how did you get your 7173 mustang

[jb73Mach]

Hemmings Motor News - It was close (about 30 miles) and in great shape.

 

[Paul of MO]

I love this thread!

In the early 80's my wife and I rented a nasty appartment - clusters of 3 story units with a parking lot between each of them. Each lot had at least one abandoned car on it. I offered to tow them from the parking lots and park them in a grassy area that was behind the buildings owned by the complex. The manager agreed to pay me 25 bucks a car. I found a local tow company that would do it for 15 bucks a car. I made a quick 150.00 bucks by making 3 phone calls.

One of the cars was a tired 73 convertible with 3 flat tires. I had them leave that one. It had sat on the lot so long that they had black topped around it at some point. We got the owners name out of the glove box and looked her up in the phone book - she still lived in town 6 years after the car had been last inspected.

We called her and told here that she was looking at a tow bill and a storage charge or she could just sign it over to us. She was actually happy to get out of it so easily. We met at the bank and she signed the title over to us.

I asked what was wrong with the car and she said that she leaves the country every winter and had paid somebody to start the car every week and he did not do it. She got back and it would not start so she left it. (she was a loon).

We put a battery in it, filled the tires, filled the tank, poured some gas in the carb an it fired right up.

302 3 speed manual, power stearing and brakes, guages, power windows, and lots of rust.

We drove the car for years - several different engines - became a 4 speed car and got rustier. We finally parked it under a tree until someone drove by and just had to have it.

Ever since then we have alway had some sort of old Ford to play with. Currently have a 71 and a 73 convert, a 68 Torino Fastback, and a 2003 Mustang Cobra

Fun Fun Fun

- Paul

 

[73vertproject]

New folks - tell us your story!

 

[pentaflex]

New folks - tell us your story!

Ok, sure. I was still in high school when I got my first job. It was 1978. I only made minimum wage -- $2.35/hour I think -- but I was lucky enough to work full time. By the end of the summer I had what I thought was a wad of cash. So I went shopping.

You never forget your first. A red 71 coupe, 302, 3 speed. Lots of stories. I grew up with her, but had to sell her to go to college. I always wanted another.

After turning a half century, I'm old enough to get what I want. And I wanted another 71. There's a lot of junk out there. And a lot of sellers who are awfully proud of their junk. I wasn't looking for a finished product, just a good strong foundation to drive today and make my own over time.

Patience pays. I met a nice older gentleman who bought a brand new Mustang for his wife in July of 71. She loved the car, but drove it very little, especially in her later years.

I met him on the one-year anniversary of his wife's death. It was time, he thought, to let the car go to someone who would appreciate it like she did. I couldn't be happier.

 

[73vertproject]

Great story, Pentaflex!

 

[mach1mama]

I went to a car show in Kentville,N.S. with my husband and saw the car there for sale. Fell completely in love with it even though it obviously needed some work.

 

[Austin Vert]

It all started back around 2010. It had been about 28 years since i owned my last American car, and i had well and truely tuned out of the classic car scene. I've always loved American cars very much, and i guess the passion to own one again must have bubbled to the surface.

My workmates owned Mustangs and Corvettes, and they managed to persuade me to jump back into owning a classic American car again. The truth was that the '73 Ford Mustang Convertible really caught my eye, and i found that the more i tuned into it the more i fell in love with that particular car, and just had to own one.I love convertibles, and would you believe they have always been rare here in Australia. For some crazy reason, they never really caught on here!

The next problem was do i buy one from America and import it into Australia, or try and find one for sale in Australia.It must be said that the total import costs associated with importing a car around the value of about $20,000.00 from America would be about $10,000.00 or so Australian to bring it in and put it on the road to drive around.

I spent months looking on the Net to see what was available in America, as well as in Australia.There were a few tasty ones up for sale in America, but what put me off mainly, was that without seeing the car yourself in person, it's always hard to make an accurate decision to buy that car. I was not prepared to fly over to America, spend time and money to hunt one down or pay money to have a company do all that work as well.

So i turned my attention to the Australian market, and ended up inspecting two that were being sold fairly locally to where i live.

I paid money to have them professionally inspected all over, and unfortunately, thay didn't measure up to standard. However, there was

one for sale down south in the State of South Australia for around $30,000.00 Australian Dollars.

I rang the owner to get details, to find the car and the deal sounded really good.Every State in Australia has it's official Mustang Owner's Club, and i rang the South Australia Club to see if they could help me and inspect the car to give me feedback on it's true condition. They were very, very kind and reported back to me what true condition the car was in, and would you believe i ended up buying the Mustang on their report as well as getting a professional paid report too.

I did not fly down and check the car out myself as this turned to be the real deal and well worth the money asked for.The deal went through smoothly, and i had the car transported by car carrier from South Australia back up to Queensland where i live.

