Category: Car

Elveden Car Show 2019 (part 1)

This was my fourth car show of year and was in a beautiful little village in Suffolk called Elveden, the best bit was that this show was to be held within their Walled Garden. This was my first trip here and wasn’t to sure what to expect. The sun was promised all day and most importantly no rain! Make a note here – that all four apps I use said “No Rain”. I had a beautiful drive to the show some back roads with very picturesque fields and open spaces. Window open, engine throaty burble and countryside. This was going to be a nice day.

I took rather a lot of photos during the day and decided to split them over a couple of days so it’s not photo overload. The main area was for the general public cars, I spotted that the Bury Retro Car Club was there in the club area. I explained to an official walking around that I wanted to join them as I belonged to the club. He said that I had to stay there within the public exhibition area, apparently “Health & Safety wouldn’t allow me to move.” 🙁  I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, which was down to the fact I was enjoying the nice weather and chilling with the cars. The second walled enclosed grass area was similar sized to the main area, but they had more room to spread out due to less cars in there.

Anyway, in no particular order I wondered up and down the rows of some gorgeous cars and chatted to some very nice owners, and few of them ladies which was a pleasant change.

A rare Crayford Cortina took my eye and was great condition.

My car getting a little attention from the public. 🙂

There was a woman just standing behind my car saying “I’m in love.” I heard her as I walked back from the other area and stood next to her. I chatted for a minute or so unaware that I was the owner. She said I want to find the owner and ask if she if she could sit in it. I said to her “I don’t think he would mind”, and I opened the door. She said ‘you can’t do that’ and looked a little worried. I just smiled and said “Don’t worry, it’s mine, and do you still want to sit in it?” With that she handed the reigns for her toddler to her eldest son next to her and sat in my car. She sat there for a minute just staring at the dash. Then she wanted to know what all about the car, so I told her the story. She said that I had made her day, while her children took lots of photo’s of her in the car. I had some as well, but she explained for personal reasons, if I wouldn’t post them on any social media. I agreed of course and she explained to me why. So for that lovely lady, consider your requests granted, but I also have to say it was my favourite part of the day.

Tomorrow I will post ‘part 2’ where we will have the club stands, Hot Rods and some super cars too.

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Double Wash Out (part 2)

Following on from the last post which was about the Fast & Loud show on the Saturday this is a post about the Sunday; Stonham Barns Spring Break. After cleaning the car from the stop home on Saturday I sat in the arm-chair slightly deflated and checked the weather app, OK I checked all three of my weather apps and one of which I even paid for. All of them said that the Sunday was going to be a better day with overcast conditions, only a thirty percent chance of rain at midday from just one app. I decided to take a chance for a second day, after all the odds were in my favour right?

So I got up next morning and the sky was clear, but a little breezy that’s all. I fired up the freshly cleaned beast and took a what is usually an enjoyable ride out to the show just a short half hour away. I jumped on the dual carriageway and started to relax and enjoy the drive. Then there it was, the first drop of rain. The air turned the colour of my car, the rain fell heavier and soon it was pouring, again. I had the choice to turn around in a few minutes at the next junction and go home or carry on hoping it would pass. I continued with my now somewhat ruined drive. The further I drove the less the rain fell, decision time. I continued on towards the clearer skies with a little hope. Some twenty minutes later I made the turn of to the show and I followed on behind the conga of classic cars waiting to get into the show. We can’t all be wrong can we? It was going to be OK. We were ushered in efficiently and I parked up, got out and the sun was starting to make a show itself.

A few tiny very fine spots of rain filled the air just a little damp, nothing to worry about. I dried the car and spoke to few familiar faces and we discussed the weather for a little while. Within the space of half an hour that thirty percent turned into one hundred percent rain. Within minutes the car was wet again and now so was I.

I was so miserable I even took a video of the rain sitting on my freshly waxed car! 🌧

Yet more of the same ol’ choices for the weekend to date, do I go home or stay and see if the shower passes. I decided to look around at the other cars as they all seemed to be staying too. I recognised a lot of the cars from yesterday at this show, many sitting inside them with a flask of coffee and steaming up windows.

There was a few Mustangs there too, including this distressed Mad Max look-alike, which has fake side up exhausts that were just plastic plumbing pipes just behind the real ones, even spotted a sweet wrapper a the bottom of one of them. But lots of time and effort spend on the car and fair play to them.

There was a strong showing of American classics at this show as there always seems to be.

There were some traders that had covered their tables with ground sheets to protect their stock, but the trouble is that you couldn’t see anything to buy. I didn’t even buy anything to cheer myself up.

After three hours of relentless rain I decided to go home. Which would involve a more thorough clean as the car was no going to stand until the next show. I used cloths to wipe inside the wheel arches to remove dirt and debris from the inner side bend of the wheel arch on each corner of the car. What a terrible start to the show season, it can only get better I guess.

Here’s the thing, I don’t need apps or Google as my wife said to me as I walked out the door; ‘you do know it’s going to rain?’ She was right, AGAIN!

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Double Wash Out (part 1)

Last weekend sees the start of the car show season for me with a double show weekend. Starting on the Saturday was the Fast & Loud show held at the West Suffolk College. Sunday was the Stonham Barns Spring break.

