them for any damage.

Another modern invention which is a welcome addition to these older Mustangs especially in the UK climate which is mostly cold and damp.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Our Cars, Park & Pic, Parts, Resto Mods, Restoration, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Prancing Horse Meets A Pony

Posted on March 19, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have completed a few cars along with more work on our very own Ranchero, we will have some more pictures next week for you. However we can share a few pics with you about an incident regarding a prancing horse, but not too much to show for privacy reasons, but a little more on that later.

Park & Pic

This weeks Park & Pic is a ’67 Convertible which has come in for steering pipes which were leaking and causing an issue. The car in front is Adam’s Shelby which has just passed it’s MOT ready for a few summer miles to go on it.

On the left here ready to into the workshops the coupe had been taken of the ramps.

With the car up in the air Yogi quickly found the leak which was on one pipe. As the reservoir was being drained it makes sense to replace both the top and bottom pipes. Not essential, but if one pipe has gone, those replaced weak pipe now become the strongest and will highlight any other weaknesses with another failure with the longer pipes.

This always a messy job and needed a bit of a clean up before the final tightening in place.

Customer Cars

We have a loyal customer who recently sold his ‘classic’ Mustang and bought a couple of more modern Mustangs to replace it. The owner had booked a road trip in his new car but forgot that his 2007 Mustang was due an MOT. The car was taken to the test centre where it failed the MOT. Now the owner was in a predicament, road trip with no road worthy car to take. He drove the car straight to us and asked for help. As it happened, we had a pair of lower ball joints in stock. The owner left his car with us for a little while as we fitted the parts for him.

Once the work was done we called the customer to come and collect the car. He then took it back for the MOT retest where it passed with flying colours not long before they closed for the day.

The customer was over the moon that Mustang Maniac saved the day for him, not only did we have the parts ‘In Stock’ from our WebShop, but we also fitted the parts to his car on the same day to help him out, all without booking in first. This type of service is not for any ol’ customer. We have known this customer for a good few years now as we had always looked after his classic and now his modern cars. Being a loyal Mustang Maniac customer does have it’s advantages. As Mustang Maniac has the best supply of Mustang Parts in the country we can always get you the bits you need fast, but we can’t promise to fit them same day!

LEED Brakes

We have a great relationship with LEED Brakes and we are delighted that LEED Brakes have created an advertisement featuring Mustang Maniac as the UK distributor. The add below tells a short story about Adam & Mustang Maniac. We are proud to have it here for the first official showing in the UK.

Prancing Horse Meets A Pony

Ferrari’s logo is known as the ‘Prancing Horse’, the Mustang logo is referred to as the Pony.

All we can say is that the prancing horse came of worst and has gone to the great scrap yard in the sky. Not only that, but his prancing horse has the ‘carbon ceramic brakes’ which was a seriously expensive option on the super cars.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Park & Pic, Parts, Webshop, YouTube | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spring Clean

Posted on March 12, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

This week we have had a Spring clean and a move around of some cars as a customer had asked for his car to come out of our storage ready for the car show season. Not a quite a barn find, but we were excited to see this lady out into the sun shine again. As Adam was moving the cars around he wanted to drive one a bit more, so that also got her first bubble bath of the year.

Park & Pic

The first Park & Pic of the year goes to this stunning ’67 Convertible which was also known as ‘The Onion’ when we were restoring it. This stock looking car has some amazing (resto) mods fitted, transmission, suspension, EFI, part digital dash, radio etc.

Customer Cars

This ’67 fast back was a little dusty after being in our storage for a fair while, so she was going to get the full Mustang Maniac valet service. With dust laying on the car there is no way this could start with a normal two bucket method hand wash. We started the process with our own secret formula snow foam to loosen the dirt before the proper hand wash. Once clean and dried we applied a layer of our own wax protection to make her properly shine again.

After our valet service? You tell us…

Our Cars

The ’65 Ranchero has had the new floor welded into place now. We often hear that people moan about the fit of the sheet metal (if you can get some that is), but we have never had a problem. Sometimes a little fettling maybe, but certainly nothing to stop a project.

