Secret rules

The weather this weekend for a change has been gorgeous, hot and not a cloud in the sky. Is our summer finally here? A bit late but I will take all the sun I can get at the moment. This Friday evening we got the garden swing seat out from the cover and I was able to evict the cushions that have been squatting in the corner of my shed since last summer. They take up so much room, I could put my Karcher jet washer there, and few power tools in that space. The wife sneaks things into the man cave and puts things on them in her little corner and they fall off. So when I open the door I am greeted by an avalanche of cushions Wellington boots, trowels, hand forks, plastic pots and cardboard boxes from god knows where. The corner of the man cave right near the door. She has the house and garden, I have the garage and the shed – that’s the rules. But women play by a secret dirty secret set of rules that only they know about, they are allowed to put things in my area when they see fit. Yet when I bring in a set of brake springs in the house and sit at the kitchen table ready to treat them, you would have thought somebody had just pushed the nuke button! Trying to explain it’s only a temporary measure seems to add fuel to the fire. Does anybody have a copy of these rules I could look at please, or at least explain them to me. Anyway, while sitting in the swing seat watching the birds and the bees in the garden while sipping on an ice-cold bottle of Bud, I heard the comment, “I think a flower bed would look nice there.” Epic, not. So I chipped in with only if we have butterfly and bee loving plants. With that the Saturday was sealed but I didn’t know it.

Saturday morning and I was straight out into the man cave, I got the front valance out again and rubbed down the filler that has been built up, rubbed down and built up again. The work was almost done when they, being the wife and mother-in-law got back about five hours later. The front valance and grill valance were now ready for their spraying and I was feeling pretty pleased with my little ol’ self.

There were repeated trips from the car to the back garden with plants which were laid out around the area that they wanted the plants to be, yeah I got my bee and butterfly plants “Hot Lips” apparently! They looked quite nice to be fair. Then the shovel came out, from my man cave and the marking of the grass began. As they decided the ground was too hard to dig it was passed to me to dig. Great, the day has been baking in the high twenties and the earth was like rock. I questioned why now and got told the plants would die if I didn’t. I was reminded that I had done my own thing on the car all day so I could now help her do the flour bed. Bearing in mind I looked like I had just been rolled in a giant pack of flour due to the ultra fine dust off the valance while I was rubbing it down. Within minutes the sweat was pouring off me and the dust was now turning into a paste again. Eventually after the new ground was dug up I was released to go and do what I wanted. At that time laying on the grass waiting to pass out seemed like a good idea. But the compost went in the new flower bed, then they got the hand trowel and fork – from MY man cave, and they started to dig the holes only to find out that they could only get down to the rock hard clay that I had got too. So yes, yours truly had to dig the deeper holes for the larger plants.

Sunday was a day of more tiny rub down as I missed a bit to make a final surface prep. The shower curtain went down on the grass and I sprayed the valance and the grill valance, firstly with the Rust Encapsulator I got from Frost, then some grey primer and left them to dry in a shady part of the garden. Then I decided to clean ~~the sauna~~ my man cave out and tidy the Snap-On tool box up a bit. About a month ago when I was bleeding the brakes I needed some very small AF spanners. I bought a set of spanners that were ring one end and open-ended the other. They weren’t very expensive as there is no real leverage required. What I did notice was that they were always falling about and looked a mess in my OCD laid out tool box. I had an idea and looked on eBay where I purchased some carabiner clips like the climbers use for their ropes. Mine was small and not meant for climbing but they sure make a brilliant spanner clip. The spanners come off and go on with no problems and now they are all together! What do you think?

So this weekend was all about compromise, I do the work on the car and then I do work in the garden when the ground is like concrete. The garden it has to be said does look really nice. I sit here thinking; if I didn’t have that beer would I have still had to dig the flower bed? I reckon.

Quick links:

Front valance work updated, click here for link or go to the Photos – Bodywork – Front valance project part 2.

