Tag: Mustang Maniac

Enfield Pageant Of Motoring ’24 (part 2)

As I finished my last post I mentioned that part 2 will show my favourite car of the show and here it is; the mighty DE Tomaso Pantera. I had a long chat with the owner who was telling me about the 351 Windsor engine in the middle which tends to set the neighbours car alarms off when he starts it up in the morning. Not many of these cars around now and this was a fine example, just beautiful. Another poster car for many teenage kids.

Moving on down the lines of cars I was working way towards the stalls on the right hand side of the field as you drive in.

There was a an old School bus (I think), which had been converted to a motorhome. I would loved to have had a look inside, but it was all closed up unfortunately. I would love to be enlightened what these vehicles are under the yellow exterior and can you even buy them?

I was at the end of the individual entries of cars and at the main tent and funfair. The was a display of radio controlled models that were on an oval track which were just smashing into each other demolition derby style.

I spotted this dog who was totally at home on this tyre and was getting lots of attention.

There was plenty of stalls for auto parts as well as the usual car boot or yard sale items. There was a live band playing regular sets throughout the day, but we didn’t get much chance to hear them from where I was with Mustang Maniac.

After this section as the for sale stalls it was time to move over to the other side of the filed which I will bring in ‘part 3’. There will be an unusual engine and the block of Mustangs collated from various parts of the field.

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Enfield Pageant Of Motoring ’24 (part 1)

On the 25th of May I attended the Enfield Pageant of Motoring as a guest of Mustang Maniac. The weather looked promising and was going to be a very welcome change from the usual rain over the weekend. The Saturday was going to be the better day with some showers on the Sunday. So the Saturday I got rudely awoken by the alarm at five in the morning, or should I say middle of the night? I sort of stumbled out of bed, woke the wife and then the very short process of waking the dogs from their deep sleep to then being ‘off on one’ wanting to go out right there and then. I eventually got ready and and loaded up the cool bag with lunch, snacks and drinks. I had previously uncovered the car in the garage, disconnected the trickle charger and already put in the the postcode into the SatNav, I just needed to plug it in and turn on from ‘sleep mode’ to resume the directions. The dash cam also sprung into life as the engine fired into life. I sent a text to Adam to say that I was now leaving just a little before six.

The journey there was interrupted by a obligatory stop at the Shell VPower station for a little top up of five gallons. I didn’t fancy having to pay London prices on top of the already premium cost of the VPower fuel. I got back on the road and thoroughly enjoyed my drive, that is until I got to the outer London car park also known as the M25. Then within a space of two miles it seemed as though it was the film set of Mad Max Fury Road where everybody was trying to kill each other. I did my best to avoid the carnage as best as I could, I was traumatised by the time I got off the motorway. There was speed cameras what seemed like on every gantry and the lamp posts when I got the motorway some short ten minutes later. I got to the Pageant at around seven forty and drove up to the Mustang Maniac plot. A total of seventy seventy three miles to get there.

Adam and Lance were there unloading the Falcon and the electric (road worthy) buggy he had there for the weekend.

We had a quick discussion on how we were going to park and I took the corner spot. I then had a little drive of the Falcon to park that up too.

I think Adam felt sorry for me as he kindly bought me and Lance an all you can eat full English breakfast at the carvery just before you enter the show ground. You can trust me when I say that they didn’t make any profit from us as we certainly die honour the ‘all we could eat’ offer. In fact I was so full after the breakfast and ‘free refills’ of soda that I didn’t eat for the rest of the day. I think my veins were pumping pure cholesterol rather than blood, but it was very nice I must say.

On the day I took just over three hundred photos. Some of those photos I have shared with Mustang Maniac for their blog. I try to keep my posts to around a hundred or so photos to keep the loading times down and not make it a scroll fest and getting bored. So I aim to post these three posts in fairly quick succession.

The walk back was welcome to stretch of the legs and helped walk some of the breakfast down. There was some more cars turning up on the stand and we even had a Pontiac ‘ringer’ park with us.

