Author: One man and his Mustang

I'm just a man with a Classic 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe and an ever increasing collection of car detailing products to keep it clean. I bought the car as a non rolling project in 2011 which had been neglected, set fire to, rusted and abused. As a result of all that the car needed a bare metal strip down, a nut and bolt restoration. Four and a half years later the car was completed, on the road and shown at the UK's premier Classic Car Show, everything that was done to my car is documented here. I now have the privilege to drive one of America's most recognised cars and a true Icon, the Ford Mustang.

Chipping Away

The first of June’s car show took me into another county of Norfolk to a little place I had never heard of before, Gissing. According to Google maps it would take me about forty five minutes to get there and thirty one miles away. The difference of miles and time tells me that this was going to be little village roads and not main roads.

I packed my bag, double checking that I had my phone this time, my spare phone was charged and I had a full tank of fuel. Starting the journey there was a cloudy sky, but it was getting brighter as the miles and minutes ticked by. The first three quarters of the trip was main roads and pretty much straight forward and a nice pleasant cruise. A couple of miles out from the venue I was told turn left. The lanes were fairly narrow full of potholes. I rounded a corner into the village called Burston where a complete nightmare was waiting in front of me; the road had just been stone chipped! In the UK the councils can’t be bothered to put a nice tarmac road surface down so they just chuck tons of stone chips and gravel on the road where the cars are left to squash it down. It’s utter laziness from the councils which I dare say is also to save money. I stopped and thought about doing a U-Turn to go back on myself. That wasn’t going to happen as I couldn’t make the turns needed in the narrow lanes, I had to go on.

I dropped the car into low gear and just let it roll forwards on idle tick over. Even that was too fast as I listening to the sound that makes any car guy’s skin crawl, the metallic tinkling of stones bouncing off the underside of the car. I slowed down even more, now I’m literally moving slower than a walking speed. By now there were a couple of other cars joining me wanting to get past. Tough, I wasn’t going to go any faster – end of! After about five minutes or so the road for a residential section widened where I pulled over to the side and stopped to let the other cars behind me past. A U-turn would be possible at this point, but I would have to go back over what I had just come through and not get any closer to the event. The issue then would be the cars going to the show where I would then be going against that traffic, on stones and gravel, on a single track road. This was a loose loose scenario for me.

After the cars past me I took this pic after they roared off, you can just about make out the stones.

View from the hood of a blue car driving on a narrow, stone-chipped country road surrounded by greenery.

Just after this straight bit of road there was a corner to the left. As if things couldn’t get any worse, they were about to, two road sweepers going slower than me. They were brushing the stones about making horrendous dust clouds, I sat well back wondering what to do making up new swear words as I broke out into a cold sweat. I couldn’t sit behind them as stone chips would make the front of my car look like the surface of the moon.

The road did have passing points a little further up due to the narrow roads. My strategy was to time it so that I could speed up a little to pass the sweepers at the wider part and get past them. The only good thing about this scenario was that the first sweeper didn’t have the middle of the road brush working and was just sweeping the the side of the verge. Getting past them I didn’t hear any of the dreaded metallic tinkling, although I would be thoroughly checking at the show.

I reckon this village stretch was just over a mile took me around twenty minutes to navigate, that isn’t an exaggeration either as I could have literally pushed my car faster. Emerging from the village the roads the roads were back to tarmac and pot holes again. Even then it was a gentle increase in speed as I didn’t want stones flying off the tyre treads up onto the paint job. A few minutes later the SatNav announced I had arrived at my destination on the left.

I was directed onto a field to park up trunk first near a fence. I got out and started look around my car. The detailing products were out during the cleaning I paid extra attention to any body damage. There was one tiny little chip which luckily hadn’t gone down to the metal on the headlight door, this will be sorted out when the weather is nice. The cars that were following me in were also moaning big time about the stones. According to one bloke from the village he said that they only put the stones down the day before.

The show was busy and my first time here in Gissing. In fact it got busy enough that some classic cars were parked within the public car parking.

I wandered around my little section of the field.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked in a field during a car show, surrounded by various vintage cars and spectators, with a church in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

Really nice Ford Model T

At the end of the rows of cars I could walk onto the hard standing part of the show, again only a couple of rows of cars.

A crowded classic car show in a field, with attendees walking among vintage cars, under a partly cloudy sky.

My Car of the show was this 1935 Ford Model C Touring.

At the end of the hard standing car park there was a nursery who looked to be having their own car show!

The village hall next to the nursery was selling craft type stuff, plants and some BBQ food. The funny thing about the plants was that they were selling well to the wives who had arrived with their husbands. I heard a couple of ‘discussions’ not quite arguments had taken place once the plants had been taken back to the classic cars where the owners were sitting. One owner was getting quite upset once he heard the words, “It’s just a car” and he didn’t want them in the car because of the dirt, I could see his point to be fair. Now if the husband had bought in a dirty carburettor into the kitchen to be cleaned, I dare say it would have been a similar sort of argument.

Once I had finished walking around I got back to my car where the chair came out ready for some lunch and a long cool drink.

Close-up view of a blue classic car at a car show, showcasing its sleek design and shiny chrome details, with a vintage car visible in the background.

It is worth noting that the field we were told to park up was occupied by sheep previously. Needless to say there was wool and err ‘waste’ all over the field, making a simple walk in the field just a perilous as the drive in to the show, but for different reasons. I didn’t want to be cleaning that stuff out my car once I got home.

A close-up view of a grassy area with scattered bits of white fluff, possibly sheep wool, among the green grass.

It was a well supported show with around hundred and fifty cars at a guess. The best thing about this show was that these were all new cars to me and I didn’t recognise any of them from previous shows. The weather on the day was all over the place with the sun in and out, but at least it didn’t rain.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked at a car show, surrounded by other vintage cars and attendees observing the event.

