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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Bright Lights & Chrome

After a long week at work I didn’t think the weekend was ever going to get here. I had the car packed the night before to get to Mustang Maniac without any delays. Well that was apart from me dodging, rabbits, pheasants and any other form of livestock that decided that it wanted an early death by car! I managed to avoid all of them and my horn got used more time on that trip than the previous ten trips I reckon! Anyway I arrived to sea of people at the offices with Adam’s desk surrounded by customers at one point. I waited my turn to even say hello and discuss my plan of action. The plan was simple, rear bumper! This sounds like an easy task, but they can be a real pain if the bumpers are out of shape or don’t fit to the light panel. As the rear end of the car had been rebuilt this was going to be a moment of truth. I decided to take some pics of the process as I went along. I did get a helping hand from Yogi and Adam who popped in to see how I was doing. Apparently I was being a bit of wimp when it came to tightening the bolts up. The chrome bolts were sitting slightly proud and looked OK. The guys said that is not good enough and give it proper tightening up which pulled the bolts into the bumper and sat flush. The second side was a bit easier as I knew what to expect. I call it a learning process for me.

The whole set up comprises of a set of deluxe chrome bumper bolts, bumper irons (which I never had), mounting bolts and set of mounting pads to go between the bracket and the rear light panel.

The rear number plate fitting was screwed in first and only held in by two self tap screws. The wire will need to be long enough to get through the rear light panel to be connected to the rear side lights part of the loom.

Next up was the bumper irons, these will only fit one way and are shaped to the bumper itself with the angles.

The bolts are pushed through the squared out holes and the sprung washers are fitted over the bolts. Again these will only fit one way up due to the collar on the chrome bolts.

sprung “wave” washers

bolt

washer in place

The bracket has to be massaged into place to fit the irons and to try to get the bolts to sit flat. This a bit of an art that I didn’t have before. Yogi loosened it all off and readjusted the positions and cranked on some pressure, this was to collapse the bumper washers to the irons forming a good fit, and to also pull the bolts down into the bumper itself. Both sides are exactly the same and there is no left or right hand sides on these parts. The mounting bolts are put through a large washer pushed out the light panel, a mounting pad made of dense foam goes over the bolts. The pads are tight around the bolt and will hold it in place to the light panel. The two-man job to align the bumper to the bolts goes without question, and the top bolts are tightened finger tight to hold the bumper in place. At this point Chris was extra set of eyes sitting further back behind the car to advise, “up a bit, down a bit, over a bit, wooo – too much” etc. This turned out to be a great help. We needed to move the bumper over a bit as it wasn’t exactly central so Yogi give it little nudge to adjust it up before the final tension on the bolts was done up. From underneath the bumper you can see the bolts into the irons. The two bolts each side are able to move inside the slots for the bolts to allow some movement to align them up. A trick of the trade was used to help align the bumper, but I have been sworn to secrecy on that one. I will say that it’s a great trick though.

The down side is photo’s couldn’t really be taken as we were holding the bumper. The result was brilliant, a fantastic fitting bumper, as good as I have seen anywhere. Well chuffed with it.

The rest of the day was involved in me completing the wiring at the back of the car and wrapping it with loom tape. As the LED light board had its own wires I soldered the connections in place to remove any opportunity for a poor connection. Heat shrink tubing was used to seal the soldered wires and then the full loom wrap. All of which you won’t see because it hidden out-of-the-way. Just a minor detail that nobody will see or notice except for the people who know, such as the MM guys who won’t let me get away with shoddy workmanship! Adam wanted to check out the rear loom was working fine and he used the Power Probe to make the LED boards in place.

Back up lamp.

Side Lights.

The indicator lights never seem to show up as amber very well on these pictures, but trust me they are bright.

The Brake lights are very bright too, so a huge upgrade to the standard Mustang lights.

All in all a great day as a major part was fitted and it looked like I done something. Next week I’m not so sure what I am up too, but I have some more under hood tidying up to do. It’s all part of the adventure of bringing the car back to life. Waiting for next week already! That moment of truth of was talking about earlier on – no need to worry, it all fitted up without any major issues.

