The work is
being done in my dad’s shop as I have no room in my own garage and having him
around to help and advise is a great thing anyway. So all the base work and the work that will
not be too visible will be performed in this shop, even as messy and
unorganized as it is. I have yet to find a trustworthy body and paint person. More on that later, for now I should start
with some history and the story to get caught up to date.
Even as a
kid running around on my bike through the neighborhood I loved to look at the
cars, the hot rods, the muscle cars are the ones I liked. I suppose all 12 year old kids liked to see the
same things, watch the high schoolers work on their cars and fire them up to
hear that sweet sound. Tear off down the
street to the sweet smell of molten rubber.
Actually it started before that for me but I think everything happened
to me when I was 12. Just a few years
earlier, still on the bike I got my first look at a new 1970 Camaro. Wow, what
a change from the previous year!!! Did I
like it?? Actually yes I did, and the
same goes for the Cuda, but my favorites were the Mustangs. What is it about that body??? It’s just mean, fast, low, as if it's going 100
mph but it’s just sitting in the driveway of some lucky soul I don’t even
know. The 69 and 70 model years have
always been my favorite.
1990 now,
married with two kids and soon to have one on the way I decided it was time to
actually buy one of these Mustangs, specifically a Mach 1. Not sure what logic I was using when that
thought came to mind as I had a family now and less and less time for this sort
of distraction. Dad was behind me all
the way so we started looking. I was
very impatient, and he always kept me grounded no matter how I tried to “just
do it” he was always slowing my roll. This
was usually a good thing as it turns out, even though I spent alot of time that he never knew cussing him for it.
We looked at Mach 1’s only, never ran onto anything special like a Boss
or Twister. This is Kansas after all. There weren’t really too
many to look at so as it turns out I did have to be patient. The ones we did look at turned out to be junk
or the person thought they had something they didn’t—like the guy who swears
the round hole sawed into his hood under the non-functional scoop was “factory
ram air” on that white 69. Or the guy
who swore his was in great shape so we drove two hours to look at it and it was
one step away from the scrap yard. (which would not be such a bad car for
today)
After
looking at so many I was getting quite discouraged, but kept looking so the
next one we looked at and drove had me excited but my enthusiasm was guarded as
he had just listed it and was not ready to negotiate on the price just
yet. But I liked this car!! It had great possibilities. It seemed (aside from the paint) it was
mostly original and complete. Even the
smog system was still intact. I asked
him his low accepting price, he told me what he wanted and said to call him
back after the weekend and if he still had not sold it then it was mine. Patience?
Really? I was a nervous Nellie the
rest of the week and through the weekend.
To my surprise, no one bested that offer. Well I thought it was a fair asking price. So now as of September 4th,1990 the
car is mine and I am very proud. J
I actually started
to keep a record of sorts back then as I was always planning on saving this
car, restoring it to shinyfastdrivable quality.
In 1990 my records were on paper of course and not very complex. Just an occasional date with a few words
maybe a short paragraph written about what I had done to the car lately. So I will start with that, and transfer those
few thoughts here and get caught up to where I am now.
