50th Anniversary this week for me.........

[Dave Van]

50 years ago this week I found my 66 Mustang on the Young Ford used lot in Charlotte NC.. I saw a newspaper ad by Young Ford for cars on their used lot. Two Mustangs were listed, a 71 fastback and my 66. The 71 was a 6 cyl 3 spd base model. My 66 had a 289 4 spd. The 71 was a better car overall, like new.....but V8 wins out!! The 66 was my daily driver until 1985 when the clutch went out and I decided to do a full restore. I had no idea of the time or cost so she sat not running until 2018 when we had to sell her or fix her. We went with fix. Like 99.999% of car restoration stories go...it was not easy. It involved a well known car resto shop, the courts and us paying a few times to get the same thing done.   But in FEB 2019 she was 99% complete and we took her to the 55th Mustang show in Charlotte. Been a long great ride!!! Thanks
2019 55th Mustang show and about one year after I bought her. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Lucky car to have found an owner who'd take care of her so long.

Wishing you both many more happy miles.  

[slusher]

Great story Dave, I’m sure it must a great feeling!

[johnyrotten]

Awesome that you've had her all this time. Crummy about the resto situations, all too common story. gladly it worked out in the end. Beautiful Mustang. 

[Belugawrx]

That's love buddy

Have you ever built a replica of your Mustang?

[Mike 1017]

Congrats

[LennyB]

Nice story and I can relate. You’ve got me by a few years as I’ve had my 66 convertible since 1981.  

 

Edited February 11 by LennyB

[Dave Van]

3 hours ago, johnyrotten said:

Awesome that you've had her all this time. Crummy about the resto situations, all too common story. gladly it worked out in the end. Beautiful Mustang. 

Thanks all for the comments.

The resto shop screwing me over did have a happy ending.

While they took my money and did  super poor work (they had bailed on their auto shop and went into real estate speculation....were they lost their shirts). It forced me to redo the car top to bottom myself. After some health issues I did not think I could do it......but I found out I could push myself to do it.....and now she is all my work. VERY satisfying, more so than a paid shop. So while I lost a lot of money, lost in court to them.....I got a personal win.......much more valuable!!

Again thanks!!! 

[JollySipper]

......and you can always say 'Built, not Bought'!  

[ChrisBcritter]

Hey Dave, I hunted through a lot of Young Ford ads from February 1975 on the Newspapers site but couldn't find your Mustang. I did find that they had a celebrity visitor at that time; did you go see her?

 

[Dave Van]

WOW WOW!!!  I did in fact go down and see the real Elinor Mustang. Even got to touch her. But that was not the highlight that week. 

Next day my buddies and I stop at a Shell station on Independence at Idlewild for gas. Who pulls into the station?? HB Halicki in a P/U towing Elinor!!!!  The one time in my life I wish we had cell phones back then!!! We got to talk for a few minutes....a nice guy.  

My brush with fame and why I am a Gone fan.....

Thanks for digging that up! 

[ChrisBcritter]

Lucky you!!! Back in 1982 or '83, the L.A. edition of Auto Trader advertised several damaged cars I recognized as being used in The Junkman; I was interested in two Chrysler Cordobas so I called the number and surprisingly, it was Halicki himself who answered. We talked about his films and the cars (one Cordoba had rolled and crushed the roof but the other was only nicked on a rear corner). He offered to show me his collection (for a $10 fee which I'd have gladly paid) down in Carson; never took him up on that and regret it to this day.

I did go to his estate auction and bought one lot of model cars; of those I kept a brown metallic '79 El Camino promo.