Category: Car

On The Road

A very special day for me today as I drove my car for the first time on public roads. Initially I was going to put up the full story of the complete nightmare it has been to get to this day registering her in the UK. But, I have decided that I didn’t want to ruin this post by having a major rant at the totally pathetic and incompetent Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) here in the UK. I will be posting a separate post on how and what went on with them very soon.

For now though it’s the good bits and positive vibes. Earlier in the week I had my number plates delivered and I was waiting to get a clear day to fit them on the car. The back of the car would be fine as that’s easy access, but I would have to roll the car out to get the front plate on. I wasn’t going to do that if it was raining.

The new plates are pressed metal with silver raised lettering. I have been given a nick-name by the Mustang Manic guys which is “Sat-Nav”. I make no excuses here – I am completely useless at directions. I am like an ant, I follow the same route all the time if shown. I get lost coming home and I have lived here over ten years now, honestly I am terrible. I have to put my sat-nav on to go to the MM yard still. When I was at their yard getting ready to fire up my car up I had to go and get petrol, they had to draw me a map of directions so I didn’t get lost on my way to the petrol station, which is less than a mile away. It’s a great sense of pleasure for the guys to take give me grief over it still. Why did I mention that? On the registration plates when your order them you can have type at the top and or bottom, I was going to put Sat-Nav at the bottom of mine. At the last minute I changed my mind as it would probably end up getting hacked of having to explain what it means to people. So I went with the standard Ford Mustang and the year, just in case people don’t know what it is.

As the plates don’t have holes they have to me drilled where you want them. I found the old USA reg plate for my car to use for the template. I aligned it up on the back of the new plates and market it with a pencil.

I placed a small piece of masking tape over the marked up areas to stop the small pilot drill from slipping. With the small hole done I took a larger drill to the pilot hole to allow the screw to go through.

There are just two holes at the top and a rubber grommet at the bottom. Screwing the plates on was really the last job on the car apart from maintenance from now on. It was a real buzz to tighten up those screws.

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The car was ready. The weather was not bright sunshine, but it was dry and bright, today was the day. I got changed out of my working clothes and slipped into the driver’s seat. I took a deep breath trying to steady my slightly shaking hands. I put the key in the ignition and pumped the gas pedal a couple of times. The engine turned over for a few seconds and eventually the fuel was pumped into the carb. The engine fired and the exhausts barked into life, I revved it a few times and sat there for a what seemed liked minutes, but was only a few seconds. For the first time I adjusted the lap belt and pulled it tight. I checked the gauges,  oil pressures were up, voltmeter was now reading just over fourteen and a half volts, petrol gauge showing a quarter of a tank. It was enough as I only intended to drive a few miles to see how she would settle down. I wound the window down, I pressed the brake pedal and pressed in the button on the gear lever to pull it into “R”, the revs died down as the gearbox engaged reverse, I released the brake and she rolled back out of the drive onto the road. I stopped the car and pulled the lever into “D”. The revs dropped and I released the brake and she rolled forwards while straightening the wheel. I squeezed the gas pedal the revs picked up and the exhaust stepped up their noise level, I was off. I smiled to myself and those few seconds will never ever be erased from my memory now. After a few hundred yards I came to my first junction, indicated and looked both ways. Normally this is second nature and I drive this way to work in my normal daily car. Today was different, I looked again and then again. I pressed the pedal and I moved into the road. The gears changed, but I didn’t feel it as it was silky smooth jus the engin note changing. I drove towards a pub where some guys where outside smoking, the group turned to look at my car. The buzz stepped up a level. People were looking at my car, as this is a narrow road the throb of the v8 and exhaust tone was bouncing of the buildings and a little girl with her dad pointed at my car, I don’t know what was said as the car soumd was my world at the moment. The road opened up into a country lane and I began to settle down a little. Sitting on the left didn’t feel strange, it just felt right and natural in the car. I drove a little more and pressed the pedal more. No hesitation, just a change in exhaust note. I checked the speedo and I was doing sixty mph without realising it. I drove around till I found a nice quiet country road and turned into it. I got out to take a couple of pics before anybody else turned into the road.

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I started to make my way back just taking in the roads and sound, oh that sound. It’s so much better than I ever imagined down a country road. I was concentrating intently. The result of over four years of love, passion and work culminated in this brief fifteen minute drive. Was it worth it, hell yeah. It was worth it and wanted to drive it more. The trouble is I couldn’t. I left my wallet in my other car and the wife had taken that car. So I had no money to put fuel in her today. I needed to keep some in the tank for that longer trip to fill her up. I pulled back onto the drive and relaxed. With sadness I turned her off and just sat there. The engine was silent, but I could still her sound in my head. I unbuckled and got out of the car and shut the door. I walked around the car and checked underneath for leaks or anything out of the ordinary. I pulled the hood and I heard the metallic little ticks of metal cooling down as I inspected for anything out-of-place. All was OK.

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I tidied up some things in the garage and left her outside for some fresh air. With the tools away and everything back in the tool boxes I walked back to the car, got in and started her up again, I gently rolled her into the garage until the rubber ball hanging from the ceiling just touched the windscreen. I turned her off and got out. I covered her up and realised that only now had my smile started to slip away. Less than ten miles driven and yet those recaptured memories of driving my first Mustang over twenty-five years were reignited like a firework going off. Was it what I was expecting owning my own Mustang and driving a v8 Mustang? No, it was better, MUCH better. Unfortunately I can’t explain that feeling of completing a project and realising a dream come true.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but there will be more I promise when I get more adventurous driving further afield. For now I am just so happy.

I noticed earlier today that Mustang Maniac blog posted about a ’67 390GT in Acapulco Blue. I had seen this car a few years ago and was the inspiration for my colour scheme.

What a day, what a buzz. More than that, what a truly awesome car Ford made in 1966.

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Badges

I’m back! I know I haven’t posted for a while, but it has only been one month to the day in fact, yet when I see that last post “Merry Christmas..” it seems like forever ago, or is it just me? There is not a lot of things I can post about the car at the moment for very good reasons as it’s all behind the scenes, so more of that in bit though.

As you probably remember in November last year my car was at a Classic Car show in Birmingham on the Mustang Owners Club Of Great Britain exhibition stand. The club has its own magazine called “Round Up” for the club members and they ran an article on the show. My car had a few nice photo’s taken of it and me cleaning it. I’m Sure they won’t mind me posting them here.

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I was well pleased when I saw this spread I must say. 😀

The Car Update:

Any vehicle that is permanently imported into the UK needs to have Duty and Tax paid. Unaware at the time when I bought the car this was the case I am unable to register my car for the UK roads because the car has not paid any import duty. Needless to say I wasn’t very impressed with finding this out. But, I put it down to a learning experience now, but I would like to have a conversation with the bloke who sold it to me though. It turns out that in order to put a UK registration plate on the car you need to fill in paper work, lots of paperwork. In the near future once this nightmare is all sorted out, I intend to post an article on how to do it with a step by step process as I go through it. There will be all sorts of useful links where I can find them and hopefully this will help with other people in the same situation.

The first step is to pay the Import Duty and VAT (Value Added Tax) on the car. There are literally hundreds of different categories for items to be imported and choose from. I have been given a helping hand by Mustang Maniac on how to do it all. Once the duties are paid you will get a “NOVA” (Notification Of Vehicle Arrival) certificate. This will state that <said> vehicle has had all import Tax and Duties paid on it. From there on you can fill in more forms to request a registration plate and pay more money for the plate to go on the car. So far to date I have been granted my “NOVA” certificate with all fees paid in full. This single document now becomes a critical part of the vehicle’s history for the UK. I am now waiting for the response from our Government department, DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) who are responsible for issuing the registration plates for the UK. Some time soon I will be given an official licence registration number allocated to my car. Then I can pay more money with all my paper work to get a “Registration Plate” or badge if you like made up to put on the car.

