I have had some emails saying why don’t I do a before and after photo set of the restoration? Then I got to thinking as to why I hadn’t up till now. There was no reason, so this post may be cheating a little as there is nothing new here. But what is new is the fact they have never been compared side by side before.  As I didn’t start my blog until a year after I bought the car, some of the earliest pictures don’t exist as such, during that time I had re-wired the car for the first time, managed to fire the car up, got the locks working (sort of), painted the trunk section and interior floor pans. Obviously if I had of known I would be doing a blog at that time, I would have documented it all much better than I have done. However my early work was re-done once the car had got to Mustang Maniac. Under their supervision and help it would be done “Properly” as Adam told me. So in effect you are indeed seeing the restoration from scratch, all be it not as bad as it was. I suspect that I would be playing catch up to keep on top of the car all the time to keep it looking good, especially with the original route I was going to take, ie; the amateur way.

Body Work:

 Rebuilt Back End:

Underside:

This was the old underseal, dirt and what ever else was squirted on there. Welded, ground down, filled, sanded down, painted with red oxide and painted with proper underseal and satin black paint.

Doors, Roof and Sides:

Rebuilt Front End:

Interior:

Inside was originally treated with POR15 for rust protection. This was later removed and proper sealant applied at paint and then primer and top coats. The last step was the Dynamat sound proofing, before the carpet that is.

Engine:

The story here was that I wanted to go sort of modern with the silicone look. As I knew I wanted a blue look to the car I went for the blue silicone and the blue spark plug leads. I went of the idea and eventually swapped them for the revised black and chrome look. The spark plug leads were changed at the last month as was the valve covers. The cable routing went through a number of variations until I was happy with it at that point. Rewire of the car was the first job as I had to see if the engine started, which it did on the second turn of the key after twelve years of standing years. Pretty impressive.

Transmission:

Steering and Suspension:

Brakes:

Even the brakes look as good as the outside of the car. The front drum brakes were replaced with disc brake conversion for stopping power and safety. The brake servo was original from the factory but was upgraded to dual system, again for safety.

Electrical:

All electrics have been replaced and the bulbs converted to LED where I can.

Glass and Bright Work Trim:

Paint Process:

There are hundreds of photos I could add here but I have kept it to the more key stages of the process.

Transportation:

These were some interesting shots of the car coming and going to different places.

Driving Her:

Special Thanks:

I have mentioned this before, but none of this would have been possible without the help and moral support from Mustang Maniac and their associates; Adam, Al (Yogi), Paul (Lob Monster), Chris (Careful), John, Paul (the paint), Lance (OCD from Marketing). I have learned so much from them all, above all I have gained some great friends who have all helped me realise a life’s ambition and dream come true.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

From the top down it still had to look right.

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

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

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

Tip:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

http://www.necclassicmotorshow.com/

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

The car:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow, what a weekend, that’s all I can say. There are so many thanks to go out in this post and I will get to them all as the story unfolds. The car show that I am referring to is the biggest in the UK – “Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show” held at the Birmingham NEC 13 – 15th November 2015, hosting some two thousand odd cars as well as traders and motoring clubs. So if you are going to do a car show, jump straight into the deep end, just like I did with restoring the car in the first place. Although the show is a Friday to Sunday the hard work starts early Thursday Morning. Due to logistical nightmare I wouldn’t be able to drive up to Birmingham myself which is about 2 hour drive away from my home. So Adam being the top bloke that he is said “get down here Wednesday night and stop in the camper, then you can go up with the cars”. What he means by camper is the enormous American motor home that is so plush it makes some hotels I have stayed in look like derelict flats. So my good lady wife dropped me down the Mustang Maniac yard packed with everything that I would need. Clothing, food for a midnight Scooby snacks, kindle and my trusty Samsung Galaxy Tab 12.2 Pro. Adam had already got the heating on in the van by the time I arrived and was nice and warm. I read my kindle for a little while and fell asleep in the big comfy bed. Stupid o’clock I heard the dogs barking and few minutes later the familiar bark of a V8 Mustang starting up. The two tiered transporter truck sent by LAR Traffic Services  was now being loaded with the Black ’66 GT Fastback. My car fired up and was sitting in the workshop waiting to come out and play. Thanks so much to LAR Traffic Services who transported my car and Ken’s car with no problems at all.

My biggest thanks has to be to Adam at Mustang Maniac who sponsored my trips there and back so I could get to the Show. All the guys at Mustang Maniac for making this dream possible.

The car was driven to the truck and Adam loaded my car onto the transporter and again tied it down to stop it moving. The sun started to come up now and burn some of the mist away and I started to get butterflies in my stomach from excitement.

Everything was loaded into the cars, overnight bag, Show Board, business cards and flyers etc. I climbed in and we set off for the few hours journey. The exhibition cars had to be checked in before mid day on the Thursday, we left a little before eight to give us plenty of time, I was too excited to remember to even have breakfast. The journey was pretty good and we made great time until we got near the NEC motorway turn off, then the traffic started to snarl up. The good thing was we could see the drivers taking pictures of the cars before they even got to the show. I’m not saying the traffic was bad, but…

We arrived at the NEC to the usual carnage at these sort of events where no clear signs about telling us where to go.

We asked a couple of herberts who were directing traffic, they told us to follow the road round. About a mile later of stop start traffic jams and drooling over the cars being unloaded, we eventually found the Pavilion Hall. Now it was our turn to unload. We were given our wrist bands for the “Build Up” day as they call it, cars are moved around and the stands set up for business. Yellow band for Thursday, then the other colour bands were given out by the Club stands where you were exhibiting or showing stands as the case may be. I was now officially an “Exhibitor” for the weekend. I have been to so many of these car shows in the past where I have been envious of the cars on show. I have often wondered what it would be like to be part of the classic car show scene. Now I know; it’s such a buzz to be part of something where everybody there had one thing in common, the love of cars. No animosity towards any car and everybody just looked at all the other cars in appreciation as they went passed you. I have never understood why people only like Ford, or Chevy or Fiat etc. and they refuse to like any other cars, I just don’t get it. I love Mustangs obviously, but I also like so many other makes such as Chevy, Pontiac, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Audi, TVR etc. etc.

The rest of the day was all about getting the cars on the stands to arrange them in their final positions. The fabulous ’66 GT was on the Classic American stand and they made a cracking job of making her look factory fresh.

My car was on the Mustang Owners Club Of Great Britain (MOCGB), position P1-320. Many of the carpets still had the plastic covers over them and all the exhibitors had to wear high vis jackets for health & safety reasons. A lot of the carpets were still being laid and furniture was being built all around the cars. My car was parked on the end just for now next to a very rare Shelby Super Snake. I gave a hand to help set up the stand and put out the bunting, I even bought a polo shirt before the show started.

The rest of the cars for our stand soon turned up, then we were able to position them properly ready for their three-day pampering session.

Thank the MOCGB for making me feel welcome and we had such a good laugh with a very nice bunch of people on the stand this year.  The cars were cleaned, and I checked the Show Plates and decided where I was going to put my car’s Show Board.

A big thanks to Lance at Linards Design & Print Solutions for the Show Plates and the Show Board.

We got to work cleaning the cars, but not before we all had a look at each others cars. I didn’t realise just how much time and effort goes into making these cars shine the way they do. I cleaned mine, looked at the others on the stand and cleaned it again! Thursday was over and it was time to go back to the hotels. The performance at the hotel to check in was made worse by one receptionist and bloke asking stupid questions, like “what do press on the phone for reception?”I was like thinking – Go to the room and it will be on the phone man. Once in my room, I got my green wrist band ready and got the clothes out ready for the next day, then went out looking for some food, I was getting hungry now, perhaps that was why I was intolerant of the bloke earlier.

