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Thursday, April 23, 2009

Mustang Road Trips


One of my favorite things to do is go on a nice long road trip. Cruising the highways in the Mustang is enjoyable, and can be a lot of fun if you have some friends along with you. I've only taken one road trip in the Mustang and I hope to do it again soon.

Last summer me and some friends decided to go to Cedar Point for my best friends birthday. Cedar Point is about 7 hours from where we live, so it made for a nice trip. As many of you probably realize, Mustangs are not the most roomiest of cars. Two of my friends left early to get a head start and get the hotel early in the day, while the rest of us left later that night. There were three people riding with me. That leaves two people crammed in the back . I kind of felt sorry for them because I am only six foot and it is merly impossible for me to fit back there, let alone ride for seven straight hours.

Some how the two in the back managed to survive, and it ended up not being all that bad. The trip to Cedar Point is for the most part easy to navigate even if you've never been there before. But that's if you are driving in complete day light. We left kind of late so darkness set in about half way through the trip. After that things got a little bit interesting once we left the interstate and got on the two lane highways. I didn't want to admit it but for a little while I was just a tiny bit lost. Everything looks so intimidating at night when you have no idea where the heck you are!

I eventually got back on the right track after I had to back track for about five miles and we got there safe and sound. But it was the trip to the hotel the night after we left the park that was the most interesting. We made a last minute reservation for a hotel a little more than an hour away. But the catch was that we had to be there by midnight to get the hotel, and it was just after eleven.

Once again not knowing where I was going, we had a blast trying to find the place. We got directions there and I had to get on the ball if we were to make it. I booked it pretty much all the way there making the trip about fifteen minutes faster than what it should have taken. We were almost there, on the right track, and oh SO close when the most random thing happened. We came to a train crossing in the middle of nowhere on a country road, and there was a train just sitting on the tracks blocking the road! This could only happen to me, right?

I ended up back tracking a few miles to get around the train, and luckily I had a good sense of direction and found the highway we wanted. Now we were running a few minutes behind schedule. We arrived at about 12:05, just as the manager was walking to his car to go home. He ended up letting us get the room. We cut it really close. It would have been one huge disappointment if we were too late after all that.

Though it seems like it was a frustrating situation, we all made the best of it and had fun. Now that we look back we can laugh at ourselves. All in all it was one heck of a road trip. I am planning on taking one or two road trips this summer. One to see my grandparents and another to Florida to visit a friend. I don't know who will go with me, but as long as its me and the stang I'll be just fine.

whats in store for black ice?

When I first got my Mustang, it was basically just an ordinary v6 Mustang just like the thousands of others just like it cruising the highways. Mustangs are cool the way they are and everything, but there's just so many of them! I wanted mine to be different, so thats why I got into customizing it.

The first thing I wanted to concentraite on was appearance. Speed and performance are nice to have, but I don't foresee the speed limits jumping above 120 mph any time in the near future. So performance is second priority for me right now. So far I have put around 1,300 dollars (after parts and labor) into my car just for appearnce. I added a roush hood hood scoop, upper and lower billitt grill, hidden foglights mounted behind the lower grill, front chin spoiler, rear window louvers, GT rear decklid pannel, and crome tailight trim. After all this was finished i didn't even recognize my car anymore, and I was completely satisfied.

Even though I am for the most part happy with the appearance of my car, there are still some things I want to do in the near future. First thing's first. This summer I am looking to get some new wheels. The kind that I am looking at are black, 20 inch, deep dish billitt style with wide back tires. They will probably run me more than 1200 after rubber but the 20 inch black on black should look phenomenal against my black Mustang. Really as far as looks go, the only other things I think I might do would be to lower it an inch or two and maybe get the side window louvers also.

That pretty much wraps up what I plan to do to the appearance in the future. As far as performance goes I have looked into a few things. I was thinking about getting a dual exhaust system and a cold air intake kit and I found a pretty good deal from Ford Racing. Ford Racing has a v6 performance package for about a grand that includes dual exhaust, a cold air kit, and a electronic programer. I think that if I decide to do the exhaust and cold air that this will be the kit I will look at first.
Now if I decide that I am going to keep my car for several more years, and I really get carried away, I would love to turbo charge my car. A twin turbo charged system would really smoke the tires. It would put me back several thousand dollars but this would probably not be in the near future. It would be a couple of years for this to happen.

I think that I have a pretty good tast in cars so checking out cool accessories I can put on my car is a lot of fun to me. Customizing my car has become one of my favorite hobbies, if you consider that a hobby. But all this gets REALLY expensive. Especially for someone in college. For me being in college and trying to get my priorities in line, it is very hard to follow through with all the stuff I intend on doing to my car. But hopefully my new job this summer will give me a hand!













































Thursday, April 9, 2009

Cops, Don't Be Profiling My Ride!
























Have you ever heard the saying that cops target certain types of cars? A lot of people think that if they drive a certain type of car or certain color of car then they are most likely to be pulled over. Well there may be a little bit of truth behind that.

The most common example would be the red car. I've heard this one a lot. People think that because they drive a red car that they are automatically targeted and have no chance if they are breaking a traffic law to get away with it.