Before I set of home about an hour before the show was due to end at five, I spoke to one of the marshals and asked him a better way home to avoid the road chippings. I had a nice little tip and checked it out on the SatNav. This route would add about three miles in the opposite direction to start with for the journey home, but it would be worth it to avoid any potential damage from stones. The trip home took me just under an hour and was all main roads once I left the village. Apart from the stone chippings on the way in, I’m glad I went as I got to see some different cars parked up at a show that I hadn’t seen before.

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A Trio Of AMT Dealership Models

At the beginning of May I was contacted by a guy who had just finished reading about my AMT dealership models which I had posted about with some history a while ago, link here. That guy’s name was Kevin who emailed me some photos of a model that he had found at an estate sale. I responded as soon as I could to say that I was very interested. A few emails were sent back and forth where we arranged a fair price for his find, time and effort plus the postage and packaging of course. Kevin emailed me to say he had received the money and sent me a copy of the tracking number from the US Postal Service where he had kindly posted it pretty much the same day. The package arrived across the pond to the UK a short ten days later and was very well packaged.

After carefully unwrapping the packaging to expose the contents I was thrilled to see this little beauty, yes it’s just a box. But, it has survived six decades so it’s very, very cool in my eyes.

Opening the original posting box with even more care I could see the model inside. The box was fragile and I made a point not to overbend the carboard as I didn’t want it to tear.

The model enclosed model is the American Blue version which was in near mint condition.

Taking the car out the box to take some photos. The dimensions are exactly the same as my other ones just over 7″ long and just under 3″ wide.

The inside of these models have some amazing details.

Not only is it rare to find a boxed dealership model in such good condition, this one still had the original press release leaflet that came with it. I have never seen one of these before and I’m sharing the images I have taken of it to share and historic relevance. Again due to the paper being sixty plus years old, I didn’t fully straighten out the leaflet or open the folds fully, as I didn’t want to weaken the paper or risk damaging it.

The leaflet is printed in such a way as you open it the images and text read correct.

Front page:

Reverse Page:

First opened page:

Fully opened front page:

Reverse Full Page:

As my other two models are in a display case I had to get a matching case for this one with the box.

My other two prized AMT Dealership models:

My latest American blue AMT model now in my collection:

Here they are together, probably not going to be handled again for a very long time.

My red and white dealer models now share their case with a couple of the rare editions matchbox toys donated to me by a fellow Mustang enthusiast.

I’m absolutely delighted with this addition to my collection. It’s all down the thoughtfulness and kindness of Kevin O’Donnell for contacting me. It still amazes me that the postage box has survived when they are usually binned there and then. These cars were more often than not given to children to play with when the new models came out, thus they invariably had a tough life there after it would be fair to say. As for the press release leaflet that would have gone the way of the postal box, in the bin. The complete model package had travelled one last time across the pond to it’s new pampered home in the UK.

That just leaves me to say a huge ‘Thank You’ to Kevin for getting in contact with me.

If you would like to contact me regarding some memorabilia you would be willing to part with or can provide any information at all, please feel free to leave a comment on my pages or just drop me an email:

onemanandhismustang@gmail.com.

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Feltwell Anglo American Car Show 2025

This post is about an absolute first for me around the circumstances that this post came to be. The Feltwell Anglo-American Car Show last weekend was in Norfolk near many of the air bases, including Lakenheath where my car was imported into the UK from the USA.

The weather was promising and I got up not feeling to great, but a car show is a car show and sacrifices have to be made. I packed my bag with lunch, some drinks not forgetting my wallet for fuel on the way home. I started out on my journey around thirty miles away which according to my mate Tom (the TomTom SatNav), I would get there some forty odd minutes later. I arrived without any problems which was a great drive through the wonderful Thetford Forest. Marshalls quickly directed into the field where I parked up under directions, all in a line. The trouble was the lines were two deep and they parked us all facing the same way hood to trunk. People wandering around would see the front of the cars one side and only the back of the cars behind them. Not impressed with that situation, I waited for my marshal to direct other cars into position. With him now busy a good few cars down from me I pulled out and backed into the same spot, this time trunk to trunk with a new Mustang behind me. I parked next to a 2.8i Capri, which seems to be the UK Mustang in many peoples eyes; two doors, long hood, fastback styled.

feeling please that I bucked the trend of parking, I had a drink and thought I would go and take some photos before it got to busy! Now I had a problem, I couldn’t find my phone. After a frantic panic of ten minutes or so emptying the trunk. I remembered that I put the on the tool chest in the garage while I loaded my trunk. It felt like I had lost the extension of my arm, of all the car shows since 2011, I have never been without my phone. In fact I can count on one hand, ever since I have owned cell phones from 1997 with the little pull out aerials, that I have gone out without my phone. How on earth was I going to take photos? Then it came to me, use the dash cam. I use an Akaso EK7000 which is plugged into the cigarette lighter and removed once I’m parked up. Luckily it had been used on the way to the show so was fully charged up. I formatted the SD card to make space for the photo’s.

I have modified the mount a bit with magnets and foam in order to attach to the metal grill on the dash, and not mark it. I took these photos of the dash cam once I got back home.

The dash cam’s photo function isn’t as good as my trusty old Samsung S24 Ultra. It felt funny walking around with a little tiny box to take the pictures. But, it has done the job admirably and you can see what was there. However, as this has a wide angle lens, some of the perspective is a little distorted. I would wander up and down the lines fairly quickly not knowing how long the battery would last.

As this is near the airbases there was a good showing of American muscle. The show was busy and a couple of hundred cars were expected, I think there was a little more than that.

There were a couple of buses that were great and the owners allowed people to get on them.

I have seen this A-Team van before which was signed by the cast.

Another movie car that needs no introduction, not an official licensed car, but still pretty good.

Walking back down line was mine and the rest of the cars.

My car of the show was this little ol’ thing, a Tempo Matador apparently. I don’t why I liked it – i just did.

