Month: May 2014

Classic Car Show Enfield ’14

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 Enfield 24 – 26th May 2014

This weekend I was not down at he garages of Mustang Maniac but I made a visit to the Enfield Pageant where I went along to see the set of cars they had there. I was surprised that they took the UBB (ultimate Bad Boy) 1000bhp Mustang there, it was raining and they told me it was quite a handful in the wet! I wanted to get some spray paints and look for anything unusual for the garage or man cave. There was some metal garage signs that I liked the look off but my wallet had very stressful time while I was thinking about it, needless to say the purchase was not made. It seems that the these shows are becoming more of a family thing with fun fairs, garden stalls, toy stalls etc. Obviously they are there in case the rest of the family get board while the petrol head of the family has a fix on all the stalls there. Everything from engines and gear boxes to bulbs individually laid out in trays. Due to the weather the waterproof clothing stall done a few brisk sales for some reason. The down side was there wasn’t a huge amount of cars there to start with due to the rain. As it brightened up there were more cars to see as they were nursed out of the warm garages. The theme this year was the First and Second World Wars. The exhibits proved popular, at one point it was difficult to get into, I suspect that had a lot to do with the weather. The war tent had a rare Vauxhall war car and was the first time I have seen the Vauxhall emblem in 3d as it were.

The tent next to the War Exhibition was an American themed idea, there was a great Rock & Roll group there banging out some hits as well as some classic American icons. The Oldsmobile even had a propeller on the back, not sure what that was all about. anybody in the USA help with that one?

Outside there was a lot more cars and lined up made a good looking row.

There was a rare car there that I had never heard of before,”Murena”. So the story goes, there was a couple of very rich guys who got together to make a sports estate car, no rear seats required as it was just so they could go fishing and hunting with space for their equipment. It was said they liked sports cars but they weren’t practical. So they built their own.  Oh to be rich!

Mustang Maniac’s cars were out in force, and I can see they have lots more of their own cars on their blog page. I sat with the guys for a while during the rain storms and enjoyed the company. Thanks Guys.

The British cars were there too but in limited numbers at one point. Even took a picture of the only Stag I could see there for Stag Owners Club, who have a blog here http://stagownersclub.wordpress.com/ Why do I mention these guys? If I hadn’t of bought a Mustang I would have gone for a Triumph Stag as a restoration project. But, it turned out I have Mustang Muscle cars burning in my veins.

More American cars splattered around the field, This huge Greyhound Truck was bigger than I had ever dreamed of, the brown rat rod was painted like that and was quite sound metal wise.

TV Stars; The hugely popular “Only Fools and Horses” comedy show had one of the original Reliant (3 wheelers) there.

only fools and horses

The other classic is the original 1966 Batmobile, there were three fibreglass models made of the original and I believe this is one of those from the London Transport Museum. I have added an article on this car as it was Ford based Lincoln Futura concept car with a 390Cid Ford v8 engine.

The whole day was summed up for me in this one photo. The guy has a classic rover estate which was the first one I had seen, he was walking back to his car carrying another rear wing for the one that has gone rotten beyond repair so he was saying. The classic car got a badly needed part. For me that is what these shows are all about. I was really pleased for this guy.

My final thoughts for the day was little disappointing as it was wet at times and the owners of the classic cars looked like they didn’t want to get them wet. that itself did mean that cars were little limited for choice. I did hear that Saturday was a better day and Sunday was not so good. It was a shame there was not more, but I would think twice about taking mine down there in the wet I must admit.

Quick Links:

Articles – The Original Batmobile 1966 or click here

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Home Made Oven

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For various reasons I couldn’t get down to Mustang Maniac this weekend, so I was a Mr Grumpy big time, so the wife was telling me. I’m not so sure she was correct in her statement, but I was at a loose end with myself. OK I was little tiny bit grumpy and that’s all I will admit to. There I have said it and it’s the only part admission I am gonna make. Ahem, moving swiftly on. I decided it was clean up time and spray for a few bits of the car. All day on Saturday I was de-rusting the rear shock absorber mounts that were in a bad way. This was the usual POR15, primer and spray. This is usually a three to four hour gap between the two coats of the paint. I managed to get it done in a single day as my home-made oven was at full temperature. OK, my oven is in fact my man cave, and I didn’t make an oven after all, but it felt like it. I have a temperature gun some readings I took inside the man cave were 25deg to 33deg Celsius. So I painted outside and moved them inside the shed and left them to bake. It certainly done the trick alright. The spraying inside the man cave was just as effective as the spray coats were going of in around ten minutes between coats. Why no pictures? Well the plates are just squares with a hole on the ends at an angle that the bottom of the shock bolts into under the leaf springs. It really is a boring bit of metal to look at, and I don’t say that about too much stuff on a Mustang!

