Tag: One man and his Mustang

Car Show Call Out

Last weekend we were promised a another bright sunny day at Stonham Barns for another car show. This time is was just for American cars and always surprises me on the numbers that turn up. There was a clash of other shows on the same day, so it would be a choice of shows for most people.

As it was an early start the night before I had already uncovered the car and unplugged the battery’s trickle charger. I placed the cool bag in the trunk which was primarily full of cold drinks, closed it and jumped into the car. Sunglasses on at eight in the morning was a bit of novelty, but a welcome one it has to be said. The drive to Stonham was one of the best yet on the way there; not much traffic and nobody tailgating me as I set my own pace and just enjoyed my drive. There was a newer Mustang that went passed me at a rate of notes with a Pontiac following close behind, we exchanged the obligatory wave and continued on. Stonham also has a car boot sale on most Sunday mornings, so there is always a little bit of a queue to get in. Not this time as I almost drove straight in without stopping.

Once through the entrance I was directed to the hard standing area of the field where the Mustangs would be parked. I turned up and parked next to Racoon Red ’65 Fastback with two older gentlemen setting up their chairs. I gave my car a little wipe down with some quick detailer to remove the road I had accumulated on the way to the show. As I was finishing up and taking the first couple pictures of the day, a much newer style red S197 Mustang parked up the other side of me. Cars were now arriving in thick and fast just half an hour before the public was allowed into the event. It was going to be a good day.

I decided to sit in my new chair, have a cold drink and watch the cars park up and perform the rituals I had just finished. I need to get some pics so I started a wander round as the public were allowed in as pretty much all the cars were now in place.

There was quite a few truck at the show so I thought I would group them together for this gallery.

Back to the cars at this point I wandered into the dark side of the Chevy guys with the odd Dodge thrown into the mix. Only joking, Some real nice cars in their own little area like the Mustangs.

There was some more Mustang owners parked up that didn’t want to come and play with the rest of us and parked the other side of the main ring.

The rest of the cars that I liked the look of.

Can somebody explain this to me please?

There was four cars which I spotted and in my opinion, shouldn’t have been there. Yes they can turn up where they want, but surely they should have been turned away from an “Americana Show” by the show’s marshals! German cars, a standard VW Golf with a set of wheels on it and a bog standard BMW Z3.

The Triumph Stag is British classic, and they have V8’s under the hood, this one looks to have some thing nice under there, but I couldn’t be sure. Most of the time they had the Triumph engine, occasionally they were swapped out for a Rover V8. Did this Stag have some American iron under there, I wanted to find the owner and ask, but sadly I couldn’t find them. Besides, I like Stags.

Then there is this example below. A new Volvo that hadn’t even been cleaned. Why on earth this was deemed as acceptable I have no idea. Perhaps he got lost on the way to the general public car park? The owner was quite happy sitting in his deckchair looking pleased with himself. Yes, it’s a nice car and all that, but I can and often do see a car park full of them at the local supermarket. There was plenty of space for all the cars, but this car is not American and it certainly didn’t belong there on the day.

Am I being too harsh?

It was another great day out with lots of fabulous sunshine, although there was the odd cloud that turned up to spoil the day! 😉

I met some really nice people, my new chair was comfortable and I managed to chilled out in it for a few hours while looking at the back of my car. I even had an ice cream and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I left a little early to avoid the inevitable line of cars trying to leave at the end of the show. I managed to drive straight out of the venue this time and had a perfectly chilled cruise home. Awesome day out.

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Culford Classic Car Show 2022

Sunday 10th July was a show that I look forward to each year which is held at Culford in Suffolk. The venue is held within the Culford School grounds. This prestigious private school warrants full boarding fees in excess of £30k a year. This is a stunning school and from what I understand, wants for nothing.

The school opens their grounds once a year to allow a car show in aid of various charities. The show is well organised and always booked up well in advance.

On the day of the show the sun was out bright and early so I packed plenty of cold drinks in the cooler bag. The drive there was tranquil and I saw lots of cars on their way and for some reason we all seemed to wave or acknowledge each other, perhaps it was the sun that put everybody in a good mood. I certainly wasn’t going to complain at that. I arrived early at the school main gates just after eight. The Bury Retro Car Club had set up their area with a flag. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see the flag at the time when the marshal asked me where I was going. He tried to tell me to park my Mustang on the Ford Capri stand, I just agreed with him and ignored him heading for area “C” where the club was supposed to be. I found them pretty much straight away and looked for a place to park amongst the allocated spaces. I had a choice, in the shade under a huge tree, or in the sun. Although the tree option would be great, it took me a fair while to remove the tree sap from the last tree I was parked under. Reluctantly I parked up and the factor fifty sun cream was applied even at that early time of the day before I started the gentle wipe over of my car to remove the road dust.

