AtlantaSteve
Active Member
I'll go ahead and throw down too!!!
When I was 16, my dad came to me and said that he was going to buy me a car. Now some kids are given their cars, some kids have to work for them. My mom, a High School teacher, had seen SO Many kids who came into class with so much promise and aplomb, fall apart after they got the first job to pay for their car. So my mom's rule was "You don't work when you're in school." And she told my dad if he wanted us to have cars, he'd have to pay for every cent. Gas, Insurance and the Car.
So he sat me down and told me we'd start looking, but that the max he would pay was 3000 dollars. This was 1992.
Earlier that year, we had gone to a Mustang Car Show, and I just fell in love with the mustang plate. I really really liked them, and figured that with 3k the best I'd get is an earlyish Fox Body, and I was happy with that. But being practical, my search included several other cars. 1980's Thunderbirds, 280ZXs, Toyota Supras. Things along that line.
After a few months of searching, we started going to an Auto Auction outside of Atlanta on Friday nights. We really had a lot of fun sitting it and test firing the cars, and then guessing what they'd go for, and watching the bidding. One afternoon, as we were walking the lot before the auction, we came across a 1966 Red Coupe. The Body was fair, the Interior was beautiful, the engine bay looked OK. Neither of us knew ANYTHING about cars, especially mustangs, but I thought back to that car show, and decided this was a GREAT car for me. We got in, fired it right up, sounded good.
So when bidding started, we knew to keep an eye out for that mustang. As she started across the block, my dad asked "So you really think you want something like that?" I said "YEah, that'd be so fun!" and as the bidding progressed, my dad kept nodding. He got to around 1500 and I started getting cold feet and whispered to him, "stop bidding!" but he either didn't hear me, or chose not to hear me. The bidding got to 1800, and nobody else would bid. The auctioneer turned to the seller and said "1800 on the table, you take it?" The seller said nothing. It was obvious he wanted more, but he never could say either way. The auctioneer asked 2 more times, each time the man sat there stone faced with that "I dunno" look. The auctioneer said "Well, then I'll make your mind up for you. SOLD!"
After we did our test drive to make sure the vehicle met the house rules (No major work to the front end, transmission or engine required) and my dad put down 2100 bucks (auction fees) he climbed into the car, handed me the keys to his work-minivan and told me to follow him. I drove home that night staring at the tail lights of that car not believing what was happening. I was giddy and nervous and excited. We stopped at Waffle House to grab dinner, and my dad called my mom from a pay phone. I heard him say "Yeah, we bought a car. Well...Why don't you just wait til we get home to see it." Her draw dropped as dad pulled up in this shiny red mustang. It was, without a doubt, one of the greatest nights of my life.
My car and I had an off and on affair through highschool and college. There were so many times where it would let me down. I remember one day, after trying so many different things to keep it running, I ran out with my mom to a furniture store in the mustang, and when we got back out, it wouldn't start. I screamed an obscenity and threw my keys at the ground. There was one of those little 3 foot plastic tape measures on my keychain at the time and it broke, the coil and tape measure springing out all over the parking lot. I swore that was IT! I was through with the Mustang, and I had no interest in ever seeing it again!
But I finally got it lit, drove it home, and a day or two later, I was over being so mad. Some point towards the end of college, I decided it was time for a new motor, so I had a well known old-school engine builder in Columbus build me a 5.0 l from an 80's mustang, and after the build was done, we swapped the engines. The old engine donated a lot of parts to the new one, like the oil pan. When we pulled the pan off, the oil pickup was bent, mashed up almost into the crank. How the HELL that car ran so long without a submerged pickup is beyond me. One of my buddies who was helping with the swap said "Man, the only thing keeping that motor going must have been Love."
I still wonder if it somehow got bent during the removal of the oil pan. *I* didn't remove the pan, so I can't be sure.