I do think, along with many other people, that you are more likely to get pulled over if you are speeding if you are driving a red car. Also if you are driving a car that stands out among others. But also, I do think that most of the time this is unintentional and not just an unfair case of profiling.

If you think about it, the color red stands out to the human eye. It is bright and doesn't blend in very well with surroundings. It makes sense that if you are driving a red car that you will be noticed more among other cars, therefore the cop with the radar is more likely to see you first. I don't think this is the police officer's fault, but rather just a perfectly normal human reaction.

For example, just think of a person with severe A.D.D. They are walking along a boring sidewalk talking with their friend about a dull subject such as...political views. When all the sudden there is a brand new shiny penny on the side walk, and instead of finishing the sentence about the new Obama presidency, they blurt out, "Oooh shiny!!!" But they didn't even seem to notice all the other old dull pennies lying around. I think that this is the same sort of concept but maybe exaggerated a bit.

But I don't think that this only applies to the color of the car, but also what type and if it is customized or not. Obviously a Corvette or a Ferrari will stand out in traffic amongst minivans and sedans. Also cars that have been customized with cool looking aftermarket accessories and effects. If you are breaking the law I think that it is obvious you are more likely to be caught if you are more noticeable. So if you do drive a sweet ride that is different, or just stands out because its red, be careful! Or just don't be like me and speed and get two tickets in a year. Trust me, that is not fun!

More Power!!!

There's one thing in particular that most die hard Mustang owners always want more of. Can you guess what that is? One word pretty much wraps it up. POWER. It seems like you can never get enough horsepower under the hood of one single muscle or sports car. Lets just face it. The measly 210 horse power our v6's put out and the 300 the v8's put out just tease us and make us want even more power. Adding power is definitely easy to do now days, if you have the budget to do it. But there are so many different ways to add that extra little (or big) boost of power.

Your two best bets to really vamp up the power under the hood would be either a supercharger, or a turbocharger. But there are several questions that come with choosing one of these. First off...which one is better? Also budget comes into play...so which one is more realistically priced?

First off you should understand what exactly these systems are and what they do. They are both types of forced induction systems. Which is another way of saying they push more air and fuel into the combustion chamber. The more air and fuel you have shoved into the engine, the bigger the explosion the spark will cause and that's what gives you more power.

Superchargers are a very popular way to increase the power of your car. It is said to be an easier installation than that of the turbocharger system. Another advantage of a supercharger over a turbo charger is that they usually seem to be more reliable than a turbocharged system mainly just because they run cooler than turbos. But this problem can easily be corrected by adding an intercooler to the turbo system.

But on the contrary, superchargers have to first take power away from the engine to actually make more power. The way it works is that it is hooked up to the belt drive or pulley system of the car, where it initially takes the power from the engine. Turbochargers on the other hand use wasteful exhaust gas to power itself, not taking power from the engine. The one big advantage the turbo system has over the supercharger is that it puts wasted kinetic energy to use, thus making it the more efficient choice.

As far as pricing goes most superchargers and turbochargers I found seemed to be around $5,000 to $6,000. Some were as low as $3,000 or as high as $9,000. Some of the turbo kits seemed to be on the expensive end. Turbochargers seem to be the better choice to me, because they are capable of producing more horse power, if tuned right. And also they use wasted energy from exhaust flow to create its own power rather than first stealing it form the engine. But turbos are known to be more expensive and are harder to install. So which is really the best choice? I think it is all up to personal preference and how much money you are willing to spend.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Foose on the Loose

Many of you have probably seen the show Overhaulin on TV before. If so then you know who Chip Foose is. Chip Foose is an incredible car designer with years of experience starting at a very young age. On the show Chip and his crew "The A Team" take a week to design a car for a deserving and oblivious client. What happens is the person's family or friends enter their car in the show without their knowledge and they think that their car has been stolen all the while it is in the hands of one of the best car designers around. And Chip Foose and the Foose design teem spend a week completely redesigning what usually starts out as a rust bucket and turn it into a one of a kind piece of art. They "Overhaul" the entire car inside and out and that usually includes a new engine under the hood.


Chip Foose doesn't just show off his designing for the TV show though. He has designed his own version of several different cars. One of these just happens to be the Mustang. Chip spent a lot of sweat and time into the design of the Chip Foose Edition Mustang Stallion. He did everything from drawing up the sketches, to shaping the clay, to adding the additional power adders to the car.
The list of things the Chip Foose Edition Mustang has to offer include:
1) Foose designed Mustang body which includes the redesigning of pretty much every body panel on the car including the hood and front and rear facial.
2)Aerodynamic rear spoiler
3)Custom graphics
4)Foose designed 20 inch rims
5)Racing shocks, coils, and sway bars
6)Performance breaks
7)Ford Racing parts including exhaust
8)Custom interior
With the supercharger and all the performance upgrades the Foose Mustang puts out about 425 horse power. There aren't very many of these cars out there, they only make a few thousand a year for a limited time. The Foose Edition Mustang Stallions start at about 40 thousand dollars, that is if you are one of the lucky ones who can get your hands on it.

Beer Can Mustang!

I don't really have anything to say about this except this is a Mustang made of 5,000 Budweiser cans. And I thought it was funny!

