Feburary Contest.....

[Sluggo]

Tell everyone your story. How you got into Mustangs. What Mustangs you have/had. Does wife/family participate... add pictures as you see fit.
Prize this month is a StangFix t-shirt in XL. Remember, these are stories. Three or four sentences ain't gonna cut it.

I am working on a cool prize for the next contest. Contest ideas are welcome from all members, however, PM me with ideas. I would like for this board to stay on topic.

 

[Liz]

How I Got Into Mustangs - by Liz Hensley

My first car I purchased on my own was an '89 Honda CRX. Little pocket rocket, loved it. Fast forward to marriage, kid, responsibilities. Got a stereotypical sedan. Kid got to be old enough to no longer need a car seat, husband said, let's get you another fun car. So we test drove the WRX STI, Audi A4, 350Z (not kid practical, but fun), G35 coupe and sedan, Tiburan for the hell of it, Acura TSX, and then one day he saw an '03 Mach 1 sitting at the local Honda stealership. He said, let's go test drive that. Why the heck would I ever want a rear wheel drive car, said I? He drug me over there and I sat in the driver's seat. Started it up. Went all stupid giggley at the sound of that Shaker, and nailed it coming out of the parking lot with a nice fishtail to the right. That was that. I wanted a Mustang. We went to the upcoming car show to check out the new concept Stang, loved it, but had to wait for pricing to be set. Saved our pennies, finally started searching early 2005 for a car. Had an awesome dealer rep find my car 4 hours away and he trailered it back himself. I thought it was the shit just stock and swore I'd never change a thing about it, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That car has changed my entire life. I went from being a very introverted person who hated change and stayed in the same place for 40 years, to someone who loves road trips to nowhere, and moved several states away from home to enjoy a new social scene that revolves around a car that equals a way of life. Wouldn't trade the Stang, or the changes its made in me, for anything.

My 13yo daughter enjoys it too. All the boys at school wanna ride with me sometime. Not gonna happen. But she does go with me to most of the Niftee 50ees shows here. And she's saving her money to buy her own Mustang when she turns 16 .

This is where I should say "The End", but it's really just the beginning.....

 

[Midlife]

A very long story. My parents got divorced when I was a sophomore in HS, and moved out away from my HS, so I needed a car. Found a '63 GTO sixpack (no!), a Corvair van (no!), but a buddy had a 65 GT coupe he was selling for $900. OK...Dad bought it, and I had that car from 1970 through 1978, when I lost it when a '47 Willys Jeep rear-ended me as I was waiting to turn left on a busy street. I loved that 65 GT: it was reliable as all hell, and I learned how to drive, drift, and "ahem" other things in it.

For the next 20 years, about once a month I had a dream about that '65, and I would wake up in a cold sweat and couldn't think about anything else the next day. One day in 1998, I was riding the bus home in DC, and saw the exact same car going by on the freeway! Damn...I thought...I now have lots of money...why not buy a Mustang and see if I can get rid of these damn nightmares?

A couple of months later, I found on the internet a 66 fastback in Virginia Beach, and called him up, saying I would be right down (4 hour drive!). Uhhh...he said, he was going out to dinner...how 'bout tomorrow? Done! Went down, found the car in reasonably good shape, drove it, and bought it for $10.5k. Said I would pick it up in one week after I fly down from DC. After I picked it up, went to VA DMV, got plates, and got onto the freeway. About an hour from home, an awful rainstorm began, and the car was very wet inside! Uh oh...

Time went on, as I began to fix little things and remembered all that I could about these old cars. SWMBO thought it was a Midlife Crisis (it wasn't), and she named it. I didn't mind, as there are advantages to being old. Anyway, since the day I bought it, those awful nightmares went away never to be viewed again. Meanwhile, I picked up wrenching after a 20 year absence and I never looked back. Best decision I ever made!

 

[Sluggo]

Cool stories.
I'm gonna dig this thread.

