Exciting News…

The car is tantalising close to being finished. The weekly trip to Mustang Maniac seemed to be an age away, but soon came round. There is a little bit of urgency in the air now to get my car finished or as close to finished as we can possibly get it. The car needs to have a road test, once the guys are happy with that then we can get the door cards on and handles put on.

Why the rush? Simple reason – my car will be on show in the Birmingham NEC Exhibition Halls at the “Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show”, 13th – 15th November 2015. For more details about the show click here or cut and paste the link below.

http://www.necclassicmotorshow.com/

I am so excited I can’t begin to tell you just how much. This show IS the biggest Classic Car show in the UK, and I will debut my car there. Over four years of hard work and I get to show my little lady off to the public there. I will be there for all of the three days with the car, so please pop by and say hello, I may even give you one of my little business cards, if you’re lucky. After all, I really don’t want to be there on my own Billy “No Mates” style as they say! The Birmingham NEC exhibition site is a huge place and there will be hundreds of stands, auto jumble and Car Clubs with their cars on show. (Did I mention how excited I am?) But, I must say I’m not expecting to be judged and I’m not expecting any recognition for my car at all, it’s not going there for that reason. I will be using this car for my enjoyment and not be a “trailer queen” as so many of these old cars from all makes tend to be these days. Oh, the only time I won’t be with my car is when I have a look around at the other cars myself. I shall be there with a mate of mine to keep me company.

The car:

It was time to put some of the missing bling back on the car now. I had help to do this bit as you need an extra pair of hands to hold and guide the sill mouldings in place. We, that’s Paul, Sam and myself made a good team to fit them in place and no damage reported either as so often is the case with these mouldings. The mouldings are clipped over the riveted brackets from last week and it all snapped into place. We had to drill my last brackets onto the front fenders and aligned up correctly, I won’t deny it, beads of sweat were running down my face as I started to drill my nice fresh metal and paint job. What if I slipped? I was carefull, very carefull should we say!

placing the rivet

There is a threaded stud at each end that goes through the rear quarter and the front wing to stop the moulding slipping out sideways. The mouldings are delicate and subject to being bent so you have to take great care when fitting these.

Around the door is a rail along the roof line for the rain drip rail. This is covered by a stainless steel moulding which again snaps into place, another delicate procedure that Yogi took the lead on and fitted for me. If fitted incorrectly and you have to remove them, you will take large chunks of your precious paint job with you. Yogi did wind me up by getting out an excessively large hammer with a little comment; “You need this!” 🙂

The end of the day left Paul and myself to fit the seat belts. These are dead simple and is a single bolt each side of the side of the seat. The only trouble was the carpet, Dynamat and sound proofing material all covered the holes, we knew roughly where they should be, but not the exact points. So we had to what can only be described as excavating with our fingers and tiny awls to locate the correct positions of the bolt holes. We carefully cut the carpet and used a cone cutter to make the hole big enough to get the seat belt anchor bolts correctly and safely in place. It took time as we didn’t want to leave marks all over the carpet. Now I had choices of colours of belts, dark blue, light blue, white, red etc. But I went for the standard push button black to match the centre console. Now some of the consoles are coloured the same as the interior seats. The gauges are in black as is the glove box, aircon unit and centre console. I didn’t want near enough shades of colour and not quite matching the seats effect, I think that would have looked a little odd and better going for the contrast. I tried the white belts and they were a very clean white and not the dulled down cream look of the centre of the seats and the head liner. The other choice was the style of buckle, I didn’t fancy the real blingy “Pony” logo on the belts and they just didn’t seem to look right, if that makes sense. So I went for the more correct (understated) period look for the time.

Below you can see the bolts in place and a close up of the belt.

Did I make the right choice? I think I did as I still like them looking at the photo’s again today.

On another note, a while ago I posted about my radio that had been updated to use modern technology that still looks retro and old. I had somebody email me a question if I knew anybody who could help with modern Fords and SYNC apps? I didn’t know, so as I was intrigued I started searching around and found this good little site called “Sync My Ride” with Ford App Sync instructions. This is a site where you can create an account for your Ford SYNC and keep your apps updated. There is all sorts of support and help on there. Hope that helps a bit for you modern Ford guys out there.

Share my Content

A Sticky Situation

The weekend was a long-awaited and finally got to Mustang Maniac to get back to work. The plan of action was to finish as much as we could obviously. We started with the HT Leads (high tension leads) or Ignition Leads from the distributor cap to the spark plugs. My original leads were in blue and since then I have changed my mind. I now wanted black ones to match the colour scheme going on under the hood. The HT leads came in a pack and needed to be made to fit the car where I wanted the cables to be routed. Instead of going across the top of the rocker covers where i have the “Powered by Ford” logo it would be partly covered up. So now I wanted them around the front of the covers instead. The leads have the spark plug connections already made and the distributor cap end has to be made to length. To do this properly there is a particular tool that will splice the cable to expose the centre core and then correctly crimp the cables to the fitting.

These are the old wires I used to first start the engine up in the kit form.

original fitting

kit

on the latest colour scheme

Adam advised me that he had a little bling if I wanted it, but it would also serve a very useful purpose. These are the HT lead routing blocks. In effect they hold the cables in place at the side of the engine block and keep the cables neat, the down side is that they just happen to be chrome though. Such a shame – Not!

Anyway, firstly you need to place the leads on the spark plugs and work out where they are going to go and then mark the point where they need to be cut. Leave enough length to allow any loop or safety margin for error. Nothing worse than cutting to short, you can always go shorter.