Adam relaxing after the breakfast and sitting with his much loved vintage flat bed.

Directly behind the the Mustang Maniac pitch was the Afro Classic Register who were providing us with entertaining music throughout the day via some more than capable in-car sound systems.

To take the pics I started in their direction heading towards the back of the field. This part of the field where individual entry cars were lined up in rows. I wandered up and down the rows taking pics of the interesting cars, rather than the six year old everyday cars that were parking up.

This is the end of the batch of rows and is an ideal time to stop ready for the ‘part 2’ of the show. I came across my car of the show at the start of the next post.

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No Going Back

There has always been a little bit of niggle with my car but never really an issue, but nice to sort out. The issue was that my car has always needed a few cranks to turn over before it fires up after standing for a while (weeks). I have spoken to the guys at Mustang Maniac who suggested a non return valve to stop the fuel draining away could be a quick fix. The long term would be a fuel pump and return line, a little bit of overkill what I was describing as an issue. They don’t actively sell the valves, but they gave me one of theirs that they sometimes fit for certain cars with my ‘issue’. This particular design is subtle and and not a big hulking beast in the middle of a fuel line which can look rather cumbersome and out of place. In fact the outside of the valve is just about the same size as the outside diameter of the fuel pipe. I now had a mini project to complete and was looking forward to this one, even though it was fuel related.

While I was at it fitting the valve I decided to clean out the inline fuel filter which was looking a bit grubby after sitting in the garage over the winter months. Where the hard line fuel pipe comes through the inner fender apron there is a rubber pipe that goes to the inlet of the mechanical fuel pump. My fuel filter sits on that line. Most filters are plastic, or more factory correct would be the large metal cylinder design. Mine is a glass (quite thick) and unscrews at each end to allow easy access for removing the filter itself.

I removed the jubilee clips at each end and removed the whole fuel line, to be safe I also capped of the hard fuel line as it comes through the inner apron (circled below right).

Important: When removing the fuel line, if you suspected that there is fuel in the pipe, be well prepared to catch it and temporarily block it off. You don’t want a gravity spewing the fuel all over the floor leaving you in a dangerous situation.

With the complete length removed, the old clips on the pipe and fuel filter were removed in order to start the cleaning and refit. The old pipe had lemon clips holding the filter in place and needed to be cut off. These clips would be replaced with new reusable low profile clips.

I had also gotten a new length of E10 fuel resistant hose, just for the sake of replacing it with a fresh piece of pipe. I only ever used E10 fuel once very early on in by restoration, and I won’t ever use it again. The reason was that the E10 fuel caused me issues, 1) the car ran like an asthmatic 7 cylinder with very rough running and idle, 2) it’s nasty and has a devastating toll for all the fuel components which the devils blood itself comes into contact with, nothing is spared; plastic, rubber or metal.

Fuel filters are of a single flow direction, make sure you get it right when fitting back to the car.

With the filter in bits I cleaned the filter itself with 99% isopropanol alcohol. The filter wasn’t that dirty to be fair, but there was a fuel particles which were removed with a small soft nylon brush. Once the filter was cleaned it dried very quickly and was ready for reassembly and fitting.

The glass case and end fittings were also cleaned with an isopropanol soaked non lint cloth. I also took the time to polish the metal end fittings as they clean up nicely. (Notice the big bold ‘IN’ and ‘OUT’ on each end.)

The total length of the original fuel line was measured, (the rubber either side of the filter, to the fuel pump and the apron). I made a the calculations to incorporate the non return valve, there now needed to be three lengths cut to the correct lengths instead of the two previous lengths. (Fuel pump to filter, filter to valve, valve to apron hard line.)

The picture here below, shows the filter ‘IN’ (notice the ‘N’ is back to front), and the direction flow of the non-return valve. This flow direction is critical to get the fuel filtered correctly and allow the fuel to flow to the carb.