Saturday was looking to be a good day with a chance of rain. As I was itching to get to a show I thought I would risk it, when I left it was overcast, but importantly still not raining. I left early to be there before nine and I arrived some fifteen minutes later. No sooner had I pulled into the car park it started to spit with rain. Baring in mind I had just had a Day in the Bay at Meguiar’s I was not happy. The show was to be for four hours ten till two so my car wouldn’t be exposed to the rain. I meet with my car club Bury Retro Car Club and parked next to their allocated spaces which just happened to be under a tree. Reluctantly I parked up.

Shortly after parking a huge Chrysler 300 pulled in next to me. Now I thought my car was long, but just look at the extra length on this land barge! That is a seriously big car and it sounded amazing too.

This car show was catering for the younger cars and mainly Japanese car scene with wheel cambers that looked like the suspension was collapsing and exhausts the size of my wheelie bin (garbage can for my American readers) that I put out each week. There was a period of around fifteen minutes where they started the cars up and revved them hard to see who could make the most noise, with over run back fires added for the final touch of aggravation on progressively worsening rain cloud.

The funny part was that the Chrysler 300 was louder on tick over than the cars trying to be loud. Not that I was laughing, much. However, I can appreciate the time and effort they had put into their cars, although it’s not my scene at all. The rain started to hammer down now and I was getting rather angry and wet to say the least, my car had been looking the cleanest it had ever been, now it was the dirtiest within same time it took the loud scene to finish their little audio scores to be settled.

Leaves and tree sap were now trying to eat their way through my multiple layers of wax, this was now starting to give me the hump. I started a little walk around to look at the other cars before I decided to leave early from the show. The fast fords was fairly well represented and well-behaved I might add, and they were at the other end of he car park.

You don’t often get to see the Ford Capri now days, but here we had three line up together. These UK Mustangs, did look pretty cool and I think they were my favourites for the day.

On the way back to my car I spotted some visitors which the kids seemed to love;

Just as I was thinking of leaving the big Chrysler was leaving too, but he decided to leave his mark, literally.

Pretty spectacular leaving statement I must say. 👍😉

The rain also did me a bit of a favour as I have just reviewed a couple of products and the water would help me test the resilience of these newly applied products.

The first being the Mirror Bright Wax Paste which can be found here, or cut and paste the link;  https://onemanandhismustang.com/mirror-bright-wax-paste/

The second was my first tentative steps into ceramic coatings, this was from Auto Finesse for the Caramic range for glass, which can be found here, or just click the link;  https://onemanandhismustang.com/auto-finesse-caramics-glass-protection/

Then finally Auto Finesse product Iron Out which can be found here, or again paste the link;  https://onemanandhismustang.com/auto-finesse-iron-out/

After arriving back home I pulled straight into the garage and put my dehumidifier on dry while I started to dry and clean the car again ready for the next days antics. It took me two hours in total, which included the wheels.

First car show was a wash out, surely it had to her better?

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A Day In The Bay; The Video

Continuing on from my last post where I had visited Meguiar’s for their ‘Day In The Bay’ series. I have now been given access to all the pictures that Meguiar’s took on the day, but more importantly the video of the whole process is now also on YouTube, all eighteen minutes of it. Here are some great photo’s of the car from the day, and after avoiding being in any photos for seven years of my blogging, there is even a couple of pics of me in there, (I’m the one with the shaved head and a plain navy t-shirt). I have selected some of my favourites photos from the day, most of which are obviously the ones where I’m not in them. Rather than repeat myself with a write up again, this post is basically pictures, I hope that’s OK.

The link for the video of my car in the bay, is now on Meguiar’s YouTube channel here or watch it below.

The Washing & Drying

Into the Bay

Then it was time watch and learn how to machine polish the paint properly. There was some tiny swirls that needed a little correction first with some compound, before we got to the waxing stage.

Then I got to have a go with the machines.

Waxing

Buffing

The Final Results

With the outside completed we moved to the inside cleaning and protecting the seats.

Outside for the finished photo shoot.

Perhaps my favourite photo of the day!

I hope you like the pictures and more to the point the video, as much as I enjoyed the day. It’s funny though, I still can’t believe that I am going to show them. So, if you are going to leave comments, be gentle with this fifty something, grey haired old bloke! 😉

Remember: This is not a sponsored post by Meguiar’s nor an advert for them. I did by some products while I was there and will be reviewing them soon. Check out my ‘Car Detailing Reviews’ menu for the latest updates.

The car show season is nearly underway for this year, and I’m looking forward to a few shows this year. But, as the calendar dates pan out, there are a few shows on the same day which is rather annoying to say the least. So I will have to be selective with which ones I attend instead of going to them all.

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A Mirror Bright Finish

A big day for me had arrived early on Friday morning, I had taken the day of work and just for once the Friday alarm woke me up and I was in a good mood. The day trip was a visit to go and see the guys at Meguiar’s for a ‘Day In The Bay’. I had been emailing Dale much earlier in the year and we arranged a date for me to attend on the 29th March. Before we start, and you make any assumptions, this is not a sponsored post by Meguiar’s. This is a genuine member of the public’s personal opinion. It’s no secret that I am a fan of Meguiar’s products. I have used other brands to try them out, but I always seem to come back to Meguiar’s.

The journey up to Davenport was little over one hundred miles away, my sat nav told me that it would take a little over two hours to get there. I set of at seven in order to get there for ten as arranged. The extra time contingency was for road works on the A14, it was just as well as I got held up in them, but at least I was moving, all be it slowly. The funny thing that I saw was a sign that said, “a lot of work is out of sight”, it probably is, they were hard at work making tea, sitting on their backsides reading the paper, or posting on Facebook instead of building the roads to minimise the carnage to the motorist. (rant over).

