How I met my Mustang

[Spike Morelli]

I had just been married about a year or two, when my first wife, herein to be known as the "petitioner", decided we needed to buy a bigger house than the one I had. We qualified for the loan, but the bank always wants to see some money in your account, so I sold two of my cars. I took over driving her little Datsun pick-up for the meantime. I had a dragboat and needed a vehicle to tow with, so, after moving, one weekend, I bought an Auto Trader paper to just brouse for a replacement tow vehicle. I bought the paper, went home, threw the paper on the table and got myself a Pepsi. When I looked at the paper, it had fallen open to "Ford Mustangs for Sale". I'm not a truck guy, and had an El Camino or Ranchero in mind to buy, but my eyes went directly to a Mustang ad that said , "1971 Mustang Mach 1, straight, running, private party, $1000.00" What? I called the number then and there. When the seller answered, I asked him if the price was correct, " Yes, it is ", I asked him "How straight can it be, for one thou?". He asked me if I'd like to look at it. I got the directions, and was at his house within the hour. It was sitting behind his garage. He started it for me, it started right up. He hadn't misrepresented it....it was straight. The ten, one hundred bills I brought almost flew out of my pocket on their own. I drove it home only hours after buying that Auto Trader. Thirty-Two years later, I still have the car, got rid of the "petitioner", and I am typing this entry......

 

[PoFoMoCo]

Me, not so nostalgic.... I met mine online and she's been burning down my credit card since we met.

 

[Retired2014]

Me, not so nostalgic.... I met mine online and she's been burning down my credit card since we met.

The car or the wife???

 

[Allison]

The car or the wife???

Oh now THAT is funny!!

 

[PoFoMoCo]

The car or the wife???

Oh now THAT is funny!!

LOL , the mustang.... definitely NOT the wife. I outkicked my coverage on that deal 36 years ago and I'm truly blessed she has put up with me all these years, she's a saint!

Now the mustang on the other hand, we have had a very short 3 month whirlwind relationship. The jury's still out.

 

[tpj71mach]

When I first turned sixteen I got a job as the used car porter at a car dealership after school and on Saturdays. My father was the general manager of the dealership and that meant I had to work harder than anyone else or get my ass handed to me by my old man. One night I was washing all of the cars on the used car lot and they paged me for a new car delivery. I cleaned up the new car and went up to the showroom to get the trade in. It was a 73 Mach 1, white with black stripes and interior. I drove it the 75 yards to the back and was instantly in love. I had been working at a bike shop since I was 13 years saving for my first car. I told my dad I wanted to buy that car and I had the money for the purchase and enough saved for maintenance and insurance. He replied that there was no way in hell he was going to let his sixteen year old son buy a "hot rod" like that. I plead my case stating I had the money, I earned it and this should be my decision. He refused to discuss it any further and when he drove us home it was a quiet ride. The next day after school when I arrived at work, my dad takes me in the back lot with the trade ins and shows me a grandma car base 77 Cutlass S, silver blue with bench seats and a six cylinder. It is parked right next to the Mach 1, and he says that I should buy that car because it is sensible and a good value and will get better gas mileage. I told him there was no way I was going to buy and drive that grandma car. He tells me that the Cutlass is the only car that is for sale to me back there, I lose my **** and just storm off and go back to work. A little later I'm in the Used Car office getting keys off the key board. One of the salesmen started talking to me and said my dad was a great guy. I replied "******* awesome" and he replies that he didn't know too may dads that would let their 16 year old buy a car like that Mustang. My dad yells at him across the office "damn it, I was going to let him pout another couple days". He was ******* with me all along. He actually had another porter park that ugly car right next to the Mustang in the back lot just to take me back there and torment me. Almost everybody in the dealership was in on it, except the salesman that tipped me off accidentally. Needless to say, I was excited and very happy that I could make that beautiful car mine. The next day I took the car and had dual exhaust installed and then a few weeks later I ditched the white walls for a set of BF Goodrich Belted T/As. I forgot to mention that the guy who traded it in was a disabled veteran from WWII and traded it in on a new Oldsmobile 98 Regency four door, white with a black top and interior. He told me it was getting too hard to get in and out of otherwise he would never have gotten rid of it. Talk about apples and oranges as far as car style but stayed with the same color combo.




I wish I never sold it, but 4 1/2 years later I worked with a guy that kept offering me more and more for it and begging me to let him buy it. He had already offered a couple thousand over what it was worth, but I kept turning him down. One morning he offered me more yet and I told him no way. An hour later, a girl I had broken up with for the last time (I hoped) came in to my work, again, and said what she always said, "I saw your car so I thought I would stop in". It took me 45 minutes to get rid of her this time. As soon as she left I turned to my co-worker and said he could buy the car, but he could never drive it here on Saturdays when she was off and would drive by. He took that deal and I lost my Mach forever. On the bright side, the girl never stopped in at work after that, mutual friends told me that not seeing my car she thought I switched jobs.
It has taken me over 40 years to get back to replacing it the best I can with the 71 Mach I am now restoring.

 

[69 Rustang]

The story of my ‘72 had some crazy, some poor decisions, some bad luck, and some incredible luck. But I’ve told that before. Today, the story of my ‘69. I was in high school and was daily driving a ‘65 Convertible. In late October 1985 I was involved in a traffic accident on the way to school, which totalled the Mustang. I bought it back to fix, but that was going to take a while. A ‘65 Galaxy literally fell into my lap for $400 a few days later, so I had a car. But I bemoaned my situation and was not thrilled with driving the big Galaxy. In talking with a friend, I mentioned my dream car was a ‘69 Fastback. He said, I know where one is that is just sitting.
A few days later, he drove me to where the car was on a dead end street with only one house nearby. Before me was a rust free, but really rough 69 Fastback. The drivers door wouldn‘t open, the passenger door wouldn’t close, and everything in between was a mess. I went to the only nearby house and knocked. Two people who looked as if they were super strung out on drugs answered—and I asked about the car, They said it belonged to a friend, so I left my info and said I would like to buy it. I honestly figured they would never remember the conversation.
A week later, I stopped back and the same two people answered. They looked just as sketchy as the first time! However, they said that their friend did want to sell the car—$300. I know I am cheap—because I tried to get it for $250, but in the end I did pay the $300. My Dad picked the car up with his car trailer while I was at school—it had to be towed as it did not run, it did not have brakes, it didn’t even have keys. For whatever reason, Dad decided to unload the car on the street next to our house that day. By the time I got home from school and work, the car had been tagged by our city as an abandoned vehicle to be towed. Since Dad was gone to work and nobody else was home, I had to call some friends to help me move it into the driveway. Fortunately, I never sold this car. I have driven it about 100,000 hard miles going to college and graduate school, then drove it to California. I owed it a restoration which was completed about 10 years ago.

 

[Spike Morelli]

What a cool ride to have, especially as a first car. I think that I see headers in the driveway shot, no?

 

[tpj71mach]

Yes about 8 months after I bought it, I tore it down and added a little more cam, an Edelbrock 4 barrel intake manifold for the 2V heads, a Holley 650 CFM and long tube headers tied in to my dual exhaust I had installed when I bought the car. After that I added a shift kit and a posi, I think it was a 3.90 if I recall. I bought the whole center section used from a tech that I worked with at the dealership. It bolted right in and no more one wheel peel burnouts. By the time I was seventeen it was pretty well set up, It wasn't the fastest car I ever saw but it was more than I needed. Any more power and I probably would have wrapped it around a tree at that age