During the day I took over four hundred photos, but I whittled it down to just under a couple of hundred on this post. I take my pictures on my phone which is now a Samsung S22 Ultra.The photos are normally spot on, but with the bright sun, reflections, contrast and exposures etc. I did the best I could to make them presentable.

There was a great selection of cars, some of which I have photographed a few times before. The first batch of cars are starting with the club stand or area.

I wandered around in no particular order aimlessly taking pictures enjoying the sun and cars.

Although there were Mustangs scattered around all over the show, I collated them here.

There was a section near the school of super cars so I have grouped those together as well. Although the Lamborghinis weren’t in the line of Ferraris, I added them in, just because I can.

There was a BMW sales stand there which sort of goes against the classic car show ethos. There was also some cars for sale from the sponsors of the show, they were allowed in my opinion.

Back to wondering around again.

A very nice GT40, not real obviously.

A couple of nice Alpine BMWs that you don’t see many around these days.

These two cars I have seen around a few times, but never seen them driven anywhere tho.

A great looking Cobra

I eventually got back to my car after a much needed detour via the hot sausage in a roll van I might add, and got my chair and show board out. A little while later I was greated with a friend of mine Steve Armon from Trig Point Pictures, he brought along a signed Limited Edition “Mates Mustang” print for me. I stood it up against my show board with a few of his business cards to show case his work. I had a few questions asked about it and said that they really needed to speak to Steve for prices and availability of a shoot as I know he’s a busy bloke.

As the sun was out the reflections just don’t do the print justice. When I got home I stood it on our fireplace to take a better picture. My wife isn’t really into cars, but she likes it so much it has stayed on the mantle piece since I put it there. I’m in no rush to move it.

Steve had messaged me to ask if I was going to be at the show and he said he would catch up with me there sometime during the day.

The picture was one that was taken from the Cambridge shoot we did together early in the morning. I even use one of the pictures from that session as my header photo!

Thank You Steve for the print.

I’m not on a commission (before you ask), but if you want some real nice pictures of your car or anything else for that matter he has some really good rates.

I was up and down from chair throughout the day speaking to many people and enjoying myself. I returned to my chair to plant my butt down when the chair decided it was going to eat me. A plastic fitting had broken which bent a tube which allowed the arms to move inward and clamp me in place.

To the amusement of some it was comical trying to see me getting out of a chair intent on not allowing me to move. As the show drew to a close I left a little early and took my chair to it’s final resting place.

A new chair has been ordered and will arrive early this week. Anyway, the exit wasn’t as smooth as getting in a and had to queue up. I left plenty of gap to allow cool air to the car as much as possible. It also allowed for a final pic.

I got home and again had to wipe wipe road dust of the car before I tucked her up in the garage. A great day, plenty of sunshine and I bought home a fantastic pic of my car too.

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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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Great Day Not So Great Cars

For a change I attended a car show on a Saturday and not a Sunday, which was quite a novel change. The show was called ‘Fast & Loud’ to be held in the West Suffolk College car parks, located within the town of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

I had been to this show once before a few years ago and it was damp and drizzling with rain on and off throughout the day. This time at the same venue, the sun was out and all was good to go, except that my alarm didn’t go off. The only reason I woke up was because my little dog decided that he wanted to go out, so he pawed my face to wake up. I checked the time and although I was late, it was only half hour or so behind my normal leaving time schedule. I skipped breakfast to save some time and got the car out the garage as quick as possible, jumped in the car for the short nine mile drive.

The show officially started at ten and I had thirty minutes to get there. Fearing the worst, I got a bit of pace on, opened the four barrel carb to chew my way through more fuel than I normally do. I needn’t have worried as everybody was pretty much in the show and parked up for the public to view. I just drove up to the barriers and drove in, not having to wait in the usual queue carnage for this show. (It was a bad queue again so I was told a couple of hours earlier.)

The Bury Retro Car Club was near the entrance as I drove in. But for the second show in a row they didn’t get all the spaces they were allocated, so a few of us were scattered around the car park a bit. I got lucky and managed to park opposite the club line up where there was a single space next to a GT40. Unfortunately the GT40 wasn’t a real one, this one was constructed in 1973 and the owner has raced it quite a few times. He even crashed it quite heavily a couple of years on a track and needed the front and rear rebuilding.

I worked my way round the car park taking pictures of the cars that interested me in amongst the two or three year old daily run around cars.

There was a rare new gen Mustang Mach1 in the UK on show owned by a good friend of mine.

