Happy Birthday To One Man…

One man and his Mustang: One year on…

I would like to say a massive THANK YOU to every single one of you who have looked at my pictures, read an article or just laughed at some of the daft situations I have found myself in. Those of you who have “liked”, followed, subscribed, tweeted, contacted me or left a comment I would like to say an extra special: Thank You so much for your time. I appreciate every single one of you.

It was a year ago today that I sat in front of this PC with a fledgling idea in mind that I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. That idea is what you are now reading, my blog. The initial point was for me to store all the work I was doing on the car for my own little online diary if you like, the pictures and words of what I had done on the car, these would allow me to look back on it all one day, or show somebody, anybody who was remotely interested in my car and what had been done. If somebody else wanted to read the blog brilliant, if not I wasn’t going to be upset about it as I had nothing to lose, who wants to read about my ‘ol Mustang? But all that has changed, I started to get emails about similar things I had done, a few questions and few ideas off people to go forward with my car project. I even got a few messages for things they would like to see on the blog. As a result my blog has evolved into a project almost as big as my car restoration so it would seem, and I am very pleased and proud to be able to say that. Now I see my blog more of as a personal “blogumentary” to get this car on the road and maybe help others while I am at it. I have reviews from my own honest point of view, articles and links that interest me and hopefully others too. I now receive “hits” each day looking at all sorts of different things, like photos, reviews, tools, diagrams or an old advert. Those views have come from all over the world; USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, UK, Aruba, Monaco, Iceland, Hong Kong, Kenya, Saudi Arabia to name but just a few, along with some countries I have never heard of before or even imagined would be interested. If I have helped a single person or given somebody an idea, or the confidence to have a go, then I have achieved my own secret little goal, not so secret now though!

Everyday I look at my stats, comments or emails I have been sent, it’s still a buzz to know that somebody has had a look at my blog for what ever reason. This little blog has now become part of my life and I hope to continue and grow that relationship with my fellow bloggers and peers online. I now follow lots of other blogs too and no, not just the petrol head blogs either, lots of photographic blogs, and some funny blogs that I have been introduced to which have broadened my outlook on life because of this site.

One day, I will post a video of the car on the road and me at the wheel with a silly grin the size of the hood !!

And I hope this little pic I found on the net says it all to the rest of the world.

A special personal thanks goes out to:

Adam at Mustang Maniac and his guys for their generous knowledge and help.

Will from Park Garage who was there at the first turn of the key.

My work colleagues who put with me regarding what I have done on my car every week!

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WordPress Family Award

Again I have been caught slightly off guard with a new award which has just started making the rounds. I am always left a little speechless that: A) I am nominated in the first place. B) I have regular visitors to my little ‘ol blog that to be fair has a rather limited market of appeal.

With pleasure I can say a big thank you to Dana from http://atlastracer.wordpress.com who kindly nominated me for the award.

As with all these awards the rules are quite simple:

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

It’s hard to single out just 10 that I wish to award, I know that at least one of my nominations already has this award. So if you’re not chosen it’s nothing personal and the others I would like to nominate don’t accept awards. If I have nominated you and you do not wish to continue with the award, or don’t have the time to do this award thing then I take no offence at all. I just wanted to show 10 blogs that I appreciate them, it’s a shame I can’t award all of the blogs I follow. I really don’t like doing this list thing as I follow all my blogs and read them for a reason, so I have chosen the list below on the basis of interaction and the general feel-good factor of the blogs in no particular order. Yes there is the petrol infused car stuff as you would expect but a few surprises too.

1) Dana from http://atlastracer.wordpress.com/ – I know you nominated me, but if I had this from somebody else I would have nominated you.

2) Debbie from http://hoodscoop03.com/ – my blog buddy from across the pond who shares the Mustang love.

3) Ron from http://ronscubadiver.wordpress.com/ who takes some superb photos and shows me places I wanted to go from all angles.

