Anybody use the Forel Ford manuals?

[ThePoose 37]

I was looking at downloading them. From the limited images it looks like the Mustang Parts and Body Illustrations might be pulled from the 5-volume Car and Shop Manual. Or is the Parts and Body all a person really needs? Just don't want to pay for both if I don't need them. Thanks. 

[Midlife 814]

I believe the squarebirds website has the Master Parts Catalog available for free downloads.  If you want an individual Shop Manual, then Forel is the place to go.  Forel's certification process is cumbersome and not trouble-free; at least a few years ago.  I believe they've upgraded the process.

[kblagron 20]

I have been using both the Mustang Assembly Drawings and the Forel Shop Manual for my build.  Quality of the images for both are average, and sometimes not even average.  The assembly drawings are great for putting things together (i.e. dash, tail lights, electrical wiring, etc.) , but I have used the Shop Manual to rebuild the tilt steering column and put the engine together from the block up.  The paper copy of the assembly drawings came with the car, but I went ahead and purchased the electronic (PDF) version to make searching for things a bit easier - I bought it from NPD.  Lots of things you would think would be in body are in chassis, or chassis in electrical, etc. and an electronic copy allows you to find it somewhat faster.  

[ThePoose 37]

Thanks for the answers!

[Rich Ackermann 174]

Yes all the time. I have seven of their CDs... Somehow I lost my original 1973 Colorized Wiring & Vacuum Diagrams, but I have a backup. The Forel manuals are good for Electrical and Vacuum details, and another CD with Parts and body illustrations, but to my knowledge, Forel does not have Engine Assembly. You have to get the shop manuals for that and other things. I have the Shop Manuals from David Graham Auto Literature. Forel also has on CD The Ford Master Parts Catalogs (MPAC), which  are packed with parts and numbers by year, model, etc, but are very cumbersome to browse thru, best to use the PDF search function. Finally, there Assembly illustration manuals published by Jim Asborn. There are also helpful, but the pictures are sometimes very faint and hard to read. I prefer a digital copy so I can zoom in on sections.

One more comment on Forel, years ago Forel required you to install software called PDF OwnerGuard License Manager to install the CD on you r computer. This software was always malfunctioning and preventing access to the manual. I would have to call them to get  it fixed, but fortunately they did away with it a few years back.

 

I say you can never have enough Information....:-)

 

[ThePoose 37]

Thanks, Rich. Good info. It looks now like they've moved away from the CDs and are all flash drives or ebooks, which I figure are PDFs. My computer doesn't even have a CD/DVD drive. 

 

 

[Rich Ackermann 174]

On 4/28/2023 at 8:37 PM, ThePoose said:

Thanks, Rich. Good info. It looks now like they've moved away from the CDs and are all flash drives or ebooks, which I figure are PDFs. My computer doesn't even have a CD/DVD drive. 

 

 

Yep.. I"m still old school. My son keeps telling me nobody uses CDs anymore. I slowly have converted many of them to digital on a computer.