Show Season Starts

Last weekend I went to a show at Stonham Barns in Suffolk for their “Spring Break” car show the first of the season for me. This was going also going to be my first show I had done on my own without the support of Mustang Maniac. The show was over three days, Friday, Saturday and the Sunday that I went too. I have no preconceived notion that I would win anything and I didn’t enter any groups before hand, although a little silverware never hurt anybody. I had been to many shows on my own as a visitor and not as an exhibitor in the past except for the Birmingham NEC during November last year and the Enfield Pageant where the car was very much a work in progress. The alarm went off at seven o’clock but the gates didn’t open until nine on the dot. I couldn’t sleep anyway and had lots to do; like checking the water, tyre pressures putting the cleaning materials in the trunk and most importantly checking the weather, the sky was almost as blue as my car. I had already made my mind up that I wouldn’t being if there was a good chance of rain. Weather forecast promised lots of sun with cloudy spells at times. Perfect, I got in the car and started her up and I was on my way. Google Maps on my phone directed me to the direction of the show nearly thirty miles away. As I got closer I could see other great looking cars heading in the same direction. Pulling into the gates there was another Mustang that pulled up behind me. I gave the thumbs up and got one back too. I smiled – a lot. Common sense was in full play as there were marshalls directing all us early birds into the fields half hour before they were due to open. The owner of the car behind me got out and introduced himself to me as speaking to me at the NEC show. The penny then dropped and placed the face as being one of the many people who I had spoken too. We parked up next to each other, followed by a Galaxy 500 and a cracking looking Burgundy Camaro SS.

There was cars arriving at a steady pace as we talked about our cars and the LED lights we both had with the variations in them. We eventually decided to go look at some more cars, that gave me a chance to take even more pics of my car. For a valid reason that I will get to later.

I decided that i was going to lift the hood again and let people have a look.

I wasn’t sure how to play it so secured the car and walked away and watched from a distance to see how things played out. I was pleasantly surprised to see the respect of the visitors looking holding their clothing away from the paint work. After half hour or so, I was confident to walk way and look at some other fantastic cars that was now pouring into the fields.

This blue and white Thunderbird had a spectacular paint job.

One of the prize winners here was a real nice Caddy with a Dodge Viper v10 wedged in it. This bike just seemed to go on and take over the whole car park, it was massive with Beetle flat four in the back of it.

Under the hood of the cars were some strange sights a water bottle made out of a Jack Daniels bottle, some poor chap had a leaking radiator.

At one o’clock the judges were on their way round and made virtually no stops at the “standard” road cars. Their time was spent around the Hot Rod / Rat Rod sections. Some of those cars were absolutely amazing, I knew right at that point no prizes were going my way. Shortly after the judging there was a lot of cars leaving around two o’clock, so much so that the bloke on the mic announced that he hoped none of those cars leaving were trophy winners, he didn’t have to worry. I wanted to stay and see the result of judging, so I spent my time aimlessly wandering around looking at the time and effort owners had put into their cars. The stalls were mainly selling items and not really any old car parts as such, nothing that you wouldn’t see at a local car boot sale to be fair. At three o’clock the winners were announced, not a single standard car got an award of the ten trophies that were up for grabs, the hot rod guys and the latest trend of, huge camber angles on a VW Beetle, “slammed” trucks and cars sitting on the floor took the prizes. Never mind, better luck next time. I think I got how this show worked, the emphasis was a Hot Rod based entries for the show, their webpage advertising the event was showing a selection of the previous attending cars that were all hot rods. There was some fantastic cars there that day, but I thought other cars deserved the prizes so much more, like the Thunderbird, the Camaro SS, a beautiful Chevy Bel Air, Caddy Coupe de Ville etc. But, as I am not a judge it was irrelevant what I thought, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and of course some will say the cars that got the awards deserved them. Regardless of the results, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and meeting a few faces that I had previously seen at the NEC at the end of last year, speaking to total strangers who wanted to look at my car, along with other wonderful cars that were on show. Would I go again? Yep. Did I enjoy it? Yep. The weather was spot on all day, and yes I did get a bit of sunburn on my head! I enjoyed the trip home so much as the main road had a convoy of Classic Cars going back to their homes. I was now officially part of the Show Car scene driving there and back in my own car. Thumbs up to every body going past, or those that went past us. Horns were going, people waving to everybody, what a great day all round and perfect way to end the day. I was shattered when I got home. 🙂