 

[tarafied1]

My story (and passion for Mustangs) begins in 1966. When I was born the doctors were suprised that I had blue blood.
My Grandfather had just bought a new 66 T-Bird with a 390 and I came home from the hospital in that car. seen here after my dad bought it from him...

notice the small block Ford laying upside down on the ground! My dad eventually bought the car for my mom so we had it a while. My dad wanted a Mustang when they were new but settled for a used 64 Falcon Sprint 260 4speed. seen here with me and my mom... dig those shades

My dad was a gearhead so the Falcon was pushed to its limits many times. In fact, once he melted a piston racing a Corvette (he did beat it too). So I was watching him and handing him wrenches since the time I could walk. My dad later traded the Falcon for a 69 Torino (seen in the first photo behind the bird). In this photo you can see the Bird and the Falcon with my mom, dad and older sister...

At some point my dad finally got his Mustang...

He has had this car for a very long time.
Now I grew up watching my dad work on his own stuff and bring cars home from guys at work to fix them and make a few bucks on the side. I usually got to test drive some of them, I was my dad's shadow. Once he bought a 66 coupe parts car for the engine when he broke a timing chain in the 69 Torino and bent all the valves. After he pulled the motor he was going to junk the Mustang because it was rusty. I used to sit in that car everyday after school looking at my mom's 66 T-Bird and thinking about the styling similarities between the two. I begged my dad not to junk it but we couldn't keep it. I was only 5 or 6 but my passion for Mustangs was fueled even more as I hoped that 66 would be mine! It wasn't to be. Well of course I collected 1/25th scale models and majority were Mustangs. I had mustang books and posters. A lot of my toys were Mustangs. Everything led me to dream of Mustangs, for example, I walked to school growing up and there was a 67 coupe that sat in a driveway that I walked past every day. I wanted that car. One of my dads friends was a Ford nut and he bought new cars every few years. One day I got to ride in a brand new 71 Mach1. As a kid it was awesome. It was red with black stripes. Between my dad's Fords, uncles, friends, etc. the fever only got worse. By the time I was 13 I had worked and saved enough money that I could seriously consider buying a real car. I scoured the classifieds and went to my dad on many occaisions with an ad and said how about this one?!? My mom and dad weren't ready for me to drag home a car at 13 but by the time I was 15 I had worn them down. I found a 67 coupe that had been hit in the front for $500 and another that was rear-ended for $75. The one I saved is seen here...

In a relatively short time with help from my dad, my older sister's boyfriend (who is now my brother-in-law) we turned it into this...

My dad's Torino seen in the background.
It wasn't long and I decided I wanted a winter beater to prevent wear and tear and rust so I found a 67 Fasback for $500 seen here...

The fever was intensifying! The fastback seamed to good to serve as a beater so it was replaced with a 72 Torino...

I kept my 1st 67 coupe until I was about 25. I had moved into an apartment and had to get rid of many of the cars I had collected. :cry My first car was still my pride and joy, here it is seen sitting outback of my apartment...

Well I had a good job now and wanted to buy a house but I didn't have enough for the down payment. A guy I worked with had a 67 coupe that he wanted me to restore (I had developed a reputation as a Mustang nut fixing and working on the cars of guys I worked with as my dad had done). I just didn't have the time to do a full resto so we worked out a deal. My 67 had a heavily modified 302 (306) with 289 HiPo heads, 2.02/1.94 Chevy Valves, 12.5:1 compression, 750cfm Holley, etc.,etc and other mods like disc brakes, a C6 for a small block, a narrower Maverick rear so the 50 series tires would fit under the lip of fender and so much more. He agreed to buy my car if I swapped in his rebuilt stock 289, C4, rear axle and stock exhaust and in turn I bought his stripped rusty 67 for $650.00. My baby was gone but I still had a Mustang! I sold my modified small block, headers and other goodies to fund some sheet metal and I replaced the floors, quarters and so on shortly after getting the car. I had aquired a stock 460 from a T-Bird and it was under my work bench so in it went. I drove the car like that for many years. I upgraded the brakes before a lot of aftermarket stuff was available. I had Granada spindles and Versailles 9" rear as this was the hot ticket in the 90's. Here is a before and after...

notice my dad's 66 in this pic and my brother-in-laws 72 GTO thru the windshield...

