Pedals & Pad

Saturday arrived and it was stupid cold on the way to Mustang Maniac, my breath was leaving a mist in front of me as I walked to the car. The sky looked heavy, but I was going to enjoy myself regardless. I arrived after battling through flurries of snow that luckily didn’t settle for too long. As I arrived I was told that a full English breakfast down the local pub was the order of the day to warm us up. Adam kindly treated us all to breakfast. Thank You Adam. We arrived back all warmed up and I was eager to get on with my tasks for the day. Yogi told me what needed to be done, dash pad, brake booster with the brake pedal box fitted inside and throttle link. I was happy apart from the cold.

First job was the dash pad, a thick lining that was attached to the inside of the car to stop the noise of the engine and insulate the inside of the car. The solid pad had cut out holes that were removed depending on the configuration of the car. Things like heater box and heater pipes, wire looms needed to go from the inside to the outside.

front

back

The pad had to be tacked in place with large plastic studs and align the holes correctly. You can also stick the pad down, but as I may need to move bits about to fit them, I will leave that sticky bit till last after all the fire wall fittings have been made.

The next job was the brackets for the brake booster that bolted to the inside the of the car. It sort of goes without saying this was really a two-man job to hold in place while the first couple of bolts held it all together. But, I found out that if you put your hand through the steering column hole you can hold the inside pedal box and bolt the brackets on enough to hold them in place while you do them up tight. The throttle pedal link was a simple three screws through the firewall.

inside

outside

My designated jobs were done, but I was eager for more. Adam turned up just at the right time to see how I was getting on. We had a discussion about the next jobs and he decided that the heater box and steering box could be fitted. Both of these were two-man jobs and Adam stayed to help me with it all. We fitted the heater hoses first the heater box so we didn’t have to fiddle around inside the car at a later date.

inside heater box

from the outside

inside steering post

engine bay fitted.

The end result for the day was a nice looking bit of work so far. The only trouble is that the work took longer than I expected so there aren’t too many pictures to show, but you can see the end results. The photo I forgot to post last week was the shocks fitted in place, so here elusive picture is.

Next week we might be in a position to put the engine in the car!

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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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Sunshine brings a smile

What a day! The sun was out and I was out – in the man cave and then the garage!

The predicted snow didn’t arrive, and I can’t say I was disappointed, but I was smiling. There was blue sky, the birds were singing and there was a beautiful sound of a 80 toothed Snap On ratchet hard at work! I decided to remove the Brake Drum and backing plate to get it cleaned up ready for the new parts. I have taken lots of pictures and quick step by step process of what I have done. I was not to happy this morning though, I heard the postman, I run to the door and got a bill. Not the hammer I’m, just a bill. I was going to give somebody grief on Monday morning, but changed my mind and brought the day forward to today. I called the company, polite – but the bloke was not the shiniest spanner in the tool box should I say. Anyway, I explained the hammer hadn’t turned up and I was expecting it two days ago. He looked on his system and found that my hammer was awaiting a restock. They never emailed me to tell it was out of stock, to make it worse he couldn’t tell me when it was going to be back in stock either. Their advertising states, always in stock – Failed, they also say next day delivery – Failed. So I suggested that he should give me a refund as I aint happy. Fair enough the refund came through about an hour later, but I am looking forward to giving some negative feedback, oh yes! So as the wife was going out she asked if there was anything I needed as I think she felt sorry for me. To which you can probably guess the response – a hammer? We phoned a local company that specialises in tools, they had some in stock which I duly reserved. The wife picked it up and brought it back after her shopping. It was also cheaper than eBay! I got it in my hand about 1/2 hour before I actually needed it. Perfect timing. The smile just got bigger.

The Brake unit removal was a good piece of work today, The whole brake unit is now in my man cave ready to be cleaned. If you want to know what a fully rusted set of drum brakes looks like on a 66 Mustang click here, or go to the Photos section/Wheels & Brakes. This was Part 1 to remove the drum, Part 2 will be to remove the old bits and clean, finally part three will be the rebuild and refit.

What shall I do tomorrow? I reckon if the weather is nice I may finish of the Brake booster ready to refit, if it’s not I will clean the first part of the drum up. I just can’t plan anything thing with this weather. According to the news on this side of the “pond” the USA is getting battered by snow. Is it really as bad as they say?

removing the pin — removing the cotter pin

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This weather is doing my head in

The weekend is upon us again, and I hacked off with the weather, again!

We are predicted snow yet again, ok it was fun for a few days but not any more. The country grinds to a halt and the food goes up in price. It never goes down in the summer though, funny that. Petrol goes up, the oil companies make billions and the complain they are hard up, yeah right.

Enough off me being grumpy, I can’t roll it out of the garage if it snows or rains, but on the other hand, I can work in the garage out of the rain. It just goes to show how spoilt you can get in any situation. A couple of months ago I had to stand out in the rain to do anything on the car, now I can stand in the dry and do it, and I moan again. I’m lucky I have somewhere to put my car and I must keep that in mind. I am luckier than a lot of others, I own a classic Mustang and it’s in my garage.