This weekend, I had a good friend of mine Mike turned up to take a look at the car. Mike has a Mark two escort and just restored that to its original golden glory. Last time he had seen my car was about a year into the restoration where I had managed to start it up after the re-wiring it. I pulled the covers back and he was surprised to see the difference. I started her up in the garage to get the feel of the engine note, and breath in that unmistakable odour of fresh burning fuel. The roads were damp and the air was pretty damp. He was looking out to the sky as I had previously promised him a ride in it if the weather was OK. As it wasn’t raining I asked did he want to go out in it? At which he thought about it for zero seconds and said “Yes, if you’re sure”. I was, I shut the hood and started to back her out the garage and he got in. It was slightly amusing to see him looking for the shoulder belt, I told him that this was a proper car and only had lap belts. We set off down the road and I said that we would drive to the next village. As we got to the next village it started to spit with rain, I still had the window open. No, this can’t be happening, rain on my car! The car was now getting wet, so much so that I had to put the wipers on for the very first time. I was quite surprised at how well they actually worked. We done our circuit of about half an hour and headed back home. We pulled up to junction for a right turn and in my enthusiasm the rear wheels scrambled for grip untill I let of the gas. I gave this car respect in the rain and gave no sudden acceleration, obviously not enough respect was given to standing start in the rain. Me BAD! A mile or so from home the rain stopped and the wind had pretty much dried the beads of water from the car. The car was put straight into the garage, and Mike was met by my wife and made him a cup of tea. I of course was out there in the garage drying my little lady. I joined them a short while later satisfied that the car totally dry, not that there was much to dry by the time we got back. I didn’t cover her up at this point, as the warmth of the engine in the garage along with the boiler would dry it out thoroughly over night.

Reviews:

As I had to clean my car the previous week with a bubble bath as it had got dusty, I have now completed my first review for car detailing products; the Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax Paste, click here for the hyper link to go straight to it. Or, go to the top menu “Car Detailing Products” where the link can also be found. I intend to add more reviews soon for the likes of; Meguiar’s, Poorboys World, Chemical Guys, Autoglym etc. etc. Why did I take more pics of my car as I mentioned at the beginning? 1) Just because I could, and 2) The shine on the car was from the Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax Paste that I could now finish the review off with.

How did the rain react to the paint? It was blown immediately off the car with the wind rush from driving. There was hardly any water on the car at all. I had not seen that level of beading before to be honest, impressive.

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Bubble Bath

As soon as the sun is out, the car is out and I drive her whenever I can. As the weather is nice the car is not getting dirty as such, but I noticed a layer of dust on the car after the last rip. So I put the car away uncovered as it was about to rain. Sunday was a glorious day until the evening at least, so made the most of the sunshine and decided to put water on my car for the first time. Usually every birthday, Christmas, Easter or just about any excuse really, people ask me what I want, normally I reply “Snap On”. Over the years I now have a nice collection of tools which have all been invaluable while I was restoring my car. They will always be used for services and any jobs that need doing of course. Surprising a few people last Christmas and my Birthday, I have now started to ask for something different. Now I say “Car cleaning stuff please.” This is just the start of it and I have almost double this little lot now!

The trouble is that there is so much on the market now when do you begin with it all? On my other cars I used Autoglym and that was always good enough and not to expensive as I didn’t know any better. Since then I have been looking for some real performance products to use on my car. A good friend of mine Craig has been recommending a few products to me and his car is always spotless, another petrol head and a real car cleaning nut. Meguiar’s always seems to be at the top of people’s lists. Since then I have been pretty sad (so I have been told), about this and read hundreds of reviews, watched hours and hours of videos and decided Meguiar’s is what I will go for and the look I am after. Meguiar’s has over two hundred products to choose from, with all this information my head went into melt down to start with. There are cleaners, waxes, polishes, swirl removers, sealers, detailer, quick detailer, restorers, liquid versions, wax versions, spray versions, wash & wax, applicators, mits, cloths, water magnets, premium, ultimate, professional, gold etc. You get the idea. Apparently when you step up from the bucket and sponge scenario and spend real time washing and waxing your car, you are now know as a car detailer. As a result I have bought different makes of products for very specific jobs now. I now have a special bucket that has a grit filter at the bottom, and sponges are a definite no go now. Wash mits are the norm and water magnets instead of old school chamois leathers. The shampoo I used is by “Chemical Guys” called “Glossworkz”. I have even bought a snow foam device for my jet washer.