For obvious reasons I won’t say too much at the moment as it’s all ongoing. But once it has all be completed and I am able to get the car on the road legally, I will do a full update article on what and how it all works.

In the mean time I have been playing in the garage and looking for things to do apart from polishing the car again. I have many left over parts from the restoration, they were either broken, worn out, bits missing from them, burnt out or cosmetically damaged. I found in a box the right hand side fender badge. The pins on the back were broken off and the chrome was pitted and looked rough. I cleaned it up and had an idea for a use for it. Obviously it couldn’t have gone on the car as the paint had come off and I only had one of the pair. So, I bought some model enamel paints as close as I could get to the Mustang Tri Bar colours.

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I painted the badge and it came out pretty good. I could have done it a little neater but I was more interested in the colour match at the time. However, all this messing around is all for a good reason; the badge on the AirCon unit has rubbed of a bit which has the ford Tri Bar colours on it. So now this painted test piece looks OK, I paint the tiny logo in the car as well now. As always I shall bring pictures of it when I get round to doing it.

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I bought some sticky magnetic tape to stick on the back just to see how it would cope and look.

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Then I found something to stick it on, my Blue-Point service cart.

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I do believe I now have a unique Limited Edition 1 of 1 tool cart. I think it looks pretty good, and the best bit is that I can move it around and stick it to anything metal I want and it will become a 3D Mustang badged merchandise. I may even get some more of these emblems from the next car jumble show I go to.

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She’s Back Home

Fantastic news this week which I am very excited about to say the least! My car passed her first MOT since being restored a few days ago with no advisories at all, a clean pass in fact. What that means is now my car is considered to be road worthy to be allowed on the roads, quite an achievement after being rebuilt from every single nut and bolt that was on the car. That in turn that means that I can now go through a major performance of trying to register the car for a UK registration plate. This is known to be a painful experience and is bound to wipe the smile straight off my face. But, I will keep you updated on that process as time goes along to see if the red tape process is as bad as they actually say it is.

Pictures of the car going for her MOT test on a cold chilly December day 2015.

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So, after a few of years at Mustang Maniac my car has made her triumphant return journey back home. I think I am allowed a little artistic author creativity here.  Adam managed to grab the LAR covered truck in order to her home to me. Technically as it does not have any vehicle documents I wouldn’t be allowed to drive it. But Adam can drive it on trade plates to get it home for me. That huge distance was a massive few feet at the most, from the back of the trailer to my garage. We decided to trailer it back so as not to tempt fate with the local law enforcement agencies who could be a pain in the.. anyway moving on!

After a drive of just over sixty miles door to door we arrived at my house. The garage had sort of been emptied ready for the new resident just before it got dark.

Adam jumped in and fired her up to get her in the garage.

The next day i had every intention of cleaning my car, but as it hasn’t stopped raining for the last two days i haven’t been able to. So I have now already done something I wouldn’t do, that’s cover her up dirty. Now, when “I” say dirty –  I mean a few water marks from the drops of rain that caught her, that is what I now consider dirty. The wife thinks it looks super shiny and can’t see what I am bangin’ on about. All Petrol/Gear heads know exactly what I mean and will see where I am coming from. Don’t worry, it will be cleaned, and waxed, and polished, and sealed – well you get the idea. So the garage had to be re-arranged in order for me to open the car door. That prompted me put a flag I have been meaning to do for a while now. I will be putting proper flooring down and the walls won’t be bare, for now it will be just fine. So as far as I am concerned, that’s one of the best Christmas presents I could have hoped for.

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Welcome back home <?? name change ??>.

Just for a comparison, how she left here a few years ago.

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John lashing the rear down

Update – 14-12-2015 18:04

Out with the car this evening and the nameAnnalise just didn’t seem to fit. So I am going to have to come up with a other name. Not quite sure now what it will be. Any ideas let me know. One for the short list now is “Suzi“. I quite like it and it’s different. What do you think?

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Road Test

The weekend arrived and I was on my way to the Mustang Maniac yard. This time it felt strange as there we no tools in the back of the car. Why was I going there? Because I could and I just love bein’ there with the guys. I arrived to be greeted by Adam who was rushing around for an order that was about to be picked up. When things had calmed down a bit, we sat in the boy’s club and had tea which was washed down with biscuits that Paul bought in, donuts that Gary W. bought in and a huge Jaffa Cake that I bought in, (it was supposed to have twelve servings but six was about right though). We had a good petrol head chat and again listened to Gary’s stories about Ford in the early days. Adam announced the plan for today was to road test my car before it rains. Oh boy was I excited. Adam got the trade plates and I fired her up and let her warm up. Adam got in the car and I was to make notes on the things that needed doing as he found them. I wanted Adam to drive as he knows how the car should feel and behave where as I don’t on the old cars. I was about to be part of the inner sanctum for a full Mustang Maniac road test and what it involved. We pulled out of the gates and the first thing was “straighten the steering wheel”, it was upside down a simple fix and I made a note. We moved along slowly and the gearbox went up a gear then another all smoothly, so far so good. We increased speed a little and Adam was listening intently for noises at about twenty five mph, checking the steering and gently dabbing the brakes. We pulled onto a round about and indicated for a dual carriageway. We again was a little cautious getting up to speed this time about sixty-five mph. After a couple of minutes we pulled into petrol station and was meet by an old school pump attendant who obviously knows Adam well, “Fill her up – he’s paying” said Adam laughing. The attendant filled her up and I sold a kidney to pay for it. Seriously it wasn’t that bad at all really. We got back in the car and pulled away back onto the dual carriageway. Adam was then sensing the steering drift and directional steering listening for more noises and unexpected sounds, “need to re-do the geo as it has a tiniest of pulls”, I made a note. The exhaust was tapping something under the car over heavy bumps, I made a note.  We increased speed again to see how she handled, the wind noise picked up and the first few drops of rain started, my face must have dropped. Adam instantly said if it starts properly we’ll go back. My show standard beautiful wax job was streaming the water straight off the car. It wasn’t so much the top side of the car, it’s the underside we didn’t want all clogged up. We slowed down and seemed to have gone through the little band of dampness which had now dried up again, lights on and wipers working fine. Nothing around, so Adam decided to test kick-down on the automatic box. Oh yes, it drops the gears and the car lunged forward with a snarl from the engine and the exhaust burble turned to thunder. Yep that works. We turned of to some back roads after a few minutes of national speed limit speeds, this is where Adam now does other stuff. He was checking the brakes for pull, adjustment, travel and efficiency at high speed and low speed, “need to bleed the brakes again”, I made a note. We stopped with nothing around so we could pull away again, the gearbox was checked for manual gear changes to hold the gears and check the engine braking. We did that few times and manually changed up and down on the revs. Dead straight bit of road in front of us now, when it was announced that we “had to test the carb out for full gas flow”. Hell yeah! We stopped and let a van and car go past us, nothing behind or in front now. Adam nailed the loud pedal; the car moved sideways at the back a little, and we moved forwards, the wheels were spinning and scrambling for grip on the damp road, now we were in a straight line we rapidly picking up speed. Adam was grinning to himself and so was I, but I suspect my grin was bigger than his. “Yep, the carb fuel take up seems OK” laughing. “Look out the back”, as I did I could see a line of rubber for a considerable distance should we say disappearing into the distance 😉 The next part of the road was little villages, and lots of bends and undulations. Unfortunately we had to use the kick-down function on a few occasions to accelerate up to the national speed limit of course. This was all choreographed stuff, to test the bearings, stress on the axles, engine, mounts, bolts and temperatures. Oil fine, water, fine, fuel going down! We had a GPS speed sensor which was used to check the calibration of the speedo. At seventy mph the speedo showed sixty eight. “I will take that” Said Adam, at lower speeds thirty or so it was spot on. Adam did other tracking things with the camber of the road and all was fine. Now we came out to the round about and dual carriageway again, now the rain was starting up a little again. We headed back to the yard as Adam was happy. We pulled into the yard and Yogi was waiting for the report. We read back the exhaust report and the car was up in the air within seconds. Yogi done his thing and rattle could be heard when he knocked it. He got the spanners out and fixed it, now there was no noise. We checked the diff level for oil and it was full. I walked around the car – Mud. There was mud on my car, how dare it? So that means I just had to clean it again. So to all those out there didn’t believe it would be driven on the road; here is the proof. Come to think of it, is that mud or rubber from the tyres? lol. mud1 mud2 mud3 But I was happy the tiny little niggles from the road were not major issues. More settling in issues and I was told there would be more of that to be done after a few more miles. We need to adjust the headlights as well Adam mentioned. This week providing it doesn’t rain and the guy who tests the cars has space to fit her in, the car will go for its first MOT (Ministry Of Transport (test)) after the restoration. This MOT is the road worthiness test for most vehicles each year after they are three years old and a legal requirement in the UK. I hope that will happen as it means I can then start the process to get her proper UK registration plate. Excited and nervous at the same time. After my cleaning Adam had another road test to do and I again volunteered myself to take part. We followed the same route doing the same things. This time Adam stopped just after where we “tested” the carb fuel take up under full acceleration on my car. Although the rain had now covered most of the tyre marks up, it can still be seen just about. I took a photo of it to show you some of it. I marked near the end of it and where we could see the start. You can see tyre mark on the white marking in the road a little clearer. This was only done for a controlled test and not condoned in any way at all. The road was just slippery that’s all. tyremark

