Stopping With The Times

First post of the year so I wish you a Happy New Year, also hoping that you had a great Christmas and well-earned break too. This year my wife and I decided to ask each other what we wanted for gifts and that we would stick to a reasonable agreed budget between us. The simple reason is that we have spent most of our cash trying to sort our house out and trying to pay some bills off for the materials we used. The wife’s list was around the usual girly pampering lotions and potions as expected. Mine revolves around the Mustang with its own lotions and potions for its pampering. My list only had a couple of bottles from Auto Finesse I wanted to try out, which I will review throughout the year with the other products I have to review, around twenty in fact that I haven’t as yet reviewed. To make up my options for the list I wanted to update the garage and a little gadget for the car, both of which she bought for me. 😀

As my Mustang just fits in the garage with about an inch at the front and just a few inches to the rear. I can park the car pretty well, but I am paranoid about hitting the back of the garage wall for obvious reasons. To try and protect the car from such an event the wall now has foam pipe lagging stuck on the wall with a large Snap On floor pad on top of that. To stop in the right place I normally rely on the good old-fashioned hanging ball to touch the windscreen and works perfectly every time, but it doesn’t look pretty.

I have been looking on-line for parking aids; tyre ramps, laser, twin lasers and ultrasonic variations. Lasers looked like to much of a hassle and didn’t give much of a visual aid. Tyre ramps would get in the way and could be moved when the car wasn’t on them, so that left ultrasonic. There are so many variables on the market, traffic light style or single red LED varieties. I liked the look of was the twin sensors and a box mounted at eye level that gave a count down to the final position.

The set up needed a flat surface or bumper to work correctly. The mustang has very little in the way of a truly flat surfaces. The only relatively flat surface I could think of was the number plate. Some of the other sensor styles need a minimal distance of 12″ or so. This particular model needs a minimum of 6″ inches and takes the closest of the two readings. The sensors will activate when they detect movement and the count numbers display. So you park the car where you want and a number will be displayed. You then drive to that number and stop. Simple.

I made a few test locations and pushed the car out and back in again a few times. Each time the box did exactly what it was supposed to do, counted down. From the back of he car I pushed the car forward and stopped at the mark ’07’ (inches). Perfect. It doesn’t look neat at the moment as I want to make sure the positioning is correct before I tidy it up properly.

How close do I have to park to the wall? This close!

I have written a review of the product and installation here. Or it can be found under the Accessory menu.

Now my sense of direction is legendary, it’s so bad I get lost going home! Honestly it’s true. With that in mind, the other item I wanted was a something quite common in modern cars which is a bluetooth connection, but not that common on a classic Mustang. There are multiple ways around my little issue, a new technology radio made to look old – an expensive option. A new modern replacement radio that needs a hole cut into the dash – a lot of damage to the original dash, but can be cheaper. Or a halfway house that I have; an original Mustang radio adapted. My particular radio was sold to me as working when I bought it from the USA via Ebay. By the time I got the radio and was able to test the unit it certainly didn’t work anymore. 😠 Anyway, a contact of Mustang Maniac helped me out by connecting an input from a 3.5mm jack plug wire. This means that an ipod or phone needed a physical connection. It worked fine, but I wasn’t a lover of having a wire from the dash, blame my OCD for that. Then a friend of mine then told me about this gadget that connects a bluetooth dongle receiver and then inputs that signal into the radio, a similar setup to what I had, although he had a modern radio. This means that I could connect my phone for music, or more importantly, a Sat Nav turn by turn prompt. I already have a great Tom Tom Sat Nav which I could stick on the window, again my OCD didn’t like it and so I had it mounted on the centre console, the trouble with that is that I had to look down at it now and again as I couldn’t hear it over the engine noise, not exactly safe. With this new option I could have my radio on connected via bluetooth to my Samsung S9+ phone using Google Maps with voice turn by turn. The built in dash speaker is much louder than the Tom Tom unit so I would be able to hear what direction I needed to now. I could have speakers in the door, in the kick panels or in the rear parcel shelf. Again all of which my OCD won’t allow of course. Now I have a tiny receiver hidden in the glove box that just needs to be turned on and off I go.

It works and I love it. I have also written a review of it here.

