A Little Spring Cleaning

Spring cleaning during the winter, in the man cave.

Another weekend left to my own devices and I was able to get on with the seats that I had no intention of starting this weekend. Not sure why I started the seats but it’s probably something to do with the fact that the passenger seat was in the way on the work bench. The original drivers seat had collapsed and a good mechanic friend of mine (Will, from Park Garage) done me a big favour and welded the bits, literally six or so bits back together again for me. A quick lick of coloured paint was applied but I wanted to do it once more fully as I don’t intend to take the seats out again if I can help it that is.

I took this picture at the beginning of the paint process but I thought I would share it as little modern photography. I quite like it, even though it is of a driver’s seat frame!

Anyway, the tracks that were holding the seat in place and allow the frame to move were seized up big time. A little treatment with the Gibbs Brand sorted that out, but the old dried grease needed to be cleaned out as it was contaminated with dirt and other undesirable additives. Once that was done the frame was cleaned down of dust and the very light surface rust removed. I sprayed zinc anti rust self etch primer to the frame and the tracks ready for a black satin finish. The parts that I had taken of from the driver’s seat I also cleaned up and coated with Gibbs Brand ready for fitting back. Two of those bits ,the springs had stuck together and had to be bent slightly in order to free them up and make them flexible again. (Note the tenuous link to the spring cleaning here?) While cleaning the tracks out for the seat I used my home-made “Filler Removing” tool that I had made last week.

Note to Snap On (again): I appreciate you are busy this time of year and that you probably haven’t got round to drawing up the contracts just yet, but I am prepared to wait until the end of the year for a fat wad of cash – or just enough to cover my paint job, otherwise I may have to take my designs elsewhere, then you will be sorry. Obviously I don’t want to offer it elsewhere, but you might be forcing my hand here!

As this latest home-made tool is now obviously a multi-purpose tool, I was thinking of renaming it something more appropriate like: “Specific Corrosion Rust Extractor Workers Device, Removal, Insertion, Varying Equipment Rod” or “SCREWDRIVER” for short! What do we think? (Ahhh C’mon, it took me ages to come up with that! lol) Any other ideas on what to call this special tool I have made?

The pictures here show the primer and the cleaning in progress before the top coats of satin black.

Repaired frame

Full coating of primer

tracks being left to soak

removing all the dried grease & grime

left track cleaned

under side

springs, nuts & bolts

The second coat was applied in satin black and now looks like new. The rails were greased and now they move smoothly with a single finger.

other side 1st coat

rails 2nd coat

springs back in place

2nd coat

top side of seat frame

I have a couple of weeks holiday owing to me over Christmas so I intend to tinker around on the car so I am not sure what I will be doing, but I reckon it will be nothing I have planned! I think I may topcoat the inside of the floor pan, not sure yet though. I may do under the rear seats but I am running out of the POR15 paint unfortunately. I hope Santa has at least a 473ml can for me. I have been a good boy.

Quick Link:

I have added the full set of pictures to the Photos Menu – Inside the Car – Seats, or click here for the hyper link.

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Black Friday

There is a lot of hype about the Black Friday & Cyber Monday with Pre-Christmas sales advertised all over the internet. I must admit I had a look and was a little surprised that the so-called “sales” were not as good as they made them out to be, at least here in the UK anyway or did I miss some bargains? I would love to know if it’s the same situation in the USA too, maybe the hype has worn off a little in the current economic climate? Black Friday now seems to be Black Weekend and a Cyber Monday thrown into the mix as well, almost a long weekend of sales according to most of the larger retailers to kick start the Christmas rush. So with this in mind I decided to have my own little Black Friday, the trouble is I am not selling anything or even buying anything, I am just using POR15 black paint. See what I did there? OK, it was bit (very) tenuous but I kinda liked it, it was also Saturday when I started it, but I did plan it on a Friday night so that still counts right?. Last weekend I started the front of the floor pan and this weekend I done the middle part up to the rear seat. The weather was cold, there was a snow alert from the car, but I still went out in a fleece and t-shirt to finish the rear section, ’cause that’s what real petrol heads do, I think, well that’s just before the stupid ones get a cold! Then they (me) put a jumper on when nobody is looking. I took the front seat out from the passenger side and pulled the carpet up. Yes, I knew there was filler there from when I purchased the car and looked her over, the filler was around the welding work and I thought no more of it at the time, now I decided to probe a bit further just to make sure. My home-made filler removal tool which may look like an old school screw driver that I had broken the blade on it, but don’t let this simple tool fool you. This precision engineered tool took me all of about three minutes to make and that included the thinking time. Firstly I ground the end down to a slight angle across the blade snow plough style. After making sure that the harsh jagged edges were removed, I rounded it of a little, but maintaining a little edge to dig in with. This new tool allowed easy digging out of the flexible filler and also scrape close to the metal without gouging lumps out of it.