A while ago now I purchased a cowl cover from Mustang Maniac which is a magnetic idea that stops rain getting into the cowl section. That is the big white thing you see below the windscreen. For some reason I was nervous to put water on the car, I have washed more makes of car than I care to mention, but this was different somehow. A low setting on the jet wash to rinse the car off was where I was going to start.

The previous wax from Meguiar’s made the water immediately bead away, which made me smile. Next was to foam some “Glossworkz” onto the car, again this ran straight off when it was supposed to foam all over and sTay there. Now I am sure I done it wrong, by the time I found the camera again the foam was disappearing.

Now came the fully washed and super soft lambs wool wash mit, I pulled it on like a boxing glove and took a deep breath. I dipped it all into my new grit protected bucket with a little more shampoo and started on the roof, hood, trunk and then the sides. Frequently dipping into the bucket and washing out the mit. The car was silky smooth under the mit and glided across the paint.

Rinse it all down again with the low power jet washer then it time to dry with the “Wooly Mammoth”.

This drying towel is huge, super thick and fluffy, you just lay it on the panel and move it slightly and the water is gone. Amazing, none of the old wipe it, spread it about, wring it out and repeat again like with a chamois leather. This helps to reduce the chances of scratching that precious paint job. Within a minute or two the car was dry, the best part of this bit was that the towel was only damp after all that. Wash & Wax then dry was technically done now, but I wanted to try out a new wax. Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax.

I intend to review these purchased products properly going forward under their own section on my blog for car detailing products. So, I won’t go into all the boring details just now, but I spent hours applying the wax and buffing it all off, polishing the chrome, cleaning the windows inside and out. Here are a couple of pics of the half and half as I was going along. It’s difficult to show in the pics, but the first is the hood with the wax applied, the second is the half the hood buffed off.

Full hood wax applied

Half off

On this pic I dangled the pro series micro fibre cloth to show the depth of shine. But then you can see the top of the house too in the reflection. There are even different quality of microfiber cloths, but is there a difference? Yes, there is when you compare them next to each other.

A perfect day for waxing the car, overcast, warm with a slight breeze. A great day, and a car washed, waxed and buffed to a mirror finish. I started the car up and covered her up in the garage. I was happy if not aching a bit.

As I mentioned earlier, I want to review these products as the choice out there is just min boggling, Meguiar’s, Chemical Guys, DoDo Juice, Autoglym etc. I will let you know when the first review is posted. If you have any recommendations, tips or secrets you don’t mind sharing please let me know.

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Stamp Of Approval

Just like every bank holiday here in the UK you can guarantee one thing, bad weather. Easter has been no different I’m sad to say. I was sitting looking out the window waiting for any chance to get my car out. yesterday morning the sun was out and the roads were dry. I guessed that it wouldn’t be long before the rain set in as the sky was looking pretty grey and dismal in the distance. I decided to take some back roads and get some petrol while I was out. The blast through some twisty lanes was amazing and the window was down (even though it was chilly) just so I could hear the angry bark of my V8 exhaust. I “accidentally” managed to engage kickdown a few times as my confidence grows with my own ability to drive the car with respect that it deserves. The petrol station brings me to a smile as people going about their own business fill their own cars up glancing over to my car being filled up. As I was paying at the counter and getting a newspaper, I saw through the shop front window an elderly gentleman walking towards his car via a detour to look at mine. He stood for a few moments looking inside and then walked away. I wondered what he was thinking? I hope it made him smile, maybe brought back some memories maybe. I managed to get home and in the garage before the rain fell down about half an hour later. Now my V8 fix had been attended too, I could relax and read my Mustang Monthly magazine. After only a few trips so far in my car, I can’t imagine life without her now.

During my last visit to Mustang Maniac I just had to get a new part in order to replace something on my car that was driving me mad now. What was that part? The trunk lock, yes it looks fine, it works fine and there is nothing wrong with it, except that the chrome had a very slight crazing to it on close inspection from all the years exposed to the elements. It didn’t bother me before, but now when I pull the car cover off the car now in the garage, I see the tiny craze line where my eye is drawn to them and it just does my head in. So I had to replace it, the process was dead simple in fact. Two bolts on the inside of the trunk and a large nut holds the tumbler in place. Undo that and it all pops right out. Ten minutes (if that) to change it. Now I have a sparkly new one which looks just like the old one! only when you get up close and compare the two side by side could you see any difference. What next can I find to do on my car? I genuinely miss working on my car, but enjoy driving her so MUCH more. Soon it will be the season for car shows and I’m looking forward to that very much where I can take my little lady to them and park her up next to the other proud owners at these shows.