What did my car look like after the cleaning? This was her first day out;

Friday, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Friday. I put on my Green exhibitor band, I knew it was going to be busy, but I wasn’t sure what it would be like from a Club stand point of view. The announcements over the tannoy warned us of half an hour to open with a ten minute count down in between. We were busy cleaning the cars when the announcement that the “show was now open”. The sweat from frantic polishing was starting to run of my head with the pressure and the physical exertion. I’m sure I cleaned the car yesterday though! I swapped my manky old t-shirt for a MOCGB black polo shirt trying to cool down as I stood wondering what was going to happen, what would I say? The public came in after a few minutes and wandered around the stands. I had my first visitors ask me about my car, how long had I had it? What colour is it? I didn’t need to worry, I just stood there and answered their questions. Then more questions from more visitors, it was like that all day. I was asked what was under the hood, so I opened it up and it stayed open virtually all weekend long. The questions never stopped. There were people with cameras taking pictures of the engine, the fender badges, inside and they even wanted to look inside the trunk, so theat stayed open all weekend as well. The crowds got quite large around the MOCGB stand as they had Bullitt, Gone in 60 Seconds, Transformers, Getaway etc car chases all on a loop at the front of the stand on a big LCD television. It was funny to see the crowds watching Steve McQueen in his car chase, when the chase scene was over the crowds will filter away. When it came back on again the crowds were back. It was like watching the tide coming in and going, but only on shorter time scales with people.

I know I have some great people who follow my blog and the first to find me just like they said they would was the fantastic Triumph “Stag  Owners Club” ; https://stagownersclub.wordpress.com/  It was fantastic to put their faces to the names and we had a great chat. I made a promise to go and see them a bit later, but before they went they took a photo of the man with a Mustang, so I dutifully posed, the secret was out who the man was now.

I visited their wonderful stand only they were not there to return the favour for a photo session, but like ships in the night we passed messages. The Stag Owners Club web site was even nominated for an award! Well done for that guys.

I knew that the Triumph Stag had an overheating problem when they came out. Funny thing is that it wasn’t anything to do with the design or the engineering, it was the rather rubbish quality control that caused the issues. On a recent Rally the Stag was leading 17 days out of the whole Trans America Challenge 2015, all through the deserts where other cars were melting in the sun (literally), the car never experienced an over heating issue at all. The car suffered a rather unheard of rear diff giving up which was replaced and the car was nursed to the finish line. The car did finish and now it has been proved beyond doubt that the engineering design was not at fault. These cars are amazing, they look great, sound great and are certainly a very desirable collectors car. In fact they would be my number one affordable UK Classic car choice.

I came in the next day to find this placed on my seat: Oops, now how did that happen? Looks like I have only gone and accidentally left the wrist band over it! Sorry, but does that mean the secret is safe still?😉

Thank you so much guys for the photo, it means a lot to me and it will be up in my garage very soon. Thanks for your time answering what must have been daft questions coming from me.

Another visitor from the blog scene was a Nigel from https://nigelhamlinwright.wordpress.com/ “A Special Builder’s Notes”. He arrived with his good lady and we had a nice chat and found out that the small world we live in is even smaller than I thought. It turns out that we only live a couple of villages apart, so I will be going to visit Nigel soon to have a look at his projects he has on the go. Thanks for coming to see me Nigel, again much appreciated.

Gary W – an ex Ford UK Director, who regularly contributes to Mustang Maniacs own blog with his knowledge and his photo’s was next. Gary came to find me among the sea of people who were around me and my car, I believe my expression was like a rabbit in car headlights. We had an all to brief chat as it was the first time he had seen my completed car, and not just in the workshops. Thank You Gary, I feel a bit bad that I wasn’t able to speak to you longer though.

The Friday’s show drew to an end. I had three offers to buy my car from people who liked what I had done. One guys wanted to take it home that day and offered me some seriously good cash! But my little lady is not for sale. But, this is a big but, me and wife decided that the only time it will ever be parted with is if I could swap it for a genuine Shelby shell to start it all again. The chances of that happening is not very good at all, the car is of a massive sentimental value to me now.

The hotel room has the aircon on full blast and I collapsed on the bed to catch my breath and let my throat rest from all the talking. Was I all Mustanged out? Nope!

Saturday, the alarm woke me at an early time so I could get some breakfast and shower in before the day started. By the time I had got to the entrance I had put on my dark blue wrist band. I walked round to the show hall the long way round so I could look at the other cars early before it got to busy to see them. I didn’t manage to walk away from my car all day on Friday except for a a couple of toilet breaks of a few minutes and came straight back. I took some photo’s of some cars  this time and then realised the time. I rushed back to the stand to see the other guys cleaning. I looked at my car and see a small layer of dust from the overnight stay. Out came all the cleaning stuff again and I got to work.

The MOCGB were going to have a special guest appear on their stand at 9am just before the main public came in to the hall; Edd China from the very popular TV show “Wheeler Dealers” was going to be with us. Edd is seen on the right here next to Mike Brewer his co presenter.

Edd came over and was speaking to Chris York from the MOCGB and had his photo taken with all of us at Club stand. The club gave him a cordinated blue MOCGB polo shirt so he didn’t feel left out of course, that we were all wearing that day. Edd sat in a gold Coupe in the Club stand and then came over to sit in mine too posing for some photos, which he seemed to like just as the public started to notice who and where he was.

What a buzz that was, and a genuinely nice guy. I was told by Chris that Saturday and Sunday was a different ball game. I wasn’t sure what he meant but I was about to find out. The Saturday crowd was more family orientated and out to look at some nice cars. It turns out that Friday is for the more hard core motor enthusiast, Petrol Heads or Gear Heads as they are known in different places around the world. Again the questions came thick and fast, people wanting to “Do a project just like that” pointing to mine and the other cars. Lots of questions around the origins of the car, how long did it take, would you do it again etc. One bloke even had a moan at my aerial. My aerial is slightly smaller than the average Mustang aerial for a simple reason. I wanted mine to retract out-of-the-way. This will mean that the aerial will not be damaged by selfish yobs, and the fact that a car cover will not have to have a hole made in it to fit. However as the aerial wasn’t original he took great delight in telling me. I tried to find out what car he had, unfortunately he didn’t answer and walked off. What was that all about? The car is done to how “I” want it, not a “Concours d’Elegance” exhibit that will never be driven. But the rest of the day was great and had many, many photo’s taken of the car. Again the hood was up, the trunk was open and the drivers window down so people could see. I didn’t have time to eat, had a very quick toilet break and it was back to the great public and questions. I now realised that I didn’t need to worry about what to say, I was being asked and I just had to answer. The tannoy announced the show was over and about half hour later the crowds had gone. All that could be heard was the Bullitt car chase for the umpteenth time that day. Then it fell silent. I cleaned my car from finger prints yet again. The yellow microfiber cloth was a permanent extension of my arm and has replaced my hand. The walk back to the hotel took longer than yesterday, perhaps they made the road longer during the day. More offers to buy the car today and I was feeling good mentally. The room invited me in and the bed just screamed “collapse on me”, I definitely heard it. I took time to send some pics of my day to guys at Mustang Maniac and few friends who would be interested. Was I all Mustanged out? Nope!

The photo’s I took that day? No, I don’t have a thing about red cars, it’s just that I have never seen the full house of Ferrari’s like this before. Cobra replicas a plenty, Jaguar E-Types and Aston Martins, and of course the big boys GT40’s, all just incredible cars.

There was a another photo I took specially for a another blog I follow all about his Land Rovers; http://mud4fun.com/  I just thought was quite unusual. Needs must I suppose, it wasn’t the toilet that made me smile, it was the toilet roll holder, attention to detail there then.

Sunday the alarm sounded like a V8 had started up next to my head, I don’t think I moved in the night at all. I put on my light blue wrist band and felt that ominous tickle of a sore throat. I hope my voice would last the day as I walked down to breakfast, I felt a little guilty about grunting to the waitress who had a very polite “Good Morning Sir”. Sorry to the little waitress, but my voice needed to be saved. It was raining again and I was glad that I only had a little way to walk. Walking to the show hall seemed to me that that road had just got a longer over night as well. Once inside the halls I knew the routine now, clean the car, change top and get ready. I was looking forward to the day and I was now confident that I wasn’t going to make myself look stupid in front of anybody. I managed to have few conversations with the other guys on the stand and we had a few great laughs between us during the day. Around lunch time I had two younger girls who came up to me asking about the car for their dad. Apparently he told them to find a Mustang car that they liked. They choose mine, I let them both sit in the car and answered all their quite grown up and mature questions. I spotted their “Press” passes as they told me that they would bring their dad over. I was absolutely fine with that and said “of course”, and thought no more of it.

