Well, I'm back, though it's only been a day since I last posted so I'm sure nobody knew I was gone! (or possibly even knew who I was in the first place
). My previous username was Flatback72, now it is Flatback72. 
with a full stop at the end of the username.
Back in 2011 when I signed up here I used an email address that I had shut down about 5 years ago, but I forgot to log my new email here in my 7173 account.
Yesterday when I logged in under my normal username, I was immediately locked out because 7173 automatic security said I was logging in from different device (pretty sure it was an issue caused by my ISP and not hacking), and 7173Mustangs sent a confirmation email to the defunct email account that no longer exists.
Contacted the forum but got an auto response saying if you've lost your password then your account is lost. Oh well, so here I am back again under a slightly different username showing up as a complete Newbie in the forum statistics!
But why not reintroduce myself anyway.
My name is Brett and I live in a city called Bendigo (founded in the 1851 Australian gold rush) in the state of Victoria in Australia.
Like many people my age when I was a kid in the very early 1970's my love of American muscle cars came about due to playing with my modest collection of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars.
Apart from a few exceptions Australian designed cars were a fairly bland affair I thought, so when it came time to get my license at the age of eighteen I set my sights on buying an Australian-assembled but American-designed right hand drive 1967 Chev Impala. But my Dad, probably just trying to look after my best interests, said something like "you're not buying one of those, it will take up too much space in the driveway..." (there was actually tons of space there).
So for my first car I found myself buying a 1974 Celica, which though small as it was it still had some nice curves to its styling and suited me fine.
Three years later in 1987, with some cash saved from my job to burn, I set about looking for a 1969-1970 Mustang, of which I found and bought a gold converted to right hand drive 1970 Mach 1. After I got that I realised it probably wasn't going to be a great daily driver, so it became my second car, which was ironic because now I had two cars taking up space in my Dad's driveway, but Dad liked the Mach 1 just fine and didn't complain.
In 1994, still living with my parents, I decided to buy my own house and I sold the Mach 1 for $18,000 AUD to help with the house deposit. But still wanting to have a cool car I purchased for $3000 from a guy at work a big fat green 1975 XB Ford Fairmont Hardtop (same as the Mad Max car) with a 302 Cleveland motor (yes a 302 Cleveland was a real thing in Australia), had the motor rebuilt and stroked out to a 351, and in a lot of ways I enjoyed that car more than I did the Mach 1.
Having moved into my own home I developed an odd urge to be driving a car of comfort, so I sold the XB Hardtop and bought a luxurious 1992 Ford LTD sedan. I got $2000 for the XB Hardtop, which today would be now worth about $60,000 or more, hmmmmm....may have been a mistake to sell that one now that I think about it......
A couple of years later on the dreams started. Every couple of months I would have a dream about my XB Hardtop, that I found the person who owned it and that he was selling it back to me, or I still had the car and was driving it around and enjoying the hell out of it. And then I'd wake up and the realisation that my favourite car ever was still gone.....arrrrghh!
Fast forward to 2009. House is paid off, savings in the bank are accumulating. I had always said that if I ever bought another Mustang it would be a 71-73 sportsroof. Having had a 1970 Mach 1 and had been a member of the Australian Mustang Owners Club I was well aware that in Mustang circles the 71-73 body style was looked down upon by many 65-70 Mustang owners, but I had grown to like the styling just fine, actually way more than just fine, especially the sportsroof - less like a pony car and more like a muscle car/jet fighter combo.
I looked on ebay, there was one on there, a fresh import, in nearby Melbourne for $18,500 AUD. Raced on down there, looked at it, amazed that the body was pretty much rust free (Californian car), bought it. Added new Australian approved seatbelts, changed the headlights so the beam will dip to the left for left-side-of-the-road driving, got the required engineer's report and a roadworthy report, and then it was legally drivable on Australian roads as a left hand drive vehicle. Now in yellow paint and white interior, it originally left the factory as an F-code 302w white and blue Sprint edition.
After the purchase of the Mustang the restless dreams of my old XB Fairmont Hardtop stopped. This 1972 Mustang is in my eyes now the best car out of all the cars I've had, and I will never part with it, the exceptions perhaps changing my residential status to that of six-feet-under or having to be dragged kicking and screaming to an old folks home. Purists may look at my car with its odd hoodscoop, aftermarket rear spoiler and non-standard C-stripes, and frown despairingly. But for me this car, along with its previous owner modified presentation, is an accurately defined representation of my inner child, the little kid who in 1972 was vroooming Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars around in the front yard of my childhood home whilst totally unaware that in a factory half a world away a life-size Hot Wheels car was being carefully assembled for its eventual destiny with a middle-aged latter day version of myself.