Last week I came home to wonderful surprise that had been posted to me by my blog buddy Debbie Nuessle from the USA, on the other side of the pond (private little joke here). Debbie started her blog hoodscoop03.com in December 2012 and we have been good friends since we started blogging. Debbie is a true petrol head (gear head) which has run in her family ever since her father was racing, you only have to look at her blog, (which I recommend you do), to see her love for Mustangs and all sorts of muscle cars, this is made clearer by buying another new GT to reluctantly replace her 2003 model Mustang. My surprise was that Debbie had kindly joined me into her “Mustang Club of St. Louis” paying for my annual membership, to celebrate my car being officially on the road now. Just how cool is that? What this means is that I have joined my very first Mustang Club, I don’t even belong to one here in the UK, yet. In my pack I had personal messaged card, a couple of blog cards, and a window sticker for the car with the “Club” logo on it and my enrollment confirmation form.

To round of such an awesome surprise was something that I have been after for a while now. My very own full set of Muscle Car stamps.

A little history of the Muscle Car stamps:

They were issued on February 22, 2013. These Muscle Cars stamps celebrate an exciting era in American automotive history. The cars were typically equipped with big, powerful engines, these high-performance vehicles first roared onto our roads in the 1960s. The stamps feature five iconic muscle cars: the 1966 Pontiac GTO, the 1967 Shelby GT-500, the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, the 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda, and the 1970 Chevelle SS. The artist Tom Fritz based his artwork on photographs of the cars, using bright-colored oil paints on hard board to try to “capture the emotive quality” of each one. Growing up in Southern California, Fritz became familiar with the power of muscle cars and calls these paintings “a projection of my memories of the vehicles.” This set of stamps Muscle Cars is the third issuance in the America on the Move series. The stamps were designed by art director Carl T. Herrman. The first two issuances in the series were 50s Sporty Cars (2005) and 50s Fins and Chrome (2008). This latest sheet of stamps were issued as Forever® stamps in self-adhesive sheets of 20 with 4 of each design. My favorite? It’s fairly obvious but I would mind any of these great American Classic cars.

So this is a first for me again, I am now a member of a Mustang Club in America thanks to my first true blog follower, apart from friends and family that is. Thank you very much Debbie, I appreciate it.

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Before & After

I have had some emails saying why don’t I do a before and after photo set of the restoration? Then I got to thinking as to why I hadn’t up till now. There was no reason, so this post may be cheating a little as there is nothing new here. But what is new is the fact they have never been compared side by side before. As I didn’t start my blog until a year after I bought the car, some of the earliest pictures don’t exist as such, during that time I had re-wired the car for the first time, managed to fire the car up, got the locks working (sort of), painted the trunk section and interior floor pans. Obviously if I had of known I would be doing a blog at that time, I would have documented it all much better than I have done. However my early work was re-done once the car had got to Mustang Maniac. Under their supervision and help it would be done “Properly” as Adam told me. So in effect you are indeed seeing the restoration from scratch, all be it not as bad as it was. I suspect that I would be playing catch up to keep on top of the car all the time to keep it looking good, especially with the original route I was going to take, ie; the amateur way.

Body Work:

Rebuilt Back End:

left quarter

no lights and fuel tank out.

Underside:

This was the old underseal, dirt and what ever else was squirted on there. Welded, ground down, filled, sanded down, painted with red oxide and painted with proper underseal and satin black paint.

from inside the trunk

Doors, Roof and Sides:

new door

right quarter

rear glass removed

daunting start

Rebuilt Front End:

battery tray plate

new door

Interior:

Inside was originally treated with POR15 for rust protection. This was later removed and proper sealant applied at paint and then primer and top coats. The last step was the Dynamat sound proofing, before the carpet that is.

left different angle

Rear back

left side with prep sprayed

Engine:

The story here was that I wanted to go sort of modern with the silicone look. As I knew I wanted a blue look to the car I went for the blue silicone and the blue spark plug leads. I went of the idea and eventually swapped them for the revised black and chrome look. The spark plug leads were changed at the last month as was the valve covers. The cable routing went through a number of variations until I was happy with it at that point. Rewire of the car was the first job as I had to see if the engine started, which it did on the second turn of the key after twelve years of standing years. Pretty impressive.