Results:

A very good road test, a couple of small issues that were sorted out pretty quickly. The others will be done when the geo is re-done. Mart is a seriously happy bunny! 😀

A Special Thanks:

Thanks goes out to Gary W. (ex Ford Director) who got me a couple of very special and rare gifts. I mentioned to him that I was after an original photo of Lee Iacocca (the head of the design depart for the Mustang project). The reason being that I managed to get an autograph of Lee a while ago and I wanted to frame them together. Gary bought me in a couple of real rarities in mint condition that are so much better than a photo. It’s well known that the Mustang was launched 17 April 1964, where Henry Ford 2 commissioned Walt Disney to design the ‘Ford Pavilion’ at the 1964 New York World Fair. His idea was to use Ford convertibles (Galaxies, Fairlanes, Falcons and Mustangs) adapted and bolted to specially constructed rails to guide visitors around the vast Ford exhibition – Disney still uses this rail type design today on many of its rides. Anyway the Fair was opened on April 22 1964 with tickets costing $2.00. I now have an Original Ticket from that famous date: ticket After your visit for the day at Ford’s there was a special souvenir plastic badge which would glow in the dark that you could collect depending on where you came from.

Gary has managed to get me a New York souvenir badge from that day. It’s in mint condition and still glows in the dark! badge1 badge2 For more photos on the story of the World Trade Fair Mustang Launch click here for the Mustang Maniac post. Thank you Gary this is serious appreciated.

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My Classic Car Debut

Wow, what a weekend, that’s all I can say. There are so many thanks to go out in this post and I will get to them all as the story unfolds. The car show that I am referring to is the biggest in the UK – “Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show” held at the Birmingham NEC 13 – 15th November 2015, hosting some two thousand odd cars as well as traders and motoring clubs. So if you are going to do a car show, jump straight into the deep end, just like I did with restoring the car in the first place. Although the show is a Friday to Sunday the hard work starts early Thursday Morning. Due to logistical nightmare I wouldn’t be able to drive up to Birmingham myself which is about 2 hour drive away from my home. So Adam being the top bloke that he is said “get down here Wednesday night and stop in the camper, then you can go up with the cars”. What he means by camper is the enormous American motor home that is so plush it makes some hotels I have stayed in look like derelict flats. So my good lady wife dropped me down the Mustang Maniac yard packed with everything that I would need. Clothing, food for a midnight Scooby snacks, kindle and my trusty Samsung Galaxy Tab 12.2 Pro. Adam had already got the heating on in the van by the time I arrived and was nice and warm. I read my kindle for a little while and fell asleep in the big comfy bed. Stupid o’clock I heard the dogs barking and few minutes later the familiar bark of a V8 Mustang starting up. The two tiered transporter truck sent by LAR Traffic Services  was now being loaded with the Black ’66 GT Fastback. My car fired up and was sitting in the workshop waiting to come out and play. Thanks so much to LAR Traffic Services who transported my car and Ken’s car with no problems at all.

My biggest thanks has to be to Adam at Mustang Maniac who sponsored my trips there and back so I could get to the Show. All the guys at Mustang Maniac for making this dream possible.

The car was driven to the truck and Adam loaded my car onto the transporter and again tied it down to stop it moving. The sun started to come up now and burn some of the mist away and I started to get butterflies in my stomach from excitement.

Everything was loaded into the cars, overnight bag, Show Board, business cards and flyers etc. I climbed in and we set off for the few hours journey. The exhibition cars had to be checked in before mid day on the Thursday, we left a little before eight to give us plenty of time, I was too excited to remember to even have breakfast. The journey was pretty good and we made great time until we got near the NEC motorway turn off, then the traffic started to snarl up. The good thing was we could see the drivers taking pictures of the cars before they even got to the show. I’m not saying the traffic was bad, but…

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We arrived at the NEC to the usual carnage at these sort of events where no clear signs about telling us where to go.

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We asked a couple of herberts who were directing traffic, they told us to follow the road round. About a mile later of stop start traffic jams and drooling over the cars being unloaded, we eventually found the Pavilion Hall. Now it was our turn to unload. We were given our wrist bands for the “Build Up” day as they call it, cars are moved around and the stands set up for business. Yellow band for Thursday, then the other colour bands were given out by the Club stands where you were exhibiting or showing stands as the case may be. I was now officially an “Exhibitor” for the weekend. I have been to so many of these car shows in the past where I have been envious of the cars on show. I have often wondered what it would be like to be part of the classic car show scene. Now I know; it’s such a buzz to be part of something where everybody there had one thing in common, the love of cars. No animosity towards any car and everybody just looked at all the other cars in appreciation as they went passed you. I have never understood why people only like Ford, or Chevy or Fiat etc. and they refuse to like any other cars, I just don’t get it. I love Mustangs obviously, but I also like so many other makes such as Chevy, Pontiac, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Audi, TVR etc. etc.

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The rest of the day was all about getting the cars on the stands to arrange them in their final positions. The fabulous ’66 GT was on the Classic American stand and they made a cracking job of making her look factory fresh.

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My car was on the Mustang Owners Club Of Great Britain (MOCGB), position P1-320. Many of the carpets still had the plastic covers over them and all the exhibitors had to wear high vis jackets for health & safety reasons. A lot of the carpets were still being laid and furniture was being built all around the cars. My car was parked on the end just for now next to a very rare Shelby Super Snake. I gave a hand to help set up the stand and put out the bunting, I even bought a polo shirt before the show started.

The rest of the cars for our stand soon turned up, then we were able to position them properly ready for their three-day pampering session.

Thank the MOCGB for making me feel welcome and we had such a good laugh with a very nice bunch of people on the stand this year.  The cars were cleaned, and I checked the Show Plates and decided where I was going to put my car’s Show Board.

