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My Inner 16 year old is smiling

AtlantaSteve

Active Member
I got my car 17 years (and one month) ago. I was 16 years old. I had recently been to a Mustang show where there were tons and tons of beautiful mustangs. You know, the show cars up on displays with mirrors under so you can see the pristine floorpans. They were beautiful cars. And it just made me think the Mustang was the greatest car of all time. I told my dad that day "All I really want is a mustang."

now when I said that, I was expecting if I got one, it'd be a fox body. I figured a classic was out of range. But that was fine. I just wanted the pedigree. One night my dad and I were at a public auto auction, and one of the cars was this red 1966 mustang. It was no show car, but it started up good, drove well, sounded pretty cool, and the interior was nearly spotless.

So the car comes up to the block and my dad starts bidding. When he crossed 1500 I got nervous, and mumbled "stop bidding." By some grand gesture of the cosmos, he didn't hear me. He finally won the car at 1900 (+200 to the auction) and less than an hour later he was pulling out of the parking lot with me following behind in his car. To say I was stoked would be an understatement.

The car and I had our ups and downs, but I swore I would never sell it. 17 years later, it's still mine.

The FIRST thing we noticed that was wrong with it was that when you shut the driver's side door, it overlapped the rear window. We looked at it for a while, tried to nudge the window where it belonged, but it knew where it was staying...right in the way of the door glass.

We knew nothing about cars at all, nothing about classic mustangs, and had no idea how to fix it. Everyday in highschool I'd drive to school, slam the door, Then use my fingernails to pull the rear-glass back so the front glass would pop into place. I remember thinking "one day, I will fix that."

Well. I have been putting scoops on the side of my car, and that required removing the rear regulators, tracks and glass. So I pulled all that out about a week ago. Tonight I finally put the Driver's side window back in (got the bloody hands and knuckles to proove it) and spent the time adjusting the tracks JUST right. I rolled the driver's side door glass up and slammed the door. A perfect fit.

When I said to myself "one day I'll fix that." I had no idea I'd be 33 with 2 kids when it finally happened. But tonight?? It's fixed.

Thanks, guys, for keeping me motivated. My inner 16 year old thanks you too.

Steve
 
yes, great story indeed! Glad to hear this stuff, I know I have spent a LONG time working on mine too and it's nice to know even as life happens, the dreams can still come true!
 
Great story Steve! you really have a lot of sticktoitiveness.
 
Nice story. Pretty similar to mine. Seems we are on similar missions. I got my 65 Coupe when I turned 16. Here it is 18 years later and I'm almost ready for paint. I wish I drove mine more when I got it but being a know it all 16 year old, I thought I was going to do a concours restoration after just one summer of cruising around. Only good thing is I didnt get a chance to wreck the car as a stupid teenager. The restoration has turned into a restomod project and will hopefully be roadworthy sometime summer 2010!
 
Great story!!
I got my 67 convertible in 1994 , drove all together maybe 1 mile and noticed a thing , repaired it , noticed another thing , repaired it , noticed a lot off other things and decided to strip the entire car.Fast forward , 2009 , now the car is media blasted , waiting to weld the panels on it.Must say , that over the years i have collected a number of parts so when the body is painted??? i have almost everything to put it together.
You are not alone taking things several years.Isn't it guys?
 
"gotstang" said:
BTW is that thing driveable?

Well...technically "yes." Practically, No.

It's a 6 cylinder car with a 302 in it. NONE of the suspension or steering or braking upgrades have been done (Except I put in an 8" while in HS).

I haven't started it in a while. I want to put a new fuel tank and new line all the way to the carb. Probably need to rebuild the carb (bet there's varnish in it) and change the oil, and coolant, flush the cooling system, top off the tranny, Prime the oil pump, And I bet it'd fire. and if it fired, it would move. Last time I parked it the tranny was strong.

I figure with a day or so of good work, I could get it to light. It's been sitting two years without a firing, so my BIG concern is a stuck piston.

However, I have made an oath never to drive that car on the street again without new brakes/steering/suspension. So for now, it just sits. I have been toying, lately, with the idea of getting the engine back to a lit state. I'm not sure I want it (or it's fluids) to sit much longer, and it'd make moving it around a heck of a lot easier.
 
Thats a great story.

My dad told me we were going to restore a classic when I was 16, but it never happened back then.
 
You might be surprised, it'll probably fire with no stuck pistons, etc. I parked my Dad's '68 not long after he passed. Gonna restore it next year was my thought.

Eight years later, I put new gas in it, and it kicked right off. Burned no more oil than it did when I parked it; lifters clattered, then settled down. Amazing that it did as well as it did.

My first car (at 17) was a 6 cyl '67. Dad and I spent many hours working on the car. Great memories.
 
"AtlantaSteve" said:
Tonight I finally put the Driver's side window back in (got the bloody hands and knuckles to proove it) and spent the time adjusting the tracks JUST right. I rolled the driver's side door glass up and slammed the door. A perfect fit.
Steve

Oh now that is a pet peeve of mine. I had a 69 sportsroof that I bought when I was in the Air Force stationed in Florida. Typical crappy 69 door windows and a Mustang that was a little rusty so the doors did not close right. You had to slam them just right to get closure. To this day I hate slamming the door closed. I yell at my daughter all the time because she will slam the door on the '07. I like the sound of a door being closed just right. Ca cunk. :) fd
 
I noticed that a few times at shows and gatherings. The doors on my '68 shut amazingly well (thanks Sluggo), I just barely push them and they close with that early car Ca chunk, I like to watch peoples facial expressions when they hear it. Its usually followed with a knowing head nod, they know its a classic cars door being closed. Priceless.
 
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