Today was little different though, again the oven was hot as the sun was shinning down and not a cloud in the sky, a beautiful day in fact. Perfect for plonking my stuff in the middle of the lawn and start wire brushing, degreasing, cleaning & painting. For some reason the wife was Mrs Grumpy at this point! I decided to finish the gas pedal spray and add the silver strip at the top of the pedal arm to match the brake pedal assembly. It was sprayed and left inside the oven and it dried pretty quickly. The idea is for the silver to start just after the firewall inside, I think I got it right, I don’t want it to show from the outside. There is no need for the silver edges at all on the pedals, in fact you won’t see them unless you look underneath the dash. I only put them on there for a little detail, just because I could and I know they are there.

finished brake assembly

The other part I stripped down today was the gear selector mechanism. This is the chrome lever with the T-handle on the top. This was pretty bad-looking, but in fact it was only a little rust on the surface. Wire brush got most of it off and the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator applied, in the oven! It all came up well, but I have not assembled it all yet, I wanted the spray to cure properly before I scratched it off while it was still soft. I will post the completed pics next week to show what it looks like. I have added a page for the process so far here, or can be found at the quick links below.

gear mechanism
rubber bung
rusted
before cleaning
cleaned underside
top of the base
before cleaned up
cleaned up parts
first spray

If all goes well I hope to be going to the Enfield Pageant on the 24th – 26th May 2014. I had a great time there last year rummaging through all sorts of old stuff. I did hear that Mustang Maniac will be there again this year, which will be good as last year I managed to grab a hot sausage sandwich from their big American SUV motor home. Pop along to see the guys and see what they are up too. 🙂

Oh, by the way I am not associated with the event in any way, it’s just a good day out. Should I take some photos there?

Quick Links:

Gear Shift Refurbishment click here or go to Photo Menu – Inside the car – Gear Shift Refurbishment.

Enfield Pageant link click here.

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Grind Down

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Weekend arrived and I eventually got down to Mustang Maniac mid morning. Logistical issues that are too boring to go into right now. But I got there that’s the main thing. I had a look at Adams new addition to the fleet a nice ’65 GT350 in white with blue stripes, he started it up and I now know what I want my car to sound like, loud and a deep rumble. I was standing there like a school kid when  he opened the door and said get in. OMG, I was giggling like a school girl and I just wanted more. I do believe we lost a little traction in first and second gear going up the road, I suspect the roads were a little slippery that’s all. I have never been so excited in a car in all my life, the ride and noise was everything I hoped it would be and much, much more. What a car, what A car! After I had managed to wipe the silly grin of my face I got down to some work. The poor welding had to be ground down to as smooth finish as I could get it. I have now mastered the angle grinder technique and pleased with my days work. I have a few before and after pictures below. The smoothed out section may need a few more spot welds on it and ground again as a few sections were missed. I managed to forget to take my earplugs down to Mustang Maniac, so I had to improvise. I tore a couple of fingers of the latex gloves, put a small nut inside, wrapped it up so it was soft and stuffed it into my ears. It worked a treat, but I must say I looked a right pillock, or so I’m told 🙂

Sunday arrived and I finished of restoring the battery tray that looked pretty bad. Obviously trying to keep as much original as I can so I decided to strip it down and see what was there earlier in the week. I am pleased to say it was in good condition apart from a little rust that had pitted the very edges. So I rubbed it down, treated it, primed it and two coats of satin black. I think it came out well. There are a few dimples on the tray still, but I think it adds a little  character.  I also decided to catch the Spanish F1 Grand Prix, I promptly fell asleep it was that interesting! What has happened to Formula 1? So all in all a good Sunday was had by me.

I have been asked what I used to strip the paint and under seal off the car. It’s called Starchem Synstryp, I have done a review of it as well and it’s in the quick links below.

Quick Link:

I have added the full set of pictures for the battery tray here, or click on the Photos – Engine Bay – Battery Tray.

Paint stripper review click here or go to Consumable Menu – Starchem Synstryp Paint Stripper

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Sparks Will Fly

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The weekend is here and I have an extra day to work on the car. I arrived at Mustang Maniac and found the guys preparing some cars for collection by their owners. I had a chat with Adam to see what needed to be done on my car first. The last bit of scraping then maybe a change if I managed to get it all done. I cleaned up the front engine bay panel and found some hidden numbers marked on it under the paint. I had a conversation with Adam about them and it turns out these are the original factory markings. This is good on two accounts; The first being that the front panel is original and has not been replaced due to an accident. The second is that the markings match up to the fender, secret numbers and the door plate. I have taken some pictures of the original markings during the cleaning and then I have gone over them in a colour to make them stand out a little better. The top set is actually 5A but it looks like the 6 prefix has rubbed off. These numbers which are the model type the other numbers are options for the car, interior colour – black etc. The third picture is after the clean up. I wasn’t sure if the numbers would still be there after the final cleaning up. No matter what I did to the marks they stayed there. Impressive stuff for forty eight year old grease proof marker.

original markings
marked up 5A 26 8

I cleaned up the rear chassis legs to the point where they will be replaced. Then it was the right side wheel Arch for a clean up. Same procedures again, stripper, scrub, scrape and repeat. What was left is a little surface rust but it’s basically solid. There is a whole that needs to be patched up though, in the chassis leg that has been uncovered as a result of the clean up.

After that it was time for a change, the poor welding on the floor plan is to be ground down to see if there are any holes that are in need of re-welding. Adam was on the case to start the process to see the quality of the welding. The set of pictures here show just how bad this batch of welding is.

The grinding wheel started and the slow process to gently grind down the high spots without damaging the panels. The sparks were flying alright. The initial quick test patch was completed to his satisfaction. I was shown the technique ready for me to take over after putting on my new welding gloves, ear plugs & safety specs. I will post the pictures once I have completed some of the work. It made for a nice change and things look like they are starting to step up a gear.

I can’t wait for more of the same, but when somebody does it so easily and makes it look simple, it’s difficult to follow in those footsteps. I am a fast learner and I will step up my game.

 

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