So my old school Mustang still looks stock, but now the media function has been upgraded into the modern world again. This latest upgrade goes with the other modern goodies like my LED lights front and rear, modern wire loom with blade fuses, electronic ignition, LED dash bulbs, voltmeter etc.

Any other good gadgets out there I need to know about? Please let me know. This List idea works great as you get what you want and not a pair socks to go in the draw with the rest. In fact I got a pair of socks as well – but they had the Shelby Logo on them so they are acceptable. 😀

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Couple Of Upgrades

It’s been a long time since I have changed anything or added anything to my car. I was at a car show recently and something caught my eye that I decided I wanted to change. That part was under the hood that nobody would really notice to be honest. That part was hood pin and safety catch. There was nothing wrong what so ever with the old ones what so ever. Except that I thought there was just too much blue and it needed to be broken up a little. It’s standard for the safety catch to be car coloured as mine was. The hood pin itself was fine if not a little tarnished after fifty-two years as it was the original parts.

So I had a word with Adam at Mustang Maniac and he said “You need a little stainless steel, with some nice bolts to go with it, not just chrome.”

The safety catch is held in place just by two bolts and like for like swap out. I got a couple of Adam’s new ‘Ford’ branded stainless steel bolts to go with it all. I just love these bolts which looked even better after a good polish up.

before clean

after cleaning

ready for fitting

Undo the two bolts for the safety catch and it will expose the hood pin itself which again is a simple nut to hold it in place.

The swap out is a simple reverse procedure, hood pin and then the safety catch. You have to make sure the hood pin is set correctly, to shallow and the hood will not close, to long and the hood will bounce and vibrate at speed. I created a detailed page on how to change these parts in detail here, or go to the top menu ‘How To.. Projects/Engine Bay/Changing the hood pin and safety catch’

The difference is subtle yet instantly visible if that makes sense, it also matches the hood lip trim.

Before and after side by side. Just another little something to clean now. 😉

On the ’66 Mustangs all models there hazard switch that fitted as standard. The official place for these to be fitted was in the glove box on the upper left hand corner as in this picture I found on the net for the correct location.

Depending if the car hazard switch was fitted later or somebody on the production wanted to fit it somewhere else, it could have been anywhere. The most common alternative was under the dash on the passenger side, sometimes on the drivers side. When I first got my car there was this random switch that I didn’t know what it was for. It was so rusty I couldn’t read anything and it virtually fell to bits when it was touched, not to mention all the wires were cut from it and been melted due to the under dash fire.

I now realise that this random switch was the original position of my factory hazard switch. Now I had a problem as my wiring loom was an American Autowire upgrade kit and wouldn’t work directly with standard hazard switch and pigtail loom. Another conversation at Mustang Maniac and research came up with an accessory kit for the factory hazard switch. Considering the cost of the wire loom in the first place I think it was a bit much to charge for this extra mini loom in my opinion. Anyway, rant over. Adam made a special order for me and the kit came in a couple of weeks later. I popped down to see the guys and also picked up the switch as well.

The wire loom and switch.

The AA kit is a bridge under the steering column that just connects the male to female and the female to male sections for the column (indicators, horn brake switch etc), with the extra wires running from it for the hazard switch. I have created a detailed walkthrough on how to hit it up here, or got to the main menu ‘How To.. Projects/Electrical/American Autowire Hazard switch installation’.

The switch is great quality and just needed to be assembled.

The wire connections for the AA kit was supposed to fit the original hazard pigtail loom, but as I didn’t have (no need for my fitting), I cut the supplied connector off and fitted some heat shrink tubing to each wire, then the spade connectors with a factory look crimp.

correct length

first crimp completed

second crimp

second crimp completed

I then checked the wiring diagram for the correct fitting onto the back of the switch.

I now had a decision to either replace the switch in the ‘correct’ location, or the position that the car had it fitted at the time. I went for the car’s location at the time. Yes there will be the experts that moan it’s not in the correct place, but I have seen a few cars where this was the ‘original’ location. I also understand that some dealers fitted them under the dash to save taking out the glove box liner as it was easier!

Plugged in connectors with heat shrink tube looked pretty cool, even though nobody will ever see it.