We got the floor out the box and made a test fit where Yogi marked up where the chassis legs and brace were to go.

With the protective coating removed ready for the welds we could start to spot weld in place just like they were from the factory. Then some full on welding around the edges.

Once all the welding is done and ground down smooth, we can then start the seam sealer process.

Shelby KR

As we said at the beginning, Adam had to move his much loved KR in order to get the customer’s car out from storage. It too was dusty from storage and needed a clean. As the valet gear was out, we gave this little lady some special Mustang Maniac valet TLC. The before and after, side by side shots looks amazing. This car really has to be seen to be believed, it sounds and drives as good as it looks!

We have an interesting little project on the go to create our own version of something that has gone out of print. The prototypes are looking good so all being well we will have these for sale in the WebShop soon. Watch this space. 🙂

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Car Detail, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Our Cars, Park & Pic, Parts, Resto Mods, sheet metal, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

No Excuse

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

We have continued our work on tidying up the yard and the front entrance of the office car park. Hard work, but we got there in the end. More cars are coming into us for the pre season car shows and we have another poorly fitted parts car into us.

Customer Cars

Last week we showed a vehicle that had a LEED Brake Conversion that didn’t go well. Yogi had redone the rear brake lines and now was tidying up the fronts and the reservoir end of the kit.

The old fitting on the left as it came into us, Yogi rework on the right. It’s the little things that make the difference.

Vehicle 2

This vehicle came in for a steering box conversion and there was some other issues that needed addressing. The strut rod bushes and sway bar links were fitted wrong as below;

It doesn’t take much to follow instructions stamped on the product itself; ‘this side to rubber’. There should be no excuse to be honest for these basic errors. this is the basic handling of the vehicle, it’s not as though you are replacing a ash tray or something that doesn’t really matter.

Not only is this an issue for handling and premature wear and tear, this may well end up being an accident just waiting to happen. If this car was taken to a MOT centre and they saw this, then they should fail it, as it clearly states how they should be fitted. Yogi replaced the parts and fitted them correctly.

The next issue we had on this vehicle was the steering ball joint fell out as we removed it.

The new Borgeson kit fitted and ready for the UK spec tracking we give the cars after this conversion. You may notice that the power steering pump has our very own upgraded powder coated mounting bracket.

The cooling system does have the sought after option of a viscous radiator fan. This is a very efficient cooling fan with less engine drag and few more horses to unleash. But, in order for any cooling fan to work correctly you need to have a shroud fitted around it for the full benefit of drawing the air in over the radiator.

Article

We often get things sent to us for which we are always grateful for so please keep them coming. Thanks to Craig T. for sending us this one.

Next week we have a bit of a spring clean going on to share with you, until then;

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Articles, Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Mustang Maniac, Parts, projects, Service, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Replacing Brand New Parts

Posted on February 26, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

We’re back to working on customer cars again this week as the car show season is creeping up on us slowly but surely. The Mustang Maniac car park has started to see the cars being dusted of for the nice weather and getting a few little pre show car season TLC.

Customer Cars

A customer had purchased one of our Leed Brake Conversion kits and wanted to fit it themselves as their mate, “knew what they were doing”. We generally tend to hold a work slot open for people that pop in to buy these kits. The reason being that the customer tends to be near enough to bring the car in if needed to complete the job. We had a feeling about this one, and that it would be back. Needless to say the car was indeed booked in with us to have the conversion problems sorted out by us. We have had no problems with the kits when we fit them. The ‘problems’ are usually down to incorrect installations or some modification need from previous work.

As we took the car in we were also told that the rear brakes were now binding which was something else we needed to look at. On initial inspection there was some fundamental errors on their project, some dangerous things along with issues with some previous work. In short, we needed to have proper look around and basically start again with the brake kit.

Firstly the pipework was replaced at the rear, as it wasn’t great and looked a bit of mess. Yogi soon took those lines off and redone them.

