My Classic Car Debut

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional Thanks:

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

All the guys from the Mustang Owners Club of GB.

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

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

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

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Restoration Finished?

This weekend was the last weekend at Mustang Maniac before the Birmingham NEC Classic Car Show. There was lots of tiny little jobs to do and tweak but priorities have to be played. Yogi was getting parts ordered up for me that I would need to fit the cards so I could get them from the stores. On my return I was given my instructions on how to fit them. The door cards cover the inner workings of the door and finish the interior, they are a notorious pain in the butt to fit and look good. Although my interior is a Pony spec I didn’t like the Pony door cards. So Adam ordered mine up as a special order for what I wanted. Hopefully just something very subtle different to the standard ones you see out there. The cards a dry fitted to the door to see where the mechanisms need to come through. This was fairly simple as I just got a little dirty dust and put it on the tops of the mechanism. This left a mark on the white underside so I knew exactly where to punch the holes out. John came up trumps with a set of punches to cut the holes, that way the holes are clean and shouldn’t run. The little clips on the back of these door cards slot into cut outs in the card itself, and the metal legs press into the metal of the door frame. Simple so it sounds, but the reality is every clip (around thirty in total) has to be aligned to the holes and pressed in until it snaps into place. Press in the wrong place and may damage the cards. There is a wax sheet that is held in place same principle as the rear quarters were. On top of that was two springs, these keep the door car pressed against the door handles to avoid any bow or sag in the card. The handles for the door opening and the window winders are a single screw secure. The arm rest comes in two parts; the chrome base and the coloured arm pad on top of that which in turn is held in place with two screws underneath.

The cards in place.

At his point Paul who originally sprayed my car came back to “Mop” the paint work, “Glaze” it and then a final “Wax”. This was a professional detail going on here now and was being made to look her best for the show. The rubber parts were masked over as was the vent to avoid any debris going down there.

The process was the roof, trunk, hood, then the sides. The was repeated for the glaze and the waxing.

After each process had been done I just stood there in disbelief looking at how good it was. Paul took great delight in telling me “Don’t worry, it will get better”. OMG was he right. the depth of gloss on this car staggering. Paul said he doesn’t often get to shine them up after he has painted them as the customer takes them away and that’s it. So after one year Paul is back finishing his beautiful work of art he has created for me.

Glaze going on.

Then the last step was the wax to be hand applied and ;eft for twenty minutes and hand buffed off.

I can’t begin to tell you just how delighted I am with the paint and finish. The reflection in the poor light and rain in a workshop is still nothing short of incredible. Now I know how much time and effort these Concours cars are prepped. Paul spent four hours doing my car, and that’s a professional detailing.

Paul (a different Paul this time) was down during the week and said he would kindly fit the badges up for me. These take a little time to get right and in the correct places. Why? Because these were going to be stuck in place and no holes drilled in the fenders to take the clips on the back of the badges. The process involved in a lot of measuring and patience. Due to the timescales involved I wouldn’t have had time to do it all on Saturday. So a big Thank You to Paul & Yogi on their help.

The messy part got saved until later which was the wheels. The “Raised White Lettering” is coated in a blue protective film which needs to be cleaned off. Yogi gave me a pot of his road film cleaner (the last he had) and told be to just rub it till the protective film starts to come of. Plenty of elbow grease later the results are awesome. The before during and after pics. Before you say the wheels don’t look shiny – I know, they have a coating of Gibbs Brand Lubricant on them to protect from any moisture. They will be buffed up at the show.

The tyres were then treated to some tyre dressing to give them back that nice new look, what am I on about? They are new!

1966 Ford Mustang Restoration is FINISHED!

How long has it taken (time wise so far) from purchase to restoration completion?

4 years 1 months 21 days
or 49 months 21 days
or 216 weeks 0 days
or 1512 days

I could work it out as man hours (I hate to think just how many, but at least a couple of thousand hours), perhaps I will work it out one day. I have spent at least one full day a weekend on the car and sometimes the other day too, cleaning, prepping, painting, making the bits for the car etc. I even spent hours in the shed after work in the summer months, working into the darkness preparing bits that would be needed for fitting to the car.