The hose fasteners are of a new design being trialled from Mustang Maniac which are simply clipped into place. The clips just slip over the pipe and are pinched closed over a raised retaining ridge in the centre. Once they have been pinched closed enough the clip will just click and lock into place. To remove the clips you can use an awl or small screw driver to lever the clip back up from under the larger of the two raised ridges. The fastener will then just spring open again allowing removal.

You will need a very good pair of pliers to hold and grip the clip in order to close it enough without slipping. These fittings are a very, very tight fitting. They look the part, but I’m not sure I would use them again in a confined space. They are fine for connecting fittings like this fuel line when you have plenty of space to work and accessibility. Cut the lengths of hose allowing enough flexibility between each of the component parts.

I started measuring from the fuel pump and worked backwards towards the apron. The non return valve should be placed before the fuel filter, this would keep a reservoir of fuel within the filter.

The completed fuel line is completed. For each end of the new fuel line configuration I will used standard jubilee clips. This then allows for an easier fitting with a screw driver and easier access. More importantly it will allow me to loosen the the complete line without disturbing the clips. Once the line is loosened at each end I will be able to unscrew the filter and clean with the rest of the fuel line configuration in place.

With the new fuel line configuration in place it looks neat and now serves a dual purpose for filtering and non return.

The fuel flows and retains the fuel up to the carb allowing easier starting. The actual design of the non return valve is slightly irrelevant, but its functionality is the important thing. This slimline design is subtle and neat and doesn’t look to out of place for a stock looking engine bay. The whole thing took around an hour or so to complete. The hardest part was to cut the lemon clips off with damaging the fuel filter. The upgrade has been in place for a couple of months now and it has made a significant difference to the starting of the car in scenarios both cold and hot. This was well worth the effort in my opinion. However, with my naturally suspicious nature it determines that I always carry a spare length of new E10 fuel line just in case of emergencies, or maybe if the valve decides to play up. That way it’s a very simple quick and easy temporary fix for a replacement on the roadside if you need to, then sort it out properly when you get home.

I’m really pleased with the look of the part and the improved functionality that I now have.

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Wall Art

During my time of for the Christmas Holidays I took a trip down to Mustang Maniac for a chat with guys. No other reason than for a chat. Adam was busy sorting out a huge delivery of parts ready to go into stock.

While I was there he said did I want small medium or large? Not quite sure what he meant so I opted for the safe option of middle. With that he took me into the dispatch room where he had just picked up some new items that had laid out on the table. I took some photo’s that Adam will use on his blog soon.

These are powder coated laser cut metal and black powder coated. I was handed the middle size which was some 80cms in width. I was well pleased with my Christmas prezzie and looking forward to having in the garage above my tool chest.

Thank You Adam. 😀

I do know that Adam is looking to have other designs made and he may even sell them. We have shared pics for our blogs so you may see these duplicated. When they are posted on the Mustang Maniac Posts let Adam know you would like one, and he gets enough interest he will get a batch made. He was thinking about removing the Mustang Maniac panel and having it just the outline.

That just leaves me to say one final thing until next year:

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Enfield Pageant 2022 (part 2)

As usual there was a fair for the family and plenty of food stalls. I was tempted to buy a cheese and onion pasty for lunch which I wouldn’t mind paying for, but when the cost is £6 for a pasty, I decided I wasn’t that hungry after all. However the smell was just exquisite, it was a very difficult decision to not be tempted, but I resisted. I wouldn’t mind and people have to make a profit, but when a super market sells them easily at less than a third of that price, I’m not sure if it’s profit or just greed.

On my travels back to the car I came across am interesting little club of old London Taxis. There was some very early examples right up to the more recognisable designs.

Some great UK Fords were there, even these standard Ford like the 1.6Ltr Orion in the UK now commands some serious money. The more exotic cars like the Lotus Cortina, Sierra XR4i or the Cosworth variants will require a mortgage to buy a good one.

There was a couple of unusual cars there with extension or additions to them.

In the middle of the grounds there was a tent which had this car in there roped off. I don’t know if it was something special or just a nice example. Perhaps somebody could enlighten me.

There were plenty of auto jumble with some nice parts for sale and then some rather (crap) stuff for sale, more like a car boot or a rubbish yard sale.