A little while later another “Celeb” walked over to me and he didn’t need any introductions; Tim Shaw with his two daughters whom I had been speaking to earlier. Tim is from the TV program “Car SOS” and wanted to know all about my car. We had a lengthy chat about parts, restoration and what his next project is going to be for the TV show. I was incredibly excited when he told what the show was going to do soon. So make sure you watch it, I know definitely will be. I know exactly what they are going to be restoring, but I don’t think I can say publicly yet.  Anyway another great guy who kindly posed for photos sitting in my car. He attracted a nice crowd around my car before he had a chat with Chris from the Club at the back of the stand.

There was a lot of interest from people and some even took their interest up close and personal. One guy had a ’66 Mustang with large exhaust headers like mine which was causing issues with his steering. He wanted to know how I got round it, once he had seen what I had done he was a happy chap I think.

Around about mid day John from MM turned up on his way back from Yorkshire and helped answer some of the questions with me. Adam turned up a little later in the afternoon to see how things were going. Adam had bought back the LAR truck which we were going to load onto at the end of the show. The final announcement came that signalled the show was closing, the simultaneous sound of hundreds of car horns sounding together made a spectacular finale. Adam was telling me about the drama he had trying to get the truck parked close to the hall, now it was literally miles away in another car park. We decided to help pack the Club regalia away, then when the doors were opened, we would be first out to get to the truck. The plan was floored, as the organisers opened our hall doors everybody else had the same idea, crucially before us, it was wedged as far as the eye could see. One guy said to Adam “You can go the other way you know.” So we turned left when everybody was going right. It turns out after three miles and few police detours we found the truck more by luck and parked up behind the truck.

We got in the truck and headed out back to the yard. We had a great chat about the three days and what had happened. We saw a number of cars going past us from the show, obviously being driven home. A couple of hours later we were back at the yard, the sound that greeted me at the start of all this greeted me again, the dogs. We drove the cars to the workshop and covered them up. Adam’s first on job Monday was to move them about again.

Was I all Mustanged out on Sunday night? Just a little, but I enjoyed every moment of it. The comments from the people who looked at my car made it all worth while. The fact that people said to me that they always a car “exactly like that” made my day. Actually, that’s wrong – it made my THREE days. Honestly it did.

Additional Thanks:

Chris from Classic American Magazine who was taking photo’s of the Club stand and the cars.

All the guys from the Mustang Owners Club of GB.

Samantha from http://www.motorverso.com & Samathamowels.com

Thanks to EVERYBODY who popped by to say hello to me and spend your time with me talking about cars, most of the time my car.

After four years I had made it to a Classic Car Show, it just happened to be the biggest in the UK. I’m looking forward to the next one now.

Last weekend I went to a show at Stonham Barns in Suffolk for their “Spring Break” car show the first of the season for me. This was going also going to be my first show I had done on my own without the support of Mustang Maniac. The show was over three days, Friday, Saturday and the Sunday that I went too. I have no preconceived notion that I would win anything and I didn’t enter any groups before hand, although a little silverware never hurt anybody. I had been to many shows on my own as a visitor and not as an exhibitor in the past except for the Birmingham NEC during November last year and the Enfield Pageant where the car was very much a work in progress. The alarm went off at seven o’clock but the gates didn’t open until nine on the dot. I couldn’t sleep anyway and  had lots to do; like checking the water, tyre pressures putting the cleaning materials in the trunk and most importantly checking the weather, the sky was almost as blue as my car. I had already made my mind up that I wouldn’t being if there was a good chance of rain. Weather forecast promised lots of sun with cloudy spells at times. Perfect, I got in the car and started her up and I was on my way. Google Maps on my phone directed me to the direction of the show nearly thirty miles away. As I got closer I could see other great looking cars heading in the same direction. Pulling into the gates there was another Mustang that pulled up behind me. I gave the thumbs up and got one back too. I smiled – a lot. Common sense was in full play as there were marshalls directing all us early birds into the fields half hour before they were due to open. The owner of the car behind me got out and introduced himself to me as speaking to me at the NEC show. The penny then dropped and placed the face as being one of the many people who I had spoken too. We parked up next to each other, followed by a Galaxy 500 and a cracking looking Burgundy Camaro SS.

There was cars arriving at a steady pace as we talked about our cars and the LED lights we both had with the variations in them. We eventually decided to go look at some more cars, that gave me a chance to take even more pics of my car. For a valid reason that I will get to later.

I decided that i was going to lift the hood again and let people have a look.

I wasn’t sure how to play it so secured the car and walked away and watched from a distance to see how things played out. I was pleasantly surprised to see the respect of the visitors looking holding their clothing away from the paint work. After half hour or so, I was confident to walk way and look at some other fantastic cars that was now pouring into the fields.

This blue and white Thunderbird had a spectacular paint job.

One of the prize winners here was a real nice Caddy with a Dodge Viper v10 wedged in it. This bike just seemed to go on and take over the whole car park, it was massive with Beetle flat four in the back of it.

Under the hood of the cars were some strange sights a water bottle made out of a Jack Daniels bottle, some poor chap had a leaking radiator.

At one o’clock the judges were on their way round and made virtually no stops at the “standard” road cars. Their time was spent around the Hot Rod / Rat Rod sections. Some of those cars were absolutely amazing, I knew right at that point no prizes were going my way. Shortly after the judging there was a lot of cars leaving around two o’clock, so much so that the bloke on the mic announced that he hoped none of those cars leaving were trophy winners, he didn’t have to worry. I wanted to stay and see the result of judging, so I spent my time aimlessly wandering around looking at the time and effort owners had put into their cars. The stalls were mainly selling items and not really any old car parts as such, nothing that you wouldn’t see at a local car boot sale to be fair. At three o’clock the winners were announced, not a single standard car got an award of the ten trophies that were up for grabs, the hot rod guys and the latest trend of, huge camber angles on a VW Beetle, “slammed” trucks and cars sitting on the floor took the prizes. Never mind, better luck next time. I think I got how this show worked, the emphasis was a Hot Rod based entries for the show, their webpage advertising the event was showing a selection of the previous attending cars that were all hot rods. There was some fantastic cars there that day, but I thought other cars deserved the prizes so much more, like the Thunderbird, the Camaro SS, a beautiful Chevy Bel Air, Caddy Coupe de Ville etc. But, as I am not a judge it was irrelevant what I thought, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and of course some will say the cars that got the awards deserved them. Regardless of the results, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and meeting a few faces that I had previously seen at the NEC at the end of last year, speaking to total strangers who wanted to look at my car, along with other wonderful cars that were on show. Would I go again? Yep. Did I enjoy it? Yep. The weather was spot on all day, and yes I did get a bit of sunburn on my head! I enjoyed the trip home so much as the main road had a convoy of Classic Cars going back to their homes. I was now officially part of the Show Car scene driving there and back in my own car. Thumbs up to every body going past, or those that went past us. Horns were going, people waving to everybody, what a great day all round and perfect way to end the day. I was shattered when I got home.

This weekend, I had a good friend of mine Mike turned up to take a look at the car. Mike has a Mark two escort and just restored that to its original golden glory. Last time he had seen my car was about a year into the restoration where I had managed to start it up after the re-wiring it. I pulled the covers back and he was surprised to see the difference. I started her up in the garage to get the feel of the engine note, and breath in that unmistakable odour of fresh burning fuel. The roads were damp and the air was pretty damp. He was looking out to the sky as I had previously promised him a ride in it if the weather was OK. As it wasn’t raining I asked did he want to go out in it? At which he thought about it for zero seconds and said “Yes, if you’re sure”. I was, I shut the hood and started to back her out the garage and he got in. It was slightly amusing to see him looking for the shoulder belt, I told him that this was a proper car and only had lap belts. We set off down the road and I said that we would drive to the next village. As we got to the next village it started to spit with rain, I still had the window open. No, this can’t be happening, rain on my car! The car was now getting wet, so much so that I had to put the wipers on for the very first time. I was quite surprised at how well they actually worked. We done our circuit of about half an hour and headed back home. We pulled up to junction for a right turn and in my enthusiasm the rear wheels scrambled for grip untill I let of the gas. I gave this car respect in the rain and gave no sudden acceleration, obviously not enough respect was given to standing start in the rain. Me BAD!  A mile or so from home the rain stopped and the wind had pretty much dried the beads of water from the car. The car was put straight into the garage, and Mike was met by my wife and made him a cup of tea. I of course was out there in the garage drying my little lady. I joined them a short while later satisfied that the car totally dry, not that there was much to dry by the time we got back. I didn’t cover her up at this point, as the warmth of the engine in the garage along with the boiler would dry it out thoroughly over night.