After the new engine got in, I started having overheating problems. I still would drive the car, and tried various different things, but I was just never happy with the operating temperature. Soon after I moved to Atlanta to start my job, and left the mustang behind. The friend who said the car was "running on love" had my brother drive it over to his house to put under a carport in his back yard, and it sat there for years. In the meantime I met my wife got married, bought a house, etc.
One day I was at home in Columbus, and my brother said he was going out for a while. He called the house and told my mom we all needed to come outside. I asked my mom why and she said "He bought a car." WHAT? Well we went outside and I hear the rumble off in the distance. He brought the car around the corner and said "That dumb SOB bought a Mustang? OH MY GOD! THat's MY MUSTANG!" He and his buddies got together and figured out what was going on with the overheating (Bad head gasket) and fixed up a few things on it for me, and got it running again! I was SO excited! Again, one of the best days of my life. I drove the car for the last time I've ever driven it, and then parked it.
But I didn't trust it to drive it to Atlanta, so I parked it under a car-shed my dad had built, and left it there another year or so.
I had kept telling my wife I was going to bring it up to start working on it, but I just never did. I was so sure the hauling fee would be ridiculous. But I decided to give it a try, and found uship.com. I put up a request for bids, and within an hour had got a bid that was so low I couldn't believe it. The guy did weekly trips between the two towns, and anytime a bid for car transport came up, he'd make an offer, because he was going that way anyway, and always had empty bays on this trailer. So I took the bid, and a couple of weeks later, my car showed up:
http://stevesmustang.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-mustang-arrives-home.html
Since then I've been working whenever I find the time or money to do anything. It's slow going, but it's going none-the-less. With Monkeystash's help, I've redone the floorboards, and I've done several other odd jobs that I could whenever I had the right combo of time and money. Right now the front suspension and steering are all completely off the car, and I'm still putting together parts to get everything replaced in the front end.
My current plans are to have a ratty looking mustang for now (that's just how she looks) but one that will stop, steer, corner and that drives. MAYBE in a few years, I'll do it right, but for now, I just ache for the day I get in, start her up, and drive around the block.
When I was 16, my dad came to me and said that he was going to buy me a car. Now some kids are given their cars, some kids have to work for them. My mom, a High School teacher, had seen SO Many kids who came into class with so much promise and aplomb, fall apart after they got the first job to pay for their car. So my mom's rule was "You don't work when you're in school." And she told my dad if he wanted us to have cars, he'd have to pay for every cent. Gas, Insurance and the Car.
So he sat me down and told me we'd start looking, but that the max he would pay was 3000 dollars. This was 1992.
Earlier that year, we had gone to a Mustang Car Show, and I just fell in love with the mustang plate. I really really liked them, and figured that with 3k the best I'd get is an earlyish Fox Body, and I was happy with that. But being practical, my search included several other cars. 1980's Thunderbirds, 280ZXs, Toyota Supras. Things along that line.
After a few months of searching, we started going to an Auto Auction outside of Atlanta on Friday nights. We really had a lot of fun sitting it and test firing the cars, and then guessing what they'd go for, and watching the bidding. One afternoon, as we were walking the lot before the auction, we came across a 1966 Red Coupe. The Body was fair, the Interior was beautiful, the engine bay looked OK. Neither of us knew ANYTHING about cars, especially mustangs, but I thought back to that car show, and decided this was a GREAT car for me. We got in, fired it right up, sounded good.
So when bidding started, we knew to keep an eye out for that mustang. As she started across the block, my dad asked "So you really think you want something like that?" I said "YEah, that'd be so fun!" and as the bidding progressed, my dad kept nodding. He got to around 1500 and I started getting cold feet and whispered to him, "stop bidding!" but he either didn't hear me, or chose not to hear me. The bidding got to 1800, and nobody else would bid. The auctioneer turned to the seller and said "1800 on the table, you take it?" The seller said nothing. It was obvious he wanted more, but he never could say either way. The auctioneer asked 2 more times, each time the man sat there stone faced with that "I dunno" look. The auctioneer said "Well, then I'll make your mind up for you. SOLD!"