This may look like an old screw driver…

engineering expertise

has changed all that!

Note to Snap – On Tools; please feel free to contact me for the full specifications of this tool, you can make these under licence from me at very reasonable rates, or any of my other home made tools come to that.

The floor pan was replaced before I purchased the car, that part restoration of the floor was a job that I didn’t fancy doing to be fair. But, knowing what I know now and the help I could have had from friends and professionals, maybe I would have had a go at it. The underside of the car has been under-seal sprayed, while the inside has been wax sprayed. The roof headliner area has also been sprayed, but to better standard than the floor pan had been done. In some places the wax spray was thick and in others areas it was almost not there. The welding of the pan is not the best or neatest I have seen, and this raised a little suspicion on my behalf. I removed a fair bit of the filler around the welds and the filler was there to patch up the uneven welding and the grinding, so it was not much of an issue apart from the cosmetics, which will be under a carpet anyway. There was however a patch of larger filler right in the corners that I wanted to investigate. Digging away (with my new tool, from the new line of, “One Man’s Tools Collection”), revealed a little patch of horrors and cover up of some rust sections. I removed all the filler from the area to expose the full extent of welding and find the bare solid rust that I could work with, Lucky enough it was all pretty solid enough but had just been covered over and not treated, done in a hurry I expect. Sloppy work. Now that the bare rust was exposed the POR15 I used on the front section was also going to be continued through to the middle section. Once I was happy with everything in the rust area and the surrounding metal area, I started the long three step process again; clean, prep, paint, sand & paint again. The POR15 was again done over the course of the two days this weekend, and todaythe weather held out enough for me to be able to push the car half out the garage to help me see better where I had been and missed between the coats. I have attached the process in photos under the menu heading Photos – Inside the Car – Floor Pan Rust Treatment, or click here for the quick link.

only four nuts hold the seat

carpet in place

removing the loose sealer

hidden rust left side

exposed rust left

right side corner cleaned up

waxed coating finger test

first coat almost done

second coat middle

full floor pan

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving on the other side of the pond.

Quick Links:

POR15 Rust Treatment Review

Floor Pan Rust Treatment

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My Six Pack

At last this weekend things have gone a little better for me. The wife went out for the weekly shopping on Saturday and I was left on my own to get on with the car. I promised myself that I would start on the roof headliner areas, but the sun was out, all be it little cold. The car was pushed out of the garage enough for me to open the doors fully. Then a change of mind hit me and the headliner plans went up in the air. I decided to treat the floor pans. The carpet was pulled up, and the foot wells were cleaned out. The POR rust treatment was applied in its various stages and hopefully will be a first part of the whole floor pan to be treated. Now the foot wells should be rust treated and preventative at the same time. Sunday was again a nice but cool day so the second coat of POR15 was applied to the floor pans. As the drying was taking longer than I expected I didn’t get the chance to apply some POR Patch seal for the rougher edges of the welding. Next weekend I will and then start on the headliner unless I decided I will do the next floor section that is!

The six pack? No, it’s not a beer pack, case of wine or an abdomen wash board, it’s the pack of six POR15 118ml small tins that I used to treat the floor pans with.

removed the old carpet

left side front

left first coat

right side

right side first coat

first coat centre

2 coats right side different view

2 coats both sides and tunnel

I have created my review of the POR15 product and given a step by step guide of what I done this weekend with photo’s.