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Dual Master Cylinder Project

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

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

front pressure valve and rear proportioning valve

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

Rust

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

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Mods and Rockers

It’s midweek and time is dragging. It seems like somebody has decided that each second will in fact last one minute. I have asked my colleagues at work “is time dragging or is it me?” the response was a resounding “it’s dragging”. I have never understood this and would love to know why we think that. Yet when we get to the weekend the time flies and before I know it’s back to work. Any ideas why this is?

This weekend I am hoping to get the springs for my shoe connection springs for the rear brakes, if I can then I will put the silicon brake fluid in and see if I get a peddle or not, that will be a big milestone for me. If I don’t get the springs, it will be bodywork time and the rockers will go back in that I have just sprayed. The rockers should be Ford Blue I know that, but I don’t want them Ford blue, I want shiny metal or have Mustang Racing all over them. As my rockers were rusty again, I decided to mod them with a little silver paint to match the brake booster. This is a temporary measure so I didn’t spend too much time on the covers and in fact I was pretty pleased with how they came out. I have as promised uploaded the photos for the rocker covers work. They can be found in the Photos section under Engine Bay, or, you can click here for the quick link to see them. I will update the photo’s again once I have them in the car to see what they look like. What does anybody think, will the paint last? Do they look stupid or a waste of my time? Better than rusty looking covers?

after the lacquer but with masking still in place — Sprayed rocker covers and oil cap

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Like buses…

They say that buses don’t turn up and when they do there are two of them! I never really understood that as they should be on a time-table, but it does happen. Anyway the point is similar with me on the blog this weekend. I only posted a little quote in the last couple of weeks and this weekend I am posting twice with a full set of photos for work I have been doing on the car. OK so this post will not be as long as the last one but it here never the less.

Today was a day in the garage, I was going to finish up the hand brake cable on one side, so far the other brake has been restored yet. Then I was going to get in the engine bay and treat some light surface rust I had in there. I was on a roll and got to work the hand brake was dismantled again and some grease was applied to the parts that were metal touching metal. Although this sounds simple, it wasn’t as it required a certain technique, the car is on axle stands at the rear but not very high up. So as I needed to get to the back of the gear box effectively there is not much room to slide under the car. So the technique is lay sideways onto the car, turn the head sideways and shoulder shuffle untill the shoulders are under. Then bring the arms above the head then in the same manoeuver place the feet against the wall. Timing is now crucial, exhale and push with the feet while doing the shoulder shuffle thing. Once under, the tunnel provides a little welcome space and the rib cage is now able to move a few shallow inches at a time. Everything has to be to hand in order for this to work mind you. At this point I’m trusting those axle stands can really hold two tons as they say they can, if they fail, I am gonna get crushed ribs and all sorts of other unmentionable injuries, if I am not killed anyway that is. Getting out is a reverse shoulder shuffle out and slowly turning the body a few degrees so you exit sort of parallel to the car, those next few deep breaths feel so good. I do have bruises to prove that it was honestly that tight under there. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I got it off to a fine art now. So the hand brake was in place it works (sort off) as the new parts are linked up to where they should be but not yet adjust correctly. Next job was the engine bay, I got my new stuff Rustbuster FE-123 that I am using to see what that is like. I am planning on doing a comparison test with the Granville Rust Cure and it’s all underway now being left to the elements as I type. Hopefully that will be a video review and then blogged later with my comments. The de-rusting painting was going well, the sun was out, the birds were singing and I was enjoying myself. A couple of kids went past on the their bikes and I watched them go past thinking nothing of it. A few minutes later they were back this time there were four of them, varying from eight to twelve I would say. They stopped in the road (it is a tiny little dead-end where our house is so they were safe enough) and looked at the car in the garage. The first one and the eldest said “Woaaah, Is that a Mustang? Yep it is”, the second said “Go and ask that bloke how much he wants to sell it for, and then tell your dad and he can buy it”. I was taken slightly aback as I didn’t reckon they would be able to pick out a classic Mustang from a done up Jap Ricer with a fake exhaust and a fluffy dice in the window! I was well chuffed.

The view they saw?