4) http://stagownersclub.wordpress.com/ – I always wanted a Mustang, but I said if I couldn’t have a Mustang I would have a Triumph stag, I can feel the passion from these guys and their cars too.

5) http://www.rodalena.com/ – just an enjoyable varied read who has followed me for a long time now.

6) Alicia from http://aliciabenton.wordpress.com/ – I just reading this blog.

7) Karen from http://karengadient.com/ – some wonderful things with Photoshop.

8) http://f1superswede.wordpress.com/ – If I ever need info on the F1 scene here it is.

9) Jim from http://harbin77.wordpress.com/ – A genuine nice guy who owned a Mustang!

10) http://storysmitten.wordpress.com/ – A great set of snippets from stories here.

A special mention to all the photo blogs I follow too, the world becomes a much smaller place when I see your pictures.

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Centre Console Tidy Up

I’m not quite sure what went on over the weekend but it just disappeared into thin air. Got into bed Friday night with that satisfied glow of knowing no alarm clock was going to give me a brain pain. Next thing I knew I hear the alarm and I am back to getting up in the dark. Saturday was a nice drive down to Mustang Maniac and spend time with the guys and sitting in the boys club discussing all things mechanical and Mustang. Armed with a load of parts and a silly grin I came back home wondering where the day went.

Sunday was Mustang day so the parts I got ere going to be fitted. The parts consisted of replacements for the inside of the dash, new blue filters for the light bulbs, new set of bulbs, and a new shift selector plate and rear lens cover for the centre console. My shift plate had pitted badly and the plastic had a suspected fag burn on it. There was nothing really to see with the parts as they are just direct replacements and look the same, apart from them being cracked and discoloured. Once the dash was completed and wrapped up again, I picked up the centre console and decided it could do with a clean, on close inspection I new the black was faded and needed work. So I set to work with exactly the same principles as the air con unit that I tidied up last week. I was amazed at how disgustingly dirty this centre console was. So I cleaned it up inside and out with Gibbs Brand. After removing the top metal plate I masked the plate and the ash tray ready for the light spraying. of satin black. The inner bulb plate needed to be treated and cleaned which didn’t take too long. The longest part of the job was making a new loom for the console using the standard bullet connectors but insulated them up, I added a red wrap of tape to remind me where the live feed parts are at the end of the red feed cable. The end result is brilliant, I now have a nice new looking shiny centre console. Not so new it looks out-of-place mind you, but new enough to show it has been cared for. here are some of the pics of the restoration, I have also posted the full process here or click the quick links below.

tired and damaged

broken rear light

top of console and under top plate

top of console

removing the bulb plate

ashtray with almost no colour

freshly sprayed not even dry top plate

clean top of console

new console loom

new rear light fitting

full length

ashtray in place

finished article

Quick Links:

Factory fitted aircon tidy up: photos – Inside the car – Factory Fitted aircon unit tidy up click here

Factory fitted centre console refurbishment: Inside the car – Factory fitted centre console refurbishment click here

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A Round Of Golf?

Another weekend almost over but I managed to get work done on the car. I also managed to get a service done on the wife’s car, her cherished VW Golf. We purchased all the parts on Saturday morning, the air filter, oil filter, oil etc and I was left to my own devices on Saturday afternoon to do it all while she went out again. It did feel strange having to get my metric tools out from the different Snap On drawer and not the imperial sets though. The air filter was encased in a massive slap of plastic on top of the engine. There were more pipes and wires coming out of the engine than a robot research facility. To get to the spark plugs it was a performance as there was a channel of wires with their own coils attached at the top. They were hidden under another plastic trunking system, that in turn had wires attached to it all over the place. The whole thing was nightmare.