Reviews:

As I had to clean my car the previous week with a bubble bath as it had got dusty, I have now completed my first review for car detailing products; the Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax Paste, click here for the hyper link to go straight to it. Or, go to the top menu “Car Detailing Products” where the link can also be found. I intend to add more reviews soon for the likes of; Meguiar’s, Poorboys World, Chemical Guys, Autoglym etc. etc. Why did I take more pics of my car as I mentioned at the beginning? 1) Just because I could, and 2) The shine on the car was from the Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax Paste that I could now finish the review off with.

How did the rain react to the paint? It was blown immediately off the car with the wind rush from driving. There was hardly any water on the car at all. I had not seen that level of beading before to be honest, impressive.

I have had an email to ask if I am still about on my blog. The answer is a big yes, of course I am. Last weekend I was with the Mustang Maniac guys at Santa Pod for a Classic Ford meet. Yogi took his ’69 Mach1 down the strip a few times and set some impressive times even though he had wheel spin all over the place off the line. We camped overnight on Saturday and that was a laugh as I hadn’t been camping for nearly 40 years! It was still as bad as I remember it, only made up for it with the steady supply of beer, only to help make us sleep of course. It was share a tent time and I left my shoes by the zip exit to the tent. Yogi got up in the night and tripped over my boots and feel out the door in a most undignified manner! I shouldn’t laugh, but I did. Sorry Yogi, but it was funny. There was some great cars there and I have borrow some of the pics from the Mustang Maniac Blog, click here for the full story and some videos of Yogi racing.

Some of the drag set up cars couldn’t match Yogi’s Mach1 times, and that is almost a fifty year old car. I was very impressed with that I must say. Running in the eleven and twelve second range for the standard quarter-mile.

The Week before that was the Enfield Pageant Of Motoring which is the Mustang Maniac show of choice. I was there this time with my completed car on Saturday & Sunday, stopping overnight in the big motor home Adam has for the hospitality. I was not disappointed and Adam can rustle up a good breakfast too. There was so much to see at the show, but I have noticed that there are more and more new stall traders creeping in rather than the old skool auto jumble. I arrived early in the morning at the Mustang Maniac yard and helped out where I could and followed the guys in convoy to the show, literally about twenty mins down the road. I parked up with some of the other cars already there, Ranchero, Yogi’s ’69, Ian’s fastback, and mine for now. What was great was that people from last year recognised the car where it was unfinished.

As the time grew closer to opening times more cars arrived to show on the stand. Paul turned up with his ’66 coupe to complete the line up of old cars. The new cars where out in force with a couple of GT’s and a Saleen. The stand looked brilliant and attracted the usual crowds to the old and newer cars.

Sunday saw Spence in his convertible take the place on the front row to provide a different display along with a new 2016 right hand drive black Mustang which was quite cool.

Monday was mix and match day with Lance bringing his ’65 coupe down to replace mine in the Classic section of the stand.

The weekend was a lucky weekend with the rain holding off most of the time with only a few spots of drizzle.

The Car:

I have been driving her around now and enjoying every second of it and put almost seven hundred miles on the clock driving to and from car shows. Adam now wants the car back to give the car and check over and make sure all the bolts are tightened up again and re-grease all the points that need them. There is a sweet spot of sixty miles an hour where the exhaust quietens down and is a pleasure to cruise. But if you stamp on the gas it soon makes a noise again.

Miles per gallon?

I am always being asked this and not really had a chance to work it out so far. Now after a few tank full and recording the mileage on my phone app, it works it all out for me now. If I drive it like an old lady and be very, very gentle with it down hill I get a max of 25mpg but if I drive it like I stole it I get 14mpg. If I am on a run I get about 20mpg. I can’t complain at that at all.

I just say: “It’s not miles per gallon, it’s SMILES per gallon”.

So it has been a very busy couple of weekends where I have just had the chance to catch up a bit and recover. Mostly I now appreciate just how comfortable my own bed is! There are more car shows coming up and hope I will be a little quicker getting the blog posted up.

A year after being on the road and attending car shows it comes to that time of year that every classic car owner dreads. The UK requires by law a car that is the years old and any car up to 1960 must pass a road worthy test, or M.O.T (Ministry Of Transport) test. It can fail for a gas cap not fitting correctly, a bulb not working, rust or “drivers view of the road” what ever that means etc. December last year my car passed her first test since the restoration. As it was due again I had a word with Adam to see when he could book me in for the M.O.T. Saturday. I drove down to the Mustang Maniac yard to catch up with the guys to fill in time before my appointment. Time flew by and was given a map on how to get there along with verbal directions. The guys know I’m seriously diabolical when it comes to directions. I set off and had the map on the seat next to me, simple enough. I turned off too soon and turned around to get back on the correct road again. Yep, I got lost even with a hand drawn map. The best of it was that Lance from Mustang Maniac had spotted me, what are the chances of that? With my luck it’s every chance. Needless to say that my WhatsApp group for Mustang Maniac went mental and I knew exactly what was waiting for me. I eventually found the place after thirty mins that should have taken fifteen. I pulled up to the testing station and took a pic of the car in the reflection which matched the garage paint job. I was right, my WhatsApp had a torrent of grief waiting for me, showing no sympathy what so ever for little detour.

The guys at the test center took my keys and I watched my car disappear into the workshop. A short while later according to the clock, but seemed like hours in waiting time passed by when the guys came back to the desk. They smiled and gave me my keys back with, “she’s passed with flying colours.” My heart rate now slowed, that was promptly replaced with a proud smile. I paid the bill, thanked the guys and left with my all important certificate. The test results are updated on the goverment system instantly, so the paper doesn’t mean anything except something for your records. The drive home was quicker and much more straight forward, I think. I arrived back at the yard to yet more grief asking me how I got lost. I blamed the map but they weren’t having any of it for some reason.

I had asked Adam if I could put my car up on ramps to put a spanner over all the important nuts and bolts ro make sure everything was where it should be when I come back from the M.OT. Adam kindly said yes and he had already moved a car of the ramp ready for me while I was out. He added “I will be there in a minute to check her over with you.”

The car was lifted up for me to get underneath and inspect. At this point Adam duly arrived back to see that everything was all OK. He grabbed another torch and went over everything looking for signs of movement that the MOT itself wouldn’t pick up. The thumbs up was given by Adam who told me to tighten the rear axle to shock plate clamps. They looked fine to me, but check them I did.

He was right, they needed a turn or so just to take up the stretch in the bolts. After that I got out some white cleaning cloths so I could clean all my suspension. There was a little messy water stain on the left side due to me over filling the radiator, the overflow did its job and dumped some water.

Gibbs Brand Lubricant was the choice of the day and everything got coated that needed to be coated. I polished the white prop shaft that still looked white after a year.

Cleaning my Mustang is therapeutic and enjoyable and in no way a chore. Yet cleaning the other daily driver cars is not quite the same somehow. Now that my car was cleaned to my standards underneath as it was much easier to clean while up in the air. I could see just how filthy the car was by the state of the two white cloths I had used.

OK, it wasn’t that dirty at all which made me happy. The trouble was I had to drive it home again, the weather wasn’t looking to good, so I said my thanks and goodbyes to the guys. The master plan was to get home before the rain. The drive home took a little over the hour and I managed to get the car home before the rain, which started about an hour or so after the car was safely in the garage.

The trouble is what do you buy your car for Christmas? I want to get some more cleaning products ready for the show season 2017. For the first time in years I haven’t asked for anything from my Snap On rep. I now have most of the tools that I need and bought them as I went along. If I need tools that I haven’t got then I suspect I will be in some sort of big mechanical trouble. I have got my eye on a few stainless steel clips for the rubber hoses. Lets see what Santa brings.