Thanks to the Guys, Adam, Yogi for the extra pair of hands and Chris for the extra pair of all-seeing eyes. 🙂

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Adding Metal

What a difference a week can make at Mustang Maniac, my car seems to have gone from a shell to a recognisable car in a mater of days, it even has bolts back in it. I have been sent little teaser photos by Adam and John over the last couple of weeks and it seriously wetted my appetite to get down there as soon as I can to start work on her. The car was packed Friday night, the alarm was set a little earlier on the phone and wishing the hours away to the morning. I arrived to find that Adam had been invited to Goodwood Revival so I was left in the very capable hands of John and Yogi. I was taken around to see my car and my jaw hit the floor as the car has a rear end and sides now. Terry has been adding the panels, welding up and doing a fantastic job and his attention to detail is second to none. The pictures here are of Terry working on the quarters with old school techniques rarely found in this Mustang restoration business. Firstly clamping up the panels and the wheel arches to each other for a dry fitting, the trunk lid rested in place for quarter gap positioning. Once everything is place then the top joints welded and brazed in place just like they were from the factory. Many people will just weld and leave it as it will be covered with filler and paint, not these guys though and that is quality of workmanship that they have become respected for. (Please on the pictures to see the full sized versions.)

Do I apologise for such a large picture post? No way!

new door

aligned to b pillar

quarter to door

spot welds

The other workmanship revolves around the bottom of the roof to the quarters themselves. These are normally butt welded up by some people or even cut around the lead work. But here the lead has been removed, the spot welds removed and the rotten sections removed and re-plated with the original contours. This allows for the full quarter to be to be fitted to the roof section and welded where it’s supposed to be. Terry welds into the original places and then it will be ground down to allow for the full leading to be applied where it will all be covered over and the strength is retained in the car. Many other places will not do the lead work as it’s a fine art and some modern garages don’t use it for daft health and safety reasons.

With the quarters in place and fully welded up the next big panel was the trunk lid. With the freshly painted hinges and inner wheel arches they were lightly bolted into place and the trunk lined up to the quarters, once in place its all tightened up. The trunk will lay down under its own weight to allow final positioning of the trunk. Once that is done the tricky and dangerous (if you get it wrong) twisting of the sprung bars into place to keep the trunk open once the key has released the catch.

trunk lid

hinges

sprung hinges

The next section was the filler and light panel to be fitted. The new rear quarters have alignment holes that need to be located to the light panel to ensure the light housings fit into place as the two halves form both the openings. The panel is then welded to the chassis brackets to give the rear strength.

Next is the rear quarter links that join the rear panel which are positioned and welded into place. With everything in place Terry then completes the trunk and quarter areas he has done so far with the traditional brazing.

brazing the quarters not welding

quarter to window bazing

top quarter water chanel brazing

light panel brazing

water run of brazing

Forward thinking at this point see the guys dummy fit a rear bumper to see where the quarter end caps will sit in relation to the trunk and the quarters. These original fittings are notorious to fit correctly to new panels, but these went on like a dream and only small adjustments needed. The bumper will be able to be moved into the final correct position at a later date. The final panel for the rear section is the back up rear valance. My original was well and truly mashed up on the right hand side as if it had been backed over a rock. It could have been repaired but for the sake of £60 it was decided to replace with a new panel and there is no rust worries either at this point now.

Remove the bumper and then screw the rear valance into place after aligning all the sections up together.

With the welding all completed the seams were sealed up like they were in the factory and it was really was quite brutal in those days and nothing fancy. Terry then added the boot catch to the inner panel and welded it all up. Rear section done.

copy of original sealing

What does she look like from the side? Pretty darn good I would say. The next stage was to add a little filler to the panels to smooth out any imperfections and apply flexible sealer under the quarter to the sill.

quarter to door

flexible sealer

During all of this you may be thinking well what did I do Saturday? The answer was simple, I was prepping the other panels and removing the paint in order for Terry to be able to weld up properly. My tasks this week was to strip the fenders the “A” pillar posts once I had removed the doors, and then start on the roof. A large amount of work, but it all needs to be done so I left very late into the evening, I was physically hurting at the end of the day. The same old story, strip, scrape, strip again wire wool and strip any remaining last bits before a final wipe over with thinners.

stripper getting to work

small dents exposed

before stripping

after stripping

The roof tuned out to be a big task. The car is on the jig I couldn’t reach into the middle, even at 6’4″ tall my long arms didn’t make. So I had to balance on the sills hold on and apply stripper and scrape. Now I’m no gymnast and it was quite tricky at times to be honest and I think this is where the fatigue kicked in. But the results were good and the roof came up pretty spotless.

daunting start

stripper getting to work

Sunday I have spent most of the day editing these pictures ready for the blog plus the afternoon nap too. Next week – I know what I will be doing, stripping the hood back to bare metal.

