Yeah, I got lucky. When I re-entered the world of pony/muscle cars, after a 35 year hiatus while "life happened," Lynda (wife) took note of how much fun I was having even in the beginning when I purchased the 69 Shelby GT500. When she grew up her father (engineer) had her learn how to work on her own cr (brake job, head gasket replacement, tune up, oil changes, etc. It turns out she really enjoyed working on her car, and knew how to drive a manual tranny also! So, years later when I dove back in she spent a lot of her spare time (both now retired) watching and helping me with the various maintenance and repair processes, even video recording the projects so we could post them on YouTube. When I could not get a hand and tool in a particular area, she would intervene and dive right in. But, wait!! There's more!
Of our 5 muscle/pony/sports cars, I only found two, the 69 GT500 and the 2020 GT500. Lynda found the 73 Mach 1, the 73 Mustang Convertible, and the 97 Honda Del Sol SI. And what awesome finds hers were. We decided to do a deep re$toration on the Mach 1 to bring it to another level. It looked nice before, but it is spectacular now. The 73 vert was literally stored in a barn over 45 years. The prior owner found it and did a little work before selling it when he retired. What a treasure she found. A beautiful vert with just over 19,000 original miles, and in excellent preserved condition. Driving it is like stepping back time. The 97 Del Sol was another find of hers, where the car only has about 30,000 original miles on it, and again it was in beautifully preserved condition. It is more than fair to say she is indeed a Mustang/Shelby chick, who happens to like all nice cars (also). We just have an affinity for Mustangs and Shelbys. Oh, and the best part... She lets me order parts in her name! heh heh...
As if that is not already indicating I am living "the dream" in retirement, our neighbors are also car people. They have some nice vehicles, most notably a gorgeous 2006 Mustang GT with a 5 speed manual. Alia can bang through those gears as well as anyone I have ever seen. And she also has a 1984 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe that runs really well - and looks slippery great, especially when it is on the move. Bonus points for asking us to always have our 2020 GT500 exhaust in "Track Mode" any time we go past their house! heh heh... During Car Season, when I fire up any of our cars to tinker with them, either or both of them come over to see what is going on. On her 2008 5.0 liter engine she broke the outer insulator of a spark plug off while removing it (a common issue). She and I agreed to take turns removing it so we could both have fun. Same thing when a fuel injector died on her. I got to play with it, but she got her hands into the work also. I am glad she likes to share. I even got to clear her DTCs with my XTools D7 unit.t to clear the codes on her Bird. But, what really took the cake is when a local Ford store, where a tech knew she owned a Turbo Bird called to see if she could bring her coupe over so they could see how a certain part was supposed to be assembled (a customer had a teenage kid who tried to defeat some emission control systems). All she asked for compensation was to be allowed to be with the tech(s) while they performed their analysis and repairs - granted!
Yeah, I am a lucky gut in so many ways. But, I do suffer greatly during Winter Hibernation up here in Snow Country. But, in an effort to keep busy I wound up buying two digital oscilloscopes (2 channel and 4 channel scopes), a set of wired and wireless Chassis Ears, the Xtools D7 OBD2 bi-directional and remotely controllable tester/scanner, lots of electrical goodies, a rear trunk wiring look from a 70 Cougar so I could help a friend set up an LED lit set of lights that will flash sequentially in his 1970 Mercury Cyclone (which never offered sequential turn signal flashing), and set up a test bench to see if there was a reliably consistent correlation between spark plug gaps and the amount of kV and spark line duration for varying plug gaps. And, I found a way to blend the wired Chassis Ear technology with the oscilloscope world to see, record, and even analyze Noise, Harshness, and Vibration issues with a vehicle. It was a fun winter despite the pony cars being in hibernation. And, yes, it was costly! heh heh...
My ex-wife, from many years ago, called me on my 65th birthday (now 68), and asked if I remembered what I told her when I was 18. I said there were a lot of things I could think of, but nothing stood out. She said I told her, "When I retire all I want to do is drive and play with my Mustang." Then she said, "And here you are, retired and playing with multiple Mustangs and Shelbys. How cool is that?!?" She and I very rarely have need to call each other, but that was a very nice thing she shared with me. I had completely forgotten I stated such a wish for my later years of life. I am so glad I answered her call as opposed to seeing the caller ID and letting it roll to voice mail...
