My other Mustang needed attention...

We are taking a little break from the restoration due to my 1995 Mustang needing some serious attention. The car was overheating in the middle of winter! We finally gave in and excepted the fact that it is blown head gaskets. So Mike has been working on getting those changed out.

He worked on the car last weekend and also again tonight. The head gaskets were both blown. It will be nice to get it all back together and driving again. I am hoping this weekend he will be able to get that all done. I hope it works. Nothing is worse than driving without any heat in the dead of winter.

Since I am without a car... Mike has had to drive me to work. I usually end up at work about 40 minutes early so I have to sit and read until it is time to clock in. It will be nice to have my car back and not have to go in so early. I will be able to sleep a little longer in the mornings. I am glad we have been able to work it out where he can take me and pick me up from work. It is hard not having a car. I feel like my freedom is gone. Hopefully life will go back to normal this
weekend when the car gets fixed. Then it's back to working on the '67!

Day 9

We made it out to the garage again tonight. Mike was in the engine bay again, and I was working on the front passenger side fender. It was actually pretty relaxing being out there tonight. I had my headphones going and I was able to just listen to the music and forget about the stressful things in life. I had to have my IPod turned almost all the way up so I could hear my music over the drill... even though I had the headphones on. It was shocking to me every time I would turn off the drill to realize how LOUD my music was. As long as the drill was going it worked out well.

This is Mike working away in the engine bay. Notice all the dust, I mean Orbs everywhere? ;-)

I can't believe how dusty it gets doing this. I came in completely covered with red dust. My face was all red and dirty. I still had problems with the safety glasses. About half way through the night, Mike and I traded safety glasses. The patriotic ones fit much better. The next problem I have is the fogging up of the glasses. Next time I will have to be inventive in fixing that problem. I have a few ideas I may try.

This is what I was able to get done tonight. Doesn't seem like much, but at least it is something. I was hoping to get that whole fender done but no such luck. I like to console myself by thinking I could have done it if I didn't have to keep stopping to either push the glasses back on, or wipe off the condensation.
It was kind of hard to get a good picture of all mike got done in the engine bay. He is getting very close to having it all stripped though.

Last but not least... this is our cool clock we bought at Walmart for $10 bucks. We needed a clock very badly in the garage. This one is actually pretty cool. It has LED lights and lights up all pretty like. We keep the LED lights off for the sake of the battery. It was nice being able to know what time it was without having to rely on the alarm on my cell phone.

That was pretty much it for tonight. Hopefully we can be out there again tomorrow night.

Day 8

I had a nice surprise today. Linda was going through some papers and came across some old Mail for me. One of the letters happened to be a refund check for $163.00. I decided that money needed to go towards the Mustang. So off we went to buy a drill for me. I wanted a power drill so that I could help out with stripping the paint (since that seems to be something I can actually do). I was so excited when I pulled out my drill. I honestly didn't think I would be so excited. I felt so cool having my own drill. It looks so nice and tough. Mike said it looks feminine but I told him no drill would ever look that feminine. Although on second thought.... if it was pink and had Hello Kitty on it, it wouldn't look so masculine anymore.

I worked on stripping the paint on the passenger side fender while Mike continued getting everything out of the way in the engine bay. It got very tiring holding the drill. In fact... I have a nice little blister from it. I felt like I got a decent amount done, but nothing compared to what Mike gone done on the engine bay while I was in here blogging.

I kept having problems with the safety glasses fogging up. I kept having to stop and wipe away the fog so I could see. I also ended up taking little breaks here and there. It got to a point where my hands didn't want to grip anymore. It was also a very dusty job. I had red dust EVERYWHERE by the time I left the garage.

This is the area I got done before calling it a night. I was pretty proud of myself. I need to go back over it though because there are spots I missed. You think you have it all done, but then you view it from a different angle and can see all the little spots that didn't get stripped off so well.

This is what Mike was able to get done in the engine bay tonight. He stayed out a bit longer than I did. He tends to work much faster than I can. It is starting to look good though. It is nice being able to see the surface rust stripped away. There are some spots that the metal is scarred, or completely eaten through. We will end up having Mike's dad come over and cut out the bad spots and weld in new metal.

I really thought that stripping the paint would make the car look much worse... but it makes it all shiny and pretty. I feel like I can see the cars potential much better once that old paint is stripped away. For me, this is a big and exciting step. I can't wait till all the paint is stripped off and we have it primed and ready for its new fresh coat of paint.

Day 7

So we went out to the garage for an hour and a half tonight. It wasn't very cold tonight so we managed to stay warm this time.

The first thing we ended up doing, is cutting the screw holding the Battery Holder on. The screw is very rusted out and impossible to get out. So out came the Dremel to cut the screw. I was attempting to get a picture of all the pretty sparks flying everywhere and this was the best I could get.

Once we got the battery holder off and a few other things... we started stripping the paint off the engine bay. It actually looked like a lot of fun, so I got in on the action.

This is what it looks like after grinding down to the metal.