My Top 3

The Mustang is one of the most known cars in the world. Ask pretty much anyone if they know what a Ford Mustang is and they will most likely say yes. Well at least I would hope so. Yea everyone knows what a Mustang is, but not everyone knows that there are so many different types.

Shelby Mustangs^



Lets start with the basics. The stock Mustangs come in only two main forms. Those two different variations would be the v6 and the v8, also known as the Mustang GT. The v6 is usually known for being the more basic of the two with less power, and frankly looked down on by a lot of v8 muscle car enthusiast. The v8 is of course more powerful and usually the one we would pick out of the two. But if you have a broader knowledge of Mustangs then you realize there is so much more to choose from!





I'll start with my all time favorite Mustang; the Shelby GT 500 KR Mustang. The KR stands for King of the Road. The GT 500 boasts its power in its name. Its has over 500 horse power, hence the name GT 500. The new ones have a 5.4 litre supercharged engine that push out over 540 horse power. That would be enough to get the adrenaline going for me! The 1967 GT 500 was made an icon of muscle cars when it played a role in the movie Gone in 60 seconds. The power and the classic nature of this beast puts it at the top of my list.



^ Saleen Mustang

My next favorite is the Saleen Mustang. Saleen was founded in 1983 by a racer named Steve Saleen who produced the first Saleen Mustang in 1984. Saleen's worries at first were just looks and using the stock Mustang engine. But things have changed quite a bit. Aside from the amazing looks of the Saleen Mustang it has some power that will kick butt. The Saleen Mustang can make about 465 horse power with its 4.6 litre supercharged V8. Saleen also makes another version using a Saleen built v8 engine that has about 550 horse power. The Saleen Mustang is the one used as the police car in the Transformers movie. I think that car is really awesome in the movie and is one of the reasons it is my second favorite Mustang.



^ 2005 Roush Mustang


The third favorite on my top three is the Roush Mustang. Jack Roush knows plenty about racing. His race career goes years back. He not only owns a Nascar team, but he has been dealing with Mustangs for more than twelve years too. To start off with the Roush Mustang just looks amazing. It has a sweet looking body and wheel kit. But the performance is the what makes it. Under the hood you will find a Roush made supercharger (Roushcharger) that gives the v8 enough juice to make up to 435 horses. It also has high performance shocks and struts and high performance tires for the road courses.



Take a look at all three of these beasts and you can see why they aren't just your every day Mustang. They are truly works of art and pure power. If you never realized there are other Mustangs out there besides your basic v6 and GT Mustangs, now you can broaden your view to see what the Mustang really has to offer.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Origional V New Retro



It seems like the new craze for car makers now is to make new muscle cars look like the old ones. Looking at the previous post you can see this is indeed a major part of car production for major auto makers. And for the most part they are all doing a good job too.
Ok, so we all know that the whole point in the new retro Mustang was to make it look like the old ones. The new Mustangs brought back the memories of the original 60's and 70's muscle car that changed the American muscle car forever. There are obvious differences of course, but when you look at them side by side you can sure tell the resemblance. They kept the Mustangs classic look with similar headlight and taillight set ups.
Same goes for the new Challenger. They made it look modern but retro all at the same time. I couldn't believe how close it is to the original Challenger. The Camaro did a decent job too, but I don't think the resemblance is quite as apparent as the Mustang and the Challenger.
The real question is, what do people think about this making the new look like the old deal? Most people like it, but some say just leave the old in the past and move on and come up with something new. I have to disagree with those people because I think the engineering behind these cars is just plain awesome. To make something new and modern that at the same time resembles the old school way as close as possible. You can comment below and let me know what your opinions are on this. Do you like what the auto makers are trying to do with these cars, or do you think they should just come up with all new looks?

The big 3 - ITS ON!!!

2010 is going to be a big year for the three major outo makers in the U.S. Whats the big fuss about? The big three are going to be back on the road together once again! The all new and retro styled Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger are in high anticipation for the up coming year.

The Mustang is changing things up a little bit with mostly minor changes. But will that be enough to keep up with the all new 2010 Chevy Camaro and the new Dodge Challenger? The changes the mustang has in store are mostly minor, but significant changes. The overall frame and wheel base are the same. But the body panels are getting a make over. The front end is simply more aggressive and looks like its ready to run. While the back end has been tweaked to look more sleek as well. The interior seems to be more modern and higher quality. Also the suspension is going to be a lot tighter for better balance and feel around turns. These things plus a few more engine options available, such as the 5.0 litre and 3.8 litre eco boost engine, are going to be fords answer to the new Camaro and Challenger.

The all new Camaro has been anticipated for a few years now. Production has seemed to be pushed back and slow to a lot of people and a lot of people want to know what happened to it. Where is this new Camaro you people speak of!?! Its been forever and people are getting impatient! Well the word on the street is 2010 is the year, for real this time. Enough teasing and taunting that well know image of the new Camaro and get it on the road already!