Once you have cut the leads then you need to slip the rubber boot cap over the wire. As these will be a tight fit a generous spray on the lead and the rubber boor will allow the wire to be pushed into the boot and the end pulled through with some long-nosed pliers to expose the connection.

cut to length

lube the cable into the boot

pull through the cable

splice the end

core exposed

With the core showing bend the core under the cable to trap onto the fitting and then crimp up.

ready to crimp

crimp in place

With the crimp completed pull the boot over the fitting and plug into the correct distributor place or correct firing order. The HT block then screws into place on the rocker cover using the same bolts. Once in place pull through the loop of cable to make it look neat and how you wanted it.

locating

in place

looped

finished

other side bank

The end result is a great looking set of wires from the front, and the distributor cap is partly hidden by the air filter. But still my OCD wouldn’t allow the cable to be odd and still needed to be neat even though you can’t really see them. But, I know they are there and how they should be.

From the top down it still had to look right.

Next up was the fun bit, I wanted some original stickers back in place under the hood. There was no specific rule of thumb here and each production line and indeed operator would do it how they see fit. So on one car the sticker would in one place and on another it would be somewhere different. A good example of this was the left hand side shock tower, where some of the information sheets were upside down. This meant they read correctly when you look in the engine to service the engine from the fender side, but it was wrong trying to read it from the front. So I went for the right way up as nobody else will be servicing my car apart from Mustang Maniac guys or me.

The stickers came in a pack and I placed them roughly where they should have been, but there is not right or wrong here. I have seen these stickers all over the place, but the couple I had there before the restoration were put back where they came from. there were stickers for the air filter (which wasn’t relevent for my filter), oil filter, battery check, tyre pressures for the glove box etc. Amazing set of stickers that has made a difference.

Once the little bit of fun was finished it was time to complete the dash trim. This had to be screwed into place and use an air powered Dremel type tool to get right into the corners. Can had to be taken not to damage the dash pad going in or coming out with the drill bit still spinning. The black trim looks great and finished the dash area of nicely.

Tip:

Make sure you have a very good fitting screw driver for the screws. If you slip and run forward you will smash into the glass windscreen on the edge and a chance of cracking the glass.

The rear of the car is completed now with the rear handles being fitted to the rear quarter glass winder mechanisms. It seems to finish it of quite nicely.

The outside needed to have the sill mouldings fitted back on. These are held in place by a set of clips pop riveted into the sill. Yogi showed me how to do it and left me to complete the installation on the sill. The front fender would need to be drilled and fitted in place but we ran out of time. I will get some more pics when that part is done, for now you will have to look at the fairly ugly clips.

placing the rivet

creating

clip in place

Moving on to the trunk area now. There is a wire that runs from the loom across the trunk area and under the car to the fuel sender. This was usually held in place by a piece of tape and hidden by the fuel tank. I went a little different and used “P” clips under the securing bolts to hold the cable in place.

I have been thinking about this quite a bit. I have a fantastic polished stainless steel fuel tank that seems a shame to get covered up. So I am thinking about cutting the centre out of the plaid matting and expose the fuel tank just for any shows. when I say gut it out I will only expose the centre part of the fuel tank and cover the nuts and bolts to keep it looking nice and neat. That way the cut out section can then be replaced back onto the fuel tank when not on show or I need to carry things about again. The matting was brought down from the stores by Adam and we laid it out hoping the creases will drop out soon just like the carpet did.

I will bring that update on the blog as soon as I have decided. Any thoughts out there on whether I should keep it covered or expose just the centre a little?

Share my Content

Let’s Be Seated

This week I was expecting a call to say my seats had arrived at Mustang Maniac for me. I didn’t get any email from Adam to give me a hint. The trip there was wondering what I was going to do for the day. I arrived to find carnage in the yard, the guys were moving stuff around and an old ’67 fastback was about to be scrapped, cars were all over the place and lorries littered the yard, just for the day mind you. Adam looked like he needed another pair of hands so I got to work and helped out where I could. After the work was done and time out was called for a cup of tea, Adam said I have a surprise for you.

We eventually went to his small storage area where he had carefully stacked my seats. Yep, my seats were back at long last from Trevor the trimmers. My smile fixed to my face as we transported them to the main workshop. Adam moved the car for me from the storage shop to the main workshop to make it easier to fit the seats. We laid them out in order to see what we had and what we needed. Adam picked them up late Saturday night and waited for them to be finished for me.

We needed all the hardware like the fixings and trims. All my old parts were damaged or just not good enough for the seats now. The seats have been fitted to a superb level and look amazing. The “Pony Interior” colour scheme is blue and white. I had to have the door cards custom-made as I didn’t want the matching padded “Pony” interior ones. These are bulky and have a habit of cracking and tearing by the handle of the door. The standard door cards look cleaner and the door handles are attached better to the frame of the door. This was a sneak peek of the colour back in April this year when Adam took delivery of the door cards with the chrome trim. The seats I had when I got the car seemed to have been changed a number of times, but things suggest that the trim level in the car was Pony style in the first place.

The reason for the delay was the rear seats don’t have a foam kit you can buy to replace the old knackered ones I had. That meant the rear seats had to be made up from scratch using new materials that looked and felt right behind the trims. I’m glad I went to the effort to restore the seats frames and springs properly now.

This was the old seat trims and seat frames I started work on back in April of this year.

Rear seat

front seat back

The new seats and extremely high level of finishing.

We started with the rear seats as they are pretty much done and just need fitting straight into the car. The seat backs drop onto two brackets at the top and secured with two bolts at the bottom via the brackets. The rear seats base pushed under the seat backs and just clipped into place on the floor, the top holding the bottom down firmly in place. Adam had to check the seats out to make sure all was OK of course, he beat me into the seats “as I went to get them”, that was a few funny moments scrambling to see who would get to sit in the seats first. The trouble was the Adam had declared the race was on as he was halfway in the car as he announced it. Was I bothered? Not at all. The reason is simply because I certainly won’t be the first to drive it either when she is “finished”. I want the guys at MM to drive it and set it up how it should be, and iron a few teething issues (if any) out first.

Here is the pic of a happy winner of the impromptu game of Mustang musical chairs!

The fronts were going to be harder to complete and I was a little nervous about this bit, as I will explain in a bit. The seats had to be put together first before fitting into the car obviously. The first step was the often missing washers on the hinge pins.