Wishing you and all my readers and followers a Happy Christmas and great New Year.

My first proper post of the new year comes at the end of the first month, yes I know that is pretty bad, but there isn’t anything to really say when there are no car shows, (lame excuse time). Is it too late to wish you all a Happy New Year? Anyway, towards the end of December last year I had an email to say that the old blog theme was a bit too dark and sometimes difficult to read on a cell phone. That got me thinking about a very valid point. I hadn’t changed the look in years, so I thought I would update the theme to a lighter and much fresher look. The title for this post was going to be a “A Quick Freshen Up”, unfortunatly it wasn’t anything like as fast as it could have been, so I dropped the “quick”. The process started off with me sifting through lots of themes to see what they looked like, can I have the menu where I wanted it, pictures, widgets etc. I found one that I liked and had created the new header pic. Alas all was not good when I checked the look on other browsers and page sizes. The header image was resized with the page style, that just caused havoc with the title I edited onto a photo itself, what that actually means is that the top part of the header picture couldn’t be seen on wide-screen versions, then only half of the title on the mobile screens. After looking at other various themes I have settled on this one along with another revised new header pic. The old header was based on the car being built with the lights on and the grill. As my car has been completed for a year now (which is still being enjoyed by yours truly), I thought why not have a nice pic of the car, so there it is. I have kept a nod to the old blog pages with the background “pony” image just being an inverted version, with a slight tint added now. I hope people don’t turn away thinking it’s the wrong blog.

So it was out with the old, and in with the new!

The blog may have a new look and yet I tried to make it still feel the same, so what’s the best bit of the blog now? It’s still the same ol’ me writing about anything however tenuously related to Mustangs.  Please let me know what you think of the revised blog, did you prefer the old style or like the new lighter version?

Towards the end of last year was interviewed Dennis Fletcher and he posted it on his blog. The last couple of posts from me were reblogs from his site: Customs N Classics, I hope you liked the reads as much as I enjoyed doing it.

The car got a treat over the Holidays, as I asked for donations to the “help keep the Mustang warm” fund. I had been saving up for a while and these came up as a real cheap deal so I ordered them and laid them in the freezing cold. These were 7mm solid PVC, coin top, click together style tiles at half a meter each tile. I ignored the fitting guide (as men do), and made sure that the car’s tyres would run down the middle of the tiles and not across the joins.

The tiles have made a big difference to the temperature in the garage, now it’s not as dusty, non-slip and so much easier to clean up. Not that I spilt anything on the new tiles when they were less than twenty-four hours old!

This time of year is amazing for a few reasons, the first is the start of the warmer weather here in the UK, hopefully followed by a nice summer. The second is the Car Show season is underway as I mentioned before. The third reason is can’t wait for the Hay Fever to kick in and make me feel rubbish, joke! Still, I can’t think of anything nicer (car related), than driving to a classic car to show, parking her up and have people appreciate all your hard work. A sense of pride comes over every owner of their much-loved and cherished cars, that’s regardless of the car’s make, age or condition. But, there is one thing that worries me now and that’s security.

I have been talking to a couple of owners of some UK Ford owners at shows and the buzz word is “GPS”. No, I don’t mean the fact people use their SatNavs to get the shows, but more so what happens during and after the show. The very worrying story going around is that a particular car is target by organised gangs who are on the look out for quick sale car, or for some specific cars to be sold on as parts. Some of these car’s parts are worth more as “breaking” than the whole car to sell it complete, with the added risk of selling on an obviously stolen classic car. These top quality original parts are sold on to unsuspecting owners, not knowing that the parts they have bought have been stolen from such other classic cars.

How do they do it?

The answer is just to simple. These gangs are using small GPS tags and hiding them on your car during the show. Somebody could be talking to you while the other places the tag on the car without you knowing. When you leave the show they will track the GPS tag to the place where the car is kept. They then make plans on how to steal it at a later date.

There are some gadgets on the market that detect these sort of things by detecting transmissions of frequencies. They vary in price considerably and I bought one of the cheaper ones. Believe it or not it works! I was going to do a review of it, but not sure if it’s worth while as it’s so simple.

You turn it on and adjust the sensitivity and then wave it over your car. Yes you may look a little strange doing it. What I tend to do now is drive off and find a quiet place then pull over and check. This gadget is the size of a pack of ten cigarettes and has a long aerial to pull out for detection. The unit has a rechargeable battery inside that lasts for ages, wave it near your mobile phone and it has a melt down. There is another feature on the device to detect pin hole cameras by reflection using the red filter to look through. I’m not bothered with that to be honest. So now I carry one of these with me in the car now and check when I leave the show. Over kill? I suspect so, but to safe is better than sorry!

I’m waiting for the next car show and I had a little brain wave while in my garage. I was cleaning my toolbox while looking for things to do in the garage. When I decided to protect the paint! This toolbox was bought for me as Birthday present and Christmas together as they are pretty close together just after the wife bought the project car for me. The tool box was a second-hand purchase, in near mint condition. It was more than we wanted to pay, but it was worth it for the relatively small bargain amount. The guy wanted a very quick sale as he was moving and needed the money, I was just lucky to be looking on eBay at the right time when I saw it and “Buy it now” button was pressed. So just like my car this toolbox is very sentimental to me, almost as much as my car. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for and nobody can deny the Snap-On quality.

The tops of the draws are the areas I was thinking of, although I clean my tools before I put them away carefully, there may be times where I could chip the paint, as the marks show here from the previous owner when I got the box home. I knew they were there, they are tiny yes, but enough to worry me for accidental damage.

So what was the solution? Vinyl wrap. I looked around for some ideas and came up with Carbon Fibre. I worked out roughly how much I needed and ordered some quality wrap and not the cheap stuff. If I didn’t like it, I could remove it and it was going to be back to where it was. The ideal size was going to be five centimeters to allow the cover to the front, over the top of the draw and secure at the back. An old hardwood shelf made an ideal cutting top with a scalpel and a spirit level for a straight edge to cut the strips.

Degrease the draws with cleaners and allow to dry. Peel of the backing from the wrap and carefully to stick to the front of the draws on top of the chrome trim. Using a hairdryer heat up the wrap until it’s soft to allow you to bend the wrap smoothly over the angles and to make the glue more tacky. From the very front edge press the wrap down evenly to remove any wrinkles or air bubbles. Trim the ends up as you need to.

Then with the firmly down on top heat the back edge and repeat.

I am really pleased with the results and it doesn’t detract away from the Snap-On look.

So the before and after? Good job or pimped it up to much. I could have used clear or a plain coloured wrap of course. But this was a little different.

So back to securityagain. I have lots of it, including the very simple and brutal chaining of this tool box to the wall, brutal and simple. The other serious measures I have taken will give the game away, but the my car, garage and house are very well protected from low life scum bags who want to steal other people’s property and hard work. It’s not so much the money as it’s all well insured. It’s the fact that nobody can ever replace the sentimental value, or even come close to repaying my physical man hours to restore that car.

Am I just plain ol’ parnoid, or does anybody else have good tips to share with other classic car owners and readers? Are these stories I have been hearing scare tactics or the real deal? Please let me and everybody else know.

A little while ago I was going to make a post about what I carry in my car’s trunk after I was asked at a previous car show. This got me thinking that I should do my own post and help other future classic car owners. I started to prepare for it but didn’t post until now.

It seems as though great minds think alike as I was beaten to the post by a fellow blogger and friend of mine Dennis from https://customsclassics.wordpress.com/  who had already asked the question from his readers, it’s well worth a look at his diverse and interesting Blog.

I was also very interested in what other people carry with them for emergencies or in their “skeleton” tool kit as I tend to refer to mine as. But, I am very much under the impression that if you need heavy-duty tools then it’s not going to be a quick fix by the side of the road anyway, don’t even try, just get it transported back home and do it properly.

So just what do I carry?

Tools:

Spanners; this is a Snap-On set of seven imperial spanners in a tool roll. The tool roll also has a standard pair of pliers and a Stanley Knife. The zip section holds a couple of heavy weave cloth rags and some latex gloves.