The rear brake hose was still in place from the single exhaust system, it should have been replaced for a dual exhaust system part. The correct part would stop the hose pressing against the hot exhaust as we found here. We’re pretty sure we don’t need to spell out the problems relating to this scenario.

The master cylinder was bolted in place fine, but the brake push rod was the wrong size and length. This restricted the return travel of the brake pedal which was a major contributor to the rear brakes binding problem.

The rear brakes sets had seen better days, they now benefit from a new pair of slave cylinders, shoes and hardware. The old setups on the left and the new ones on the right for comparisons.

At the front the pipework was sort of ok and not leaking. However they did look rather busy and awkward around the proportioning valve. These brake lines will also be replaced when Yogi gets to it with his signature install.

Some of the hardware will need to be replaced even though it was new as the threads were stripped. How they managed to strip the treads on some new robust bolts is quite worrying, especially anywhere near brakes.

On some of the other bolts thread locker wasn’t applied when it really should have been.

The front brake pads themselves were fitted without any copper slip grease.

Once all the new brake lines are in place the bleeding process will have to start all over again and re-check for leaks on the kit to make sure there is no damage from the previous fitting.

The moral of the story here is simple; for the sake of a few hours labour it would take for us to fit the kit, it will save you replacing parts of the kit again, above all it will be done properly. Obviously the choice is yours, but brakes are the most important safety factor on a car. Don’t take chances!

WebShop

We have restoked our hardware wall with various brands and some of our own, everything from gaskets to distributor weights, or carburettor jets to instrument panel voltage regulators.

WE would like to point out again that we do not have a dedicated phone line to our offices. The reason being as we have said before we get people call us up, ask us lots of questions on how to do something and which parts they need. Those people then go on to order their parts elsewhere. I mean do you ring up companies like Ikea to ask how to screw a shelf on a wall? If you need to contact us please email us at sales@mustangmaniac.co.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Adam will be on holiday this week so he will have little if any access to his emails.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Brake Kits, Customers' Cars, Parts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

To Patch Or Not To Patch?

Posted on February 19, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

Carrying on from last week we finished most of what we wanted on the LAR trucks and getting our new additions to the fleet fixed up with our livery ready for the road. Once we were at that stage Yogi was was then working on another truck, our own ’65 Ford Ranchero shop truck.

’65 Ranchero

The bed of the truck was fabricated and painted up to good as new. That left the floor pan. We were thinking a fabricated patch as the dreaded rust worm wasn’t that bad. To save time we went to our copious stores and pulled out full floor pan and be done with it.

Yogi removed the old floor pan and put it on the floor, not the skip. Simple reason being that we will at some point start another Ranchero project where we know the floors are beyond repair and this floor will do just fine for what we have in mind.

That means we may end up patching this old floor which looks worse than it is, ready for when we need it.

This type of repair can be done as and when we want or just to fill a gap in between customer cars.

WebShop

We had another batch of our bespoke made ’64 – ’70 Front and Rear adjustable SPAX shocks arrive. Two sets were on back order and have already been shipped out, the others sets have gone into stock. These can be found on our ‘Mustang Maniac Products‘ section. These contain the full two year warranty, the only difference that ours are in a a unique red powder coating.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Our Cars, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Re-engineered

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

We don’t have much to report this week in the way of Mustangs, as we have been working on our sister company’s trucks for various reasons as a priority.

We have been sent a rather nice article about the origins of the Ford Mustang emblem being re-engineered, so we have added a little background to it as well.

Article

The Ford Mustang emblem is one of the most iconic emblems in automotive history, but did you know that the famous Ford Mustang galloping pony has Hungarian roots?

During the process of designing the new sporty car that would eventually become the 1965 Ford Mustang, the various design proposals went under many names including Avanti, Allegro and Torino. Even the design by Gale Halderman that was chosen as the basis for the production model was originally called Cougar until the Mustang name was chosen.

