It’s All In The Details

It’s pretty much common knowledge that I am a bit OCD when it comes to my car and cleaning it. In fact I go a level above car cleaning and it’s called ‘detailing’. It means you go the extra mile to achieve excellence where ever you can. I am not at the ridiculous levels of Concours cleaning with cotton buds etc. But, I do have a selection of brushes to make sure I get in all the little places that I need to. I buy all my own products at retail prices and don’t get them given to me by anybody. If I did, I would say so and it certainly wouldn’t change my opinion when I get round to reviewing the product either. My reviews are always honest and unbiased. I mention all this because I get  a few questions now and again at car shows, along with the odd email asking me what I use to clean my car. I have one or two products in my stash to choose from. However, this little lot doesn’t include all the various types of micro fibre cloths, glass cloths, drying towels, application sponges, hand pads, brushes, sponge brushes, tyre applicators,  gloves, buckets with different types of dirt collectors, wash mits, snow foam lance, Karcher pressure washer or my Meguiar’s MT320 Dual Action polishing tool as I couldn’t get any more in the photo.

My favourite brands at the moment are Chemical Guys, Auto Finesse and Meguiar’s. I’m always open to using other brands as long as they work, an indeed tried some random brands with great results, such as Dat Wax.

I review my products and rate them on a score out of ten with two follow-up questions; ‘would I recommend it?’ and ‘would I buy it again?’ Both of these questions adding to the depth of the review when parting with my own money.

My reviews can be found on the main heading under ‘Car Detailing Reviews’. This is a section that gets added to regularly, even if I haven’t done a main post as such.

What I do have trouble with is giving a product a top score, then I get another similar product that I like even more and that gets a top score as well. That’s not to say I would go back and mark the score down for the other product. Indeed I would have no problems in going out to buy the top scoring products again. An example is that I love DoDo Juice Red Mist Tropical as a quick detailer, but it takes a couple of applications to remove any streaks if applied on top of Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax. (I did have a conversation with DoDo Juice themselves about this very issue, and they told me that they are aware of the problem). Auto Finesse Finale on the other hand doesn’t have that issue, but I don’t like their bottle spray mechanisms. Both are great products, but have their own quirks as it were.

There are numerous tutorials online and good ol’ YouTube on how to clean your car or detail your car properly, so I won’t bore you with that side of it all. However within my reviews I try to explain the price, the product’s sales pitch, product description, process, application, instructions, results, rating and conclusion all with photos. In fact I am still going through the process of working out what works for me and what doesn’t and in which combinations. I currently have got more than a dozen products that I need to create reviews for, but I just haven’t got round to doing them yet. It’s all a financial minefield and I would hate to think how much money has been spent on my car cleaning products, just one little pot of show wax I have costs £75 and it doesn’t look much different to Meguiar’s Ultimate after application, but I love the usability of that expensive wax, and that goes a long way to being in my preferred list of products as it were.

The other side to all these products is where to keep them, I have multiple bags of various types and sizes. In fact I have reviewed some of them, what they hold, how user-friendly and are they worth it etc. Some reviews will surprise you from the big names.

I hope my opinions help and save somebody some money on rubbish products out there, yes I have wasted my own hard-earned money on products reading other reviews that must have been written by the company employees. That’s the reason I started reviewing products, tools, equipment etc. My reviews are from a normal bloke that buys and uses them on his pride and joy. My goal is simple; to get a paint job that still looks wet and above all is protected. When you get to buy quality products, most of the time you get what you pay for, sometimes you don’t.

I get nothing for my reviews and I’m not on commission either, hopefully the reviews will help somebody one day.

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More Memorabilia

During the last car show of the season a couple of weeks ago I decided that I should spend my ‘pocket money’ on a couple of goodies to prop up my fledgling memorabilia collection. Each show I allocate myself a certain amount of money to take with me for things like memorabilia and car cleaning products etc. If I don’t limit myself I would just spend it on loads of stuff that I really didn’t want in the first place, or on dubiously prepared junk food. I have my credit cards with me just in case I need something worthwhile of course, but cash is king at these shows and you can do a bit of bartering for the best prices.

So my first purchase was the sales brochure for all the ’66 Fords’. I have attached a link to the full brochure here, or can be found under the Articles Menu/Press & Promotional Items on the header. This is an original brochure in fantastic condition with no creases. The staples have gone a little rusty, but what do you expect for fifty-two years old?

The pages are vibrant and full of the classic sales talk of the time like, ‘Stereo sonic Tape System’ and ‘Automatic Speed Control’. This is just little selection of a couple of pages from the brochure to give you a flavour of stepping back in time.

My next item was this great little ‘Ford ’66’ lapel pin. It looks old and feels old, but I’m not sure it’s vintage though. I got myself a nice little deal though as I am now starting to see the same guys selling the memorabilia a bit more often now.

