Bought my '65 convertible in 1980, at the peak of the Carter inflation era. It was what I call a 10 footer.  From 10 feet or more away, it looked pretty good.  Any closer and it really showed it's age.  The guy I bought it from purchased it from the original owner but only had it for a about 3 months.  He installed a new Ford factory longblock, installed new seatcovers and added (I think) '66 wire wheel covers.  He decided that it was more of a project than he wanted to continue with.

I saw it for sale in the parking lot of a strip mall.  It was just what I was looking for.  A pony car of the same year I graduated from highschool.  Including what he had paid for the car, he had about $7400 invested in it.  I paid $6000 for it.  I immediately started to gather new parts for it.  This was before the advent of the internet and all of the aftermarket suppliers.  Fortunately, a lot of parts were still available at the dealer and I had a friend who worked in a Ford parts dept.  He sold me everything I ordered at cost plus 10%.  By the time that I had finished the majority of the restoration I had a total of about $13,500 invested in it and very little of that was in paid labor

In 1982 I got married.  We went on our honeymoon in the Mustang and I still have a nice framed picture of both of us looking out through the passenger window.  Sometime after that I began to disassemble the car to refurb it.  Had the engine out to do the engine compartment and all of the body parts removed.  I painted the car, in pieces, in a parking lot of my Sporting Goods business, in Pasadena California.  I retained the original Wimbledon White but painted it with Dupont Imron for that perpetually glossy look.  I then re-assembled all those painted pieces and managed not to do any damage in the process. At this time I also added front disc brakes off of a 1969 Ford Fairlane 500.  I did all this while running a business.  Today I look back and wonder where I found the time and energy to do all this.  None of it was in the evening or the weekends as the car was 30 miles away from where I lived.

Fast forward to 1988.  We moved from sunny Southern California to cloudy wet Vancouver WA.  The Mustang was moved up here inside the moving van.  It went directly into the then cavernous 3 car garage where it sat, virtually unused until my semi retirement 3 years ago.  I wanted to make use of the car so I started volunteering it for dignitaries in local parades.  It had weathered it's long rest quite well.  Most of the time I kept it covered with heavy moving blankets.

It was about this time that I started looking at Mustang on the internet.  I was blown away how big an industry had built up around this car.  Eventually I stumbled on Mustang Steve's site.  Since that time I have had to mightily resist all kinds of neato improvements that were really cool.  Except for subtle changes I try to keep the car original or at least to things that you could have ordered the car with from the factory.  For example, the dual exhaust that I added last spring and the Autolite 4 bbl and matching factory cam that I hope to be adding soon.

I told my wife, when I die, be sure to advertise the car in Germany, Sweden, England and Japan.

Last edited by boomyal (4/01/2013 1:33 PM)

Easy 'nuff BB.  Just look at this post.

http://fyi.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?pid=101#p101

This is actually the second Mustang I've owned, but I don't really count my first one. It was a 1967 Fastback. I drove it twice and never got a chance to do anything to it. It was one of those situations where I had the space, but didn't have the money. That was back in 2003. Now I have the money and man, I wish I had the space.

My current Mustang is a 1966 Coupe. Interestingly enough, I've never had a connection with a particular year, but I knew I wanted something in the 1965-1967 range, as 1968 and beyond is not my first choice in body style. This one came with a T5 and a 289 with the GT40P heads, which made for a nice set up on delivery day, but the 289 was not to stay.

In 2001, while I was in the Air Force, my dad and I set out to start that original Mustang project. We got a 302 block for $100 took it to the machine shop, along with the setup for what would (hopefully) yield near 375 HP. This is what you see today in my '66.

At the time of this post, I'm nearing 300 miles on this new engine and with the break-in period close to being complete, I am yanking the original 8 inch rear end for a Ford 9 inch with 3.91 gears to bring my Mustang to life.

Finished add-ons consist of a front disc brake conversion and a Steeroid's R&P. Body, paint and interior is on the horizon.


The pic of the car in the garage was within the first week of getting it. Not that neat anymore.


My 302 - 12 years in the making.

