March of 2002, I had just got out of school and was about 3 months away from being off probation and was sitting at the firestation with the guys and the gone to 60 seconds movie was on. So much time had past since I wished as a teenager that I could own a mustang. The 429 boss was on the first magazine cover that I bought as a youth. In between thoughts of pretty girls at school, beer and cars were on just about every teenage boy brains it seems and mine was no different.
My best friend at the time had a '66 mustang coupe with a 289 2v auto in it robin egg blue he called it and it had light blue interior. The sheer number to alcoholic beverages, other substances and girls in the car was amazing. Spilled beer and vomiting in the Detroit winters were so nasty. We were sixteen at the time. Life was oh so good.
The next year, I was dating this girl at the time that had a white VW rabbit and since Craig saw that she was at my house, he located a used toilet that someone was throwing out so he placed it on her car. It actually looked like a plumbers company car. Priceless to say the least. When we heard something outside, I came out to see the toilet and the familiar taillights and sound of his car speeding away. She said did you know that guy and I said no. The payback was placing the toilet in his swimming pool the next night.
So back to my story, I remembered that I always wanted to buy one and if I could find one, that it had to be a fastback. I asked my wife about it and she said OK but you need to pay cash for it. I started looking at them scanning the internet, autotrader and any other way possible. I even would ask people what was in their garage when I was at their homes on calls just to see what they were working on but no Shelby or fastback or any kind. I wanted to find the holy grail of mustang in a barn but it never happened.
I saw one on the VMF '65 K code fastback apart and the price was right. 7K for it. It was down in Sacramento. Very doable. I could drive down that night and be back before my wife would suspect anything. The night before I was to leave I get a call from the owner that he wanted to keep it. Like Homer Simpson the #$!%%$!! Two weeks later, I looked at one locally, Shelby clone, that was priced a little higher than what I was looking to spend and it needed interior work to finish. The body was done, no rust and I had to fix the front apron. I made the deal and as I was driving back home to arrange for rims/tires for it. Three days until the rims would be here. I got a lead on another one. Brian Benthin came with me on this one. A 53K documented, original engine car that was in drivers condition. A couple of rust spots in the doors but I could enjoy it for 5K less than what I was going to pay. I could do it the way I wanted to which was a bigger plus. I paid the guy 2 days later and now I have to figure out how to get it home. Now what do I tell the misses?... beg for forgiveness for what I was about to do...
It was like that song Money, money, money money...money!! It was rainy money all right. Suddenly the car was about to become a money whore right in front of my eyes. I drove the car for 2 months and put on 2K miles. What a blast to drive. Everyone gave me a wave, smile or decided to talk to me a complete stranger. I was that guy. The most interesting man in the world. I placed new rims and tires on her and it looked like the bomb. Wait a minute, I thought to myself it has the original engine. I need to build a new engine and store the original one. 5500 dollars later and 73 miles of travel, the POS engine died and there it sat in my garage until I did something. I had changed out just about everything on the car and one problem after another. The misses was getting restless now. I was spending more time on the car and less on her so she said. Honey I don't need to feel like I have to be right next to you to be with you. I'm in the same house. At the same time,I told myself to I would not give up or do a crappy job not me so I kept working on it. Eventually upgrades occurred. Suspension, brakes, rear end, shocks, interior, music, exhaust, differend rims and so on. I gave up keeping track of the overall spending amount for it. I tore it down once more to finally restore the car while I went looking for a good ford engine builder.
My wife started to get on me about the car either fix it or sell it. She was into her third baby so my big mouth opened up to words that will forever live to strike me down for years to come and they are "You know what Julie?" No what... " The mustang and you are similar and quite a bit different. I love you both but the biggest difference it that the mustang doesn't bitch..." The inside voice was not going to be denied this time but the rest of me was for a while.
Back to the engine builder search. Luckily I found one and told my sob story to him. He agreed to build it for me and now I needed 6K for it. I began to sandblast, repair and paint her and it was my first time spraying a car. It looked good but it was such a long process. I had to do it on a day that I got off work with little sleep and hoped my brain function would allow me to continue. I was up for 40 hours. Once I was done, I collapsed. Walked away for a few days to get over how tired I was then the task of wet sanding, buffing and replacing everything back on the car. What the crap is that I said... there I saw a black spot on the pass side hood stripe. About the size of a very small piece of black pepper. That cannot be. No way was I going to work this hard and see a flaw. That's where it gets ugly. I tried to fix the spot, but it grew bigger and bigger. Suddenly, I was in a shartstorm and no one to blame except for me. I ended up painted the hood 8 times over a period of 7 days and my frustration level exceeded any expectations that I may have developed. I took a break from the car. I had gone 4 years tearing it down twice, painted it the next year and burned out for the final 4 years. I made it my goal in December of last year to finish my car that way I wanted to do it. I bought a watts linkage and somehow needed to fix the clutch. I had done everything myself so asking for help or hiring it out was a sense of pride... so I swallowed it and am glad I did.
I took it to a shop last week and had the clutch fixed, the once over was done and he cleaned out the carb. The car comes back on Wednesday and I can begin the finishing touches on it. I am more juiced about working on it that I cleaned out the garage yesterday and HAD to take my wife shopping. I mean when she heard that I was spending money on the car, now I suddenly had to spend three hundred at Costco for crap we already had...
