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Responsible Mustang Ownership (caretaking)

Horseplay

Horseplay

I Don't Care. Do you?
Donator
Often when I am working on my car I find myself thinking about the repercussions of my alterations as it relates to the originality of the car. While I very much want to make it safer with modern upgrades I don't want to do so at the expense of it's heritage. To that end, I don't do anything that cannot fairly easily be made to be stock again. More so, I spend a huge amount of time (and $$$) to make any changes blend in to the point many people would not even know it wasn't stock. It also makes it less apt to go out of style.

The other thing that I simply will never compromise on is quality. Again, this is more about respecting the car. Nothing upsets me more than seeing hack quality work done on a classic car. Be it shoddy workmanship, the use of cheap parts, or tasteless modifications it really bothers me to the point of getting angry. Great Stuff has no place in an old mustang! Old white guy so go figure ;).

Anyway, am I alone in this? It may seem weird but I don't think I as much own my car as much as I am the current caretaker. When completed I expect it to last at least another 50 years and worked very hard in building it to give it that chance.

Thoughts?
 
I'm kinda like that, regardless of car, but I'm no purist.
Actually, I'd slap a Toyota 1jz into my coupe just to piss off the purists.
Maybe that's why I want an ecoboost mustang. Still a mustang but speaks to my inner ricer.
 
So I gather filling my cowl with expanding foam to keep the water off my floors is a no-no?

But seriously, I agree with most of what you're saying. At what point does it become a different car that looks like an old mustang?

Having not been around when these cars were still being produced and pristine I have something of a blank spot in my mind as to how they were "supposed" to look. It may be easier for me to lose sight of the original image than someone who grew up with these.

However, I feel as long as the car is yours, you choose your own adventure. Lambo doors? Sure. Big plastic wing? Whatever.
Doing anything like that to a rare car like a boss 429 or Shelby anything like will cause me to wash my hands of you. I have limits to my indifference.

$.02 CAD About 1.499644 US pennies. You still have pennies, right?
 
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.
1970-Ford-Mustang-with-mid-engine-Ford-GT-V8-01-1024x768.jpg
1970-Ford-Mustang-with-mid-engine-Ford-GT-V8-04-1024x768.jpg
 
The biggest craze now is the "no f&%$ given". Piece of crap car, with crappier mods, and even crappier paint. The owner usually gets all butthurt when someone calls it crap(pointing out the obvious), and their supporters come out with "haters gonna hate" and such to fuel their circle jerk of justifying their poor taste and lack of funds. Seems to be the thing amongst 18-25 yr olds.
 
I really don't have issue with a heavily modified car provided the craftsmanship is top notch. Typically, that means the design has some serious effort and thought behind it to produce something very cool...like the car Craig posted above. Eleanor is a perfect example of a very sharply done ride (the Great Foam guy's, excluded!). It took a Ford/Shelby car and improved upon it without losing it's classic essence.

Lambo doors and wings are perfect examples of mods that should NEVER be done to a classic Mustang. Not because of some purist notion but simply because they just don't fit the car. Actually, Lambo doors on anything but a old Lamborgini just look stupid anyway. :D You want to build a Ricer...use a Honda for your starting point. I get that a car is some guy's property and he can do what he wants with it. Hard to argue that point except that when the guy chooses to destroy a classic it seems to cross a line. At least to me. We can say that there were hundreds of thousands of 60's 'stangs made but how many are left today? Seems we have some level of responsibility to honor the cars is what I'm saying.

I got on this whole tangent due to lack of sleep being up very late last night and back in the garage pre-dawn this morning designing and building the templates to finish off my trunk. I REFUSE to drill any holes in any stock metal to make mounting brackets and such. Going to use the roll bars as attachment points. This all started building a framework to hold the battery back there. Now i have to hide it. It never ends, right?
 
Well , my european thoughts , it doesn't matter to me what people do with their car.
Everybody is different and each one has his style.
That makes it so beautiful .So many different styles on the same car.
Makes life colorfull.
Some people don't have the extra cash to clean it up or modify it.
They are happy owning a classic mustang.
my 0.02 eurocent
 
My fastback was stock except for the TKO and hydraulic clutch. The rear was an 8" with a traklok in it. The gauge cluster was autometer.

All boltons.

My 67 has a T5 in what was a 4 spd car. It too has a hydraulic clutch. I am doing the front end with basically stock parts because money is an issue. Well Mustang money. I am adding front disc brakes.

The gauges are JME autometer black with white lettering. If you didn't look close you would think it was stock. The shifter looks like the stock 4spd shifter.

The car is what Amber wants. Looks stock with a few modern mods.

Both cars are 'C' code cars. To me it doesn't much matter what is done to them or a 'T' code car.