I got my first Mustang, a Vintage Burgundy T code 65 coupe 3 speed when I was 17 .It belonged to the father of a buddy of mine The dad wrecked it by smacking it into the back of our family friends 64 Fairlane 260 V8.  I bought it from the insurance company for $300, scoured the junk yards for a new fender, hood, valance, bumper and a few other parts. I found them all, but they were powder blue. Yeah, not so pretty but I had no money so that's how they stayed. Drove that car all over the east coast for a year or so, replaced a few transmissions along the way and just loved that car!  Drove it until the engine just gave up.
 
Bought another Mustang black C code '65 3 speed from another friend and loved the V8! Drove that for a few years too! In the mid 70's I was hitch hiking my way around Massachusetts and got picked up by a guy who had a white C code 66 with a 4 speed and a rally pac. I offer to buy the rally pac. He said 'no deal, it goes with the car'. So I offered to buy the car. $200 later, the car was mine. Drove that car another 75,000 miles in short order, When  the gas tank and rear spring shackle finally rusted through the trunk floor, my buddy and I welded up some supports and I continued to drive that car until it just was too tired. I stripped EVERYTHING off that car and still have parts from it today, including the pally pac, which is what I wanted in the first place. Got married and sold the disassembled pieces of the first two mustangs, but kept most of  the stuff from that third one Bought a bunch of Mustang II's including a V6 Mach 1 and a V8 Cobra II. Bought a Fox body. Got divorced... bye, bye fox body.
 
My then girlfriends father was into cars and had a small collection. A '56 Tbird, '57 Plymouth Fury, a 67 Chevy II and a 65 D code 4 speed coupe. I bought the coupe and Chevy. The coupe had been ‘restored’ in the mid 80’s and actually looked pretty good. It was a Kentucky car so it hadn’t seen the ravages of winter like cars in the northeast do. But my life was busy at that time so I dragged that car with me from place to place, rarely driving it. Most of the time it was indoors  but for a few years it was left outside. Yep, some rust in the floor boards ended up appearing and the car continued to sit. Almost exactly  4 years ago SWMBO said “Are you ever going to put that car back on the road?”.   Well, with encouragement like that, I had no choice but to do so. Stripped the car completely (I had the experience for that!) and discovered that the restoration done in the 80‘s was, to put it kindly , subpar.  With the internet, forums like this, a few parts from MustangSteve and others I was on my way. My original intent was a simple paint job. What I ended up doing was a full restoration and a bit of mod. I was to learn what resto-mod really means.  I did a good portion of the work myself but did have to farm some out. I found some interesting things along the way. The D code had been replaced with a ‘66 A code along the way but was in great shape. A cam, intake and some home porting was all it needed. A 5 speed fell into the car, along with 3.40 trac-loc rear gears. When I was done, more than 25 % of the car was not original. I finished the car last fall and registered it 25 years to the day that I bought it. I have about 800 miles on it so far and am pretty pleased with it and the ideas I’ve gotten from everyone out there in internet land. The car is a blast to drive. It turned out better than I even hoped it would.
 
As of now, I’ve had 10 mustangs through the years out of 45 different vehicles, still have two Mustangs, the 65 and a 2004 along with an Expedition and a Solara (Her ride). She drives stick so even the Solara is a standard. The Expedition is only one of three automatics I have ever owned.  I do have some non-Mustangs in my past  that I’ve liked, heck, even LOVED, but I always come back to the ‘Stangs.  We  are moving to Florida soon and SWMBO has given her blessings on a ‘vert Mustang…. I’m thinking a nice ’94 to ’98 should do the trick. Gotta be a 5 speed though!
 

Last edited by Smitten (4/02/2013 10:18 AM)

just bought this one 66 coupe 302 roller motor with all the goodies on it,t5z,8 inch posi,wilwood discs all round,
tcp front coilovers,tcp manual rack,tcp chassis cradle etc etc not had it running yet.car has no rust i picked this up in california and its now in scotland u.k


 

GT350, you will be the talk of the Shires!  Did they nip you pretty good when you imported it?

I've had my 67 convert for 8 years now. It barely ran when I bought it but the body was pretty good. I added a Holley four barrel, an Edelbrock intake I got from a forum member from Stillwater, dual exhaust and headers. Over the years I've replaced all the suspension parts, converted to electronic ignition, added aluminun radiator, power disc brakes and recently most of the interior. I'm running 15 inch Torq Thrust wheels and BF Goodrich tires. My farthest trip was to a car show weekend in Crosslake, MN.(190 miles one way) I've done all the work except the seat upholstery and front end alignment myself. My brother did put in the rear springs for me as I was recovering from back surgery at that time. Hoping to start driving it again soon as we can only drive our "good" cars fo six months out of the year.