Quick link:

Consumable Reviews – Rust Treatment Menu – POR15 Rust Treatment click here

It has dawned on me that this time next week we will be in December and the Christmas holidays will be upon us sooner than we think. What made me think about Christmas this early? My wife, you can blame her for being organised as each year I get asked what I would like for Christmas, I supply a selection of items for online baskets at various places and she chooses a selection for me, from what ever she likes. That way I know I will be getting something I would like and the right version or style of it as well. A good example would be that there are so many cans of primer or similar out there, its a mine field to choose from let alone the wife trying to understand it all. The fact is pretty much everything I have made a list out for is Mustang related, funny that! Does anybody else have a similar arrangement or is it just me being a lucky boy?

I have added another little link on the sidebar of the blog, it’s a Dollar to Pound exchange rate link, you just put in the amount and it gives a current live exchange rate. Not just for the Dollars either, in fact most currencies. I use this site to give me an idea when ordering from abroad or the USA. It will need to be online for the rates but it loads up pretty quick and hardly any adverts on it either. Let me know what you think, is it worth being on there?

Just to be even more sad, I have added a countdown to Christmas. If I get enough grief for it I might take it down due to popular demand 🙂

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Issues On Tap

This weekend has definitely not turned out how I expected it to that’s for sure. Saturday lunchtime was a good time as I wend to visit Adam at Mustang Maniac to catch up on the hot news from SEMA 2013 that he went to, I have seen some nice stuff he has bought some samples back of and I dare say he will post them in due course. I was given a nice new Scott Drake Catalogue by Adam and was going to enjoy reading that when I get home. But while I was on the way home the wife informs me that “the tap has gone”, like you mean it gone walkies? It turns out the replacement kitchen tap of the same design I replaced about a year ago is worse than the one it replaced that lasted four years. I knew the tap was leaking a little bit from the bottom, but when I got back there was a stream of water that was flowing around the back of the sink onto the work top only to be mopped up by a pile of wet towels and dish cloths. If any local law enforcement officers are reading this I was going quickly but all within the speed limit. The small leak had turned into big leak. First job turn the water off and open the tap to let out the pressure. The rest of Saturday afternoon was now spoken for, as I was now going to be spending time replacing a knackered kitchen tap. It goes without saying that I would need to re-plumb some connections as they were different to the existing fittings, why would I want it to be easy for me for a change? So I was not in the best of moods as I wanted sit down, read my Drake Catalogue, after which I was going to start marking a few items off ready for my Christmas list. So the conclusion is that the little bleeder gremlin that had stolen my brake flaring die has now ventured into the house and causing me agro, because of this little herbert I have not managed to do what I wanted on the car today.

The job that I wanted to do most was treat the inside roof metal as I have no headliner at the moment. This would stop the rust and get ready for the paint shop. The other job is to clean up the inside panels that have bits of torn headliner stuck to them. That will now have to wait for next weekend now. Instead I have done a little tidying up under the hood on the Holley carburetor with the Gibbs Brand. It has taken some tarnish off and bought it back to nicer colour but still the shiny lustre is missing. Shall I or shan’t I repaint it? That is my new dilemma at the moment. There will be a large chrome pancake air filter that will sit on top of this 600cfm so you wont see much at all. Any ideas for now, leave it well alone till it breaks or do it now ready for that first day out?