That was the all main jobs done, so technically that that’s the restoration finished. But there are some small things I need to do still, technically it’s ready for MOT all important road worthy test, then the full road testing for final set ups. I expect there will be the odd problem running in and settling down after sixteen years of nothing, such as carb, timing, first few quick oil changes, antifreeze etc. Then it will be onto the full Registration and her UK plates to be fitted.

Speaking of number plates – I pretty much think this says it all, they say a picture speaks a thousand words. These plates have been made specially for the Car Show as Mustang Maniac and LAR will be transporting my car to the show for me. Thanks to Lance for the great looking plates.

I owe a huge debt of thanks to all the guys at Mustang Maniac and the associated people who helped me with my project.

Adam – Inspiration, mentor, Owner, restorer, mechanic, body work, fitter, parts, advice, storage, help, banter, forum and everything else in between. Without whom none of this would have been possible.

Yogi – Inspiration, mechanic, panel beater, body work, fitter, paint sprayer, advice, help, banter, forum and giving me the nick name “Sat Nav” . Thanks Mate!!

John – Mechanic, bodywork, advice, help, banter, cooking great stews in the depth of winter.

Terry – Mechanic, panel beater, body work, fitter, paint sprayer, advice, help, banter.

Paul the Paint – Paint sprayer, body work, fitter, advice, help, banter.

Chris – Advice, fitter, banter, help, forum, Jaffa cakes and goodies.

(BT) Paul – Mechanic, fitter, advice, banter, help, forum, cakes and goodies.

Lance (OCD) – Advice, printing requirements, help, banter, keep an eye out for my OCD, forum, cakes and goodies.

Sam – Helping hand and banter.

As you can see there are a couple of common themes going on here, the first is “help”; whenever I have a question I am not just answered, but shown as well. The guys time and patience spent with me as well as my sometimes (what must seem like) daft questions goes way above their call of duty.

The second is “banter”; the non stop ribbing for who ever is the chosen poor soul at the time makes it just a fun place to be and work in. The guys are all just brilliant and such a pleasure to work with and long may it continue. 🙂 On my next car????

Then of course there is my Wife who bought the car for me in the first place. For four years she has put up with me working on the car away from home, working on the car at home. Writing about my car on the blog. Buying things for the car using my new best friend, Mr Credit Card. She has supported me, shouted at me for cleaning parts on the kitchen table, had frothy fit when I was spraying parts in the utility room (it was in the winter and needed to be warm). Put up with me storing parts in the house ready to go down the workshops next morning. Through it all she has supported me regardless, and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Well, maybe a 1969 fastback for my next milestone birthday perhaps? 🙂 My “hobby” you started me on has turned into a way of life now.

Thank you Darling I honestly appreciate it.

I would like to point out that is not the end of the blog though – oh no!

There will be many more posts to come and there will be pictures of the other little jobs that need doing. So you see, it’s still going to be business as usual for me, maybe just not as often being posted each week.

I will of course take some photos of the car at the NEC Show this coming weekend with the car in its completed state, that way you can see the full effect, as indeed will I for the first time. I really hope to see you there, if you are there at the show, please come and say hello.

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Exciting News…

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

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

http://www.necclassicmotorshow.com/

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

The car:

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

placing the rivet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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A Sticky Situation

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

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

original fitting

kit

on the latest colour scheme

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

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

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

cut to length

lube the cable into the boot

pull through the cable

splice the end

core exposed

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

ready to crimp

crimp in place

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

locating

in place

looped

finished

other side bank

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

From the top down it still had to look right.

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

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

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

Tip:

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

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

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

placing the rivet

creating

clip in place

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

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

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

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Let’s Be Seated

This week I was expecting a call to say my seats had arrived at Mustang Maniac for me. I didn’t get any email from Adam to give me a hint. The trip there was wondering what I was going to do for the day. I arrived to find carnage in the yard, the guys were moving stuff around and an old ’67 fastback was about to be scrapped, cars were all over the place and lorries littered the yard, just for the day mind you. Adam looked like he needed another pair of hands so I got to work and helped out where I could. After the work was done and time out was called for a cup of tea, Adam said I have a surprise for you.