). My previous username was Flatback72, now it is Flatback72. with a full stop at the end of the username.Back in 2011 when I signed up here I used an email address that I had shut down about 5 years ago, but I forgot to log my new email here in my 7173 account.
Yesterday when I logged in under my normal username, I was immediately locked out because 7173 automatic security said I was logging in from different device (pretty sure it was an issue caused by my ISP and not hacking), and 7173Mustangs sent a confirmation email to the defunct email account that no longer exists.
Contacted the forum but got an auto response saying if you've lost your password then your account is lost. Oh well, so here I am back again under a slightly different username showing up as a complete Newbie in the forum statistics!
But why not reintroduce myself anyway.
My name is Brett and I live in a city called Bendigo (founded in the 1851 Australian gold rush) in the state of Victoria in Australia.
Like many people my age when I was a kid in the very early 1970's my love of American muscle cars came about due to playing with my modest collection of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars.
Apart from a few exceptions Australian designed cars were a fairly bland affair I thought, so when it came time to get my license at the age of eighteen I set my sights on buying an Australian-assembled but American-designed right hand drive 1967 Chev Impala. But my Dad, probably just trying to look after my best interests, said something like "you're not buying one of those, it will take up too much space in the driveway..." (there was actually tons of space there).
So for my first car I found myself buying a 1974 Celica, which though small as it was it still had some nice curves to its styling and suited me fine.
Three years later in 1987, with some cash saved from my job to burn, I set about looking for a 1969-1970 Mustang, of which I found and bought a gold converted to right hand drive 1970 Mach 1. After I got that I realised it probably wasn't going to be a great daily driver, so it became my second car, which was ironic because now I had two cars taking up space in my Dad's driveway, but Dad liked the Mach 1 just fine and didn't complain.
In 1994, still living with my parents, I decided to buy my own house and I sold the Mach 1 for $18,000 AUD to help with the house deposit. But still wanting to have a cool car I purchased for $3000 from a guy at work a big fat green 1975 XB Ford Fairmont Hardtop (same as the Mad Max car) with a 302 Cleveland motor (yes a 302 Cleveland was a real thing in Australia), had the motor rebuilt and stroked out to a 351, and in a lot of ways I enjoyed that car more than I did the Mach 1.
Having moved into my own home I developed an odd urge to be driving a car of comfort, so I sold the XB Hardtop and bought a luxurious 1992 Ford LTD sedan. I got $2000 for the XB Hardtop, which today would be now worth about $60,000 or more, hmmmmm....may have been a mistake to sell that one now that I think about it......
A couple of years later on the dreams started. Every couple of months I would have a dream about my XB Hardtop, that I found the person who owned it and that he was selling it back to me, or I still had the car and was driving it around and enjoying the hell out of it. And then I'd wake up and the realisation that my favourite car ever was still gone.....arrrrghh!
Fast forward to 2009. House is paid off, savings in the bank are accumulating. I had always said that if I ever bought another Mustang it would be a 71-73 sportsroof. Having had a 1970 Mach 1 and had been a member of the Australian Mustang Owners Club I was well aware that in Mustang circles the 71-73 body style was looked down upon by many 65-70 Mustang owners, but I had grown to like the styling just fine, actually way more than just fine, especially the sportsroof - less like a pony car and more like a muscle car/jet fighter combo.
I looked on ebay, there was one on there, a fresh import, in nearby Melbourne for $18,500 AUD. Raced on down there, looked at it, amazed that the body was pretty much rust free (Californian car), bought it. Added new Australian approved seatbelts, changed the headlights so the beam will dip to the left for left-side-of-the-road driving, got the required engineer's report and a roadworthy report, and then it was legally drivable on Australian roads as a left hand drive vehicle. Now in yellow paint and white interior, it originally left the factory as an F-code 302w white and blue Sprint edition.
After the purchase of the Mustang the restless dreams of my old XB Fairmont Hardtop stopped. This 1972 Mustang is in my eyes now the best car out of all the cars I've had, and I will never part with it, the exceptions perhaps changing my residential status to that of six-feet-under or having to be dragged kicking and screaming to an old folks home. Purists may look at my car with its odd hoodscoop, aftermarket rear spoiler and non-standard C-stripes, and frown despairingly. But for me this car, along with its previous owner modified presentation, is an accurately defined representation of my inner child, the little kid who in 1972 was vroooming Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars around in the front yard of my childhood home whilst totally unaware that in a factory half a world away a life-size Hot Wheels car was being carefully assembled for its eventual destiny with a middle-aged latter day version of myself.
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