There was various shows in the arena and the stunt team were there again doing some rather mad stuff.

As ever there were plenty of dogs there, and this guy was just happy to lay in the walkway of the stall and people were just stepping over him and he never stirred from his sleep.

I eventually got back to the car and lifted the hood as it seemed to be the norm for the American corner.

I left the show at around four in the afternoon before the usual bun fight starts to get out of the venue. A gentle and steady drive home was very enjoyable and I even had a few people wave to me as they went past. I always try to make a point of waving back at the kids and give them a little hoot as well.

A great day was had by all at the Mustang Maniac patch out as I expected and top it all of there was no rain either, so I class that as a win – win scenario. There was a downside however, filling the car up again on the way back home with some more Shell V-Power fuel. In total I spent just under £120 on fuel for the day out. As it was the end of the month and I hadn’t been paid yet, my mate Barclay (Card) helped me out with the expenses and pay him back in a couple of weeks.

Owning these cars it’s not about the miles per gallon, it’s all about the ‘smiles per gallon’, when you have a good day out, it seems worth it.

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Enfield Pageant 2022 (part 1)

The Enfield Pageant of Motoring show is the furthest that I travel to. It’s a big show and I like to go and support Adam and Mustang Maniac. The show is about eighty miles away from me and Adam had decided that we should be there around eight in the morning. In order to get there I would need to leave at six in the morning as I also had to get some fuel as well.

The sun was up and the weather forecast was set to be sunny and no rain. I jumped in the car started the journey down to the show. About twenty minutes into the trip I came to the Shell garage where I topped up with the V-Power of six and half gallons (UK) to a cost of £55.10 which works out to £8.45 a gallon! After recovering from the open wallet surgery that had just been performed on me, I restarted the journey back on the dual carriage ways. This time not being as ‘enthusiastic’ with the loud pedal. I eventually got there just after eight and drove into the field and up to the Mustang Maniac pitch where they usually are.

I parked up next to them and started to clean the car to get the dust and road grime of the car and took the first photo. I took around three hundred photos and got it down to around two hundred, and this post is part one, and part two coming tomorrow.

Mustang Maniac had a large plot of ground which was also filled up with more American cars.

After we had a catch up I decided to walk around and take some photos early before it got busy. In no particular order except I started clockwise.

Perhaps my favourite car of the show was this 1955 Thunderbird. I am seriously saddened by the fact it was smaller than i expected and I wouldn’t be able to get in it. 🙁

This particular Reliant Robin three wheeler was actually used in the hugely popular sitcom in the UK ‘Only Fools & Horses’.

Part Two will be more of the same around the same time.

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Lesson Learned

There is so much on the Mustang forums here in the UK about prices of parts for our beloved Mustangs. It’s a well known fact that the cost of living has gone insane amounts, partly due to the Covid pandemic over the last couple of years. There have been shortages of materials, that then means shortage of parts which ultimately leads to supply and demand shortages.

Fact: costs of freight have quadrupled from the USA to the UK. I can state that as I have seen the import duty charged for the last couple of months compared to what they were two years ago to Mustang Maniac. Will the costs go down again? I very much doubt it, so the whole economy suffers in one way or another. Indeed Adam (from Mustang Maniac) had even predicted this a while ago on their blog too.

So where am I going with this? Companies are now careful about what they buy and what they keep in stock, sometimes ordering the parts once they have been paid. I have even heard it said that ‘Stock that sits on the shelf isn’t paying the bills’. I usually ask Mustang Maniac to get me the odd bits and pieces from the USA which he does for me without a problem. To save him the bother this time as I know how busy he gets, I thought I would have a go myself. Here is the story of how it went for me.

I saw a picture of a rather nice PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) valve on an engine that was built ready to be put back into their project car and yes it was a Mustang. This part was required as part of legislation by California state I believe to clean the pollution up. The part is to basically allow a controlled air leak back to the carb to reburn any dirty emissions from the ‘blow by’ of the pistons back into the combustion cycle.