The back of the seats are adjusted by a single bolts that presses onto the rear frame. Both the bolt and the protecting plate needed to be pierced into the vinyl trim. This was the bit that worried me, cutting holes in new material.

inserted bolt.

adjusted to rough height

seat base pad

Adam has a right-angled tool to help find the screw holes so you don’t have to keep making holes in the material. The next part was to mark out where the clips go into the frame of the seat back using this simple little tool. The locating hole was made, then a small sharp punch was used to make a neat cut in the material for the clips to go into.

locating the holes

cutting the holes

The seats were put together and the hinges were levered together to make them fit into the seat back holes. An “R” clip is used to go through the hole to hold the hinges together. Chris was on hand to help out now which was a great help. The outside edges of the seats have a chrome trim which screws into the material and also needed some very careful marking out. The inner hinge has a basic plastic cover to hide the inner and smaller hinge and the “R” pins.

The seat rails are held in place by two bolts each end of the track and the corresponding frame holes. To make the lever work so you can move the seat on the tracks, there is a metal rod that clips into each side of the rails and is adjusted by turning the quite neat box section on the thread to equalise the lever adjustment.

rod clipped in place

To get into the back of the car the seats just fold forward, these hinges are also angled so that the seats fold away towards the centre of the car to give more room which is a nice touch. The backs of the seat are card covered with the same material, the clips are slipped into the card cut outs and then pressed into the corresponding holes on the seat back frame. Due to the thickness of the material the corners at the top were quite difficult to press into the frame. You must be careful to press the clips here or the clips will puncture the material and ruin it. I am not a fan of this idea, but it last for fifty years so far, so it can’t be that bad.

With the seat now assembled it was a case of dropping the seats into the four holes in the seat bases. The carpet had been carefully cut earlier into the seat bases to make the appropriate hole for the rail studs. The seats were held in place by four cupped screws under the car tightened through the floor pan.

The finished effect (I think) is staggering. The finish is better than I was expecting it to be and the seats look right in the car with the colour scheme. Well I think they do anyway, but then again – I am biased! The door cards will be put on after the road tests have been done, in order to make sure there are no rattles of adjusting that need to be fixed inside the doors.

Next week There are more jobs to be done yes, handles, drip rails, side sill covers, fuel tank bolted down, wire tidy in the trunk etc. But for now I am a super happy well chuffed bloke.

Thanks to Adam who had taken time out to wait for the seats to be completed and bring them back for me. Thanks to Chris for the extra pair of hands rebuilding the seats, his bad jokes and keeping the drinks flowing.

Thanks guys. 😀

Share my Content

Eye Candy

I knew what i was going to be doing this week at Mustang Maniac and the week dragged by until I could get there. The task in hand was the interior dash area and see how we would get on with the rest of it. For a change I got there early as the traffic wasn’t bad at all the way i decided to get their avoiding the air show chaos that was bound to happen.

Adam decided the gauges were going to be the first in, so we tested them on the dash panel and they didn’t move. The result was that my voltage regulator for the dials that steps the voltage down to 5 volts was getting red-hot. Then it got no hotter and nothing worked. Adam and Yogi were now having a discussion on the issue. They tested the gauges and found there was an earth issue. Yogi undone the back while Adam held the dash to see what was going on. immediately they noticed that the oil gauge was touching the back case causing an earth out, which was shorting out the voltage control. Adam got one of his new and not mentioned on the WebShop electronic voltage regulators that he has custom-made. These units have a small LED built-in to show they are working to the correct voltage and a heat sync to keep them stable and an additional earth lead. Not an off the shelf part from anywhere else.

The gauges were realigned and tested with the Power Probe and they now worked with the new voltage regulator. Yogi declared that he had “saved the day” as he put it! 🙂 The next thing they noticed was the speedo was not working correctly and returning back to the “0” needle. Adam said we needed to change it and got me a new one and he left me to it after instructions on how to change it that is.

Changing the Speedo:

Undo the case screws around the outside and the whole back will lift off. This will expose all the very, very delicate dials on the inside that need a lot of respect due to age.

The back of the dial case has two screws that hold the speedo in place, remove the screws and gently lift out the speedo.

I undone the speedo and compared the parts just to see if there was any difference.

new on the left old on the right

refit of the new speedo

To fit is a reverse of the above and dead simple. I did have a conversation with Adam in the mean time on how to wind the clock forward to match the current original miles. He did tell me and show me how to do it, along with the possible issues it could cause by taking it all apart. I decided not to do it and fit the part as it is as these things aren’t cheap. I then placed the old on top and took a photo to prove old and new miles just in case anybody wanted to know.

Replacing the back case was careful procedure to make sure everything aligns up properly. The speedo was checked, all the lights and the gauges once again to make sure all was in order. The very observant ones will notice that the second from right gauge should be an Ammeter and not a voltage dial. I change this over as the Ammeter is very old school, they often blow, and my one wire alternator didn’t support it in the American AutoWire loom either. I have done a tutorial on how I converted this by clicking here for the quick link. All was OK and now it was time to mount the gauges back into the dash. Make sure you cover the steering column as the dash WILL scratch the column as you can’t maneuver it without doing so. Even if you can it makes it safer and peace of mind that’s all.

Fitting the retaining clips was main job and needed to be aligned correct to the main dash as the screws go in at a strange angle of about forty-five degrees. My volt meter needs an additional switched live feed and a separate earth that I attached before I fitted the quick disconnect to the main wire loom.

I changed the insulating tape from the above picture by the way as it looked horrible, but I didn’t take another a picture at the time, too much was going on and didn’t want to take my eye of the gauges or the dash. The worst part of all this is to attach the speedo cable, this is a small hand job to reach behind and insert the square centre and the retaining collar nut. I managed to do it while getting in a panic that I would scratch the paint around the dash.

The speedo cable is quite inflexible so I found that by moving the cable under the dash you can angle the dash into the correct position. I inserted the retaining screws only to grab the first turn to allow any movement that I may need.