There was a few motor bikes there.

The most stunning was this steam punk Dr. Watson bike. I heard him say it has taken him ten years so far. the attention to detail with polished copper was amazing.

To fish up there was a quite a few Mustangs, apart from the Eleanor above.

To finish up I have a comparison. Some cars can pull the colour pink off, some can’t do it as well!

The dash cam battery lasted very well to be honest and I needn’t of rushed around. It was a great show with plenty of cars and I spoke to lots of people. Back to the phone, I do make a point of having two phones with me, one just as a backup as using the camera all day can eat the battery. I have a choice of two trusty Nokia phones both from 1999, but both with very different characteristics. My 7110 Matrix and my tiny 8210, both have amazing battery life of days not just hours, and the standby time is weeks. Oh, the games on these were really cool too.

I swap them around now again in my cool bag, so I’m still able to make an emergency call if I need too. Does anybody else carry a spare phone or is it just me?

When i got back home I downloaded the photos to my PC to get a better idea of what they looked like. having to look at the pictures on the back of the camera was difficult to see if they were blurred or poor or not. I was pleasantly surprised to be fair.

Next time out I will make sure the smart phone is packed as well!

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A Double Spring Break

Today was a promised to be a nice day according to my weather app. I was awoken by two little dogs whom decided they wanted to wander round the garden before the alarm went off. Fortunately it was only five minutes before I was due to get up anyway and saved me from the torturous alarm sound. I could of done without the furry foot on my face though.

I packed the cool bag with plenty of drinks as it was going to be a hot one. I loaded the trunk, got in the car and set of down the road. There was plenty of classics on the road, some going the opposite direction to me, I’m not sure what event that was, perhaps I should have gone to that one if i knew where it was of course. About twenty minutes later, no road works and no hold ups I arrived at Stonham Barns in Suffolk which was advertised as their “Spring Break”. Every Sunday at this location there is a huge car boot sale which is held in a field to the left of the main entrance. A marshal started to direct me into the car boot area, (I’ve experienced this once before at this location). I kept trying to point past her to say I wanted to get into the car show. She eventually let me past and I continued on my way. I was directed to drive into the main arena to park up. To my left was a more modern Mustang and to my right was a General Lee also just parking up next to me.

The gates open to the public at ten o’clock which was in about forty minutes time. I got my detailing products out to wipe of the road dust along with virtually every insect that decided they wanted to splatter themselves on the windscreen, the grill, front valance and number plate. One of the headlights looked like a checker board with the black bugs all over it, the other side was fine with none on it. A good tip to get rid of bugs is to a spray quick detailer on the bugs, allowed it to soak into the bugs in order to soften them up. By the time I had wiped over the upper surfaces of the car. It only took a couple of minutes to wipe them off. In no time, all was soon sparkly clean again.

I had a long cool drink before I set of to take some photos of the cars. There was quite a few cars that I hadn’t seen before, thus quite a few picture on this post like the last post. I wandered around the outside of the main arena before working my way inside to the arena and eventually back to my car.

There was some amazing paint jobs on display and this was the first of them, these black skulls appeared as you walked around the car in the sunlight.

I just loved this Plymouth, no idea what model it is apart from its a ’56. If somebody could let me know it would be great. I couldn’t find the owner as I would have asked them.

Another General Lee was at the show, wit ha closer colour to the TV series cars.

Another great paintjob, nothing fancy simply a beautiful colour such a deep gloss.

Inside the main arena there was an area for motorbikes and trikes.

This bike was simply stunning, the more I looked at it the more fine details I spotted. Just an awesome bit of kit and I loved the shotgun detail. The fuel tank artwork was amazing.

The Chevy Nomad from the last show was here again.

This was my car of the show.

I got talking to the owner of this Buick who told me about the story behind it, where it had been bought by a father for his daughter to go to and from college in it. The flag on the roof was painted free hand with spray cans by a street graffiti artist. The owner treats this car as his daily driver and isn’t afraid to get it wet and drive it. This is a rare rare example as they only made these for one year.

This Ford had a bold paint job perhaps the best in the show for artistic flare.

This van had a black paint job with coloured flames which were so subtle you had to catch the light just right to see them. I think this was the best paint job overall.

There was a few Mustangs at the show, some modern and some classics. I’ve grouped them all together here.

It was a bright sunny day and my Galaxy S24 Ultra coped fairly well with the bright conditions. Some images are bit washed out and some had glare, but I think they looked better for it.

There was a diverse range of cars with a very heavy emphasis on the USA models. The Trucks were really well represented with newer models alongside the old school classics.

I left the show a little early just before three before the Birds of Prey exhibition started as they don’t like you moving cars around at that point, which is understandable. The trip home was good apart from some a-hole in a lorry that pulled across the front of me last minute, only indicating as he was making the manoeuvre, like that was going to help. perhaps I should I mention the lorry was on foreign reg plates. As I overtook him I gave a little wave to show just how displeased I was with his lack of road craft and general lack of situational awareness.

I got home some ten minutes later and gave my car its mandatory quick detailer wipe over before putting it away in the garage. Not only had I been on a Spring break car show, my wife was spring cleaning when I walked in from the garage. Seeing the destruction that the tornado had left in the kitchen, I played it safe and kept well and truly out the way. I usually post a week later after a car show that I had attended, after taking time to edit the stock of photos from the day. This week it’s a rare posting on the same evening of the actual car show. Due to the afore mentioned destruction, I powered up the PC so that could edit my photos for this post.

It was a gloriously hot and sunny day, lots of great cars. Let’s hope the good weather continues.

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Made It

Last Sunday was the second show I had booked up, but this was the first one where I made an appearance. I woke up to a glorious day and packed the factor fifty just in case or was that going to tempt fate and make it rain? I packed it anyway just in case.

