Rust Comparison Results

After a wait to see how the products performed, I have some results.

Well the weekend is almost over and I have been busy rubbing down and doing little bits in the car. One of those little jobs is the wrapping of the the under dash wires with black insulating tape to make it look stock. I find that job therapeutic, just like some people find gardening or painting as a therapeutic activity. Am I weird? Any other strange therapeutic stuff people do? Anyway, my other cars have been feeling neglected and so I just had to wash, wax and valet them. As a result I feel as though I have been arm wrestling with Arnie – The Terminator. I ache, and before you say it – I know quit moaning.

The main point of this post is to say that I have some preliminary results for my rust comparison tests, they are a little controversial I think. I had taken the two big guns and put them in a head to head just like Practical Classics magazine did. But this was my own money that was funding this and I wanted them both to be exactly the same. But, my results are the exact opposite so far of Practical Classics results. The two main contenders are Rustbuster – fe-123 and Granville – Heavy Duty Rust Cure. They cost pretty much the same, look the same and even smell similar. But do they perform the same? Simple answer is No. Practical Classic magazine stated that the Rustbuster fe-123 was the winner. However, they were incorrect with their details on how they applied one of the products for their tests. I have explained this fully in the comparison test, the quick link is below for the Practical Classic test and my tests. I had previously purchased from Frost Auto Restoration Techniques the Granville Rust Cure and wanted to see what this new “winner” was all about. So I found an old inner fender splash guard from my Mustang that was really rusty. I applied the products at the same time on the same material. The video was then uploaded to my YouTube channel, One man and his Mustang. This weekend I have taken another video, part 2 and posted that on YouTube as well. The results are very clear that the Granville wins hands down. The Rustbuster was flaking up, peeling and shows signs of the rust reappearing after only a few months. I am very disappointed with the “winner” and its surrounding hype. I have various videos of the Granville in action too on the YouTube Channel.

I bet there will be people out there moaning and complaining about my results. But I have photo evidence and videos of the tests and results. As yet I have not seen any results from similar tests or company. I was going to review the Rustbuster as a separate product on my blog, but I don’t think I will bother now as the results are here. Anybody else like the Granville Heavy Duty Rust Cure? Or is there something even better. I know about POR15 but that is not recommended for the outer bodywork that is ready for spraying, and that came from the POR themselves.

On another note does anybody have a good primer they would recommend preferably available in the UK?

Quicklinks:

Rust Comparison test article: http://onemanandhismustang.com/rust-comparison-test-granville-vs-rustbuster/

YouTube: Rust Comparison test Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8J9MvVlZLc

YouTube: Rust Comparison test Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY2muLWmzwI

Frost – Granville Rust Cure link: http://www.frost.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=granville&x=0&y=0&order=relevance&dir=desc

Frost Main Page: http://www.frost.co.uk/

Practical Classics Magazine Rust Test: Click here for the PDF

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Home Made Tool

Recycled wiper to a useful tool

This only going to be a short post, reason being that last week I was working on the wiper motor and fixing it to the car. This post is related to that. The motor worked fine and all was well except that I didn’t have the correct tool for the bezel at the time. So I decided that I would have a go at making one when I had this idea to make it out of the old wiper I was about to throw out. I had previously used the rubber from this old wiper to replace the rear wash on my other car as that one had split. I was in two minds if was going to post this or not so I thought why not. If I didn’t like it I could always delete the post I suppose. I have written up the details on how I made this epic work of art/tool. The link below has the photos I took after the spectacular piece of engineering had taken place. I wasn’t sure it was going to work but I am pleased to say, (can you guess?) it did work and passed with flying colours. I was so pleased with it I even sprayed it black again to make it look good even though it now sits on my tool chest. It’s no Snap-On quality tool, but if I need a mark two I’m not sure what to improve apart from the materials maybe. This was the first real “tool” I have made since I left school a good few years ago. They don’t teach you these things which could be useful, but there again they didn’t know I was going to own a classic Mustang. Nor did I, But I wished I would, that one wish did come true. There was a fair amount of money I did throw down those wishing wells when I past them!