We eventually went to his small storage area where he had carefully stacked my seats. Yep, my seats were back at long last from Trevor the trimmers. My smile fixed to my face as we transported them to the main workshop. Adam moved the car for me from the storage shop to the main workshop to make it easier to fit the seats. We laid them out in order to see what we had and what we needed. Adam picked them up late Saturday night and waited for them to be finished for me.

We needed all the hardware like the fixings and trims. All my old parts were damaged or just not good enough for the seats now. The seats have been fitted to a superb level and look amazing. The “Pony Interior” colour scheme is blue and white. I had to have the door cards custom-made as I didn’t want the matching padded “Pony” interior ones. These are bulky and have a habit of cracking and tearing by the handle of the door. The standard door cards look cleaner and the door handles are attached better to the frame of the door. This was a sneak peek of the colour back in April this year when Adam took delivery of the door cards with the chrome trim. The seats I had when I got the car seemed to have been changed a number of times, but things suggest that the trim level in the car was Pony style in the first place.

The reason for the delay was the rear seats don’t have a foam kit you can buy to replace the old knackered ones I had. That meant the rear seats had to be made up from scratch using new materials that looked and felt right behind the trims. I’m glad I went to the effort to restore the seats frames and springs properly now.

This was the old seat trims and seat frames I started work on back in April of this year.

Rear seat

front seat back

The new seats and extremely high level of finishing.

We started with the rear seats as they are pretty much done and just need fitting straight into the car. The seat backs drop onto two brackets at the top and secured with two bolts at the bottom via the brackets. The rear seats base pushed under the seat backs and just clipped into place on the floor, the top holding the bottom down firmly in place. Adam had to check the seats out to make sure all was OK of course, he beat me into the seats “as I went to get them”, that was a few funny moments scrambling to see who would get to sit in the seats first. The trouble was the Adam had declared the race was on as he was halfway in the car as he announced it. Was I bothered? Not at all. The reason is simply because I certainly won’t be the first to drive it either when she is “finished”. I want the guys at MM to drive it and set it up how it should be, and iron a few teething issues (if any) out first.

Here is the pic of a happy winner of the impromptu game of Mustang musical chairs!

The fronts were going to be harder to complete and I was a little nervous about this bit, as I will explain in a bit. The seats had to be put together first before fitting into the car obviously. The first step was the often missing washers on the hinge pins.

The back of the seats are adjusted by a single bolts that presses onto the rear frame. Both the bolt and the protecting plate needed to be pierced into the vinyl trim. This was the bit that worried me, cutting holes in new material.

inserted bolt.

adjusted to rough height

seat base pad

Adam has a right-angled tool to help find the screw holes so you don’t have to keep making holes in the material. The next part was to mark out where the clips go into the frame of the seat back using this simple little tool. The locating hole was made, then a small sharp punch was used to make a neat cut in the material for the clips to go into.

locating the holes

cutting the holes

The seats were put together and the hinges were levered together to make them fit into the seat back holes. An “R” clip is used to go through the hole to hold the hinges together. Chris was on hand to help out now which was a great help. The outside edges of the seats have a chrome trim which screws into the material and also needed some very careful marking out. The inner hinge has a basic plastic cover to hide the inner and smaller hinge and the “R” pins.

The seat rails are held in place by two bolts each end of the track and the corresponding frame holes. To make the lever work so you can move the seat on the tracks, there is a metal rod that clips into each side of the rails and is adjusted by turning the quite neat box section on the thread to equalise the lever adjustment.

rod clipped in place

To get into the back of the car the seats just fold forward, these hinges are also angled so that the seats fold away towards the centre of the car to give more room which is a nice touch. The backs of the seat are card covered with the same material, the clips are slipped into the card cut outs and then pressed into the corresponding holes on the seat back frame. Due to the thickness of the material the corners at the top were quite difficult to press into the frame. You must be careful to press the clips here or the clips will puncture the material and ruin it. I am not a fan of this idea, but it last for fifty years so far, so it can’t be that bad.

