In 1963 my dad traded the 55 Lincoln convertable for a brand new Comet. A couple of months later the Mustang was introduced. Dad knew the dealership owner and one day he showed up with a new a Mustang and that sinched it for me, although it would be a few more years before it would come to fruition. The first car that I could call my own was a 55 T-Bird that I bought in 69. I got it for $500. Mustangs were still too expensive. For the next year I restored the Bird. I took off for Michigan and Minnisota from Tucson the day after I finished it for a little vacation. I ended up going to bible school near Milwaukee while on that vacation so I drove it back and forth for one year six times. It cruised at 90 real easy. It got wreaked in 73 so I let it sit in a enclosed shed for a couple of years. It wasn't wreaked too bad but the fuel pump broke and I couldn't find one and I was afraid to tackle the fender. I ended up trading it for a 73 Pinto coupe straight across. I thought I had made a good trade for a family car. In the mean time I was driving a motorcycle and my wife was driving the Morris Mini that I had bought and restored. Then the Mini got wreaked. I got almost dead. We started looking for another car. I missed the Bird but now all a sudden their value was up. We went looking for convertibles again. That was in 78.
    It originally had a 250 six and a three speed. The six didn't last too long the way I drive. I think a year. I got a 302 out of a Galaxie. I overhauled it, balanced it and put a truck cam in it. I put headers on it and Mach I tail pipes that I got for next to nothing when the dealer wanted to get rid of them. I installed power steering while I was at it. I went to put in the new 428 radiator (Arizona) and the outlet was on the wrong side. I got really really mad and took the radiator back to the Ford house. Dumb me. I got the water pump, timing cover and all the brackets and pulleys all changed out, over to Mustang, fired it up, hooked up the tent trailer and took the little family camping. Yes it had a home made trailer hitch. When we got home I was backing the trailer into the carport and the headers hit the sidewalk and drove the engine right into my "million dollar" radiator.
   One day in Tucson I drove by a Convertable Only Car Show. At that show I learned that this car was not an ordinary Mustang. Some guy (I never got his name and never saw him again) knew a lot about Mustangs told me how rare it is with the Mach I interior. I've never got a Marty report so I don't know how rare it actually is except it is one of 1400. As a side note there was a convertable there in the back parking lot that was all ragged out and pretty rusty. The top was up, but torn all over the place. The interior was too. I didn't know that it was a 68 Shelby KR. People never showed much interest in my car at shows so I felt it was OK to do resto mods to it but keep most everything vintage Ford. Now am beginning to wonder why. About 10 years ago I replaced the 302 with a 351W bored and stroked to 416 that I overhauled and balanced. I installed Edelbrock heads and intake manifold. I had the pistons dished all the way around to clear the valves and lower the compression and put them on H connecting rods. It has the cam that comes with the intake and carb kit. It's a 750 cfm. It's supposed to put out an estimated 435hp give or take a few. What ever it has it's more than enough. I put on power disc brakes and replaced the 3 speed with a C4 that I overhauled. That was a flop so I had it done over professionally. It is working pretty good now. I just finished replaceing the diff with a 9 inch that MS talked me into. I overhauled it and put in a limited slip unit. It's working real good now too. I converted the AC to 134a when I replaced the engine but it didn't work any good. The engine would overheat when ever the ac was on and it didn't get very cool. I put in an electric fan system and every thing is cured. I replaced the top myself (I'll never do that again) and recovered the seats with new original fabric that I found in Hemings. All that was done over 10 years ago except for the differential and the trans re rebuilt has been done since Wimberly. Right now I'm wondering if I should do rack and pinion. Crazy thing, I haven't taken hardly any pics of it. The only ones in my files is one with dirt all over it and the Christmas pic.