Fastbackbhoy wrote:

GT350 I'm born raised in Glasgow Scotland,Just got back from a 10 day visit,we go back 5 times a yr Normally just for Long weekends.
just got back Sunday night,we drove up from London to Glasgow and weather was brutal,we missed the snow storm 

Jimmy O

cool next time your here in glasgow look me up heres my pony shop 

GT350 wrote:

boomyal wrote:

GT350, you will be the talk of the Shires!  Did they nip you pretty good when you imported it?

no older classics you only pay 5% duty on value of car then 20% value added tax which aint to bad
 

Do you pay income tax and property tax as well?  If so, I thought we were overtaxed over here!

Fastbackbhoy wrote:

wow where? Is that at

jimmy

in my unit about 15 mins from glasgow

Hakan, your story is one of tragedy, but also of triumph.   I sure can't wait to see you finish your car. =)

I really like the background story that some of you have been posting, so here it goes for me:

I bought my first Mustang at the age of 18. A blue 68 coupe with a 289 and C4, with power steering and standard drum brakes. It was a running project car, originally sold at a dealer right in my home town of London, Ontario, Canada. Unfortunately, having spent it's life in the ravages of Canadian winters, I soon found that it was beyond repair, due to rust damage. ( EVERYTHING that I "tested" with a pointed body hammer went right through to the handle. )

It became a donor, and I totally stripped it of anything and everything useful. Then managed to find a rust free rolling shell from the southern U.S. that a local hobbiest had imported. A Canadian car that rotted before it had travelled too far, and a U.S. shell that was mechanically worn out, but still completely rust free, was a winning combination. ( I have done that twice more since. )  

I painted it Acapulco blue and used it as daily transportation in good weather for years. My second Stang was a good quality 68 6 cylinder coupe I bought during this period to drive as my winter car. ( It was cheap. ) It was year round vintage Mustang transportation for a couple years.

As I found money to upgrade my V8 car, I transferred the cast off parts to the 6 cylinder to upgarde it too. Eventually got to the point I could not justify subjecting it to winters anymore, so I restored it and sold it off.

Unfortunately at this stage I lost my job due to downsizing. I was recently married and only six months into home ownership. I made a knee jerk decision to sell my baby at auction for whatever I could get before winter storage was required.

As it turned out I found a much better career in sales making far more money, but the car was gone. Began a search and found a 1967 V8 coupe locally that had been brought up from Texas. Complete car this time but sun baked, trashed interior, and did not run.

Started over again and did a full restoration. Drove it summers for years. Even built a detached garage for it at my first house.

Then came children. It barely left the garage. When the planned second kid turned out to be twins, making it double trouble, I made another knee jerk decision and sold it. Another dumb move.

I remained out of the car hobby for the next 11 years. When all your kids enter the teen phase, they don't need much of your time anymore, so I started looking again 3 years ago. My wife insisted that if I did another one, it had to be a convertible this time.

As luck would have it I found a rust free 68 unfinished project convertible imported from Georgia, and a rotten Canadian donor at the same time. Worked out great. Also stumbled on a Californian 68 convertible rolling shell at the same time. I bought it too, because it was too high quality to let go.

Now both are done, and I need to sell one. It will become more urgent when I bring home the 1967 fastback in storage that I bought in November! ( Only a double garage you see. )

The fastback is complete and very well restored by the brother of the man who owned it for the last 35 years. Unfortunately the owner died before they could finish it together. It is a shame he did not see the completed product. It is beautiful.

So the plan is to have one convertible and one fastback permanently. I do love the restoration process though, so I am on the hunt to find a project fastback to keep me occupied in the future. I will just have to find more storage! ( Already talkin to neighbours. )

No pics of the first few cars, long before digital, but have some of the ones currently in my possession. This site has been a real boon to me having been out of the hobby for a while. Thanks for everyones help along the way.

I just found I can't post pictures because I have not posted enough yet. Will have to wait.