Small socket & screwdriver set with 1/4″ drive; this is a metric and imperial set of sockets with a ratchet screw driver style handle. These sockets go up to 13mm and 1/2″ respectively. Obviously these small sockets are not for any real load bearing fasteners. The handle also has a set of bits for the screwdriver all housed in a neat case.

Socket set; this is a larger set of metric with a pretty  average ratchet handle for 3/8ths drive. The set also has a set of long-nosed pliers, an adjustable spanner, a pair of mole grips, a pair of wire cutters and a small set of small metric Allen keys. This is not Snap-On quality set like the stuff I have at home, but this is more like the weekend mechanic set that will last some grief, to get you out the tight spot in order to get you home, all held in a nice blow moulded case. Within this case I have added a 14mm spark plug socket, ideally I need a thin-walled version with a universal joint at the top for those awkward 3,4,6 and 7 cylinders. A length of coiled wire could always be useful if you have a break in a wire and some electrical tape.

There is a Snap-On on magnetic torch with multi LEDs or a spot beam, a quick access knife from Craftsman.

As my car has now been upgraded with regards to the wire look I carry a selection of modern blade fuses with a couple of extras for the more loaded fuses.

All these items are held secure in a Mustang tote bag that sits on the left side drop off point in the trunk. Thanks to Adam at Mustang Maniac who gifted that and some other goodies for a rather big birthday milestone! Let’s just leave that one there shall we?

As the car is an automatic you can’t bump start the car, so you need power to start it. So I carry this portable charger that not only starts the car but also charges other devices such as mobiles etc. I reviewed the kit previously, click here for the link. It has to be one of my favorite gadgets to be honest.

I carry a kneeling pad just in case the ground is stony and/or to protect any decent clothing I could be wearing. Can anybody guess what year I purchased this pad?

To give you a clue, I was at that amazing F1 circuit before it all changed, where Nigel Mansell won the race, the legendary Ayrton Senna was second, and the future seven time world champion Michael Schumacher was third. What an amazing race and a perfect podium line up for me. All my heroes on one awesome podium.

I also carry a car seat cover in case I get dirty, that will protect the seats until I get home or changed into something clean again. The cover which rolls up quite small, is a rather nice Limited Edition in blue with white stripes, that was given to me by my friendly Snap-On rep. I had a little bit of spending spree with him after a great haul of Snap-On credit vouchers I had been given for gifts over the year. I also sold a kidney, left arm and left leg for the other stuff I wanted, after all I still need the right leg for the gas, and the right arm for the gear shift so I couldn’t sell those! Only joking – it was both kidneys and my liver! But hey, it was worth it.

The spare wheel has modern scissor jack underneath it and a wheel brace with an extendable handle.

Fluids:

The fluids are very important in old cars and need to be checked regularly, so I carry a litre of Kendal 20 – 50W oil, some lead replacement additive for the fuel and a two litres of plain water for the radiator or the water washers. I make sure that I always check my levels before every single trip I make.

Fuel. If I am going on a long(ish) journey I will take a spare one gallon can of fuel. I didn’t post a pic of it as everybody knows what a plastic fuel can looks like. Mine is a nice new silver one. Although it has fuel in it I won’t leave it in there for a long time, I use it up after a few months then replace it just to make sure the fuel doesn’t go off!

Cleaning:

When travelling to car shows I always take a small selection of essential cleaning products. That is a case with the top up cleaners.

If I turn up and the car is dirty I can waterless wash the car very carefully with the Meguiar’s Wash & Wax Anywhere, (review to come). But before I do that I will dust the car down with a genuine California Duster to get all the dust and debris of the car. If the car is clean I will just do a quick mop over with the Meguiar’s Ultimate Detailer, review to come.

Under the hood is the Meguiar’s Engine Dressing (review to come), and the tyres are also catered for with the Meguiar’s Endurance Tire Gel (review to come).

Glass is looked after by the pretty awesome DoDo Juice Clearly Menthal (review here), and I carry a little pot of DoDo Juice Future Armour (review to come) for that extra sealer if required.

The essential part I will never travel without is the Gibbs Brand Lubricant. (Review here). The only thing to remain is the handful of latex gloves to keep clean, not that i use them for detailing the car.

In case it rains I carry a Chemical Guys Wooly Mammoth drying towel (review to come), and a selection of micro fibre cloths for those wipe on and buff off products. At a push they can also be used for cleaning. Last but not least is a roll of blue paper towel.

I’m not sure what could happen, but I try to cater for most eventualities. The micro fibre cloths are for cleaning but could be used for cleaning if I had to of course.

The last non essential thing is my show board. I am in the process of making my own stand for it.

What do you carry, or recommend for me to have in my little skeleton kit, did I miss anything?

The Helmingham car show is a large popular event every year and is always well represented from all manner of cars being represented. I spotted a Falcon, but not the sort with wheels! This year there was some birds of prey doing some training and display work which was amazing to watch. Unfortunately my photography skills are lacking when it comes to trying to capture these beautiful creatures in flight.

The birds were kept well away from little hands trying to touch them. Such beautiful creatures and i never realised how big the golden eagle was!

So on to the cars, again there is no real logic for the photos, just they are in batches as I was walking around.

A car I knew very little about this ‘Imperial – Le Baron’, quite what a huge presidential car is doing in the UK I’m not so sure, but I loved it! Anybody else know and could let me know.

I just loved this Chevy in turquoise blue, such a nice looking car.

After I wandered back from the first couple fields with cars in I took a couple of more pics of my little lady.

The final installment will be in another couple of days. I’m hoping to get some Semi Pro photography of my car to post, the only trouble is that is was so busy you couldn’t get a clean uncluttered shot! But, looking at the samples they look pretty good.

With such a big show at Helmingham Hall I managed to take over three hundred photos, half of which I have posted on these last few posts. This is the last of those whittled down selection of photos. I enjoyed the show and spoke to some great people, and saw some great cars too. So to finish up, and in no particular order, more cars.

Then of course there is the original bad ass Dodge Viper V10.

Another all time favourite car of mine is this beautiful Aston Martin V8 Vantage, another poster that was on my bedroom wall as a kid.

It’s not very often that you see real nice Lamborghini Countach at a show, then I spotted another at the show, this is a rare beast in a right hand drive. I was spoilt for cars at this show, some great Fords both UK & USA; Mustangs, Thunderbird, Escorts, Sierra Cosworth, Capri, Trucks etc.

I just had to finish with more close up of my car, I think it’s only fair though.

During the day I walked past the limited number of stalls that were there, nothing official from the brand names though. For once I didn’t buy anything, I had made my purchases at Waxstock a couple of weeks ago, but I now have a review of my new favourite quick detailer from Chemical Guys, click here or go to the Car Detailing Reviews menu at the top to see other reviews. From the pic above you can see why I am pleased with the results.

I haven’t forgotten about the semi pro pics of my car by the way. I will make a separate post of those pics on another small post soon, once I get them ready that is.

When I first got my “project” Mustang that needed a little attention should we say, one of the first jobs I done was to wire her up. the reason being was I needed to know if the engine would fire up. To do that I needed a battery. At the time my wife decided that I should get what I wanted and do it properly. With that we decided to go mad and splash out on the replica Autolite Group 24 Battery.

Before I new Mustang Maniac it was a little difficult trying to track down parts I wanted, so I used a rather rubbish company in Essex. I won’t name them, but it took them almost four months to get the battery for me. Needless to say I used them once and never used them again.

I had done my research about the battery and found out it was based around a gel battery or AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat). These batteries are naturally more expensive and don’t hold anywhere near the amount of acid as a normal wet lead cell battery. In fact if it splits there should be no acid escaping. The battery needed a specific trickle charger as they don’t like to run low on volts. I reviewed the CTEK MXS 5 charger here.

After five years of owning the battery and using it for just two years it died. There was no warning it was about to go to the great scrap yard in the sky. The only warning was that the trickle charger showed an error instead of the normal charged status. I tried to start the car and there was just enough power to put the interior lights on. Turning the key gave me nothing, just a faint click of the solenoid. It was dead, I tried the charger on deep cycle to try and recover it thinking it need a little TLC. Checking a day later it was still the same, no charge what so ever.