I am now the proud owner, since mid 2011, and even though it's a base model which i will slowly build up with all the goodies to look really cool, the best part is that this car is a very well kept, original, low milage car, in really good original condition, and represents a fantastic base to build upon to jazz up and make it spot on.

I just want to enjoy the car as a weekend cruiser, and spend time slowly doing it up with improvements to make it great. Yes, i do really love this car, and am having a great time owning it and showing it off. HISTORY - (Bought new in Ohio 1973, one carefull owner to 2009, then sold to new owner in Indiana who owned it for one year, then shipped to Australia to the State of South Australia to new owner who also owned it around one year, then sold on to me in 2011)

Thanks,

Greg

 

[71JCode]

It was my first car in 1973, purchased from original owner.

I talk about it here: http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-the-odyssey-begins-resumes

 

[SPAIN72MUSTANG]

wow some great stories

 

[turtle5353]

I got my 71 Mach 1 about 8 years ago. To make a long story short, I traded my 89 Bronco II for my Mach 1. Had my Bronco listed on ebay and a guy emailed asking me if i would be interested in trading? I never really knew much about the 71-73's so i did some homework and figured what the heck. We emailed back and forth for about 5 months and sent hundreds of photos. Ended up agreeing on trading the cars and him delivering the mach1 from SC to my house and he paid me $1000. Heres a couple pics. The bronco, the mach1 the day it was delivered and when it was stripped down for paint, and one of it now.

 

[CZ-75]

Love the paint scheme, turtle!

 

[turtle5353]

Love the paint scheme, turtle!

Thanks! I really didnt care for the yellow that was on it when i got it. So i checked the door tag and the original color was light pewter mettallic, so that what i went back to. i like it alot.

 

[Doug The Dog]

I got my 73 convertible quite by accident. A friend of mine saw it in July of 1989 parked on the side of the road at the Mile High Nationals in Morrison, Colorado with a for sale sign on it. She told me about it the next day. I wanted a blue convertible, but figured that I couldn't afford it. I blew it off. Three months later, another friend of mine saw it again in Golden, Colorado, still with the for sale sign on it. He took the phone # down and called me. After several conversations with the owner, I decided to drive from Ft Collins to Denver to take a look at it. At the time, the owner was asking $7500 for it. I took $4000 with me and decided that if he would take that much, it would be mine. I spent an hour going over the car. It was a one owner car, with the original paperwork and bill of sale from Shawnee Mission Ford. It had been painted once, but other than that, was all original and not molested. I got up the courage and offered him $3500 for it on the spot. He promptly rejected my offer and came back with $6000. I then offered $4000. Once again, he declined and came down to $5500. I pulled the $4000 out of my pocket and told him that's all I had and if he wanted to sell it, that was all he was going to get. I told him to think about it and went in to the Holiday Inn (Where we met in the parking lot), to get a beverage. I figured that the deal was over and he would take the car back home. I came back out 15 minutes later, and he took my offer. I believe that his wife pressured him in to taking my offer, (bless her heart). By then it was getting dark. We found a police station close by, they witnessed the signing of the title and notorized it. I was the proud new owner of a 1973 Blue Glow Metallic Deluxe Mustang Convertible! Oh Happy Day!! I drove the car 6 months, then decided it was time to freshen her up. Fast forward 23 1/2 years. The freshen up turned in to a nut and bolt restoration/restomod. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. She'll be back on the road very soon!!!

 

[SPAIN72MUSTANG]

any more stories out there ?

 

[rutkak]

My first car was a junked up 83 Monte Carlo that was in 2 major accidents before I bought. The car was a total POS but it survived Chicago winters and only left me stranded 2 or 3 times (to include Homecoming). I tell that story to preface my 72 Mustang story. My first car was ALMOST a 76 Nova that was in the back country of Wisconsin. The guy wanted $500 but my dad wanted to work him down to $400 and it needed some serious work. The seller didn't budge but I sat in it for the test drive and it was suped-up a good bit. The car rumbled and nearly hopped in idle. I got the itch. The next car we looked at was a near rusted out 71 Mustang with a 351C in it. I didn't get to test drive it but my Dad did. He was gone for 20 mins driving it and came back and said, "I'm not getting you that car, you'll kill yourself...it's too fast." Fair enough...I later got the 83 Monte Carlo with a 305 (in 1994).

Since then, I grew up, moved away, joined the Army and got on with life. After a deployment I started looking for a near mint 83 Monte Carlo because...well, it was my first car and I could afford one for more than $500 (what we paid for it). As I looked I came across a 72 Medium Brown Metallic coupe for sale about 200 miles away. I didn't know much about cars comparatively, but I remembered the 71 my Dad drove and I always liked that style. I hated the Fox body look and the 64.5 to 68 models seem like a dime a dozen that old ladies drove. Anyway...I bought the car (with a 250 engine) and that's how I got started. I later picked up a barn-find 70 model as well.

