Shattered & Tinkering

I have now come to realise that I just can’t live without my cell phone! This week I was waiting for my train home and dropped my phone from the little bench I was sitting on. It couldn’t land on the side or the bit where the cover was on could it? No, it had to land on the very corner that the cover came off and hit the concrete with a delicate “dink”, because it only feel about eighteen inches it didn’t even bounce. But that little impact shattered the screen from the top left corner to half way down the screen on the other side. I even surprised myself with the torrent of new swear words that flowed instinctively from deep within my subconscious thoughts, the flood of words formed into incomprehensible sentence without breathing, one word per crack it would seem. With that in mind it still worked so I should be thankful for that, sadly the screen was difficult to read obviously. I ordered a replacement glass screen that evening from eBay, every time I looked at that screen I was reminded of the fact that I really should pay more attention to what I am doing, along with the fact that I should apologise to a few fellow passengers who were near by. Those poor now scared for life souls must have thought that I was some sort of nutter trying to recruit people into my fledgling cult using a strange chant, using a strange language mixed in with copious amounts of Cockney Rhyming Slang! Friday night I replaced the glass which took me almost four hours in total. The reason it took so long? I was tired and just didn’t want to damage it, I wasn’t sleeping because I was worried about my phone. Now my phone is back to its former glory and works again, and my life is a once again organised into some sort or order, but I can’t help feeling the phone has been tainted in some way. When you have a minor fender bender in the car, you never feel the same towards the car again, or is that just me? Off the back of this traumatic event of mine, I need to ask a question though; Can you live without your cell phone? I came to realise that my functioning life was on that phone and I definitely can’t live without it; My contacts, my personal emails as well as the emails for this blog, my diary, things to do, passwords & website logins (all encrypted via an app of course), birthdays, anniversaries, text messages, photographs and in fact just about everything is on there. It felt like my hand had a finger removed because I didn’t use the phone as much, let alone being the extension of my arm that it usually is. I have now backed up my phone and the important things I need just in case I damage it beyond repair or it doesn’t turn on one day.

On a Friday afternoon at work we tend to ask each other what we have planned for the weekend, things like going to see parents, BBQ’s, chilling out, going to the movies etc, when they get to me I get “What are you doing on the car this weekend Mart?” Now either I am predictable, or I have just conditioned their thoughts to expect me to be working on my project or obsession depending who you talk to that know me. This week I was asked if I was going to be out “Tinkering” with my car? That was an expression I haven’t heard for a long time and I don’t normally associate the term with “working on the car” as I tend to call it. Does anybody else have a little phrase they use for their car work? I would love to know.

On my Twitter account I saw a reference to a great story from 1966. That year Ford provided their latest model Convertible Mustang for a promotional exercise in conjunction with the Empire State Building. The car was perched on the 86th Floor and taken up to the top floor by means of only the passenger lifts, no helicopter or winches were used. It’s an incredible read and amazing what they managed to do with a team of Ford engineers, six hours overnight and a few small lifts! It stayed up there on the building for the next five months.

I have posted the rest of the photos and the full story of it in my “Articles” menu or you can click here for the quick link.

This weekend I have been doing a little bit of tidy up work where the door pillar on the right hand side. There were a few little rust holes that needed treating and the seams strengthening. I got the Dremel out and slowly sanded down the seam filler for a good base for the filler to cover up the imperfections. Next weekend I hope to get the car out and rub it down smooth ready for some anti-rust treatment primer.

painstaking sanding down with the Dremel

Quick Link: Empire State Building and Ford Mustang, click here

Share my Content

Articles galore

Finally got round to it!