Why did the battery die so quickly?

I researched this again, and it turns out that the AGM or Gel batteries have a limited life cycle for recharging. So if it’s down by 10% that means you have a remaining 90% for a single cycle. Bearing that in mind these batteries are estimated to have approx two hundred cycles life span. That is not a lot of use. Over five years it has been on constant trickle charge and only “used” when the car is taken out. So I’m not convinced this is the correct answer, I think it was a lot less than that in fact!

Anyway, I was gutted. I didn’t have my nice old school battery which looked the part. Now I would have to have an out-of-place new style battery. There are plenty to choose from of course with various power options. I was not going to pay that sort of big money again for another replica car battery when it didn’t last that long, maybe when I am little more flush with money? I had a word with Adam at Mustang Maniac and he said I could go for a replica cover for the top of the new battery to make it look more retro. The problem is that the top cover is the correct size and needed a battery to fit it. To small and the top would overhang the battery looking stupid, to big a battery it wouldn’t fit anyway. The other issue is that the positive and negative poles needed to be the right way around.

The part you need is the Autolite replica top, with caps and warning tag. Click here for the link or copy this to your browser:  https://mustangmaniac.co.uk/part/36/1791/autolite_battery_cover_64-73

Now I needed to search the net for a battery to fit the dimensions. I found out that sizes were limited for the power I would need, and then the terminals would be the wrong way round. After what seemed liked days of looking I eventually found a battery with the correct sizes, a flat style top, the terminals correct and enough amps for the Mustang to start.

That battery is made by Toyota with a part number of “28800 – YZZJG”.

The battery was rated at a powerful 75Ah which would be plenty to spin the V8 over. So I ordered it and a few days later I went to pick it. But first I needed to check that the top fitted, once it did I bought it. I parted with my £100 and brought it home.

So what did the top look like fitted close up? Well it fitted perfectly on the flat top, but the  battery case side were a little inset from the top of the actual battery top.

There was another problem that was more annoying than an issue. On the original ’64 – ’66 battery tray the battery was held down by a bracket on a lip on the sides of the battery to stop it moving in the tray. This battery doesn’t have that, but I did have a plan. There is a work around for most things, you could make it work by replacing the battery tray to allow having an over the top clamp. That would fix the issue, but it wouldn’t be correct for the year. There needed to be another way to hold the battery safely in place. Below pic shows the hold down lip on the replica battery at the sides.

The new battery has its hold downs on the front and back which were not going to be used. I thought about using 3D printing to make a bracket, but the space to fit the clamp I thought of using would have been to flimsy and I suspect that it would have broken when being tightened down. The underside of the battery had recessed areas, that gave me an idea.

Underside of battery

I could create a lip up the side if I used a “P” shape idea, the down stem of the letter becoming the anchor point underneath of the battery. I would need to attach it somehow, so screws were out of the question. Glues wouldn’t have much surface area to hold the platform on the underside. While having a look through my tool boxes for inspiration and ideas I put my hand on it; epoxy putty!

The plan was to fill the cavities with the putty and create the anchor point base for the bracket. I would then fill the newly created “L” shape to mould a ledge that would bond to the battery side and the plastic anchor plates.

I roughed up the surfaces that needed fixing to allow a good surface to for the bonding. I would do this in two stages, mix up enough for the cavity areas to bond the plates in place, then roll a cylindrical shape to squash into the newly created corner creating the ledge I would need, then allow it all to set hard. The putty is mixed 50/50 black and white compounds until it becomes a grey colour and warm to the touch, then it’s ready to apply. I used the replica battery for how a guide on how much I needed to create the ledge for the clamp.

The POR15 epoxy putty sets rock hard which can be drilled, sanded and painted. Once the putty was set for a full twenty-four hours, I could see that it had bonded very well to the hard plastics of the ledge as well as to the side of the battery case. On the underside I also used a hot glue gun with super strength glue sticks to go over the edges and any spaces to add another form of adhesion. The battery clamp itself is held down by a single bolt through the battery tray and it just applies downward pressure to hold the battery down. The clamp has a couple of ridges on the underside that help locate the clamp in place and stop the battery movement. These profiles would need to measured to the middle of the battery and marked up accordingly.

Using my Dremel with a sanding wheel I leveled of the top of the ledge flat. Then I started rubbing the clamp onto the dried out white putty which left a clear mark where I needed to match the underside of the clamp profile.

Once I was happy with the clamp fit, the underside angled profile for the tray was copied from the original battery or could be seen from the battery tray itself. This would also ensure that the battery would fit back into the tray correctly and not sit proud on the clamp side.

Masking up ready for spraying was simple enough, although this step is not essential for what I had in mind. A couple of coats later from the satin black spray can made the ledge look almost stock which could have be placed into the tray as it is.

I wanted to do more to make the battery look more authentic. As I may want to reuse the top cover again I needed a solid, but not permanent solution, that came in the form of a black silicone mastic sealer.

I applied a generous bead around the gap from the visible side and front, with slight hold blobs on the back and other side of the battery. The reason the silicone wasn’t all the way round was to allow the battery to “breath” or allow any gasses to vent out. Sealing all around would have prevented this function if needed it.

I used a thin piece of straight plastic to create the initial seal between the top and the side of the battery to scrape the excess away in a flat surface to give the appearance of flat plastic. This would make it look like a complete battery not just a top. I allowed the mastic to go off a little more before I smoothed it again properly.

The next part was the case of the battery itself. The original design had a woven weave look which I wanted to try and replicate.

I had some vinyl left over from my toolbox draw project and I decided to use that. I cut lengths that I needed to go around the battery and cleaned and dust or grease from the now clean sides.

OK, so it’s diagonal and a carbon look, but in the engine bay tucked in a corner it would be difficult to see anyway. The wrap started at the top down to the corners taking care to make sure they looked neat. The new ledge was covered over with the wrap to give a nice continuity. So the battery now had a carbon fibre look which was just starting to be used properly in the early to mid sixties.

Next was the battery filler caps that I wanted to modify a little in order to be closer to the original. The caps didn’t have the tiny breather holes, but had the mark in place. These caps are the same size just the one on the right was has a screw thread which means it was closer to the camera to make it look bigger showing the hole.

A small 1.5mm drill was a perfect size to drill the hole out on the cap on the left.

Fitting the caps back to the top finished the look of the battery.

The original battery also had the word “Sta-ful” painted the same colour as the “Autolite” wording which was missing from the top plate. This was painted on once the battery was in the tray and secured.

Fitting the battery back into the tray was dead simple and the clamp fitted perfectly on the matched profiled for the clamp and the tray itself. The look of the carbon fiber wasn’t to far away from the look I wanted.

The final part was that cables were to be connected and the tag applied to the battery, (which should be on the positive terminal post by the way, not the neg side as I have it here). I also have some post felts which stops the cable fittings scratching the battery top, they also cover the tiny gap around the posts.

The finished battery!

It took about three hours work to clamp and silicon in place and I am happy with the results. My original and now updated review of the Autolite Group 24 Battery is here.

My next post will show the Original battery being taken apart to see just what is inside!

I have to confess that I scheduled a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year post to be scheduled for the relevant big day so I didn’t forget. But, as I kept thinking 2018 to myself in my mind so that I didn’t make a mistake as I was scheduling the post, the opposite happened and I actually set the year for 2019 thinking that was in fact the next year. So my resolution for this year is; learn how to work the calendar function on WordPress. I appologise for that.

Resolution completed! Apparently I just have to put the correct year, simple really. Obviously not for a doughnut like me though! So I had time off over the Christmas break and went back to work on the Tuesday as did most people and by the afternoon I had filtered out the emails and got myself back to where I needed to be – thinking that I needed a holiday and asking myself; just where did the time go?

For christmas my wife spoilt me rotten and bought me a vast array of lotions and potions for the cleaning and maintaining of the Mustang. The selection was taken from a list that I had made for her in order to pick something from it. As she didn’t know which one to get so she bought them all, as well as an Auto Finesse Crew Bag to fit them all in. I must say that the “Crew Bag” is like a black hole with handles, it has so much storage space and easily the best bag I have, and I have a few now, trust me.