 

At another show I purchased some Ford tie/hat pins that started my collection of which was these three. I mounted them into a little piece of cardboard to stop the pins getting damaged and keep them together for now, until I find a better storage solution that is.

I have tried to research these lapel/hat pins without much luck so far, so if anybody can point me in the direction of some information or history about them I would be very grateful.

When I was very young I remembered some adverts by Esso. Those ads featured a nameless Tiger, with the slogan that started in 1959; ‘Put a tiger in your tank’.

The various ads run for many years up until the oil crisis in the ’70s where Esso also changed its global name to ‘Exxon Mobil’. There was a set of six tie pins issued and this is the full set.

That ‘Tiger’ campaign remains close to my heart as my dear ol’ Grandfather always used to take me on his rounds then to the Esso station and fill up his lorry on the way home. Some of my earliest memories when I wasn’t even in double figures of age. He would often come out with something cool with the tiger on it, and some tokens to save up for a toy, key-ring or poster of some sort. I just loved this poster at the time.

A little bit of trivia for you;

Exxon Mobil contributes $1 million a year to support the Save the Tiger Fund, which helps conserve Asia’s remaining wild tigers.

My memorabilia is around Mustangs and ’60s Fords for obvious reasons. But, I find myself being drawn back to the things I once had as a kid! There is no logic to my collection strategy, even that is the wrong choice of word I feel. Who knows what I might buy from eBay next!

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Clocking Alternators

When I first started the restoration of my car back in 2011 I had no working electrical parts at all when I bought the car. Firstly there was a fire under the dash were the nutter who owned the car before me had wrapped a fuse with tin foil for some reason. Secondly the original alternator had rusted up and I didn’t trust it. So the only option I could see was a replacement wire loom from American Autowire for the Ford Mustang. Their recommendation is to use a one wire alternator. The choice was limited at the time as a result, so the best option I found was Tuff Stuff. I purchased a standard v belt in chrome with a 100amp rating at the time.

Tuff Stuff Rear connections
Tuff Stuff Alternator

However there was a problem with the terminal for the single positive wire. The stud it connects to sits about 1/4″ away from the block even at the maximum distance on the standard alternator bracket. These pictures of the stud in the normal position for Tuff Stuff alternators.

Initially I had my alternator bracket custom-made to move the alternator much further away from the block with a longer belt to make it work and be safe.

This was fine at the time, but the step for the belt clearance was now in the wrong place which meant that the bracket was just a millimetre away or so from the edge of the belt. This occasionally rubbed as you can see below. I kept a very close eye on the belt for signs of fraying or any damage to the belt. None of which has happened as a result of this modified bracket I might add.

Later on while browsing the net I didn’t realise that the case on these alternators could be adjusted by ‘Clocking’ or ‘Indexing’. Basically this means that you can move the body case around to where you want the stud to be by moving the front fittings. Nowhere could I find a step by step guide on how to do it.

Note: not all alternators can be ‘Clocked’ and you should check before you try doing it.

The only thing I found was these instructions from Tuff Stuff. Note ‘point 7’ mentions the use of torque settings for tightening the centre pulley nut. Interestingly Tuff Stuff use both terms ‘Clocking’ and ‘Indexing’ in the same document.

Nowhere is this ‘torque’ setting documented on the Tuff Stuff website, so I contacted Tuff Stuff for their ‘help’ and advice via their message process, for what good it was. Their automated response said I would ‘get a response within twenty-four hours’. After a few days nothing, so I tried again with a different email address. They responded the next day where they just sent me the instructions above with no words within the body of the email. My response was immediate back to them, stating that I already found the document on their website and asked again specifically for the torque settings. Their response with the following:

On 4 Oct 2018, at 14:12, Matt Oliver <matt@tuffstuffperformance.com> wrote:

We use an air wrench to put on all of the pulleys here. Thank you for your business. Have a great day!

Matt Oliver
Tech Manager

Hardly helpful when they say you should “torque to settings” which they obviously don’t do themselves. Not exactly confidence inspiring by any shape of the imagination, not to mention poor documentation.

So, with the lack of information I decided to do it myself!

As I had already fitted the alternator, the process below also shows the removal. If you have a new alternator you can skip these first few steps on removing the alternator and go straight to the ‘Clocking‘ process below.

  • First things first is to disconnect the battery.

Disconnect the single wire from the back of the alternator. Remove the tension bolt for the alternator which fits inside the bracket’s slot gap. Then loosen the hinge bolt at the top for the alternator. Unhook the v belt and remove the hinge bolt fully, taking the weight of the alternator remove it to a work bench.

Figure 1

My research and a warning;

If you read some of the forums out there on this subject, they say that you can undo the four case bolts and move the back around then retighten. This saves the hassle of undoing the rotor nut. WRONG. This could damage the springs and brushes internal components within the rear housing. You should only clock/index the alternator by moving the FRONT housing part of the case only.