I arrived at a quarter to ten and parked up. The whole place was buzzing as there was deliveries being made and the forecourt had lots of products on pallets awaiting their delivery and stock allocation.

I buzzed into the main offices where I asked to see Dale, he in turn was then called. Within a few seconds Dale greeted me, then if summoned by some divine intervention the local mobile coffee guy arrived and Dale asked if he could get me a tea, coffee or cold drink.

With the refreshments out the way Patrick arrived as he was going to do the video and camera work for the day. This was also going to be an instructional video to go on their YouTube channel shortly. (I will place the links at the end of the post). Like all good trainers I was asked what I wanted from the day what could they do for me. No scripted you must do this, you must do that scenario. My response was that I wanted to know how to use their products correctly and for tips and tricks with my paintwork and wheels. We had a look around the car and I pointed out some ‘pig tail’ marks that were on the hood from a previous mop a long time ago. There was some minor swirls that I wanted to address as well. Dale looked at the paint work intently, listened to what I was saying and recommended their Mirror Bright range for the colour of my car, and particular paint.

Next was the worst nightmare for a classic car owner, water. Again I was asked if that was going to be OK before they started. As it was a beautiful day, sun was out and it was warm I agreed, the mandatory two bucket wash method was given the go ahead. The jet wash came out and the buckets were being filled.

For the next stage I was going to be very much hands on with the training and I didn’t get much chance to pick my phone up for some photo’s. Although I know Patrick was taking plenty as we went along.

We rinsed the car over with the jet wash to wet it over and remove the worst of the road grime.

The wheels were sprayed with the Mirror Bright wheel cleaner. The mix is left on for a minute or so to see if it changes to purple. Once the product has done its job rinse of with a gentle jet wash.

Tip: Use the jet wash at a forty five degree angle to the paintwork. The reasoning being that you are not blasting water directly into and stone chips.

Tip: Fill the wash bucket with warm water and the rinse bucket with cold. This way you can feel which bucket is wash or rinse when they both have foam on the top.

Using a soft wash mitt like the lambs wool mitt to gently wash over the paint with the product allowing the shampoo to do the work.

The car was dried with the new Meguiar’s supreme drying towel. After we had dried the car I was directed into the Detailing Bay, or as Dale described it; ‘the tunnel of doom’. When I asked why, he switched the high intensity lights on, then I realised why. I could see things I hadn’t noticed before in the paintwork. Every minute imperfection was holding a sign up saying look at me.

The main issue was to address the pigtails in the paint I mentioned earlier to Dale. Patrick was filming Dale explaining the process of what he was going to do. He showed me how to use the Dual Action (DA) MT320 correctly. I was shown how to prep the rotary pad, how to prime the pad before using it, and how much product to use. A common mistake by not priming the pad prior to the application of the products. The hood was sectioned into four smaller workable areas. Dale did one side and I did the other with him giving me guidance. Patrick was getting some close up action shots as we were going along.

With the hood corrected and cleaned it was now looking smooth and flat. Again I was asked my preference for wax type, so I said it has to be the hand applied hard wax rather than the liquid form. Dale then started on the application of the Mirror Bright hard wax paste, I wasn’t sure about the results I would get as I was expecting results like the Ultimate wax for my preferred results that I liked. My expectations were surpassed, Dale was right, this wax suited my car.

Tip: Pinch the top of the applicator pad and place flat onto the wax, twist half a turn and that will be enough for a complete panel.

Tip: A small overlapping circle with fingertip pressure is all you need.

It soon became pretty clear that I was using the wax quantities all wrong in the past, using way to much product.

Once the wax had cured it was a simple wipe of a microfibre was all it took to bring the shine out. The wax came straight off. No buffing, no elbow grease required. Just like dusting a car over in fact.

Tip: check the wax has cured by wiping it with your finger. If it leaves a clean mark behind then it’s ready to come off. If it has a greasy smear behind it, leave it little longer and check again.

Tip: With the car freshly waxed, use a light misting of quick detailer. This will stick to any left over wax that hasn’t been removed leaving a pristine slick paint job.

With the car buffed over I stood in amazement as the car looked as good as it did the day it was painted and still wet.

I drove the car outside and the sun made the car transformed yet again in natural sunlight.

As the Meguiar’s warehouse were still taking out and receiving orders, I had to move the car out of the road after the main pictures were taken, the lorry driver even jumped down from his cab and joined in for a chat too. As Patrick was using the professional camera, I let him do his thing and I kept out the way.

With the photo shoot completed I asked Dale and Patrick for a picture of them with the car. Dale in black and Patrick with the stripped top.

I would like to say to Meguiar’s, especially Dale & Patrick who looked after me;

Thank You So Much!

I had the best day ever cleaning a car, and nothing was to much trouble for these guys. They answered my endless barrage of questions, they also showed me the answers too. In fact everybody I spoke to there was amazing.

There was only one thing left to do, purchase some goods. I didn’t have to at all and they never tried to sell me anything. However I needed a bag that could hold the largest of Meguiar’s bottles, so I grabbed their brand new to the market Extra Large Kit bag, which is huge. The other products are what I used on the day, but I hadn’t got in my arsenal of detailing products. The Ceramic Wax I am very intrigued about and wanted to try.

However, once I got the car home I had to give it a gentle clean before I covered it up in the garage.