While the Mustang concept was being completed in September 1962, a competition was held among the Ford designers for a four-seat sporty car. More than a dozen very different designs were proposed but ultimately a design by Gale Halderman was selected as the basis of what would eventually be sold as the 1965 Mustang. Each design had a different name to distinguish them and Halderman’s proposal was called Cougar. The grille featured a stylized big-cat contained by a surround that would eventually be known as the pony corral.

There was considerable debate about which direction the Cougar or pony should face; left or right. Various design models during 1962-1964 can be found with logos pointing in either direction.

Note the headlight design change as well..

The Mustang name first appeared on the Mustang I sports car concept of 1962 and it featured a galloping horse badge conceived by designer Phil Clark. The emblem was evolved further for the production car in 1964 and has continued to receive updates to this day, all be very minor.

During 1963, Ford prepared a second concept based on one of the production prototype body-shells that would eventually be called Mustang II. The proportions of the pony logo as used on the Mustang I were deemed too tall to fit nicely in the production-style grille corral. Design studio modeler Charles Keresztes was tasked with creating a new version of the pony for the grille of Mustang II and the production car.

The Fascinating Story Behind this Stunning Mustang Sculpture

The design was handcrafted from wood by Hungarian-born US modeller Károly Keresztes back in the 1960s. Working out of Ford’s design studio, he was commissioned to create a dynamic three-dimensional badge that would perfectly fit the grille of the Ford Mustang MK II, and he nailed it.

In fact, his original design has been ever present on successive generations of Ford’s muscle car to this day. 

If that couldn’t be beaten, another Hungarian, János Barta, has paid homage to his late countryman by creating this stunning sculpture based on Keresztes’ design. Hand-crafted using old Mustang components, it is currently on display in the Kaáli Autó-Motor Museum in Dörgicse, near Lake Balaton in Hungary.

The Fascinating Story Behind this Stunning Mustang Sculpture
The Fascinating Story Behind this Stunning Mustang Sculpture

It took Barta 400 hours to complete this work of art which has a heart fabricated from a Mustang piston. Viewed from any angle, the 150 cm-wide sculpture perfectly reflects the dynamism of Keresztes’ classic masterpiece. 

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Articles, Mustang | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Needing A Lift

Posted on February 5, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

A quiet week by design as we are looking to relocate the ‘boys club’ tea area to a temporary tea hut just out the back of Adam’s workshop. A lot smaller and not quite as comfortable, but we’re sure it won’t hurt for a little while. The old building needed a little TLC before we started to get any problems, once we have sorted that out we make it a more efficient working space us. Quite what we will do with Adam’s prized cars stored in there at the moment will be a bit of a head ache. Simply put we’re running out of room for car storage, again. The more space we make the more cars Adam adds to his fleet of vehicles.

Customer Engine:

This 302 has been taken out of a car as it was “using a bit of oil with an odd noise”. We had the go ahead for a strip down to see what was going on. We had a rough idea it wouldn’t be good news from the descriptions we had.

With the heads of we could see it was badly coked up from the oil burning.

We got to the lifters and found that one was broken (arrowed) with the retaining clip missing. Where it has gone we will find out soon enough.

The engine is ‘a bit worn then’ was an understatement from the guys as they were stripping it down.

Our Cars

The ’65 Ranchero is starting to look a little happier with Yogi fabricating some patches that were needed in the bed area.

Considering the trucks age and what it has been used for, it’s in pretty good condition. The front end has been ground and rubbed down from the welding fixes and new metal.

Working towards the back nobody would ever know about the patches.

Adam’s is hoping to get the shop truck ready for some shows this year. Depending on work loads it may not happen as we only use our car projects as fillers of course.

WebShop:

Adam had a delivery late on Friday for some glass we had on order. We do know that some of these windscreens are already reserved for customers, and couple for our own projects. Check here for our stock levels.

It made a nice change to open the shipping crate and find that none were broken. That had to be a first!