With the seat now assembled it was a case of dropping the seats into the four holes in the seat bases. The carpet had been carefully cut earlier into the seat bases to make the appropriate hole for the rail studs. The seats were held in place by four cupped screws under the car tightened through the floor pan.

The finished effect (I think) is staggering. The finish is better than I was expecting it to be and the seats look right in the car with the colour scheme. Well I think they do anyway, but then again – I am biased! The door cards will be put on after the road tests have been done, in order to make sure there are no rattles of adjusting that need to be fixed inside the doors.

Next week There are more jobs to be done yes, handles, drip rails, side sill covers, fuel tank bolted down, wire tidy in the trunk etc. But for now I am a super happy well chuffed bloke.

Thanks to Adam who had taken time out to wait for the seats to be completed and bring them back for me. Thanks to Chris for the extra pair of hands rebuilding the seats, his bad jokes and keeping the drinks flowing.

Thanks guys. 😀

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Cover Up

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

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

geo needed a bit of work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

holes made

primer sprayed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Click here for the quick link.

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

Click here for the diagrams quick link.

Quick links:

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

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

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

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

Goodnight my little lady – see you next week. 🙂

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What’s Missing?

Weekend ritual to Mustang Maniac was upon me before I knew it this week. I arrived to see the Adam shunting lorries around the yard trying to make space fora few more cars that had arrived. We walked to “my” workshop (I wished) and discussed the plan of action. We made a list and got some parts from the bursting at the seams stores. We wanted to get the rear quarter panel trims in place. The common mistake here is to just screw them on without the water shield kit. The water shields are a special paper with a coating to keep the moisture out. This kit will be for the rear quarter panels and the doors behind the cards when they are fitted.

The cars need to have some adhesive and this is like a mastic that is stuck to the paper with the wax side facing to the outside of the car.

Attaching the paper is quite simple as long as you line it up with the rear wheel arches. Peel the protective backing of and press to the framework. The die cuts will line up with the window winder and the screw cut outs too.

The main metal quarter trims themselves have a “fuzzy” which staples to the metal. The staples holes are already there on the panel and the corresponding holes in the replacement fuzzy kit. The staples will be pressed through the panel and bent over at the back out of sight. This will make sure the staples within the fuzzy itself will not scratch the chrome surface or the glass when the windows are wound up and down.

Drop the panels over the frame and align the screws holes up. Do not tighten the bottom ones up yet as the carpet needs to be clamped into position first under the panel. Pulling the carpet taught at the bottom and aligned with the sill top, then you can tighten all the screws up. Now the heading asked the question What’s missing? From the pictures see if you can guess (apart from the handle missing on one side, that don’t count).

Yep – the seats. These are at the trimmers now having the seat covers fitted professionaly. Hopefully these won’t be to long and we can get them fitted into place. Saying that the seats are not in place can be a problem for the progress of the car. But, not having them there has helped a lot as we can sort the interior out without fear of damaging the seats, or having to store them off the car while you work on it inside. The extra space provided by the void where the seats should be comes in very handy for the next task.

The sill scuff plates were next up on the agenda. These come in many styles from cheaper budget ones, or as Adam now calls them “Enos” range, or these full on Ford tooling beauties which are highly polished stainless steel. Stainless stell is used in razor blades and I found out why. The unfinished sides managed to cut both thumbs on the knuckle. I was more worried about the blood on the new carpet than the little chunks of skin shaved off. A bit of rag and a few swear words later I was back on the case to finish fitting them.

The sills have four crews at the top and five on the back. The scuff plates will cover the carpet and wire channels to finish of the look of the door area. The plates were dry fitted to work out where the weather lace will need to go from the interior quarter panels to the sill plate. Screw in the lightly untill everything is in place and then tighten up. Starting on the top and working to the back inside the car. The holes lined up well due to the Ford tooling and no need to get the drill out and make endless holes. Remove the protective cover from the scuff plates to expose the polished surface.