Has anybody else made a tool for a particular job, around the house, car, shed or garden?

tool in hand

Bezal Nut

twist to tighten

tool closed

open all the way

close up of the pins in place

close up of the pins

“adjustable” lever arm

The full article can be found under: Reviews Menu – tools – Home Made Wiper Bezel Tool

Quick Link: Home Made Wiper Bezel Tool click here

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Unexpected Bouquet Award

There are not many things that cause me to be speechless because I like to think I have an answer (or a point) for most things. Today was one of those moments. I was nominated for the Bouquet of Three Award! I write my blog about my passion for the restoration of my Mustang and I enjoy doing it. I never expect to receive any award for that reason as it is quite a niche subject, but if anybody takes time out to read my blog then I am grateful that they have kindly given up their time to share my passion. There are some really great blogs out there and I was lucky enough to find a great blog by Alicia Benton http://aliciabenton.wordpress.com/ Her blog has made me laugh, reflect on and look at things from a slightly different perspective too; it really is worth stopping by to have read. I am humbled to be nominated for this award. I would honestly nominated the award to Alicia if she hadn’t already got it.

Thank you Alicia so very much.

Here are the rules:

1. Proudly display the Award Certificate on your blog page!

2. Announce your win with a post. Be sure to link your post back to me as a “thank you” for the nomination.

3. Present up to 15 awards to fellow deserving bloggers.

4. Let them know you’ve nominated them for this awesome award.

5. Post 7 interesting things about yourself.

There are nearly 50 plus blogs that I follow and I wish I could give them all an award. But I am restricted of course, so it is a difficult decision I must choose, but here goes –

My nominations in no particular order are as follows:

http://hoodscoop03.com/ – I love this blog and we have become good friends through our mutual love of cars.

http://ronscubadiver.wordpress.com/ – This guy has a true talent for photography and wouldn’t mind parting with money for some of his photos. My favourite photography blog.

http://karengadient.com/ – This is a refreshing bright and colourful blog that keeps me coming back for more.

http://cruisin2.wordpress.com/ – This blog makes me think, I don’t always agree with everything he says, but is that not the point to make us think? A great blog

http://dr1ven.wordpress.com/ – A great petrol heads blog. A wide variety of subjects keeps me informed and educated.

http://julieriso.wordpress.com/ – A great blog to travel around the world with some great posts.

http://suellewellyn2011.wordpress.com/ – Another great around the world blog, photos and posts are top quality.

http://quattroporte3.wordpress.com/ – I have only been following this blog for a little while and it does inspire me, when I think I am grinding to a halt I can see the hard work that has gone into this guys hard work. I can really relate to it.

http://www.rodalena.com/ – A bright refreshing and informative blog, I’m not sure why I like this blog but I do, but it’s a Well written blog.

http://f1superswede.wordpress.com/ – I love the Formula 1 racing and this guy gives me everything I need, if I miss a race and I need to catch up – this is where I will be.

http://thejigglybits.com/ – This is a great blog and cheers me up no end. Well written and I look forward to the posts.

http://theverybesttop10.com/ – This guy has awards all over the place and it’s easy to see why. A few more won’t hurt.

http://superkonr.wordpress.com/ – A blog dedicated to restoring a classic Mustang.

http://oversteergarage.com/ – A varied video blog of all great American cars.

http://atlastracer.wordpress.com/ – Another great travel blog with some great photos.

Seven Interesting Facts about me:

1) I polish my tools before I put them all away in my polished tool chest

2) I have a sleep disorder where I wake up at least once every night

3) I love gadgets

4) I read the manuals for all the stuff I buy except when I make a flat pack of something. It’s a man thing!

5) I made myself sick once by go-karting for to long without a break

6) I have fallen asleep in shop doorway in London after a heavy night on the town. I woke up with some small change in my lap!

7) I honestly like the Nick Cage movie – Gone In 60 Seconds

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Mustang and Macbeth

Mart & Shakespeare are not normally mentioned in the same sentence.