I backed out the garage with the SatNav already telling me to go take some back roads. On this occasion these particular roads aren’t to bad and can allow a couple of cars to pass. The roads were clear and I was enjoying myself with window down, knowing that I had a full tank of gas tends to relax you for any journey. Before I knew it two cream coloured Reliant Scimitars pulled out of a side road and caught me up at a fast rate of knots. Not going to be intimidated and ruin my drive I just poodled along. A few miles later they were still behind me. I decided to slow down in order and let them pass and get on with where they were going, but no they also slowed. My logic was they were in no rush either. Some twenty minutes later we all arrived at the Kersey Mill Drive It Day. We pulled into the main entrance where I was greeted by a marshal who directed me to zone four.

This turned out to be a great spot by the stream, under some trees and near a wooden bridge that crossed a little stream into another show field.

I set up my show board as I retired my home made and slightly cumbersome home made wooden design. My knew one is an artists easel with adjustable legs and height adjustments. The cool bag was opened for a refreshing cool drink before I started the quick detailing to remove the road dust of my car. Before I had the chance to get my chair out I was asked to have a look under the hood. Never wasting an opportunity to lift the hood, I obliged.

After a lengthy chat about how to get the windscreen washers to work, it was time to have a wander round and look at the other cars. I walked towards the main field to take some photos where I heard a marshal on the radio saying there was seven hundred cars in attendance. I’m not convinced there was that many, but it was a very busy show however many cars were there.

In no particular order I just wandered around the field looking for some nice cars instead of some four or five year old Porsches , I wouldn’t be disappointed with the variety on show. I took over three hundred photos, but narrowed it down to just over a couple of hundred. The little area where I was parked had a mixture of cars as I wandered towards the tea hut and breakfast van that had a queue and smelled amazing.

Towards the front of the mill there was some of the older cars.

At the back of the mill the large field was also packed out which was also where the little bridge by my car made a short cut.

I came across the two Reliant Scimitars (above right) that followed me in. I walked up to the owners who were sitting in their chairs looking very chilled. I apologised for driving so slowly and explained that I wanted to let them past. They laughed and came with, “No worries, we recognised your car and decided to follow you as you know where you were going”. I had to laugh and confessed, “That’s quite ironic because without my SatNav co-pilot, we would have ended up at the other end of the country, I’m useless at directions”. That is a major understatement, I get lost everywhere, as per the previous week’s aborted episode.

Continuing round the field I bumped into more friends and had some catch up chats about up and coming shows.

The corvette club was out in force.

There was an group of Jaguars and even one made of porcelain.

Continuing around the fields in no particular order.

I came across my car of the show in the main area which was this ’57 Chevy Nomad. I couldn’t believe just how big this car was and I suspect it’s a real handful to hustle around our tiny streets in the UK.

There was a couple of trikes looking amazing and bigger than some of the cars on display.

There was a couple of Lambo Countachs, a proper one:

And this one missing four cylinders!

Over the stream to the next adjacent field.

There was some commercial vehicles which made the short trip from Ipswich Transport Museum with a mate of mine David driving the yellow Karier flat bed.

Just the last field to go.

Not forgetting the few Mustangs that were represented.

Then a short walk back over the main bridge to my parking spot where my deck chair beckoned with some lunch and another cool drink. I didn’t need the factor fifty after all as I was in the shade and spent a few hours in the afternoon talking to people and watching the world go by.

A few dogs were making the best of the stream in the hot weather and it did look quite refreshing for them.

Great views while taking a well earned rest!

After arriving back to my parking area there was a couple of Jeeps now parked up not far away from me. I think my fav photo of the day was taken not even getting out of my chair.

The drive home I took the main roads back as I was expecting the roads to be busier, it did add another 10 minutes to the journey, but it was still a beautiful day and I was enjoying my car again.

The show season has officially started and looking forward to the next ones, weather permitting of course.

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Almost Made It

Last weekend was due to be my first car meet, my good mate Craig sent me a link earlier in the week which was for a show just thirteen or so miles away from me in Lavenham across country. The car was pushed out the garage on the Saturday to de-winterise the car and give it a bit of a clean up. I also did a oil and filter change change with some Millers 20W 50 Semi synthetic oil. I also had a new detailing product I wanted to try and mini project that had waited for the right time to get the car out in the nice weather.

The mini project was a real quick one to replace the headlight retaining rings around the headlights as I detected a little rattle at the end of last year’s shows and found it was from the drivers headlight. I knew exactly what it was, but wasn’t to worried about it at this point. I had made a trip over the winter to get a pair of headlight retaining rings from Mustang Maniac to make sure they matched, I couldn’t have one shiny and one not as shiny could I?

The headlight retaining rings were pretty simple to swap over and I have done a full walkthrough of the process here.

Basically the headlight door comes of after loosening four screws.

The exposed headlight retaining rings are held in place by three screws.

Loosen the three screws and twist the ring counter clockwise a little to release the ring and the headlight itself becomes free.

You can replace the headlight at this point as well for an LED upgrade, like I did here. Or just replace the the rings which was my intention this time. On the left picture below you can tell the difference between the new one at the top of the left hand pic and the old one below it.

While I was at it replacing shiny things I got my mini polisher out and decided to clean the headlight door screws, just because I could.

Will anybody notice, I very much doubt it, but I know they are shiny. Happy with the days quick bit of work I was ready for the car meet the next day.