In the mean time I bought an 85 GT 5.0/5speed as my daily driver (which my X ended up with and totaled) and life happened.

I got married, had my 1st son, then she left and I was a single dad. I remarried a few years later and we had two more boys. I have been relocated for my job 3 times, moving to different states. The car spent a lot of time in storage. At some point someone poured water in the 460 (long story). When I tried to rebuild it, the block was beyond repair. I called a guy who said he had a 429 with 4 bolt mains for $500! Needles to say I snagged it. Well more time past and in 2004 I went to the Chicago Auto Show and saw the 05 Concept Mustang and told my wife that day, if Ford makes that car, I WILL buy one! She agreed and I was happy. In 05 we moved again. My car was back in storage. We went to our local Ford dealer and GT's just could not be had. I wasn't going to settle for a 6 banger for my first new Mustang that I would probably own forever. I was pretty down that we couldn't find a GT 5 speed. We decided to wait untill the craze died down as dealers that were getting GTs were marking them up. In the fall of 05 a company picnic was planned that included an employee car show. Many asked if I would bring my Mustang so I got it out of storage. My wife said we should at least make it one color so we primed it grey (I couldn't get anymore red oxide by this time). Here is a pic at the company picnic car show with a coworkers 70 Boss 302 (he's owned it since 74)...

My wife said to me, "why don't we finish your car instead of buy a new one?" and I said I wanted to Shelby-ize it and it would cost a pile of money. My favorite car ever was a 68 Shelby GT500KR and I wanted to make mine look like a 68 Shelby. She said okay. ep She even got so into it she did the seats and headliner. I had seen the Eleanor in the remake movie and decided rather than a 68 Shelby nose, I wanted the Eleanor nose. in 2006 I got it...

The car had a lot of rust still and we had to replace the front frame rails and aprons, etc.
I can't paint so I enlisted a local shop to paint the shell in 07...

I took it home in October 07 and put it back together. After all the years of dragging it around, storing parts in it and on it and dreaming of what it could be it was finally a car again. Funny story about being finished (almost). My wife always gave me a hard time about the door handles (or lack of them). Since I took all the chrome off right away and it wasn't painted for so long, it had cable ties hooked to the linkage and sticking out in order to open the doors. Once it was painted I waited to put the handles on untill it was buffed so I still had the cable ties sticking out of the holes in the doors. She thought I would never put door handles on it! Well I finally did and we are all enjoying the car now and I have taken it to a few car shows, I even won Stangfix January car of the month! Here is a picture at the Nashville Autofest...

I still don't have a newer Mustang and things are tight so it could be a while yet. We have talked about getting an 07 to go with the 67. We are also looking for another project Mustang to build for her so let me know of any leads. I have bought and sold a few basket cases and we are still looking for the right one. Well there is a lot more details to the story but I think I covered the highlights.

 

[Dne']

Good write up Tarafied! Memories!!
I don't have any photos to share from way back. Then didn't realize how unique cars were!
In about '75, I had a '65 GTO(actually a Lemans with a GTO front end on it, 326, 4 speed hurst/munice tranny, positrack), . I wasn't much in to fixing cars back then though. After that I had a '67 Cougar, 289/ac/ps/pb. I really enjoyed that car. I had paid 600.oo for it and drove it for a couple years. Never a problem with it either!
A first Mustang came about when my brother bought a '67 Mustang coupe/vinyl roof/upper/lower consoles. We put air shocks on the rear to put his larger tires on. I loved that car and he traded it in on a Spitfire~ they gave him 500.oo trade in(this was about 1977)(Funny to think now, it was only 10 years old then!). He just showed up one day in the spitfire~ I would have bought the Mustang from him!

Many years pass, divorce, and finally on my own(2 girls too), I got into sportbikes~ did trackdays for about 5 years and then realized time to give that up. I did most of my own work, except for major engine problems, couldn't afford shop labor prices so Had to learn to do stuff myself. These were probably the most exciting times of my life. I had many sportbikes! Got married and then things got much better!