Then almost next to it was a car that I had on my bedroom wall as kid, It’s still one of my favourite super cars, the Lambo Diablo.

As I was wandering around at the far end of the car park a car arrived a bit late which was very similar to mine. The father and son spent some time with me a little later asking some great questions. The colour was a very similar colour to mine, but a little darker than mine I think. It would have been good to have seen them side by side for a comparison.

There was a motorsport department within the college and they had their projects out on show for us.

One of my favourite modern cars was also on show which was not so subtle, but it’s quick and more than able to back up the looks.

There was a distinct split in this show, there was the usual classic cars and interesting cars which I naturally gravitate towards. Then there’s my idea of hell, it was the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Corsa and BMW brigade who had big exhausts and even louder sound systems. The sort of cars that you can see in any Tesco’s or Walmart car parks. to be honest. There was nothing particularly special about them in my mind, but I could see some had money spent on them. However, they are somebody’s pride and joy and not for me to judge their taste in cars. The event was called ‘Fast & Loud’ so pretty much all types of vehicles was welcome. Some were loud, some are indeed fast, but most this side were neither. The show had a few people starting up their cars and trying to see if they could push pistons out of the hood from a cold start, or pumping out some bass lines. Not my bag to be honest and I doubt I will attend this show again. I think I must be getting old and should be a little more tolerant I guess.

To finish up a couple more of my entry to the show, the first one was taken by somebody else who tagged me on the dreaded F**ebook.

What will the next show have in store for me? All I can hope for is that the sun holds out for the next show too. But, it’s been a great start to the show season so far with two sunny days.

What do you think of the very standard modern cars at these shows? Controversial comment: in my opinion, if I wanted to see those sort of cars I could hang out superstore car park.

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And We’re Off…

My first car show of the year was greeted with bright sunshine, virtually no clouds and a very relaxing drive to get there. The show was at Kersey Mill about thirty miles away from me. This show tends to be pretty much anything goes but is mostly classic cars.

I was running a bit late as I had to stop and get some fuel, I’m currently using Shell V-Power as it’s a premium fuel and not much ethanol in it. If I use supermarket fuel I get knocking and the car really doesn’t like it, runs lumpy and doesn’t like to idle very well. I arrived at the venue about thirty minutes before the show actually started and all the cars were pretty much in place. The public was already wandering around so me and number of other stragglers turning up late had to drive carefully. I had booked in to the show so that I could be with the club I’m in which is called the Bury Retro Car Club. I asked where they were by the stewards and asked to be with them. Due to some ‘Health & Safety issues’ allocated area was full so I had to park up in the middle section which turned out to be a great spot. I wasn’t complaining as the sun was shinning and it wasn’t overcast or raining. To top it all the atmosphere was really nice and the visitors were all in a good mood.

The grounds of Kersey Mill are very photogenic making wondering around the cars and grounds a very enjoyable laid back stroll, I even got to pet a few dogs too, more on those little guys later.

Where my car was parked was near the burger van and the smell was driving me crazy, burgers and bacon rolls wafting their delicious smells my way. My shop bought cheese and onion sandwich just didn’t cut it for me this time when I eventually sat back down with the car.

The down side of where I had been told to park was that the cars which were passing created little dust plumes; by the end of the day my car was covered in a fine layer of grey dust.

I started to wander around in no particular order, there was the front entrance to something or other, but I wasn’t sure what.

Then walked over the little bridge into the fields either side of the long driveway.

I spotted a club with a few Mustangs lurking in their midst.

The original horse power; I really like this picture, but I’m not sure why I do though.

The last field for a few more cars where I should have been parked with the car club.

Last, but not least was the dogs out for the day. They were all very well behaved and I didn’t see any bad tempered dogs all day. The little guy on the bottom right I asked the owner if I could stroke him, he was such a nice natured dog he just wanted me to play and looked sad when I eventually walked away.

That’s the first show done and dusted, literally I think I took most of the car park back home with me. It took me a good hour or so to gently remove the dust before I put the car away in the garage. With such a good start to the show season lets hope the nice weather continues. 🙂

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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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Why I Don’t Like Facebook…

My first post of year will discover that I have been trying to sort out a problem. So I apologise for not posting before now. I have run out of time and ideas to fix the problem, so I’m now screwed basically and really angry.

So problem for me is Facebook, it’s the root of evil as far as I’m concerned. Those that know me will know exactly where I’m going with this as I might have mentioned it once or twice before to them!