What I am getting at here is the basic principle of the engine has not changed at all. The cylinders are there, the pistons, the spark mechanism etc. OK, the engines may have gotten bigger and smaller, they may have changed shape a little in configuration, the ideal number of cylinders is still in debate. Fuel injection is squirted into the cylinders, four valves instead of two. But why hasn’t technology moved on to the principle itself? Yes we will have electric cars eventually but not for a while yet, that will be a major leap. The Mustang’s air filter sits on top of carburettor held on by a single wing nut, that sits on top of an inlet manifold with four bolts, it draws in fuel and mixes it, burns it then chucks the waste out the back. Fuel injection mixes it with the air and burns it and chucks it out the back. Same thing, OK, so it’s more efficient now, but I feel at home under the hood on the older engine. The new engines have computer this, and wire that, control box this. Are they more reliable? I don’t think so. If my Mustang timing goes out a bit, dust of my timing gun, turn the distributer and re-tighten. Done. New car, download the software, plug-in an expensive decoder, type in what you want. Reset the warning light on the dash. unplug unit and write out a huge bill. Luckily I have a great mechanic Will at Park Garage who looks after my modern cars for me when they play up, but I know he loves the classics too. I’m sure he would rather get a socket set on a v8 header than plug-in a laptop! What has happened to computers in the last forty years? Size of a building to start with, now there is more technology in a cell phone than put man on the moon.

Once tuned up a forty-seven year old Muscle Car will give a vast majority of modern cars a run for their money, even if they don’t it will give you a bigger smile while driving it than a plain old euro box! I didn’t enjoy the round of Golf as I did working on my car. There was no sense of achievement, or is it just me?

Sunday I worked on my car, well the parts in the Man Cave at least. The rain made sure I wasn’t gonna push her out the garage for today anyway. I was just tinkering around and decided to polish the chrome on my factory option aircon unit. That little polish gave me a great idea I will share with you. The front of the unit has the classic “camera case” black dimpled look. It had worn almost down to the bare metal around the dials and the nozzles. Now the chrome sparkles and the black suddenly looks wrong. I had this idea a while ago to polish it with black boot polish, it didn’t work and just rubbed straight off. Can you see where I am going with this now? Today I thought why not spray it? There is chrome lettering on the front as well as the badge. These would need to be masked off to stop the over spray. What black would I use, gloss, undercoat, primer? The original black is a matt black or a dull satin from what I can see. With the decision made I got out some plastic sheets, (ok it was a thin packaging bag), not the paper masking kind like you should use in a spray shop. I used the electrical insulating tape as that can be moved a little in place and was such a smallish area and fiddly to do. I masked it all up and done a tiny test spray with Eastwoods Under Hood Satin black on the back of the unit near the top out-of-the-way. Once it dried it looked brilliant. I completed the masking up at the front, I removed the old air direction nozzles and sprayed the front with a couple of very light spray passes. It still left the dimpled finished as the original had, but just blackened up the front. I still wanted the authentic look and I believe I now have that. All that is left to do is get some artists paints mix up the colour and paint in the colours of the badge. Try doing that on a modern car!

The best part of the whole thing is I found a date stamp on the back of the unit – 28th June 1966

Finished Article:

Here are some pictures of the process, the full guide of what and how I did it can be found under the Photos – Inside the Car – Factory Aircon Tidy Up. The pics here don’t really show how thin the paint was as you can see the bare metal underneath.

old and tired

left side

right side

blower side with a nozzle removed.

lift out the spring

needs a clean

wrapping the dials

trimming out

masked and sprayed

Quick Link:

Factory Fitted Aircon Tidy Up click here.

