What is it with people and cars? They are nice folks most of the time but when placed behind the steering wheel, become ranting lunatics - completely intolerant of anyone slowing them down for even a couple of seconds.
Here's what happened to me yesterday . . .
I'll set the scene . . . I live on a road which is a thoroughfare. This means that many of the motorists do not live on the road they are using. This seems to give some of them (well most really) the right to zoom along with impunity and disregard for those who actually live there.
There is a blind and dangerous corner just up from my house, I can clearly see it from my driveway. If someone is at the corner, I wait for them to pass and then pull out. BUT if someone is speeding, I can be halfway out and they are up my tail in a flash. I had one of these - a 20 something female in an old Laser come around the corner at speed . . . I had already begun moving forward, but she was coming upon me quickly. This meant that she would need to back off the accelerator and reduce speed while I got from 15kph to 60 - total inconvenience would have been a slow up of her journey by 2 - 3 seconds maybe?
Her response was to hold her hand on the horn!! So I stopped the Mustang. Before I even turned to look at her she blasted me again! So I got out of my car, held my arms out and asked her what problem she had with my pulling out of my driveway?
Her response was to flip the bird and mouth off abuse, scream her car around me and race up the street waving rude gestures in a manner normally reserved for lunatics.
I called after her "I hope your day gets better" and got back in my car.
I have wondered since, what she would do if someone did the same to her when she was entering or leaving her driveway and their excuse was "you are in my way you idiot".
So what is it that makes people become so incredibly arrogant and inconsiderate when faced with such a small inconvenience of their own making? Would she do the same thing in a queu at KFC? What happens if she is walking on the footpath and has to wait a second for an old lady who drops her umbrella?
Friday 6 April 2007
Saturday 24 February 2007
The new roof is on!
After much soul-searching and indeed just searching, to find someone I deemed competent enough to trust with the Austang, I selected Sheldon Pierce of Caloundra.He finished the job but seemed really nervous about how I would see it. He had spent more time on the car than he wanted to charge me for, but ended up billing me just under twice the original guess. The job is pretty good, not perfect, there are a couple of things I am not completely happy about but overall not a bad job for the money.
A couple of strange wrinkles and folds on corners and the back window, which he tells me should come out after the thing is left in the sun a few days.Unfortunately we have not seen the sun until today, a week after geting the car home . . . so it's out the front cooking as I type this.
The car looks sensational with the new clean roof, seems a shame to put it back :-)
Just had to pack the window rubbers, mainly on the passenger side (that's the left side for the yanks out there) because of mis-alignment in the doors and windows. Managed to get some you-beaut synthetic rubber/foam stuff with adhesive on one side to do the job admirably.
It is pretty good being able to look out the back window - because it is actually clear and not opaque! Now I have to use the day/night rearview mirror ;-)
Sunday 11 February 2007
The HEI Saga and Breathing Better
The motor on the Austang was completely rebuilt by Jack Jones in Newcastle (jeez wasn't he a bundle of joy waiting to unfold - not), he put a "Stage One" camshaft in it to help it go and give it a nice note, plus set up the heads for unleaded fuel. I whacked a pair of genie extractors and a twin exhaust system under the hood and man it started sounding like a beast!
I was never happy with the standard ignition, apart from a "sports" coil, the whole system relied on the crappy old distributor. This had been frigged with by a "speed mechanic" before I had rebuilt the engine in an attempt to pull some performance out of the original configuration. After running the new motor on the dyno, I discovered the ignition was extremely advanced under a load and high speed. So I paid another guy to readjust it to be within safe limits.
I was reading about these you-beaut High Energy Ignition jobbies that were spin-offs from a successful rig built for Chevrolet, and decided to take a look at good old E-Bay. I picked one up really cheap, compared to the prices in the Speed Shops and was stoked to see the billett aluminium beauty arrive. The distributor has a 50,000 volt coil built into the cap and is able to throw an arc that would kill an elephant. Only problem was, that the new dissie was so huge, the old 14" drop-base air filter would no longer fit! In addition to this, the base was setup to sit at 90 degrees to the old one and neccesitated the disconnection and plugging of the heater hose connections.