Patrick is going to be uploading a video of the day to the Meguiar’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/meguiarsuk

Check out the ‘Detailing 101’ where they show you how to use the products, it’s very useful.

The products I used for the day were all Mirror Bright except for the Meguiar’s Compound stage of the hood treatment. Again, I am gaining nothing from showing you what I used, but if you want some amazing results try these. I will be doing some reviews of the products a little later on of course. But, I can say one thing, they will get scores.

All of the products can be found here:  https://www.meguiars.com/mirror-bright

Patrick has said that they will be sending me the high resolution photos of the day, which I am so looking forward to getting hold of. I will then do a follow up post of some proper photos taken on the day.

Later that evening on social media platforms I spotted these posts:

Yes that is me with the polisher!

Be sure to follow ‘Mequiarsuk’ on Instagram to see their latest posts or follow ‘dale_mast’ himself who really does know what he is talking about.

Thanks again guys. I’m a very happy chap.

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The Classic Car Code

My first trip of the year in my car was fine, but I had a few scary moments there and back. There were idiots with no consideration slicing across the front of my car, the other was to avoid all the trenches or pot holes in the road. The roads in the UK are complete joke right now to be honest after the snow, sun and rain. I think that I compressed my spine by an inch and shook a filling out my tooth due to all the mega craters in the road. I guess that’s what you get when stiffen the suspension in order to make the car handle a bit better.

During the round trip I had a thought to myself wondering if these people realise what us Classic Car owners are thinking while we drive along? So, I had a little fun and came up with this little list in my head then wrote it down before I forgot it;

  1. We treat everybody on the road as somebody who can’t drive properly.
  2. We seriously believe that other road users want to crash into us at every junction.
  3. Pulling out from a junction at the last-minute in front of us really is a problem.
  4. We never trust somebody’s indicator as being their true intention.
  5. We give ourselves extra space to the car in front to allow us time to slow and stop as our brakes may not be as good as modern cars.
  6. We give ourselves extra space to avoid the chance of any stones being flicked up causing a stone chip on our paint jobs.
  7. Our paint jobs can cost as much as a small family car.
  8. Stone chips may look tiny to you, but to us they look as big as a satellite dish and just as ugly.
  9. It may look like we are drunk while driving although we’re not. We are avoiding the pot holes in the road, you normal car drivers wouldn’t give a second glance to.
  10. Pot holes are like moon craters or trenches for classic cars.
  11. We spend as much time looking at the road conditions as we do predicting traffic.
  12. If you wish to overtake us we don’t mind, but don’t chop across the front of our car, give us space, see points 4, 5 & 6.
  13. We will avoid a crash at all costs and we will take extra care.
  14. We will avoid mud. That mud stores moisture and starts the rust process off.
  15. We are paranoid about rust. We can hear our cars rusting in the garage!
  16. We don’t drive close to side of the road where there are hedges as they are a potential for paint damage.
  17. We will stop rather than drive past or through a bush or hedge.
  18. We will slow down for large puddles.
  19. We don’t like rain.
  20. We will do everything we can to protect our cars from water damage.
  21. Tailgating makes us nervous, we won’t speed up just because you want to go faster.
  22. Because we tinker around on our cars doesn’t mean anything is wrong.
  23. If you see our car and you don’t like what you see, don’t tell us because we don’t care.
  24. We are happy to talk to anybody about our cars, but please don’t tell what our cars should look like or what we have done wrong in restoring it.
  25. We will drive around endlessly looking for a safe place to park.
  26. If our car is parked somewhere you can guarantee we can still see it.
  27. There is no need to touch our cars.
  28. Finger prints on our paint is a problem for us. We will clean it off.
  29. Leaning on our cars is definitely not acceptable.
  30. The tinkle of zips, belts, buckles or the metallic sound of a ring will damage our paint.
  31. Young children with ice creams are a potential for more unnecessary cleaning.
  32. Dogs using our tyres as a mobile toilet is not acceptable. We will clean it off.
  33. We don’t like parking under trees because tree sap can ruin paint. We will clean it off.
  34. Birds mess on the car will cause serious damage to paint work. We will clean it off.
  35. Dead insects on our cars is unsightly and can cause damage. We will clean it off.
  36. Cleaning our cars is a pleasure and some of our cleaning products can cost as much as a tank of fuel.
  37. The “You missed a bit” cleaning joke isn’t funny, honestly.
  38. No we won’t clean your car when we have finished ours.
  39. Yes we do need to clean our car if its been in the garage, it gets dusty.
  40. We tend not to thrash our cars around just to prove a point for you.
  41. The grip from our tyres may not be as good as modern-day compounds.
  42. A set of traffic lights is not a cue for drag race with you.
  43. The interior of our classic cars are cleaned with the same care as the outside.
  44. Adding fuel to our cars means we will wipe off every single spilt drop.
  45. We carry spare fluids in the trunk for all eventualities under the hood.
  46. We sit by our cars at car shows to keep an eye on our cars.
  47. No you can’t sit in it – don’t ask.
  48. No we won’t start our car up just so you can hear it, wait untill we leave.
  49. There are two prices for our classic car parts, the proper price and the price we tell our partners.
  50. A classic car is not “just a car” to us, it’s a way of life.

I hope I haven’t missed anything and made a few people smile and say – “yep that’s me!” If I have missed something that needs to be on this list, please let me know and I shall amend it. Although this is a little bit of fun, there is also a serious note to the points too. When I see any Classic Car on the road and I am in my daily workhorse car; I give them plenty of room now.