With all the screws in place I could complete the tighten up and made sure not to over tighten the dash for fear of cracking the mounts, as my old dash had done. The completed job was amazing and Adam checked, passed it and we checked the gauges again. All was good.

The next job as I was on a real roll now was the steering wheel. Adam took me up to the stores and showed me his overwhelming collection of original and aftermarket wheels, all different colours and styles, big and small. I picked the one I liked and a horn button to go with it. We went down to the car and we undone the protective wrapping around the steering boss and the horn ring.

The centre nut was tightened in place once the wheel was mounted over the spline, then the three screws that hold the boss to the wheel and the column. Adam threaded the wires through the wheel and only nipped the bolts up as it would inevitably need to be moved to centre it all up in the geo workshop.

The horn button was fitted to the centre and we tested that it was working fine. Again a job that was a lot quicker than I was expecting it to be. All of a sudden I can now imagine what it would be like looking at equipment driving along. A true piece of eye candy! Maybe not to everrybodies taste, but it is to me.

chrome boss

wheel finish

The grin on my face was difficult to hide and Yogi now popped in to see what I was up too. I decided to push my luck and ask him how the console would be fitted. This console was part of the original equipment in my car when it was first ordered. He grinned and aligned it up where it should be, under the air con and around the selector lever. He started to drill the holes for the screws and screw them in before the console moved and we lost the holes. The dynamat had made the screws a difficult to locate in the first instance, but with a patience we managed to gently pull the console down.

We took turns to drill the holes and the first attempt I used the drill I managed to break the drill bit! So I had to confess my sins to Adam who just laughed and said “You learned how not to do it then!” We had to use slightly longer versions of the screws at a couple of points due to additional matting. The “T-handle” for the shifter was re-fitted and again tested all was OK.

The console has a set of lights at the back under the ash tray that work of the courtesy lights and looked pretty good.

console lights

under dash lights

You will notice that the wooden wheel had changed to black. This is because I was talking to Adam about the wheel and he said cover it. He told me he was getting some budget parts and stock in he was going to call “Enos Range”. He had a cheapy 15″ cover that would fit over the wheel just while they were moving it around and the MOT. I decided to get one and fitted it over. It was good quality and not what I was expecting, it didn’t even look out-of-place either

wood wheel

black cover

Last job of the day was the front kick panels. These simply clip to the side of the “A” pillar and are held in place by two simple screws. The carpet had to be cut a little to stop the overlap and allow the panel to sit flush against the chassis. You can see the holes have now gone and looks a lot neater. The carpet is now held in place but the panels area real tight fit to head light dip switch. But after a little levering around a bit, it’s all in place where it should be.

Next week who knows, right now I don’t mind. I am still grinning stupidly at the awesome corner my car has just turned, and I haven’t even got it on the road yet.

Thanks to Adam and Yogi who took time out to give me hand again.

Share my Content

Four Years later

I can’t believe that it has been four years since I bought (well the wife did actually), took possession of my ’66 Mustang Coupe, 17th September 2011 to be exact. Two of those last four years have been down at Mustang Maniac getting the best attention to detail that any Mustang could ask for. I was looking forward to the day ahead to get things done, I wasn’t too sure what it was going to be, but I was about to find out. I arrived to see sitting on the side where I put my tools was a nice new super shiny gas gap. Adam smiled and said “There’s your first job”. The old gas cap was from a 1970 model, I didn’t mind it but it was starting to wind Adam up as we hadn’t changed it yet. There is a larger hole at the bottom of the filler where the retaining wire is held. This is a multi purpose idea, one you don’t lose it and two, it stops trophy hunters trying to steal it. Undo the bottom screw and slightly drill out the hole in the body panel. Screw in the cable and attach the locking bolt inside the panel. The difference was instant, and looks so much better now.

side by side

remove the screw

attach the cable and bolt

tighten the nut

The next job was now at the front, mounting the front bumper. The irons had already been bolted into place and through the stone guard. The bumper was a two-man job to avoid scratching my nice paint job. Yogi and me laid the bumper in place and the collapsible washers were placed on top of the irons. The bolts were lightly placed through the bumper and not tightened up just yet. The side mountings to the fender needed to be jiggled around a bit to make it fit on the driver’s side by pushing the bumper into place to meet the fender hole. Once they were all in place the tightening could be done. Yogi tells me I’m a lucky guy again as these can be a real pain to fit if the car is slightly out of alignment after an accident or similar. A job that makes a total transformation of the car. I even managed to get a reflection of the Corral in the bumper too.

I moved to the interior now and a piece of equipment I have been moving around to avoid damage is the aircon unit. The car is a genuine factory option aircon car, but i didn’t want all that under the hood. But, I do love the blower unit. I decided to use the blower unit in the car and make it work as a fan, if that makes sense. Yes there are going to be people who moan that’s not a aircon car as there is no “this, that or the other” under the hood. Well, all I can say is that if I want it, I still have the brackets to put it all on if I wanted too, but I don’t. These aircon units are held under the dash by two brackets, and held on the tunnel in the middle by an adjustable bolt. This looked pretty basic and I wanted something with a little more finesse should we say. I had kept the old hood stops and I was going to take the rubber of the top of that of and weld it to the bottom of the bolt. As it turned out the trunk bump stop is exactly the same thread as the support bolt for the aircon. I screwed in the bump stop and it looked like it was menat to be there. Next up the unit was carefully offered up the to the dash for a dry fit.

The power feed cable had been cut, this meant that there was no wire long enough to power the unit. So I had to extend the wire. There is never any crimping to extend a wire at Mustang Maniac, ever! I would have been thrown in the scrap bin if I had of done. The wires were stripped back about twenty millimeters and twisted together, heat shrink placed over the cable, flux applied to the cables. The (gas-powered) soldering iron was fired up and after thirty seconds it was ready to use. A lot of old cloth was placed under the solder area to avoid dropping any hot solder on the carpet. Once the soldering was completed and allowed to cool, the end of the soldering iron attachment was swapped to the hot air nozzle that shrank the heat shrink to the soldered area.

twisted wires

heat shrink and secured

The aircon unit was now able to be connected to the power. The brackets were padded out with a little foam pad to stop any vibration or rattles. The bolts were threaded through the dash and bolted from the inside.