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A Confused Weekend

The weekend was the start of the winter and it looks like the first frost of the winter was on the cars overnight. The weekend on the car revolved around me messing with wires and cables in the car, in the garage. I managed to pick up a rather nice inline fuse kit that will display a red LED light if the fuse has gone, that way there is a visual guide to the potential issue instead of hunting for it in some very tight places like the back of the dash. The fuse holder itself is rated at a max of twenty amps and came supplied with four fuses, the choice was the lowest at five amps as there is no draw of current. If anything went wrong I would hope it takes the fuse out before any damage is done to the rest of the dash. the fuse holder is also splash proof so could be used under the hood for a pretty water tight fused connection. Has anybody used one of these before?

splash proof

connections

the fuse

in place

dash disconnect & new live feed

As the weather was so poor I decided to clean the main car in the afternoon on Sunday before it rained as the car was filthy dirty. As it was getting late I didn’t have time to do a full wash, shampoo, leather, wax & polish which is obviously the choice. With the time restraints I decided to use a product called “Showroom Shine” which I purchased from one of those shopping channels a couple of years ago and have been using on and off since then. They had a good deal on a couple of one litre bottles of the polish and cloths at the time. As I was cleaning I had a thought and yes it was a dangerous thing for a man to multi task as the women say. That thought was how about writing a review of it. I had no intention of reviewing it, but then again, why not? The results can be found here for the quick link or under the menu; Consumable Reviews – Showroom Shine. There are a few places that stock it now and online but Mustang Maniac have now started to stock the product on a trial basis as well. Is it any good? Read the review and find out.

Quick link:

Consumable Reviews – Showroom Shine

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Wind & Hot Air

Yesterday I was a little disgruntled with myself while in the man cave. In the male domain I have the front valance and the bumper stone guards that I have been rubbing down and spraying ready for a top coat or being fitted to the car, I was pleased with them and I sort of liked walking into the man cave and seeing the fruits of my labour. I decided to tidy up a little bit as things were piled up on the floor where I quickly put them out of the rain earlier. As usual I have to pick up the metal work and stand it up somewhere to get at the places I need such as the draws to the tool cabinet, once I am done I lay them back out again. I had my electrical compartment case in one hand and a few tools in the other that were going to be found a home in my tool cabinet. I have a latch on the door for a very large padlock and an elastic bungee cord that hooks to the door latch, the other end is attached to the fence post just behind the man cave. I hadn’t to put the hook to the door like I normally do, thinking that it would be OK as I wasn’t intending to be long. With that thought, a gust of wind from nowhere whistled round to the door and slammed it shut behind me. The vibration of the slammed door was just enough to start a sequence of events, I heard the sound of the metal sliding along the shelf where it was propped up against. Decision time, do I drop the plastic case filled with literally hundreds of electrical connections and fittings, as I had just purchased some large bulk bags, the other hand had a few small tools in it like wire crimps etc. Dropping the case and tools to try to catch the metal work would have certainly resulting in a smashed case and the electrical connections scattering all over the place, and no guarantee that I would have saved the metalwork. Or, do I watch my hard earn time and effort potentially get damaged. In slow motion the decision was being made, I leant forward with my arms out to try and counter balance, the pivot action of the right leg came up in a rather lame attempt to stop the bumper guard from being damage. I managed to slow it enough to gently graze on the edge of a bucket. Dumping the case and tools on the work bench time to inspect the damage. The bumper guard is not to heavy so no dents were made but it glanced of the handle. The problem was the metal part of the handle was overhanging the side of the bucket by the smallest of margins and the handle managed to scratch of some primer. The hot air was now forth coming in its own little hurricane that just happened to be voicing a few choice words to myself for being such a lazy ass in the first place. Pushing the door open in disgust as if it was the door’s fault, the bungee was hooked on the door and now proceeded to feel very sorry for myself. I got the mixing pot for the filler off the very same shelf that had supported my bumper guard. The damage could have been worse I guess, but that was not the point. The scratch was on the end and pretty much out of sight to be fair and would have been covered by the chrome bumper, but I wanted it right. The smallest amount of mixed filler was required as it was going to be a thin fill after I rubbed down what I needed too. Today I lightly rubbed the filler down after curing overnight to a nice smooth finish and gave it a spray of primer. All was right with the world again. As a result of this reworking I decided to put the completed pieces in the garage that I should have done weeks ago. Not sure why I put up with the pain of moving bits around the man cave all the time but I did. Now the garage wall has two new additions to go with the bumpers on the wall, the front valance and stone bumper guard. That way they will be out of harms way, that being me. I hope!