A big thanks to Lance at Linards Design & Print Solutions for the Show Plates and the Show Board.

We got to work cleaning the cars, but not before we all had a look at each others cars. I didn’t realise just how much time and effort goes into making these cars shine the way they do. I cleaned mine, looked at the others on the stand and cleaned it again! Thursday was over and it was time to go back to the hotels. The performance at the hotel to check in was made worse by one receptionist and bloke asking stupid questions, like “what do press on the phone for reception?”I was like thinking – Go to the room and it will be on the phone man. Once in my room, I got my green wrist band ready and got the clothes out ready for the next day, then went out looking for some food, I was getting hungry now, perhaps that was why I was intolerant of the bloke earlier.

What did my car look like after the cleaning? This was her first day out;

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Friday, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Friday. I put on my Green exhibitor band, I knew it was going to be busy, but I wasn’t sure what it would be like from a Club stand point of view. The announcements over the tannoy warned us of half an hour to open with a ten minute count down in between. We were busy cleaning the cars when the announcement that the “show was now open”. The sweat from frantic polishing was starting to run of my head with the pressure and the physical exertion. I’m sure I cleaned the car yesterday though! I swapped my manky old t-shirt for a MOCGB black polo shirt trying to cool down as I stood wondering what was going to happen, what would I say? The public came in after a few minutes and wandered around the stands. I had my first visitors ask me about my car, how long had I had it? What colour is it? I didn’t need to worry, I just stood there and answered their questions. Then more questions from more visitors, it was like that all day. I was asked what was under the hood, so I opened it up and it stayed open virtually all weekend long. The questions never stopped. There were people with cameras taking pictures of the engine, the fender badges, inside and they even wanted to look inside the trunk, so theat stayed open all weekend as well. The crowds got quite large around the MOCGB stand as they had Bullitt, Gone in 60 Seconds, Transformers, Getaway etc car chases all on a loop at the front of the stand on a big LCD television. It was funny to see the crowds watching Steve McQueen in his car chase, when the chase scene was over the crowds will filter away. When it came back on again the crowds were back. It was like watching the tide coming in and going, but only on shorter time scales with people.

I know I have some great people who follow my blog and the first to find me just like they said they would was the fantastic Triumph “Stag  Owners Club” ; https://stagownersclub.wordpress.com/  It was fantastic to put their faces to the names and we had a great chat. I made a promise to go and see them a bit later, but before they went they took a photo of the man with a Mustang, so I dutifully posed, the secret was out who the man was now.

I visited their wonderful stand only they were not there to return the favour for a photo session, but like ships in the night we passed messages. The Stag Owners Club web site was even nominated for an award! Well done for that guys.

I knew that the Triumph Stag had an overheating problem when they came out. Funny thing is that it wasn’t anything to do with the design or the engineering, it was the rather rubbish quality control that caused the issues. On a recent Rally the Stag was leading 17 days out of the whole Trans America Challenge 2015, all through the deserts where other cars were melting in the sun (literally), the car never experienced an over heating issue at all. The car suffered a rather unheard of rear diff giving up which was replaced and the car was nursed to the finish line. The car did finish and now it has been proved beyond doubt that the engineering design was not at fault. These cars are amazing, they look great, sound great and are certainly a very desirable collectors car. In fact they would be my number one affordable UK Classic car choice.

I came in the next day to find this placed on my seat: Oops, now how did that happen? Looks like I have only gone and accidentally left the wrist band over it! Sorry, but does that mean the secret is safe still? 😉

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Thank you so much guys for the photo, it means a lot to me and it will be up in my garage very soon. Thanks for your time answering what must have been daft questions coming from me.

Another visitor from the blog scene was a Nigel from https://nigelhamlinwright.wordpress.com/ “A Special Builder’s Notes”. He arrived with his good lady and we had a nice chat and found out that the small world we live in is even smaller than I thought. It turns out that we only live a couple of villages apart, so I will be going to visit Nigel soon to have a look at his projects he has on the go. Thanks for coming to see me Nigel, again much appreciated.

Gary W – an ex Ford UK Director, who regularly contributes to Mustang Maniacs own blog with his knowledge and his photo’s was next. Gary came to find me among the sea of people who were around me and my car, I believe my expression was like a rabbit in car headlights. We had an all to brief chat as it was the first time he had seen my completed car, and not just in the workshops. Thank You Gary, I feel a bit bad that I wasn’t able to speak to you longer though.

The Friday’s show drew to an end. I had three offers to buy my car from people who liked what I had done. One guys wanted to take it home that day and offered me some seriously good cash! But my little lady is not for sale. But, this is a big but, me and wife decided that the only time it will ever be parted with is if I could swap it for a genuine Shelby shell to start it all again. The chances of that happening is not very good at all, the car is of a massive sentimental value to me now.

The hotel room has the aircon on full blast and I collapsed on the bed to catch my breath and let my throat rest from all the talking. Was I all Mustanged out? Nope!

Saturday, the alarm woke me at an early time so I could get some breakfast and shower in before the day started. By the time I had got to the entrance I had put on my dark blue wrist band. I walked round to the show hall the long way round so I could look at the other cars early before it got to busy to see them. I didn’t manage to walk away from my car all day on Friday except for a a couple of toilet breaks of a few minutes and came straight back. I took some photo’s of some cars  this time and then realised the time. I rushed back to the stand to see the other guys cleaning. I looked at my car and see a small layer of dust from the overnight stay. Out came all the cleaning stuff again and I got to work.

The MOCGB were going to have a special guest appear on their stand at 9am just before the main public came in to the hall; Edd China from the very popular TV show “Wheeler Dealers” was going to be with us. Edd is seen on the right here next to Mike Brewer his co presenter.

wheeler-dealers

Edd came over and was speaking to Chris York from the MOCGB and had his photo taken with all of us at Club stand. The club gave him a cordinated blue MOCGB polo shirt so he didn’t feel left out of course, that we were all wearing that day. Edd sat in a gold Coupe in the Club stand and then came over to sit in mine too posing for some photos, which he seemed to like just as the public started to notice who and where he was.

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What a buzz that was, and a genuinely nice guy. I was told by Chris that Saturday and Sunday was a different ball game. I wasn’t sure what he meant but I was about to find out. The Saturday crowd was more family orientated and out to look at some nice cars. It turns out that Friday is for the more hard core motor enthusiast, Petrol Heads or Gear Heads as they are known in different places around the world. Again the questions came thick and fast, people wanting to “Do a project just like that” pointing to mine and the other cars. Lots of questions around the origins of the car, how long did it take, would you do it again etc. One bloke even had a moan at my aerial. My aerial is slightly smaller than the average Mustang aerial for a simple reason. I wanted mine to retract out-of-the-way. This will mean that the aerial will not be damaged by selfish yobs, and the fact that a car cover will not have to have a hole made in it to fit. However as the aerial wasn’t original he took great delight in telling me. I tried to find out what car he had, unfortunately he didn’t answer and walked off. What was that all about? The car is done to how “I” want it, not a “Concours d’Elegance” exhibit that will never be driven. But the rest of the day was great and had many, many photo’s taken of the car. Again the hood was up, the trunk was open and the drivers window down so people could see. I didn’t have time to eat, had a very quick toilet break and it was back to the great public and questions. I now realised that I didn’t need to worry about what to say, I was being asked and I just had to answer. The tannoy announced the show was over and about half hour later the crowds had gone. All that could be heard was the Bullitt car chase for the umpteenth time that day. Then it fell silent. I cleaned my car from finger prints yet again. The yellow microfiber cloth was a permanent extension of my arm and has replaced my hand. The walk back to the hotel took longer than yesterday, perhaps they made the road longer during the day. More offers to buy the car today and I was feeling good mentally. The room invited me in and the bed just screamed “collapse on me”, I definitely heard it. I took time to send some pics of my day to guys at Mustang Maniac and few friends who would be interested. Was I all Mustanged out? Nope!