The v8 has yet to be released to, but the v6 model has. The v6 model of the Camaro is going to be extremely impressive. The 3.6 litre engine they are using is the same direct injection engine offered in the Cadillac CTS and is sopposed to produce 305 horse power. Comparing the unfinished prototype interior of the v6 camaro to the interior of the Challenger, the Camaro's is more detailed and better looking. As for the V8 SS version of the Camaro, it will have a 6.2 litre engine pushing about 420 horse power. That is pretty impressive. There is an RS package that will be offered on the v6 and v8 which includes HID headlights and 20 inch wheels.

So what does the new Challenger offer besides high price and low fuel economy? The new Dodge Challenger took retro to an all new level. Out of all three the Challenger did the best job of making it look like the original American muscle car from the 70s. The Challenger offers a 5.7 v8 as well as a 6.1 litre v8. Both make upwards of 400 horse power. A lot of things on the new Challenger are carried over from the Charger. The transmission, the gear ratios, suspension, breaks, and the tires are all the same. But the frame is 4 inches shorter, but it is only 20 pounds lighter than the Charger.

2010 is going to be an interesting year for Ford, Chevy, and Dodge. It is hard not to be biass making comments on the Camaro seeing that I am a Mustang fan. But I have to say that the 2010 Camaro looks pretty impressive. I like it a lot. I will always love Mustangs but would seriously consider a new Camaro. Here come the American muscle cars once again. Let the muscle car wars begin!



Sunday, March 22, 2009

v6 Shelby

When most people think of Shelby Mustangs they most likely think v8. The Shelby Mustang is most known for its v8 power in the Shelby GT500, which pushes about 500 horse power.



But Shelby switched things up a little bit when he introduced the Shelby CS 6 Mustang. It is a v6 Mustang that is far from stock. It has more horsepower than the Mustang GT pushing a little more than 350 horses.



The power plant behind this horse power is a twin turbo v6 engine that will be introduced in 2010 as an Eco boost 3.5 liter instead of the 4.0 liter running the v6 Mustang now. The new Eco boost engine will be more powerful and more fuel efficient. A lot of v8 lovers do not seem to like the idea behind the v6 Shelby, but it is actually very practical.

The v6 is lighter and more fuel efficient. With this package it is putting out quite a bit more power than GT Mustangs. And also it accelerates faster and handles better too. It is nowhere near the car the Shelby GT 500 is, but it is certainly a couple of steps up from a stock v6.

The package comes with the Shelby body kit, the twin turbo charging kit, bigger breaks, 20 inch rims, and dual exhaust, not to mention the Shelby logo it shows off. To get all this including the added power, on top of the price of a v6 Mustang comes out to be about the same as the price of a GT Mustang, but with more power! If I had the opportunity to do this to my v6 I would definitely consider it.

2010 Mustang

The 2005 Mustang was a dramatic change from the previous models. The new body style made the mustang look more muscular and powerful. Not to mention the strong retro appearance the new models show off.



I fell in love with Mustangs before the these new models came out, but when they did I fell in love all over again. I was overall completely satisfied with the appearance of the 2005 Mustang, so I was ecstatic when I got a 2006 Mustang of my own.



Once again Ford is changing the appearance of the Mustang. The 2010 Mustang is going to be slightly different than the previous models. They will be coming out in late 2009. I have been looking into the new 2010 Mustang, trying to establish an opinion on it. I haven't quit made up my mind if I like it better than the 2005 models or not.



There are a lot of things I noticed I like better about the 2010 Mustang, but there are also a couple of things that I really don't like from what I have seen. The over all appearance is really similar but noticeably different. The front end I really like. It is really close to the 2005 Mustang front end but it looks more aggressive. Also the new hood is also more aggressive which resembles a cowl hood.



I also really like the interior. It looks a little more modern and sporty than before and offers more options. From what I have seen I do like the interior better. Another cool thing about them is that they offer a glass roof option which I really like.



The only thing that I do not like about the 2010 Mustang so far is the rear end. I don't like the back of them at all. From the pictures that I have seen it just looks a little weak or something, especially compared to the 2005 Mustang. But that is just my opinion from the photos that I have seen. I may change my overall opinion when I actually see them in person when they come out.



So right now I am leaning towards liking the 2005 Mustang better than the 2010 Mustang, but that is mostly just because I don't like what I've seen of the back end. Other than that it seems to be a pretty legitimate car. I found a really cool website that does a good job showing the overall appearance and options on the 2010 Mustang. It is definitely worth checking out if you want a close up look at it and if you want to make your own opinion on it. I will link the website above and also put the website as the first one under the check these sites out section.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

California Special


The California Special Mustang was first introduced in 1968. It was a limited edition Mustang. They only made four thousand one hundred and eighteen of them. Production of the 1968 Mustang GT/CS (GT California Special) only lasted five and a half months. Most of the production was just special orders.
Recently, in 2007, Ford brought back the Mustang GT California Special. Once again their plans are only to make it a limited edition Mustang with models made form 2007 to 2009.
Basically the new Mustang GT/CS is a Mustang GT with a few extras. The interior upgrade includes two tones seats and special floor mats and also is available with a 1000 watt stereo system. On the outside it has 18 inch polished aluminum wheels, exhaust tips and lowered front and rear fascia.
The main reason I am writing about this is because my mom actually has one of the new GT/CS Mustangs. She got one of the first 2007 models made back in September of 2006. I love her car. It is Vista Blue which looks really nice. I'd personally rather have Black, but I will give her car credit. She does occasionally let me drive it. Actually I bet I have driven it almost as much as she has. It is almost 3 years old and only has about four thousand miles on it. That should tell you how well she takes car of it. I'm pretty sure it has never seen rain. And I know that it has never seen the months November through March. I just wish she would drive it more, cause it is such a nice car to have!