It took me a little while to find where they were being sold, eventually I found it at Summit Racing. I liked the look of the polished aluminum tower with a right angle outlet, something a little different here in the UK, that’s all it was – pure cosmetics.

As it was on another Mustang small block engine, it was treat time for Mart. So I added the part to the basket. The part was $27.50 which worked out to £21.93 this side of the pond.

First thing to hit me was the “Shipping Costs” at $30.63 or £24.42 in the UK.

This is is more than the cost of the part in the first place. Heart was ruling head at this point as I ordered it at a total of $58.13 or £46.35 in UK. That is a lot of money around ten times the price for a standard PCV valve at $4 or so. This was going to be a luxury part.

The part was ordered on Friday 5th May 2022 when I was given a link to a tracking page.

It took nine days to get to the export facility. The part eventually arrived at the UK distribution on Tuesday 24th May 2022, within ten hours of it landing in the UK it was delivered. The six days between 18th to the 24th I assume it was in a row boat heading across the pond to our little ol’ island.

For $30 I expected the part to be flown over by a beautiful Golden Eagle with my part clutched in it’s talons. No need to comment on the postage times as they a plain to see. The 24hr service from Parcel Force in the UK was impressive – but it comes at a cost of course.

The part was in my hand early afternoon and I couldn’t wait to get to the car after work with a little tinkering to be done. The first thing I did was to compare the parts, with the old valve on top, the new one underneath. Diameter of the fitting was correct at 3/4″ fitting to valve cover grommet.

On a side note, the quality of the part wasn’t great, it was marked and tarnished on the surface, you can clearly see it in the picture. I have no doubt I could buff it and polish it up, but why should I have too?

Then I checked the underside for the ventilation hole which was significantly smaller. The new one on the right, the old on the left.

Before I dismantled the old setup, I had already built the new one with a piece of spare vacuum hose ready to be a direct replacement to the original which I know is was working fine. The spring in the new valve was also much stronger than the current one. A little press of the inner plate with a small screw driver confirmed that.

I fired the car up and allowed it to warm up properly. To swap them over it was a simple case to pull out the old valve from the top of the rocker cover and the other end pulls of the vacuum input on the base of the carb. Then I quickly swap them over, literally five seconds or so. I checked the valve was fine by placing my thumb over the bottom and it sucked my thumb to form a seal just as I expect it to before pushing it into the grommet on top of the valve cover.

With the new setup pipe fully in place the car started to cough and splutter with a significant drop to the idle revs. When I selected a drive gear the engine tried it’s best to hang on, but it stalled out. I started the car up again and I had to throttle the gas to keep the engine alive. To keep the engine alive on its own I had to turn the idle adjustment screw up by well over a turn and a half, which is a lot to keep the engine from stalling out. The car didn’t seem to happy with that, I wasn’t happy to make that much adjustment either.

I was disappointed with the product and the results from it, so I swapped the old one back in and reversed the changes I had just made – all was good again.

What valuable lesson have I learned?

The PCV valves are different and will effect on the running of the engine as expected. But, how the valve and current settings are now are fine. To make this part work, I would have to mess with mixtures and idle to which is not good, I was hoping for a straight swap which it should be.

The point to make is that I now have a part in the UK which won’t really work on my car. I could send it back. Lets just say it cost me another $30 to get back to the USA. Then I would have to wait for Summit to reimbursed the cost of the part and not the shipping I paid to send it back. That would mean that I would have spent $60 on shipping with a new total of around $90, just to get my £22 back. That means I would have lost £50 or so on shipping. It’s just not worth it.

However, if I had of purchased the part from the UK, I could have returned it and got a refund with just a fraction of the shipping costs as the part is incompatible or so it seems. My head told me no at the time, and my head was right.

People in the UK are quick to moan (a lot in fact), at the costs of UK shipping and the costs of the parts. The UK supplier would have to put their shipping costs and taxes on the part, along with their business mark-up which is constantly under a squeeze now days. So lets say that part now cost £60 + £5 shipping; I could have returned it and I could have of gotten my money back if it was the wrong part sent to me. But, as it wasn’t the wrong part, it was the part I had ordered, so technically they are under no obligation to take it back unless it’s faulty or mis-sold.