I just couldn’t do a post with no picture of a car that wouldn’t be right.

 

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First Time Videos

During some routine maintenance on my PC where I back up my files, then move them to relevant folders etc. I came across an old video that I thought I had lost. So I decided that I would share that video and a couple of others with you. The day was a Saturday 14th April 2012, I had a good mechanic mate of mine; Will from Park Garage Services came round to the house and help me with the start-up. This was a long time before I started to get involved with Mustang Maniac for my parts and the proper restoration process. After a long winter of re-wiring the car to get to the point I could turn the key properly, this was a very important day in the restoration process. I had no idea that this restoration project was ever going to be a blog that it is now, so there wasn’t that many pictures from the very beginning. I already had the old wiring out, well what was left of it that is. IThe old wiring sits in a big box and I’m still not sure what to do with it. It’s old, it’s brittle, it’s burnt and melted, it’s total rubbish, but I just can’t bring myself to dump it. Any ideas what to do with an old wiring loom? Please let me know.

The new wiring had been installed and nothing was neat at this point, or even in the right places come to that. The wiring was just connected up and roughly in place. That very early stage was just to prove the process to myself that it was going to work. Later on the new wiring would be taken back out for the full restoration and paint job, then reinstalled properly and neatly, just how I wanted it to be.

Fuse box location

The engine was not cleaned or prepped in any way prior to this video. It just had the new blue spark plug leads, Pertronix Ignitor II ignition upgrade, new replica battery, one wire alternator, new spark plugs and new cables for earth and battery etc. The starter solenoid was an unknown entity so we weren’t sure if we were gonna have issues at that point.

Being as I had rewired the car myself over a few months each weekend, the wiring was also an unknown piece of work too, I just hoped I had read the book of words (instructions) correctly. In fact the good lady wife had the instructions colour copied and laminated for me. That would mean my dirty hands wouldn’t ruin the paper or tear it. I could keep the originals in a safe place just in case I did lose one section or managed to damage them.

Back to the start-up day; I put two gallons of fuel in the petrol tank and made sure there was no leaks. I had previously turned the engine over by hand with no spark plugs in place, that would make it much easier not having to deal with the compression, the engine wasn’t seized up. I had previously filled up the engine with water and some temporary light oil as the engine wasn’t going to run under stress for any length of time either. Oil lubrication is a critical factor to consider when the engine hadn’t run for twelve years or so for any cold start and engine wear. The turning over of the engine on crank would pump the oil around the engine at those low cranking revs. The car was cranked over for a bout thirty seconds and then left the car to settle for a minute or so. We then primed the carburetor up with fuel via pumping the gas (via the carb linkages) to help fire up and this was video was the result. The headers were straight out as there was no exhaust connected at all, the volume and resonance distorted the microphone on the phone.

My good lady wife was in charge of the camera at the time, this is the first time this video has been on the internet on any of my media platforms.

 

With the car restored I was arriving home from a car show and the car was filmed being driven into the garage. This is a nostalgic look at the before and after comparisons.

This time the Flowmaster 40 Series mufflers were fitted to the 3″ headers which gives that unmistakable Mustang v8 rumble.

This is also a first time showing of this video on the internet.

 

This video of the car backing out of the garage was another mate who wanted a ride out in the car when he first saw it back completed from the restoration. The final first time video on the internet video.

 

Then of course there is the mandatory drive by;

Apologies if you have seen the “Driveby” on my YouTube channel, but I think it’s worth a proper posting on the blog and not just a link.

I have started to review a few more Car Detailing products now and hopefully you will find them useful as well. I have found a couple of real nice products all of which can be found under the “Car Detailing Reviews” heading, the latest being from the Chemical Guys.

I’m looking forward to this coming car show season I must say, seeing these videos has made me realise how much I miss driving her. 🙁

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Protecting The Chrome Jewels

On a recent visit to a good friend of mine who also owns a rather nice and rare coloured Mustang Convertible I was shown around his latest collection of Mustang memorabilia where I spotted in middle of his (man cave) garage a dehumidifier. He went on to explain the benefits of it and I could feel the air was different to mine at home. that was it, I was sold on the idea and set about getting one. So I done a little research from various places and found these points where I have collated them and made them a little more readable, I hope. I have since seen references to classic cars with lots of chrome like mine as the “Chrome Jewels”. I quite like that sying in fact. Many storage companies of classic cars all have climate controlled environments.

Rust will form where the surface of the steel has air and water. The first step is to stop the elements reaching the steel, paint does the job pretty well, but even better is wax or  similar coatings, or Waxoyl etc. Chrome is surprisingly porous and normally underneath the chrome plate is steel so it needs protecting. A covering of wax, ordinary car wax or Gibbs, will do the trick, it looks invisible, adds shine and protection. Don’t forget that a chrome cleaner is generally abrasive and removes any wax coating, by all means use it to clean, but it doesn’t protect the chrome.

Don’t get to hung up about the temperature vs humidity, as it’s often being mentioned to keeping humidity below 50% to stop rust, but it’s a bit more complicated than that and one of the keys is understanding about “dew” points. All air contains water and as the temperature drops that water tries to change back from a vapour to a liquid, that’s what causes rain, warm moist air pushed up by the weather cools and the water in that cloud becomes a liquid which is heavy and falls out of the cloud – rain. In your own home you see it as condensation around bedroom windows on cold mornings. It is around the window because that is normally the coldest part of the room.