The Suds

One of my favorite places to cruise by and chill for a while on a summer evening is The Suds. It is located in Greenwood, Indiana, just south of Indianapolis. The suds was once a part of the Dog 'N Suds chain. But was sold to a different owner and they eventually dropped from the franchise and became "The Suds" in 1983. Over the past 20 years the old fashioned drive in restaurant has been closed, repurchased and reopened several times. Just this past July The Suds restaurant reopened again to serve the community.



Me and my friends don't go here to eat though. A couple of years ago my friend Josh invited me to go up to The Suds on a Saturday evening to look at some cool cars. This is the first time I ever herd of this place. I thought that it was just a temporary thing, a scheduled annual car show or something. But actually it is just an every Friday or Saturday night thing where all kinds of people from around the area bring their old muscle cars or tricked out new rides. You can just cruise through and find a spot to park your ride then walk around for hours looking at cars with out getting bored.


I was really surprised at the number of people that were there. I guess it has really grown in popularity over the past few years. Some times you have to drive around for quite sometime to find a spot to squeeze your car in amongst the hundreds of other cars. It is one of the coolest things that I have ever seen though. The atmosphere is just really laid back, and anyone who wants can come by and check out other peoples prized possessions.


It is a usual thing for me or Josh to call each other up on a Saturday night in the summer and ask if we want to wax our cars up real good and head up to The Suds. I usually take a few hours cleaning up my Mustang real good while he washes his truck up real nice.


At The Suds you will see all kinds of different cars. A lot of them are old fixed up American Muscle cars. But there are also a lot of newer cars too. Last summer we even saw an old fixed up fire truck, that if I had to guess was like from the 50's or 60's. You never know what you will see when you go. Its a good opportunity for people to go up and ask what they've done to their ride and get some suggestions on what to do to theirs as well.


Writing this blog entry is really making me look forward to summer. It makes it even worse that it is really nice and warm today. It just makes me more anxious for summer. Well if any of you live or are around the Indianapolis area this summer and are into cars, you should definitely check this place out!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Eleanor

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you my favorite type of car is the Ford Mustang. But there are several different styles, models, and years that some can almost be like totally different cars than others. But what is my favorite Mustang? The 1967 Shelby GT 500 Mustang is by far my favorite car or Mustang ever. I honestly wouldn't care to have any other car if I had this one. Not Even a Ferrari, a Porsche, or a Lambo.

The 1967 Shelby GT 500 Mustang is most known for its role in the movie Gone in 60 Seconds.
At least that is when I fell in love with it. In the movie the car is not just any other car. Her name is Eleanor. Yes, the car even has a name! Eleanor is what most Mustang enthusiast and just about any car freak will call the 67 Shelby Mustang. She earned the fame well though by taking the spotlight in the movie.

Gone in 60 Seconds not only has my favorite car in it, but it is my favorite movie. It has been ever sense the first time that I saw it. Nicolas Cage plays one of the main roles in the movie. And believe it or not, he is my favorite actor. Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, and Giovanni Ribisi also play main roles in this movie.

The movie is basically about a car boosting operation. Which is just a huge organized car theft operation. Memphis Raines (Nicolas Cage) was a retired car thief. He left town to start a new life because he didn't want his mom or brother to get hurt because of him. But his brother Kip (Giovanni Ribisi) followed in his brother's footsteps and started stealing cars, which is exactly what Memphis did not want.

Kip ended up messing up a job for the guy he was stealing cars for, and was in big trouble. Memphis found out about it and he knew he had to help save his brother. Before he knew it he was doing the one thing he swore he would never do again; boosting cars. He got a bunch of old friends together that used to work with him when he stole cars. They called a bunch of people and had people assigned to certain tasks, such as picking locks to cars, and using different techniques to start them with out keys and that kind of stuff.

After he got every one organized, Memphis only had one night to steal 50 cars, or his brother would die. They gave every car a name to be used as a code so they would not give their operation away. The name he gave the 67 Shelby Mustang of course was Eleanor. He saved the Mustang for last because it had a little sentimental value because he had history with this type of car.

They ended up getting the other 49 cars on time. But the mustang was a couple of minutes late, and in terrible condition by time he got it to the loading dock. Memphis had to out run cops in his attempt to get away with the car, and damaged the car pretty good. So the boss of the operation was still going to kill Kip. They took the mustang and crushed it in the ship yard. (This is my least favorite part of the movie).

At the end of the movie the cop that was trying to catch Memphis and lock him up for good, ended up letting him go. They ended up killing the boss before they got to his brother. Eventually Memphis got a surprise, which was an old beat up 67 Mustang. It wasn't near as pretty as the original Eleanor. But with some work it would have potential. But I don't think it could make up for the horrible part where they crush the car.