Over the months I have been searching around for good articles on the First Generation Mustangs 1964 1/2 to 1973, I believe I have completed that task at long last. I have come across a few articles that were sparse, some that just droned and so nit picky it wasn’t enjoyable, and some that were great mixture. I have had quite a few “hits” on the ’66 Mustang article that I posted a while back where it gave details of the car, number sold and options etc. I have collated all of the other car years articles together and added them to my “Articles – Mustang Profiles by Year” for the full specifications of each year, or for a quick overview comparison of the years models click here. There is a quite a lot of information about the cars for each year from optional extras available to colour options to choose from at the time. I have tracked down a good Vin Decoder with diagrams which shows where to locate the VIN and how to read it too, (the VIN details are also on each specific year of car too). The 1964 Ford Press Release for the Mustang is very interesting and worth the read. I would like to say that it was all my own work, however and sadly I can’t claim that accolade and the source(s) are acknowledged. I have taken some of the articles edited them and patched them together to make a longer article. It’s interesting as I was looking for the information that there does seem to be a lot of duplication on the web sites for this subject, it’s all pretty similar as it’s now as it’s a popular part of automotive history. I hope the articles turn out to be useful as they did for me and I learned quite a lot in the process. I will continue to find more interesting articles that catch my eye and post them too, keep checking for updates when you return. Looking forward to the weekend, it’s been a long week already.

Share my Content

A new game called “you dare!”

I will explain my new game towards the end but it is all relevant to what I got up to on Saturday. I usually have my little comment above where the logo sits just now, but it’s for a good reason that I break my little habit. This is a sign on one of the doors that greets you as you go in. Just a little sign that hides the Aladdin’s cave inside of automotive riches beyond belief. To somebody who has a modern car this really doesn’t seem logical, but trust me – it IS!

Saturday I took the drive down to see an important man – Adam from Mustang Maniac. This drive to my Holy Grail of Mustang offices is always a great day out for me, I get to see Mustangs, lots of Mustangs in fact, I get to buy things for my Mustang and I get to pick the brains of one of the few people I trust when it comes to my car; What more could a man ask for? If you have been following my blog and the progress I am making so far you will know that I have progressed to the brakes. Yep, the scary bit. Why scary? ’cause if you get it wrong its gonna hurt. Not only will it hurt in the wallet department to fix the damaged car, but also in the chest area. Reason for the chest pains is that in the sixties these cars came out and thundered down the roads, they owned the quarter-mile strips but not everybody gave them the respect they deserved, there were no airbags and the steering column is a metal shaft that has no collapsible sections. When people had accidents in these cars the lap belts didn’t really do much to be honest, so the result was they got what was called the “DROF” injury. I had heard this a few times before but never got to the bottom of it. My other trusted friend of mine Will, went on to explain (when I first got my car), that when they used to crash the drivers slammed their bodies into the steering wheels, if you had a particular embossed logo on you steering wheel it left an imprint with the massive bruise if you survived! What is “DROF”?? Again he said it quite simply, what is FORD backwards? Damn it, so simple and then the penny dropped. So now you know too.

Anyway, I digress, I had taken the front brake backing plate off in order to treat them and replace the shoes on them. I sent pictures to him and he said I should bring it with me so he could have a look at it with me to make sure all was OK. I arrived one hour later after I set off and parked up. I had my brake parts in hand, I went to the door like a kid going to the sweet shop. As if by Magic Adam opened the door and said “Make a cup of tea if you want, I’m just taking Ruby for a little walk”. Ruby is a gorgeous dog that sits with Adam in his office, if your lucky she will sit with you. We chatted and put the world to rights for a few minutes, all the time Ruby was making sure she had her fair share of my attention. Then we got down to some serious stuff, the brakes I had taken off. We looked and decided to go and compare with a set of drums that had come off for a disc brake conversion, they had not been touched other than that. I don’t trust anything the previous owner has done on this car. As we weren’t certain what was required for the moment, we decided to get the rear parts ready that I definitely needed, that’s new rear shoes and couple of cylinders, I already had the hardware for Christmas from the wife. We got them sorted and then I was up for a tour of the latest developments and the cars. I was shown the new storage areas that were going on, being in the middle of a move is never good, but I took the photos anyway. I’m sure it will be sorted out – funny thing is, you ask Adam for anything, he will go straight to it. It’s rather uncanny how he can make sense of the new stores even in the middle of the move around. Not all of it is even labelled up again yet.

