Wind & Hot Air

Yesterday I was a little disgruntled with myself while in the man cave. In the male domain I have the front valance and the bumper stone guards that I have been rubbing down and spraying ready for a top coat or being fitted to the car, I was pleased with them and I sort of liked walking into the man cave and seeing the fruits of my labour. I decided to tidy up a little bit as things were piled up on the floor where I quickly put them out of the rain earlier. As usual I have to pick up the metal work and stand it up somewhere to get at the places I need such as the draws to the tool cabinet, once I am done I lay them back out again. I had my electrical compartment case in one hand and a few tools in the other that were going to be found a home in my tool cabinet. I have a latch on the door for a very large padlock and an elastic bungee cord that hooks to the door latch, the other end is attached to the fence post just behind the man cave. I hadn’t to put the hook to the door like I normally do, thinking that it would be OK as I wasn’t intending to be long. With that thought, a gust of wind from nowhere whistled round to the door and slammed it shut behind me. The vibration of the slammed door was just enough to start a sequence of events, I heard the sound of the metal sliding along the shelf where it was propped up against. Decision time, do I drop the plastic case filled with literally hundreds of electrical connections and fittings, as I had just purchased some large bulk bags, the other hand had a few small tools in it like wire crimps etc. Dropping the case and tools to try to catch the metal work would have certainly resulting in a smashed case and the electrical connections scattering all over the place, and no guarantee that I would have saved the metalwork. Or, do I watch my hard earn time and effort potentially get damaged. In slow motion the decision was being made, I leant forward with my arms out to try and counter balance, the pivot action of the right leg came up in a rather lame attempt to stop the bumper guard from being damage. I managed to slow it enough to gently graze on the edge of a bucket. Dumping the case and tools on the work bench time to inspect the damage. The bumper guard is not to heavy so no dents were made but it glanced of the handle. The problem was the metal part of the handle was overhanging the side of the bucket by the smallest of margins and the handle managed to scratch of some primer. The hot air was now forth coming in its own little hurricane that just happened to be voicing a few choice words to myself for being such a lazy ass in the first place. Pushing the door open in disgust as if it was the door’s fault, the bungee was hooked on the door and now proceeded to feel very sorry for myself. I got the mixing pot for the filler off the very same shelf that had supported my bumper guard. The damage could have been worse I guess, but that was not the point. The scratch was on the end and pretty much out of sight to be fair and would have been covered by the chrome bumper, but I wanted it right. The smallest amount of mixed filler was required as it was going to be a thin fill after I rubbed down what I needed too. Today I lightly rubbed the filler down after curing overnight to a nice smooth finish and gave it a spray of primer. All was right with the world again. As a result of this reworking I decided to put the completed pieces in the garage that I should have done weeks ago. Not sure why I put up with the pain of moving bits around the man cave all the time but I did. Now the garage wall has two new additions to go with the bumpers on the wall, the front valance and stone bumper guard. That way they will be out of harms way, that being me. I hope!

The top front bumper is pretty rusty and not much good, so the brackets holding it up fitted nicely in the mounting holes of the metal work and the other sides were tied up using some strong cord. It don’t look pretty – but hey, it works. The metal work is not going anywhere as they are tight to the wall, so I wedged some rags between the metal and the brick work. It looks like they are touching but there is a good couple of inches clearance there between them. Next time I will hold the door open regardless.

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I have placed a rather long technical spec document for the 1964 – 1970 Ford Mustang Technical Specs under the Mustang Profiles by Year menu. The page is quite long, but a lot of the sequences are repeated for each year of car for the same sections such as; full vin codes, axle codes, paint colours inside and out, weight, engines, trim options and prices at the time. A compilation sourced from various web sites so I can’t take full credit I’m afraid. But, as these are facts & figures there is only a limited number of ways of presenting them.

Click here for the quick link:

Ford Mustang 1964 – 1970 Technical Specs.