The final piece of the sill is the badge, there some various options over the course of time so I went with the correct badges for the year.

Once it’s all complete it will look like this.

We had another bling part to put on the brake pedal while we were at it, the polished stainless surround. This turned out to be a pain and took just as much time to fit as the scuff plates did. The rubber being new was still swollen and the trim needed to be massaged into place. Adam had the leather hammer to help speed things up a bit as it were!

I have not put all the pictures up yet as i wanted to get the seats in place and show the full effect of the interior. So you will have to wait a little while longer for that treat, sorry. But, things are moving along nicely now and the list of jobs is getting shorter and a lot nicer. Adding the “Bling” to the car has the instant wow factor, and I just can’t get enough of this drug they call “Mustang”. What a buzz 😀

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Eye Candy

I knew what i was going to be doing this week at Mustang Maniac and the week dragged by until I could get there. The task in hand was the interior dash area and see how we would get on with the rest of it. For a change I got there early as the traffic wasn’t bad at all the way i decided to get their avoiding the air show chaos that was bound to happen.

Adam decided the gauges were going to be the first in, so we tested them on the dash panel and they didn’t move. The result was that my voltage regulator for the dials that steps the voltage down to 5 volts was getting red-hot. Then it got no hotter and nothing worked. Adam and Yogi were now having a discussion on the issue. They tested the gauges and found there was an earth issue. Yogi undone the back while Adam held the dash to see what was going on. immediately they noticed that the oil gauge was touching the back case causing an earth out, which was shorting out the voltage control. Adam got one of his new and not mentioned on the WebShop electronic voltage regulators that he has custom-made. These units have a small LED built-in to show they are working to the correct voltage and a heat sync to keep them stable and an additional earth lead. Not an off the shelf part from anywhere else.

The gauges were realigned and tested with the Power Probe and they now worked with the new voltage regulator. Yogi declared that he had “saved the day” as he put it! 🙂 The next thing they noticed was the speedo was not working correctly and returning back to the “0” needle. Adam said we needed to change it and got me a new one and he left me to it after instructions on how to change it that is.

Changing the Speedo:

Undo the case screws around the outside and the whole back will lift off. This will expose all the very, very delicate dials on the inside that need a lot of respect due to age.

The back of the dial case has two screws that hold the speedo in place, remove the screws and gently lift out the speedo.

I undone the speedo and compared the parts just to see if there was any difference.

new on the left old on the right

refit of the new speedo

To fit is a reverse of the above and dead simple. I did have a conversation with Adam in the mean time on how to wind the clock forward to match the current original miles. He did tell me and show me how to do it, along with the possible issues it could cause by taking it all apart. I decided not to do it and fit the part as it is as these things aren’t cheap. I then placed the old on top and took a photo to prove old and new miles just in case anybody wanted to know.

Replacing the back case was careful procedure to make sure everything aligns up properly. The speedo was checked, all the lights and the gauges once again to make sure all was in order. The very observant ones will notice that the second from right gauge should be an Ammeter and not a voltage dial. I change this over as the Ammeter is very old school, they often blow, and my one wire alternator didn’t support it in the American AutoWire loom either. I have done a tutorial on how I converted this by clicking here for the quick link. All was OK and now it was time to mount the gauges back into the dash. Make sure you cover the steering column as the dash WILL scratch the column as you can’t maneuver it without doing so. Even if you can it makes it safer and peace of mind that’s all.

Fitting the retaining clips was main job and needed to be aligned correct to the main dash as the screws go in at a strange angle of about forty-five degrees. My volt meter needs an additional switched live feed and a separate earth that I attached before I fitted the quick disconnect to the main wire loom.

I changed the insulating tape from the above picture by the way as it looked horrible, but I didn’t take another a picture at the time, too much was going on and didn’t want to take my eye of the gauges or the dash. The worst part of all this is to attach the speedo cable, this is a small hand job to reach behind and insert the square centre and the retaining collar nut. I managed to do it while getting in a panic that I would scratch the paint around the dash.