I could then adjust the bottom stop to take the pressure of the bottom of the dash and equalise the weight distribution out. The end result was brilliant and I am glad that I made the choice to keep it in the car. The centre console will complement the aircon unit down the length of the tunnel.

Four years later and the car is not completed just yet. There is the trim for the seats, steering wheel, centre console, dash trim, gauges, rear quarter window rain felts etc all to be done. I can’t see it being ready just yet. but it’s oh so close now, I can almost taste the petrol! 🙂 Hurry up next week I have work to do.

Share my Content

That Warm Glow

The trip to Mustang Maniac was as long as ever, in fact it’s a sixty mile trip each way for me. It’s feels like it takes longer to get there because of the anticipation to get there. On the way back home it’s a gentle trip with the cruise control on, I just take my time thinking about what I am going to write about on Sunday and the time flies by. This week’s post is going to be a bit of a mixed bag. The under wings and out-of-the-way splash guards and the other was going to be the centre piece (literally) of the dash area, the radio.
I will start with the splash guards, of which there are four in total, smaller one behind the headlight and a longer one that sits at the back of the fender.

Each of the splash guards can be purchased with or without the rubber edging around the fender facing edges. To be honest by the time you buy the cheaper splash guards and the rubber edging and you fit them, it’s just as cheap to buy the “deluxe” version with them fitted and the cost is hardly anything. I got the deluxe versions and started on the front sides under the fenders.

It took me about five minutes to realise that it makes life so much easier if you take the wheel off. I started on the right hand side and offered up the guard. The first thing I noticed was that the fittings will only go on one way round.

The edging faces towards the direction of the splash, in other words the rubber faces inwards towards the wheel coming from the back of the guard as it were.

I went to screw the guard on behind the headlight mount and found that the original screw holes had been made bigger than they were supposed to be.

This meant that I had to use the biggest fattest metal screws that I could find. A few weeks ago I realised that this was going to be the case in a few fittings so far that I tried to fix, so I went out and bought a wide selection of imperial screws and technical bolts (which has the self tap threads, and a hexagonal bolt head). I found the three largest bolts I had and they were just enough to grip the original holes. The splash guards have quite large holes that allow for adjustment during the fitting o allow the rubbers to git into the contours of the fender.

Some people prefer to fit the splash guards to the fender and the rear splash guards to the body before the fenders are bolted on. There is room under the fender to do the work either way, but I would prefer to align the fender gaps correctly, then fit the splash guards to the those gaps and fender positioning. I have heard that some after market fenders had been fitted and the splash guards had to be moved to allow the correct gap alignment. I also fitted the splash guards with a larger stainless steel washer and filled the hole with a gasket sealer to prevent the water getting to the holes. The edging is cut so that the corners will overlap and form the water barrier.

The rear and much longer guards are in an inverted “L” shape which fits on top of the main body frame and secured via a single self tap bolt from inside the engine bay, the vertical fittings are also from inside the to the outside so that a small socket and wrench can comfortably tighten the fasteners.

The left hand side was much easier as it was a new fender and the holes were the correct size and the correct bolts were perfect fit.

The only extra that thing that I done was to fill the metal to metal gaps with a generous bead of silicon beading to stop any water ingress. All this seems a little irrelevant in some ways as the car will not be driven in the wet, but any protection provided against rain or water can only help.

The radio on the other hand is a key central part of the dash and is seen all the time you are in the car basically due to its location. The story behind my radio is that I didn’t have one when I got the car. The whole in my original dash was butchered like most were at the time and cut wider to take a modern and the new fangled gimmick stereo radio. My old dash with so common “conversion”.

Reverting back to the original radio size involves welding in a replacement patch and grinding it down, prepping and filling with a colour spray match up. Here I was looking at how the patch would fit on my old dash.

My dash was completely replaced due to the damage and rust so I had the correct the sized hole, but without the radio.

I had been looking around for a while now for an original or period correct radio. I found plenty of radios the were either broken or in a pretty shoddy state. I did of course have the option of a modern radio with the old style shape, but that didn’t interest me either. Fussy I know, but I can’t help it. Anyway I found a radio in the USA and it was listed up as an original and working radio. I had to wait for five days for the auction to end before I found out if I won it or not. It turned out I did win it and for a reasonable price. The import and shipping costs to me were more than the actual radio cost in the first place. The radio arrived with a tiny cracked plastic front, not a good start but you can’t really see it. Although my new (old) or replacement radio was not a genuine Ford part, (thanks to Chris for checking this out for me), it was an aftermarket radio from the correct time period. The general opinion is that it was from a Ford Falcon, based on the numbers and make. The genuine Mustang radios had chrome dials at the time, but the radio I now have has black and chrome fittings. This was what I was after considering I had a black gauge dash and black glove box it would blend in the middle quite well, so I would hope anyway.

I originally cleaned up the radio and stored it away until this point in the restoration where I could fit it back in. Yes, before anybody comes back to me, I do know that would be about nearly four years later on then! I gave the radio to Mustang Maniac to have their magic worked on it, as the band was only AM and the USA spec version at that. The mod the MM guys offer is to have an additional MP3 player circuit added inside the original case. The MP3 player functionality is engaged when you press the far side preset button. The guys at MM informed me that although the radio turned on, the inside radio tuner was dead. The option was a new radio again, or make it a single MP3 player. I was happy with that option as it was only a single mono speaker and I wasn’t going to listen to the single radio station that I might pick up if i was lucky. The simple reason was that I had a 289cid orchestra under the hood with Flowmaster exhaust so that everybody else can enjoy it too. Anyway Adam has kindly let me use the photo’s of the radio being worked on.

They mentioned it on their blog last week as well. The only give away is that there is a quite a long 3.5mm jack plug lead that emerges from the same hole as the speaker cable and power at the side.