The top front bumper is pretty rusty and not much good, so the brackets holding it up fitted nicely in the mounting holes of the metal work and the other sides were tied up using some strong cord. It don’t look pretty – but hey, it works. The metal work is not going anywhere as they are tight to the wall, so I wedged some rags between the metal and the brick work. It looks like they are touching but there is a good couple of inches clearance there between them. Next time I will hold the door open regardless.

Articles:

I have placed a rather long technical spec document for the 1964 – 1970 Ford Mustang Technical Specs under the Mustang Profiles by Year menu. The page is quite long, but a lot of the sequences are repeated for each year of car for the same sections such as; full vin codes, axle codes, paint colours inside and out, weight, engines, trim options and prices at the time. A compilation sourced from various web sites so I can’t take full credit I’m afraid. But, as these are facts & figures there is only a limited number of ways of presenting them.

Click here for the quick link:

Ford Mustang 1964 – 1970 Technical Specs.

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Happy Birthday To One Man…

One man and his Mustang: One year on…

I would like to say a massive THANK YOU to every single one of you who have looked at my pictures, read an article or just laughed at some of the daft situations I have found myself in. Those of you who have “liked”, followed, subscribed, tweeted, contacted me or left a comment I would like to say an extra special: Thank You so much for your time. I appreciate every single one of you.

It was a year ago today that I sat in front of this PC with a fledgling idea in mind that I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. That idea is what you are now reading, my blog. The initial point was for me to store all the work I was doing on the car for my own little online diary if you like, the pictures and words of what I had done on the car, these would allow me to look back on it all one day, or show somebody, anybody who was remotely interested in my car and what had been done. If somebody else wanted to read the blog brilliant, if not I wasn’t going to be upset about it as I had nothing to lose, who wants to read about my ‘ol Mustang? But all that has changed, I started to get emails about similar things I had done, a few questions and few ideas off people to go forward with my car project. I even got a few messages for things they would like to see on the blog. As a result my blog has evolved into a project almost as big as my car restoration so it would seem, and I am very pleased and proud to be able to say that. Now I see my blog more of as a personal “blogumentary” to get this car on the road and maybe help others while I am at it. I have reviews from my own honest point of view, articles and links that interest me and hopefully others too. I now receive “hits” each day looking at all sorts of different things, like photos, reviews, tools, diagrams or an old advert. Those views have come from all over the world; USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, UK, Aruba, Monaco, Iceland, Hong Kong, Kenya, Saudi Arabia to name but just a few, along with some countries I have never heard of before or even imagined would be interested. If I have helped a single person or given somebody an idea, or the confidence to have a go, then I have achieved my own secret little goal, not so secret now though!

Everyday I look at my stats, comments or emails I have been sent, it’s still a buzz to know that somebody has had a look at my blog for what ever reason. This little blog has now become part of my life and I hope to continue and grow that relationship with my fellow bloggers and peers online. I now follow lots of other blogs too and no, not just the petrol head blogs either, lots of photographic blogs, and some funny blogs that I have been introduced to which have broadened my outlook on life because of this site.

One day, I will post a video of the car on the road and me at the wheel with a silly grin the size of the hood !!

And I hope this little pic I found on the net says it all to the rest of the world.

A special personal thanks goes out to:

Adam at Mustang Maniac and his guys for their generous knowledge and help.

Will from Park Garage who was there at the first turn of the key.

My work colleagues who put with me regarding what I have done on my car every week!

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WordPress Family Award

Again I have been caught slightly off guard with a new award which has just started making the rounds. I am always left a little speechless that: A) I am nominated in the first place. B) I have regular visitors to my little ‘ol blog that to be fair has a rather limited market of appeal.

With pleasure I can say a big thank you to Dana from http://atlastracer.wordpress.com who kindly nominated me for the award.

As with all these awards the rules are quite simple:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.