All the rest I would feel a responsibility to keep them as stock as possible.

When I get around to working on the Camaro I intent to swap in a six spd and paint it a stock color but not the one it came with. The rear will likely get a positive installed in the ten bolt and the interior was the deluxe stock and black and since I like it, that's how it will get redone. I hate the gauge cluster so that will get switched.

Again a standard car so the cowl hood and rear spoiler are no big deal. All boltons.

So if this is being a caretaker, then great, but I wouldn't hesitate to make either car exactly what I want and when I'm gone whoever has it can do the same.

Mel
 
I am certainly not a purist. But I agree about certain mods being too much.

A lot of people won't like that I put a 5.0 in my car and that's ok. 70 verts are rare, but not the most desirable. So it's not like I wrecked a boss or anything. And I made sure everything I did was removable and left a lot of stock stuff on the car if I ever go back to the original. I also kept every part i took off and tagged and bagged it all.

When I first bought the car I did start off using cheaper parts, but quickly learned I had to do them twice.
 
To me, it depends on the car. If it's headed to the crusher and you save it, then anything you do to it is acceptable. If it's all original in good shape and you weld the doors shut, tub it and cut a hole in the hood for the blower on the BB Chevy to stick out, you have gone to far.
 
I don't know what to think about that.
Part of me wants to light it on fire, and another part of me wants to dip it in barbecue paint and just go with it.
That body kit screams something. I don't know what.
Looks weird without front seats. Maybe it drives itself like a tesla.
Started out as a '66 maybe?
 
RapidRabbit said:
View attachment 28566
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Pat makes a VERY good point! Someone spent a LOT of money and time to screw that up. Craftsmanship from photo looks good but that destroyed all of what made it a Mustang. But it is probably no harder to fix than mine was. Replace every panel!
And Terry makes a good point or points. And I completely understand not wanting to drill hole in virgin metal. I've done it but didn't want to
 
The colors are wrong as are the wheels. No front seats is likely due to a need for a wheelchair.

To each their own. That can all be changed back.

Mel

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk
 
Tough crowd.

I guess now wouldn't be the appropriate time to say I'm in the middle of adding the Lambo doors huh.
 
Bad taste aside, the thing that really upsets me is just simply crappy workmanship. This video link
shows something that is pretty common. In this case it's work done by a "shop" that has made things worse than before they started. The poor owner is obviously not very handy but even he knows the work is shit. This same kind of stuff gets done in guys home garage's all the time as well.

Welding and many other tasks involved in restoring or modifying a car require special skills, sometimes honed by years of practice to become competent. Drives me nuts when a guy buys a cheap flux welder at Harbor Freight, brings it home, plugs it in and proceeds to butcher the metal work on a car. I bought such a POS and spent months learning how to get it at least to the point I could manage a respectable weld (in terms of integrity...it/I could never make something purdy). I finally dumped that POS and bought my Lincoln and can tell you every penny spent was worth it. Point being, I took the time to learn enough to do the job right and not do a hack job. I get that maybe some guys don't have the cash to buy a more expensive (better) tool. But for the money wasted on the POS welder they more than likely could have found a guy at a local cruise night or off Craigslist who could have done the welding for them for about the same amount of cash.

All too often you see people doing things that either immediately, or in time, do more damage to their cars by trying to do stuff on the cheap or simply rushing into something they can't handle. How many times have you seen metal that should have been fixed by removing rust that instead someone bought a "rust converter" type product and simply coated it and covered it up? Guess what, odds are more than great that the rust is still there and getting worse. Kills me. By taking a little extra time, maybe a few more bucks, it could have been done right and the problem not left to rear its ugly head down the road.

I hope I'm not coming off as some arrogant ass on this subject. Shut up {.}. I could just as easily be writing about home improvement work where it is even more about the patience and skill on a job than the money spent to get a quality, long lasting result. I just can't stand to see something butchered when doing it right doesn't really take that much more effort. For me, as much as the pride in the finished product, I really enjoy, and am proud of the fact, I learn new skills in the process. And best of all, my car doesn't have to suffer the pain and embarrassment of shitty workmanship!
 
Do it right or don't do it. But we have to learn somehow. I did my quarters, floors and a bunch of other stuff for the first time almost 30 years ago. Ground more off than I welded on but I got better. There were some jobs such as welding the frame rails I hired out because my welder wouldn't penetrate heavy gauge. I have since bought a bigger welder and I did a front frame swap on my 65. Anyway, I hear you loud and clear.
 
That's why I paid someone to do my frame rails. I know my limitations at this point. Well with it to me to have it done right.

someday I will get a welder and Learn, but i don't want to learn on a classic rust bucket. I'll start on a few small projects and scrap cars etc.
 
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