by Frank Bohanan. Published by Cartech £18 – £30
Layout:
The manual contains 192 pages with high quality close up colour photos throughout the manual. The paper is an excellent 135gsm or 150gsm weight of paper in a gloss art coating, paper back. In fact the quality of this manual seems to be a little to good to be stuck on top of a greasy engine or dirty fender. There are 12 chapters, 1) Choose your Mustang, 2) Getting started, 3) Body makes beautiful, 4) Painting your Mustang, 5) Engine rebuilding, 6) Rebuilding transmissions, 7) Drivetrain, 8) Brakes, 9) Suspension, 10) Electrical, 11) Interior, 12) Other mechanicals as well as introduction and conclusion. Each photograph is crisp and well shot. Close ups are high quality and easy to see exactly what you are supposed to see.
Information
This manual covers it all. The major rebuilds all have a superb set of step by step photos with solid explanations to go with them. There are little tips and tricks to help you on your way and really seem to try and help you out. The book does give the sense that you will be able to do all these things they are talking about. The projects are set out in a way you have confidence to start. There are some great tips on full paint jobs to interior door panels, from engine rebuild to electrical wiring problems. There are options to do upgrades as you go along or do the correct build for the vehicle. The information within the manual is top quality and not superseded my many manuals at all. Haynes is a total techy guide where this is the same but doesn’t seem as daunting. Maybe a false sense of security, I don’t think so as the pictures tell me it can be done. The fact that there is a section on bodywork in manuals always worries me, is it just a page filler or not. Again there are a few tips here too, but in the manual it doesn’t seem out-of-place.
Summary:
Buy it, this is a great reference manual for its quality and workshop manual for its amount of information, it’s not often the two overlap, but in this manual I believe they have pulled it off. This manual is often my first port of call if I’m not sure of something or I need to see what I’m letting myself in for!
The price of this can vary quite a lot and one point it was difficult to get hold off, but it appears to be around again in most of the good online retailers.
As I have said before this would be a great addition for a weekend mechanic, possibly not all the projects would be fit for a professional mechanic, as it covers an awful lot in such a small place. I wouldn’t mind betting that a professional mechanic would open it and still learn something.
Definitely one of my favourite manuals. Compliments to the author.