‘Clocking’ process – also called ‘Indexing’

With the alternator on its side we will need to lock the cooling fan in place. I used a long-handled probe between the fins and resting on the bench surface. A screwdriver could also do the job.

The fins are not evenly spaced, and you will need to find the best place to wedge your locking tool in place. This should be on the same side (left) looking from the front of the alternator when you are undoing the rotor nut counter-clockwise.

The best way to remove the rotor nut is to use an impact wrench. I used my cordless Snap-On 3/8 impact driver with a 15/16ths impact socket. It’s for this very reason that people incorrectly move the back part of the case around, just because it’s easier.

Holding as much of the unit still as you can, buzz the nut until it’s undone. Once the nut has been removed take out the locking bar you have used.

With the nut fully removed depending on your pulley type, (remove the parts one at a time, taking note of how they fitted together). Remove the spring washer next, then remove the v pulley from the face plate, followed by the polished face plate.

The final part is to slide of the fan itself. You will notice it has a key way cut out, but there is no key way on the rotor shaft itself, just a plain round shaft as shown. You can clearly see the uneven fan spacing here that I mentioned earlier.

notice the uneven fn spacing

There are four case bolts 5/16th which need to be loosened from the back of the case, I used a ratchet to break them free before using a cordless screwdriver to undo the rest. The bolts are quite long seated into the front half of the casing.

Once the four bolts are removed, hold the case together while resting the alternator on its back with the rotor facing up.

Gently separate the top from the stator (the black plates between the top and bottom half of the case). Lift up the top part of the case to a max of 1/4″ without disturbing the stator. Turn the front case by 90deg increments to where you need it to be. The pics I have marked below showing the gaps between the case during the indexing process.

Re-align the two halves of the case again and lower the top part of the case back down.

With the top is in place, hold the case together to stop it moving and turn the alternator onto its side again, finger tighten the four long case bolts back up. Spin the shaft to make sure that there is no snagging and spins freely.

Check that he rear stud is where you need it to be, perhaps do a dummy fit to the engine if required. Once you are happy with the location, tighten the case bolts back up. Do not over tighten the four case bolts, I recommend using the manual ratchet for the final tightening.

Spin the shaft once again to make sure it’s all still free spinning.

While the alternator was apart I took the opportunity to clean the case and the front sections. I was not happy to find bits of the chrome flaking of. I used Auto Finesse metal polish to remove the marks on the chrome and then Auto Finesse mint rims wax to seal the chrome.

I didn’t clean the spring washer or the back of the locking nut too much. The simple reason is that friction is required for the hold all the components on the rotor shaft.

Before
After
Before
After
Before
After

Refitting The Parts

At this point you could replace the pulley style if they is your intention to change the look or function to a Serpentine setup maybe.

Replace the fan onto the shaft first making sure the fins are facing backwards.

Next make sure the cover plate is fitted the correct way round with the dish section fitting inside the fan recess.

Next is the v belt pulley that will sit flush onto the face plate, again the raised section fitting into the recess of the face plate now.

Slide the spring washer into the shaft and into the v pulley recess. Finally the nut is fitted and finger tightened for now. Spin the rotor to make sure all is free and not snagged anywhere.

Now insert the locking tool you used earlier on the other side (right) between the fan blades to hold the section still once again. Now re-impact the nut clockwise back into place securely.

Remove your locking tool and recheck that the whole section spins freely again.

Refitting the alternator

Place the long pivot bolt and washer into the pivot section of the alternator and through any spacer required to align the pulleys up correctly to the lower crank pulley. Finger tighten the bolt for now into the engine block. See ‘Figure 1‘ above.

If you are mounting the alternator bracket for the first time, lightly tighten the bolt above the main crank pulleys to hold the bracket in place, but movable to locate the tension bolt.

Next insert the tension bolt and spring washer through the bracket slot into the alternator case. Slip the v belt over the pulley. See ‘Figure 1‘ above.

Pull the alternator to tension and tighten the tension bolt just enough to hold the alternator in place for now. There should be 1/4″ to 1/2″ movement up and down on the belt. I prefer the twist method for the belt, twisting the belt 90deg in the middle between pulleys.

Once you are happy then fully tighten the tension bolt, Pivot bolt and the bracket bolt if needed.

At this point I took the time to clean up the cables up before refitting them. Connect the one wire back to the alternator stud and tighten up. Reattach the battery connection.

Start the car and make sure that you are charging correctly and that the belt is not slipping on the pulleys.

At this point I tidied up all the cables around the solenoid, the battery cable to the alternator, the cables for the engine block and starter motor so it all looks neat and tidy again.

That’s it, all done and took three hours in total which included the cleaning, rewrapping of cables, photos for this walk-through and tidying up of cables. I also have to clean all my tools after I have used them. It’s all part of my OCD problem regarding my tool box. I intend to get the proper bracket and belt shortly, but it’s not important right now as it still all works.