What do I do this weekend? It’s to cold to spray anything again, unless we have a major breakthrough of sun, according to my weather apps that is just not gonna happen. I may do a bit on my blog if its to bad, and catch up on a review or two. I do need to get my brakes drums off and measure the shoes, this is holding me up to get things moving. Once these are a confirmed size I will order them and get them fitted along with the I hope to use my new tools and see if they do make the job easier. I feel a review coming on for these tools what ever happens. Speaking of tools, I ordered a copper hammer with first class post delivery from eBay, that was on Tuesday this week. Guess what? It ain’t turned up, and this man is not amused. I do suspect that Monday some poor person is going to have a bad morning once they pick the phone up if it’s not delivered tomorrow. If we don’t complain to these people they get complacent, and it becomes the norm. I’m looking forward to the weekend itself, it’s just a shame its not nicer weather.

Frost Auto Restoration Techniques have put a link to my Dinitrol 6030 review. I’m well pleased with that of course, hopefully it will expand my visitors and followers too.

You get a link to their site here or go to http://www.frost.co.uk

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Back on track & Check lists

Lots of updates in one go this weekend.

At long last I have been able to do something worthwhile for my car. The snow has gone after heavy rain overnight. Due to the sun being out and no rain I decided to go for the Bumper Stone Guard part 2 repair. This was to de-rust the top side, fill the dents and a factory stamp mark that almost came through the metal itself, and then spray it. So there I was in my working tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt. I’m a real man I can take it. Snap-On tool box keys, Check. Man cave lock and padlock keys, Check. Stupid grin on my face, Check. Trainers with no grip, Check. I opened the door, and the fresh air hit me, stupid grin still there? Slipping, but confidence is sky-high. Stepped outside of the patio on to the grass, speeding up as I went to the man cave to save face and not admit I was cold. All my plans went up in the air, as did I. Trainers lost traction and the mud bath was beckoning to my back side, I looked like a spider on acid skating on ice. It was arms and legs everywhere. In fact it reminded me of my classic dance moves when I used to own the disco dance floor. Ok, perhaps I wasn’t that good but I thought I was. Thinking about it, I got more dates when I didn’t dance, especially when I unleashed a few well rehearsed special moves on floor. Well, in the films it obviously impressed everybody, it didn’t impress any ladies enough so that I would get a date though. That John Travolta film has got a lot to answer for, that’s all I can say. Anyway, I managed to stay on my feet, like a baby giraffe trying to stand for the first time. Grin still there? Checking, nope, it’s a grimace now. I came straight back in and changed my shoes to work boots, putting on a jumper and fleece on as well at the same time, just in case it got cold of course. My next venture to the man cave was more dignified to say the least.

As a result of doing the Bumper guard I used the Dinitrol 6030 bodywork filler. I have had quite a few hits on my Dinitrol page which was under construction for a while. Yes, I had used it before but had no pictures to go with what I had in mind. So being the bright spark that I am I had a brain wave, do them both at the same time. Yeah, see where I’m going with this?

The results were great. One day rubbing it all down and filling. Today rubbing down and spraying. I managed to take photos of the bumper guard being repaired and also for the review the Dinitrol filler too. The Bumper Stone Guard part 2 pictures are now in the Photos section, or click here. The Dinitrol review is under the Consumable Reviews section, or click here. From what I can see, this is the first Dinitrol review in depth on the net. You read it here first!

Results all round then, photos, review and a finished bumper guard.

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Snowed in (again)

Losing valuable Mustang time.

Another weekend with rubbish weather. It’s snowing pretty hard today so there is no way I was going to get to do any thing either on the car or in the man cave. I wanted to get that wheel off and get the slow puncture fixed. I could push her out to get access to the wheel, the problem would be trying to push her back in again in the snow. One false slip and the trunk would have a new rear spoiler in the shape of my two front teeth. Not good!

I did get out to the man cave for a little while to have a tidy up again. I decided to have a rearrangement of my tool chest with the new tools I got for Christmas. They all have a new home now and lined up like soldiers. Am I the only sad person that does this to make their tool box nice and neat, or do I need help? While in my man cave I noticed some birds looking for food and not having much luck. I must admit I tend to spoil my little feathered friends, I do an extra slice of toast in the mornings and break it up for them if I have toast before I go to work. Given the choice of plain bread or toasted, the toasted bits always goes first. As it was so cold I came in and done a couple of slices of toast, broke it up and put it on the bird table for them. It soon went, I do worry about them, as we have this little understanding, I feed them and they don’t try and use my cars for the local avian cesspit, sometimes they breach this understanding, so the next day they go hungry, they know the rules!

As I couldn’t do much I decided to finish up my heater plenum work write-up. I had taken some photos but that was before I decided that I was going to do this blog. The pictures still shows what a bad way it was in and then the finished results. You can see the process and why I had to do it all under the “Photos, Heater Core Issues & Repairs” or click here for a quick link. There is also a mini review in there for the heater case seal kit.

Lets hope the weather improves so I can get out there and do some worthwhile work on my car again. If I hadn’t of got my Coupe in the garage when I did it may have looked something like this!