Sunday morning arrived and where I checked the weather which was sunny, today was going to be great. I started the car and rolled out the garage with over an hour before the start. I realised that I had more fuel than I remembered, just over a quarter of a tank, which would be more than enough to get to the show and back again about twelve miles each way in fact. I could fill up on the way home in my own leisurely time. The usual turn off for me is more of a main road route than the back roads, which can be dirty and you often get idiots in the middle of the roads going much to fast. As I turned into the road barriers stopped me with the dreaded “Road Closed” sign. Somebody was being paid to stand there and watch all the cars turning around. He eventually wondered over to me as I wasn’t turning round, it was obviously too much for him to walk over. We had a very brief exchange of words where I tried to bluff my way through. Unfortunately he was having none of it and walked away mid way through his sentence mumbling under his breath. Now I’m in a bad mood as it meant that I was going to have to reverse back up because I didn’t want to do a ten point turn in the car. The down side was me about to reverse onto a fairly busy roundabout. I think he said ‘follow the diversion signs’ in some sort of half strung together sentence, which would ‘only be a few miles or so’. The irony was the ‘Road Works’ which wasn’t happening with him or the other half a dozen who were also standing around and certainly not working on the road. They could have let me through, but no – Mr. Jobsworth was on the case.

The signs sent me back round to the far side of the town along the way my SatNav was having a mental, with “turn around where possible”. I turned my trusty navigation co-pilot off in order to concentrate on following the road diversion signs, or should I say more like a ‘wild goose chase’? Twenty minutes later I’m still following signs to who knows where. I started to realise something was wrong when I glanced a sign giving directions to Cambridge which was the exact opposite direction I needed to be going. Now I’m literally in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal. I started to sweat as my fuel gauge was running down. I may have mentioned in a few post before, the air was turning blue just like my car and the sky above me. It would be a glorious day to be at a car meet, if I could get there. But no, the diversion muppets who put the signs up were having a laugh at my expense or they got lost themselves.

I reckoned that I had a couple of gallons left and decided to abort the trip as I’m now in a previously undetected black hole that exists in darkest depth of Suffolk. I eventually found some signal and called my mate Craig to say I was lost. He said he would do a fuel run for me if needed, which was very kind of him, if I knew where I was of course to get the fuel in the first place. I opened my Shell app which showed me the location of petrol stations near me. My usual, regular Shell fuel station in Bury St Edmunds was shown to be ‘only’ 15 miles away. My featherweight foot was just resting on the gas pedal and some twenty minutes later I pulled into the gas station. The fuel gauge before on the left, then almost £70 later I was full up again.

I reckon that I had another gallon or so in the tank, but you can’t trust these old gauges. I certainly don’t and tend to fill up when near the 1/4 tank mark which is my ’empty’ guide during the car show season.

The drive home was relaxed, but feeling disappointed. I stopped at a junction to turn right, when pulling away out of nowhere a rather annoying screech on quick throttle. One of belts for the fan/alternator or the power steering belt was slipping. Pulling up back on my drive the belt screech was becoming more pronounced. My day was now getting worse by the minute, I popped the hood, but couldn’t tell which belt it was. The first belt to come of was the power steering and then re-started the car, screech was still there. I then removed the alternator belt and started the car, the screech was gone. Laying the belt on the floor it looked more like an egg where it had sat around the pullies and had stretched over the winter just enough to cause the issue. I cleaned the belt and the pulley V grooves with degreaser, along with a fair amount of isopropanol alcohol to dry the grooves and belt, once cleaned it was refitted back on. The screech had almost gone, only happened on sudden revs, but still there a little. The tension couldn’t be adjusted anymore as the alternator was now on the max adjustment on the bracket. I spoke to Adam at Mustang Maniac who told me that he would send the direct replacement belt and another one which was 1/2″ shorter belt to give me more adjustment on the bracket.

I put the car away after a clean and went inside the house decided to relay my dissatisfaction of the day so far to my ever understanding wife. I plonked myself on the sofa with the hump and felling very sorry for myself.

About an hour or so later Craig pulled up and asked if everything was OK. I had even forgotten to let him know that I had filled up and gotten home safely. Sorry again Craig.

We decided to have a couple of hours of detailing tyres and comparing products, all of which I will be reviewing. The first was the Meguiar’s Ultimate Insane Tire Spray, the full review can be found here. The product we used on the daily car was CarPro DarkSide Tyre And Rubber Sealant, the full review can be found here. Craig loaned me his new product that he had recently bought and liked. He asked me if I wanted to try it on my cars. So we opened a can of chilled soda each, sitting in the warm sun we took some pictures so that I could review the product, which is a nice change as I tend to do them on my own.

Once the tyres were cleaned we tried the CarPro product on the Smart car.

I was very pleased with the results and I will buying some of this product when I get round to ordering it. Time started run away with us as we cleared up and Craig made a move to go back home. It was a good day in the end, catching up with a mate, shame it wasn’t at a car meet itself. That means my first show was a DNF is normally defined as ‘Did Not Finish’, but in my case ‘Did Not Find’ it, so near yet so far.

Hopefully the next proper show is this weekend at Kersey Mill, but the weather forecast doesn’t look that good, maybe I could be forced to miss that one as well.

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Fill Her Up

Many classic cars of the bygone era of the ’60s & ’70s, not just Mustangs were fitted with a fuel filler pipe that was quite big diameter. The fuel back then was Leaded or Four Star fuels to be pumped through a larger nozzle which filled more of the filler pipe, which makes perfect sense. When pumping was complete, the pump would click off and it was job done. However, with the move to the dreaded ethanol based fuels the filler pipe holes were made smaller along with the pump heads themselves. Fuel pumps from today have the much smaller hole which ensure a snug fit and allow the pump to shut off as you would expect. The problem with classic cars owners now have since this change is that the the large diameter filler pipes still take the smaller pumps which fill at similar rates, but at higher pressure. In turn that when the filling is complete, the fuel should stop the nozzle to avoid over filling, but it more often than not doesn’t. The reason is that pumped gas under pressure can splash back around the smaller nozzles, down sides of the filler pipes and out the top. This invariably results with some splash back out of the filler pipe over the paint job, bumper and if I’m unlucky, me if I happened to be standing in the wrong place. With this in mind I tend to go through some performance of getting a microfibre cloth, laying it over the bumper ready to clean up quickly when I top the tank up. I sometimes get strange looks as to what I’m doing before filling up.