While trying to fit the thing, I discovered the pain of getting the socket on the bottom of the shaft to engage the oil pump drive. Man I tried everything, over a period of a week before I got it to engage, but couldn't get the engine to run with any gusto. So eventually I had a mobile mechanic come and take a look at what I had done. He promptly pulled it out for a look . . I gasped thinking of how long it will take to replace and how I was paying him by the hour! He plopped it back in, wiggled the fan and it just clunked right back in without issue. "Oh I probably shouldn't have shown you how easy that was" he said, laughing at my expression.
(Bastard!)
Turns out I had everything right, just the distributor was too advanced and it could not be pulled back in without modifying the base and the plenum of the Alloy Wieand intake manifold. So after a little filing, the distributor was in place and the engine purring.
"She's a sweet motor" the mechanic says listening to it idle.
"Too bloody right" I agreed like a cheshire cat.
Now to the problem of getting an air filter. I had this idea of putting in a cold induction system but no idea how to go about it. The local car part shops I visited were worthless, although one sent me to see a guy in Kunda Park that could manufacture one . . . possibly. But that guy just wanted to install a fuel injection system off an old Falcon for a few grand, told me a cold air injection system would cause ice and condensation problems with a carburettor - but was really too busy and quite frankly didn't need my work. After that interview with a tosser exprerience, I figured he wouldn't give a shit either way, so I never saw him again.
I happened into Auto One in Maroochydore and met a young fella who was into real cars. He's doing up an old Valiant Charger and his old man has a Mustang. I liked him right away. He gave me the heads up on a cold air induction system that was available by Spectre. They only had that rice buggy 3 inch stuff in stock for all the Hyundai and Lancer drivers that wanted to feel like they had something special. I went away and researched it on the net and found this stuff should do the job.
We ordered up a 4" double plenum, made from alloy, which bolts right onto the Holley 600 cfm 4 barrell. A couple of aluminium extenders, elbows and 2 Power Adder airfilters were included and a sweet kit turned up ready to take the place of the pathetic 9" air cleaner I was running.
I installed the gear over a couple of nights after work and took it out for a test run at 10:30pm. Would all the money be worth it? Will I see a difference?
Pulling onto the motorway, I gunned it and holy shit! The beast took off like a scalded cat! The sound of all the throats wide open coupled with the major burbling coming out the back gave me goose bumps. I took it to 70mph, then planted it again, it leapt to 90 mph and was powering on but I was very tired, itchy eyes on a dark highway. So discretion being the better part of valour, I decided not to go for it's top speed that night.
So what is the performance outcome? Well I have not dynoed anything, but notice a massive increase in acceleration at the top end - where it was a little lethargic in the past, it now just keeping powering on. I guess that's the ram effect from the tubes. The biggest bonus is the glam factor - man they just look phat! Have a decko at the pics and tell me I am wrong - and we will know you're a damn liar!
I was never happy with the standard ignition, apart from a "sports" coil, the whole system relied on the crappy old distributor. This had been frigged with by a "speed mechanic" before I had rebuilt the engine in an attempt to pull some performance out of the original configuration. After running the new motor on the dyno, I discovered the ignition was extremely advanced under a load and high speed. So I paid another guy to readjust it to be within safe limits.I was reading about these you-beaut High Energy Ignition jobbies that were spin-offs from a successful rig built for Chevrolet, and decided to take a look at good old E-Bay. I picked one up really cheap, compared to the prices in the Speed Shops and was stoked to see the billett aluminium beauty arrive. The distributor has a 50,000 volt coil built into the cap and is able to throw an arc that would kill an elephant. Only problem was, that the new dissie was so huge, the old 14" drop-base air filter would no longer fit! In addition to this, the base was setup to sit at 90 degrees to the old one and neccesitated the disconnection and plugging of the heater hose connections.
While trying to fit the thing, I discovered the pain of getting the socket on the bottom of the shaft to engage the oil pump drive. Man I tried everything, over a period of a week before I got it to engage, but couldn't get the engine to run with any gusto. So eventually I had a mobile mechanic come and take a look at what I had done. He promptly pulled it out for a look . . I gasped thinking of how long it will take to replace and how I was paying him by the hour! He plopped it back in, wiggled the fan and it just clunked right back in without issue. "Oh I probably shouldn't have shown you how easy that was" he said, laughing at my expression.
(Bastard!)