one side wall covered, the marking up is coming along nicely

We were going outside to the yard, I made sure I was walking with Adam through the yard as we were greeted by the other six guard dogs. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, I liked these ones too. But, there is no way I would even walk near the gates on my own, they sort of look at you as if to say, “If you weren’t with Adam, we would eat you”. I’m sure the dogs licked their lips when they saw me coming! Quite frankly I got the vibes loud and clear thanks guys and girls. There has been a new dedicated storage area built for the body panels, and a little further along there was a decent sized storage that could hold about eight to ten cars, Adam opens up to reveal benches stacked with engines, gearboxes, drive trains and axles. We find the brake drums comparison we were after, and then we move onto a dedicated area where there is a rather special car that is being built in its own workshop. I say being built as the engine is going to be a 5.4 modern v8 engine under the hood, with the brake horse power to rival most super cars, to top that it has bespoke independent suspension being added to the front, I have never heard of that modification let alone see it. There are no towers or firewalls in the engine bay, the metal is all being fabricated just for this car, a real one-off . Nowhere near finished yet but it will be something else when it is – lucky bloke.

We looked around at some other cars and I got the background on them too, then we wandered back to the gates along with my four-legged furry escort. We sat back down in the office and talked more cars. At this point more customers came into the office to see Adam and we all chatted for a bit, we were shown his latest design for the 66 rear lights, LED versions behind the original lenses that looked epic. I will be having a set of them when I get to that point. I also managed to get a leaflet on the Evans Coolants. As I am a little worried about the over heating issues this is perfect timing, I have a PDF version here that you can read all about the Evans Waterless Coolant, or go to my “articles” section. It’s an impressive read that’s for sure. Again I will be having this in my car too when I get her going properly, if you have a Mustang that overheats, this will cure it. I have been doing my own research on this coolant as well, it looks impressive I feel the need for a review once it’s added. Lets face it, if Adam is selling this gear with the clients that Mustang Maniac has, then it has to be good. Sadly time continued to march on, and like all good things it was time for me to go home, but hey, “I’ll be back” as Arnie would say. That you can bet my car on!

I will be producing an interview article with Adam soon that I will put in my articles section. I’m sure it will be an interesting read when I get round to editing it that is.

My Car:

Well I now have the new set of brakes shoes all round and I took the front brake assembly apart, and added the pictures here, or go to the “Front Brake Drum Rebuild (part 2)”, under the photo’s section “Wheels & Brakes”. I have treated the backing plates with the Granville anti rust treatment. During the week I will add the second coats, this will leave me in a good position to reassemble them next weekend ready for more pictures. I have ordered some extra treats to my self from Frost, some VHT brake calliper spray in black to make the drums look nice, along with some Eastwood under-hood black spray which I will review later on as well. I may even get to put the booster back in next weekend too. That is if the weather holds out. As i need to use the Rust Cure today it was to cold outside. I prepared the backing plates outside and brought them inside to finish on the floor in the utility room. My ears are still ringing from the verbal slapping I got. Apparently you can’t put dirty car parts on a clean floor. In my defence I did clean them in the utility sink, which again is not acceptable either as I got the clean sink dirty. How is a man supposed to clean car parts if he can’t use the sink? I was then gonna take them into the kitchen instead to clean them, it was at this point I was offered a game of “you dare”. I had not heard this game for a while, last time I played a variation of this game called “just you dare”, I didn’t win that one either. Bearing in mind the wife lets me have my pocket money each month for my car, I decided to finish the clean outside and not attempt to play, “you dare”. Apparently this latest version of “you dare” with car parts now starts with the slow deep voice with hands on hips. I will look for these signs next time.

Hot tip for you, if you want to play “you dare”, don’t attempt to play it after your wife buys you parts for your car; this seems to tilt the odds against you.