The photo’s I took that day? No, I don’t have a thing about red cars, it’s just that I have never seen the full house of Ferrari’s like this before. Cobra replicas a plenty, Jaguar E-Types and Aston Martins, and of course the big boys GT40’s, all just incredible cars.

There was a another photo I took specially for a another blog I follow all about his Land Rovers; http://mud4fun.com/  I just thought was quite unusual. Needs must I suppose, it wasn’t the toilet that made me smile, it was the toilet roll holder, attention to detail there then.

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Sunday the alarm sounded like a V8 had started up next to my head, I don’t think I moved in the night at all. I put on my light blue wrist band and felt that ominous tickle of a sore throat. I hope my voice would last the day as I walked down to breakfast, I felt a little guilty about grunting to the waitress who had a very polite “Good Morning Sir”. Sorry to the little waitress, but my voice needed to be saved. It was raining again and I was glad that I only had a little way to walk. Walking to the show hall seemed to me that that road had just got a longer over night as well. Once inside the halls I knew the routine now, clean the car, change top and get ready. I was looking forward to the day and I was now confident that I wasn’t going to make myself look stupid in front of anybody. I managed to have few conversations with the other guys on the stand and we had a few great laughs between us during the day. Around lunch time I had two younger girls who came up to me asking about the car for their dad. Apparently he told them to find a Mustang car that they liked. They choose mine, I let them both sit in the car and answered all their quite grown up and mature questions. I spotted their “Press” passes as they told me that they would bring their dad over. I was absolutely fine with that and said “of course”, and thought no more of it.

A little while later another “Celeb” walked over to me and he didn’t need any introductions; Tim Shaw with his two daughters whom I had been speaking to earlier. Tim is from the TV program “Car SOS” and wanted to know all about my car. We had a lengthy chat about parts, restoration and what his next project is going to be for the TV show. I was incredibly excited when he told what the show was going to do soon. So make sure you watch it, I know definitely will be. I know exactly what they are going to be restoring, but I don’t think I can say publicly yet.  Anyway another great guy who kindly posed for photos sitting in my car. He attracted a nice crowd around my car before he had a chat with Chris from the Club at the back of the stand.

car-sos-slider-tim

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There was a lot of interest from people and some even took their interest up close and personal. One guy had a ’66 Mustang with large exhaust headers like mine which was causing issues with his steering. He wanted to know how I got round it, once he had seen what I had done he was a happy chap I think.

Around about mid day John from MM turned up on his way back from Yorkshire and helped answer some of the questions with me. Adam turned up a little later in the afternoon to see how things were going. Adam had bought back the LAR truck which we were going to load onto at the end of the show. The final announcement came that signalled the show was closing, the simultaneous sound of hundreds of car horns sounding together made a spectacular finale. Adam was telling me about the drama he had trying to get the truck parked close to the hall, now it was literally miles away in another car park. We decided to help pack the Club regalia away, then when the doors were opened, we would be first out to get to the truck. The plan was floored, as the organisers opened our hall doors everybody else had the same idea, crucially before us, it was wedged as far as the eye could see. One guy said to Adam “You can go the other way you know.” So we turned left when everybody was going right. It turns out after three miles and few police detours we found the truck more by luck and parked up behind the truck.

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NEC191

We got in the truck and headed out back to the yard. We had a great chat about the three days and what had happened. We saw a number of cars going past us from the show, obviously being driven home. A couple of hours later we were back at the yard, the sound that greeted me at the start of all this greeted me again, the dogs. We drove the cars to the workshop and covered them up. Adam’s first on job Monday was to move them about again.

Was I all Mustanged out on Sunday night? Just a little, but I enjoyed every moment of it. The comments from the people who looked at my car made it all worth while. The fact that people said to me that they always a car “exactly like that” made my day. Actually, that’s wrong – it made my THREE days. Honestly it did.

Additional Thanks:

Chris from Classic American Magazine who was taking photo’s of the Club stand and the cars.

All the guys from the Mustang Owners Club of GB.

Samantha from http://www.motorverso.com & Samathamowels.com

Thanks to EVERYBODY who popped by to say hello to me and spend your time with me talking about cars, most of the time my car.

After four years I had made it to a Classic Car Show, it just happened to be the biggest in the UK. I’m looking forward to the next one now. 🙂

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Exciting News…

The car is tantalising close to being finished. The weekly trip to Mustang Maniac seemed to be an age away, but soon came round. There is a little bit of urgency in the air now to get my car finished or as close to finished as we can possibly get it. The car needs to have a road test, once the guys are happy with that then we can get the door cards on and handles put on.

Why the rush? Simple reason – my car will be on show in the Birmingham NEC Exhibition Halls at the “Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show”, 13th – 15th November 2015. For more details about the show click here or cut and paste the link below.

nec2015

http://www.necclassicmotorshow.com/

I am so excited I can’t begin to tell you just how much. This show IS the biggest Classic Car show in the UK, and I will debut my car there. Over four years of hard work and I get to show my little lady off to the public there. I will be there for all of the three days with the car, so please pop by and say hello, I may even give you one of my little business cards, if you’re lucky. After all, I really don’t want to be there on my own Billy “No Mates” style as they say! The Birmingham NEC exhibition site is a huge place and there will be hundreds of stands, auto jumble and Car Clubs with their cars on show. (Did I mention how excited I am?) But, I must say I’m not expecting to be judged and I’m not expecting any recognition for my car at all, it’s not going there for that reason. I will be using this car for my enjoyment and not be a “trailer queen” as so many of these old cars from all makes tend to be these days. Oh, the only time I won’t be with my car is when I have a look around at the other cars myself. I shall be there with a mate of mine to keep me company.

The car:

It was time to put some of the missing bling back on the car now. I had help to do this bit as you need an extra pair of hands to hold and guide the sill mouldings in place. We, that’s Paul, Sam and myself made a good team to fit them in place and no damage reported either as so often is the case with these mouldings. The mouldings are clipped over the riveted brackets from last week and it all snapped into place. We had to drill my last brackets onto the front fenders and aligned up correctly, I won’t deny it, beads of sweat were running down my face as I started to drill my nice fresh metal and paint job. What if I slipped? I was carefull, very carefull should we say!

placing the rivet

There is a threaded stud at each end that goes through the rear quarter and the front wing to stop the moulding slipping out sideways. The mouldings are delicate and subject to being bent so you have to take great care when fitting these.

Around the door is a rail along the roof line for the rain drip rail. This is covered by a stainless steel moulding which again snaps into place, another delicate procedure that Yogi took the lead on and fitted for me. If fitted incorrectly and you have to remove them, you will take large chunks of your precious paint job with you. Yogi did wind me up by getting out an excessively large hammer with a little comment; “You need this!” 🙂

driprail2

The end of the day left Paul and myself to fit the seat belts. These are dead simple and is a single bolt each side of the side of the seat. The only trouble was the carpet, Dynamat and sound proofing material all covered the holes, we knew roughly where they should be, but not the exact points. So we had to what can only be described as excavating with our fingers and tiny awls to locate the correct positions of the bolt holes. We carefully cut the carpet and used a cone cutter to make the hole big enough to get the seat belt anchor bolts correctly and safely in place. It took time as we didn’t want to leave marks all over the carpet. Now I had choices of colours of belts, dark blue, light blue, white, red etc. But I went for the standard push button black to match the centre console. Now some of the consoles are coloured the same as the interior seats. The gauges are in black as is the glove box, aircon unit and centre console. I didn’t want near enough shades of colour and not quite matching the seats effect, I think that would have looked a little odd and better going for the contrast. I tried the white belts and they were a very clean white and not the dulled down cream look of the centre of the seats and the head liner. The other choice was the style of buckle, I didn’t fancy the real blingy “Pony” logo on the belts and they just didn’t seem to look right, if that makes sense. So I went for the more correct (understated) period look for the time.

seatbelts1

Below you can see the bolts in place and a close up of the belt.