I told my husband that I wanted a project since not into the sportbike scene anymore(I still have my leathers, may do a trackday sometime soon). So, I told him I wanted a early Mustang as I thought they were the sexiest machines on the road! So be it! And that's where I'm at now, meeting new people, learning, fun! :bow That's pretty much just the short version! lol
dne'

 

[Sluggo]

Wow!.

This was a good Idea.

Way to raise the bar Tarafied! :toot

 

[tarafied1]

Wow!.

This was a good Idea.

Way to raise the bar Tarafied! :toot

Thanks, I think it was a good idea too. I love to hear about this stuff. Some neat stories here. Way to go Sluggo! Now I know where the Sportbikechick name comes from! Lookin' good there on the bike dne!

 

[Sluggo]

My Mustang infatuation started in the late 70's. My older brother had a 66 coupe with a 289 4speed. The 289 was balanced, blue printed, had all the shit done to it. He scraped every bit of seam sealer out of it, canned the rear seat, etc. the rear quarters were cut to run Mickey Thompson N-50s without jacking it up. The cam was so radical that the thing vibrated the front fenders so much it cracked the fender wells at the top of the wheel arch. What I remember most about the car was when you rode in it you could not carry on a conversation. When you did try to talk it sound like you had an artificial larynx. That car slaughtered almost everything in town.

In the 80's I got the Trans Am fever and had many of them. By far my favorite and nicest Pontiac was a 73 Formula 455.

Sick to death about having to sell the Formula in the 90"s to finance life, I hung up the cars for a good while.

I had a 69 Grande in the early eighties. I kinda wish I still had it. It was a 302 4 speed car. In 86 I had a chance to buy a 69 Mach1 428 4speed car for 1200.00 but did not have the coin.

In 2001 after having a heart attack at age 36 I decided to "treat myself" to some things I've been missing. I started looking around for something. Pontiacs were bringing stupid money and still hard to find parts for. I settled on a new Mustang. On my 37th birthday I strolled into the Ford store, picked out a red 2002 Gt premium and rolled out with it. Just a few weeks later a friend of a friend was looking for a college car for his daughter. I had a 2000 Toyota Echo I was selling and he wanted the car. The deal was he had little cash and did not want to make payments. He did have an old Mustang he would be willing to trade. As luck would have it he lived less than a mile from my house. I went by and checked it out. It was a grabber yellow 71 Mach1 with numbers matching engine, trans, etc. We made a deal. I gave him the Echo (I payed 3800.00 for it with 120,000 miles) he gave me the Mach and 3 g's :boo

The car had some rust and some minor issues but was 100% there. I did a whirlwind redo on it and by March of 03 it was standing tall. It scored 85 points in the 03 Houston Mustang Nationals in street driven class(if I had a spare and jack I would have got in the 90s) and won Reilly's nostalgia award at Fun Ford that same year. Shortly after that I sold it to help pay for No.1 daughter's first year of college and traded the 02 GT in on her Corolla. :cry

I wrote off hot rods again. gave away all my Mustang stuff and said F@!k it!
Then in January of 05 I was hunted down by my now friend Chuck to redo his 67 that some idiot messed all up. I was recommended to him by a friend that knew what went in the 71 and by a local Mustang vendor. Chuck was very patient, I went through that thing like it was mine. I debuted it at the Mustang vendor's place(Mustang Mania) and was immediately recruited to do his 69 Boss 302.

Ask Fast68back about his ride in this car op

Doing Chuck's car led to the purchase of the 69 I now own. He actually purchased the car from a friend of mine and we quickly struck a deal.

Last but not least there is my dentist (now he is anyway) Met him a local cruise when I had the 71 and he fell in love with the car. He owns a 69 Boss 302 and a 70 Boss 302 clone which I have also been recruited to do. It is in my garage patiently waiting it's turn. He will let no one else do his car. He's been waiting 3 years. He is into Ford GTs right now anyway so they are getting all his attention.