Photos:

I have added a photo set of my Drive shaft removal and refitting with oil seal change or click here for the quick link. I am in the process of writing up the Rear Brake Drum refit Parts 1 & 2 as well. There are links to those pages from this photo set, but they are being updated over the next few days or so. I have been able to get a fair bit done on the car and taken plenty of pictures to so I can add them to the blog.

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Neglected blog and subtle hints

Don’t worry I am still here.

OK, I admit it I havent posted properly for a little while, two weeks actually. The word “post” is not in my good books with me at the moment. Let me explain, I have had the past week off as holiday, and I do use that term “holiday” very loosely in this update. I have been promising to replace our broken fence for the last 2 years now. But, I have had important things to do since then, like do my Mustang up! But my wife loves her garden as much as I love my car, the fact her prized climbing Hydrangea were getting damaged due to the fence being broken as it was swaying more than front row of a Barry Manilow concert. When the wind blows, the fence moves and bits break of, I get it in the neck and I promise to fix it, then I go on the car. I have been getting plenty of subtle hints though, let me take you back to Christmas just gone. When I was asked what I wanted for Christmas the standard response is, “bits for my car” or “tools”. Come opening prezzie time at Christmas I got some car bits, brilliant. Snap On vouchers, awesome. Then I got given few extra goodies that “I may like!” given to me in order; All Fat Max tools, hammer (OK I can use that on the car), small spirit level (can’t see how I can use that on the car, check the stance of the car? Nice thought though). General purpose hand saw for wood, (definitely can’t use that on the car, but I can change it, I will have to be careful how I phrase it!) Fine toothed wood hand saw, (now I was wondering what was going on.) Then came a long heavy object, yes, a 1″ Snap On breaker bar, Nope, it was a massive sledge-hammer. Now I can’t use that on the car, then the penny started to drop with the final little prezzie gardening gloves. OK, I had been saying that I need a sledge hammer to break the old concreate, I need spirit levels for the posts, I need saws etc. Last Friday we, or should I say, “I” had delivered nine panels, eight concrete posts, one wood post and a gate, three trellis, oh and post mix. Great, not. Saturday I was greeted with “we can paint the panels before we put them up”. To be fair it was a nice(ish) day and we had a laugh. So Saturday was a write off. Sunday, Mark came round to help put up the fence. He’s a good man, he works hard and is better with a shovel than I am. Well I am getting on a bit now, that’s my excuse anyway. We had fun getting the old spikes out, trying to work around the plants that can’t be dug up or it will kill them and trying to avoid tree roots. Sunday was a write off. Monday, Mark came back to finish the last two panels with me. It didn’t take too long. (Thanks to Mark for help on the fence, grand job mate). That left me with a part fence to cut down and gravel board to fit in the space. Then we had to go into town, on the way back we got some door furniture for the gate. Monday was a write off. Tuesday was about cutting the trellis to fit inside the concrete posts and hang the gate. Tuesday was a write off. That evening the wife was printing out some lesson plans and my printer decided to produce a collection of drive rollers and cogs out the front with half the paper. This was greeted with panic as the lesson plans needed to be done. Wednesday morning we checked the net and found a printer we liked. So off we went to get it. We got to the store which was empty and we were pounced on like a lion that hadn’t been fed for a few days. I brushed them away and looked at the printer, not bad, but the replacement cartridges were only £10 cheaper than the poxy printer. Are the manufactures having a laugh or what? Do they fill the cartridges up with mermaid tears or what? Anyway, we found one we liked and took it home. I went on the car when we got back to prep ready getting the drive shaft out and backing plate off for the brakes. Two hours later it was out and the brake plate as well. that evening the printer works well after a lengthy performance to set it up. Thursday I went to see Adam at Mustang Manic, I had a great laugh with him and got a complete hand brake kit for the car and a couple of drive shaft oil seals. A great day. Friday I spent all day cleaning up the plate and drive shaft with anti rust treatments. Great day. Today I put the backing plate and brakes together, put the drive shaft back in and got some of the Hand brake or Emergency Brake in place. Epic day.

So as you can see I have been busy, the wife is pleased with her fence and has been in the garden pottering about. I have been on the car for the last couple of days and will be again tomorrow. I will post a photo set of the drive shaft and rear brake build. I have added a review of my Metal Works tap and die set, which can be found under the Tool Reviews or click here for a quick link. I will post again very soon.