Share my Content

The Yin and Yang effect

Good & not so good

The weekend started of pretty poor, I had a bug which started Friday morning and stopped me in my tracks for 30 hours or so, as a result I have been busy behind the scenes with the blog, more of that in a bit. I managed to get out into the man cave on Saturday mid morning to start the cleaning of my front brake drum. This time the sun was out, and that made me feel better for a start. The birds were singing and I had time to do what I wanted. I started the ritual tidy and clean up, I looked to my side a caught sight of a tame blackbird just by the door, showing no signs of fear. Not only was he just starring at me but looked like he wanted some food, he obviously changed his mind and flew away. Do they sense you wont hurt them? Back in the man cave I spread out the shower curtain to get my make shift spray booth ready. I mounted and sprayed the brake booster on my home made jig. The results were exactly what I was after, that almost natural metal look with a little character of old age pitting showing. I have posted the pics “Photo Menu, Engine bay, Brake booster part 2” or click here. A real good days work was had and it was only and late afternoon, time to get a quick blue ray in too, this is turning into a great day. Coming back in I went to get changed and heard the toilet running, strange, as the wife was out it couldn’t be her. On lifting the lid to the cistern the float mechanism had got stuck open and over flowing back into the bowl. So now my great day was now startin’ to go down the pan literally. Now I’m not happy, I had to get the household DIY tools in to fix it as they are now locked up in the man cave. I found the spare float valve unit that I bought ages ago, but never used from another kit I had. So off came the cistern from the wall, water spraying all over the place from the remains of back pressure in the shut of valve all up the wall of my freshly painted bathroom. The contents of my tool bag now all over the bathroom floor on a damp towel. the cistern parts mixed up amongst them. Reassembling the inlet float valve didn’t take long to be honest. The front door opened and in comes my wife in a great mood and comes upstairs to see what I was doing, I think the odd naughty word slipping from my lips gave it away. Then comes my favourite question in situations like these, “What are you doing?” The fact I have half of plumbing world all over the floor should have been a clue. Avoiding, my more obvious choice of a sarcastic remark when I am in a bad mood, I settled on explaining what had gone wrong and needed fixing. I expect we will probably get a bill big enough to fill a small swimming pool as a result just to make me feel even better about it. At this point she left me to get on with it. But she had bought me a nice cake while she was out. Once the job was done and adjusted for the water levels I took the tools out and locked up again. That cake was well and truly deserved, why? Because the spray job still looked good when I went back to the man cave!

Now here is a thought; is there such a thing as the pleasure & pain thing or Yin & Yang? I found this petrol head spin on the idea, brilliant, I just had to post this:

At the beginning I mentioned that I had been busy behind the scenes for the last couple of weeks. I have tweaked the blog a bit to make it a little more user friendly and added a couple of photos for the brake drum clean here, brake booster treatment and spraying here and a review of Granville Rust Cure here.

I have also started a YouTube Channel “One man and his Mustang”, (clever that huh?) where I will post videos, clips and reviews of what I am or have been up too. There are two videos, one for the products that I am using after I was asked that question, so it made sense to show them. The other is my Granville Rust Cure process. Please subscribe to the channel if you like what you see. or give me some feedback on what you want to see. I have moved the “Contact me” button too in order to make it easier to email me.

I have added a couple of good articles as well, on specifications and options for the 66 Mustang for all body shapes. In fact lots of stuff has been added, I hope you like it.

The best thing about my YouTube Channel? You can see a marked improvement in my video editing and techniques that took a leap forward. If only my car would move along that quick!

Share my Content

Articles

Articles Idea

I was surfing the net looking for pictures and I stumbled across a web site that had some good articles and background information on a variety of cars.There was nice article on a 1965 Shelby GT350. I have added a new menu called Articles on the right hand bar. I have placed the article in there, or click here to read it.

I will keep an eye out for more good stuff and acknowledge its source, I’m not that bad a person to claim others work as my own. However it deserves to be read, if this gives them a couple more links then I hope they will be pleased.

The basic principle of this site is my journey with my Mustang, the good and not so good. If I come across good outstanding articles that take my eye I will share them with you. But I don’t intend on making this a library of articles, that has been done to death on other good sites. Enjoy the read and I expect there will be some more. If you want me to add some specific pages to my site let me know via the “Contact me” on the home button. I always try to respond asap to all emails.