Under the dash next to my aircon on the passenger side there are two bolt holes which were used originally, so there was no drilling or measuring for this project either. A case of bolts through the switch bracket, through the dash holes and the backing plate, nuts on the back of the plate and tighten up.

The last part is to connect up the steering column, this is done last as the live power feed is taken from the brake switch, connecting it up first would mean having live or hot wire about as you are connecting up. Not ideal!

under column connected

column sperated

AA Hazard kit in place

The hazard switch now works without the key in the ignition and with the engine on. The old hazard switches worked by putting the switch on and then indicating to trigger the four way flash. To finish the installation, I spend half hour or so wrapping the new loom extension in factory look loom fabric tape, I find it just so therapeutic.

I just hope I never get to use the hazards for a real emergency. I enjoyed my few hours of pottering around on the car, just because I could.

Thanks to Adam at Mustang Maniac (again) who put the special order in for me so I could get this all working.

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Yet More Blue

A while ago I was traveling back from a car show in the dark and needed my lights. Although it was a quick trip home I realised just how awful the dash lights are in these early Mustangs. I have seen at SEMA last year all sorts of digital dashs and they looked amazing, but they came away from the classic look that I was trying to retain. So I had a word with Adam at Mustang Maniac who showed me the various options and what to expect. I settled for an illumination pack of four LED’s that will make a huge difference so I was told. The difficult part was deciding on what colour to go for. They even make a set of bulbs that matched the original colour scheme that would have come from the factory, with the fresh bulbs and the fresh filters! So I picked my blue bulbs (of course) and couldn’t wait to get started. Saturday was a lovely day and I decided that would be an ideal time to do the job, unfortunately I promised the wife I would help her with a couple of jobs, but that had to be postponed until Sunday now. She didn’t look to impressed when I said I had to do it when the sun was out, or the car would get wet! More making up I have to do now.

I have created a full walk through guide here but I will outline what I done, or you can cut & Paste this to your browser:

https://onemanandhismustang.com/led-dash-gauge-upgrade/

Before we get going, it was an idea to get the before picture.

Here is a comparison of the bulbs side by side which both have the standard 1895 fittings. The LED bulb has five lenses, a large one on top and four around the sides to spread the light evenly, a clever piece of engineering for a bulb.

If you wanted to buy a set click here for the link.

I decided that I was going to do it properly by removing the dash and the internal bulb filters. The process to swap the bulbs is fairly simple, but fiddly at the best of times. You will need to remove the gauges and take the unit apart to do it properly. After disconnecting the battery I covered the steering column with a fleece cloth to avoid the damage to the paint and also to protect the possibility of the brittle gauge cover being cracked if you drop it.

The whole cluster is held in place by six screws, four at the top and two at the bottom either side of the steering column that I have arrowed some of them here.

With all the screws out you can pull forward the cluster to expose the back. Behind the cluster there is the speedo cable screwed to the back of the speedo gauge itself, and a mass of wires. As I have big hands this is not the easiest of tasks to be dexterous and unscrew the speedo cable. But as my car is a recent restoration mine could be undone with fingers. There isn’t much room to work behind here, so when I was putting the car back together again with the new wire loom from American Autowire, I created an additional quick disconnect plug, just in case I needed to remove the dash for some reason in the future, this is a good example why. Here you can see the disconnect plug and the speedo fitting.

I took my cluster from the car to the work area and laid it on a towel to protect the finish of the face.

With the two sections apart this will expose the gauges and the coloured filters for the bulbs. The replacement bulb filters were held in place by a stud and a screw as I had replaced these at the time of assembly.

With the filters out of the way you can see all of the bulbs. You can at this point twist the old bulbs out and replace with the LED’s, or remove the sprung loaded bulb holders out of their holes from the rear.

It’s worth a few pictures of the bulbs up close, and you buy a full pack of seven bulbs which included the indicator bulbs and the high beam. For me these are fine with the tungsten fittings to be fair.

The new LED’s are the same fitting as the old bulbs and are a simple press in and twist replacement, like for like.

After I refitted the cluster together again I took it back to the car and reconnected the wires. Now is the most difficult part to refit the speedo cable, not only did I have blue bulbs now, but the air inside of the car was turning very blue too. This is a tricky part of the job and has to be aligned dead straight to start the thread of with.,To make matters worse you can’t see behind it unless you have a mirror so it’s all done by feel. With everything now connect up I could screw the dash back into position. Reconnect the battery and voila! Job Done.