I will be reviewing them once I get to use them on here under my “Car Detailing Reviews” menu above. However the biggest surprise was the fact that my better half had listened to a conversation I was having with some retailers here in the UK for a classic looking fire extinguisher. Not any old fire extinguisher, oh no. I wanted one that looked old school but also did the job without additional damage. CO2 extinguishers can freeze electrical components with thermal shock, powder gets everywhere and creates a huge mess, water you can’t use on flammable liquids etc. So over the later part of the year I had been doing my homework. The best seemed to be HalGuard which is made in the USA, unfortunately not readily available over here in the UK. If anybody knows any different can they please let me know? Some of the benefits of this fire extinguisher are; no thermal shock, liquified gas gets to hard to reach places, no mess, rechargeable, recommended by aviation and many motor sports governing bodies, five-year warranty, oh it also comes in chrome! Nobody in the UK stocks or makes anything similar that has such good ratings or looks remotely like it should be from the ’60s. In the end, due to costs, I had all but given up on the idea. My wife had other ideas and picked up where I left off and ordered one from the USA. Inevitably there were all sorts of issues trying to get it past our wonderful HMRC customs people who obviously had nothing better to do other than check on fire extinguishers, maybe the could concnetrate on illegal immigrants a bit more like the ones hiding in the back of lorries maybe? Anyway, import duty, standard charges, handling fees etc. were a joke which added significant costs to the item. They had it impounded for a couple of weeks before they eventually released it to my wife mid December, by which time she was starting to panic a little. But, she got it and all credit to her. Once I had opened it and I asked “how?”  I was told all about the horror story and the customs episodes.

Between Christmas day and the New Year’s day I wanted to fit it. There are additional brackets you can buy like, roll over cage mounts, under seat, quick release flat mounting etc. I already had an idea where it was to go; in the footwell on the passenger side. I waited for a clear dry day and got my car out into the cold air where I started to look for the best place to mount the new (essential) accessory.

The extinguisher needed to be off the floor, but low enough for the fresh air vent door to be fully opened just under the dash. The kick panel is made of a fairly thick plastic and the bracket has lots of holes for various mounting positions. I decided to use them all in order to spread the weight of the extinguisher so the screws don’t pull out of the plastic or distort it. Using the larger slot I held the bracket in place while I finalised the position and made sure it was straight.

The Dremel was the tool of choice as it was small and neat in order to create a small pilot hole ready for the screws, two larger style ones at the top that are also polished which would be seen, the remaining screws were smaller headed ones also polished. Once the holes were marked up I could fit the bracket properly.

The extinguisher was put into place and the belt clamped up then I took a step back to admire a fire extinguisher that I think looks good and will do the job should I ever need it, which I hope I never will.

The car was cleaned up, the mat was put back down and then I polished the chrome extinguisher to remove any finger marks and refitted it. I think the look goes well with the car, it can be easily accessed, it’s easily seen from outside and I can relax a little when I’m out on the road now.

Something that I hadn’t considered which is an added bonus, it looks good when the interior lights come on too.

I hope you all had a good well-earned Christmas break and I hope you all have a prosperous New Year.

P.S.                                                                                                                                                                Another resolution: I must blog more regularly!

On a recent visit to a good friend of mine who also owns a rather nice and rare coloured Mustang Convertible I was shown around his latest collection of Mustang memorabilia where I spotted in middle of his (man cave) garage a dehumidifier. He went on to explain the benefits of it and I could feel the air was different to mine at home. that was it, I was sold on the idea and set about getting one. So I done a little research from various places and found these points where I have collated them and made them a little more readable, I hope. I have since seen references to classic cars with lots of chrome like mine as the “Chrome Jewels”. I quite like that sying in fact. Many storage companies of classic cars all have climate controlled environments.

Rust will form where the surface of the steel has air and water. The first step is to stop the elements reaching the steel, paint does the job pretty well, but even better is wax or  similar coatings, or Waxoyl etc. Chrome is surprisingly porous and normally underneath the chrome plate is steel so it needs protecting. A covering of wax, ordinary car wax or Gibbs, will do the trick, it looks invisible, adds shine and protection. Don’t forget that a chrome cleaner is generally abrasive and removes any wax coating, by all means use it to clean, but it doesn’t protect the chrome.

Don’t get to hung up about the temperature vs humidity, as it’s often being mentioned to keeping humidity below 50% to stop rust, but it’s a bit more complicated than that and one of the keys is understanding about “dew” points. All air contains water and as the temperature drops that water tries to change back from a vapour to a liquid, that’s what causes rain, warm moist air pushed up by the weather cools and the water in that cloud becomes a liquid which is heavy and falls out of the cloud – rain. In your own home you see it as condensation around bedroom windows on cold mornings. It is around the window because that is normally the coldest part of the room.

There are 3 ways to fix condensation:

1. Heat the room so the air inside can hold more water.
2. Open the window (ventilate) in the hope that air coming in from outside will be dryer and therefore hold more water.
3. Use a dehumidifier to reduce the percentage of water in the air.

The theory of condensation effect is to take a can of cold drink from the fridge and put it on the table or work top. Even in a warm house you immediately see condensation on the can as the water in the air rushes to the can and condenses back into a liquid. This is the same principle as how a dehumidifier works, you present a cold surface to the air, the air in turn gives up its water which is then collected in a container. The fan in the dehumidifier keeps an airflow over the cold chilled surface so as much air as possible reaches the cold surface.

Back to my Garage; heating the space to about 20c works well (in fact any heat helps) because the higher the temperature the less the water has a chance to condense back to a liquid. This is why I fitted a radiator in my garage, much to the bemusement of my wife! unfortunately it’s not the complete answer though. Another example of the condensation is that you get condensation in a bathroom after a long hot shower even if the air temperature is 25 or even 30c. You could indeed heat a normal garage to 20c, the car would sit in there and not deteriorate, but even with insulation that is expensive way of doing it. Hence why the US “dry State” cars are so popular in UK as there is not much chance of the rust taking hold in the past.

I have done all the usual things; The heating and water boiler is in my garage and gives of heat to the room as the hot water passes through the pipes. I have insulated as much as possible, the walls are cavity filled, the ceiling has plenty of insulation up there and the all important plastic floor to stop the cold coming up through the concrete. The up and over door has brushes to keep the draft out and the back of the door has heat insulating sheets. That way I should then be able to keep the space at least 9c throughout the winter with no additional heating and that is obviously a big help.

On the other hand, when you open the garage door the same thing can happen on a warm moist day, the air rushes in and condensation forms on whatever is coldest part in there, that is mostly going to be your prized possession, your car. I found this rather good chart to show the relative ranges of humidity and what I am trying to explain:

So I have bought myself a dehumidifier. I have reviewed it here and is also under the accessory menu on the main bar. I wanted two things from the non-negotiable options. An option for constant draining and the low-cost of running it over 24/7 scenario. The options were a little limited for my modest budget.  I managed to pick up a well rated PureMate PM412 for a modest cost of £120 reduced by sixty pounds from the recommended retail price. I also purchased a digital humidity gauge and left it in the garage for a couple of days to get a reading. There is a max and min scale for both the temperature and the humidity. The gauge is on top of the car in the middle of the garage.

The unit is compact and neat looking with a capacity of twelve litres a day. There is a digital read out and super simple to work and set up. The gauge above shows the first night was 45rh to a max of 50rh which I was super happy with.

The unit has a castor wheels and a recessed handle which is so easy to move around. There is a one meter length of tubing they even supply for the constant drain should you need it which I will of course. The ease of movement makes it ideal to shove out-of-the-way in the corner of the garage when working on the car.

The collection tray can hold one and half litres of water, and over night I think it was up to about a little under a litre. So I am having to empty it morning and evening now until I plumb it in. But, that is the unit settling the environment down then they should reduce considerably after a few days. It doesn’t matter if I forget to empty it as the unit will shut down when the tray is full.

The power consumption os a max of 245w on full power, but as I only ran mine on a low setting it should work out quite economical to run especially as it will be on all the time. Has anybody else got any tips or tricks they would like to share storing their car over the winter? Please post a reply and we can all share the knowledge.

Roll on the spring so I can take the car out for a drive. I have an itch I can’t scratch when I can’t drive my car.