As far as I know, this is the only guide for a Tuff Stuff alternator clocking. I hope it helps somebody else out there. Apologies for the more tech styled post, but I had to share it. 🙂

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Americana Finishes The Season

Last weekend a Classic Car Show at Stonham Barns was pretty much the last car show for the year officially for me, unless I go on a winter organised cruise that is, providing it doesn’t rain of course. It seemed fitting to end this year’s season with a show just for American Cars. There was a nice mixture of classic, not so new and new with some real beauties on display. I arrived about nine in the morning I meet up with Yogi from Mustang Manic who had made a long trip for this show. We were shown into the main arena and parked next to each other, me with my ’66 and Yogi with his red rocket ’69 Mach1 that will run ten seconds down a quarter-mile!

After a quick buff over to remove the dusty road residue, we both found ourselves ‘broken down’ (in joke) with our hoods up. Yogi’s beast got a lot of attention for all the trick bits he has under the hood. Also it’s not often that he;

1) he opens his hood to the public to see his engine

2) he cleans his car

On the Mustang Maniac blog last weekend they had a rare photo of him cleaning it so I have borrowed it with their permission I might add, just to show that miracles do happen!

The other cars that followed us in the gates were parked around the main area until the area was pretty much full, then they filled the outside areas of the field.

My overheard quote of the day came from a woman who looked at my car and said to the guy walking next to her; “Look at the seats in that car, they are disgusting, I don’t like them, they should be taken out.”

To that woman; you came over to my car to look at it, if you don’t like it – don’t look at it, so kindly keep your opinions to yourself! Far from being upset by the comment, I just smiled to myself and thought; if I gave her the keys to my car, she would have happily driven it away sitting on those ‘disgusting’ seats.

Throughout the day there was ‘Uncle Sam’ taking selfies with lots of people and a beautiful bald eagle how much more American do you want to get?

There was the odd car for sale, this one for £8,000, a little bit to much of a project for me at that sort of money.

It was a good day and I even bought a couple of little bits for my memorabilia collection too. Great cars, great company and a great day.

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Gone Shopping

A few weeks ago I was at the Cars By The Lake Car Show near me and it was a wonderfully warm day. During that show I wandered around and spotted a newish car club called ‘Classic Car Club Bury St Edmunds’.  I was speaking to the guys there where I asked about the events they hold. They told me that they were having a little ‘display’ more than show as such of a dozen cars or so on the Saturday (yesterday) and the Sunday at the local very popular shopping centre called the ‘Arc’ in the middle of Bury St Edmunds. This intrigued me and said I was interested, but I wasn’t a member of the club. I gave them my details if they wanted an extra car if they were short for any reason.

It turned out that last week I got a couple of very nice emails asking if I wanted to attend on the Saturday, of course I said yes. The display was to also raise funds for a charity MDF  which is for mental health. This was funded by agreeing to have photo’s taken in the cars and a ride for thirty minutes in a car from the selection being offered for minimum donation, any profits from the day also going to the good cause.

The agreement was to arrive at the Shopping Centre at quarter to eight in the morning where we would be escorted through to the centre of the centre two cars at a time. We got parked up and had a few adjustments of cars to make it all look good. I took this photo from the building opposite the club gazebo which had an upstairs and balcony.

There was a great variation of cars that turned up as expected. No sooner had the cars been parked up when the very early birds and workers passed through while looking at the cars.

We had a Studebaker and a Westfield.

Then there was my Mustang, a rare Hurtu and a Dodge Fluid Drive.

There was a BMW, Daimler Dart a popular car with the Police in the day,

An Ambulance that was being converted into a camper van, Bugatti ‘Teal’ and one of only two remaining 1914 Humber in the world, the other is on New Zealand.

A lotus 11 and a TVR

The Arc shopping centre had some rather large lettering that said ‘Love Cars’ which is being brought out for this event that happens one weekend a year in the centre.

At around lunch time we were asked if we wanted to start our cars up for a little rev up session so people could eat their food with a nice smell of spent petrol. Each of us was asked to start-up in turn, when my turn came the event was  filmed by the Arc media team who posted it on the Facebook page straight away along with the other v8 Daimler Dart. The best bit is to watch the little kiddies in the background having their ears covered!

Turn up the volume.

The video didn’t do the noise justice as the sound echoed brilliantly around the courtyard, and I think that I filled Monsoon shop behind me with some freshly burnt fumes. 🙂

The day was so busy I did not even get to sit down at all, apart from starting my car up. That’s eight till five thirty when we were then escorted out again, three at a time now.

My car had a constant stream of people around it and lots and lots of questions too. I had a sore throat at the end of the day from talking to much. The last time I had that was when I exhibited at the Birmingham NEC Car show.

I think the men loved it while the wives and girlfriends went and done what they needed to do.

Perhaps the star of the show was Candy, a lovely little girl who sat in the car and took all the attention she could get until she went home early afternoon just around the corner.