This waste of fuel, smell on your clothes and potential damage to the paint work over time has always been an annoyance to me, but it’s part of the ‘joys’ of owning a classic car. I know many other Mustang owners as well as other manufacturers in fact that suffer from this issue. I just happened to be browsing through a Mustang forum where I spotted a link where somebody had modified the 64 – 70 Mustang filler pipes, a totally random link lead me to a discussion. The filler pipe size was exactly the same as the original, but inside is a simple fitted anti splashback valve. The valve is designed for the unleaded fuel pump nozzles sizes of today 13/16″ and should stop the splashback problem.

After a bit more research I got in touch with the guy and ordered one. A couple of weeks later it arrived and got round to fitting it as the sun came out over the weekend. Below shows the inside of the filler pipe with the anti splash back valve.

I have created a full step by step fitting guide for the filler neck here, but I have shown the basics steps of fitting it below.

This is an exact replacement for the standard filler pipe. The only minor difference is the bottom of the filler pipe has a slightly ribbed bottom which should aid in sealing of the hose to the pipe.

The only difference as i mentioned is the internal fuel valve. The definition of fuel ‘valve’ is a piece of sprung metal behind the reduced filler neck size opening. There are a couple of breather holes as well, two at the top and one where the bottom of the flap finishes almost at the bottom of the filler opening. The inner valve is held in place with a few dimples and a bit of JB Weld.

Roll the trunk mat out of the way to expose the top of the fuel tank. I have a a sound deadening mat on top of my polished tank which is semi stuck down. Remove the fuel cap, if you have the security version like mine there is a threaded bolt that goes through the filler panel and held in place by a nylon nut. Undo the nut and remove the security wire and the cap.

There will be four bolts around the outside of the flange which will need to be removed.

Inside the trunk there is a rubber hose clamped in place by two wire fittings. It’s easier to undo both the top and bottom clamps. Either the fuel pipe needs to come out of the rubber hose. Or pull the rubber hose up of the neck of the fuel tank itself. Either way is fine, you just need to remove the pipe from the hose.

In my case the hose came off the tank first. With the fuel pipe now free, remove the hose from the pipe otherwise the filler will not go through the panel as the opening is fairly snug.

Fully remove the pipe along with the cork gasket from the rear panel. Be careful not to let anything full into the open top of the fuel tank, I placed my fuel cap over the opening to prevent anything falling in it.

With the pipe removed I cleaned and applied a long lasting wax to the paint before i added the cork gaskets back on. You only need one gasket, but I like two, as it helps with the alignment of the filler pipe and also gives a little more protection of metal filler pipe flange to the paint.

Add the gasket(s) on the pipe before before feeding the pipe through the rear panel.

With the pipe through the panel it’s easier to fit the hose to the pipe by turning it ninety degrees. Then turn the pipe back round to the correct position and then you can simply press down the hose to the fuel tank opening neck.

With the hose now in place we can add the screws to hold the pipe’s flange to the panel. I started by adding the anti theft bolt through the gaskets and the panel. Add the washer to the front side of the flange, then the second washer inside and finally the nylon lock nut on the inside. Don’t tighten anything up just yet.

Next arrange the clamps how they should be on the rubber hose. When I first fitted the filler pipe and the hose I had the clamps on the inside of the trunk, this mean that things like cloths would catch the bolts. See below right hand photo. I never changed their position until now. The clamps should be between filler pipe and the rear panel so they are out of the way. Left and middle photos below. Lightly tighten the clamps just to hold them in place for now.

Align the gasket(s) up to the holes and add the rest of the screws to the flange and gently tighten up to allow for final adjustments.

With the screws in place start to tighten them up and the bolt for the security wire. Ensure the security wire is aligned with the outer part of the flange, or you won’t be able to fit the cap back back on. Tightening of the bolts or screws will pull the pipe into position on the panel. Now go back to the hose clamps and fully tighten them both up as the rubber will take the difference of alignment up. Recheck all bolts are tight.

The filler pipe was a like for like swap, but now I have little more bling under the trunk with the nickel plating looking great.

From the outside there is no difference to see. But, on the inside there is something (in theory) to stop me getting my regular splashback on fill up. Once I have taken the car for the next fill up I will give the results if the splashback is cured with this little project. It can’t be any worse no matter what happens.

I’m now intrigued to know if any other classic car owners have the same problem, or have hacks that they can share with us.

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Beaten To It

For quite a while I have been thinking to myself, wouldn’t it be good to have a nice reference guide for collectible Mustang memorabilia or for the rarer items from the past. I even thought to myself perhaps I should start looking into it and undertake the monumental task of trying to collate one. I perched myself in a comfy chair and started to look around the internet. Then up popped a book up on one of my searches which was published over twenty years earlier, already covering what I had in mind. I was gutted, but at the same time relieved. The book was authored by Bill Coulter and called Mustang Collectibles which looked to cover more or less what I had in mind. My search on eBay found it for a ridiculous price three times the price of the original publication. I tried to find a new copy, but couldn’t, in the end I settled for a second hand copy found in a USA book store, all for the reasonable and almost original published price of $25 plus shipping of course to the UK.

I reviewed the book here which I thought I should share on my Blogsite. The only downside is that it’s now well out of date by a couple of decades, but that didn’t effect my review score which is based on the time it would have been published. There are over 200 items covered, but it does miss things like third party manufacturers like Avon aftershave bottles way back in the day. Things that are now highly collectible are items related to the 1964 World Trade Fair for the Mustang launch. Throw away items such as entry tickets, leaflets, magazines, sales brochures (I’m still looking for an original 1964 version), original owners manuals, or even the boxes for the items that they came in originally can command strong money. Autographs are obviously are still highly desirable now days, sadly for people today they take selfies instead. It’s not quite the same as somebody taking their time out to sign something for you. I do own verified autographs from Carrol Shelby and Lee Iacocca which are some of my more prized possessions. (All these pics below are from my own collection.)