 

[Fast68back]

I wanna see a picture of the echo..... :zip

Here is my story. My dad purchased my current Mustang when I was only three or four years old, around '72 or '73. His intention was to install his balanced and blueprinted 427 in it and drag race it. He had pulled the motor from his race car ('64 comet caliente) around '66 or '67 the car was sold but dad kept the motor, trans, rearend and fairly elaborate header setup. The car sat in my parents garage for years, I remember sitting in the drivers seat shifting the Hurt T handle from the toploader. I also learned a little bout girls in that car, seems dad kept his playboy collection stashed in there as well! :nice

The first "garage" (my dad had the driveway widened so he could work on more cars inthe driveway

When I was in third grade my family moved into a new house and my dad moved the car to the new house where they had built a four car garage. About the same time my dad had a Ford van that needed an engine. We were looking through junkyards and came across a wreck ford truck that had less than 5k miles on the 302. I helped my dad pull the 289 out of the Mustang (it had 53K miles on it) my dads van got the 289 and the Mustang got the low mileage 302. About the same time dad got a little more involved with the Mustang, he cleaned up the Mustang, installed an edelbrock manifold, holley carb, some nice valve covers and a set of crager mags. I remember riding in the car around the block and the smoke coming out of the heater core. My dad decided to keep this car and find another race car. I remember two other fastbacks sitting in my grandmothers garage and driveway (later he would also buy a couple '64 Falcons to put the motor in). My mom drove the mustang to work one day while dad worked on her car. She parked the car out front of where she worked and while she was at lunch, the car was stolen. Days later the car was found sitting behind an abandoned house. All the bling bling was taken from the motor, the wheels and tires were gone as well as the thieves cutting out the vin number and tearing off the dash tag. A set of tires were rounded up and the car was towed home. I remember helping dad push the car in the driveway while mom steered. She could turn it fast enough and hit the corner of the garage, bending the front bumper. Dad was already pissed about the car being stolen and this definetly didnt help any. The car would sit in the garage until '82 when we moved from Connecticut to FL.

The second "garage" (Three car garage and the third bay was two deep, that was my bedroom above the garage)

My dad unloading the car from the trailer in FL

Shortly after the move my dads friend was down for bike week and the two of us wore him down and over a weekend we got the mustang fired up and drove it to a gas station over by the daytona speedway (little did I know I'd be draining this same gas 20 years later..). We drove the car home and parked it in the same exact spot, where it sat for a few more years. In '84, when I turned 15 I started looking for a car. I knew it would be a mustang, I just hoped it would be a '68 fastback. My dad wouldnt budge on selling or giving me the mustang. My mom took me to look at a black '66 fastback with red interior. it was a nice car, just not the '68 that I desired. Two days later I found it and it was about three streets away from the '66 we had just looked at. I paid $1800 dollars for her.

Here she is the day I brought her home.

The car sat in the garage, right next to my dads mustang. The car was originally a lime green metalic 302 automatic car. It had been repainted dark moss green ('67 color) the highland green sure looked a lot better. I got my drivers license on a wed, the day I turned 16, I had secured a job at winn dixie the day before. Sat was my first day of work and I was pretty proud to be driving to work in MY 1968 fastback! On the way home from my first day of work a Toyota 4X4 rearended my car when it hydroplaned in the rain. The owner had no insurance. I was screwed. My folks stepped up and paid the get the car repaired and repainted. To save some of the costs, my dad took the decklid and qtr extension from his car to use on mine. The quarter was repaired and the car pinted candy apple red!

That summer I changed jobs and worked as a bus boy at a seafood restaurant. I made really good tip money and ordered a set of centerline wheels. I ordered them COD from Summit and by the time the rears arrived, I had the cash to pay for them, then I ordered the fronts.

Two years later, I join the military and after boot camp and A school, I drive the car out to texas where I drive the car a few more years and then park the car "to work on it", I ended up dragging it around everytime I moved.

You can see it waiting patiently in the background of this picture, this was my '90 LX.