The weather was not great but a few spots of rain made me nervous for the downpour that didn’t happen. But I still cleaned the car again when I got home.

All in all a great day and something very different and I enjoyed it immensely. Well done to the club for organising it, oh I’m now also a member. 😉

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Paper Trail & Magazines

As the end of the car show season starts to creep in upon us here in the UK I am slowly turning my attention to all things Mustang in the mean time to give me my daily dose of Mustang I need, just until the car shows start again. The model car I have was posted a few weeks ago and the story behind that, but how about articles. The paper magazines that people had way back then and just threw away as they weren’t going to be worth anything, right? Well not quite.

To set the scene; in 1964 the Ford Mustang sports car, is officially unveiled by Henry Ford II at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York, on April 17, 1964. On the same day, the new car also debuted in Ford showrooms across America and almost 22,000 Mustangs were ordered by customers. Ford sold more than 400,000 Mustangs within its first year of production, far exceeding sales expectations.

1) To celebrate such a huge launch at the time three of the biggest magazines at the time all held articles on the Mustang. The Mustang was first automobile to have an editorial feature in all three big USA publication’s April 1964 editions – Time, Life and Newsweek…

2) This was significant as Time and a Life tended to only focus on ‘life changing’ and ‘significant events’. Newsweek was more like a newspaper and was full of current issues and views.

3) The only copies left from those April 1964 issues are because people subscribed to the magazines and we tend to keep old mags!

4) As that generation reached an age when they either downsized or left estates to be cleared, the magazines show up from time to time as part of house clearances.

5) The magazines (Time/Life) tended to get kept and those that survived are in pretty good condition – often still in the original addressed envelope and some even unread.

6) The rarest is the Newsweek copy as it tended to get thrown after reading.

7)  Individually,  the Life magazine can be bought for a reasonable amount while the Time edition has become extremely rare as the popularity of the iconic first Mustang has grown – particularly after it celebrated its 50th birthday. The Newsweek edition has always been rare and therefore expensive when those copies are found and offered for sale.

8) Together in one collection, the three copies are hard to come by and, if you could find a collector willing to sell all three as a group, the cost would be very significant – well into 4 ($) figures.

9) Rarity  can be evidenced by looking for the big three magazines other editions before or after these Mustang editions on a well-known auction site, they are easy enough to find and go for very cheap prices considering their age. The Mustang editions on the other hand are not that easy to find nor are they cheap.

The magazine covers are very well-known especially the Time magazine and Newsweek editions, all these pictures are from my own collection.

These imagines are not for distribution or copying, no copyright infringement is intended. Where applicable the copyright remains with the owner of the works. I am using the images for fair use to show the editorial coverage of Ford’s historical Mustang launch from the World Trade Fair 1964. Under fair use I believe it’s in the interest of the new generations of Mustang owners and automotive historians to see where it all began. Without tracking down these rare, out of print and now expensive magazines, nobody would be able to appreciate the excitement the Mustang launch caused at the time, in my opinion that would be such a shame to loose such great editorial works. These images are to allow you to read the articles whilst considering their historical importance to the automotive world.

What is less known is what those articles actually said. I have taken a few pics of the Mustang articles, and a small sample of the adverts from each of the magazines of that long bygone era.

Time Magazine – April 17th 1964

The article:

Advertisements from Time Magazine;

The magazine still has the subscription card in place.

Life Magazine – April 17th 1964

The article:

Advertisements from Life Magazine;

Newsweek – April 20th 1964

The article:

Advertisements from Newsweek;

Pocket Guides

Something else just as rare as those editions but much less known which I didn’t know existed is the following pocket guides.

‘Visitor’s Guide to New York City & Long island’.

This little a5 pocket guide is full of vouchers and all sorts of tips for the City, subway map, travel information, services, entertainment and surrounding area.

I just love this little booklet as it’s a snapshot in time of New York in 1964.

The last booklet may have come with Newsweek I believe, other than that I have no idea of its origin;

‘What to wear at the fair and what to do when you get there’.

Another little pocket-sized booklet of only sixteen pages and another insight to the fashion of New York in 1964.

All these magazines and guides are just incredible, it amazes me that the paper has stood up to the ravages of time as these editions were disposable and not intended to be kept.

I hope this enables fellow enthusiasts to be able to read the magazine’s articles in full on the Mustang launch and to see just what all the fuss was about way back in 1964.

