MMD is giving Away the May 2014 Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Cover Car

Modern Muscle Design is giving everyone the chance to drive away in their SEMA built, custom 2014 Mustang GT—Project MMD.

MMD and AmericanMuscle teamed up to custom design Project MMD. Featuring over $30,000 in aftermarket parts and the sleek, modern design MMD is known for, this is a one-of-a-kind Mustang that can serve as the perfect show car or daily driver.
Sign-up Page: http://www.americanmuscle.com/project-mmd-2014-mustang-giveaway.html

The Giveaway

One person will get to drive home from the annual AmericanMuscle Car Show—the largest Mustang only car show on the planet—in their newly acquired magazine cover car—Project MMD. Not only is this Muscle Mustangs and Fast Ford’s (MM & FF) May 2014 Cover Car, it’s also the same build that was featured at Forgestar’s booth for the 2013 SEMA Auto Show. The winner will be selected on 8/4/2014 and will be handed the keys at the AmericanMuscle car show on 8/16/2014.
Video: How Project MMD was built - http://www.americanmuscle.com/project-mmd-2014-mustang-giveaway.html

The Car - SEMA 2014

Sometimes you plan out an entire build before you ever pick up a wrench—this was not how Project MMD began. This car started out as a way to showcase some of MMD’s most popular modifications, but once the opportunity to showcase a car at the 2013 SEMA Auto Show came along, the guys at MMD went back to the drawing board. They commissioned AmericanMuscle to handle the performance aspects of the car while they gave it an appearance overhaul. The end result was a successful appearance at Forgestar’s SEMA booth and a few neck snapping trips in Las Vegas and the surrounding countryside.

Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords Cover Car – May 2014

Project MMD was designed and built to be a SEMA car, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fully functional street machine—the guys at MMD actually drive it around town and to shows. That’s what pegged the interest of the crew over at MM & FF and once they finally saw Project MMD in person at SEMA, they knew they were looking at a cover car.

Project MMD – Styling

What began as your run-of-the-mill 2014 Oxford White Premium GT received the perfect synergy of classically inspired styling mixed with a bold, attention demanding modern twist. The car takes inspiration from the late ‘60s Mustangs, such as the GT350 style spoiler and hood scoop. It also employs more recent aesthetics such as a matte white vinyl wrap and an adjustable air ride suspension that lets you drop the car to the ground when parked or at a show, all while still delivering the performance of coil overs. With the fog light deletes, page was taken from the BOSS 302’s playbook, along with the matte black roof decal.
Of the more modern styling, the MMD windshield and side decals offer a stark color contrast while the matte while tail light covers make for a more fluent paint scheme. The rear diffuser is an MMD prototype developed for this car and accounts well for the Ford Racing exhaust dumps.

• 589 RWHP / 480 TQ @ 10 PSI on a Dynojet 224xLC

Mods

Performance

• Air Lift Suspension Kit
• The Driveshaft Shop Carbon Fiber One Piece Driveshaft
• Vortech Supercharger System - Black
• Snow Performance Stage 3 Boost Cooler
• Ford Racing Boss Style H-Pipe and Side Exhaust
• JLT Replacement Air Box Intake - Blow Through Supercharger
• The Driveshaft Shop Carbon Fiber One Piece Driveshaft

Styling

• MMD 551C 20 Inch Staggered Wheels
• Matte Black Boss Style Roof Decal
• MMD GT350 Style Window Covers - Pre-Painted
• MMD Hood Scoop - Pre-painted
• MMD Headlight Splitters - Pre-Painted
• MMD Ducktail Spoiler - Pre-painted
• Carbon Fiber Dash Overlay Kit
• MMD Retro Mirrors - Unpainted
• MMD Side Scoops - Pre-painted
• MMD Tail Light Trim - Pre-Painted
• MMD Boss Style Fog Light Deletes
• MMD Satellite Radio/GPS Antenna Cover - Pre-painted

Replacing the speakers in a 2002 Ford Explorer

In this video we show how to replace the speakers in a 2002 Ford Explorer.

Video: Replacing the front brake pads in a 2007 Dodge Caliber

Today we are replacing the front brake pads in a 2007 Dodge Caliber. The video below documents the very easy process so that you can do it yourself!

Making Space in the Shop - Bare Triumph Dolomite Sprint Head FS - SOLD!

Trying to make room in the shop before we move things from Phoenix to Seattle. found this the other night and realized I'll never get around to building it up.

Triumph Dolomite Sprint Head w/Valves.

Night time driving

So I do a lot of nighttime driving, particularly on road trips. recently I drove from Phoenix to Seattle and back (3,000 mile round trip). I suffer from glare and fatigue issues and night, and have been searching for a good pair of glasses. I found these on Amazon and I have to say they work great!


Night Driving Glasses with Canary Yellow Polycarbonate Double Sided Anti-reflective Coating, Scratch Coating and Uv Protection - Black Metal Frame - 51-19-140

How to replace the blower motor in a 2002 Ford Explorer

This video documents the procedure to replace the blower motor in a 2002 Ford Explorer.

Hurricane Sandy Cars

As we saw with Katrina and other storms, there's a rather sketchy market out there scrubbing car titles and reselling salvaged classic cars that were ruined during Hurricane Sandy last year. We've seen some MGs and other marques popping up on EBay in the past weeks.

So right now, if the price sounds too good, please be careful. A tell tale sign is cars with New Hampshire titles. It's relatively easy to scrub a title in NH. Ask for ownership information, and history on the car. Since many of our cars do not have the modern long VIN # you won't be able to look them up via one of the Vin Check websites.