Am I forgiven?

Heres a little teaser of what I have been up to!

Note: I used all the tools I got for Christmas putting that fence up, these women are cute, but I don’t do subtle I just need to be told. oh, she did! Come to that I have used my tools from Snap On too, I don’t need to be told to use them though. 🙂

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The fitted sheet

Friday evenin’ and it started.

I of course refer to the snow, no I am not going to bang on about it again because I am to put it politely, getting a bit sick of it. Everytime I want to do something it snows. The snow has been falling all weekend, it settles then it melts, still snowing then it settles again. Global warming? I think it needs warming up round here, so I better go and start my v8 up with no exhaust and let it tick over for a while! Only joking, so I won’t dwell on the fact its cold, but my man cave looked like a log cabin at one point today with the snow all over it, and it did get worse than this. To prove it I have a little picture of it. I’m sure there are a lot of people worse of than me out there, I hope you are all safe and have had not issues with the “S”. Don’t forget to check on the vulnerable elders, even a pint of milk for a hot cup of tea can help.

Saturday I sprayed the VHT brake caliper spray on the left side front drum which went well, I keept the can in the house overnight in the warm along with the drum itself. I only took it out to the man cave when it was ready for the spray. I pointed my new light at it to keep it warm during the drying phase. It worked a treat. After it was dried to touch, I took it to the garage and put it onto the spindle and packed it with grease. I will allow it to cure for a week before the wheel gets bolted back on. I have already done a review of the VHT Caliper paint under the Reviews – Consumables or click here for a quick link. I also went to fit the brake booster, it was going in OK, but as I was so cold the fingers were having issues holding things properly. I got a bit annoyed at this point and decided to take the hood off so I could get right into the corner. Oh boy, I forgot how heavy that hood was, trying to hold it in place with one hand and undo the nuts with the other was not an easy task. Thankfully nothing was damaged and it came of with a big sigh of relief and a lot of effort. I did remember to put some heavy towels onto the cowl under the hood corners so it would suddenly drop metal onto metal. The hood now sits against the wall ready to be treated, to top it all, hood is of course standing on a nice piece of foam. While the hood is off I took photo’s of the brake lines, (before I re-fitted the booster again), that I fabricated a while ago along with photo’s of the Brake Booster being fitted. After gaining access to the full engine bay the Booster actually went in fine, all was well with the world again. As there is no protection for the engine now from the hood, the dust from the garage could be an issue so I decided it needed covering. Did you know that the fitted sheet from a UK double bed is the same size as a 66 Mustang engine bay and fenders. Next time you play Trivial Pursuit you can maybe win on that bit of knowledge, OK, maybe not. I will be covering the treatment of the hood at a later date with pictures too when the weather gets better as it will need to be layed flat. To show you what I mean about the fitted sheet, here are the before and after pictures. Liking that? OK, Sorry then, but I thought it was a good idea! 🙂

The bits that are sticking up are the hood springs, they are gonna stay like that, due to the fact I want to keep my fingers and they are super strong springs and may have difficulty getting them up again. The scissor action on the metal is sharp and I never put my hands near them, ever! I managed to also remove and re-assemble the Hood catch, the pictures will be added to the photo section as soon as I get them done, they also came up very well. In the engine bay picture you will see the Brake booster in place and the reservoir all connected up. You can find the fitting in Brake Booster Part 3 in the Photo Menu – Engine Bay – Brake Booster Project or click here for a quick link. I have also added a review of the Autolite Group 24 Replica Battery now after a request for it and a few searches, you can find the review under the Reviews – Car Parts section, or click here for a quick link.

All in all I was quite pleased with the weekends work considering it was….. Ha, you thought I was going to say the “S” word, you know “snowing”. Dohhh!

Drive safely.

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Making up for lost time

The weekend took forever to get here and once it arrived it only paid me a fleeting visit.