What the Fuel Pump!


A couple of weeks ago, as mentioned in the previous post, I was having issues with my car. I ended up taking it in to the Dealership this week to get it checked out. I had to leave it with them for a couple of days so they could get a good look at it. So the guy that drives the dealership's shuttle was nice enough to give me a ride back to campus.
After two long days I finally got a call from them. The mechanics had diagnosed it and traced the problem to a bad fuel pump. I was actually surprised because initially that is what I thought it was before I thought it was the computer system. So with a new fuel pump on order I was going to have to wait another day.

Yesterday it was supposed to be done and ready to be picked up, which was good because I had stuff to take care of. But, there was a mistake in the part order they made. They ordered the fuel pump, but they are now required to change some other part with it. Ford recently changed this rule and they used the old order code instead of the new one, which gave them only the fuel pump and not the other part as well.

They did let me go ahead and pick up my car yesterday when I needed it. It was nice to have it back. I was in a good mood to have my car back so I took it by the car wash and got it all cleaned up while I was out.

I do have to take my car back today in a few hours so they can finish the job. So that means I'm going to have to sit there for an hour while they fix it. But at least they will finally be done and my car will be good to go!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Problems With The Newer Models?


Anyone who has read any part of my blog can tell you that I am in love with Mustangs. Well actually if you just took one look at it you would know that. I don't like to admit it much when I do find flaws in them of course. But I have found some. Some of these things come from personal experience too.



I seem to have trouble with just about anything expensive I have or buy now. For example, my 1100 dollar Dell XPS laptop computer. I have had trouble with it from the beginning. Come to find out just a couple of weeks ago, my operating system was corrupt, and all my software was as well. And they said they knew that by things that my computer was doing from the start. Not something that happened to it overtime. So I had to pay 500 dollars for it to be fixed. The warranty apparently doesn't cover anything that was wrong with it. BS!!



Anyways I have had issues with my car as well. It is only two and a half years old but it still has problems. Over the summer my car started doing weird things like automatically turning off the TCS (Traction Control System). And at the same time it would tell me that my brake fluid was low. This just happened randomly and for seemingly no reason at all. I took it in to the Ford dealership and they never found anything, until I caught it when it was actually doing it and they looked at it then. Come to find out the master cylinder was bad and was messing with the computer in my car. That would be why it was randomly doing those things.



They fixed the problem and it has been OK ever sense, until last week at least. I was pulling off my road, and my gas gauge went from over half a tank to empty in like a millisecond. And as I got on the gas it felt like I had half the power as usual in my car. I thought this was really weird and couldn't connect why the two would happen at the same time, at least not in a newer model car. So I stopped at a gas station and let it sit, and when I started it up it was fine and the gas gauge went back to half a tank. It has been fine ever sense.



I am taking my car in this week to get it checked out and make sure it is OK. The only thing that I know it could be would be a glitch in the cars computer system, or maybe a sensor. I'm not a mechanic by any means, but if it was something mechanical it wouldn't act like that and then just seemingly go away. I love the new mustangs, but I do think that there were some kinks that were not worked out in them. I did some research and found that other new Mustang owners had problems with fuel sensors and things like that a lot. Well I am just going to hope for the best and thank God that I have warrantly left on it!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Lost Foam

One of the classes I am taking here at Purdue is MET 143. It is class about different metals and materials that are used to cast and mold things. It is called Materials and Processes. It pretty much teaches you what different metals and ceramics are used for, and what type of molding processes are used to make them. For example, die casting and lost foam casting. I think it is a really cool class because we get to do a lot of hands on stuff in the labs like welding and pouring hot melted metal into molds we made.





For the lost foam project, we were given a block of foam and had to carve out any design or object we wanted. What you do is take the finished foam carving, and bury it in a special molding sand and then pour the molten aluminum metal into the mold.





What happens is that the 1600 degree aluminum disintegrates the foam, turning it into nothing but steam, which is released into the vent hoods we work under. The melted metal takes the shape of where the foam used to be. After it cools down you can remove the solid piece from the sand. You then have the metal version of the foam shape you carved out.





The design I decided to go with is the running Mustang emblem. I sketched an outline of it on the foam and just used a knife to cut it out and it didn't turn out too bad really. I actually missed the lab last week where we started the casting process, so I probably will only be able to finish it if I do it on my own time. But if not I will just have to keep my foam carving of a Mustang. Either way I thought this was a cool project.



This by far is one of my favorite classes that I am taking. So far we have made a propeller, and a pulley by making green sand molds of them. Right now we are actually learning how to weld which I think is really cool because I have never done it before. So I actually learn how to do a lot of new things in this class. That's why I'm in college right?

Friday, February 13, 2009

TRANSFORMERS


So most of you have probably seen the movie Transformers before. If you have then you know about all the cool effects that seem to make robots able to turn into all kinds of cool cars. One of these robots, named Barricade, transforms into a Mustang cop car. Personally this is one of my favorite parts of the movie.


Anyways there is a man by the name of Jesse Vigil who ownes a 2007 mustang. He also has a young son that loves the Transformers movie. One of his son's first toys was the Barricade mustang from Transformers. Well he got the great idea to make his Mustang a replica of the one on the movie. He mostly did this to make his son happy. It was just something he wanted to do for his son after he got back from fighting in Iraq. Of course his son loved it. What little kid wouldn't want to ride around in a transformers car?