You see today’s magazines are also on-line and the world can see them pretty much anytime they want to, so those corresponding magazines are no so unique, apart from owning the physical copy of the paper article what ever it may be. Old comics are collectable because of the paper and limited runs, the paper was the only media type at the time to view them, at that time print was king. So some of the early magazines which were intended to be thrown away are collectable for the same reason. Tickets to events at the time or leaflets were not intended to be kept, and after a few years nobody had them. Move on fifty years, the paper or magazines has been used to start fires or wrapping up delicate items when moving home, so the existing copies become even more scarce. Old news papers are exactly the same idea, worth nothing on the day, try and get a back copy for somebody’s eighteenth birthday and you will have to dig deep to get it, if you can even get it. Off course not all magazines are collectable, which is a bit of a contradiction of what I was just saying I know. But the subject matter will be a key factor for such items will determine their collectability.  Articles, adverts, cigarette cards, stamps, postcards etc. for such big names like, Marilyn Monroe, JFK, Elvis, Henry Ford, Frank Sinatra, Babe Ruth, Abe Lincoln, George Washington, Dr. Martin Luther King, James Dean, Howard Hughes, Al Capone, Walt Disney, The Beatles, Winston Churchill etc. will command high prices because of who they were. It’s rare that a car can have such an impact on this type of collectable market, yet early Mustang adverts, literature, photo’s and so on can demand some good money. At the end of the day most memorabilia is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

Now I have posted this article maybe I have just made people aware of the values for some of the these items and hang onto them, thus making it difficult for collectors like me trying to get a copy of it and if I do find a copy of the cost has just gone up knowing that I want it. I suspect not, as I just one man and his Mustang who likes to collect Mustang things.

So, have I just shot myself in the foot as we tend to say? 🙁

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One Week Later

Back to back car shows where the prior show in Lavenham was rained away, then just seven days later was the weekend of the popular ‘Cars By The Lake’ in Fornham St. Mary, just outside Bury St Edmunds which was being promised nice weather, unlike the previous show. Sunday morning of the show I got up and checked the weather, it was sunny, I checked the app – it said sunny, lastly I asked the wife who said ‘It’s going to be a hot day’. I packed my day’s food, extra drinks, some suntan cream and loaded it all into the car and set of for the half hour drive. This big farm field has a carp lake in the middle of it, hence the name for the show.

I arrived at the road to the main gate and there was a queue already a dozen or so deep, the driveway to the field itself must have held fifty more cars itself. So I just had to sit and wait to get to the front. I was directed to the Bury Retro Car Club stand where they had reserved me a space, and yes I was the last one to the stand.

The club had a dozen or so cars, much more than some of the bigger clubs also at the show. They even had a fully functioning Crown Vic police car next to me. Working lights, siren, speed guns, cameras and bars at the windows.

I had a stream of people talking to me for the first couple of hours while I was gently cleaning the dust of my car, which was really nice. Eventually I managed to sneak of to have a look at the other cars. There was huge variety of cars from pre war to super cars.

Super cars were scattered around from Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and McLaren. Oh and an old Jordan F1 race car.

There was a nice selection of American classics, perhaps my favourite pic is this one of the old school Mustangs and the new model.

I would still have the old Mustang any day, or maybe tempted by the AC Cobra or GT40 kit cars.

The remaining cars and bikes that took my liking in no particular order, except for the silver Aston Martin that was just gorgeous.

Last year they had over five thousand visitors on the day, I don’t think it was far of that this year, it was busy with a lovely atmosphere too.

An old friend of mine had his Alvis there at the show too, there is no paint job as the outside is just covered with the original leather covering.

The bar was doing well, the food stalls had lots of business and the children’s play area was big hit too. What a difference a week can make. I hate to admit it, but the wife was correct again, who needs Google when I have her? 😉

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Boys & Their Toys

I have started to venture into the very dangerous and addictive world of Ford Mustang Memorabilia. I waste research many hours on eBay looking for things to add to my collection. I am given things by Adam at Mustang Maniac and also a very good friend of mine Gary W. It’s his fault that I am now spending money to get these little golden nuggets of historic items where I can, instead of buying paint to decorate the house like I promised the wife I would over a year ago. I fact the wife has banned me from going there because I come home with all these ideas of what I can add to my ‘Man-Cave’ sanctuary or ‘garage’, or as my wife tends to call it ‘Garbage’, (a play on garage or trash), due to old collectible oil cans in there, old Mustang parts, memorabilia, books, signs, flags etc.

At the beginning of the year I was a lucky man to be given a AMF Wen-Mac 1966 Ford Mustang GT Dealer promo  1/12th scale model. There is very little information out there on these models such as how many were made, how many each dealer got etc etc. All I know is that I now have one.

The only information I could find by good ol’ Google is pretty common and a little insider knowledge from Gary who gave me my ‘toy’ as it was to be marketed back then, I of course prefer the term ‘model’.

At he launch of the new Mustang in 64, Ford Marketing decided on three promotional products to support the launch:
One: was a pretty familiar ‘dealer promo model’ much as other makers had done since the late 50s. Based on 1/25 scale, AMT produced nicely detailed models of both the coupe and fastback for dealers to put on sales men’s desks and to give to certain customers.