We also took off some plate things (I don't know the terminology) that covered the shocks. There were lots of spider webs and beehives up in there. It was gross. That was probably the dirtiest part of the night because it required me to sit and crawl around the floor of the garage. I was pretty dirty once we were done.

So my goal is to have this done by August of this year. I am not sure if it is attainable... but I told Mike that's my goal so now we have to try to stick to it. The biggest obstacle is Money, but hopefully we can get it all figured out. I am just anxious to have it all restored. It will be a long road, but I am glad I have the opportunity to watch and even help it get restored. For now I guess I can only dream about what it will look like.

Day 6

We found ourselves back in the garage tonight. The holidays are finally over so we can get back into the restoration. We didn't do a whole lot tonight, but at least we figured out a plan of action and have an idea as to what our next move is.

The first thing we did was hang plastic around my car. That way we can start grinding soon and it will keep most of the dust from getting on Mike's cars. We also hoped that by having plastic up it would make it so our heaters would work better; having less of an area to heat. Our newest heater was one my work had. They ended up selling them for $10.63 to the employees who wanted one. I figured it was a darn good deal. We managed to blow the fuse with both heaters going and a light... but we got it all figured out. The heaters were nice to go stand next too... but they are not enough to keep up with the whole garage. So it is still VERY COLD.

Plastic after it was all hung

Mike warming up his hands

After hanging the plastic... Mike took the Master Cylinder, Junction Block, and the Brake lines off the engine bay.

The next thing we plan on doing is removing any clips or bolts from the engine bay. Then we will tackle stripping the paint from the engine bay. We also will need to cut out the rust spots on the tops of the fender aprons and weld in some new metal.

We are planning on spending some more time in the garage now that the holidays are over... but its just so cold. I wish the garage was insulated, but that wont happen for a few years yet. Oh well... at least we do have the little heaters we can huddle around when we get too cold. I am very grateful for that!

Update to Prior Post

Ok... so I just got a clarification on something on my Marti Report. The Sold Date is indeed the date my Dad bought the car. We went to Mike's Dad for help figuring out if that was the date sold to the dealer or the date sold to my Dad. He said that the car was built in San Jose so it would have only taken two days to get to the dealer. So the car was built 1/12/67 which means it would have made it to the dealer on or about 1/14/67. Mustangs back then never stayed on the lot long. So that means that my dad purchased the car on 1/20/67. I am excited to know that. It is neat knowing little details like that.

Anyways... I just wanted to Clarify that. So I now know all the details from the factory and the dealer, but I now need to start collecting stories from the date it was purchased until the date I bought it. So once again... any stories would helpful!

Awesome Christmas Present

It has been way too long since I last blogged about my Mustang. Mike and I have had so many other things going on that we have not had time to get out to the garage again. That will change soon though. I am anxious to get going on the car again.

Anyways I have to blog about one of my Christmas presents I got. Mike was kind enough to purchase the "Marti Report" on my car. Let me explain a little about this report. You see, Kevin Marti purchased all of the Ford records on the classic Mustangs from 1967 - 1979. Sadly all of the Mustang records from 1965-1966 were destroyed in a fire. But Lucky for me.. my car is a 1967 so the records were available. So basically you can pay to get the factory records on your car.

The report decodes the Vin number and door tag (which I already blogged in a previous post). It also has the Dealer Name and address which for my car is:

Larson Ford Sales Inc

5500 SO State St

Murray, UT 84107

That Dealership is not too far from where I live. It is not the same dealership now, but is now known as LaPoint Ford. We already knew the dealership it came from due to the fact that it still has the dealer tag on the back of the car.

It then states my vehicle was ordered with the following options:

C-4 Select-Shift Cruise-O-Matic

6.95X14-4 Ply Rated Tires

White Rayon Sidewall Tires

AM Radio

Wheel Covers (hub caps)

It lists important dates:

Order Received: 01/04/67

Car Serialized: 01/06/67

Scheduled For Build: 01/18/67

Actually Built: 01/12/67

Sold: 01/20/67 (I imagine this means sold to the dealer on this date)

Statistics:

Your car was one of...(for the 1967 Mustang Hardtop)

37,036 With this Paint Code

12,404 with these Paint/Trim Codes

161,407 With these Engine/Transmission Codes

2,618 Ordered from this DSO

277,502 With Wheel Covers

It then says that my car was actually produced on 1/12/67 - six days ahead of schedule.

Anyways, that is all the info it has. You can get an even more detailed report for an extra $160. I think the only other thing I would get with that is a copy of the Window Sticker. I am fine with what I have. As you can see... my car wasn't any special or rare kind of Mustang, but it doesn't make it any less special to me.

I am still hoping to find out a ton of information on the car. If anyone happens to know any interesting details or stories about the car.... let me know. Plus I am curious as to the date my dad purchased it, but he doesn't remember. He was thinking it was in the summertime, but with how popular Mustangs were, I don't think the car would have sat on the lot that long. I could be wrong though. Any info anyone has or any pictures would be greatly appreciated!