The last two weekends have been busy with Mother’s Day and birthdays. On both occasions I was delighted to go shopping and not spend that special man & machine time that only petrol heads understand. Saturday started with the left hand front brake drum, it was de-rusted and had two coats of Rustcure applied. Next weekend it will get the VHT caliper spray applied. I also managed to do a few jobs in the garage. The main one was to cable clip the solar power charger cable to the wall. This was going fine until I got to the front of the car. Now the car just fits in the garage and I have to squeeze around the front to get the other side. This is a carefully controlled operation as the front of the car is on axle stands and there is no protection around the hood catch. I mention this as the hood catch is around the same height as my man equivalent of, two sockets and a ratchet. On squeezing past the open hood in the middle part, there is a sharp corner that caught the standard issue jogging bottoms and ripped a little hole. I was waiting for the pain and the feeling of blood. Carefully I checked all was in place and making sure there was no damaged areas that the cold was masking. Now from a distance it may have looked strange a man rubbing his socket set in front of an open hooded car. I know that 289ci engine is pretty good, but I don’t think I would go that far! After the near miss I decided that the hood catch would also be coming off too. I got the proper tools and it was off.

Sunday was strip down of the hood catch and treat it. The photo set can be found under the Photo menu, Bodywork, hood catch or click here. All was ok apart from a few rusted bolts that needed a little persuasion to come out. There was no horrendous rust on there and it just looked worse than it was, in fact it was quite solid. I had set the alarm to come inside and watch the first race of the season Formula 1 in Australia. I put my headphones on so I didn’t disturb the wife. It was a good race and pretty even with an unexpected winner which makes a nice change. After the race had finished I picked up the blog on my Tablet PC, I edited some photos and created a page(s) for them. I have also uploaded my review of my Halfords Advanced Pro 120 Socket Set under Tool Reviews or click here.

Why was I able to do all of this? Saturday the wife went shopping and came home to do some work and online banking. Today she has been at my PC all day doing various things, and marking books. As she has been busy all day and I have kept out of her way. Let it be said that although teachers have long holidays, they spend most of their time planning, organising and marking. I have hardly seen her this weekend. For me that’s a sad thing, as we haven’t even managed to curl up and watch a film like we love to do at the weekends. For me it’s been a strange bitter-sweet day, lots done on the car, but I really haven’t seen my wife. Throughout the weekend she will usually pop out to see what I am up to at least a couple of times a day. I feel sad for her as she hasn’t seemed to of had a break.

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Mother’s Day and Shoes

Unexpected day out.

Yesterday I was expecting to go out to the man cave to do some brake work and complete the rebuild of the brake drums. I was greeted with the usual smile and the devastating news everyman dreads, “We need to go shopping”. A shiver ran down my spine and deep down I knew it was going to be a bad day. After breakfast we got our coats and set off for the town, and there it was, traffic queuing for car parks. To top it all off it now started to rain. We eventually parked up and I was told we need to go to… The list was like an army itinerary to move base camp! I trundled along doing the dutiful husband thing. We got into Marks & Spencer and it seemed the whole world was in there having the same thoughts as we were. I noticed other men being told off and carrying baskets just like me, I smiled as I hadn’t been told off. There were men looking at flowers and one bloke in particular moaning about the price of the flowers, I assumed he was being a tight with the money. When I saw the prices I started moaning about the price of the flowers as well, open wallet surgery was not what I had in mind for Mother’s Day. A mutual conversation was struck up with a fellow husband who was in the dog house with his wife. We discussed the rip off state of the so-called “Days”. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentines, Christmas, Easter they are all so commercial now it’s as if the card manufacturers create the “Days” to make extra money. I expect there will be a “Cut the grass day”, you will be expected to by a new lawn mower, deck chair, patio heater, BBQ and drinks chiller, all these things are essential as it’s what expected for this new day. Once upon a time it was a little card and flowers, now it’s chocolates, flowers, cakes, gifts, clothes and all sorts of other stuff, it never used to be like this. Is it just me or am I in a bad mood and it seems worse than it really is? I eventually caught up with the wife and she was looking at shoes, then I was in the no win situation no man has ever got right; “What do you think of these?” holding up a pair of shoes. Now I could answer that with “Yeah they are nice” or “Nope, I don’t like them”, Either answer would normally be greeted with “your just saying that” or “why what’s wrong with them?” Stupidly without thinking and being in my default car repair mode to keep me sane, I responded with, “They’re not as nice s my brake shoes I could be doing on the car”. I spent the next few minutes explaining it was a joke and I was sorry etc. Waiting to pay in a queue I was asked “Do you want anything?” which was referring to the Mother’s day dinner desert being planned. A lovely question and thoughtful, but my second poorly thought out response of “yep, I wanna go home” was not the right or indeed the correct answer. Like the guy I was speaking to previously, I too was now in the dog house. Apparently two “I was only joking” remarks doesn’t wash with my better half. To be honest, I can’t say I blame her.

