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Responsible Mustang Ownership (caretaking)

It's your car and you can do with it what you like....however, just because you spend 100k heavily modifying your car, doesn't mean it is now worth 100k more than an original. I'll take the original any day.
 
I sure hope if someone drops $100k they make a car all of us would want to own! It's the guy that spends only $100 that worries me.
 
It's your car and you can do with it what you like....however, just because you spend 100k heavily modifying your car, doesn't mean it is now worth 100k more than an original. I'll take the original any day.
I see your point and agree to some extent. If it's a rare or desirable car such as a Mach 1 or a GT with lots of options, maybe original is the way to go, but if it's a run of the mill C code with little to no options, a well modified car will be worth many times more than if it were restored to original. Maybe not what you spent on it but more than original. What the baby boomers want is a car that "looks" like a 60's muscle car but with overdrive, AC, modern sound system, etc. etc. and that's what sells. Again unless it's a rare K code or R code or Shelby. Nobody is going to pay $30K for a a C code 67 coupe with no AC, no deluxe interior, etc. And it will cost more to make it original than build a nicely modified coupe. And even the "original" cars are often "modified" by adding options that weren't factory installed or updating the drum brakes to disc, etc. Not many people actually want an all original car with skinny bias ply tires and drum brakes with a three speed and a 2V carb, single exhaust...
 
I do pretty much what I want. But somewhere in the back of my mind is usually a picture of whoever owns the car after I'm gone peeling back the carpet or something. Then I get the dialog of either "Hey, look how this was done" versus "OMG, WTF is THIS sh$t!". That tends to sort of temper what I do and I'm sure heightens the quality of my work.
Also time and again for some reason I find myself doing something interesting/complicated and mentally instructing an invisible student as I go. Grandma once swore a mild streak of insanity runs in the family. With such movies playing in my head I don't half wonder some times. :)
 
I too view myself more as Jane's current caretaker than her owner. I suspect that Jane views me as a pain in her ass. Regardless, to me that means something different than it means to a lot of other vintage Mustang people, I think.

Being caretaker of this car is all about keeping her in good mechanical condition and running the tires into the ground. Then I buy some more parts and run those into the ground too. The car's been beat on, put up wet, badly wrecked, rebuilt, beat on some more... and I really don't feel a bit bad about it (OK, maybe a little). As she sits she's missing about half the paint off the front valance, has a foot-long crack in the windshield, has "speed chips" in the hood and quarters, and has a pretty substantial dent in one quarter panel. She's not a show winner anymore. But she's also been all over the country multiple times a year - and these aren't careful, meticulous, slow-n-steady trips but rip-roaring all-in adventures in which no road is too pitted, having all four wheels on the ground is not a requirement, and the minimum highway speed is 85 mph. The engine might smoke (really, I wish it would quit doing that) but it runs right as rain and mechanically she is always up for the job. I like to think (hope) that the car would rather be on adventures than be a pristine show queen.

I built my car for me and my vision was modified by Jane as she saw fit. There's a lot of things I tried to do with this car that were just plain rejected (ever killed a power brake booster three times in a year?). I wanted a car that would be great as a modern daily driver but with a very vintage feel. The accessories are upgraded for better handling and the interior is improved for comfort and safety, but I tried my best to hide the modifications I did make or at least made them flow with the rest of the car's design. The drivetrain is all vintage 1964 with a 70's hot rod build. It'll never go back to stock (6 cyl C4 anyone?) and I can't see myself making any other huge changes to her in my lifetime, so I sure hope that my modifications age tastefully and my workmanship proves to be good. I'd be devastated to hear it if someone thought my car was a hunk of junk. I do try real hard to take care of her in my own way...
 
When I bought my '69 convertible in '98, it was a totally stock, numbers matching standard convertible with 87K on the clock. I restored the car to it's former beauty but I also gilded the lily by adding sports mirrors, chrome rally wheels and an OE luggage rack. Sort of dressing it the way I would have bought it in 1969. I converted from the original 2V 2100 carb and cast iron intake to an aluminum Edelbrock 4V setup, starting off with a universal Holley and then a Road Demon. I made a point of painting the aluminum intake Ford blue to disguise the non-stock addition. I've had the engine rebuilt with a .040 over bore, KB flat top pistons, a 351W cam with higher rise and longer duration, GT40P cast iron Ford heads (also painted correct Ford blue) and Ford racing roller rockers. With the hood up at car shows you can't see the Road Demon under the air cleaner and most folks think it is a stock engine unless they notice the custom tri-y headers. I like the idea that I bought a 16 sec. car and turned it into a low 14 sec. car without obviously diverging from the original visual appearance. I might be able to push it into the high 13s, but that would require a roll cage and that would spoil the car's image as your old aunt Freida's car. Damn, I love a sleeper!
 