Those who know me may be a little surprised to see that I was taken to a showing at National Theatre Live. A cinema in a large city near us had a live streaming of the play Macbeth by Shakespeare from Manchester. I was expecting this to be complete hell if I am to be honest. As my wife is an English teacher and she going to be teaching this again, she wanted to go and see her favourite actor Sir Kenneth Branagh in full flow. I do know that Shakespeare has done some dark plays in his time and this is perhaps is the darkest. With that in mind, the wife said I would like it, so I went along. The quality of acting was top-notch as you expect, yeah there were people getting killed all over the place and three babbling witches appearing now and again. The only thing was I couldn’t understand some of it. The words like, thou, thee, duth, or phrases like “We must hence before the army arrives” – which I sort of took to mean “quick chaps – do a runner!” Apparently trying to tweet in the theatre is not acceptable either, as the elbow in the ribs seemed to suggest. “Pray fair maiden, thy elbow dust landeth in ones ribs, would thou refraineth from such action.” I must say it was pretty good once the wife explained to me what it was all about. What happened to our English language? How on earth do they remember all those lines for the play? This took me back to my school days where I swore I would never get into Shakespeare again. I did manage to hold out for thirty something years on that one though.

In my personal opinion, I don’t think the line “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?” has the same effect as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic line from Terminator 2 – “Hasta la vista, baby”. But many would argue, and each to their own. But, I have been enlightened non the less.

Saturday was a busy day, running around doing what seemed like nothing. When I got back I got changed to go straight out onto the car. I had a job in mind which was to fit my New Port engineering 2 Speed Wiper Motor. I have uploaded a video of it working on my YouTube channel as well as writing a review of the part and a fitting guide for the part. I have added the quick links below. Thanks to Adam at Mustang Maniac who got me the part to put in the car. I managed to but black insulating tape all over the remaining wires under the dash and get them out-of-the-way. All of a sudden the car does not look such a wreck with a footwell of wires laying and dangling all over the place. For that reason alone I am well pleased.

Given the choice? Well the blog is not called One man is Macbeth!

Quick links:

New Port Engineering 2 Speed Wiper Motor Review – Reviews Menu – Car Parts, or Click here
Wiper Motor 2 Speed Replacement Project – Photos Menu – Inside the Car, or click here
YouTube – New Port Engineering 2 Speed Wiper Motor Ford Mustang, or Click here

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Actions or Words?

So here we are in the UK and we are in the grip of a heat wave and we are not happy. People I have spoken to are moaning about the heat, a few weeks ago they were moaning about the fact our summer hadn’t started yet. Now we have some glorious weather I am trying to make the most of it but don’t understand why people moan so much. This sunny weather has allowed me to be sanding down my front valance, my radiator valance etc. all outside without having to stand in a dust cloud in the man cave. I have been in the garden with the new flower bed and watching the bee’s enjoy life as much as I am enjoying doing bits on the car outside. I have found a patch in the garden where the wind is hardly noticeable and the sun is not directly on you. This area is perfect for spraying car parts with primer and rust treatment. I was using this area to its full potential over most of the weekend much to my satisfaction. The only down side is the wife don’t like it. The patch which looks like deformed Olympic rings again in grey and black, is unfortunately directly in front of the kitchen window out the front of my man cave. When the wife returned home to see how much I had done with my spray job she didn’t look happy. When I moved the parts to show her workmanship, the attention rapidly moved to the now multi coloured grass. That look (again) was flashed in my direction. All I could think of to say was “That will go when you next cut the grass”. I’m glad I wasn’t hungry that night; I think she forgot me! When I mentioned the fact that there seemed to be a meal missing I was greeted with, “You can make some toast if you cut the bread”. I have now found another shower curtain to spread on the grass so that I don’t make a mess. Sometimes no actions can speak louder than words. Babe, you win!

Over the weekend I went down to see the boys at Mustang Maniac and got a few bits and pieces. I was talking about the fact I needed an exhaust system and Adam asked me about the headers on the car. To cut a long story short it turns out that the headers I have are so close to the steering ram they have damaged the rubber gator. As a result I was told I should replace the original bracket with an extension bracket that moves the ram out of harms way. I fitted the part on over the weekend and placed a photo guide on how to do it under the Photos menus – Steering. It really has made a difference.

buffers and plates in place — bracket and steering ram in place

Recently I have had a couple of nice emails asking about the brakes on the car and if I had a guide. Well yes, I have books that I have reviewed and I also have a few diagrams I keep in plastic wallets for reference of the bits I need. I even coloured in the black and white diagram with the colours of the springs and where they should be, it took me all of about one minute in Photoshop. All of the various diagrams I used can be found under the Articles menu – Front & Rear Brake Diagrams.