There are 3 ways to fix condensation:

  1. Heat the room so the air inside can hold more water.
  2. Open the window (ventilate) in the hope that air coming in from outside will be dryer and therefore hold more water.
  3. Use a dehumidifier to reduce the percentage of water in the air.

The theory of condensation effect is to take a can of cold drink from the fridge and put it on the table or work top. Even in a warm house you immediately see condensation on the can as the water in the air rushes to the can and condenses back into a liquid. This is the same principle as how a dehumidifier works, you present a cold surface to the air, the air in turn gives up its water which is then collected in a container. The fan in the dehumidifier keeps an airflow over the cold chilled surface so as much air as possible reaches the cold surface.

Back to my Garage; heating the space to about 20c works well (in fact any heat helps) because the higher the temperature the less the water has a chance to condense back to a liquid. This is why I fitted a radiator in my garage, much to the bemusement of my wife! unfortunately it’s not the complete answer though. Another example of the condensation is that you get condensation in a bathroom after a long hot shower even if the air temperature is 25 or even 30c. You could indeed heat a normal garage to 20c, the car would sit in there and not deteriorate, but even with insulation that is expensive way of doing it. Hence why the US “dry State” cars are so popular in UK as there is not much chance of the rust taking hold in the past.

I have done all the usual things; The heating and water boiler is in my garage and gives of heat to the room as the hot water passes through the pipes. I have insulated as much as possible, the walls are cavity filled, the ceiling has plenty of insulation up there and the all important plastic floor to stop the cold coming up through the concrete. The up and over door has brushes to keep the draft out and the back of the door has heat insulating sheets. That way I should then be able to keep the space at least 9c throughout the winter with no additional heating and that is obviously a big help.

On the other hand, when you open the garage door the same thing can happen on a warm moist day, the air rushes in and condensation forms on whatever is coldest part in there, that is mostly going to be your prized possession, your car. I found this rather good chart to show the relative ranges of humidity and what I am trying to explain:

So I have bought myself a dehumidifier. I have reviewed it here and is also under the accessory menu on the main bar. I wanted two things from the non-negotiable options. An option for constant draining and the low-cost of running it over 24/7 scenario. The options were a little limited for my modest budget.  I managed to pick up a well rated PureMate PM412 for a modest cost of £120 reduced by sixty pounds from the recommended retail price. I also purchased a digital humidity gauge and left it in the garage for a couple of days to get a reading. There is a max and min scale for both the temperature and the humidity. The gauge is on top of the car in the middle of the garage.

The unit is compact and neat looking with a capacity of twelve litres a day. There is a digital read out and super simple to work and set up. The gauge above shows the first night was 45rh to a max of 50rh which I was super happy with.

The unit has a castor wheels and a recessed handle which is so easy to move around. There is a one meter length of tubing they even supply for the constant drain should you need it which I will of course. The ease of movement makes it ideal to shove out-of-the-way in the corner of the garage when working on the car.

The collection tray can hold one and half litres of water, and over night I think it was up to about a little under a litre. So I am having to empty it morning and evening now until I plumb it in. But, that is the unit settling the environment down then they should reduce considerably after a few days. It doesn’t matter if I forget to empty it as the unit will shut down when the tray is full.

removing the tray
some water collected over night

The power consumption os a max of 245w on full power, but as I only ran mine on a low setting it should work out quite economical to run especially as it will be on all the time. Has anybody else got any tips or tricks they would like to share storing their car over the winter? Please post a reply and we can all share the knowledge.

Roll on the spring so I can take the car out for a drive. I have an itch I can’t scratch when I can’t drive my car.

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My Misplaced Post

I have to confess that I scheduled a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year post to be scheduled for the relevant big day so I didn’t forget. But, as I kept thinking 2018 to myself in my mind so that I didn’t make a mistake as I was scheduling the post, the opposite happened and I actually set the year for 2019 thinking that was in fact the next year. So my resolution for this year is; learn how to work the calendar function on WordPress. I appologise for that.

Resolution completed! Apparently I just have to put the correct year, simple really. Obviously not for a doughnut like me though! So I had time off over the Christmas break and went back to work on the Tuesday as did most people and by the afternoon I had filtered out the emails and got myself back to where I needed to be – thinking that I needed a holiday and asking myself; just where did the time go?

For christmas my wife spoilt me rotten and bought me a vast array of lotions and potions for the cleaning and maintaining of the Mustang. The selection was taken from a list that I had made for her in order to pick something from it. As she didn’t know which one to get so she bought them all, as well as an Auto Finesse Crew Bag to fit them all in. I must say that the “Crew Bag” is like a black hole with handles, it has so much storage space and easily the best bag I have, and I have a few now, trust me.