AMT went on to produce construction kits. Nowadays, dealer promo models in complete condition can fetch over $100 – even in worn condition.
Two: was a child’s pedal car – also made by AMF which sold very well. Original unrestored pedal cars can now fetch over $2000.

Three: was a larger scale model produced by the popular model maker Wen-Mac and featured either a ‘battery electric’ or ‘gas powered (glow plug petrol)’ 1/12 scale model of the 66 Mustang coupe – available in one single colour of red. Featuring in many Mustang media ads, it was a nicely detailed model that a child could use on the lounge carpet with fixable steering and with working headlights. There was a conversion kit for $2.50 to run from ‘electric’ battery power to ‘gas’ for racing buffs that included a tiny gasoline engine and slicks. A pic of a complete model from the net as it would have been then.

A remote-control throttle could also be added. It was $10 extra for all of this in 1966. The model was on sale for $6 at the time or $4.95 during the Christmas season.

In 1967 Wen-Mac also introduced this ’67 fastback model – in light blue.

Both of the models are now very collectable with hard to find complete models in good condition and boxes fetching $150-$200.

My car is in great condition so I can’t complain what so ever. I may look out for a motor one day if I ever see one for sale or take it from a damaged donor model as it were.

The model had a little electric motor (unfortunately mine is missing) that allowed the car to run forwards or backwards. The steering could be set to left or right.

The front and rear headlights were also working when the car ran. Many of the cars have the model engine missing and or the motor for that provides drive to the wheels, sometimes it’s the hood missing too.

If anybody can give any additional information I would appreciate it and will update this page with it.

Of course, if you have any early Mustang memorabilia you want to ‘donate’ to a good home and increase a fledgling collection, – contact me and we can sort something out. 😉

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Washout

Last weekend I attended a car show in the beautiful village of Lavenham in Suffolk, not far away from me. The weather was forecast to be cloudy and rain at five in the afternoon. That would be perfect as the show was to finish at four. I would get home before the rain. The morning arrived and I looked at the sky, broken clouds with a hint of sun, do I or don’t I go? There was an outside chance that there would be rain, my car might get wet. I have a ‘paid for’ weather app and it’s usually right. Then I have my lovely wife who simply said “it’s gonna rain, you might as well stay at home and do a little more decorating.” That killed it – I was going. I’m not saying I hate painting and decorating, but I would rather stick certain parts of my anatomy in a bear trap to get out of it. Setting of I was watching the clouds so far so good.

I arrived and was directed to the USA car club area, there was one other Corvette there and he looked pleased to see me arrive. We had a chat about the weather and we both agreed it wasn’t going to rain.

There was a few cars turning up, but not the massive influx as you would expect. The set up was good for the show, a circle in the middle where all the cars faced outwards to the other cars facing inwards to the circle  from around the outside. Well that was the theory at least. The event opened, and a few people turned up to see what was going on.

The pictures above was pretty much the all the cars there and only took me half hour max to walk around. Then I got the call “Are sure you don’t want to come home as it’s raining here now?” I’m literally only twenty minutes away from home in this village. I walked back to the car and was pleased to see two more Corvettes had arrived.

We of course talked about weather, it wasn’t going to rain. I told them that my local weather girl, had predicted rain – although my ‘paid for’ app was still saying no rain. Unmistakable clouds were now forming.

The tea room was selling hot cups of tea. Then I saw it, the first umbrella went up, then the wave of rain-swept across the field.

Within a few minutes it was carnage, soft tops were going back up, bonnets (hoods) were being closed, windows being wound up, people diving into their cars as more umbrellas went up. My car was now starting to shrink in the rain. Although I was very pleased with the wax beading as I studied it.

Cars were starting up and began to leave. I, of course being the optimist put my cowl guard on thinking that the rain would stop soon. As my ‘paid for app’ said no rain.

I called the wife while running for a tent for cover, who told me the rain was getting worse at home. My ‘paid for’ that wasn’t cheap, that I bought especially for the car show weather forecasts, was still saying ‘cloudy – no rain’. Half an hour later I admitted defeat, the cowl cover came off and stored in the boot (trunk). I started up and set off home, with the language now as blue as my car! It was almost a good car show for the two hours or so that I was there. Almost home I called the wife to open the garage for me so that I could drive straight into it. The car got dried off as best I could and put the dehumidifier on full blast to absorb every last drop of moisture in the garage and from under the car.

Now that the car was dried I came into the house, and I was greeted with that look only women can give, the ‘I told you so’ look. Nothing was said, nothing needed to be said, she was right, (again). My ‘paid for’ app now said, ‘80% chance of rain’, really? I could have phoned them and told them it was raining, and got my money back while I was at it.

Oh, what did I do for the rest of the day? Yep – painting! 🙁

Putting the rubbish bin out later in the evening ready for Monday morning collection, I made a detour via the garage to check the humidity, all was quite dry in there now, so I was quite pleased in that respect. I reset the dehumidifier back down to its normal setting for my garage, the dust sheet went back on and closed up. It was such a shame the rain stopped play, the Lavenham Show is held in a beautiful village, a great little drive to get there and is always supported well with all the proceeds going to the county’s Air Ambulance trust.