Jesse didn't see any real problems in doing this to his Mustang, even though it makes his car look like a cop car. He was making his son happy and riding around in a pretty cool car! But you could only imagine what the cops in his area thought.



The police were very defensive about this. They pulled him over several times and threatened to give him a ticket. But they couldn't technically give him a ticket because he wasn't trying to impersonate a police officer. As long as he doesn't try to pull someone over, or enforce the law using his car, they can't really do anything about it. The first amendment protects him from getting a ticket in this case.


I am not real sure where I would stand on this. I can see why the cops wouldn't be very happy about this. But is he really breaking the law? I am going to have to say that as long as his intentions are good he should be allowed to keep the car like it is. It would be different if he was using the car to his advantage and actually impersonating a police officer. But it seems like he just wanted to have a fun car and make his son happy. This is really hard for me to make an opinion, just for the fact that I can understand both sides to this story. In the end, I think they should just leave him alone as long as he is not bothering anyone.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Another Ticket..This Sucks!!!

I am terrified of being pulled over, like many other people. When a cop gets behind me I look in my rear view mirror more than I look at the road in front of me. I know this is normal for a lot of people, but I haven't always been like this.



Last March I got my first ticket. I was driving on a two lane highway and there was a car in front of me with a mattress on top driving under the speed limit. As usual, I was in a hurry and I went around them. It was a perfectly legitimate pass. I waited until no cars were coming and the yellow line was dotted on my side. When I pass someone I usually do it as fast as possible because it can be uncomfortable to be on the wrong side of the road. Little did I know there were a couple of cops up ahead waiting for a speeding car to go by.



Well I got clocked while I was passing the car. How messed up is that? Honestly, who doesn't speed when you do this? I'm pretty sure everyone who does this wants to get around the car as quick as they can. That seems like the safest thing to do anyways. I honestly didn't know they would give you a ticket for speeding when passing a car like this. But he claimed that he could. This seems a little unfair to me. I sped up to about ten over, and when I got back over I slowed back down. Anyways I got my first ticket that night and was not very happy about it at all.



I have finally decided that I have bad luck with cops. I got pulled over again two weekends ago on highway 52. This time I can see why I got pulled over. I was doing 77 in a 60. I honestly didn't think I was going to get a ticket because the police officer was being so cool about it at first. He spent the first ten minutes talking about sports, and how he liked my car, and he even joked around about me being on my way to see my girlfriend. But when he came back to my car he had a ticket in his hand. I was extremely let down, because I think I said "please don't give me a ticket" about 200 times while I was waiting for him to come back to my window. And well, the rest is history. I now owe Tippecanoe county 130 dollars.



Now this one I could not believe. Last weekend I was on my way back here to Purdue. I had just left my girlfriend's house and turned on to the main highway and as I did I saw a cop going the opposite direction I was going to go. This reminded me to drive the speed limit. Next thing I knew I had flashing lights in my mirror. I was confused because I didn't do anything wrong that I knew of. Well he claimed that I had a headlight out. I told him to take another look and he did. Sure enough I didn't and he let me go on my way. I just thought it was ironic to get pulled over for nothing a week after getting a ticket. So OK, they win.... I will drive the speed limit!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Black on Black?

OK, so I mentioned in the last entry that I busted one of my new rims. I'm not quite sure yet what I want to do as far as replacing it. My options are to keep the ones I have, get the other one fixed or replaced, or to wait a while and buy a new set. I think that I want to keep the ones I have for now and eventually get a new set of rims.



I was looking around, and there are endless sizes and styles and finishes. It is really hard to pinpoint which would look the best. At first I wanted to go with chrome on whatever design I decided to go with. But the more I looked into it, the more I've started to like black.



The ones in the picture above are about what I'm looking for. They are not too flashy and they still have that torque thrust, muscle car look, which is kinda what I want to go for. I can't make up my mind about the black on black deal though. I think it will look good, but can't make a decision. So I was wanting to hear some of your opinions on this. If you have an opinion about this just leave me a comment about it and tell me what you think. I would really appreciate it.

Busted!!!


I had my car for about three months before we moved into our new house. It just so happened that one of my new neighbors had just bought a new Mustang GT around the same time as me. I was instantly amazed when I saw his car. He didn't just have a GT, but a Saleen supercharged Mustang GT with a sick body kit. Not to mention the twenty inch chrome mirrors he had for rims. The whole car just looked simply amazing to me. I know this may make me seem unappreciative of my new Mustang, but I have to admit I was jealous!





Well to get back to the point, he had just bought these new twenty inch chrome torque thrust rims for his car. So what was wrong with the ones that came on his car? Nothing at all. They were eighteen inch polished aluminum (not to be confused with chrome) Mustang GT rims that were an upgrade of the ones I had. So of course I saw them sitting in his garage when I went over to look at his car.



He had seen me drive by in my car and new I had a mustang too, so he mentioned the fact that they would look pretty dang good on my car. Which is exactly what I was thinking the whole time. And the funny thing is, I new he would try to sell them to me, and I was hopping that he would try to.