In total it took me about an hour and a half to complete and I am so happy with the results. Here is the side by side comparison.

Now I can’t wait to drive her in the dark. This is such a worthwhile simple upgrade job that makes a huge difference, not just for safety but also for keeping an eye on the gauges for any potential problems. I honestly recommend this upgrade. Next weekend is my local car show and I am looking forward to that, so there will be an update from me on that, providing it don’t rain and I can get in this time without having to wait for two hours!

Oh, it’s also Fathers Day in the UK on the 18th June, I hope my two little guys (the dogs) treat me to something nice, hint hint!

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Glass Prep

The sun was out, I was out on my way to Mustang Maniac yesterday. I had an idea what was going to be done today but wasn’t to sure. The glass in the doors needed to be fitted and can be a real tricky to line up. It was time to open the box of bits and bolts to try and work out where some of these bits came from. I have learnt one thing with this car, although the nuts and bolts holds things in place they may not be the correct fixings. Again that turned out to be true with the window regulators. There were bolts holding it into the door that shouldn’t be there, adjusters that should be there weren’t there and it was all very confusing. The plan was to fit sound proofing to the driver’s door, and prep the glass itself. We had to work out a plan of action, we decided the painting of the window, Dynamat then the regulators. The main door glass is mounted on a metal frame and that had gone a little rusty on the surface. I degreased it, cleaned it, sprayed some rust proof on it then sprayed it silver. While each part was drying I worked on the door Dynamat and came back to the spraying.

The insides of the doors are coated from the factory with a thick sound proofing. On the new door it would be just the skin. To stop the resonance and the road noise a sticky matting is stuck to the metal. Pretty much like the silver matting that is on the floor of my car that I covered previously, click here. The mat was cut to the length required and the angle needed to fit under the side rail.

With the sound proofing done it was back to the main glass for more spraying. It takes a quarter of the time to dry in the sun.

Next I started to fit the front quarter windows which was where I ran into the first issue. The quarter is slid down into the top of the door where the top adjuster is fitted as soon as you can see the hole on the frame. Once that is in place its a case of tilting the glass towards the rear of the car to get it into the position you need it.

location of adjuster

screwed all the way in

window in place

The issue was that the bolt at the bottom was supposed to be the second adjuster, it was unclear which side of the frame the adjuster would be fitted. To be sure Adam removed a door card from an old car in his “grave yard” to check. Adam was right, it was on the inside of the frame and pulled tight by a bolt. A little moving of the window around enabled me to fit the adjuster at the bottom in situ as it were. Two more bolts are then screwed to the outside part of the adjuster to hold it all in place as we had seen on the old untouched car. The second issue was that these two retaining bolts were missing, and they often are when removed. Adam had to get me a pack as I had nothing like it in my odds and ends fixings box.

So that was the passenger door and it was to be repeated on the driver’s side. Now I knew what I had to do, it took a quarter of the time. Next up was the window regulators, this is pretty uninteresting to look at as it’s all inside the door. There are four bolts that hold the regulator and a trailing section for the scissor action that hold the glass. the secret to this part is how you fold the metal up and slot it through the seemingly tiny opening in the door. Once it’s inside you have to open it out then bolt it into place. Sounds easy, but when you have new paint work it took me a lot longer than I thought it would.

Repeated on the driver’s side it was little quicker but still a slow process. All you can really see is the bolts in place so not terribly exciting for a days work!

But, I did try to take a picture inside of the door with the mechanisms all in place.

handle

The final part is a vertical guide that slide into place at the back of the door. This is a support for the glass at the back. The front is supported by the front quarter window glass frame. You have got to hand it to the designers, this was a cheap car at the time and everything was modular which just bolted in place, so simple that it all just worked. Fifty years later the mechanism still works fine with a bit of new grease. Not many new cars will be able to say that in fifty years time!

The plus side to all of this is that the glass that had been sprayed had dried nicely and should be cured fully when I come to fit it in place next week. A short post this week with not too much to look at as it was all hidden unfortunatly. But at least you can see a little bit of the door coming together now.