Turns out I had everything right, just the distributor was too advanced and it could not be pulled back in without modifying the base and the plenum of the Alloy Wieand intake manifold. So after a little filing, the distributor was in place and the engine purring.
"She's a sweet motor" the mechanic says listening to it idle.
"Too bloody right" I agreed like a cheshire cat.
Now to the problem of getting an air filter. I had this idea of putting in a cold induction system but no idea how to go about it. The local car part shops I visited were worthless, although one sent me to see a guy in Kunda Park that could manufacture one . . . possibly. But that guy just wanted to install a fuel injection system off an old Falcon for a few grand, told me a cold air injection system would cause ice and condensation problems with a carburettor - but was really too busy and quite frankly didn't need my work. After that interview with a tosser exprerience, I figured he wouldn't give a shit either way, so I never saw him again.
I happened into Auto One in Maroochydore and met a young fella who was into real cars. He's doing up an old Valiant Charger and his old man has a Mustang. I liked him right away. He gave me the heads up on a cold air induction system that was available by Spectre. They only had that rice buggy 3 inch stuff in stock for all the Hyundai and Lancer drivers that wanted to feel like they had something special. I went away and researched it on the net and found this stuff should do the job.We ordered up a 4" double plenum, made from alloy, which bolts right onto the Holley 600 cfm 4 barrell. A couple of aluminium extenders, elbows and 2 Power Adder airfilters were included and a sweet kit turned up ready to take the place of the pathetic 9" air cleaner I was running.
I installed the gear over a couple of nights after work and took it out for a test run at 10:30pm. Would all the money be worth it? Will I see a difference?
Pulling onto the motorway, I gunned it and holy shit! The beast took off like a scalded cat! The sound of all the throats wide open coupled with the major burbling coming out the back gave me goose bumps. I took it to 70mph, then planted it again, it leapt to 90 mph and was powering on but I was very tired, itchy eyes on a dark highway. So discretion being the better part of valour, I decided not to go for it's top speed that night.
So what is the performance outcome? Well I have not dynoed anything, but notice a massive increase in acceleration at the top end - where it was a little lethargic in the past, it now just keeping powering on. I guess that's the ram effect from the tubes. The biggest bonus is the glam factor - man they just look phat! Have a decko at the pics and tell me I am wrong - and we will know you're a damn liar!Aaaagh the rain's getting in!
The roof on the Mustang was not meant to last forever :-(
Little splits eventually became big splits and I could not keep driving around with crappy looking patches glued on it any longer.
So after much research, I settled on ordering a roof kit from Mustangs Unlimited in the USA. I have to say those guys have got it together! Good easy to use site, lightning delivery, no fuss or bullshit. I was impressed.
I looked all over the Coast for someone to do the job but was not having a lot of joy. One guy who came highly recommended was too busy to book me in, the best he could do was take my details and promised to call . . .He never did.
My mother found the name of a guy in Caloundra, Sheldon Pierce Trimming who seems really good. BUT! He is really damn busy too and although it was to take 2 days, he now wants it a week!
On top of that, 2 days after I delivered it, he calls me to say the front alloy bit is really corroded and crumbling.
The frontmost part had been dodgied up with duct tape and not properly treated when a new roof was put on last time. So I took it back home and cleaned it up with a wire brush and stabilising stuff.
The roughest bits have been filed off and I painted it matt black to keep the moisture out. Have a go at the pics, looks awfull, but it's not that bad now I have cleaned it.
Hopefully, Sheldon can fit a piece of rubber or something to give a clean edge across the front.
Little splits eventually became big splits and I could not keep driving around with crappy looking patches glued on it any longer.
So after much research, I settled on ordering a roof kit from Mustangs Unlimited in the USA. I have to say those guys have got it together! Good easy to use site, lightning delivery, no fuss or bullshit. I was impressed.
I looked all over the Coast for someone to do the job but was not having a lot of joy. One guy who came highly recommended was too busy to book me in, the best he could do was take my details and promised to call . . .He never did.
My mother found the name of a guy in Caloundra, Sheldon Pierce Trimming who seems really good. BUT! He is really damn busy too and although it was to take 2 days, he now wants it a week!
On top of that, 2 days after I delivered it, he calls me to say the front alloy bit is really corroded and crumbling.
