Well sorta.
PART ONE: Beginnings
There is no real way to figure out when my “car story� started. My dad has pictures of me right after I'd learned to walk, sticking a screwdriver into the push mower. :rofl At a very early age, I started begging for an old car, and my dad, much to my surprise, actually started looking with me. I didn't really care what it was, so long as it was old, and to this day, I really don't care. I like old stuff.
There are a couple stories I'll leave out so I don't feel like I'm writing a novel, so we'll skip forward to 2001, when I found out that my uncle's hunting buddy was moving and needed to sell his Mustangs. I bought the whole ball of wax after seeing a VCR tape of it all and spent June 10-12, 2002 getting the first one in a little town right outside of Bloomington, Illinois.
PART TWO: The Long Haul
That's where the story really kicks off, and the whole trip there and back was a T_R_I_P, if you know what I mean. We were driving an old Suburban with a 20ft “lightwieght� trailer and a pile of Quadrajunks in the back. For the trip, we suggested the “high-HP� Quadrajunk out of the pile, and it got 8.8mpg empty and 8mpg loaded, but hey, it ran like a raped ape. LOL. My mom was running chase in her Nissan, and we were keeping in touch with a pair of Motorola-knockoff handheld radios.
It was never a dull trip. For one thing, the temp tag on the (rented) trailer blew off at 70mph 100 miles from home. Oh well, write the license number on some cardboard and duct tape the sucker on there, and we're off. All the weatherstripping is shot and the wind is screaming at 70mph? Duct tape that sucker! The truck is noisy because we're doing 70 with no O/D, no insulation, and the axle whines? Headphones to the rescue!
We had left home at something like 6pm, knowing might not make it at a decent hour, so we finally decided to get a fleabag motel room at around midnight. Didn't sleep (who does in those places?) so we got up at 5am and headed out. The rest of the day is a little blurry after this long, but the sight I saw when I rolled the barn door back is something I'll never forget. Two Mustangs, side by side, surrounded by parts...looked like something out of a picture. Spent some time washing my car and exploring the giant pile of “junk� I'd bought and never seen.
Then I had to take a leak, so I walked over to the other section of the barn and rolled open the front door. Damn, there has to be two dozen T-birds in here, from 1958 to 1966. Oh well, I'll pee in the corner anyway. LOL Turns out the PO's brother is a T-bird nut. Who would have guessed? :rofl
So, we slapped the doors on my car, put a couple bolts and some bailing twine on the fenders, dropped the engine and trans back in and winched the sucker onto the trailer. While looking through a bucket for the door backing plates, I remember realizing how shot I was because it was a 16 hour day at that point. Who cares, the parts weren't loaded up yet! Loaded up the ~$20k in new parts, and plumb filled up both cars. Then we made a custom car cover and tied it on tight, before collapsing for the night.
PART TWO & 1/2: It Gets Interestinger and Interestinger
We hit the road for home the next morning, and things were OK until it was time for lunch...parking a rig ain't fun. Hit the road again after lunch and all was well until we got close to the Indiana-Ohio line. By now, we all realized that the "2 mile" rated walky talkies reached a 1/2 mile on a good day, so keeping in touch was *interesting* and filled with static, but we didn't really have too much to say, so it wasn't THAT big of a deal.
Then we hit the tire.
That's right, tire. Semi truck recap to be precise. The Nissan's oil filter hangs low, and it caught that sucker at 70mph. Of course, I didn't know it at the time, and my blood started running cold as soon as the idiot lights started going off. Luckily, I immediately got on the radio for help. Too bad I barely got out "We're ***ed" before they proved just how shitty the radios were and cut out completely.
We sat alongside I70 in Indiana and I swore for 5 minutes straight before I had the courage to hang myself out the window and look. When I saw the oil slick underneath the car and saw it still dripping, I started swearing again. Finally, unable to get anything on the radio, I dug a couple mouse-piss stained Mustang Monthlys out of the "stuff" in the back and read for probably half an hour, before my dad reappeared with the rig.
Apparently, he knew all about the tire, since he hit it too; it had just taken THAT long to get going the other way to find us. I remember getting out of the car and walking towards him before he was even parked, and the first words out of my mouth were "we knocked a hole in the *** oil pan, oh ***". So, we took a look, and damn if it didn't look like it, but it turns out the oil filter bent and unsealed itself, emptying the oil pan at full pressure.
{insert pic of oil filter that i haven't taken yet, the filter is in the broken chit hall of fame in the shop}
So, we went to the next town up the road and bought 5 quarts and a cheapo filter. Sounds cheap and easy right? Well that town was probably 45mins away and the oil change cost $30, but it beats being stuck 250 miles from home. Changed the oil and fired it up, and there was nary a rattle or tap to be heard. Thank you Mobil One for clinging!
So, fast forward to our usual fuel stop at Octa, Ohio and some guy comes up to me and says "hey, what's on the trailer". With a mile wide shit eatin grin on my face, I replied "66 Mustang". He goes "Oh, a secretary's car? Uhh, I mean, not that they're bad, it's just I like my Torino more, its way less common". To date, that's the most interesting comment I've gotten on it. :rofl
Getting the other car
This involved so much less drama it ain't funny. Spring of 2003, my uncle was visiting. Dad took that opportunity to load my uncle's car on the car dolly, hook it to the 'ole Chevy Diesel pickup, and drive out to IL. He came back with coupe #2 hooked to the back of the truck and got 16mpg at 65mph in the process. The only drama there was getting the tires on the car to hold air (new valvestems) and giving it a good wash. :rofl
Anyway, that novel gets us to my house with both cars, which should be enough for now.