The moral of the story is yes, you can get it cheaper from the USA, pay the shipping, pay the import costs, taxes and whatever anybody else tries to rip you of for. Then you have to wait unless you pay a premium for the postage to get to you in a reasonable amount of time. What if it’s faulty or the wrong part? The decision is yours at the end of the day send it back, or keep it depending on the original amount of money for the part I guess. I’m not on any retainer for this post from anybody – it’s my own findings. I may have another crack at this part later on once I have spoken to the experts at Mustang Maniac for guidance. I like to think that I’m supporting local business who do all the hard work and store these parts until I want them. when you know what’s involved and what could go wrong, the costs aren’t that bad.

I’m not even sure if this will be helpful to anybody to be honest – I just wanted to get it of my chest.

Please let me know what you think or have any points to add.

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Prototype To Production

My last post showed my ‘homework’ for a prototype part kit I was going to install on my car. I mentioned a while ago to Adam at Mustang Maniac that on longer journeys it would be nice to have a little more legroom. He said that had been asked about it some time ago as well, but there wasn’t really anything on the market. Until now that is, those discussions with Adam have been ongoing and he has had a prototype developed by his engineers. We then discussed how this was going to be done, the original plan was to do some filming of the fitting for their YouTube channel, we decided on a slightly different approach to the original plan for now. Two reasons, the first being the UK’s protest morons that have made getting fuel difficult in some parts of the UK. The second was ‘how difficult would the kit be to fit at home without professional workshop equipment?’ The challenge was accepted, fit the rails at home and share my results with Mustang Maniac while saving myself a fist full of dollars in fuel costs and time.

The seat extension runners came from Mustang Maniac. They are designed to allow an additional 2″ or 4″ movement backwards of the seat for additional legroom while still allowing the seat to adjust on the original runners. These runners are made from a heavy gauge steel with threads and cut-outs which allow for a straightforward installation. These extensions bars will fit all Mustang models from 1964 to 1968 by the way.

From my last post here the rails are dried and already painted with satin black ready for fitting.

There are four studs provided with the extension bar kit to allow the repositioned seat to be bolted back into the car without having to cut the floor pans or seat base.

Depending on your preference of course, you could respray these bars to match your interior as they will be a little more visible from outside as the seat will sit further back on the seat base, but not noticeably so. Satin black is always a good starting point and goes with pretty much everything.

Removing the seat.

Under the car there are four rubber grommets (or should be four) in place where the seat rail studs come through the seat base.

Remove the rubber grommets and inspet the inside. If all is good the studs won’t be correded up and will be easy to remove. If the rubber grommets are missing, or there is corrosion on the studs, then you may need to spray a some WD40 (or similar) to help loosen them up and remove. Make sure to use a good quality socket, if you round the fasterners off then you are in for a whole heap of hurt.

Tip:

Fold the back of the chair forward to the seat base as if you were getting out of the back seats. This helps to balance the weight of the seat and allows the fasteners to be removed without the chair tipping back making removal difficult or even bending a seat stud.

Use a deep reach socket to undo the fasteners.

With all four fasteners removed the seat should lift directly upwards out of the car. Notice in the left-hand pic that the seat falls naturally to the rear. Keep the fasteners safe as they will be used again to refit the seat back into place.

With the seat out, now would be a good time to inspect the seat runners and clean the runners up if needed. Apply a little grease to keep the free movement.

Fitting The Extenders

The bars have to be fitted to their correct left or right hand sides and the right way up. Looking at the seat from below the right hand side has the seat movement handle and a extending bracket. This side will need the cut out sectioned runner to be fitted, as the pics below. You can either attach the studs at this point or later the choice is yours. I prefer to do it later so nothing got in the way.