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Blog, Car Shows, Customers' Cars, Parts, sheet metal, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Hangin’ Around

Posted on January 29, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

Things are starting to liven up a little in the work shops and we have a few scheduled customer cars in. The majority being they get a service, the Mustang Maniac magic once over before the car show season starts. Then the off to the MOT which we always recommend, even though by UK law says that cars over forty years old don’t need it. You really should.

Customer Cars

Lurking in the shadow is this ’67 that needed some hood hinges. Getting these right can be an awkward job as the gaps can be way out from the cowl end to the bumper end when shut. The worst part is where we have seen the fender positions altered try and help out when only the hinges have been changed.

This little lady has had some electric fans fitted to a custom radiator as well. More often than not, this can give a few more horses to the power output as there is no fan blades causing parasitic drag on the water pump. Also you could do some clever things with the fan cut in curves for the cooling too.

WebShop

We promised last week that we would show you the Dynamic C4 transmission Valve Bodies and that is exactly what we are going to do. They come into us well wrapped with some transmission fluid within the wrapping. The reason being they are all dyno tested to make sure they work exactly as they should. Adam is here unwrapping them.

There are variations of dates for those who want date correct or Green Dot or Non Green Dot depending on the model of car/gearbox of course. These valves are the ‘brains’ of the gearbox, the seals and machined parts have to be right or you get all sorts of shifting problems. That’s why they get tested on a dyno.

Borgeson Bracket – upgraded

We have heard of the Borgeson power steering bracket cracking on some forums. We took that problem away and designed our own 12mm bracket and had it powder coated to stop that from happening.

It’s not an officially on the WebShop just yet, but if you are interested in an upgrade drop Adam an email. We plan on using these for our own projects going forward.

We have had a delivery of some prefabricated transmission lines with us this week. They have been given a new place to hang out of the way so they don’t get damaged.

Last week we have had a number of enquiries about the Autolite and Rotunda oil filters, the later of which is now out of stock.

We even had a couple of people email us ‘trying it on’ by asking us if they could have these concours correct filter(s) at the same price as the standard ones, or pay just a little bit extra. Really? Adam didn’t even respond to those emails to be honest. We could hear him uttering a few comments from the packaging room. (If you know, then you know!)

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Car Shows, Customers' Cars, Mustang, Mustang Maniac, Original Reconditioned Parts, Parts, Repairs, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Bit On the Side

Posted on January 22, 2023 by Mustang Maniac

The shop truck ’65 Ford Ranchero is getting some Yogi TLC in our panel shop as we strip right back and replace a metal worm, with some new sheet metal from our stock. We rolled the shell onto her side and started the work underneath which was surprisingly solid.

The only bad bits are what we expected from the floor pans. Considering this is the first time this truck has had some replacements of any kind, it could have been much worse.

Customer Cars

We took a few photos early in the morning down the yard and we think they are pretty awesome. Who can refuse a beautiful ’65 GT350?

No words are needed, if a picture speaks a thousands words, this car is a novel on its own.

WebShop

We are pleased to say that we are now stocking K&N oil filters again, nothing strange there you may think. But, there has been recent difficulties trying to get them here in the UK. We have the original and highly rated K&N HP-3001 Performance Gold Oil Filter, which is now branded specifically for Mustang Maniac. There’s no compromise on quality and they’re made to the exact standards by the same company that make the original standard K&N HP-3001 Performance Gold Oil Filters. As these filters have our unique branding they also retail at a lesser cost too. So, if you want golden-level oil protection at a lesser cost, then you want our K&N / MM oil filters.

Then there are these beauties for the concours aficionados out there, the Rotunda and Autolite.

We are waiting for a delivery of some more of our Dynamic C4 Green Dot valve bodies which have all been individually tested on the dyno to make sure they work exactly as they should. If you buy these valve bodies, they will have traces of transmission fluid on them. We will bring you some pictures of them for you next week.

Stay Safe & Take Care!

Posted in Mustang, Mustang Maniacs Group, Parts, Repairs, Restoration, Sales, sheet metal, Webshop | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment