On The Road

A very special day for me today as I drove my car for the first time on public roads. Initially I was going to put up the full story of the complete nightmare it has been to get to this day registering her in the UK. But, I have decided that I didn’t want to ruin this post by having a major rant at the totally pathetic and incompetent Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) here in the UK. I will be posting a separate post on how and what went on with them very soon.

For now though it’s the good bits and positive vibes. Earlier in the week I had my number plates delivered and I was waiting to get a clear day to fit them on the car. The back of the car would be fine as that’s easy access, but I would have to roll the car out to get the front plate on. I wasn’t going to do that if it was raining.

The new plates are pressed metal with silver raised lettering. I have been given a nick-name by the Mustang Manic guys which is “Sat-Nav”. I make no excuses here – I am completely useless at directions. I am like an ant, I follow the same route all the time if shown. I get lost coming home and I have lived here over ten years now, honestly I am terrible. I have to put my sat-nav on to go to the MM yard still. When I was at their yard getting ready to fire up my car up I had to go and get petrol, they had to draw me a map of directions so I didn’t get lost on my way to the petrol station, which is less than a mile away. It’s a great sense of pleasure for the guys to take give me grief over it still. Why did I mention that? On the registration plates when your order them you can have type at the top and or bottom, I was going to put Sat-Nav at the bottom of mine. At the last minute I changed my mind as it would probably end up getting hacked of having to explain what it means to people. So I went with the standard Ford Mustang and the year, just in case people don’t know what it is.

As the plates don’t have holes they have to me drilled where you want them. I found the old USA reg plate for my car to use for the template. I aligned it up on the back of the new plates and market it with a pencil.

I placed a small piece of masking tape over the marked up areas to stop the small pilot drill from slipping. With the small hole done I took a larger drill to the pilot hole to allow the screw to go through.

There are just two holes at the top and a rubber grommet at the bottom. Screwing the plates on was really the last job on the car apart from maintenance from now on. It was a real buzz to tighten up those screws.

The car was ready. The weather was not bright sunshine, but it was dry and bright, today was the day. I got changed out of my working clothes and slipped into the driver’s seat. I took a deep breath trying to steady my slightly shaking hands. I put the key in the ignition and pumped the gas pedal a couple of times. The engine turned over for a few seconds and eventually the fuel was pumped into the carb. The engine fired and the exhausts barked into life, I revved it a few times and sat there for a what seemed liked minutes, but was only a few seconds. For the first time I adjusted the lap belt and pulled it tight. I checked the gauges, oil pressures were up, voltmeter was now reading just over fourteen and a half volts, petrol gauge showing a quarter of a tank. It was enough as I only intended to drive a few miles to see how she would settle down. I wound the window down, I pressed the brake pedal and pressed in the button on the gear lever to pull it into “R”, the revs died down as the gearbox engaged reverse, I released the brake and she rolled back out of the drive onto the road. I stopped the car and pulled the lever into “D”. The revs dropped and I released the brake and she rolled forwards while straightening the wheel. I squeezed the gas pedal the revs picked up and the exhaust stepped up their noise level, I was off. I smiled to myself and those few seconds will never ever be erased from my memory now. After a few hundred yards I came to my first junction, indicated and looked both ways. Normally this is second nature and I drive this way to work in my normal daily car. Today was different, I looked again and then again. I pressed the pedal and I moved into the road. The gears changed, but I didn’t feel it as it was silky smooth jus the engin note changing. I drove towards a pub where some guys where outside smoking, the group turned to look at my car. The buzz stepped up a level. People were looking at my car, as this is a narrow road the throb of the v8 and exhaust tone was bouncing of the buildings and a little girl with her dad pointed at my car, I don’t know what was said as the car soumd was my world at the moment. The road opened up into a country lane and I began to settle down a little. Sitting on the left didn’t feel strange, it just felt right and natural in the car. I drove a little more and pressed the pedal more. No hesitation, just a change in exhaust note. I checked the speedo and I was doing sixty mph without realising it. I drove around till I found a nice quiet country road and turned into it. I got out to take a couple of pics before anybody else turned into the road.

I started to make my way back just taking in the roads and sound, oh that sound. It’s so much better than I ever imagined down a country road. I was concentrating intently. The result of over four years of love, passion and work culminated in this brief fifteen minute drive. Was it worth it, hell yeah. It was worth it and wanted to drive it more. The trouble is I couldn’t. I left my wallet in my other car and the wife had taken that car. So I had no money to put fuel in her today. I needed to keep some in the tank for that longer trip to fill her up. I pulled back onto the drive and relaxed. With sadness I turned her off and just sat there. The engine was silent, but I could still her sound in my head. I unbuckled and got out of the car and shut the door. I walked around the car and checked underneath for leaks or anything out of the ordinary. I pulled the hood and I heard the metallic little ticks of metal cooling down as I inspected for anything out-of-place. All was OK.

I tidied up some things in the garage and left her outside for some fresh air. With the tools away and everything back in the tool boxes I walked back to the car, got in and started her up again, I gently rolled her into the garage until the rubber ball hanging from the ceiling just touched the windscreen. I turned her off and got out. I covered her up and realised that only now had my smile started to slip away. Less than ten miles driven and yet those recaptured memories of driving my first Mustang over twenty-five years were reignited like a firework going off. Was it what I was expecting owning my own Mustang and driving a v8 Mustang? No, it was better, MUCH better. Unfortunately I can’t explain that feeling of completing a project and realising a dream come true.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but there will be more I promise when I get more adventurous driving further afield. For now I am just so happy.

I noticed earlier today that Mustang Maniac blog posted about a ’67 390GT in Acapulco Blue. I had seen this car a few years ago and was the inspiration for my colour scheme.

What a day, what a buzz. More than that, what a truly awesome car Ford made in 1966.

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Road Test

The weekend arrived and I was on my way to the Mustang Maniac yard. This time it felt strange as there we no tools in the back of the car. Why was I going there? Because I could and I just love bein’ there with the guys. I arrived to be greeted by Adam who was rushing around for an order that was about to be picked up. When things had calmed down a bit, we sat in the boy’s club and had tea which was washed down with biscuits that Paul bought in, donuts that Gary W. bought in and a huge Jaffa Cake that I bought in, (it was supposed to have twelve servings but six was about right though). We had a good petrol head chat and again listened to Gary’s stories about Ford in the early days. Adam announced the plan for today was to road test my car before it rains. Oh boy was I excited. Adam got the trade plates and I fired her up and let her warm up. Adam got in the car and I was to make notes on the things that needed doing as he found them. I wanted Adam to drive as he knows how the car should feel and behave where as I don’t on the old cars. I was about to be part of the inner sanctum for a full Mustang Maniac road test and what it involved. We pulled out of the gates and the first thing was “straighten the steering wheel”, it was upside down a simple fix and I made a note. We moved along slowly and the gearbox went up a gear then another all smoothly, so far so good. We increased speed a little and Adam was listening intently for noises at about twenty five mph, checking the steering and gently dabbing the brakes. We pulled onto a round about and indicated for a dual carriageway. We again was a little cautious getting up to speed this time about sixty-five mph. After a couple of minutes we pulled into petrol station and was meet by an old school pump attendant who obviously knows Adam well, “Fill her up – he’s paying” said Adam laughing. The attendant filled her up and I sold a kidney to pay for it. Seriously it wasn’t that bad at all really. We got back in the car and pulled away back onto the dual carriageway. Adam was then sensing the steering drift and directional steering listening for more noises and unexpected sounds, “need to re-do the geo as it has a tiniest of pulls”, I made a note. The exhaust was tapping something under the car over heavy bumps, I made a note. We increased speed again to see how she handled, the wind noise picked up and the first few drops of rain started, my face must have dropped. Adam instantly said if it starts properly we’ll go back. My show standard beautiful wax job was streaming the water straight off the car. It wasn’t so much the top side of the car, it’s the underside we didn’t want all clogged up. We slowed down and seemed to have gone through the little band of dampness which had now dried up again, lights on and wipers working fine. Nothing around, so Adam decided to test kick-down on the automatic box. Oh yes, it drops the gears and the car lunged forward with a snarl from the engine and the exhaust burble turned to thunder. Yep that works. We turned of to some back roads after a few minutes of national speed limit speeds, this is where Adam now does other stuff. He was checking the brakes for pull, adjustment, travel and efficiency at high speed and low speed, “need to bleed the brakes again”, I made a note. We stopped with nothing around so we could pull away again, the gearbox was checked for manual gear changes to hold the gears and check the engine braking. We did that few times and manually changed up and down on the revs. Dead straight bit of road in front of us now, when it was announced that we “had to test the carb out for full gas flow”. Hell yeah! We stopped and let a van and car go past us, nothing behind or in front now. Adam nailed the loud pedal; the car moved sideways at the back a little, and we moved forwards, the wheels were spinning and scrambling for grip on the damp road, now we were in a straight line we rapidly picking up speed. Adam was grinning to himself and so was I, but I suspect my grin was bigger than his. “Yep, the carb fuel take up seems OK” laughing. “Look out the back”, as I did I could see a line of rubber for a considerable distance should we say disappearing into the distance 😉 The next part of the road was little villages, and lots of bends and undulations. Unfortunately we had to use the kick-down function on a few occasions to accelerate up to the national speed limit of course. This was all choreographed stuff, to test the bearings, stress on the axles, engine, mounts, bolts and temperatures. Oil fine, water, fine, fuel going down! We had a GPS speed sensor which was used to check the calibration of the speedo. At seventy mph the speedo showed sixty eight. “I will take that” Said Adam, at lower speeds thirty or so it was spot on. Adam did other tracking things with the camber of the road and all was fine. Now we came out to the round about and dual carriageway again, now the rain was starting up a little again. We headed back to the yard as Adam was happy. We pulled into the yard and Yogi was waiting for the report. We read back the exhaust report and the car was up in the air within seconds. Yogi done his thing and rattle could be heard when he knocked it. He got the spanners out and fixed it, now there was no noise. We checked the diff level for oil and it was full. I walked around the car – Mud. There was mud on my car, how dare it? So that means I just had to clean it again. So to all those out there didn’t believe it would be driven on the road; here is the proof. Come to think of it, is that mud or rubber from the tyres? lol. But I was happy the tiny little niggles from the road were not major issues. More settling in issues and I was told there would be more of that to be done after a few more miles. We need to adjust the headlights as well Adam mentioned. This week providing it doesn’t rain and the guy who tests the cars has space to fit her in, the car will go for its first MOT (Ministry Of Transport (test)) after the restoration. This MOT is the road worthiness test for most vehicles each year after they are three years old and a legal requirement in the UK. I hope that will happen as it means I can then start the process to get her proper UK registration plate. Excited and nervous at the same time. After my cleaning Adam had another road test to do and I again volunteered myself to take part. We followed the same route doing the same things. This time Adam stopped just after where we “tested” the carb fuel take up under full acceleration on my car. Although the rain had now covered most of the tyre marks up, it can still be seen just about. I took a photo of it to show you some of it. I marked near the end of it and where we could see the start. You can see tyre mark on the white marking in the road a little clearer. This was only done for a controlled test and not condoned in any way at all. The road was just slippery that’s all.

Results:

A very good road test, a couple of small issues that were sorted out pretty quickly. The others will be done when the geo is re-done. Mart is a seriously happy bunny! 😀

A Special Thanks:

Thanks goes out to Gary W. (ex Ford Director) who got me a couple of very special and rare gifts. I mentioned to him that I was after an original photo of Lee Iacocca (the head of the design depart for the Mustang project). The reason being that I managed to get an autograph of Lee a while ago and I wanted to frame them together. Gary bought me in a couple of real rarities in mint condition that are so much better than a photo. It’s well known that the Mustang was launched 17 April 1964, where Henry Ford 2 commissioned Walt Disney to design the ‘Ford Pavilion’ at the 1964 New York World Fair. His idea was to use Ford convertibles (Galaxies, Fairlanes, Falcons and Mustangs) adapted and bolted to specially constructed rails to guide visitors around the vast Ford exhibition – Disney still uses this rail type design today on many of its rides. Anyway the Fair was opened on April 22 1964 with tickets costing $2.00. I now have an Original Ticket from that famous date: After your visit for the day at Ford’s there was a special souvenir plastic badge which would glow in the dark that you could collect depending on where you came from.

Gary has managed to get me a New York souvenir badge from that day. It’s in mint condition and still glows in the dark! For more photos on the story of the World Trade Fair Mustang Launch click here for the Mustang Maniac post. Thank you Gary this is serious appreciated.

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Lots Of New Parts

I intended to post this last night as normal on a Sunday, but the time I got half way through it all it was getting late. So it has been delayed until today, but I think it will be worth the wait.

So the weekend just gone I knew what my tasks were going to be at Mustang Maniac, not cleaning up this time, but adding the last bits of pipe work and connections to the engine. I arrived and found Adam moving a load of new orders around in the offices and stock rooms where we discussed the plan of action for the day. I was given a collection of parts and made my way to the workshop.

As I opened the door and found my new Magnum 500 wheels fitted with their tyres, one was already partly on the car, the guys thought that I would like to fit them on myself, which of course I did. The wheels were a special shipping order by Adam (as the last set were sold early last week), they arrived within the week ready to be fitted with tyres and balanced. All I can say is OMG they look awesome on the car. Thanks Adam for getting them so quickly. The protective paint over the white lettering will be left on for now until in the mean time of working on the car so they don’t get scuffed.

As I was looking under the car Adam arrived with even more parts which were going to be fitted. Adam showed me the exhaust pipes that Yogi had fabricated as a custom fit from the oversized headers. As the main pipes was slightly smaller than the three-inch header bores the step down was made to fit. As these headers sit low under the car, care was taken to clamp them up to give as much clearance as possible. At this point there is no H-pipe crossover as I wanted to hear what the engine note was like without it. This will be a mod that Yogi can do at a later date (but he don’t know it yet) if I don’t like it. Due to the larger exhaust pipes the standard hand brake lever will catch the pipes and so had to be modified to be out-of-the-way of the exhaust. Yogi worked his magic and redesigned the part which now has a gentle S-curve to it. You can just make it out after the white headers on the right hand side in these pics.

I was told to take my carb back off again as I hadn’t put the correct gaskets in place. Adam spotted it on my blog and thought I had the correct ones. The gaskets would have worked what I had on there, but not how it should have been and could have caused engine running issues or not as smooth as it should be. So here is the correct sequence with the 4v gaskets and not the open style that I had previously had a half and half mixture of.

intake ports

carb bottom

Yogi has also been busy fitting the transmission cooling lines to the radiator which are made of Copper-Nickel. They look like copper to start with but are much tougher, harder to bend and will dull down and weather to look like the stock steel pipes. The fittings at the radiator are unique to Mustang Maniac as they were designed by them and have them made in batches. These hand crafted pipes are designed to follow the original route at the front but take a more custom line due to the headers and the starter motor.

To get the starter motor in is a simple job, two bolts one top and one bottom, however, due to the space that is taken up by the headers this is no easy feat to achieve. In order to get the starter in place I had to remove the idle arm link and massage the transmission pipes out-of-the-way to fit it in place.

idle arm link in place

removed idle arm link

The transmission pipes will come up behind the starter and be joined by the starter motor power lead when that gets added next week. You can see the mounting hole for the starter and then it’s a case of wiggle it in place and get a bolt in. The starter is a heavy bit of metal and the ideal scenario is to get it fitted in quick as possible before your arms start to ache.

Starter motor space

starter in

clearance to pipes

With the starter in place it was back on with the suspension linkage. Now it was time to let the car back down again and work on the top of the engine. While I was under the engine I fitted the new oil filter ready to be filled up. Adam disappeared for a few minutes and turned back up with my rocker covers that I had been aching to fit. The black “289 Powered by Ford” set with their new gaskets. He laid them on my now ever decreasing parts boxes and said “I have been saving these for you.”

outside

inside

We removed the old rocker covers that were just resting in place, fitted the new gaskets to the new covers and started to fit the new covers in place.

fitting

With the left side bank cover going on we then added some quality oil into the car to allow it to settle down to a level while we work on other bits.

The transmission oil was added to the gearbox about half to start with then that was allowed to settle.

While that was settling the front fan and power steering pump belts were added and tensioned correctly.

It got busy with the battery tray and drilled the back location hole and tightened it all up ready for the Autolite battery to be put in place week.

The PCV pipe was added to the right bank rocker cover and the carb spacer, brake booster pipe fitted to the back of the engine block, the ignition coil was added where I custom fitted the wires to fit their new location to look neat. Water was added to the radiator and the satisfactory gurgle and bubbling of the engine block was like a music to my ears. Just for now that is most of the pipe work and fluids added to the car. Of course the levels will be checked and topped up again after it has been fired up.

Yet again the day was a long one yet I didn’t notice as time flies when you’re having fun, which I certainly was.

Last weeks homework:

That was all about my old spare wheel. The wheel was filthy dirty and needed some work.

The wheel was given a proper clean inside and out to see what needed to be done in way of repairs. The result wasn’t to bad at all under the gunge. The rough bits of paint and rust were removed with wire wool and thoroughly degreased again.

The tyre was in pretty good shape and was masked up and given a couple of light layers of red oxide primer and allowed to dry in the sun. before adding the last coats of the full painted oxide.

light coats inside

light coats outside

fully coated inside

fully coated outside

The gloss black was applied after an hour or so once the red oxide had fully dried. This again was added in light layers and built up to give the final look.

gloss first coats inside

gloss first coat outside

final coats

The masking was removed and the white wall cleaned along with the rubber tyre. The final result is a good a new spare wheel which will go into the trunk later on.

inside

Another large post I know but we got so much done and I hope it was worth the wait. Will we turn the key next week? I’m not so sure as there is a little more to be done on the wiring, connecting and tidying up etc and I have ordered a part for the carb to make the fuel line look neater. But it won’t be far away at all now. 🙂

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Making Headway

Looking forward to the long weekend as I could get to Mustang Maniac on Saturday and rest for a day on Sunday then do some homework which I had in mind on the bank holiday Monday. Saturday morning I loaded up the car and went to the garage to pick up my sockets and tools bag, I walked in picked up the stuff and put them in the boot and shut the garage door. Realising I forgot the ratchets I went to open the door Again. Locked. I searched my pocket, no keys. I went to the back of the car and checked the tool bag, no keys. I then had the cold sweat feeling, I put the keys on the service trolley in the garage. Now I always unlock the garage, lock it again and put the keys in my pocket. That way when I shut the door it’s already locked and so I don’t forget. Get the spare key, there is no spare key! When we bought the house there was only one key for the garage and I have been meaning to get one cut ever since for a number of years now should we say. At this point it’s dilemma time, do I try to get into the garage or leave it until Sunday? I decided to leave it, and went to say goodbye to the wife who could hear me havin’ my own little rant to myself out the front. She didn’t laugh (yet), but used some of the words that I was using previously to describe my stupidity back to me. Her stifled laughter didn’t last to long as I got in my car with the right hump. All sorts of things were running through my mind, locksmith? Replacement door? I just didn’t know what to think, all the way to the yard I was fretting and nothing on the radio calmed me down, cyclists two abreast down country lanes gave me the hump, getting stuck behind a bus down country lanes gave me the hump. Eventually I got to MM and bumped straight into Adam and Chris. I explained what I had done with my garage, they explained the best way to “re-gain entry” back into my garage when I got home. How do they know these things? Anyway, Sunday I tried their techniques to open the door. Now I needed a replacement part, I took the old one with me and took it to place I know who stock all that sort of stuff. Got home and replaced the handle and lock with a stronger quality one. All fixed again and now I have two keys.

Tip:

If you need another key, get one cut before it’s to late!

I unloaded half the tools I normally take to the yard and went to the workshop. Where Adam showed me the head liner that had been fitted. It looks great and gives it new lease of life. There were a couple of fold marks near the edges that would drop out shortly under the pressure of the headliner bows. I was well pleased and decided to go for a celebration Cherry Bakewell cake with the guys in the boys club.

Next was some exhaust work, as the parts had been sprayed last week and they were waiting for Yogi who didn’t get a chance to re-hang the exhaust as he was busy on other cars. So as I watched him last week I had a go myself, I soon realised it’s not as easy as he made it look. I eventually got it all back in place and aligned it up best I could get it. Just in case Yogi wanted to move bits I didn’t clamp it up hard, but just a tiny pinch to hold the brackets in place. There was not a lot of room to manoeuvre under there but it’s hanging in place and ready for Yogi to do his thing with the three-inch headers to the main pipes. I know they are not aligned up square and neat, but they will do just for now.

The next part was the carburettor fitting, I removed the old tape from the inlet port that kept the area clean. I rubbed the area down clean ready for the gaskets to be fitted back in place. John joined me and we worked out the sequence of gaskets to be fitted. The first gasket was to seal the intake to the carb spacer.

intake ports

First gasket

in place

Then comes the carb spacer, not essential but these give extra torque and power to the engine and make things run that much nicer. This spacer sits on top of the previous gasket.

The next part is the gasket for the bottom of the carb and then the car itself.

carb bottom

The sits on top and is bolted down for bolts each corner.

With the carb in place the throttle linkage was connected to the butterfly controls of the carb and the vacuum advance line. I’m not sure I like the pipe and may change that to look neater.

throttle link

vacuum line

Adam joined me late in the day we got to grips with the pipe work. We fitted up the new black silicon pipes with my new clamps which turned out to be a real pig to fit in position due to the bulk of the T-bar fittings at the top. We eventually got there but I needed to order two more clamps for the top hose. The clamps should have fitted, but they wouldn’t fit over the pipes and the ridge at the end of the water pump. I will order the next size up they should be with me by the time I get to MM next week.

heater hoses

top hose

Feeling a little worse for wear at 7.30pm we decided to call it a day. I had forgotten all about my locked up key, that was until I got on the dual carriageway, put the car in cruise control and reflected on the day, what a stupid boy I had been I thought to myself. OK I didn’t use those exact words but it sort of means the same thing.

My homework? Well that was to bring home a wheel and tyre from my collection. Adam tells me I had different steel wheels from different cars and only one of which was a Mustang wheel. The wheels were welded on some, riveted on others, different sizes and slightly different designs all that I hadn’t noticed. The only good bit about it all was that the Mustang wheel had the best tyre of the bunch on it. I will clean up the wheel and use that for my spare should I ever need it that is.

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Exhausting Work

So glad to get last week out-of-the-way and looking forward to a long hard days work down at the Mustang Maniac yard. My car was loaded up to the brim to take stuff down there, more so than usual this time. There was four tyres, two front seat bases, two front seat backs, rear seat base & back, tools, a change of clothes and not forgetting my all important nosebag (lunch). Two pairs of tyres strapped together, I thought I was going to get them both in the boot, but no. I had two in the boot and two on the front seat next to me. The weight of the tyres set the seat belt warning alarm of so I had to plug the seat belt in. I got some strange looks going through the little villages by MM when they see tyres strapped in.

What are the tyres? 205/60 R15 BF Goodrich with raised white lettering, I wanted the old school muscle tyres look.

All last week when I got home from work, I got changed and went out for two or three hours manual work into the evening on car stuff. I was busy stripping of the old seat covers of down to their frames and cleaning them up again. The seats were covered in glorious ’70s velour upholstery with buttons. It may have been all the rage thirty or forty years ago, but it’s certainly ain’t my taste. The fabric was torn, rotten and smelt of damp dogs and doesn’t go with the image of the car now.

front seat back

Rear back

Rear seat

The first step was to remove the old covers, the hog rings which were rusty and sort of gave me an idea of what I was getting myself into. This was a job that I wasn’t particularly looking forward to and I have been putting it of for a while, but it has to be done of course, and Adam was looking to have them soon for the upholstery guys to get going on them with my new interior.

Tip:

When pulling out old hog rings, use the best quality pliers you can get your hands on. Cheap ones slip of all the time and cause your hands to ache, they are more trouble than they are worth. I used a sort of good set for one seat base, then promptly went and got my Snap On pliers, it seriously made life so much easier and took half the time – trust me!

The front seats were the first job and the velour was the first plan of attack. I cut down a corner and started to peel the covers back as I went along pulling out the hog rings every few inches or so. After a couple of minutes I got the right hump, the simple reason was the seats were covered on the cheap, in other words straight over the top of the old original vinyl covers, the original seat covers were torn, so a re-cover was probably the option at the time to make the car look trendy. What that meant was that I had to remove the velour hog rings then do it again for the original covers, doing the job twice over in effect.

front seat back

original seats

When peeling the corners back at the bottom I got the smell of dampness come through and the foam fell apart on touch. Under the foam was a soft covering of padding laid over the hessian. Of course this was all stitched to the springs at the rear to hold the buttons in place and pull the covers tight.

seat wires

button stitches

padding

hessian

To get the shape of the seat there are wires that are also hog ringed into the seat foam to give it shape. These have to be removed as well. The padding was marked up with water stains and rust from the wires. When this was removed the hessian was exposed with wires to hold it in place with hog rings as well. The hessian disintegrated and sent dust clouds everywhere. My shed now smells like an old potato storage shed by the way. The hessian irritated my skin which wasn’t very nice to say the least, as a result I decided to change plan and remove the hog rings for the hessian and try to remove the hessian and wires as much as possible in one go.

The frame itself was now exposed and I could see the extra seating shape wires and the rusty ends of the wires that had discoloured the material. The process was repeated for the other front seat both backs and bases.

The rear seats were going to have to be done in the garage due to the size. Exactly the same process was used again but this time the seat back corner was particularly bad at one end on the passenger side.

The hessian again was held in place with long wires this time, some of the hooked ends had rusted away and so some could be pulled straight out. The rear base smelt the worst of all of them, and peeling the velour and vinyl out of the way you can see why.

The padding was rotten though and rust was everywhere, I suspect that the car had water in it at some point as the under dash was also rusted to a similar extent. The hessian on the seat was in three parts, the larger wires for the seat area and the smaller wires for the tunnel section in the middle. This took forever to take of In sections. with the hessian now removed from all the seats it was time to remove all the wires that I could, some were broken in the middle which were no good, some had broken ends. I collected them all up and kept them in their piles for later. The exposed frames were wire brushed to get rid of the loose rust and sprayed with rust encapsulator to stop it, once dried a couple of coats of satin black to make them look like new again.