If anybody knows of another resource which is more up to date, then please do let me know. Realistically I don’t think I could have created the book, as I’m not in the USA and there is just so much memorabilia out there, I wouldn’t know where to start or have the time, maybe it’s a job for retirement. I’m also pretty sure that the people who would know about all these things will have moved up to the great car lot or sales offices in the sky.

During the winter I spend time looking for little upgrades, this year is no different. When I or any of these classic cars, not just Mustangs with large filler necks fill up, the fuel pump doesn’t shut of in time when full and more often than not the car gives a gulp of fuel splosh back out the filler pipe. I did get wise to this fairly common issue pretty quickly though. Now whenever I fill up I always put a cloth over the rear bumper ready to catch any spillage and ready to mop it up, especially off the paint job. While I was looking through some Mustang forums I found a random thread talking about an anti splashback modification which fits within the original filler neck. After checking it was all legit, I ordered one and it came a week or so later, in fact the same day as the collectible book I talk about above.

I will be doing a review and a fitting guide for this mod part soon, only when the weather is nicer of course. It should be a simple fitting but really effective upgrade. It’s an out of sight mod that could make a big difference to my Mustang driving experience, mainly because I now won’t stink of Shell V-Power petrol after a fill up!

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Do You Believe In Hype?

Over the winter there isn’t much to update on my blogsite, there are no car shows, the Mustang is winterised and sits the garage all tucked up ready for the spring. Although I do have a little project to do before the next car show, which I will post soon. I like to keep an eye on the detailing world and follow a number of forums on Instagram, WordPress and YouTube to see what the latest developments are. Regular followers will know that I review a lot of detailing products which are all purchased with my own money and not influenced by being sponsored or freebies. I’m not a fanboy of any one product, I mix and match products to get the best results I want from the multitude of manufacturers. My reviews are from an independent point of view where I write the reviews how I would like to read them, rating, ease of use and big question – would I buy them again? Here is the menu I use to review many various products. Clicking on each section will open a page to the products and clicking on the image will take you to that review. There have been a few conversations with the WordPress support to try and sort it out. Apparently I have to do it this way, as my blog ‘Theme’ won’t allow massive menus sadly. On the other hand, it does force me to keep things neat and tidy.

Towards the end of last year and the beginning of this year there has been a bit of a push on Social Media from a company called Hydro with their new V2 Spray Bottles and bundled products. I decided to join in the hype and buy the ‘Full Spray Bundle’ which consists of two bottles and two products at a special new years sale bargain price of £55 instead of the usual £79. That’s still a lot of money for something I hadn’t used or a company I hadn’t heard of before.

I ordered the bundle in the first week of January and they arrived promptly a few days later and nicely packaged. With the bad weather I hadn’t had a chance to use them until today. Although it was cold, I braved the chill. I found out that my trainer had developed a leak it which allowed the cold water to seep in and slowly freeze my toes, one at a time as the leather got progressively soaked. I sucked it up and got on with cleaning our cars as I wouldn’t be long. By the time I had finished and came in for a hard earned rest before writing this, I could have sworn I was on the way to getting trench foot!

Anyway, the cars needed a clean a few weeks ago, but I waited for them to get proper grubby, before trying my nice new bottles and products out on a real life scenario.

The Hydro videos showed us that using ‘Pre’ and then going over the top with ‘Snow’ while using their V2 Spray Bottles is a game changer, obviously I was excited. Well, excited as car detailers get.

The bottles are two litres each with interchangeable nozzles for a spray (Snow) or a more direct application (Pre) if you wanted to use the same bottle of only had one. I set mine up one for each of the products, the red nozzles for snow foam and the silver for the pre wash.

The pre wash started fine and the spray was good on both cars. The ‘Pre’ is to soften the worst and lift the dirt. Similar to other Citrus pre wash products.

It was left to dwell for a few minutes, which was just enough time to mix up the dilution ratio for the ‘Snow’ foam in the other bottle which is used to drag the dirt down off of the paint. I pumped up the bottle along with my expectations at the same time.

By the time I walked to the car and pressed the trigger there was nothing. OK, so I hadn’t tightened up the seals properly. I checked and they were all good, I pumped up again to pressure and started spraying. Below left was the start of the spray, and on the right literally a second or so later of spraying, a damp dribble.

I had to pump again and this time I could hear a hissing from the trigger, the bottle is faulty. I could have decanted the product and used the other bottle, but I couldn’t be bothered as my right foot was getting cold and I wanted to get this over and done with as quick as possible. After all, a couple of sprays and jet wash then I could get back in the warm.

To get around the dribbling nozzle, I was walking around the car holding the trigger down to get a reasonable spray, while the other hand was going rapid on the plunger to keep up some sort of pressure. From a distance looking a some bloke’s arm pumping up and down while walking around a car could have looked very odd. Luckily there was only one lady walking her dog spotted me with a jolly ‘Morning’, I turned round to reciprocate the greeting, making sure that I showed my actions were pumping the top of a pressure bottle and nothing else.

I left the snow foam applications on each car to dwell for a few minutes again while I got the jet wash ready. On the Hydro sales video, a jet washing after the Pre and Snow products left the car sparkly clean, he even swiped the paint with his finger which showed no dirt. I jetted my cars to remove every last little bit of debris just like in the videos. Yep, while wet, all looked good.

I had seen a good tip on another video, somebody get a cotton wool pad and gently wiped the surface of their car to see how clean it was. I did the same with both cars too, this wasn’t looking good.

When I allowed the cars to dry out there wasn’t much difference, but there was some improvement.