I will be reviewing them once I get to use them on here under my “Car Detailing Reviews” menu above. However the biggest surprise was the fact that my better half had listened to a conversation I was having with some retailers here in the UK for a classic looking fire extinguisher. Not any old fire extinguisher, oh no. I wanted one that looked old school but also did the job without additional damage. CO2 extinguishers can freeze electrical components with thermal shock, powder gets everywhere and creates a huge mess, water you can’t use on flammable liquids etc. So over the later part of the year I had been doing my homework. The best seemed to be HalGuard which is made in the USA, unfortunately not readily available over here in the UK. If anybody knows any different can they please let me know? Some of the benefits of this fire extinguisher are; no thermal shock, liquified gas gets to hard to reach places, no mess, rechargeable, recommended by aviation and many motor sports governing bodies, five-year warranty, oh it also comes in chrome! Nobody in the UK stocks or makes anything similar that has such good ratings or looks remotely like it should be from the ’60s. In the end, due to costs, I had all but given up on the idea. My wife had other ideas and picked up where I left off and ordered one from the USA. Inevitably there were all sorts of issues trying to get it past our wonderful HMRC customs people who obviously had nothing better to do other than check on fire extinguishers, maybe the could concnetrate on illegal immigrants a bit more like the ones hiding in the back of lorries maybe? Anyway, import duty, standard charges, handling fees etc. were a joke which added significant costs to the item. They had it impounded for a couple of weeks before they eventually released it to my wife mid December, by which time she was starting to panic a little. But, she got it and all credit to her. Once I had opened it and I asked “how?”  I was told all about the horror story and the customs episodes.

Between Christmas day and the New Year’s day I wanted to fit it. There are additional brackets you can buy like, roll over cage mounts, under seat, quick release flat mounting etc. I already had an idea where it was to go; in the footwell on the passenger side. I waited for a clear dry day and got my car out into the cold air where I started to look for the best place to mount the new (essential) accessory.

The extinguisher needed to be off the floor, but low enough for the fresh air vent door to be fully opened just under the dash. The kick panel is made of a fairly thick plastic and the bracket has lots of holes for various mounting positions. I decided to use them all in order to spread the weight of the extinguisher so the screws don’t pull out of the plastic or distort it. Using the larger slot I held the bracket in place while I finalised the position and made sure it was straight.

The Dremel was the tool of choice as it was small and neat in order to create a small pilot hole ready for the screws, two larger style ones at the top that are also polished which would be seen, the remaining screws were smaller headed ones also polished. Once the holes were marked up I could fit the bracket properly.

The extinguisher was put into place and the belt clamped up then I took a step back to admire a fire extinguisher that I think looks good and will do the job should I ever need it, which I hope I never will.

The car was cleaned up, the mat was put back down and then I polished the chrome extinguisher to remove any finger marks and refitted it. I think the look goes well with the car, it can be easily accessed, it’s easily seen from outside and I can relax a little when I’m out on the road now.

Something that I hadn’t considered which is an added bonus, it looks good when the interior lights come on too.

I hope you all had a good well-earned Christmas break and I hope you all have a prosperous New Year.

P.S.                                                                                                                                                                Another resolution: I must blog more regularly!

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Taking Charge

When I first got my “project” Mustang that needed a little attention should we say, one of the first jobs I done was to wire her up. the reason being was I needed to know if the engine would fire up. To do that I needed a battery. At the time my wife decided that I should get what I wanted and do it properly. With that we decided to go mad and splash out on the replica Autolite Group 24 Battery.

Before I new Mustang Maniac it was a little difficult trying to track down parts I wanted, so I used a rather rubbish company in Essex. I won’t name them, but it took them almost four months to get the battery for me. Needless to say I used them once and never used them again.

I had done my research about the battery and found out it was based around a gel battery or AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat). These batteries are naturally more expensive and don’t hold anywhere near the amount of acid as a normal wet lead cell battery. In fact if it splits there should be no acid escaping. The battery needed a specific trickle charger as they don’t like to run low on volts. I reviewed the CTEK MXS 5 charger here.

After five years of owning the battery and using it for just two years it died. There was no warning it was about to go to the great scrap yard in the sky. The only warning was that the trickle charger showed an error instead of the normal charged status. I tried to start the car and there was just enough power to put the interior lights on. Turning the key gave me nothing, just a faint click of the solenoid. It was dead, I tried the charger on deep cycle to try and recover it thinking it need a little TLC. Checking a day later it was still the same, no charge what so ever.

Why did the battery die so quickly?

I researched this again, and it turns out that the AGM or Gel batteries have a limited life cycle for recharging. So if it’s down by 10% that means you have a remaining 90% for a single cycle. Bearing that in mind these batteries are estimated to have approx two hundred cycles life span. That is not a lot of use. Over five years it has been on constant trickle charge and only “used” when the car is taken out. So I’m not convinced this is the correct answer, I think it was a lot less than that in fact!

Anyway, I was gutted. I didn’t have my nice old school battery which looked the part. Now I would have to have an out-of-place new style battery. There are plenty to choose from of course with various power options. I was not going to pay that sort of big money again for another replica car battery when it didn’t last that long, maybe when I am little more flush with money? I had a word with Adam at Mustang Maniac and he said I could go for a replica cover for the top of the new battery to make it look more retro. The problem is that the top cover is the correct size and needed a battery to fit it. To small and the top would overhang the battery looking stupid, to big a battery it wouldn’t fit anyway. The other issue is that the positive and negative poles needed to be the right way around.

The part you need is the Autolite replica top, with caps and warning tag. Click here for the link or copy this to your browser:  https://mustangmaniac.co.uk/part/36/1791/autolite_battery_cover_64-73

Now I needed to search the net for a battery to fit the dimensions. I found out that sizes were limited for the power I would need, and then the terminals would be the wrong way round. After what seemed liked days of looking I eventually found a battery with the correct sizes, a flat style top, the terminals correct and enough amps for the Mustang to start.

That battery is made by Toyota with a part number of “28800 – YZZJG”.