Later that day when I got home I went out to my man cave (kennel), and re-assembled my brakes on the newly refurbished baking plates. You can see the final Part 3 of what they looked like by clicking here, or going to the Photos Menu, Wheels and Brakes, Front Brake Drum Rebuild Part 3.

I woke this morning to a light flurry of snow adding to the light sprinkle we already had last night. The wife went to see her mum for a cup of tea and it was time for me to play cars. My alter personality, Michelin man made another appearance due to the application of 4 layers of clothing, then I was ready. Originally I wanted to sort out under the hood with my new Eastwood Underhood Satin Black Paint, but as the cold weather put a the stop on that, a rapid change of plan to put the newly rebuilt brakes back onto the car. They went on with no trouble and looked great. Putting the wheel back on you can’t see the drum that well, but, I know it looks good and that’s all that matters. Whats the point when you can’t see it, I don’t know, but I just wanted to do it. Is that me being weird on does anybody else do that sort of thing? I now have the left hand side drum to de-rust and spray up with VHT Caliper paint. Which I have already started today and hopefully finish of next weekend.

Plate & Parts

Both sides completed

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A new game called “you dare!”

I will explain my new game towards the end but it is all relevant to what I got up to on Saturday. I usually have my little comment above where the logo sits just now, but it’s for a good reason that I break my little habit. This is a sign on one of the doors that greets you as you go in. Just a little sign that hides the Aladdin’s cave inside of automotive riches beyond belief. To somebody who has a modern car this really doesn’t seem logical, but trust me – it IS!

Saturday I took the drive down to see an important man – Adam from Mustang Maniac. This drive to my Holy Grail of Mustang offices is always a great day out for me, I get to see Mustangs, lots of Mustangs in fact, I get to buy things for my Mustang and I get to pick the brains of one of the few people I trust when it comes to my car; What more could a man ask for? If you have been following my blog and the progress I am making so far you will know that I have progressed to the brakes. Yep, the scary bit. Why scary? ’cause if you get it wrong its gonna hurt. Not only will it hurt in the wallet department to fix the damaged car, but also in the chest area. Reason for the chest pains is that in the sixties these cars came out and thundered down the roads, they owned the quarter-mile strips but not everybody gave them the respect they deserved, there were no airbags and the steering column is a metal shaft that has no collapsible sections. When people had accidents in these cars the lap belts didn’t really do much to be honest, so the result was they got what was called the “DROF” injury. I had heard this a few times before but never got to the bottom of it. My other trusted friend of mine Will, went on to explain (when I first got my car), that when they used to crash the drivers slammed their bodies into the steering wheels, if you had a particular embossed logo on you steering wheel it left an imprint with the massive bruise if you survived! What is “DROF”?? Again he said it quite simply, what is FORD backwards? Damn it, so simple and then the penny dropped. So now you know too.