Did I make the right choice? I think I did as I still like them looking at the photo’s again today.

On another note, a while ago I posted about my radio that had been updated to use modern technology that still looks retro and old. I had somebody email me a question if I knew anybody who could help with modern Fords and SYNC apps? I didn’t know, so as I was intrigued I started searching around and found this good little site called “Sync My Ride” with Ford App Sync instructions. This is a site where you can create an account for your Ford SYNC and keep your apps updated. There is all sorts of support and help on there. Hope that helps a bit for you modern Ford guys out there.

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A Sticky Situation

The weekend was a long-awaited and finally got to Mustang Maniac to get back to work. The plan of action was to finish as much as we could obviously. We started with the HT Leads (high tension leads) or Ignition Leads from the distributor cap to the spark plugs. My original leads were in blue and since then I have changed my mind. I now wanted black ones to match the colour scheme going on under the hood. The HT leads came in a pack and needed to be made to fit the car where I wanted the cables to be routed. Instead of going across the top of the rocker covers where i have the “Powered by Ford” logo it would be partly covered up. So now I wanted them around the front of the covers instead. The leads have the spark plug connections already made and the distributor cap end has to be made to length. To do this properly there is a particular tool that will splice the cable to expose the centre core and then correctly crimp the cables to the fitting.

These are the old wires I used to first start the engine up in the kit form.

original fitting
kit
on the latest colour scheme

Adam advised me that he had a little bling if I wanted it, but it would also serve a very useful purpose. These are the HT lead routing blocks. In effect they hold the cables in place at the side of the engine block and keep the cables neat, the down side is that they just happen to be chrome though. Such a shame – Not!

Anyway, firstly you need to place the leads on the spark plugs and work out where they are going to go and then mark the point where they need to be cut. Leave enough length to allow any loop or safety margin for error. Nothing worse than cutting to short, you can always go shorter.

Once you have cut the leads then you need to slip the rubber boot cap over the wire. As these will be a tight fit a generous spray on the lead and the rubber boor will allow the wire to be pushed into the boot and the end pulled through with some long-nosed pliers to expose the connection.

cut to length
lube the cable into the boot
pull through the cable
splice the end
core exposed

With the core showing bend the core under the cable to trap onto the fitting and then crimp up.

ready to crimp
crimp in place

With the crimp completed pull the boot over the fitting and plug into the correct distributor place or correct firing order. The HT block then screws into place on the rocker cover using the same bolts. Once in place pull through the loop of cable to make it look neat and how you wanted it.

locating
in place
looped
finished
other side bank

The end result is a great looking set of wires from the front, and the distributor cap is partly hidden by the air filter. But still my OCD wouldn’t allow the cable to be odd and still needed to be neat even though you can’t really see them. But, I know they are there and how they should be.

HTLeads15

HTLeads14

From the top down it still had to look right.

HTLeads18

Next up was the fun bit, I wanted some original stickers back in place under the hood. There was no specific rule of thumb here and each production line and indeed operator would do it how they see fit. So on one car the sticker would in one place and on another it would be somewhere different. A good example of this was the left hand side shock tower, where some of the information sheets were upside down. This meant they read correctly when you look in the engine to service the engine from the fender side, but it was wrong trying to read it from the front. So I went for the right way up as nobody else will be servicing my car apart from Mustang Maniac guys or me.

sticker2

The stickers came in a pack and I placed them roughly where they should have been, but there is not right or wrong here. I have seen these stickers all over the place, but the couple I had there before the restoration were put back where they came from. there were stickers for the air filter (which wasn’t relevent for my filter), oil filter, battery check, tyre pressures for the glove box etc. Amazing set of stickers that has made a difference.

Once the little bit of fun was finished it was time to complete the dash trim. This had to be screwed into place and use an air powered Dremel type tool to get right into the corners. Can had to be taken not to damage the dash pad going in or coming out with the drill bit still spinning. The black trim looks great and finished the dash area of nicely.

Tip:

Make sure you have a very good fitting screw driver for the screws. If you slip and run forward you will smash into the glass windscreen on the edge and a chance of cracking the glass.

dashtrim2

The rear of the car is completed now with the rear handles being fitted to the rear quarter glass winder mechanisms. It seems to finish it of quite nicely.

rearhandles

The outside needed to have the sill mouldings fitted back on. These are held in place by a set of clips pop riveted into the sill. Yogi showed me how to do it and left me to complete the installation on the sill. The front fender would need to be drilled and fitted in place but we ran out of time. I will get some more pics when that part is done, for now you will have to look at the fairly ugly clips.

placing the rivet
creating
clip in place

Moving on to the trunk area now. There is a wire that runs from the loom across the trunk area and under the car to the fuel sender. This was usually held in place by a piece of tape and hidden by the fuel tank. I went a little different and used “P” clips under the securing bolts to hold the cable in place.

I have been thinking about this quite a bit. I have a fantastic polished stainless steel fuel tank that seems a shame to get covered up. So I am thinking about cutting the centre out of the plaid matting and expose the fuel tank just for any shows. when I say gut it out I will only expose the centre part of the fuel tank and cover the nuts and bolts to keep it looking nice and neat. That way the cut out section can then be replaced back onto the fuel tank when not on show or I need to carry things about again.  The matting was brought down from the stores by Adam and we laid it out hoping the creases will drop out soon just like the carpet did.

I will bring that update on the blog as soon as I have decided. Any thoughts out there on whether I should keep it covered or expose just the centre a little?

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Cover Up

My arrival at Mustang Maniac this week was a bit of a shock, as my car had gone. Not stolen or anything like that of course, but the car was not in the garage where it usually is. I had a wander around trying to find it, often interrupted with Adam or Yogi laughing while moving lorries around shouting “You found your car yet?” I knew it the was there somewhere due to the extra work they had been doing in my absence. I eventually found it in a workshop stored next to very well know celebrity’s car all covered up. I bought a cover for the car a couple of weeks ago from Adam to keep it clean rather than the static sheet. Now I’m not sure what the guys had been making their tea with but they were laughing at the “Enos” sticker stuck on the cover. I must explain that “Enos” is Adam’s budget range of parts. To see budget on my car just cracked me up and few words were uttered, but it was a very funny few moments.

The guys had taken the car off the ramps as they needed to get another car up there and my car also needed to have the steering and suspension geometry set up, so it was perfect timing to be fair. The guys managed to set up the geo up after a bit of work with the shims and drove it to the storage shed ready for my visit.

geo needed a bit of work

The guys contacted me during the week to say that they had tried to sort out the erratic running of the engine on idle which was pointing to the carb. They tweaked it as much as they could, but it was still not quite right for Adam’s liking. The guys took the old Holley apart and found there were some problems with corrosion and the seals. So the conversation wasa very short one and resulted in a new one, besides the new ones looks absolutely brilliant and better than my old one, a jewel in the crown as it were. This is the same capacity carb as my other one a 600cfm, but a more updated version of it.

airfilter7

The vacuum advance pipe was looking a bit of a mess, so Adam gave me a new one. I offered the pipe up in position and the pipe was going to hit the Monte Carlo bar unless I bent it in strange positions to make it fit.

vacuum3

The decision was to replace the vacuum advance with a ’66 version where a rubber hose connects to the carb and the distributor. The only trouble is that I would have to remove the old vacuum advance valve and fit a new one. That caused a problem with the Pertronix ignition sensor on top of the distributor palte as it overhung the vacuum actuator arm, so it all had to come apart.