The seats are now in Adam’s capable hands ready to go of to the fitters to re-upholstered with the new interior. Do you want to see a sneaky peek at the colour scheme? OK you talked me into it!

Saturday:

I must apologise at this point if some of the pictures look familiar if you have been reading the Mustang Maniac blog, I have used some of their pictures as I wasn’t there at the time of course.

I arrived excited as I was going to put the radiator in. Adam had other ideas and told me about the dry fitting of the exhausts. The pipes had come back from a mate of his who bent the pipes to what was mapped out for my car being a bespoke setup from my 3″ headers we fitted back on last week.

The pipes they were using was the largest recommended size of 2 1/4″ on a classic Mustang. The special order Flowmaster Series 40 Delta Flow boxes had arrived and I was told it was final dry fit time and to help Yogi.

The exhaust pipes need to hang from two large brackets from the seat back panel, so holes had to be made to take the stud fixings.

The pipes have been bent as I said before and I wondered to myself do you really need all these little bends? When it is all dry fitted up you can see that you do need it.

The pair of mufflers have an inlet and outlet ports as the baffles inside are designed to soften the noise, create an area of low pressure inside the box as well as accelerate the gas from the pipes as quickly as possible. The mufflers were hung from their brackets in order to make it easier for the tail pipe fitting.

At his point we discovered that the fitting of the mufflers here meant that the hand brake cable would be resting and possibly rattle on the top of the boxes. Yogi made me up some brackets and fitted them in place for me to stop that problem.

The dry fit was going well, but as I was holding pipes I couldn’t take pictures at this point. Yogi measured up the location where the turn down exhaust tips would need to be fitted. Then we took the whole lot of again. The end sections were taken to Adam’s work shop where the exhaust cutter was kept. Like a giant plumbers tool in some ways I was shown how to use it then I could have a go to cut down the excess pipes.

yogi

With the pipes cut the turn down tips needed to be test fitted. They were too tight and needed to be expanded, like a swaging tool this specialist tool expands the end to allow it to slip over the exhaust pipe final section.

That was the exhaust done for now until the step down has been made for the headers. Amazing to watch it all take shape like that. During the week the guys had sprayed the main hanging brackets as they were bare metal and didn’t want to take them of from rusting.

My next job was to clean and paint the exhaust clamps along with the smaller mounting brackets.

As these were left in the afternoon sun they soon dried out and should be fine to use by the time they want to fit them.

What I thought I came down to do was my final job of the day, the radiator. I gave it a bit of a clean over and got the bolts out along with the cowl bolts. As I was on my own not much chance to take pictures again trying to hold it in place needed two hands. But basically there are four bolts in each corner that go through the front panel opening into the corresponding holes on the radiator with a nut to hold them all in place.

My fan was re-sprayed again a while ago as it got a bit damaged moving it around, but this time I detailed it bit with the chrome tips. This should also give a visual guide that the blade is turning.

The radiator sits nice in the black engine bay and I am pleased with the look. The pressure cap on the top is a generic rubbish one and I will replace it. But for now I sprayed that black while I was at it with the brackets just to make it blend in.

Lastly last week I forgot to take pics of the fuel filter and the fuel sender unit in the fuel tank. So as promised here they are.

slimline fuel filter

Stainless sender

Next week I have no idea what I am doing. But I should image it will be brilliant what ever it is. Thanks again to Yogi for the crash course in exhaust fabrication and to Adam for storing all my stuff short term of course, now he can’t get a couple of his cars out.

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Actions or Words?

So here we are in the UK and we are in the grip of a heat wave and we are not happy. People I have spoken to are moaning about the heat, a few weeks ago they were moaning about the fact our summer hadn’t started yet. Now we have some glorious weather I am trying to make the most of it but don’t understand why people moan so much. This sunny weather has allowed me to be sanding down my front valance, my radiator valance etc. all outside without having to stand in a dust cloud in the man cave. I have been in the garden with the new flower bed and watching the bee’s enjoy life as much as I am enjoying doing bits on the car outside. I have found a patch in the garden where the wind is hardly noticeable and the sun is not directly on you. This area is perfect for spraying car parts with primer and rust treatment. I was using this area to its full potential over most of the weekend much to my satisfaction. The only down side is the wife don’t like it. The patch which looks like deformed Olympic rings again in grey and black, is unfortunately directly in front of the kitchen window out the front of my man cave. When the wife returned home to see how much I had done with my spray job she didn’t look happy. When I moved the parts to show her workmanship, the attention rapidly moved to the now multi coloured grass. That look (again) was flashed in my direction. All I could think of to say was “That will go when you next cut the grass”. I’m glad I wasn’t hungry that night; I think she forgot me! When I mentioned the fact that there seemed to be a meal missing I was greeted with, “You can make some toast if you cut the bread”. I have now found another shower curtain to spread on the grass so that I don’t make a mess. Sometimes no actions can speak louder than words. Babe, you win!