The speedo cable is quite inflexible so I found that by moving the cable under the dash you can angle the dash into the correct position. I inserted the retaining screws only to grab the first turn to allow any movement that I may need.

With all the screws in place I could complete the tighten up and made sure not to over tighten the dash for fear of cracking the mounts, as my old dash had done. The completed job was amazing and Adam checked, passed it and we checked the gauges again. All was good.

The next job as I was on a real roll now was the steering wheel. Adam took me up to the stores and showed me his overwhelming collection of original and aftermarket wheels, all different colours and styles, big and small. I picked the one I liked and a horn button to go with it. We went down to the car and we undone the protective wrapping around the steering boss and the horn ring.

The centre nut was tightened in place once the wheel was mounted over the spline, then the three screws that hold the boss to the wheel and the column. Adam threaded the wires through the wheel and only nipped the bolts up as it would inevitably need to be moved to centre it all up in the geo workshop.

The horn button was fitted to the centre and we tested that it was working fine. Again a job that was a lot quicker than I was expecting it to be. All of a sudden I can now imagine what it would be like looking at equipment driving along. A true piece of eye candy! Maybe not to everrybodies taste, but it is to me.

chrome boss

wheel finish

The grin on my face was difficult to hide and Yogi now popped in to see what I was up too. I decided to push my luck and ask him how the console would be fitted. This console was part of the original equipment in my car when it was first ordered. He grinned and aligned it up where it should be, under the air con and around the selector lever. He started to drill the holes for the screws and screw them in before the console moved and we lost the holes. The dynamat had made the screws a difficult to locate in the first instance, but with a patience we managed to gently pull the console down.

We took turns to drill the holes and the first attempt I used the drill I managed to break the drill bit! So I had to confess my sins to Adam who just laughed and said “You learned how not to do it then!” We had to use slightly longer versions of the screws at a couple of points due to additional matting. The “T-handle” for the shifter was re-fitted and again tested all was OK.

The console has a set of lights at the back under the ash tray that work of the courtesy lights and looked pretty good.

console lights

under dash lights

You will notice that the wooden wheel had changed to black. This is because I was talking to Adam about the wheel and he said cover it. He told me he was getting some budget parts and stock in he was going to call “Enos Range”. He had a cheapy 15″ cover that would fit over the wheel just while they were moving it around and the MOT. I decided to get one and fitted it over. It was good quality and not what I was expecting, it didn’t even look out-of-place either

wood wheel

black cover

Last job of the day was the front kick panels. These simply clip to the side of the “A” pillar and are held in place by two simple screws. The carpet had to be cut a little to stop the overlap and allow the panel to sit flush against the chassis. You can see the holes have now gone and looks a lot neater. The carpet is now held in place but the panels area real tight fit to head light dip switch. But after a little levering around a bit, it’s all in place where it should be.

Next week who knows, right now I don’t mind. I am still grinning stupidly at the awesome corner my car has just turned, and I haven’t even got it on the road yet.

Thanks to Adam and Yogi who took time out to give me hand again.

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Four Years later

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

side by side

remove the screw

attach the cable and bolt

tighten the nut

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

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

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

twisted wires

heat shrink and secured

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

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

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

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That Warm Glow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Behind the dash

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

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

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

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

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One Man And His Mustang

My Classic Car Debut

Additional Thanks:

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1966 Ford Mustang Restoration is FINISHED!

I owe a huge debt of thanks to all the guys at Mustang Maniac and the associated people who helped me with my project.

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Exciting News…

http://www.necclassicmotorshow.com/

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Four Years later

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That Warm Glow

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1966 Ford Mustang Restoration is FINISHED!

I owe a huge debt of thanks to all the guys at Mustang Maniac and the associated people who helped me with my project.

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The car:

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Tip:

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Goodnight my little lady – see you next week. 🙂

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Changing the Speedo:

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