I use Fb because I have to it’s an evil I have to tolerate. I don’t post pictures of my breakfast, meals I’m about to eat, I’m not posting that I’m going for a walk look at me and this tree, here is my new jumper I got in the sales, here I am buying a pint of milk, I don’t want to play Candy Crush with you, I don’t want to send you coins for what ever game you are playing etc. I might if you’re lucky respond to a page with a comment on some posts, or even a ‘like’. My life is just too full on to read drivel like that to be honest.

My dislike for Fb is now a fully fledged hatred with venom. Now I must say that I don’t have any objections to people keeping in touch with each other with Fb – that’s great so you carry on. If you want to brag about the thousands of friends you have but never meet them – then you carry on. I’m not saying that the app should be removed, but I am saying it has become to big for its boots. The world will be a better place without it as they monitor what you can and can’t say. Their view is the only view and if they don’t like you then you get banned for thirty days. In my case it’s much worse:

On Christmas Day 2021 (genuine truth here), I got an email telling me that my account and page “one man and his mustang” will be deleted on 26th Feb 2022. Epic well done Fb, that didn’t ruin my break then – not! The reason for my o so serious crime? I have a grey account and that’s not allowed – anymore. I have to use a real name now to get the account. So those idiots at Fb allowed me to set up the business page account way back when I started bloggin’ more or less. It’s not just me it’s others as well in the same sinking boat. Now because they changed the rules I have to sort their problem out they so graciously bestowed on me. Just for the record, I have owned (well I did until yesterday officially), this account for just over nine years. In that time I had never received any warnings, strikes, bans or anything like it, nothing. But oh no, the Facebook police deem a grey account to be a bad thing now. On my page there was no politics, no hate speech, no animals being harmed, no cutting down of trees, it’s just a fifty-something year old bloke sharing his passion and trying to help others with an information page.

So over the holidays I done a bit of research, the general consensus was that you can save your ‘Fb Page’ data and reuse it. Awesome, so I book marked that ‘how too’ website and put it to the back of my mind until the early January weekends when things calmed down a bit. I could then be in a situation to sort it all out and make it a smooth transition without anybody noticing. I logged in on a rainy afternoon and got a nightmare, before I even begun trying to sort anything out. They had removed my “Admin” profile to my own page. What the actual …..! This means that I can’t do anything with it at all, nothing. I can log in, I can’t post, I cant read anything, I cant do anything. I got a blank screen where everything was gone except for a little note ‘account temporarily unavailable’. What the hell does that mean? I couldn’t save anything no matter what I tried.

Panic set in after a while trying everything I knew and help forums. I phoned a friend, we talked through it all, we drew a blank. He suggested that I report the issue to ‘something has gone wrong’. So I did just that, after a week – nothing. I then used another account that I am an admin for to report the error with screen shots explaining the problem – Nothing. I reported it to the Business Suite App – Nothing. I tried different browsers, Google, Edge, Fire Fox, Opera, Android, even a Mac OS – ALL nothing. I even emailed Mark Zuckerberk (yes that’s my spelling), on various email addresses – Nothing. I reached out to some forums where I was eventually given the details a ‘person’ (more like pond life), this guru would ‘recover the account’. This plankton was based in America. I enquired as desperate measures were closing in on the due to be deleted date; I would need to send him £250 via PayPal ‘Friends & Family’ upfront, to a temporary PayPal account – yeah right! The bloke was a scammer dirt ball – I will post up the screen shots of the app conversation, well – the bits I can put up for a family page. He threatened to hack my account and delete everything (it was going to be deleted anyway, so not bothered) and also from my Instagram account as well. Things got a bit brutal with back and forth messages. Some of you who follow my Instagram may have seen the posts and wondered what was going on. Needless to say I never got my account recovered.

So, I’m losing my page with 2110 likes, all my previous posts and comments. To say I’m absolutely gutted is an understatement of the year so far. I’m not a trend setter or influencer, I’m just one man and his Mustang!

I’m now trying to sync my WordPress site to Facebook and I will have to start all over again on Fb. Hopefully this post will appear on the Fb page too after the test post earlier. If it doesn’t, I may have to do a couple more test posts. However, it looks like my last test post did arrive on the ‘new’ page.

I’m going to be a bit cheeky now and ask my wonderful readers if could you pop over to my “new” page (which has the same ‘old’ name if that makes sense), and like the new page. If there are any problems please can you let me know and I will pour myself another beer and go cry in it (again).

From what I can see my original Fb page has just changed to “scheduled for deletion” with a different date now. I have no idea what the Facebook muppets are up to, I’m just sick of them.

Once again I’m sorry for the rant, but that’s the reason I haven’t posted until now.

The hyper link to the “new” FB page: One man and his Mustang Facebook Page or click the image below.

Sorry for the long post and read. But it’s car show soon then it will be more pics and not many words!

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