The fact I have posted for the third time this weekend shows just how frustrated I am, in an automotive way of course.

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The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The good,

As I have cleaned out the garage to my car in stuff has been moved from there into my man cave. Now my man cave is 10 x 8 foot so it’s not to bad size wise. The down side is it has rapidly filled up with stuff I didn’t want in there, garden tools, seat cushions for our swing seat, hose pipes, ladders etc. I appreciate we have to store them somewhere as a compromise for my Mustang taking over the garage. Over Christmas I was treated to my front and rear bumpers. They were stored safe and sound in the garage. As we moved stuff out and dumped stuff the bumpers were moved to the shed, aka – man cave. This wasn’t a problem until A) I wanted to work in there but there isn’t room to stand. B) the bad weather arrived.

So in the minus 300c or what ever it is outside and snowing, I decided I needed to sort the bumpers out. Earlier in the week I purchased a set of six wall mounted screws £1.57 from eBay that hold bikes etc. bargain. I have 3 bumpers now, the original, which has virtually no chrome, rusted and pitted. Then the two replacements for Christmas, front and rear. I drilled the holes where the bolts go and screwed them in the wall. Lifted the bumpers onto the hooks, job done. They have plenty of room and don’t need tying as the hooked end holds them in place. Now they will be dry and out of harms way. 🙂

The Bad,

While I was at it I thought I would check the transmission leak. Although it has definitely slowed down, there was about a desert spoon full in the drip tray. This sort of put me in a not so good mood shall we say. I could go and tweak a bit more to see if that helps. Perhaps her nose runs like mine does when I am freezin’ my dip stick off. I’m not to sure what to do about it now, if anybody has any ideas give me a mail or post a reply here. I have a direct email now which is under the Home button. I will have to put her back on axle stands and have a good look again. I got a Blue Point inspection mirror & magnetic pick up set so I will use those to a better effect I think when the weather goes back to normal and not arctic. Also my left front slow puncture has gone down again, I guess I will sort that out when she is back on axle stands 🙁

The Ugly,

The weather is certainly ugly, tiny flurries of snow all day, but nothing major yet. That is to come tonight. Anyway, as I was putting the brackets on the wall a neighbour was walking past with his wife and their old-timer of a dog who didn’t seem phased by the cold at all. The guy stopped to look at my car and started asking me questions about her. I love talking about it so we struck a good conversation up. He told me while he was in France a couple of weeks ago for a wedding, the groom turned up in a 66 fastback which was his fathers pride and joy. He told me that it was the first time he really heard one for real and has since fell in love with the v8’s. How nice was that from a real nice bloke too. The flip side of that was another woman who was going out came past, she couldn’t help but stare at us and gave me the most filthy and ugly look, just like a mole that had burrowed its way into a sewage farm! What was that all about and why? 👿

Once I got back to my man cave I tidied up and made space again. Now that I can work in there again, I just need to work out a way to sneak the garden tools into the utility room and hope the wife won’t spot them, yeah right! If I did that I reckon I might get a rake stuffed somewhere that the sun don’t shine. Perhaps that not such a good idea after all, reason being I am after some wheel cylinders next. Lol.

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Eau de Mustang

It’s freezing, and small flurry of snow flakes which didn’t come to a lot, but I know it was cold. The down side is that the work I wanted to do more work on my bumper stone guards, it’s looking like I will have to wait till the slightly warmer weather. I doubt that the Dinitrol body filler will set very well in -2degrees let alone trying to put rust treatment on or spray some undercoat. The tins of spray were sold cold the balls inside didn’t want to move, I know that feeling all to well today. (Sorry ladies, but it was cold). Nevertheless I still went out to play cars. I took a selection of sockets out with me and opened the garage. Then it hit me; Eau de Mustang. That unmistakable odour of old metal, slight hint of super octane petrol (due to the fact I have no exhausts at the moment) & underseal coating. Perhaps I should approach these plug-in air freshener people to create a mans version, Mustang, BBQ, Fry Up and Pub. I’m sure it would be a big hit. That classic car odour is the smell that all petrol heads love, it’s loved almost as much as the delicate smell of perfume from a loved one once they have left the room. (Did I really just say that? Note to self: Must man up on these posts!) It also means that I have to put a ventilation brick or three in my garage wall in the summer and nicer weather decides to arrive.

I digress, I went out to look under the car a tighten up anything and everything that looks like it needed tightening around the transmission without going mental of course. The garage floor was almost as cold as me, I managed to find a couple of nuts that needed quarter turn to nip up properly. There was the return ATF connection coming from radiator that needed a turn as well, that was after I had to go and get some spanners.

Yesterday I posted that I had a new oil/drip tray, that was put in place as well under the transmission to see if there are any more episodes of my Mustang scenting her ground. Time will tell. My slow puncture has slowed a little, but it will need taking to me ol’ mate Will to have a little look for me.

I have posted my swaging tool review here (or look under the Tools Review in the header bar). From my stats on this blog, I have had searches for, how to use swaging tool and review of swaging tool etc. So as it was cold and I had done what I wanted to do today on the car I thought I would write-up the review. Hope you like it or find it useful.

Come on Summer!