....Quick note for Spain72Mustang since he bumped the thread...I grew up on Archer and Cicero on the Southside of Chicago.

 

[SPAIN72MUSTANG]

rutkak nice i lived by archer and kedvale over bye currie h.s.,looks like your far from me now

 

[rutkak]

rutkak nice i lived by archer and kedvale over bye currie h.s.,looks like your far from me now

Oh yeah, roger that. I lived off of Archer & Laramie, Archer & Nagle and Archer and Newcastle growing up. I joined the Big Green Machine back in 96 so Uncle Sam has sent me all over the South East and overseas.

 

[SPAIN72MUSTANG]

glad you been safe all these years,your always welcome back home anytime.

 

[SPAIN72MUSTANG]

lets hear some more new stories.

 

[Don65Stang]

I've been around mustangs all my life (42 years) starting with the 65 convertible that my parents bought new six years before I was born. My dad said to my mom that this car will go to my son when they bought it. I have two older sisters but that car has always been mine since before I was born. When I was a young kid I must have put 200,000 miles on it pretending to drive it in the garage. It originally was a 200 I-6 with a 3-speed transmission but has been through many engines and transmissions. I still have it and it is 95% finished with its 3rd restoration. My user ID is because of this car.

In the mid-70s I remember a much older cousin having a super cool looking grabber blue Mach 1 in the garage at my Aunt's house. Being 6 or 7 years old I thought that had to be one of the fastest car ever made because it looked like it was going 100mph just sitting there! That image stuck with me.

Fast forward 35 years. Unbeknownst to me my sister-in-law's husband bought a 71 Mach 1 from his cousin and was thinking about fixing it up. A few months later he decided other priorities were more important and wanted to pass it on to someone else. My sis-in-law knew I liked Mustangs and gave me a call asking if I was interested. I was like what?, Mach 1?, when did you get a Mach 1?, Heck yeah I'm interested! They live about an hour away so I drove up to check it out the following weekend and bought it.

That was the first one, what about the rest of them? I'm glad you asked. I put the car in the back yard and was tinkering with it some as time allowed. My 17 year old son was working on the 93 GT with a few of his high school buddies. One of them wandered onto the deck and saw the Mach 1 in the back yard. He asked if he could look at it. My two younger sons ages 11 and 6, were watching this all play out as they were trying to find ways to hang out with the cool HS boys. So now the whole heard of boys went from working on what they thought was a big, cool 5.0L V-8 engine to opening the hood on the Mach 1 and one of them exclaimed "Now THAT'S an engine!" My younger boys took note and were relentless in saying they want Mach 1s as their first cars. As luck would have it two somewhat striped roller Mach 1s became available. I thought, hmm I can give Mach 1 parts out Christmas and birthday presents for the next several years and have a father/son project assembly line kind of thing going on with my boys.

Since these two cars were missing engines and parts I started looking for the missing items and bought a few things from member Pony Pastor on here who lives in Tampa. I was traveling to Tampa about once a month with work and one trip Tim said he saw an ad on Craigslist for a couple of Mach 1 parts cars. I went to see the guy and bought them both.

My next trip down to Tampa I went to visit Tim who had just acquired the red 71 M C6 car. He was going to restore it to pristine show car condition like he does but after running the numbers decided it was just out of range for him to be feasible since he shops out much of the specialized repair work. Tim was just starting to part it out when I visited. I looked it over and saw it needed floors, cowl, battery apron, right rear frame rail and trunk pan. It also had all my favorite options and was in repairable condition. I asked if he'd sell it. After scratching his head and saying he'd not considered that said sure.

A few months later Marks73 sent me a message about a guy in NC who was selling a stalled Mach 1 project that had a lot of new sheet metal ready to weld on and knew many of those items were things I would need. So I bought that one but it was really two cars because the guy had also stripped another Mach 1 and the sale included all those parts, engines, rears, etc.

Then another buddy pointed me toward a nicely optioned 72 Q-code. I looked it over and our Mach 1 population grew again.

Then I saw the ad for the rust-free 71 M 4-speed Mach 1 from California. After a few months of deliberation I decided to give the guy a call. It is a 100% original, true survivor car that is drivable now. I drive this one fairly often and if I ever do a show car this is the candidate. All the original parts are there and I have the build sheet and Emminger invoice. In reality I don't need this one but it being a 4-speed makes it quite fun to drive while the others are on the very slow moving repair and restore assembly line. Who knows, I may just sell this one once one of the others becomes available to drive.

Some of the non-repairable cars have since been chopped up. Others have been resold due to the realization that my back yard is not a Mach 1 sanctuary.

All in all I've lost count of the cars in the corral but the father/son and now father/daughter (since my oldest daughter who's 10 wants equal treatment to what I'm doing with the boys) aspect is very rewarding.