Anyway, I digress, I had taken the front brake backing plate off in order to treat them and replace the shoes on them. I sent pictures to him and he said I should bring it with me so he could have a look at it with me to make sure all was OK. I arrived one hour later after I set off and parked up. I had my brake parts in hand, I went to the door like a kid going to the sweet shop. As if by Magic Adam opened the door and said “Make a cup of tea if you want, I’m just taking Ruby for a little walk”. Ruby is a gorgeous dog that sits with Adam in his office, if your lucky she will sit with you. We chatted and put the world to rights for a few minutes, all the time Ruby was making sure she had her fair share of my attention. Then we got down to some serious stuff, the brakes I had taken off. We looked and decided to go and compare with a set of drums that had come off for a disc brake conversion, they had not been touched other than that. I don’t trust anything the previous owner has done on this car. As we weren’t certain what was required for the moment, we decided to get the rear parts ready that I definitely needed, that’s new rear shoes and couple of cylinders, I already had the hardware for Christmas from the wife. We got them sorted and then I was up for a tour of the latest developments and the cars. I was shown the new storage areas that were going on, being in the middle of a move is never good, but I took the photos anyway. I’m sure it will be sorted out – funny thing is, you ask Adam for anything, he will go straight to it. It’s rather uncanny how he can make sense of the new stores even in the middle of the move around. Not all of it is even labelled up again yet.

one side wall covered, the marking up is coming along nicely

We were going outside to the yard, I made sure I was walking with Adam through the yard as we were greeted by the other six guard dogs. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, I liked these ones too. But, there is no way I would even walk near the gates on my own, they sort of look at you as if to say, “If you weren’t with Adam, we would eat you”. I’m sure the dogs licked their lips when they saw me coming! Quite frankly I got the vibes loud and clear thanks guys and girls. There has been a new dedicated storage area built for the body panels, and a little further along there was a decent sized storage that could hold about eight to ten cars, Adam opens up to reveal benches stacked with engines, gearboxes, drive trains and axles. We find the brake drums comparison we were after, and then we move onto a dedicated area where there is a rather special car that is being built in its own workshop. I say being built as the engine is going to be a 5.4 modern v8 engine under the hood, with the brake horse power to rival most super cars, to top that it has bespoke independent suspension being added to the front, I have never heard of that modification let alone see it. There are no towers or firewalls in the engine bay, the metal is all being fabricated just for this car, a real one-off . Nowhere near finished yet but it will be something else when it is – lucky bloke.

We looked around at some other cars and I got the background on them too, then we wandered back to the gates along with my four-legged furry escort. We sat back down in the office and talked more cars. At this point more customers came into the office to see Adam and we all chatted for a bit, we were shown his latest design for the 66 rear lights, LED versions behind the original lenses that looked epic. I will be having a set of them when I get to that point. I also managed to get a leaflet on the Evans Coolants. As I am a little worried about the over heating issues this is perfect timing, I have a PDF version here that you can read all about the Evans Waterless Coolant, or go to my “articles” section. It’s an impressive read that’s for sure. Again I will be having this in my car too when I get her going properly, if you have a Mustang that overheats, this will cure it. I have been doing my own research on this coolant as well, it looks impressive I feel the need for a review once it’s added. Lets face it, if Adam is selling this gear with the clients that Mustang Maniac has, then it has to be good. Sadly time continued to march on, and like all good things it was time for me to go home, but hey, “I’ll be back” as Arnie would say. That you can bet my car on!

I will be producing an interview article with Adam soon that I will put in my articles section. I’m sure it will be an interesting read when I get round to editing it that is.

My Car:

Well I now have the new set of brakes shoes all round and I took the front brake assembly apart, and added the pictures here, or go to the “Front Brake Drum Rebuild (part 2)”, under the photo’s section “Wheels & Brakes”. I have treated the backing plates with the Granville anti rust treatment. During the week I will add the second coats, this will leave me in a good position to reassemble them next weekend ready for more pictures. I have ordered some extra treats to my self from Frost, some VHT brake calliper spray in black to make the drums look nice, along with some Eastwood under-hood black spray which I will review later on as well. I may even get to put the booster back in next weekend too. That is if the weather holds out. As i need to use the Rust Cure today it was to cold outside. I prepared the backing plates outside and brought them inside to finish on the floor in the utility room. My ears are still ringing from the verbal slapping I got. Apparently you can’t put dirty car parts on a clean floor. In my defence I did clean them in the utility sink, which again is not acceptable either as I got the clean sink dirty. How is a man supposed to clean car parts if he can’t use the sink? I was then gonna take them into the kitchen instead to clean them, it was at this point I was offered a game of “you dare”. I had not heard this game for a while, last time I played a variation of this game called “just you dare”, I didn’t win that one either. Bearing in mind the wife lets me have my pocket money each month for my car, I decided to finish the clean outside and not attempt to play, “you dare”. Apparently this latest version of “you dare” with car parts now starts with the slow deep voice with hands on hips. I will look for these signs next time.