They were in perfect condition seeing that he only had the car for a few months and wasn't even using them anymore, so I was definitely interested. My dad tried talking me out of it of course. That didn't work though, I was already set on them. I went a few weeks without really showing much interest in them, and then later found out that my dad had bought them from the guy as an early Christmas present. I was PSYCHED! I rushed over to his house right after school and he helped me put them on. And I was impressed. I liked them a lot, and I got my dad to admit that they looked good too. That took a lot for him to admit that I was right.



Well the whole point of this story is so I can tell you want happened a few weeks ago. You may notice that the rims on my car in the pictures are not quite the eighteen inch polished aluminum ones that I was so proud of. Tragically, I was driving along in pretty bad icy conditions, and I started to loose control of my car. Right as I turned my wheel to save it, I hit a pothole. Of course I hit the pothole with my wheels turned to the side. The end result did not make happy at all to say the least. The right front rim hit the pothole at an angle, therefore the rim itself not the rubber, hit the concrete crater that was positioned nicely in the middle of the road. It busted a piece out about four or five inches long. The piece completely broke off.

There was really not much I could do about it. It actually happened on what used to be Walmart property. Which was then sold to our local Metropolis mall. And right before this happened they sold it to some random company in Texas I had never heard of. So I gave up on trying to blame it on private property owners. Luckily I still had my original rims and tires still sitting in my garage with brand new Perelli tires on them. So ideally I am using them now. I will probably look to get my busted up rim fixed or replaced this summer. But the ones I have on now are starting to grow on me a little bit, so who knows I might just settle for the ones I have on now.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

What it takes to keep her clean


Like I said, I spend a lot of time cleaning my mustang. Its hard to keep up on it seeing that its black, but it can be done. Since I clean it so much I have used my fair share of car products. Well you should see the back of my trunk. It looks like the car care isle at Autozone back there.


Some of the products I use seem to do better than others. And a lot of similar products do about the same job as far as wax goes. Usually I use Mothers car wax. If not Mother's then I use Meguiar's wax.
Sometimes when I'm in a hurry I just use the quik detailing spray wax by Meguiar's. It usually does a pretty good job of getting rid of all the annoying water spots you can see on black cars. This is usually good when I'm in a hurry and want to go over to the car show with a clean car. It takes about a half an hour usually versus the two or three it would take me to actually wax and buff which I always do by hand. As far as tire shine goes I always and have only used Black Magic. It does a pretty decent job so I stuck with it.
One of my favorite car cleaning products I use is the Mr. Clean Auto Dry car wash kit. It works pretty well. It doesn't get rid of all the water spots, but it definitely helps. Plus it is a lot faster than the soap and water bucket deal. It has everything you need in one hand held hose attachment. But since i wash my car so much i go through a few filters pretty fast, but they are not to expensive.
Just like the outside, i try to keep the inside spotless. I always just use the Armor All interior care wipes. They are the fastest and easiest way to do it, and they work. I also own a portable vacuum that can be plugged into the car outlet. It is pretty small so I have to dump out all the dirt often, but it is better than using those ones at the car wash I hate so much.
My last line of defence I use for washing my car is the all so famous Mike's car wash. That is usually what I do in the winter time when it is too cold to hand wash. I used to never do this until last year. I never liked taking my car through the auto car washes because I can be a freak about swirl marks, and one of my friends told me that they leave them on your car especially if you have new black paint. Swirl marks are just thin surface scratch marks that can be left in your paint, but usually can be buffed out. I finally gave up on worrying about that. I would rather not wash my car outside when its twenty degrees. That is no fun at all. I just can't wait until summer. That way I can get outside and actually enjoy cleaning my car, inside and out. This is actually one of my favorite hobbies on days that I have nothing to do.

Monday, January 26, 2009

My Baby!!!

Well I've had my 2006 mustang since June of 2006. It was bought brand new and I have been in love with it ever sense.


I have loved mustangs ever sense I new what they were pretty much. Mustangs are by far my favorite car. I love everything about them, especially the new s197 (05-09) body style. This is my favorite, maybe its just because i have one. But mostly because they are made to resemble the older mustangs from the 60's and 70's.



Yes my mustang is a v6... and I do get crap about it believe me. Mostly from my buddies who ask why I didn't get a v8. But I have learned to laugh it off. Never the less she is still my baby! I love the GTs of course, but I'm glad I have a v6. Its not the fastest car in the world, but she'll still get up and go. Fast is the last thing I need right now anyways. I've already had one ticket in the past year and sure don't have the extra hundred and fifty bucks to dish out again. Gas mileage is better and insurance is a hell of a lot cheaper too.



Black I think is definitely the color of choice for a sports car. I would pick black over anything, because when its clean nothing can touch it. But that's WHEN ITS CLEAN. So I do spend a lot of time cleaning it. It gets washed a couple times a week especially in the summer. In the winter I kind of give up because its next to impossible up here to keep it salt free. I also wax it probably once a month at least. So I stay on top of it usually. Black Ice is what I decided to call my car. I think the name fits it, especially when it is all cleaned and has a nice coat of wax on it.