This cable will plug into any MP3 player or the phone in my case. Perfect scenario as far as I was concerned, and I threaded the cable up to the glove box just for now.

For the fitting the radio it was a very simple twist and rotate allowed the radio to slip straight up to the dash.

Behind the dash

The fitting to the dash was done with a tiny mod of an exact washer to nut size. This would stop the retaining nut marking up the paintwork. Yes I know it wouldn’t be seen, but I know I might possibly replace it a later date for a Ford model, I will see how it goes in the mean time.

I have no intention of fitting front kick panel speakers or rear speakers so Adam provided me with an updated middle speaker, just like the originals that I didn’t have. The radio was spliced into the existing loom so I could remove the in-line fuse as that was supplied on the main fuse panel now.

The speaker was connected to the new bullet connectors and dropped into the dash space. There are no pics of the speaker in place as some daft plank (me then) hit delete instead of copy during the transfer process.

The radio turned on and a single soft warm glow appeared in display, I plugged in the phone and randomly selected a tune. What started to play was Fats Domino with his classic – Blueberry Hill, and what a song that is. The first line “I found my thrill….”. I sure did, I had sounds and a classic radio in a classic car. If I didn’t know any better and hadn’t of watched John Carpenters classic film “Christine”, I think the car was trying to tell me something.
Amazing sound and just so cool that it looks stock too.

Share my Content

No Spelling Mistakes

The alarm woke me up with a start again, not the normal during the week alarm for work, this is the much more pleasantly sounding Saturday Mustang Maniac alarm which don’t give the hump when I hear it. I struggled to wake as the air was already muggy and hot. I eventually got in the car and set off, already the air outside was hot and the aircon was on. I arrived to see Yogi in the forklift moving tool boxes about and having a brutal clear out of his old work shop. Adam was opening up the workshop where my car was and I handed over the standard payment of the cakes, these were taken straight to the boys club for an early morning cup of tea and doughnuts. The discussion was had about my tasks of the day. We decided carpet and lettering on the hood. I was given the keys to Adam’s lock up where the carpets and cushions are stored and he simply said “pick your colour of carpet”. For some strange reason I felt like a little kid on the way to a sweet shop with a pocket full of change to spend. There was about thirty boxes of carpet to choose from, years and body style to their variations of colour. The colour I picked was “Ford Blue” and it just happened to be at the bottom of the pile!

I cleaned the car from all the old bits of wire and dirt that had accumulated in the grooves of the Dyna-Mat. The rolled up carpet was pulled out of the box and laid straight into the car. I unrolled the carpet which was in two parts. The rear and front which has the nicer finished edge.

The carpets have a sound deadening material on the back which sits in the footwells both front and back. Unroll the carpet and press into the footwells.

The front section was a little different and required some minor modifications due to the carpet being Fastback and Coupe and manual and auto gearboxes. The main difference was the way the carpet fitted around the gear selector. this had to have about an inch cut away at the front. Once done it was easily pressed into place around the selector.

There was a rubber grommet inside the box which has be cut out for the foot operated headlight dip switch. The back of the carpet has a cut out for position. You cut the hole and press fit the grommet into place. Make sure the carpet is in the correct position where you expect the switch to be mounted before cutting. This wasn’t so important for me as I had the multiple attempted holes all patched and I made two new ones where I wanted them.

Lay the front part of the carpet over the rear section and your pretty much done apart from making the holes for the seat studs to be fitted.

Yes there will be some trimming around the edges a little later but the MM guys advise to leave the carpet to settle for a week or so first. The front kick panels will hold the carpet in place and keep it neat.

The next part I was looking forward to and at the same time, very nervous about.

The hood already has the holes drilled out ready for the letters. The letters have two prongs on the back of each letter and is held in place by two tiny grippers only a couple of millimetres long and are sprung fit into the hood holes.

The grippers were test fitted into the holes but there was no way they were going to fit.

I had to get a sharp Snap-On rat tailed file and oh so carefully remove the excess paint from the holes to fit the grippers in the holes. One slip here and I could have gone across my gorgeous paint work. Needless to say this took me quite a while to do all eight holes.

opening the holes

hole opening

With the holes opened just enough I lightly pressed the grippers in and tapped them down with a rubber part of my pliers. (Shh, don’t tell Snap On that bit). They were curved enough and not to heavy to lightly tap the grips down.

The letters were next aligned to the holes make sure the legs on the back of the letters would fit. Once you are happy press fully home. At this point you need to make sure you can spell “F O R D”. In actual fact this is a bit of a myth, as the letters all have slightly different places for the holes and can only fit in the right place on the hood.

There was another optional extra at the time that I wanted to have fitted to the hood, this was the leading edge trim. The trim just gives the grill the extra edge finishing touch. The trim is held on by a few screws under the hood and makes quite a difference.

Next week I think it will be the radio and the splash guards. I just can’t wait till next weekend already!

Share my Content

Gettin’ A Grillin’

The weekend arrived and the anticipation of what awaited me at Mustang Maniac was almost too much to bear. Last week was the dash pad and trunk this week unknown. The first plan of action was the trunk which needed re-gapping. Yogi was at the yard working on a car in the panel shop that needed some welding and a floor. I managed to grab Yogi to show me how the final alignment of the trunk is done. He asked for the half inch socket and ratchet and said undo the two bolts that hold the trunk lid on my side. He did likewise, but he put a tiny pinch on his side after he pushed and pulled it a bit, then done similar my side. He lowered the lid and spot on first time. We tightened the bolts fully and the trunk looks fine again. The only difference this time was that the trunk is sitting slightly proud of the rear quarters. The new rubber seal will need to bed down and the trunk will seat back down correctly again. He made it look so easy! Yogi asked me what I was up to and said I didn’t know as Adam was on a guided tour of the yard and cars with some customers. I said I would like to get the front wings sorted so I could get on with the front end. The half hour that he intended to spend with me lasted the best part of three hours of his own time. Thanks for that Yogi. I learned that the alignment is fine until you put the last few bolts in and it pulls the fender the wrong way. So we had to make adjustments, bend a couple of bits back in place and re-hang the right hand wing. The fenders will need splash guards fitted too, but I didn’t get round to those as the aerial had to be fitted first. The aerial hole in the wing is smaller than the standard Mustang one. I am a little paranoid about leaving the aerial up and some scrotum coming along and bending it over. So I went for a fully retractable version. This will help with the car cover when in storage. Trouble is that the base is not as big and in your face as the original aerial bases. It’s something I can change at a later date though.