2. Link back to the person who nominated you.

3. Nominate 10 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience and family

4. Let your 10 Family members know you have awarded them

5. That is it. Just please pick 10 people who have taken you as a friend, and spread the love

It’s hard to single out just 10 that I wish to award, I know that at least one of my nominations already has this award. So if you’re not chosen it’s nothing personal and the others I would like to nominate don’t accept awards. If I have nominated you and you do not wish to continue with the award, or don’t have the time to do this award thing then I take no offence at all. I just wanted to show 10 blogs that I appreciate them, it’s a shame I can’t award all of the blogs I follow. I really don’t like doing this list thing as I follow all my blogs and read them for a reason, so I have chosen the list below on the basis of interaction and the general feel-good factor of the blogs in no particular order. Yes there is the petrol infused car stuff as you would expect but a few surprises too.

1) Dana from http://atlastracer.wordpress.com/ – I know you nominated me, but if I had this from somebody else I would have nominated you.

2) Debbie from http://hoodscoop03.com/ – my blog buddy from across the pond who shares the Mustang love.

3) Ron from http://ronscubadiver.wordpress.com/ who takes some superb photos and shows me places I wanted to go from all angles.

4) http://stagownersclub.wordpress.com/ – I always wanted a Mustang, but I said if I couldn’t have a Mustang I would have a Triumph stag, I can feel the passion from these guys and their cars too.

5) http://www.rodalena.com/ – just an enjoyable varied read who has followed me for a long time now.

6) Alicia from http://aliciabenton.wordpress.com/ – I just reading this blog.

7) Karen from http://karengadient.com/ – some wonderful things with Photoshop.

8) http://f1superswede.wordpress.com/ – If I ever need info on the F1 scene here it is.

9) Jim from http://harbin77.wordpress.com/ – A genuine nice guy who owned a Mustang!

10) http://storysmitten.wordpress.com/ – A great set of snippets from stories here.

A special mention to all the photo blogs I follow too, the world becomes a much smaller place when I see your pictures.

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Centre Console Tidy Up

I’m not quite sure what went on over the weekend but it just disappeared into thin air. Got into bed Friday night with that satisfied glow of knowing no alarm clock was going to give me a brain pain. Next thing I knew I hear the alarm and I am back to getting up in the dark. Saturday was a nice drive down to Mustang Maniac and spend time with the guys and sitting in the boys club discussing all things mechanical and Mustang. Armed with a load of parts and a silly grin I came back home wondering where the day went.

Sunday was Mustang day so the parts I got ere going to be fitted. The parts consisted of replacements for the inside of the dash, new blue filters for the light bulbs, new set of bulbs, and a new shift selector plate and rear lens cover for the centre console. My shift plate had pitted badly and the plastic had a suspected fag burn on it. There was nothing really to see with the parts as they are just direct replacements and look the same, apart from them being cracked and discoloured. Once the dash was completed and wrapped up again, I picked up the centre console and decided it could do with a clean, on close inspection I new the black was faded and needed work. So I set to work with exactly the same principles as the air con unit that I tidied up last week. I was amazed at how disgustingly dirty this centre console was. So I cleaned it up inside and out with Gibbs Brand. After removing the top metal plate I masked the plate and the ash tray ready for the light spraying. of satin black. The inner bulb plate needed to be treated and cleaned which didn’t take too long. The longest part of the job was making a new loom for the console using the standard bullet connectors but insulated them up, I added a red wrap of tape to remind me where the live feed parts are at the end of the red feed cable. The end result is brilliant, I now have a nice new looking shiny centre console. Not so new it looks out-of-place mind you, but new enough to show it has been cared for. here are some of the pics of the restoration, I have also posted the full process here or click the quick links below.

tired and damaged

broken rear light

top of console and under top plate

top of console

removing the bulb plate

ashtray with almost no colour

freshly sprayed not even dry top plate

clean top of console

new console loom

new rear light fitting

full length

ashtray in place

finished article

Quick Links:

Factory fitted aircon tidy up: photos – Inside the car – Factory Fitted aircon unit tidy up click here

Factory fitted centre console refurbishment: Inside the car – Factory fitted centre console refurbishment click here

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A Round Of Golf?