With the new vacuum valve in place, the gap had to be reset for the Pertronix ignition. The new distributor cap and rotor arm were clipped back in place, finally push on the rubber hose to the carb and the other end to the vacuum valve. A much nicer looking job I must say.

vacuum4

With the engine now completed again except for the spark plug leads (which will be changed a little later), it was time to move on to something a little more bling.

airfilter9

The problem here is that the I have a left hand drive car in a left hand driving country, in other words i am sitting next to the pavement. Mirrors on the Mustangs at this time were fitted with inside rearview and the driver’s side, which wouldn’t give me much visibility on the roads here. There was of course an option to have the mirror on the right hand side too as an option when the car was ordered. I decided that I would need to have both sides to be safe, so Adam got me a couple of door mirrors out which he strangely had sitting on the side ready. I picked them up and took the to the car and opened the box. Inside was the “show quality” mirror and a paper template which was really nice touch for both sides. I cut the templates out and stuck them to the top of the door where they should go. The templates even had tiny cut outs to fit exactly where the front quarter vents were. I stuck the templates down and looked for the drill.

mirror2

The holes were marked out for the drill locations. I dummy fitted the mirror just to make sure the vent opened and closed without issue which it did of course. Two holes were drilled and I sprayed an anti rust primer down the holes and wiped the excess away.

holes made
primer sprayed

Between the door paintwork itself and the mirror is a rubber/plastic type gasket. I applied a very thin layer of gasket sealer around the gasket to stop water (if any) running into the whole and making them rust out. Pressing the gasket down over the holes allowed the mirror to be screwed into place which then squashed out the excess gasket sealer. A little Gibbs and a lint free cloth wiped away the excess to leave a nice sealed black gasket that nobody can tell has been sealed at all, if that makes sense? The other box was upside down, I turned it over to find another of the pesky “Enos” stickers on my mirror now. God knows what they have been on today, but it was funny. I would like to point out at this point they are not the “Enos range” here, they are the “Show Quality” versions!

The right hand side was repeated in exactly the same way and looked pretty cool with the mirrors on.

Double checking that the front quarter vents clear the mirrors nicely, it would be a bit late if they didn’t to be honest as I already had drilled the holes.

Inside was finished of by screwing in the rearview mirror which also houses the sun visor stops.

sunvisor2

The carpets were treated to some mats to stop the dirt from the yard, already that had started to do their job. They do look great with the pony logo embossed on them.

Last job of the day was to put the wheel centre caps in place. You have to take the wheel off, screw in a plate to th centre cap and refit the wheel. I went for the plain Mustang logo which matched the wheels. Of course I had to make sure the horses were all in line with the BFGoodrich White Lettering which I still haven’t cleaned up yet.

wheelcap3

All this work brought us to the end of the day where it was starting to get dark. Adam decided we should have an impromptu check of the lights. So I took a few pics with the park lights then the main headlights. I had a little play in Photoshop to make the effects look a little different. I was surprised to see just how much the rear LED’s illuminated the back of the workshop.

lights2

lights7

From a couple of weeks ago I posted “Eye Candy” which showed how to fit the GT Dash into the car’s main dash. I have had a request since then if I can do a walk through for the process. I have split the process out into removing and refitting, then sub sections for various gauges and the process to fit or remove them under the “How To…” menu. Click here for the quick link.

Over the years I have done a lot of work on the dash to get it looking how it should, so I have also got a link here on how to restore the dash gauge set and make an Ammeter to Voltmeter conversion.

Click here for the quick link.

While we are on the subject of requests I have been asked a number of times now about the Drum Brake Pliers I reviewed (Click here) from Sealey and how to use them. I decided to copy the usage diagrams and put them with the Tools Review menu. There are other tools out there that I would recommend over the Sealey tool but the Snap On tool is a lot more money. The majority of the general purpose Brake Spring Pliers look like this so I Hope it helps.

Click here for the diagrams quick link.

Quick links:

GT Dash & Gauges:  http://onemanandhismustang.com/removing-the-gauge-dash-gauges/

Drum Brake Pliers Reviews: http://onemanandhismustang.com/sealey-tools-vs035-brake-shoe-spring-pliers/

How to use Drum Brake Pliers: http://onemanandhismustang.com/how-to-use-brake-spring-pliers/

Next week there are a few more jobs to be done, I hope the main task is the seats. Toby the Trimmer is on the case and should be done with them very soon. Fingers crossed.

Goodnight my little lady – see you next week. 🙂

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Four Years later

I can’t believe that it has been four years since I bought (well the wife did actually), took possession of my ’66 Mustang Coupe, 17th September 2011 to be exact. Two of those last four years have been down at Mustang Maniac getting the best attention to detail that any Mustang could ask for. I was looking forward to the day ahead to get things done, I wasn’t too sure what it was going to be, but I was about to find out. I arrived to see sitting on the side where I put my tools was a nice new super shiny gas gap. Adam smiled and said “There’s your first job”. The old gas cap was from a 1970 model, I didn’t mind it but it was starting to wind Adam up as we hadn’t changed it yet. There is a larger hole at the bottom of the filler where the retaining wire is held. This is a multi purpose idea, one you don’t lose it and two, it stops trophy hunters trying to steal it. Undo the bottom screw and slightly drill out the hole in the body panel. Screw in the cable and attach the locking bolt inside the panel. The difference was instant, and looks so much better now.

gascap1
Old gas cap from 1970
side by side
remove the screw
attach the cable and bolt
tighten the nut
gascap6
correct ’66 year gas cap

The next job was now at the front, mounting the front bumper. The irons had already been bolted into place and through the stone guard. The bumper was a two-man job to avoid scratching my nice paint job. Yogi and me laid the bumper in place and the collapsible washers were placed on top of the irons. The bolts were lightly placed through the bumper and not tightened up just yet. The side mountings to the fender needed to be jiggled around a bit to make it fit on the driver’s side by pushing the bumper into place to meet the fender hole. Once they were all in place the tightening could be done. Yogi tells me I’m a lucky guy again as these can be a real pain to fit if the car is slightly out of alignment after an accident or similar. A job that makes a total transformation of the car. I even managed to get a reflection of the Corral in the bumper too.

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I moved to the interior now and a piece of equipment I have been moving around to avoid damage is the aircon unit. The car is a genuine factory option aircon car, but i didn’t want all that under the hood. But, I do love the blower unit. I decided to use the blower unit in the car and make it work as a fan, if that makes sense. Yes there are going to be people who moan that’s not a aircon car as there is no “this, that or the other” under the hood. Well, all I can say is that if I want it, I still have the brackets to put it all on if I wanted too, but I don’t. These aircon units are held under the dash by two brackets, and held on the tunnel in the middle by an adjustable bolt. This looked pretty basic and I wanted something with a little more finesse should we say. I had kept the old hood stops and I was going to take the rubber of the top of that of and weld it to the bottom of the bolt. As it turned out the trunk bump stop is exactly the same thread as the support bolt for the aircon. I screwed in the bump stop and it looked like it was menat to be there. Next up the unit was carefully offered up the to the dash for a dry fit.