My own job to start with after all the gap work was the plenum. This involves in assuming the “Mustang” position, on your back shoulders twisted forty-five degrees, both arms in front of you, head is supported by the T-shift gear selector that fits nicely in your left ear! Yoga experts need to come and watch the way mechanics have to contort their spines in order to see what is going on under these dash areas. The plastic plenum slips over the metal heater fan box and is held in place by four tiny self tap bolts. Easier said than done as the fire wall padding covers the space where the back bolts should go.

The two diffuser outlets at the top have a hose that goes up to the windscreen diffusers that was clipped into the dash last week. These replacement hoses are clever in that they have a clip that snaps shut around the openings.

open hose

in place

clip shut

The hoses have to be kept away from the wiper arms. The hoses are tight on the left side up to the dash, but fine on the right hand side.

right hand side to dash

left hand side

The fitting of the plenum took a stupid amount of time to fit, mainly because it all done by feel as you can’t get your head in there to see. But once fitted they look quite good.

Back to the outside now and Adam came down with an arm full of goodies for me. New front grill, front trim and fittings. The grill was a major part I wanted to get on. I worked out that the grill has to be slid into place behind a light bucket then worked carefully around to the centre as the grill sits behind the light fittings. I did it and was quite pleased with myself, up until the point when Adam said I am better of getting the Corral in place first. Dohhhh, I had to take it all back out again. The work requires two hands and concentration not to drag the grill across the paint work. Thus there was not much in the way of photos for the fitting process I’m afraid, there are a few after though of the end result.

There are two visible bolts on the top that hold the centre and hood catch, at the bottom there are four self tap screws that go into the trim. A long extension screw driver with a bolt driver is best her with the magnetic holder making things so easy. The Corral itself has been through the wars, it’s a little tarnished but almost as good as the replacements. But, I wanted something very original from the old car, and there is nothing more original than the identity of car, the Mustang Pony in Corral. I might replace it at a later date I’m not sure yet. For now this is a cross over link between the two cars. Bad choice to keep the old or get a new one? The old one certainly doesn’t look out of place.

Something missing? Yep the wheels. They were taken of to make it easier to align the fenders gaps up. Here is a clue what I could be doing next week. It could doing the front bumper, or it could be something else, I never really know till I get there.

All this doesn’t look much as so much time was done on the smaller adjustments to make it look right. But, I have taken some fancy art shots of the corral, just to make me feel better.

Share my Content

A Little Padding

This week things look as though they have moved on quickly at Mustang Maniac, when in fact the process took a little under a couple of hours for the main project. What am I bangin’ on about? My new dash pad of course. Adam had some of these in stock, but he has pulled the stops out to get me in a Ford tooling dash pad, I have been spoilt. I saw the box and realised that the project was going to take a big leap today. Lots of pictures this time to make up for the previous weeks where I couldn’t take to many as I had my hands full.

The new metal part dash itself has been painted and as yet there is no further hints of the colour scheme inside. Me and Adam have had some long conversations and eventually sorted the colours out and the style. Some of it has been custom-made which have already arrived, but won’t be fitted just yet until all the adjustments have been done.

The Dash itself in place by two threaded studs, two in the middle and one on each end of the dash. The washers supplied are quite small so they were replaced with a larger set to spread the tension around a little more evenly.

threaded end bolt

main centre bolts

pack of fittings

smaller washer replaced

The dash pad is not very heavy at all but care needs to be taken when fitting to make sure that the pad bolts don’t scratch the metal work. The pad is pushed over the upper supports of the dash to take the weight.

The two centre studs locate just above the radio space. a slight pull down on the pad to open it up a little allows it to slide over the top part of the metal dash. The two end studs will need to be pulled down slightly as well to locate into the holes.

The windscreen part of the dash will need to worked into place under the rubbers to make sure it lays flat. With the studs in place it’s a case of fit the washer and bolts and tighten them up to pull the dash into the metal dash itself. Do not over tighten the nuts.

under the windscreen rubber

stud inside the dash

That is basically it, the next part is to fit the demister vents, these are held in place by two clips each side which are sprung loaded. align the loose material from the dash over the holes for the vent and press into place.

The large hole in the centre is for the original speaker which I will fit. I am not bothered about a noisy sound system, I will have a v8 symphony at my beck and call. On top of all this there is a metal grille, the flutes each side direct the air to the screen. I have not had this colour coded just yet, so it’s still bare metal with only a coating of Gibbs Brand to stop it rusting. The grill was lightly pressed in place not all the way in just o give an idea of the look.

The Ford tooling part fitted like a glove, the before and after comparison.

Next on the list was the cowl to hood rubber seal, this is a simple clip in place with two screws each end on a bracket to hold the rubber up. Offer the strip up and apply a screw to hold it in place. Space out the rubber to the other bracket and make sure it’s even.

no trim

part and brackets

holding screw

The clips have a little movement once in place but could damage the paint work if you are not careful. CLip them into place and add the other screw and tighten up.

Moving to the back of the car there needs to be a sealing strip to the trunk. This has two purposes, one for the rain, two for the fumes that could be vented back into the car. With the trunk in place and the gaps spot on Adam told me to mask up the location of the brackets on the truck. This would be top and sides on each bracket. Chris gave me a hand to undo the bolts and remove the bolts and flip the trunk onto a the ready-made work table.