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well, "Mustang" people seem to hate "Eleanor" so I certainly don't give a hoot about what others think. It's my car. After I'm gone someone can make it how they like or not. It won't matter to me anymore!
I do like Mustangs so I agree, tasteless mods and poor workmanship are no good but again, taste is a matter of opinion. On the other Forums I get the hatred and nasty commenst about body kits and copying someone else and all that but you know, Shelby put on a "body kit" and how many Shelby clones are there!?! So that being said, I agree with your logic but again it's your car. Do what makes you happy. My car was a worthless rusted out 1 of 300,000+ coupes. It would have been squashed if I did't save it. So anything goes!
With all that being said, I really haven't done things that couldn't be undone but I but I can't imagine any scenario where a stock 67 coupe would be more appealing (to me).
I get so many thumbs up, people trying to take pictures while I am driving, crowds gather at the gas station or anywhere for that matter. I drove it to the hardware store two days ago and EVERYONE came out of the store to look at it. So "people" like it too, maybe not Mustang People but everyone else! But I did what I wanted to do and what I liked so if nobody else liked it I still would.
But I must admit I have seen modified cars that almost make we want to barf. Still, it's their car.
One of my favorite cars I have seen was a 69/70 blend with a mid engine. It was radical but so cool. Certainly modified beyond ever going back but way too cool.
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Just sold at barrett Jackson
 
when building a car, any car, one needs to decide first on what direction the car should take. make a plan and stick with it. the next thing they need to do is make everything look like it belongs. for instance, if you are building a restomod, dont put all the little ornaments that ford installed on the car. clean it up and leave those things for the restorer.

in the end, build the car that YOU want, not what others want. and build it using your own sensibilities. if you dont, you end up with something no one wants, including yourself. 1001 custom and rod ideas built a mustang many years ago, they created some dandy and outlandish fender flares, etc. when the car was done, it looked great, and was what the owner wanted. the problem though was that once the owner decided to sell the car, no one wanted to buy it, even though they made offers to buy it and the owner refused.
 
When I first "bought" my '67 from my parents, it was bone stock original. Quite unsafe in Los Angeles freeway driving. I made subtle modifications to help in drive-ability as it was a daily driver. After the wreck, I was encouraged by all my Mustang friends to keep her and get her back and running. It's been a long road and I'm back on track with her. But I'm not keeping it as original as it was. Small, subtle modifications here and there are planned but I still got grief from my parents that I wasn't keeping it original....sheesh.....have they seen the pics? Not much original left on the C-code hardtop......ultimately, I convinced them that safety and comfort were necessary if I was going to take their grand-kids in the car and they just have to trust me that I keep the feeling of the original car.

In the end, it's my car and I will do what I want to it. Taking care of a rare car is a different story as it relates to the history of that brand. Modified cars keep the memory of that model alive but also keep the ingenuity of builders and creativity of the owners much like they did back in the day with deuce coupes and customs of the time.. Nothing has changed....

Build it. Enjoy it.
 
My stang is modified to my taste. Safety upgrades first, then comfort then performance lastly looks. I tried to make all my mods somewhat modest and hard to find. I did not want to mess the the classic look too much but I am enjoying the stang as much as possible.
 
Lambo doors are sooooooo played out they don't even put them on Lamborghini's anymore . . .
 
Lambo doors are sooooooo played out they don't even put them on Lamborghini's anymore . . .
I have a friend who owns a C5 Corvette convertible. It is a triple black car and, for reasons that completely escape me, he decided to put Lambo doors on the car. He had it at a summer show just after doing the doors and he had them open for display with the windows up. Sunlight when passed through the window's curvature and the curvature of the windshield, created a magnifying glass effect that burned a hole in his dash.
 
when building a car, any car, one needs to decide first on what direction the car should take. make a plan and stick with it.

When I bought my '69 vert I promptly started doing things to improve the performance, completely overlooking that fact that the car had four wheel manual drum brakes. After a close call in merging freeway traffic, my wife told me not to do another thing to the car until I made it stop better. She changed my direction and the next mod was a set of '72 front discs.
 
When I bought my '69 vert I promptly started doing things to improve the performance, completely overlooking that fact that the car had four wheel manual drum brakes. After a close call in merging freeway traffic, my wife told me not to do another thing to the car until I made it stop better. She changed my direction and the next mod was a set of '72 front discs.

you still improved the performance, of the brakes. my advice was based what you wanted the end result to though. restomod, full on restoration, full on custom, race car, what ever. each has its own direction to take. where you start building depends on what needs to be done.

for instance if i were building a race car, the first thing i would do is make sure the chassis, suspension, and brakes were up to the task. but i wouldnt start building a race car, and then switch to a restomod, and then switch again to a full on restoration, and then go to a full on custom car.
 
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