Maybe next year we will have some sun.

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Couple Of Upgrades

It’s been a long time since I have changed anything or added anything to my car. I was at a car show recently and something caught my eye that I decided I wanted to change. That part was under the hood that nobody would really notice to be honest. That part was hood pin and safety catch. There was nothing wrong what so ever with the old ones what so ever. Except that I thought there was just too much blue and it needed to be broken up a little. It’s standard for the safety catch to be car coloured as mine was. The hood pin itself was fine if not a little tarnished after fifty-two years as it was the original parts.

So I had a word with Adam at Mustang Maniac and he said “You need a little stainless steel, with some nice bolts to go with it, not just chrome.”

The safety catch is held in place just by two bolts and like for like swap out. I got a couple of Adam’s new ‘Ford’ branded stainless steel bolts to go with it all. I just love these bolts which looked even better after a good polish up.

before clean
after cleaning
ready for fitting

Undo the two bolts for the safety catch and it will expose the hood pin itself which again is a simple nut to hold it in place.

The swap out is a simple reverse procedure, hood pin and then the safety catch. You have to make sure the hood pin is set correctly, to shallow and the hood will not close, to long and the hood will bounce and vibrate at speed. I created a detailed page on how to change these parts in detail here, or go to the top menu ‘How To.. Projects/Engine Bay/Changing the hood pin and safety catch’

The difference is subtle yet instantly visible if that makes sense, it also matches the hood lip trim.

Before and after side by side. Just another little something to clean now. 😉

On the ’66 Mustangs all models there hazard switch that fitted as standard. The official place for these to be fitted was in the glove box on the upper left hand corner as in this picture I found on the net for the correct location.

Depending if the car hazard switch was fitted later or somebody on the production wanted to fit it somewhere else, it could have been anywhere. The most common alternative was under the dash on the passenger side, sometimes on the drivers side. When I first got my car there was this random switch that I didn’t know what it was for. It was so rusty I couldn’t read anything and it virtually fell to bits when it was touched, not to mention all the wires were cut from it and been melted due to the under dash fire.

I now realise that this random switch was the original position of my factory hazard switch. Now I had a problem as my wiring loom was an American Autowire upgrade kit and wouldn’t work directly with standard hazard switch and pigtail loom. Another conversation at Mustang Maniac and research came up with an accessory kit for the factory hazard switch. Considering the cost of the wire loom in the first place I think it was a bit much to charge for this extra mini loom in my opinion. Anyway, rant over. Adam made a special order for me and the kit came in a couple of weeks later. I popped down to see the guys and also picked up the switch as well.

The wire loom and switch.

The AA kit is a bridge under the steering column that just connects the male to female and the female to male sections for the column (indicators, horn brake switch etc), with the extra wires running from it for the hazard switch. I have created a detailed walkthrough on how to hit it up here, or got to the main menu ‘How To.. Projects/Electrical/American Autowire Hazard switch installation’.

The switch is great quality and just needed to be assembled.

The wire connections for the AA kit was supposed to fit the original hazard pigtail loom, but as I didn’t have (no need for my fitting), I cut the supplied connector off and fitted some heat shrink tubing to each wire, then the spade connectors with a factory look crimp.

correct length
first crimp completed
second crimp
second crimp completed

I then checked the wiring diagram for the correct fitting onto the back of the switch.

I now had a decision to either replace the switch in the ‘correct’ location, or the position that the car had it fitted at the time. I went for the car’s location at the time. Yes there will be the experts that moan it’s not in the correct place, but I have seen a few cars where this was the ‘original’ location. I also understand that some dealers fitted them under the dash to save taking out the glove box liner as it was easier!

Plugged in connectors with heat shrink tube looked pretty cool, even though nobody will ever see it.

Under the dash next to my aircon on the passenger side there are two bolt holes which were used originally, so there was no drilling or measuring for this project either. A case of bolts through the switch bracket, through the dash holes and the backing plate, nuts on the back of the plate and tighten up.

The last part is to connect up the steering column, this is done last as the live power feed is taken from the brake switch, connecting it up first would mean having live or hot wire about as you are connecting up. Not ideal!

under column connected
column sperated
AA Hazard kit in place

The hazard switch now works without the key in the ignition and with the engine on. The old hazard switches worked by putting the switch on and then indicating to trigger the four way flash. To finish the installation, I spend half hour or so wrapping the new loom extension in factory look loom fabric tape, I find it just so therapeutic.

I just hope I never get to use the hazards for a real emergency. I enjoyed my few hours of pottering around on the car, just because I could.

Thanks to Adam at Mustang Maniac (again) who put the special order in for me so I could get this all working.

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