The frontmost part had been dodgied up with duct tape and not properly treated when a new roof was put on last time. So I took it back home and cleaned it up with a wire brush and stabilising stuff.
The roughest bits have been filed off and I painted it matt black to keep the moisture out. Have a go at the pics, looks awfull, but it's not that bad now I have cleaned it.Hopefully, Sheldon can fit a piece of rubber or something to give a clean edge across the front.
Still Turning heads at 40
Well, here goes . . . it all started when on holidays on the Sunshine Coast and we decided to hire a convertible Mustang for a day. We scored a white 66 with a 302 V8 and a c4 auto. It was the best fun, we drove all day on every road we could find from Caloundra to Noosa, I had my shirt unbuttoned and ended up with a very strange shaped sunburn with a perfect white seatbelt stripe across my chest! I just loved it when the traffic lights changed to red, because I got to go through the gears and hear that sensational American V8 burble.
After returning the car, I told my wife that I was going to get one of those, to which she smiled wryly, "yeah right where will the money for that come from?"
"Don't worry about that just yet", I said, "it will sort itself out".
Upon returning home, some shares from a recently floated insurance company which I held went on the open market, in the price bloodbath which followed, I ended up with a shitload. So I went out and bought a "Unique Cars" mag to find my red '67 convertible. I opened it up and after flicking the pages a couple of times, there it was . . . an unbelievable, red 1967 convertible and only 40 minutes up the road! I jumped into the car and headed off to see it, negotiated the exact price I wanted and paid a deposit.
The guy had recently brought it over from the States after driving it around on hols, it was still in the left-hand drive configuration.
The interior was really stuffed, the red carpet was a faded pink the seats split and even the paint on the top of the door trims was faded! Seems it spent all it's life in Southern California where it never rains (something of which, every teenager of the 70's is fully aware).
Astonishingly the tosser that sold it had removed the brand new battery which was in it and replaced it with another which collapsed when I tried to start it after he had delivered the car and left! Amazing the level of pathetic greed and low integrity of some people.
Anyhow, there it was, a classic and in my garage 6 months after the Christmas cruise. As we stood there in front of it I said to my wife, well, what do ya reckon?
to which she replied, You are an arsey bastard!
(I actually believe you can have anything you want, you just need to ask for it and expect it - I discovered others think this way too, when they released this movie).
Getting the 67 Mustang on the Road
Early Days of 'stanging
Hmmm it's only been a few hours and I need to add another post - the bug is biting!
I have a few pics somewhere of the original left hand drive configuration and will post them when they surface. We registered the car on a club rego while in the US mode but it soon became clear that driving like this is downright dangerous on an Aussie road! Beside not being able to see around parked cars or when overtaking, the really freaky experience was reserved for the passenger, sitting where the driver should be, with no wheel, pedals or control!
The car was taken to a dude in Port Macquarie who engineered the change to right-hand drive. Although he did a good job getting the main stuff right, I would not recommend him. He was very sloppy on details which I had to fix up later, ie wipers that did not return on switch off, forgetting to put the ducting in for the heater etc. Still it steers beautifully and drives a treat. The old drum brakes were replaced with power assisted discs so it would actually stop, the interior trim replaced and the giant truck style steering wheel replaced by a sporty leather job.
The images in this post show the car with the original skinny tyres and faux wire hubcaps, something I changed later when keeping the car on the road became a priority.
Hmmm it's only been a few hours and I need to add another post - the bug is biting!I have a few pics somewhere of the original left hand drive configuration and will post them when they surface. We registered the car on a club rego while in the US mode but it soon became clear that driving like this is downright dangerous on an Aussie road! Beside not being able to see around parked cars or when overtaking, the really freaky experience was reserved for the passenger, sitting where the driver should be, with no wheel, pedals or control!
The car was taken to a dude in Port Macquarie who engineered the change to right-hand drive. Although he did a good job getting the main stuff right, I would not recommend him. He was very sloppy on details which I had to fix up later, ie wipers that did not return on switch off, forgetting to put the ducting in for the heater etc. Still it steers beautifully and drives a treat. The old drum brakes were replaced with power assisted discs so it would actually stop, the interior trim replaced and the giant truck style steering wheel replaced by a sporty leather job.
The images in this post show the car with the original skinny tyres and faux wire hubcaps, something I changed later when keeping the car on the road became a priority.
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