I was 14, one of my Mom's younger friends from community college had a Grabber Yellow '71 H-code, and I thought it was the coolest car ever. Got to ride in it all over the place as he was a really cool guy and didn't mind me tagging along now and then when he'd go hang out with his friends. Several months after meeting him, he was too impaired to drive from a class picnic and he told me to drive him home - Game Over. I was 6'2" and already knew how to drive, so it was really more of a formality of not having a driver's license because of age than anything. Oh it was SO cool driving that car. He wrecked it a few years later... but I'd already made up my mind that I would have one of my own one day.
Fast Forward to summer 2010 and I was thinking about buying a 2010 Camaro 2SS from a friend whose husband was about to lose the car back to the bank. My wife suggested instead getting something I could restore... that I'd enjoy it even more than just making payments on a new car. My pal had just bought a '63 1/2 Galaxie 500 XL and was planning on restoring it, and I was Jonesin' hard for a hot rod. I'd already picked up an issue of Mustang Monthly on a whim (hadn't read it in a long time) and saw a Grabber Lime '71 M-code restomod feature car. Oh no - the bug bit... and bit hard. I was on Craigslist and found my '71 H-code project - The Rustang - being sold by a wannabe muscle car flipper (he'd watched too many episodes of Gas Monkey and thought he was all that). I talked him down to the absolute best price I could get out of him (which was still probably too much, but oh well), and got it to the shop. I discovered in taking it apart that it should've just gone to the crusher... but then all the nay-sayers started jumping on-board and giving me crap for buying such a rusted POS... which just made me more determined to get it all back together just to shut them up.
Which for the most part, has long since happened and everybody shifted to the bandwagon of support as time went on and they saw my determination.
And now, it's almost done.