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Back on track & Check lists

Lots of updates in one go this weekend.

At long last I have been able to do something worthwhile for my car. The snow has gone after heavy rain overnight. Due to the sun being out and no rain I decided to go for the Bumper Stone Guard part 2 repair. This was to de-rust the top side, fill the dents and a factory stamp mark that almost came through the metal itself, and then spray it. So there I was in my working tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt. I’m a real man I can take it. Snap-On tool box keys, Check. Man cave lock and padlock keys, Check. Stupid grin on my face, Check. Trainers with no grip, Check. I opened the door, and the fresh air hit me, stupid grin still there? Slipping, but confidence is sky-high. Stepped outside of the patio on to the grass, speeding up as I went to the man cave to save face and not admit I was cold. All my plans went up in the air, as did I. Trainers lost traction and the mud bath was beckoning to my back side, I looked like a spider on acid skating on ice. It was arms and legs everywhere. In fact it reminded me of my classic dance moves when I used to own the disco dance floor. Ok, perhaps I wasn’t that good but I thought I was. Thinking about it, I got more dates when I didn’t dance, especially when I unleashed a few well rehearsed special moves on floor. Well, in the films it obviously impressed everybody, it didn’t impress any ladies enough so that I would get a date though. That John Travolta film has got a lot to answer for, that’s all I can say. Anyway, I managed to stay on my feet, like a baby giraffe trying to stand for the first time. Grin still there? Checking, nope, it’s a grimace now. I came straight back in and changed my shoes to work boots, putting on a jumper and fleece on as well at the same time, just in case it got cold of course. My next venture to the man cave was more dignified to say the least.

As a result of doing the Bumper guard I used the Dinitrol 6030 bodywork filler. I have had quite a few hits on my Dinitrol page which was under construction for a while. Yes, I had used it before but had no pictures to go with what I had in mind. So being the bright spark that I am I had a brain wave, do them both at the same time. Yeah, see where I’m going with this?

The results were great. One day rubbing it all down and filling. Today rubbing down and spraying. I managed to take photos of the bumper guard being repaired and also for the review the Dinitrol filler too. The Bumper Stone Guard part 2 pictures are now in the Photos section, or click here. The Dinitrol review is under the Consumable Reviews section, or click here. From what I can see, this is the first Dinitrol review in depth on the net. You read it here first!

Results all round then, photos, review and a finished bumper guard.

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Eau de Mustang

It’s freezing, and small flurry of snow flakes which didn’t come to a lot, but I know it was cold. The down side is that the work I wanted to do more work on my bumper stone guards, it’s looking like I will have to wait till the slightly warmer weather. I doubt that the Dinitrol body filler will set very well in -2degrees let alone trying to put rust treatment on or spray some undercoat. The tins of spray were sold cold the balls inside didn’t want to move, I know that feeling all to well today. (Sorry ladies, but it was cold). Nevertheless I still went out to play cars. I took a selection of sockets out with me and opened the garage. Then it hit me; Eau de Mustang. That unmistakable odour of old metal, slight hint of super octane petrol (due to the fact I have no exhausts at the moment) & underseal coating. Perhaps I should approach these plug-in air freshener people to create a mans version, Mustang, BBQ, Fry Up and Pub. I’m sure it would be a big hit. That classic car odour is the smell that all petrol heads love, it’s loved almost as much as the delicate smell of perfume from a loved one once they have left the room. (Did I really just say that? Note to self: Must man up on these posts!) It also means that I have to put a ventilation brick or three in my garage wall in the summer and nicer weather decides to arrive.