I eventually sold the car in '95 to help finance a wedding. (stupid, stupid, stupid)

Move ahead a few more years ('01), no more mustang and now no wife....... I actually got rid of two mustangs for her, the '68 and another LX, this was was an '89, traded it in to get her a new Dodge Avenger.....

In '02 while attending a good guys car show I decided I wanted a project car and called my parents to tell them I was ready for the Mustang. They replied with "Great, you can help us move while your here" Picked up Abby in Sept of '02... man had the years been rough on her,

but shes looking a lot better now:

 

[daveSanborn]

Whew, you guys are a tough act to follow!

As a HS kid back in the late 70's I owned a couple muscle cars, namely a '68 Formula 400 Firebird and then a '65 GTO. I resurrected and maintained both of these cars throughout HS on the typical shoestring budget. Immediately after HS I sold the Goat (my GF at the time needed a car to drive) and joined the Marines. Moving around the country/world every 3-4 years was tough to hold onto any kind of project car for very long, but I always seemed to find some kind of fun vehicle to wrench on. First it was an old '58 Chevy Apache, then Jeep CJ's, then Chevy SWB trucks.

In 1998 I returned to the states from a 4 year tour in Japan and my military career was winding down. Knowing that I wouldn't be subject to anymore cross-country/world relocations I began the search for a muscle car platform to get back into the hobby of working on cars. I found some pretty good candidates; an almost completely stripped down '68 vert Firebird for $600, a driver '67 RS Camaro for $1500 and a '72 'vette with no drivetrain for $1200. The owner of the 'vette was an interesting character. He was a US Customs agent living in a high-end suburban neighborhood. By all outward appearances, the front of his house looked like any other on the street.... immaculate landscaping, sprinkler system, palms, rock gardens and architechural lighting. Stepping into his backyard was a completely different world. 6' stone privacy wall surrounding nothing but desert dirt/sand and a few tumbleweeds rolling around about a dozen muscle cars. He wouldn't part with a couple Chevelles I was interested in, but instead steered me towards a '70 M code Coupe that was 100% original and complete. If I'd have rebuilt the gummed up carbuerator I probably could have driven her home that day, but I showed up with a trailer and $1000 the following weekend and hauled her home.

I proceeded to strip the car down to a shell, had a body shop owner neighbor help me with my first paint job and rebuilt the car from the ground up. The '70 351C 4V quench chamber motor came out of the machine shop as a beast and the car was a blast to drive.

Shooting in a dart league at the local watering hole one weekend my GF (now my wife) came in after work asking me where I'd parked because she didn't my see my '70 in the parking lot. I finished shooting the game of darts and then went to double check that my car was where I'd left it. As it turns out, it wasn't and I never saw the car again.

I knew of a disassembled '67 Coupe that could be easily had and rebuilt, so I bought and did another ground-up rebuild. I was just about finished with this car when I found and pursued the purchase of a '68 FB. It took me a good 6 months dealing with among other things a language barrier (spanish/mexican), but I finally drug the FB home for $450 and started another groundup build. All of these cars were rust-free desert southwest cars. Life is so much easier when there is ZERO metal damage/degradation.

I timed my military retirement to start with a government contracting job offer and moved back east in Feb of 2001. I drove the '68FB across the country in a self-portrayed remake of Vanishing Point completing the trek in around 34-35 hours. Looking back at it, I don't understand how I didn't manage to get thrown in jail, nevermind a speeding ticket. I remember tooling across the ungodly width of Texas on I-20 averaging 110 miles an hour. Arriving on the east coast I got settled into the new job and then flew back to AZ to get the '67 Coupe and my GF.

These Mustangs are long gone now and many more have come and gone as well. I suppose I could just as easily be "Chevelle" guy or a "Camaro" guy, but that first '70 made quite an impression.... plus... I have WAY TOO MANY spare/leftover parts to even consider working on anything other than a classic Mustang now!

 

[70_Fastback]

... who won?

 

[Sluggo]

... who won?

Is the month over already?

Tarafied won.

 

[tarafied1]

:bow :toot :cool ep bj :naug :crazy :conf :doh :danc