You will notice that there are holes, recessed holes and threaded holes. The standard holes are to allow flush fitting of the bars to the seat rails where the rivets are. The recessed holes allow for the original seat studs to be held flush to the bar. The threaded holes are for the studs position where you want the actual length of the extension to be.

Below shows the third hole down which is recessed and where the original seat stud(s) will go through.

The top hole is the 4″ extention the second one down is the 2″ extension shown in Red.

Yellow shows the location for the seat rail rivets.

Teal colour shows the seat stud holes.

From the position above turn the bar over to fit onto the seat rail flush. Fit the rail over the original seat studs and use some nuts of the correct thread on the seat studs and tighten the bars firmly into place.

You will now need to cut the original seat rail studs flush with the top of the nut. This has to be done in order to fit the seat back into the car and be bolted back into place. Before you do any cutting, make sure that the seat can still freely move with the seat adjustment handle with the extension bars bolted in place.

You can either mark the studs for cutting and remove the fasteners and bars away from the seat, or do it with the bars still bolted in place which is easier to be honest. I used a Dremel and a thin cut off wheel. Take your time and use goggles in case the cut-off wheel breaks or sparks fly. Going old school with a hacksaw will work just as well. You can see my Dremel in the right-hand picture bottom corner. I also got pretty OCD about it and ground the studs perfectly flush with the fastener.

Fitting The Studs

These new studs have a collar a quarter of the way down. The shorter thread screws are fitted into the extension bars, the longer thread will be going back through the seat base using the original holes.

I painted the top of my studs to match the bars so they were less visible from the outside, just because I could.

You will need a locking pair of grips to screw these replacement studs into place tightly, or a strong hand grip an pliers. I also used a little thread locker to keep them in place. The left-hand picture shows the correct stud fitting.

As I said earlier, if you want the full 4″ extension use the top threaded holes, for the smaller 2″ extension use the second hole down. Fit the second stud at the bottom of the rail extension use the threaded hole just above the larger hole (for the rivet) for the 4″ extension, and the 2″ threaded hole is below the larger hole. See the marked up image earlier on the page. If you are in any doubt measure the original seat stud gap and apply the same gap to the 4″ or the 2″ stud holes.

Refitting The Seat

Take the seat back to the car and drop the studs through the original holes in the seat base and carpet holes. From there screw on the fasteners from underneath the car to hold the seat in place. Refit the carpet spacers and then tighten up the seat properly.

Replace the rubber grommets and the job is done. I sat back in the car and was amazed at the difference that the extra few inches of leg room gives you. For a 6’4″ bloke like me I was always a little crunched up on leg room, that little bit extra makes it so much nicer to drive. Also as the seat base actually slopes down towards the back of the car, in effect I have also gained a little more headroom too. Win/win all round then. 🙂

The fitting was straight forward and I reported my work back to Adam with the photo’s. He has now decided to go into production with the current design. Their measurements were spot on so no need to make any modifications. I suspect they will be on the Mustang Maniac WebShop Soon, along with some of the photos and description of the fitting.

The second part of the my little upgrades I promised was the hood springs. There was nothing wrong with them at all, except that Adam showed me a set he has just fitted to the project car they have in a workshop. I see them, I wanted them it was a simeple as that. Not the cheapest replacement part just for looks, but why not? These springs are super strong and will have the Devil’s bite on you or the car if you get it wrong when replacing them. I packed an old duvet cover around the hood springs and levered of the springs carefully and under control with a large screwdriver come crowbar. They were replaced in a matter of seconds. I was so worried about the springs pinging off and damaging the paint or parts under the car, or flying up and removing part of my jaw that I forgot to take pictures. I do have the before and after pics for you. Most people wont even notice the change and think they are stock parts, but I think they just add a little bit of something extra to look at.

Right hand side:

Left hand side:

The last part of the day’s work was the annual oil and filter change. I tend to do around two thousand miles a year at most. But, I would rather pay £35 for fresh oil just to be on the safe side each year. The K&N gold oil filters I use are a bit bigger than the standard Ford oil filters, which means that I have to put in more oil in than the standard recommend five US quarts to get the levels right.