I still have about 4 days of work left and it will be done. My kids are excited and so am I. It is alive! :beer
My best friend at the time had a '66 mustang coupe with a 289 2v auto in it robin egg blue he called it and it had light blue interior. The sheer number to alcoholic beverages, other substances and girls in the car was amazing. Spilled beer and vomiting in the Detroit winters were so nasty. We were sixteen at the time. Life was oh so good.
The next year, I was dating this girl at the time that had a white VW rabbit and since Craig saw that she was at my house, he located a used toilet that someone was throwing out so he placed it on her car. It actually looked like a plumbers company car. Priceless to say the least. When we heard something outside, I came out to see the toilet and the familiar taillights and sound of his car speeding away. She said did you know that guy and I said no. The payback was placing the toilet in his swimming pool the next night.
So back to my story, I remembered that I always wanted to buy one and if I could find one, that it had to be a fastback. I asked my wife about it and she said OK but you need to pay cash for it. I started looking at them scanning the internet, autotrader and any other way possible. I even would ask people what was in their garage when I was at their homes on calls just to see what they were working on but no Shelby or fastback or any kind. I wanted to find the holy grail of mustang in a barn but it never happened.
I saw one on the VMF '65 K code fastback apart and the price was right. 7K for it. It was down in Sacramento. Very doable. I could drive down that night and be back before my wife would suspect anything. The night before I was to leave I get a call from the owner that he wanted to keep it. Like Homer Simpson the #$!%%$!! Two weeks later, I looked at one locally, Shelby clone, that was priced a little higher than what I was looking to spend and it needed interior work to finish. The body was done, no rust and I had to fix the front apron. I made the deal and as I was driving back home to arrange for rims/tires for it. Three days until the rims would be here. I got a lead on another one. Brian Benthin came with me on this one. A 53K documented, original engine car that was in drivers condition. A couple of rust spots in the doors but I could enjoy it for 5K less than what I was going to pay. I could do it the way I wanted to which was a bigger plus. I paid the guy 2 days later and now I have to figure out how to get it home. Now what do I tell the misses?... beg for forgiveness for what I was about to do...
It was like that song Money, money, money money...money!! It was rainy money all right. Suddenly the car was about to become a money whore right in front of my eyes. I drove the car for 2 months and put on 2K miles. What a blast to drive. Everyone gave me a wave, smile or decided to talk to me a complete stranger. I was that guy. The most interesting man in the world. I placed new rims and tires on her and it looked like the bomb. Wait a minute, I thought to myself it has the original engine. I need to build a new engine and store the original one. 5500 dollars later and 73 miles of travel, the POS engine died and there it sat in my garage until I did something. I had changed out just about everything on the car and one problem after another. The misses was getting restless now. I was spending more time on the car and less on her so she said. Honey I don't need to feel like I have to be right next to you to be with you. I'm in the same house. At the same time,I told myself to I would not give up or do a crappy job not me so I kept working on it. Eventually upgrades occurred. Suspension, brakes, rear end, shocks, interior, music, exhaust, differend rims and so on. I gave up keeping track of the overall spending amount for it. I tore it down once more to finally restore the car while I went looking for a good ford engine builder.
My wife started to get on me about the car either fix it or sell it. She was into her third baby so my big mouth opened up to words that will forever live to strike me down for years to come and they are "You know what Julie?" No what... " The mustang and you are similar and quite a bit different. I love you both but the biggest difference it that the mustang doesn't bitch..." The inside voice was not going to be denied this time but the rest of me was for a while.
Back to the engine builder search. Luckily I found one and told my sob story to him. He agreed to build it for me and now I needed 6K for it. I began to sandblast, repair and paint her and it was my first time spraying a car. It looked good but it was such a long process. I had to do it on a day that I got off work with little sleep and hoped my brain function would allow me to continue. I was up for 40 hours. Once I was done, I collapsed. Walked away for a few days to get over how tired I was then the task of wet sanding, buffing and replacing everything back on the car. What the crap is that I said... there I saw a black spot on the pass side hood stripe. About the size of a very small piece of black pepper. That cannot be. No way was I going to work this hard and see a flaw. That's where it gets ugly. I tried to fix the spot, but it grew bigger and bigger. Suddenly, I was in a shartstorm and no one to blame except for me. I ended up painted the hood 8 times over a period of 7 days and my frustration level exceeded any expectations that I may have developed. I took a break from the car. I had gone 4 years tearing it down twice, painted it the next year and burned out for the final 4 years. I made it my goal in December of last year to finish my car that way I wanted to do it. I bought a watts linkage and somehow needed to fix the clutch. I had done everything myself so asking for help or hiring it out was a sense of pride... so I swallowed it and am glad I did.
I took it to a shop last week and had the clutch fixed, the once over was done and he cleaned out the carb. The car comes back on Wednesday and I can begin the finishing touches on it. I am more juiced about working on it that I cleaned out the garage yesterday and HAD to take my wife shopping. I mean when she heard that I was spending money on the car, now I suddenly had to spend three hundred at Costco for crap we already had...
I still have about 4 days of work left and it will be done. My kids are excited and so am I. It is alive! :beer