As with buying anything in this world, caveat emptor. If the price sounds too good then you should be very skeptical.

1969 Austin Healey Sprite - Removing the Dashboard

How to polish aluminum for a mirror like finish.

Stupid Garage Tricks #3: Cleaning Carburetors with Lemon Juice

How to install an anftermarket stereo in a 2002 Ford Explorer

How to create a wiring harness for an aftermarket car stereo

Replacing the Fuel Pump: 2002 Ford F-150

Replacing the fuel filter in a 2002 Ford F-150

1969 Austin Healey Sprite MKIV Project: Restoring the Fuel System

How to test a fuel sender

In this video we walk you through the process of testing a fuel sender. In the example above we are testing the fuel sender for our 1969 Austin Healey Sprite which should read at ~14 ohms full and ~258 ohms empty.

Update on our progress: '69 Austin Healey Sprite

Wow! We had a week in the shop where we managed to get a lot done! I believe this may be the most successful week we've had in a long time. The dash is out and has been stripped. We've pulled the heater, windscreen wipers, cooling system, carburettors, and air cleaners off the car. With these off it's been full restoration mode: sand blasting, soda blasting, dissassembly, research and restoration. And my favorite part? Boxes of new goodies arriving almost daily!

As soon as I can find a good anodizer the windscreen assembly will be ready for reassembly, the fuel sender has been tested (and passed!) and the final coat of paint is drying on the gas tank, so the fuel system is ready to store away. as soon as I get in my next shhipment from Moss we'll have the proper decals for the air filters. Those will then be complete.

I also found a couple blokes with Sprite/Midget parts stashes! So it looks like I'll be able to knock a bunch off the list of missing bits.

All in all an excellent week! Now, the trick will be maintaining this pace through the Christmas season (thanks to Christmas shopping via Amazon I may be able to hide out in the shop indefinitely!). As motivation I have up on the wall out here the most recent ultrasound pictures of our daughter due in March. I know all too well what happens to productivity when babies arrive on the scene, so we're shooting to finish up this Sprite before she arrives.

Reference Materials

There are few things that beat a good judging guide when it comes to reference materials for your restoration. These are the guides that the judges use and study. It doesn't matter if you're going to be in a concours or not.

 

 

When I ordered the Concours guide for our Austin Healey 3000 BT7 it was also possible to get a guide for the Sprite. Since there was no additional cost (that I can remember) it was well worth bundling it in with the information request.

What is great about these documents is that they are the most concise references for when things changed on cars, and when we're dealing with British cars it's a common occurrence. I printed out the reference (it came on CD Rom) and the judging sheet. At the back I added a photocopy of the build sheet that we ordered for the vehicle. With the car's vital statistics and all the concours data combined I then had it spiral bound as my point in which I can validate parts and information about the vehicle as I go through the systems as well as somewhere for me to take relevant notes.

Aside from being a great little notebook, it helps you identify things on your vehicle that just aren't right. Some are obvious, as this car came to us with an alternator, but they were fitted with a generator at the factory. Some are less so, this car appears to have an earlier radiator and to have had the temperature sensor bulb moved from the head to the radiator.

All in all, these are well worth printing, buying or acquiring for any vehicle you're going to restore. I keep these, the parts catalog and the shop manual all within easy reach when working on the car.

Stupid Garage Tricks #2: Heated creeper

Now you can stay warm in the winter!

Aluminum Tire Pressure Sensors (the saga continues)

We at They Might Be Racing believe that there is definitely a serious problem here. In order to obtain better data on what we're dealing with we have started a serious research effort into the auto manufacturers that use these aluminum valve stems in their vehicles.

The first stop in obtaining incidence data for these vehicles is the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) complaint database. The NHTSA is the primary point for collecting statistical data on issues with vehicles.

We started with the year 2008. It was the first full year after the federal Tire Pressure Monitoring requirements and also happens to be the year our source vehicle was produced (2008 Chrysler Town and Country Limited).

The following vehicles have issues reported relating to their aluminum valve stems and TPMS corroding and failing:

Buick	Enclave
Chevrolet	Equinox, Express Van, Malibu, Uplander
Chrysler	300, PT Cruiser, Sebring, Town and Country
Dodge	Avenger, Caliber, Caravan, Charger, Dakota, Grand Caravan, Nitro, Ram Truck
Ford	Escape, Explorer, F Series trucks
Jeep	Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Liberty, Patriot, Wrangler
Kia	Rondo
Mazda	CX-7, Mazda 3, Mazda 5, Mazda 6
Nissan	Quest, Titan(?)
Pontiac	Grand Prix, Torrent, Vibe
Subaru	Outback
Toyota	Corolla

Now, for many of these auto manufacturers there were singular events within a single vehicle model that may be attributable to statistical averages. There are two standout cases in the above documentation: Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep (one company) and Mazda.

In the case of Mazda we have documentation of soft recalls (i.e. fixed when complained about) for corrosion issues relating to the valve stems. They have been upgraded and improved.

In the case of Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep there have been no documented recalls that we can find. The list above: 300, PT Cruiser, Sebring, Town and Country, Avenger, Caliber, Caravan, Charger, Dakota, Grand Caravan, Nitro, Ram Truck, Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Liberty, Patriot and Wrangler; represents over 50% of the vehicle lineup from this company.

What is it about the Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep Tire Pressure Sensors (TPS) and their Tire Pressure Management System (TPMS) that sucks so badly? Why haven't they corrected it (we've looked at later year complaints)? Why do they lie and tell customers that this isn't a problem?

Stay tuned for more information.