Brake booster in location at the very back right hand corner

prep for intake removal

Transmission:

unable to even see the grease nipples.

box end

Steering and Suspension:

finger tight fittings

steering box end of column

old shock right side

right

Brakes:

Even the brakes look as good as the outside of the car. The front drum brakes were replaced with disc brake conversion for stopping power and safety. The brake servo was original from the factory but was upgraded to dual system, again for safety.

Drum before treatment

Black caliper

drive shaft removed with back plate in place

brake set and inner gasket on (awaiting additional sprng for the seperator bar under the cylinder

Booster surface rust

Electrical:

All electrics have been replaced and the bulbs converted to LED where I can.

Original burnt out wire loom

lens and bulb out

LEDs located on the housing

Glass and Bright Work Trim:

rubber seal cut away and left on mastic

frame in place

frame Insides cleaned

right inside before clean

right inside cleaned

Original state

Paint Process:

There are hundreds of photos I could add here but I have kept it to the more key stages of the process.

Transportation:

These were some interesting shots of the car coming and going to different places.

ramp up

Driving Her:

Special Thanks:

I have mentioned this before, but none of this would have been possible without the help and moral support from Mustang Maniac and their associates; Adam, Al (Yogi), Paul (Lob Monster), Chris (Careful), John, Paul (the paint), Lance (OCD from Marketing). I have learned so much from them all, above all I have gained some great friends who have all helped me realise a life’s ambition and dream come true.

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Paperwork

I would like to think that my posts are positive to read, maybe informative, sometimes make you smile and above all they make you want you to come back for more. There is usually an exception to any rule, and I can say I need to have a rant just to get it out of my system so I can move on and just put it all down to one of life’s little trials, if this is all I have to moan about then i am a lucky guy really.

Because I have had such a nightmare with all this registration process, I have tried to provide a user guide for importing a used car from the USA, paying the import duties, taxes and first registration here in the UK. The are screen shots, live links and examples on how to fill in the forms. Both the links are below or can be found under the “Articles” Menu above.

Importing a car from the USA – Part 1 (Tax & Duties) or click here for the link

Importing a car from the USA – Part 2 (DVLA registration) or click here for the link

The full story:

When the wife gave me the money to purchase the car over four years ago I didn’t realise the most frustrating part of the whole restoration project was trying to get it on the road legally with all the correct paper work, which as it turned out I didn’t have. In my case the car was imported into the UK via a USAF service man while stationed over here at an Airbase. He bought over his car with him and used it for a number of years before he returned back to the USA leaving the car here which eventually ended up in the hands of the guy I bought it from. The car was on his Virginia plates when I purchased it which didn’t matter as the car was a bit of mess to put it mildly as I knew it had to be UK registered. To cut a potentially long story down the car was fully restored and an MOT issued for being road legal.

The next step is notify our Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), who in theory would issue me with UK registration plates. Part of this process involves filling in a form and supplying the insurance, MOT and ownership papers if you have them. I called them to request the appropriate paperwork and things went down hill from there. A call handler who couldn’t handle going to sleep without getting confused, said “I had to download the form from the website somewhere”. Thanks for that then, Not. I was trying not trouble Adam at Mustang Maniac and do it myself, but things were getting frustrating so I called Adam who explained I needed a few things and went on to explain it all to me. When a car is imported to the UK permanently you have to pay import duties and taxes to our government (who seem to rinse you of money no matter what you do). This confirmation of all duties paid is called a Notification Of Vehicle Arrival or NOVA. I was shown what they look like and sadly confirmed that I needed to get one. Sadly the car has never been officially imported which I was unaware of at the time, partly due to my ignorance I guess at the time of the sale.

The first step was to get this NOVA certificate and I was told to email a particular government department who responded with a form to fill in. I needed to supply import codes and details of the car. This was unbelievable task on the website as there are codes for literally everything. Eventually finding what I thought were the codes, I replied to HMRC (Her Majesty Revenue & Customs). These guys were very efficient and within a few days forwarded me another form to confirm what I had sent them and asked some additional questions. I completed the form and sent it back and within a few more days they confirmed the codes and invoice for Import Duties and the VAT owing. I paid the invoice and they send me back the critical Nova certificate. The car was now in the country, officially. So far so good and things were going well.