Over the weekend I went down to see the boys at Mustang Maniac and got a few bits and pieces. I was talking about the fact I needed an exhaust system and Adam asked me about the headers on the car. To cut a long story short it turns out that the headers I have are so close to the steering ram they have damaged the rubber gator. As a result I was told I should replace the original bracket with an extension bracket that moves the ram out of harms way. I fitted the part on over the weekend and placed a photo guide on how to do it under the Photos menus – Steering. It really has made a difference.

buffers and plates in place — bracket and steering ram in place

Recently I have had a couple of nice emails asking about the brakes on the car and if I had a guide. Well yes, I have books that I have reviewed and I also have a few diagrams I keep in plastic wallets for reference of the bits I need. I even coloured in the black and white diagram with the colours of the springs and where they should be, it took me all of about one minute in Photoshop. All of the various diagrams I used can be found under the Articles menu – Front & Rear Brake Diagrams.

Enjoy the weather while you can and keep up the sun screen.

Quick Links:

Steering and Header Spacing click here

Front and Rear Brake diagrams click here

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Dual Master Cylinder Project

I worked a long day on the car over the weekend and I managed to complete a project that I wasn’t planning on. My original master cylinder produced a leak during the bleeding process. So to cut a long story short I upgraded to a Duel Master Cylinder System. Ok, my car is not concours original anymore, but I intend to drive and enjoy it not just show it, clean it and be unable to enjoy it because of the spec of dust on the exhaust. It has taken me most of the evening to write-up the process and pictures, but I am pleased with the results and wanted to share it as promised in my previous post. I have now posted the project under Photos – Engine bay – Dual Master Cylinder Upgrade, or click here for the quick link. This is no ordinary upgrade though, this kit includes a rear proportioning valve, built-in rear pressure valve and an inline pressure valve for the front brakes. Disc brake ready!

Next weekend I hope to bleed the brakes or at least try again.

front pressure valve and rear proportioning valve

The only side effect to my long day on the car was I felt like I had my legs run over by a bus. All that stretching and leaning over the fender took its toll on my hamstrings. Is it that I am getting old or should I have done some stretching exercises first? Yeah, like I wouldn’t look like a doughnut doing exercises in my garage to change a master cylinder! Us blokes don’t do that sort of thing, but I might just do that behind closed doors next time. 🙂

Rust

The recent bad weather has been doing wonders for the Rust test that I am still performing. The comparison is between the Granville Rust Cure and the FE-123. I will continue to run the experiment a while longer then I will post some pictures and results so far. I intend to do a long-term test and keep coming back to it with updates.

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Guess who’s ill?

It’s Christmas time and I’m ill – AGAIN.

I’m not happy, in fact I have got the hump. – Some dirty herbert has decided that they would cough and splutter in front of me on the train to work, what happens? Lo and behold I get the filthy herberts germs. Thanks for that then! All year I have got away without a cold, today a couple of days before the holidays start – I get a cold.

Note: I have not mentioned “man flu”, that is because I get bloke pneumonia, which is obviously much worse than flu.

So, to the person that gave me the cold – I hope Santa parks his sleigh on the roof of your car, he sticks a BIG carrot up your exhaust and Rudolf visits your front door mat. Oh, one more thing, I hope that Santa’s little helpers sneak into your fridge and they stuff your turkey with quick set cement.

I’m not normally like this by the way, I’m and just mad that he showed no consideration for those around him. So as far as I am concerned – he deserves it.

I don’t really believe in Santa and his sleigh by the way, that’s because he has a Mustang!

That Mustang is powered by horses and lots of ’em 😛

Gonna go for the sympathy vote now, see if I am bestowed lots of T.L.C. Actually make that T.L.M.P. (Tender Loving Mustang Parts!) 🙂 I dare say I will shake the cold off soon, I hope so as I want to at least taste my Christmas dinner.

Rant over!

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