I digress, I went out to look under the car a tighten up anything and everything that looks like it needed tightening around the transmission without going mental of course. The garage floor was almost as cold as me, I managed to find a couple of nuts that needed quarter turn to nip up properly. There was the return ATF connection coming from radiator that needed a turn as well, that was after I had to go and get some spanners.

Yesterday I posted that I had a new oil/drip tray, that was put in place as well under the transmission to see if there are any more episodes of my Mustang scenting her ground. Time will tell. My slow puncture has slowed a little, but it will need taking to me ol’ mate Will to have a little look for me.

I have posted my swaging tool review here (or look under the Tools Review in the header bar). From my stats on this blog, I have had searches for, how to use swaging tool and review of swaging tool etc. So as it was cold and I had done what I wanted to do today on the car I thought I would write-up the review. Hope you like it or find it useful.

Come on Summer!

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Dodging the rain

Dodging the rain again today.

The sun was out for about 3 hours. Ok, I exaggerated a bit, I should have said it stopped raining for a couple of hours. The break in the rain allowed me the hour or so of quality time on the car. I decided to fit the Scott Drake fan shroud on the radiator. It was a nice hassle free project for a change. I have written a review of the parts and a step by step of the fitting. The fitting start to finish took no more than an hour all in. The next part for me to do is the Bumper stone guard paint or top side.

The New Year seems to be charging towards us rather than creeping up on us.

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Day in the man cave!

The weather is not good 🙁

Well, I am starting to get the hump big time with this weather now. I was beginning to think I should build an Ark to get the animals in two by two instead of my Mustang! The rain was so bad that I couldn’t get out onto the car today, let’s just say it was very persistent in trying to get me soaked through and prevent me from going out there. The next best option? Man cave! (My shed in other words,) shed it was to be. When did it stop raining? Just as the sun was going down. Marvelous! It was not a wasted day in the end though, I worked out where to finally put my vice (vise for the USA readers). I have made a few adaptions to it for a quick release version. The review for the vice is here or in the main menu at the top, it’s good bit of kit.

I will try to get out on the Mustang radiator to fit the new shroud or at least start work on the Bumper Stone Guard tomorrow.

Looking forward to a New Year with better things in store for us, with any luck.

Have a good evening everybody and I wish you all a very Happy New Year.

(Just in case you don’t come back before then).

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Redesign of website!

Blog improvements?

Before you panic and say “he’s broke it” I haven’t.

On the right hand side there were menus that were getting longer and they looked a little messy. I still had people ask me where the photo’s were!

So, I decided to split things up a little for the better, at the top under the header there are now, 7 buttons; Home, Forums and Discussions, Best Mustang Ever, Photos, Tool Reviews, Part Review & Consumable Reviews. If you click on them they take you to the places or the will drop down into menus and subsections. This means everything of importance is at the top now, so no excuse to not find anything. The book reviews I have still left on the right, there are now menus that tell you what is coming soon for each section.

I hope it now works better for you and more natural to look at. The site has got bigger than I expected a lot faster too. I have added a Tags section, click on the words and should show the posts that mention it, or just do a plain ol’ search.

Please let me know what you think, leave it or change it back – I hope not anyway 🙁

Cars

At the weekend I hope to do a little work with Bumper Stone Guard and see how it goes. I intended to take some photos for the review of the Dinitrol filler as well, two birds with one stone and all that! Still not decided on the final colour of the car and the interior colours, I have added forum here or go to all the forum sections and let me know what you think on a number of subjects. .

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Bumper Stone Guard

I have been out all day, OK, I was out till it started to get dark.

I was working on the Bumper Stone Guard from the front of the car, This bit of work need to be in two very distinct parts; the inside rust protection and then the outside cosmetics. For Part 1 I had rubbed it down, treated it and put the first coat of POR15 on it. All seems to have gone well and I am please with the results today. The metal was in great condition when I got down to it under all the dirt and grime. I will apply the second coat tomorrow ready for me to do a bit of work on it next weekend on the outside. I have called it (yep you guessed it) Stone Bumper Guard (part 1) the photo’s and process for what I did is under photos, or click here.

I have added an RSS feed if you dont want to keep visisting the site, that way you never miss a post and can visit when you can. I have been asked to put quick links at the top in the “home” bar. consider it done!

Hope your having a good weekend and got everything in place ready for the holidays!