Now I’m all set for the car show season, apart from a quick wax and once over that is! Lets hope the weather stays fine for the shows. I will let you know as the season goes on.

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Prototype Parts!

Over the last few weeks I have been having a few trips down to Mustang Maniac where they have been developing a part which is aimed at people like me. It’s obviously going to be a mustang part, but more for my own pleasure of driving the car.

These heavy gauge steel bars have been black zinc plated for longevity and a good base for some proper coloured paint. A touch of déjà vu transporting me back ten odd years to when my car was being restored; Adam said ‘Take these back with you and satin spray them for your homework’, so that’s exactly what I did the next afternoon.

Preparation

First of all was the prep to make sure a good paint bond where I cleaned the bars with a little isopropanol alcohol to remove any greasy or oil spots from being handled. I set up a line to suspend the bars and started the little and often undercoats to allow faster drying. The same for the satin black top coats to give a nice even coverage. The weather was sunny on and off, warm with a light breeze. Spraying from a rattle can in the breeze is all about timing and technique, the later from me being a little ‘rusty’ from not having done it for a a good few years.

The wife wasn’t to impressed with the new style grey and black patched grass I managed to create for her. The completed articles are mow ready to be taken back to Mustang Maniac for fitting and couple of other little bits at the same time where it would make things a lot easier with a car lift.

There are specific threaded bolts with a mid shoulder that are made specifically for the bars and will replace the originals when fitted.

Some may have an idea of what they are, if you know or think you know drop me comment. I hope to drive the car to Mustang Maniac next week sometime and I will obviously document what they are for then and bring you part two and a review. 👍

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A Refreshing Look?

Yesterday I had tried to add a couple of items to my menu bar and I ended up breaking it. 🙁 I managed to get it back again to a normal state but’s not how it was. I was getting constant ‘gateway errors’ and the menus wouldn’t update. I have since been in contact with WordPress Help a couple of times, and they informed me that the theme that I had been using is now eleven years old. I nearly fell out of my comfy office chair when that flashed up on my little chat window.

The task for today was to hunt through all the themes that are out there to see if I could get one to work. I had a priority list of must haves; the image header, custom text colours, post options and of course how it looks and feels.

I found a few but settled on this one. I have been able to edit everything I needed with a the help of a couple of plugins that I need in order to make it all work. So far so good.

Except the header image which is playing me around. 😡

The image I’m trying to use is this one from the pro shoot in Cambridge, which has my blog title and tag line on the picture. The heading space wouldn’t allow both a picture and site tittle for some reason.

The heading looks fine on a couple of browsers Chrome/Firefox and the occasionally on Edge. It works on the mobile phone with the menus via a drop down so it’s much cleaner look too.

If you look at the new design can you please let me know if you have any issues with it, either half showing or heavily cropped like this;

I got a nasty feeling I may have to change this all again. I hope not.

Why did I mess with it? Well, I wanted to add a little ‘For Sale’ heading as I have a little supply of some parts. The addition of the extra menu tab was just to much and the theme had a bit of a frothy fit and wouldn’t play ball anymore.

What I have for sale is a little supply of the genuine Summit Racing Universal Engine Lift Plates. These are aimed at the carburettor guys on any make of engine. at £14.00 + P&P its a right steal. Click here for more pics and details.

In the very near future I will be selling something quite unique for classic Mustang owners. The prototype works and I’m now in collaboration with Mustang Maniac to get them made in volume. It’s all very exciting so watch this space!

Back to this post, I think this is much needed update and clean modern look now. The menu bar should be at the top on a PC so it’s easier to navigate around. There area few little tweaks to the side bar and social media buttons to like and follow.

If ANYTHING doesn’t work or looks rubbish let me know and I will amend it. I’m still playing with some of the settings and I may need to change bits around.

Please let me know if you like it or you want the old back. I can take criticism and take it like a man.

I do have two car shows to post and I haven’t forgotten them, it’s just that I have been busy trying to sort the theme mess out. Funny how a hour or so has turned into nine hours already!

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