Another weekend almost over but I managed to get work done on the car. I also managed to get a service done on the wife’s car, her cherished VW Golf. We purchased all the parts on Saturday morning, the air filter, oil filter, oil etc and I was left to my own devices on Saturday afternoon to do it all while she went out again. It did feel strange having to get my metric tools out from the different Snap On drawer and not the imperial sets though. The air filter was encased in a massive slap of plastic on top of the engine. There were more pipes and wires coming out of the engine than a robot research facility. To get to the spark plugs it was a performance as there was a channel of wires with their own coils attached at the top. They were hidden under another plastic trunking system, that in turn had wires attached to it all over the place. The whole thing was nightmare.

What I am getting at here is the basic principle of the engine has not changed at all. The cylinders are there, the pistons, the spark mechanism etc. OK, the engines may have gotten bigger and smaller, they may have changed shape a little in configuration, the ideal number of cylinders is still in debate. Fuel injection is squirted into the cylinders, four valves instead of two. But why hasn’t technology moved on to the principle itself? Yes we will have electric cars eventually but not for a while yet, that will be a major leap. The Mustang’s air filter sits on top of carburettor held on by a single wing nut, that sits on top of an inlet manifold with four bolts, it draws in fuel and mixes it, burns it then chucks the waste out the back. Fuel injection mixes it with the air and burns it and chucks it out the back. Same thing, OK, so it’s more efficient now, but I feel at home under the hood on the older engine. The new engines have computer this, and wire that, control box this. Are they more reliable? I don’t think so. If my Mustang timing goes out a bit, dust of my timing gun, turn the distributer and re-tighten. Done. New car, download the software, plug-in an expensive decoder, type in what you want. Reset the warning light on the dash. unplug unit and write out a huge bill. Luckily I have a great mechanic Will at Park Garage who looks after my modern cars for me when they play up, but I know he loves the classics too. I’m sure he would rather get a socket set on a v8 header than plug-in a laptop! What has happened to computers in the last forty years? Size of a building to start with, now there is more technology in a cell phone than put man on the moon.

Once tuned up a forty-seven year old Muscle Car will give a vast majority of modern cars a run for their money, even if they don’t it will give you a bigger smile while driving it than a plain old euro box! I didn’t enjoy the round of Golf as I did working on my car. There was no sense of achievement, or is it just me?

Sunday I worked on my car, well the parts in the Man Cave at least. The rain made sure I wasn’t gonna push her out the garage for today anyway. I was just tinkering around and decided to polish the chrome on my factory option aircon unit. That little polish gave me a great idea I will share with you. The front of the unit has the classic “camera case” black dimpled look. It had worn almost down to the bare metal around the dials and the nozzles. Now the chrome sparkles and the black suddenly looks wrong. I had this idea a while ago to polish it with black boot polish, it didn’t work and just rubbed straight off. Can you see where I am going with this now? Today I thought why not spray it? There is chrome lettering on the front as well as the badge. These would need to be masked off to stop the over spray. What black would I use, gloss, undercoat, primer? The original black is a matt black or a dull satin from what I can see. With the decision made I got out some plastic sheets, (ok it was a thin packaging bag), not the paper masking kind like you should use in a spray shop. I used the electrical insulating tape as that can be moved a little in place and was such a smallish area and fiddly to do. I masked it all up and done a tiny test spray with Eastwoods Under Hood Satin black on the back of the unit near the top out-of-the-way. Once it dried it looked brilliant. I completed the masking up at the front, I removed the old air direction nozzles and sprayed the front with a couple of very light spray passes. It still left the dimpled finished as the original had, but just blackened up the front. I still wanted the authentic look and I believe I now have that. All that is left to do is get some artists paints mix up the colour and paint in the colours of the badge. Try doing that on a modern car!

The best part of the whole thing is I found a date stamp on the back of the unit – 28th June 1966

Finished Article:

Here are some pictures of the process, the full guide of what and how I did it can be found under the Photos – Inside the Car – Factory Aircon Tidy Up. The pics here don’t really show how thin the paint was as you can see the bare metal underneath.