Hot tip for you, if you want to play “you dare”, don’t attempt to play it after your wife buys you parts for your car; this seems to tilt the odds against you.

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The Yin and Yang effect

Good & not so good

The weekend started of pretty poor, I had a bug which started Friday morning and stopped me in my tracks for 30 hours or so, as a result I have been busy behind the scenes with the blog, more of that in a bit. I managed to get out into the man cave on Saturday mid morning to start the cleaning of my front brake drum. This time the sun was out, and that made me feel better for a start. The birds were singing and I had time to do what I wanted. I started the ritual tidy and clean up, I looked to my side a caught sight of a tame blackbird just by the door, showing no signs of fear. Not only was he just starring at me but looked like he wanted some food, he obviously changed his mind and flew away. Do they sense you wont hurt them? Back in the man cave I spread out the shower curtain to get my make shift spray booth ready. I mounted and sprayed the brake booster on my home made jig. The results were exactly what I was after, that almost natural metal look with a little character of old age pitting showing. I have posted the pics “Photo Menu, Engine bay, Brake booster part 2” or click here. A real good days work was had and it was only and late afternoon, time to get a quick blue ray in too, this is turning into a great day. Coming back in I went to get changed and heard the toilet running, strange, as the wife was out it couldn’t be her. On lifting the lid to the cistern the float mechanism had got stuck open and over flowing back into the bowl. So now my great day was now startin’ to go down the pan literally. Now I’m not happy, I had to get the household DIY tools in to fix it as they are now locked up in the man cave. I found the spare float valve unit that I bought ages ago, but never used from another kit I had. So off came the cistern from the wall, water spraying all over the place from the remains of back pressure in the shut of valve all up the wall of my freshly painted bathroom. The contents of my tool bag now all over the bathroom floor on a damp towel. the cistern parts mixed up amongst them. Reassembling the inlet float valve didn’t take long to be honest. The front door opened and in comes my wife in a great mood and comes upstairs to see what I was doing, I think the odd naughty word slipping from my lips gave it away. Then comes my favourite question in situations like these, “What are you doing?” The fact I have half of plumbing world all over the floor should have been a clue. Avoiding, my more obvious choice of a sarcastic remark when I am in a bad mood, I settled on explaining what had gone wrong and needed fixing. I expect we will probably get a bill big enough to fill a small swimming pool as a result just to make me feel even better about it. At this point she left me to get on with it. But she had bought me a nice cake while she was out. Once the job was done and adjusted for the water levels I took the tools out and locked up again. That cake was well and truly deserved, why? Because the spray job still looked good when I went back to the man cave!

Now here is a thought; is there such a thing as the pleasure & pain thing or Yin & Yang? I found this petrol head spin on the idea, brilliant, I just had to post this:

At the beginning I mentioned that I had been busy behind the scenes for the last couple of weeks. I have tweaked the blog a bit to make it a little more user friendly and added a couple of photos for the brake drum clean here, brake booster treatment and spraying here and a review of Granville Rust Cure here.

I have also started a YouTube Channel “One man and his Mustang”, (clever that huh?) where I will post videos, clips and reviews of what I am or have been up too. There are two videos, one for the products that I am using after I was asked that question, so it made sense to show them. The other is my Granville Rust Cure process. Please subscribe to the channel if you like what you see. or give me some feedback on what you want to see. I have moved the “Contact me” button too in order to make it easier to email me.

I have added a couple of good articles as well, on specifications and options for the 66 Mustang for all body shapes. In fact lots of stuff has been added, I hope you like it.

The best thing about my YouTube Channel? You can see a marked improvement in my video editing and techniques that took a leap forward. If only my car would move along that quick!