Enjoy the weather while you can and keep up the sun screen.

Quick Links:

Steering and Header Spacing click here

Front and Rear Brake diagrams click here

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Secret rules

The weather this weekend for a change has been gorgeous, hot and not a cloud in the sky. Is our summer finally here? A bit late but I will take all the sun I can get at the moment. This Friday evening we got the garden swing seat out from the cover and I was able to evict the cushions that have been squatting in the corner of my shed since last summer. They take up so much room, I could put my Karcher jet washer there, and few power tools in that space. The wife sneaks things into the man cave and puts things on them in her little corner and they fall off. So when I open the door I am greeted by an avalanche of cushions Wellington boots, trowels, hand forks, plastic pots and cardboard boxes from god knows where. The corner of the man cave right near the door. She has the house and garden, I have the garage and the shed – that’s the rules. But women play by a secret dirty secret set of rules that only they know about, they are allowed to put things in my area when they see fit. Yet when I bring in a set of brake springs in the house and sit at the kitchen table ready to treat them, you would have thought somebody had just pushed the nuke button! Trying to explain it’s only a temporary measure seems to add fuel to the fire. Does anybody have a copy of these rules I could look at please, or at least explain them to me. Anyway, while sitting in the swing seat watching the birds and the bees in the garden while sipping on an ice-cold bottle of Bud, I heard the comment, “I think a flower bed would look nice there.” Epic, not. So I chipped in with only if we have butterfly and bee loving plants. With that the Saturday was sealed but I didn’t know it.

Saturday morning and I was straight out into the man cave, I got the front valance out again and rubbed down the filler that has been built up, rubbed down and built up again. The work was almost done when they, being the wife and mother-in-law got back about five hours later. The front valance and grill valance were now ready for their spraying and I was feeling pretty pleased with my little ol’ self.

There were repeated trips from the car to the back garden with plants which were laid out around the area that they wanted the plants to be, yeah I got my bee and butterfly plants “Hot Lips” apparently! They looked quite nice to be fair. Then the shovel came out, from my man cave and the marking of the grass began. As they decided the ground was too hard to dig it was passed to me to dig. Great, the day has been baking in the high twenties and the earth was like rock. I questioned why now and got told the plants would die if I didn’t. I was reminded that I had done my own thing on the car all day so I could now help her do the flour bed. Bearing in mind I looked like I had just been rolled in a giant pack of flour due to the ultra fine dust off the valance while I was rubbing it down. Within minutes the sweat was pouring off me and the dust was now turning into a paste again. Eventually after the new ground was dug up I was released to go and do what I wanted. At that time laying on the grass waiting to pass out seemed like a good idea. But the compost went in the new flower bed, then they got the hand trowel and fork – from MY man cave, and they started to dig the holes only to find out that they could only get down to the rock hard clay that I had got too. So yes, yours truly had to dig the deeper holes for the larger plants.

Sunday was a day of more tiny rub down as I missed a bit to make a final surface prep. The shower curtain went down on the grass and I sprayed the valance and the grill valance, firstly with the Rust Encapsulator I got from Frost, then some grey primer and left them to dry in a shady part of the garden. Then I decided to clean ~~the sauna~~ my man cave out and tidy the Snap-On tool box up a bit. About a month ago when I was bleeding the brakes I needed some very small AF spanners. I bought a set of spanners that were ring one end and open-ended the other. They weren’t very expensive as there is no real leverage required. What I did notice was that they were always falling about and looked a mess in my OCD laid out tool box. I had an idea and looked on eBay where I purchased some carabiner clips like the climbers use for their ropes. Mine was small and not meant for climbing but they sure make a brilliant spanner clip. The spanners come off and go on with no problems and now they are all together! What do you think?

So this weekend was all about compromise, I do the work on the car and then I do work in the garden when the ground is like concrete. The garden it has to be said does look really nice. I sit here thinking; if I didn’t have that beer would I have still had to dig the flower bed? I reckon.

Quick links:

Front valance work updated, click here for link or go to the Photos – Bodywork – Front valance project part 2.