The battery was rated at a powerful 75Ah which would be plenty to spin the V8 over. So I ordered it and a few days later I went to pick it. But first I needed to check that the top fitted, once it did I bought it. I parted with my £100 and brought it home.

with top cover on the battery
handles that will now be hidden

So what did the top look like fitted close up? Well it fitted perfectly on the flat top, but the  battery case side were a little inset from the top of the actual battery top.

There was another problem that was more annoying than an issue. On the original ’64 – ’66 battery tray the battery was held down by a bracket on a lip on the sides of the battery to stop it moving in the tray. This battery doesn’t have that, but I did have a plan. There is a work around for most things, you could make it work by replacing the battery tray to allow having an over the top clamp. That would fix the issue, but it wouldn’t be correct for the year. There needed to be another way to hold the battery safely in place. Below pic shows the hold down lip on the replica battery at the sides.

The new battery has its hold downs on the front and back which were not going to be used. I thought about using 3D printing to make a bracket, but the space to fit the clamp I thought of using would have been to flimsy and I suspect that it would have broken when being tightened down. The underside of the battery had recessed areas, that gave me an idea.

Underside of battery

I could create a lip up the side if I used a “P” shape idea, the down stem of the letter becoming the anchor point underneath of the battery. I would need to attach it somehow, so screws were out of the question. Glues wouldn’t have much surface area to hold the platform on the underside. While having a look through my tool boxes for inspiration and ideas I put my hand on it; epoxy putty!

The plan was to fill the cavities with the putty and create the anchor point base for the bracket. I would then fill the newly created “L” shape to mould a ledge that would bond to the battery side and the plastic anchor plates.

I roughed up the surfaces that needed fixing to allow a good surface to for the bonding. I would do this in two stages, mix up enough for the cavity areas to bond the plates in place, then roll a cylindrical shape to squash into the newly created corner creating the ledge I would need, then allow it all to set hard. The putty is mixed 50/50 black and white compounds until it becomes a grey colour and warm to the touch, then it’s ready to apply. I used the replica battery for how a guide on how much I needed to create the ledge for the clamp.

The POR15 epoxy putty sets rock hard which can be drilled, sanded and painted. Once the putty was set for a full twenty-four hours, I could see that it had bonded very well to the hard plastics of the ledge as well as to the side of the battery case. On the underside I also used a hot glue gun with super strength glue sticks to go over the edges and any spaces to add another form of adhesion. The battery clamp itself is held down by a single bolt through the battery tray and it just applies downward pressure to hold the battery down. The clamp has a couple of ridges on the underside that help locate the clamp in place and stop the battery movement. These profiles would need to measured to the middle of the battery and marked up accordingly.

Using my Dremel with a sanding wheel I leveled of the top of the ledge flat. Then I started rubbing the clamp onto the dried out white putty which left a clear mark where I needed to match the underside of the clamp profile.

Once I was happy with the clamp fit, the underside angled profile for the tray was copied from the original battery or could be seen from the battery tray itself. This would also ensure that the battery would fit back into the tray correctly and not sit proud on the clamp side.

Masking up ready for spraying was simple enough, although this step is not essential for what I had in mind. A couple of coats later from the satin black spray can made the ledge look almost stock which could have be placed into the tray as it is.

I wanted to do more to make the battery look more authentic. As I may want to reuse the top cover again I needed a solid, but not permanent solution, that came in the form of a black silicone mastic sealer.

I applied a generous bead around the gap from the visible side and front, with slight hold blobs on the back and other side of the battery. The reason the silicone wasn’t all the way round was to allow the battery to “breath” or allow any gasses to vent out. Sealing all around would have prevented this function if needed it.

I used a thin piece of straight plastic to create the initial seal between the top and the side of the battery to scrape the excess away in a flat surface to give the appearance of flat plastic. This would make it look like a complete battery not just a top. I allowed the mastic to go off a little more before I smoothed it again properly.

The next part was the case of the battery itself. The original design had a woven weave look which I wanted to try and replicate.

I had some vinyl left over from my toolbox draw project and I decided to use that. I cut lengths that I needed to go around the battery and cleaned and dust or grease from the now clean sides.

OK, so it’s diagonal and a carbon look, but in the engine bay tucked in a corner it would be difficult to see anyway. The wrap started at the top down to the corners taking care to make sure they looked neat. The new ledge was covered over with the wrap to give a nice continuity. So the battery now had a carbon fibre look which was just starting to be used properly in the early to mid sixties.

Next was the battery filler caps that I wanted to modify a little in order to be closer to the original. The caps didn’t have the tiny breather holes, but had the mark in place. These caps are the same size just the one on the right was has a screw thread which means it was closer to the camera to make it look bigger showing the hole.

A small 1.5mm drill was a perfect size to drill the hole out on the cap on the left.

Fitting the caps back to the top finished the look of the battery.

The original battery also had the word “Sta-ful” painted the same colour as the “Autolite” wording which was missing from the top plate. This was painted on once the battery was in the tray and secured.

Fitting the battery back into the tray was dead simple and the clamp fitted perfectly on the matched profiled for the clamp and the tray itself. The look of the carbon fiber wasn’t to far away from the look I wanted.

The final part was that cables were to be connected and the tag applied to the battery, (which should be on the positive terminal post by the way, not the neg side as I have it here). I also have some post felts which stops the cable fittings scratching the battery top, they also cover the tiny gap around the posts.

The finished battery!

It took about three hours work to clamp and silicon in place and I am happy with the results. My original and now updated review of the Autolite Group 24 Battery is here.

My next post will show the Original battery being taken apart to see just what is inside!

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