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The power feed cable had been cut, this meant that there was no wire long enough to power the unit. So I had to extend the wire. There is never any crimping to extend a wire at Mustang Maniac, ever! I would have been thrown in the scrap bin if I had of done. The wires were stripped back about twenty millimeters and twisted together, heat shrink placed over the cable, flux applied to the cables. The (gas-powered) soldering iron was fired up and after thirty seconds it was ready to use. A lot of old cloth was placed under the solder area to avoid dropping any hot solder on the carpet. Once the soldering was completed and allowed to cool, the end of the soldering iron attachment was swapped to the hot air nozzle that shrank the heat shrink to the soldered area.

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heat shrink and secured

The aircon unit was now able to be connected to the power. The brackets were padded out with a little foam pad to stop any vibration or rattles. The bolts were threaded through the dash and bolted from the inside.

I could then adjust the bottom stop to take the pressure of the bottom of the dash and equalise the weight distribution out. The end result was brilliant and I am glad that I made the choice to keep it in the car. The centre console will complement the aircon unit down the length of the tunnel.

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Four years later and the car is not completed just yet. There is the trim for the seats, steering wheel, centre console, dash trim, gauges, rear quarter window rain felts etc all to be done. I can’t see it being ready just yet. but it’s oh so close now, I can almost taste the petrol! 🙂 Hurry up next week I have work to do.

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That Warm Glow

The trip to Mustang Maniac was as long as ever, in fact it’s a sixty mile trip each way for me. It’s feels like it takes longer to get there because of the anticipation to get there. On the way back home it’s a gentle trip with the cruise control on, I just take my time thinking about what I am going to write about on Sunday and the time flies by. This week’s post is going to be a bit of a mixed bag. The under wings and out-of-the-way splash guards and the other was going to be the centre piece (literally) of the dash area, the radio.
I will start with the splash guards, of which there are four in total, smaller one behind the headlight and a longer one that sits at the back of the fender.

Each of the splash guards can be purchased with or without the rubber edging around the fender facing edges. To be honest by the time you buy the cheaper splash guards and the rubber edging and you fit them, it’s just as cheap to buy the “deluxe” version with them fitted and the cost is hardly anything. I got the deluxe versions and started on the front sides under the fenders.

It took me about five minutes to realise that it makes life so much easier if you take the wheel off. I started on the right hand side and offered up the guard. The first thing I noticed was that the fittings will only go on one way round.

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The edging faces towards the direction of the splash, in other words the rubber faces inwards towards the wheel coming from the back of the guard as it were.

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I went to screw the guard on behind the headlight mount and found that the original screw holes had been made bigger than they were supposed to be.

This meant that I had to use the biggest fattest metal screws that I could find. A few weeks ago I realised that this was going to be the case in a few fittings so far that I tried to fix, so I went out and bought a wide selection of imperial screws and technical bolts (which has the self tap threads, and a hexagonal bolt head). I found the three largest bolts I had and they were just enough to grip the original holes. The splash guards have quite large holes that allow for adjustment during the fitting o allow the rubbers to git into the contours of the fender.

Some people prefer to fit the splash guards to the fender and the rear splash guards to the body before the fenders are bolted on. There is room under the fender to do the work either way, but I would prefer to align the fender gaps correctly, then fit the splash guards to the those gaps and fender positioning. I have heard that some after market fenders had been fitted and the splash guards had to be moved to allow the correct gap alignment. I also fitted the splash guards with a larger stainless steel washer and filled the hole with a gasket sealer to prevent the water getting to the holes. The edging is cut so that the corners will overlap and form the water barrier.

The rear and much longer guards are in an inverted “L” shape which fits on top of the main body frame and secured via a single self tap bolt from inside the engine bay, the vertical fittings are also from inside the to the outside so that a small socket and wrench can comfortably tighten the fasteners.

The left hand side was much easier as it was a new fender and the holes were the correct size and the correct bolts were perfect fit.

The only extra that thing that I done was to fill the metal to metal gaps with a generous bead of silicon beading to stop any water ingress. All this seems a little irrelevant in some ways as the car will not be driven in the wet, but any protection provided against rain or water can only help.

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The radio on the other hand is a key central part of the dash and is seen all the time you are in the car basically due to its location. The story behind my radio is that I didn’t have one when I got the car. The whole in my original dash was butchered like most were at the time and cut wider to take a modern and the new fangled gimmick stereo radio. My old dash with so common “conversion”.

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Reverting back to the original radio size involves welding in a replacement patch and grinding it down, prepping and filling with a colour spray match up. Here I was looking at how the patch would fit on my old dash.

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My dash was completely replaced due to the damage and rust so I had the correct the sized hole, but without the radio.

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I had been looking around for a while now for an original or period correct radio. I found plenty of radios the were either broken or in a pretty shoddy state. I did of course have the option of a modern radio with the old style shape, but that didn’t interest me either. Fussy I know, but I can’t help it. Anyway I found a radio in the USA and it was listed up as an original and working radio. I had to wait for five days for the auction to end before I found out if I won it or not. It turned out I did win it and for a reasonable price. The import and shipping costs to me were more than the actual radio cost in the first place. The radio arrived with a tiny cracked plastic front, not a good start but you can’t really see it. Although my new (old) or replacement radio was not a genuine Ford part, (thanks to Chris for checking this out for me), it was an aftermarket radio from the correct time period. The general opinion is that it was from a Ford Falcon, based on the numbers and make. The genuine Mustang radios had chrome dials at the time, but the radio I now have has black and chrome fittings. This was what I was after considering I had a black gauge dash and black glove box it would blend in the middle quite well, so I would hope anyway.

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I originally cleaned up the radio and stored it away until this point in the restoration where I could fit it back in. Yes, before anybody comes back to me, I do know that would be about nearly four years later on then! I gave the radio to Mustang Maniac to have their magic worked on it, as the band was only AM and the USA spec version at that. The mod the MM guys offer is to have an additional MP3 player circuit added inside the original case. The MP3 player functionality is engaged when you press the far side preset button. The guys at MM informed me that although the radio turned on, the inside radio tuner was dead. The option was a new radio again, or make it a single MP3 player. I was happy with that option as it was only a single mono speaker and I wasn’t going to listen to the single radio station that I might pick up if i was lucky. The simple reason was that I had a 289cid orchestra under the hood with Flowmaster exhaust so that everybody else can enjoy it too. Anyway Adam has kindly let me use the photo’s of the radio being worked on.

They mentioned it on their blog last week as well. The only give away is that there is a quite a long 3.5mm jack plug lead that emerges from the same hole as the speaker cable and power at the side.

This cable will plug into any MP3 player or the phone in my case. Perfect scenario as far as I was concerned, and I threaded the cable up to the glove box just for now.

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For the fitting the radio it was a very simple twist and rotate allowed the radio to slip straight up to the dash.

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The fitting to the dash was done with a tiny mod of an exact washer to nut size. This would stop the retaining nut marking up the paintwork. Yes I know it wouldn’t be seen, but I know I might possibly replace it a later date for a Ford model, I will see how it goes in the mean time.

I have no intention of fitting front kick panel speakers or rear speakers so Adam provided me with an updated middle speaker, just like the originals that I didn’t have. The radio was spliced into the existing loom so I could remove the in-line fuse as that was supplied on the main fuse panel now.

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The speaker was connected to the new bullet connectors and dropped into the dash space. There are no pics of the speaker in place as some daft plank (me then) hit delete instead of copy during the transfer process.

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The radio turned on and a single soft warm glow appeared in display, I plugged in the phone and randomly selected a tune. What started to play was Fats Domino with his classic – Blueberry Hill, and what a song that is. The first line “I found my thrill….”. I sure did, I had sounds and a classic radio in a classic car. If I didn’t  know any better and hadn’t of watched John Carpenters classic film “Christine”, I think the car was trying to tell me something.
Amazing sound and just so cool that it looks stock too.

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