PART ONE: Beginnings
There is no real way to figure out when my “car story� started. My dad has pictures of me right after I'd learned to walk, sticking a screwdriver into the push mower. :rofl At a very early age, I started begging for an old car, and my dad, much to my surprise, actually started looking with me. I didn't really care what it was, so long as it was old, and to this day, I really don't care. I like old stuff.
There are a couple stories I'll leave out so I don't feel like I'm writing a novel, so we'll skip forward to 2001, when I found out that my uncle's hunting buddy was moving and needed to sell his Mustangs. I bought the whole ball of wax after seeing a VCR tape of it all and spent June 10-12, 2002 getting the first one in a little town right outside of Bloomington, Illinois.
PART TWO: The Long Haul
That's where the story really kicks off, and the whole trip there and back was a T_R_I_P, if you know what I mean. We were driving an old Suburban with a 20ft “lightwieght� trailer and a pile of Quadrajunks in the back. For the trip, we suggested the “high-HP� Quadrajunk out of the pile, and it got 8.8mpg empty and 8mpg loaded, but hey, it ran like a raped ape. LOL. My mom was running chase in her Nissan, and we were keeping in touch with a pair of Motorola-knockoff handheld radios.
It was never a dull trip. For one thing, the temp tag on the (rented) trailer blew off at 70mph 100 miles from home. Oh well, write the license number on some cardboard and duct tape the sucker on there, and we're off. All the weatherstripping is shot and the wind is screaming at 70mph? Duct tape that sucker! The truck is noisy because we're doing 70 with no O/D, no insulation, and the axle whines? Headphones to the rescue!
We had left home at something like 6pm, knowing might not make it at a decent hour, so we finally decided to get a fleabag motel room at around midnight. Didn't sleep (who does in those places?) so we got up at 5am and headed out. The rest of the day is a little blurry after this long, but the sight I saw when I rolled the barn door back is something I'll never forget. Two Mustangs, side by side, surrounded by parts...looked like something out of a picture. Spent some time washing my car and exploring the giant pile of “junk� I'd bought and never seen.
Then I had to take a leak, so I walked over to the other section of the barn and rolled open the front door. Damn, there has to be two dozen T-birds in here, from 1958 to 1966. Oh well, I'll pee in the corner anyway. LOL Turns out the PO's brother is a T-bird nut. Who would have guessed? :rofl
So, we slapped the doors on my car, put a couple bolts and some bailing twine on the fenders, dropped the engine and trans back in and winched the sucker onto the trailer. While looking through a bucket for the door backing plates, I remember realizing how shot I was because it was a 16 hour day at that point. Who cares, the parts weren't loaded up yet! Loaded up the ~$20k in new parts, and plumb filled up both cars. Then we made a custom car cover and tied it on tight, before collapsing for the night.
PART TWO & 1/2: It Gets Interestinger and Interestinger
We hit the road for home the next morning, and things were OK until it was time for lunch...parking a rig ain't fun. Hit the road again after lunch and all was well until we got close to the Indiana-Ohio line. By now, we all realized that the "2 mile" rated walky talkies reached a 1/2 mile on a good day, so keeping in touch was *interesting* and filled with static, but we didn't really have too much to say, so it wasn't THAT big of a deal.
Then we hit the tire.
That's right, tire. Semi truck recap to be precise. The Nissan's oil filter hangs low, and it caught that sucker at 70mph. Of course, I didn't know it at the time, and my blood started running cold as soon as the idiot lights started going off. Luckily, I immediately got on the radio for help. Too bad I barely got out "We're ***ed" before they proved just how shitty the radios were and cut out completely.
We sat alongside I70 in Indiana and I swore for 5 minutes straight before I had the courage to hang myself out the window and look. When I saw the oil slick underneath the car and saw it still dripping, I started swearing again. Finally, unable to get anything on the radio, I dug a couple mouse-piss stained Mustang Monthlys out of the "stuff" in the back and read for probably half an hour, before my dad reappeared with the rig.
Apparently, he knew all about the tire, since he hit it too; it had just taken THAT long to get going the other way to find us. I remember getting out of the car and walking towards him before he was even parked, and the first words out of my mouth were "we knocked a hole in the *** oil pan, oh ***". So, we took a look, and damn if it didn't look like it, but it turns out the oil filter bent and unsealed itself, emptying the oil pan at full pressure.
{insert pic of oil filter that i haven't taken yet, the filter is in the broken chit hall of fame in the shop}
So, we went to the next town up the road and bought 5 quarts and a cheapo filter. Sounds cheap and easy right? Well that town was probably 45mins away and the oil change cost $30, but it beats being stuck 250 miles from home. Changed the oil and fired it up, and there was nary a rattle or tap to be heard. Thank you Mobil One for clinging!
So, fast forward to our usual fuel stop at Octa, Ohio and some guy comes up to me and says "hey, what's on the trailer". With a mile wide shit eatin grin on my face, I replied "66 Mustang". He goes "Oh, a secretary's car? Uhh, I mean, not that they're bad, it's just I like my Torino more, its way less common". To date, that's the most interesting comment I've gotten on it. :rofl
Getting the other car
This involved so much less drama it ain't funny. Spring of 2003, my uncle was visiting. Dad took that opportunity to load my uncle's car on the car dolly, hook it to the 'ole Chevy Diesel pickup, and drive out to IL. He came back with coupe #2 hooked to the back of the truck and got 16mpg at 65mph in the process. The only drama there was getting the tires on the car to hold air (new valvestems) and giving it a good wash. :rofl
Anyway, that novel gets us to my house with both cars, which should be enough for now.