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Galaxie 500 Spotted

During my daily commute home last week I got of my train as normal and walked towards my car that was parked up a side road. What greeted me was the unmistakable sound and rumble of a small block v8. The sound came from a monstrous sized American cruiser, the Ford Galaxie 500. As the car was waiting to move on I spoke to the owner about his car and he pulled over to let me have a look at it in more detail. This retired guy goes to America buys the cars, drives them around for a bit then brings them back over here in the UK to sell them on. That in turn pays for his next trip, nice living and good luck to him. Anyway this car was a 1967 v8 289, yes you did read that properly. This Galaxie had the smallest v8 option of the range, the lowest being the 289, the biggest being the monster big block 428ci. There was also an option for the inline six cylinder engine as well. The car was in great condition and had some cherry bomb exhausts on it. I took some photos as I had not seen one of these cars up close before, as the light was fading pretty quickly there maybe a couple of slightly blurred pictures so apologies. The engine was detailed with stainless braided pipes, plenty of chrome and an upgraded servo for the brakes. It all looked pretty good and done well, although I thought it looked a little out-of-place on such a big cruiser of family sedan. I would have preferred to see this in original spec for that reason, I didn’t see this particular model car as a street racer as such. Maybe the detail work would have looked better on the big block engines. Am I right or wrong, what do you think?

Thanks to the owner for stopping and having a chat. when it pulled away it did sound nice I have to say.

Did you know:

The Galaxie 500 was the third best selling convertible in the U.S.A in 1966, with 27,454 vehicles sold; it was beaten to the top spot by the Ford Mustang selling 72,119 vehicles outselling it by more than 2:1, and by the Chevy Impala selling at 38,000 vehicles in second place.

The name “Galaxie” was used for the top models in Ford’s full-size range from 1959 until 1961, this was an attempt by marketing to appeal to the excitement surrounding the Space Race at that time between 1957 and 1975.

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Shocked & A Little Hacked off

The weekend has been busy for me again. The wife is so busy I can hardly get on my PC, so I have resulted in using my Galaxy Note 10.1 tab, bluetooth keyboard and a shared internet connection. Everything takes that bit longer unfortunately, but at least I can still work on my blog only at a lower pace. Anyway, as I hadn’t seen Adam for a few weeks I made my monthly pilgrimage to Mustang Maniac, the excuse I made was, “at least I will be out of your way!” With that the “Day Pass” was issued, gratefully accepted by yours truly and I was off. Once I arrived I was speaking to the guys who were showing me the new improvements that were going on to cope with the demands for their work. I believe a blog will be coming out about it soon. After a good few hours of chatting, meeting people coming into the office and watching a few last-minute repairs on a customers car by fitting of some nice LED bulbs to the side lights on a ’66 coupe. I had a wander round the stock rooms. I spotted some rear shocks that had just arrived so nabbed a pair of them pretty sharpish and immediately decided what was going to be my new project for Sunday.

My current shocks were a gas adjustable pair, the only problem is, there is no plumbing for the right hand side and the left hand side is seized solid. I knew these had to be changed regardless, and as the wife was still working, I took tools along with my new shock absorbers out the garage to get some work done. I have written a full process for changing the shocks under Photos Menu – Rear Shock Replacement or click here for the quick link. To cut a long story short, if you pardon the pun, I ended up having to cut one side of the old shock stem off with a hacksaw, in order for me to get it out of the bracket. Not exactly proper mechanics, but as I wasn’t going to keep the old shocks it didn’t really matter. The trouble is it just doesn’t look good with a pair of legs hanging out the front of a garage with that distinctive sound of a hacksaw on metal. The new shocks were a performance rated pair, and according to Adam they are a lot of shock for not a lot of money. On top of that they looked quite good too being all in white. The only thing I could say was that I was worried yet again by the fact that the previous efforts of the “Herbert” to restore this car were a bit of bodge job to say the least. Spanner points rounded off, nuts loose on top of the shocks and at the bottom, old parts just left in the recesses etc. What else am I going to find? Plenty I expect, but don’t worry, I will let you know when I do find something else!

old shock not even tightened up

old shock right side

incorrect washer plate going on

right

label

hacked off

left side

After all the work was done there is nothing quite like replacing parts that look good and can be seen by somebody else for a change, and above all, these parts will do the job properly. I was well pleased with the weekends work in all. The car no longer bounces like a baby cradle one side and up on stilts the other side. In fact I far from hacked off, even though I had to do some to get the job done. 🙂