The cotton pads tell the story that I was now going to have to wash the cars properly with a couple of buckets and some of my lovely PH neutral car bubble bath. My hands were now cold, my trench foot was properly numb and the air was turning blue as my hands turned from a rosy pink to a pale and slightly blue tone of colour. After the washing and drying was completed, I tidied up put everything away. I was cold, I now had the hump that I had spent my money on some products that didn’t live up to the hype. I came inside changed out of my damp clothes and started to research some more. The instructions on the product said 4:1 for the Pre and 6:1 for the Snow on the bottles, I had followed the instructions carefully. However, different write ups and reviews say different amounts of dilutions. Perhaps I need to reduce the dilution to a stronger mix and try again another day to give the product the benefit of the doubt on a nicer day. My day wasn’t good as a supposedly fifteen minute car wash turned into a couple of hours. On top of that, I now had a spray bottle that was faulty and not even good enough to spray indoor plants. I have emailed the company to see what they have to say, which is the first time I have ever complained to a company about their detailing products.

I have written a full review of the Hydro V2 Spray Bottle here and I will review their pre contact wash products properly shortly.

So my point is; in a moment of weakness, I fell for the Hydro hype and regretted it. Perhaps the products are better in my jet wash bottles, I shall give it a go. I’m normally quite sceptical over these super products that make claims to be the next best thing on the market. Hopefully my open wallet surgery for the bottles will make you think twice and research more before leaping into the unknown, as the the old saying goes; ‘if it’s to good to be true, it probably is’!

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A Tradition Continues

After Christmas or a birthday I like to build something to keep me occupied which has become a bit of tradition. This year was no different, this time I was lucky enough to have an expensive engine model kit to play with. This ‘Techning V8 Engine Kit (DM118)’ kit was something I had been looking at for quite a while, but just couldn’t bring myself to pay the considerable amount of £500 for a model kit. However, that is exactly what I got as a gift from my wife and my better half. Although I’m convinced that it was to keep me out of the way for a few days to be honest!

I have reviewed this Techning V8 Engine Kit with full step by step build and instruction guide here. Or you can just copy and paste this link below into your browser:

https://onemanandhismustang.com/teching-v8-engine-kit-dm118/

It’s a long step by step build guide and review, which has taken me a good number of hours to complete. During my research for a kit like this I was looking around for an accurate review from the average Joe on what the model was actually like. I didn’t want a sponsored review giving a one sided favourable response. For that amount of money I wanted an independent build and review, if you were wondering what such a review looks like – I have done it myself.

There were many steps to this build, but I wont go into them all here, otherwise I may just as well copy the review. What I will do is show the more interesting and technical parts of the build.

The kit itself came in metal tin which weighs in at over 4kg! Inside there was three layers of aluminium anodised parts, a manual and plastic building mat, totalling to a little over six hundred and fifty pieces in total.

For the number of parts supplied you need to take into account that each screw or bolt or Allen bolt is counted as a part. So for a valve set that consists of thirty two valves, each with four parts to make the valve – that’s one hundred and twenty eight parts right there. With a few hundred screws on top of that there is much to actually build with engine parts as such. The supplied tools were OK, which consisted of four Allen keys and small cheap cross headed screwdriver. But, I used a precision screwdriver with various bits to get a more accurate control and feel. As the tweezers and fine needle nosed pliers were metal to metal contact I used some heat shrink tubing on the tips to protect the kit parts.

The pistons needed con rods, piston heads and fitting to the crank at the bottom of the engine block. The supplied little pots of lube is a light grease and is needed where any metal to metal contact is made.

The valves needed to be assembled and inserted into the block, all with independent, valve seals, springs and tappets and their own up and down motion. All of them need to be free moving so that the overhead cams can open and close the valves a millimetre or two.

Once the valves are in place a cam seat is required to partially cover the valve stems and allow the mounting of the twin over head cams. There will be two timing chains, so to make them work their are pairs which need to staggered via spacers on each side of the engine block.

The exhausts are fitted to each side of the engine and then the heads are bolted to the top of the engine block.

The back of the kit holds a large flywheel and and starter motor which drives the kit. The front of the kit has a cover even has a proper timing mark.

The timing chains was a bit of a mission to get right, as the bottom crank sprocket and the cams all needed to be correctly aligned via their ‘dots’ before the tensioning guides are fitted and adjusted into place.

There are belt tensioning guides, alternator, water pump, belt guides and crank pullies, oil filter and intake manifold all need to be installed.

There is a nice touch of a couple of rubber belts that are located on the front pullies and need to be installed in the correction orientations and tensioned to enable the passive pullies be turned when the kit runs.

The electrics are controlled by a box which allows for on/off/on via the battery or a powered connection.

The kit takes around two hours to charge with a running time of one and half hours (allegedly). The finished kit looks amazing even when it’s not running.

I created a video of the model working which I will at some point upload to YouTube, hence it has my branding on it ready. With the kit running you can see the pistons moving through the side of the engine block, the valves operating, the water pump moving and the pullies rotating.

This is a seriously expensive model and I would seriously cast a luxury item. In fact that I have paid considerably less for a proper running full sized road legal car. Once they were due for an MOT I just took to them to a scrap yard then bought another. I fact one of my cars was nicknamed ‘Bellamy’ after the famous botanist ‘David Bellamy‘ He was a lovely bloke and spoke of the ‘undergrowth’ or ‘wildlife’. That car had plenty of mould and growths in places that there shouldn’t have things growing on it. It had a full length soft sun roof that leaked like a sieve. But, at that time of my life I was just grateful to have a car, and I use the term ‘car’ in the loosest of terms!

I enjoyed spending a good few hours building that kit across a few days, it took about ten hours in total and almost as long to write about it. I was a surprised to see the gift from my wife and surprised she got it for me as there are a few cheap plastic knock offs of this kit. She did confess that she had seen it pop up on a few feeds when she used my PC that I use here to create my blog. She did really well by getting the right one and especially not paying the full price for it, hence that’s why she got it.

Looking forward to more builds, although I have a the full sized Mustang that needs a couple of little bits that I need to do on it. I will be sharing that with you all before the car show gets underway.