After we did our test drive to make sure the vehicle met the house rules (No major work to the front end, transmission or engine required) and my dad put down 2100 bucks (auction fees) he climbed into the car, handed me the keys to his work-minivan and told me to follow him. I drove home that night staring at the tail lights of that car not believing what was happening. I was giddy and nervous and excited. We stopped at Waffle House to grab dinner, and my dad called my mom from a pay phone. I heard him say "Yeah, we bought a car. Well...Why don't you just wait til we get home to see it." Her draw dropped as dad pulled up in this shiny red mustang. It was, without a doubt, one of the greatest nights of my life.
My car and I had an off and on affair through highschool and college. There were so many times where it would let me down. I remember one day, after trying so many different things to keep it running, I ran out with my mom to a furniture store in the mustang, and when we got back out, it wouldn't start. I screamed an obscenity and threw my keys at the ground. There was one of those little 3 foot plastic tape measures on my keychain at the time and it broke, the coil and tape measure springing out all over the parking lot. I swore that was IT! I was through with the Mustang, and I had no interest in ever seeing it again!
But I finally got it lit, drove it home, and a day or two later, I was over being so mad. Some point towards the end of college, I decided it was time for a new motor, so I had a well known old-school engine builder in Columbus build me a 5.0 l from an 80's mustang, and after the build was done, we swapped the engines. The old engine donated a lot of parts to the new one, like the oil pan. When we pulled the pan off, the oil pickup was bent, mashed up almost into the crank. How the HELL that car ran so long without a submerged pickup is beyond me. One of my buddies who was helping with the swap said "Man, the only thing keeping that motor going must have been Love."
I still wonder if it somehow got bent during the removal of the oil pan. *I* didn't remove the pan, so I can't be sure.
After the new engine got in, I started having overheating problems. I still would drive the car, and tried various different things, but I was just never happy with the operating temperature. Soon after I moved to Atlanta to start my job, and left the mustang behind. The friend who said the car was "running on love" had my brother drive it over to his house to put under a carport in his back yard, and it sat there for years. In the meantime I met my wife got married, bought a house, etc.
One day I was at home in Columbus, and my brother said he was going out for a while. He called the house and told my mom we all needed to come outside. I asked my mom why and she said "He bought a car." WHAT? Well we went outside and I hear the rumble off in the distance. He brought the car around the corner and said "That dumb SOB bought a Mustang? OH MY GOD! THat's MY MUSTANG!" He and his buddies got together and figured out what was going on with the overheating (Bad head gasket) and fixed up a few things on it for me, and got it running again! I was SO excited! Again, one of the best days of my life. I drove the car for the last time I've ever driven it, and then parked it.
But I didn't trust it to drive it to Atlanta, so I parked it under a car-shed my dad had built, and left it there another year or so.
I had kept telling my wife I was going to bring it up to start working on it, but I just never did. I was so sure the hauling fee would be ridiculous. But I decided to give it a try, and found uship.com. I put up a request for bids, and within an hour had got a bid that was so low I couldn't believe it. The guy did weekly trips between the two towns, and anytime a bid for car transport came up, he'd make an offer, because he was going that way anyway, and always had empty bays on this trailer. So I took the bid, and a couple of weeks later, my car showed up:
http://stevesmustang.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-mustang-arrives-home.html
Since then I've been working whenever I find the time or money to do anything. It's slow going, but it's going none-the-less. With Monkeystash's help, I've redone the floorboards, and I've done several other odd jobs that I could whenever I had the right combo of time and money. Right now the front suspension and steering are all completely off the car, and I'm still putting together parts to get everything replaced in the front end.
My current plans are to have a ratty looking mustang for now (that's just how she looks) but one that will stop, steer, corner and that drives. MAYBE in a few years, I'll do it right, but for now, I just ache for the day I get in, start her up, and drive around the block.