Back to the dregs of the gene pool where I filled in another form as before. This time I called up to say that I wanted to keep the original USA ownership certificate, just to keep with the car for provenance if you like. Now on the paperwork it does say that all paperwork must be the originals. So I wanted to see just how rigid this rule was, I was told that “a photocopy would be OK”. Two weeks later the form was rejected as I “hadn’t supplied the original ownership certificate”. So again I called up the department who told me “I should have supplied the original and nobody would have told me that a photocopy would be acceptable”. They then said that “if I supplied the original and put a covering letter in to say that wanted the original cert back it would be returned with the new registration certificate”, great I thought. So another form was filled in exactly the same as before, because I had to resubmit the application. Getting wise to these idiots i had ordered the forms in bulk from the website just in case. I wrote them a letter and sent it all back to the DVLA to the now christened “Devious Vile Losers Association”. They eventually sent me back the new registration documents and confirmation of the License plate. Brilliant, so the car is now registered in the UK and officially all paid up.

Wait, what is this in the returned pack? The original MOT, insurance certificate, NOVA form and lousy PHOTOCOPY of the ownership certificate. Not happy now. I called them up and they said “nobody would ever have said that to me, it wouldn’t have come back to me as they are sent back to the USA”. So there you have it; I have been lied to twice, and when I argued with them, they called me the liar. This is the best bit; I also received a separate letter from them posted the day before to say “they had made a mistake and sent the documents to the wrong address”. WTF? So they want me to try to track down a letter they sent to the wrong address. Now somebody else has ALL my vehicle and personal details. What a bunch of incompetent, self righteous, sellf important idiots they are. They did however send me a pre printed envelope to return the incorrect certificate, I would still have to put a stamp on it though. that makes is all OK then – I don’t think so.

Sometimes you are just better of just letting it go, but it winds me up big time. If I had told the losers that I didn’t have the ownership certificate and wrote a letter to say I own the car, I could have kept the original ownership certificate from Virginia USA. That will teach me for being honest and upfront in future with these people. I should have lied like they did to me. However, I have scanned images of their rejected forms and letters to me, so if they (DVLA) want me to prove any of this, I can. They want a perfect application from me, but they can’t even get my address correct.

So, with the new UK registration V5 form in my hand I could order the registration plates, (see previous posts). Now my car is on the road officially and I own it officially. In total all the back and forth with the DVLA it took me almost two months. The DVLA has to be the worst government department I have had the displeasure to try to deal with.

So that’s the rant over and I hope you can see why i need to get it of my chest. I feel better now, I will reread this again to see if I still feel the same in the morning. I can now put all this behind me and just get on with enjoying my car.

Next day 27th February 2016:

Yep, I still hate the department after reading all that again, I’m sad to admit that though. 🙁

On another note my car was taken on a long run yesterday, of hundred and twenty miles to be exact. Where to? Mustang Maniac of course. The journey was for two reasons, one to settle the car down on a long run, two I could have her checked over when I get there. I met up with Paul AKA “Lob Monster” just before we turned of to go to the country lanes to MM. The weekend cycle club were riding in the middle of the road, being their usual selfish selves and riding two abreast on the narrow roads. We turned up at the yard in a cool convoy, all be it only two cars making enough noise for a dozen cars. I love Flowmaster exhausts! The neutral disconnect or inhibitor switch needed a little bit of adjusting as the car would only start in the “N” neutral position sometimes, realignment was made and all is well again. Paul then checked the rear brake pads and adjusted them up for me. Now a few miles had now been put on them and should now have bedded in a bit. My car at the MM yard before the journey home. Thanks Paul (Lob Monster) for your help. Thanks to Adam for letting me pinch a ramp and move a few cars around so it could be sorted out.

The journey there and back was great, people driving past giving the thumbs up to me, lots of passengers in cars looking and somebody even taking a photo on the way home. I just love this car a no other car has ever made me feel like I do in it. Now I have an excuse to clean and polish the car again, oh well. 😀

Forgive my little rant and a long read, but next week I will make up for it as I am working on a largish post where I have all the before and after comparison photo’s. I’m enjoying putting that post together although it has taken a while to sort out the date order and trying to find similar angles before and after.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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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Merry Christmas Everyone

I would like to wish all my followers and blog readers a very Merry Christmas. I trawl through the net looking for pictures of Mustangs at Christmas time a week or so before the big day. I found a number that I had seen, but I found this and just loved it. Yeah I know it’s not blue and its not a ’66, but as it’s Christmas does anybody really care? I’m now of to enjoy some time with my wife and family.

Have a great day and enjoy the holidays.

All the best,

Mart.

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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.

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.

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

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

up she goes

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. 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.

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: 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! 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.