The special weather strip adhesive is applied like a contact adhesive. The rubber can only go on one way which is a “c” shape looking at it from the end on. This should be fitted with the opening facing inside each of the contours. Adam advised to mask up the paint work before applying the glue. This will stop the mess getting onto the paint and save many careful hours of removing it without damage to the paint. I had my doubts as I was going to be careful.

A thin-film was added to the rubber and the paint and allowed to go tacky. Chris was holding as I was squeezing the tube onto the rubber and smoothing it out with as gloved finger. No matter how careful you are this stuff goes all over the place. Adam was right the masking tape was taking a bit of a battering at this point. Make sure the adhesive does not get inside the “c” or on the outside as this should be allowed to move to make the seal correctly. At this point as we were working quickly there was no time for the photo’s here. But the rubber was applied from the front to the back following the curves of the trunk. While we were sticking the two together we taped the corners down to stop them moving around until the glue had a chance to set a little.

It was at this point that I started the cowl to hood trim fitting while the glue set. It’s all about the forward planning! When the glue had set a little the masking tape was removed from the paint and re-applied to the corners again just to hold it in place. The rubber is longer than required by around six inches or so, so I cut the rubber as a dead butt fit and glue the ends together to form the seamless join.

While waiting again for the glue to go off again I fitted the door rubbers from a replacement pack.

Last week I mentioned that I would get some pictures of the weather strip seal around the doors. So as promised here they are.

Next week I am not sure the plan of action, but the Trunk will go back on then mess around with the gaps again. The dash will need the glass to dash trim fitted. which will require some drilling! Slightly nervous about drilling so close to glass and on top of my new dash.

Share my Content

Weather Proofing

A nice weekend for a change and warm air made ideal working conditions at Mustang Maniac. The job was pre arranged for this weekend and it was all about weather proofing. Well, as good as weather proofing you can get on a fifty year old car! The first job was going to be the inside of door weather rail that holds the rubber strip in place to make it water tight. It was at this point of winding the handle of the driver’s side that we (OK Adam then) was not happy with the feel of it. The driver’s door has had a knock in the past right at the front by where the winder mechanism is located and the door was replaced due to the extensive structural damage inside. These are the pics after all the filler was removed.

before we started

line shows the damage

The window regulator was worn more than expected and Adam detected an unusual binding. In fact it was like watching a robber trying to crack an old style dial safe. He listen to the winder a few times, up and down then again. A decision was made to swap it out but it could be OK for a while. The last thing you want it to start taking the door cards off a few months after it’s all done to pull it all apart to replace the regulator. Now under a no load scenario when it was fitted the wear was not evident to me at least. But once connected to the weight of the window and the restriction of the rails it become more obvious. To me it felt OK, but to Adam it was not good enough. So I was tasked to remove the complete mechanism with the glass in place. A feat on its own! The mechanism came out with a bit of fiddling and loosening of the adjustment bolts. Taking the mechanism to Adam he looked it over and confirmed what he thought. Where the door was impacted it had placed a slight bend on the winding plate which has of centred the spindle to the winder handle. To replace it was a little easier as I could assemble the window scissor arms inside the door. This of course meant that all the adjusting of the windows a few weeks ago would have to be done again. Pictures? Nope – there would be no difference as everything looks the same still, it was all inside the door.

The second job was the original first job now, fitting the inside of the door recess trims. We looked over the stainless rails could see that the rails had been over tightened and the metal distorted around the screw holes.

These holes would have to be flattened out in order to lay flat inside the gaps. A block of metal was found that would fit inside the rails so that it would become the base of the makeshift anvil. A small piece of cloth was placed over the metal to soften the blows of the small leather faced hammer that would not show any hammer marks inside or outside. This took a fair bit of patience and the end result was pretty good.

A dry fit of the rail to the bodywork was fine as we wanted to make sure the very subtle twists to the metal were still where they should be. A layer of sticky foam was carefully laid over the back of the fitting to form a cushion against the bodywork and paint.

The rail was lightly screwed into position before we tightened it all up.

Next up was the sticky part – Impact adhesive. The rail has a slight lip each side and the weather strip is held in place. There are debates over it was stuck in place or not. I have seen factory original cars where I can safely say that they were stuck in place as well. The glue was applied to the rubber and the trim and we started from the front. You get one chance at it and we pulled it off. The fact is as I was helping hold the rubber to stop it twisting and sticking to itself I could get photos at this point. But I have found this picture of somebody fitting theirs, but you get the idea. I will get some of my pics next week.

With the strip in place it was time align the door glass all back up again. This took ages as I had to undo it all gain to get the new regulator back in.

top of door

rear quarter

The tops of the doors has a felt window scraper if you like to help take the damp of the car window and guide the glass from being scratched. There is a thicker strip and a smaller strip that clips into cut outs. In order to make the felt fit I have been allowed to let you into a trade secret in fitting them. Once these things are in they snap in place and area real nightmare to get out without damaging your paint, and you will destroy the felts. Dry fit is best to make sure the clips align with the holes. The top of the window will be right where the felts need to go. The tip is remove the bottom bump stop and wind the window down the extra inch until it’s just below the door skin.

removed lower bump stop

cut outs for the felt

Clip the strips in place making sure the chrome is the right way up. There is a about two or three millimetres difference at each end on the felts, if they are upside down they will not but up correctly to the edge of the door.

clipping in place

outside felt

both sides

Now raise the window up a little to the correct bottom position and refit the bump stop, the window will be seated correctly between the felts.

While we are on the subject of the water, we decided to fit a little more fancy stuff on the car, the windscreen wipers to be exact. The wiper motor has been tested to work fine and the wiper arm spindles stop in park. Adam told me a horror story of a guy who put new wiper arms on his Mustang and tried them out. The wipers were not in park and the wipers arms were gouged down his hood bending them up in the process. As such Adam is very cautious about this only half presses them on when he fits them. he will lift them off the glass and run the wipers a few times until they settle. Then he will position them correctly. The wiper arms only sit on a splined shaft and pressed on.