I am working on a new look for the blog – so you will see changes here and there as I find a theme that I am comfortable with. I am customizing the base theme to form one that I like and it will take a bit of time as I learn the inner workings of the theme and Word Press.
Cheers!
I was thinking about the trip today – a lot. I reserved the U-HAUL truck and trailer, so the arrangements to get the car to Jersey are almost complete! This triggered a surge of anticipation which then was reduced to some short-lived anxiety. I am OK with the whole “going to San Antonio on business and then flying to Florida to stay a night or two with the cousins” thing – and I am OK with driving the truck with the trailer in tow. Been there, done that, and it really isn’t as hard as it might seem.
But it’s my Uncle’s Mustang that will be on the trailer.
My Uncle’s Mustang – the car that I have been wondering about for over a decade now. It’s the car whose restoration I have always dreamt about and now, in a matter of a few weeks, is approaching reality. I asked the question “what could possibly go wrong?” and my overactive, mildly affected ADD thought process obliged with at least a half dozen scenarios:
I have a wandering imagination and I know this about myself. Thusly, I also know that it is not time to worry about this stuff yet, if at all. Leave the anxiety for when the car is actually buckled to the back of the U-HAUL – and even then, just keep moving forward one step at a time. That, the mantra of this whole project – keep moving forward, put one foot in front of the other.
So everything is still falling into place – moving right along – Just one more step, then one more, one more….
I sent a box of heavy duty tie downs to Doug and Mary today. I bought them at the Swap Meet from Cherokee Tie Down out of Gaffney, SC. They look to be strong and they definitely were heavy. 4 tie downs and 4 axle straps rang up at about 21 lbs. I am going to use those instead of the bright-orange-expensive-as-shit ones that U-HAUL will likely have for sale or rent.
I can’t wait to get the car. I am at the point now where I am even dreaming about it. One dream took place in the 70’s and the car was pristine. I have never seen the car pristine or shiny like new that I can remember and that is why I love dreams. Uncle Pete took great care of the car, but I don’t remember it being shiny. Maybe I was dreaming about Uncle Pete’s Mustang with the sky blue paint job that the ’66 at the show was sporting (see the picture in the previous post).
Doug Sr. sent me this pic of what the car looked like in 1968 – along with my Cousin Mary :-). You can get a sense of the color of the car – click the picture to enlarge:
This photo was taken around 1968
Tied down. That’s what I feel like right now. Work, responsibility, mediocrity, blah blah blah blah. I am itching to get down there, get the car up here and start the restoration. It’s taking all the discipline I can muster to spend the whole day actually working on work – and not working on the blog, researching Mustang stuff, thinking about all of the things I need to do to prepare, etc.
Calm. Patience. Discipline.
But it’s getting close and the level of excitement is building.
So today, I was talking to my friend Matt and the thought arose that since I’m likely not going to rent an RV for $5000 – I might spend about 1% of that to send my golf clubs down ahead of me. I could stop at a course on the way home and drive something other than the U-HAUL, right?
Two weeks from today. 14 days. Damn, I can’t wait.
Today was SWAP MEET DAY. I was originally slated to go with my brother-in-law and one or two of his sons but that didn’t work out. I went by myself and that was definitely a pleasure :-). I haven’t walked the swap meet by myself ever and being alone let me set my own pace, backtrack, people-watch, and absorb the historic and junky splendor of it all. I wouldn’t say that this would be an American Picker’s dream – everyone here is a picker and a plucker and they have a good idea of what they have, but just about anything that you want or think you need could be found here if you look close enough.
I had two missions today – to get insight into what I would want to do with my Uncle’s Mustang and to see if I could find a cutting torch, some good air tools and an air compressor cheap. I saw what I thought was a good Snap-On torque wrench but it was broke but still the guy wanted $60 for it.
No good air compressors, some other good tools but none to spend good money on, and no cutting torch for less than $200!!! I mean – really?
So on to the car show. The minute I walked on to the racetrack I saw the Mustangs. I was remiss in getting the names of the owners of these cars – but if you are the owner, writer me. I will give you credit, for sure – these care are awesome.
The first one I saw was a ’66 restoration that appeared to be the same color as my Uncle’s. Check it out:
It’s got the Magnum Wheels, too. I am thinking about using those in the restoration I am doing, although it was equipped with steel wheels and hubcaps from the facory. Here is another with the wire hubcaps along with a pic of the engine – maybe what my Uncle’s should look like?
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An then there was my ongoing search for my Dad’s ’48 Plymouth Coupe or ’65 Pontiac Catalina. No ’48 Coupe – but here was an interesting car for sale –
1938 Desoto – But back to the Mustangs – oh, wait, here, look at this one!
It had a NYC Taxi Medallion from 1977! Cool shit, really, from back when smog was a commodity on Wall Street like pork-bellies was. Made me think of my Dad and how many times he climbed into one of these. I remember the first time I did – and every ride after that I INSISTED that I ride in the flop down seat. New Yorkers know what I am talking about.
PUNCH BUGGY RED!
PUNCH BUGGY GREEN!!!!!
So back to the MUSTANG – after the RAMBLER MARLIN DRAGSTER!!!!
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This car drew a lot of interest and it’s not the first time I’ve seen it at the Swap Meet. All of these cars and all of the old crap I was looking at throughout the day kept me thinking about how much my Dad would have liked the show. Maybe we’ll figure out a way to get him back here in September!
OK – BACK TO THE MUSTANGS FOR SHIT’s SAKE –
This one was the prize winner in my opinion. My Uncle’s Mustangs’ cousin from the West Coast – a ’66 Luxury Convertible with Factory Air – and this car was gorgeous. I thought I had taken a pic of the whole car, but I’m sorry to say that I just took pics of the components that interested me the most – the engine:
I’m thinking this is how I would like the engine in my Uncle’s Mustang to look when I am done with it. Check out the factory air conditioning compressor! The luxury interior with wood trim:
Uncle Pete’s interior is accented with Aqua Blue trim and white framing – along with wood trim throughout. This interior was pristine.
All in all I had a great time. I learned a lot looking around at the restored vehicles and I stopped at CJPONY PARTS for a bit and got some good info and a catalog (gonna be spending some coin there for sure). I was completely aghast when I saw “QQ” classic car license plates on a ’76 Chevy Monte Carlo – I mean really? Am I getting that old?
So now I am planning my trip to Florida….
Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary! 5 years, and we still haven’t killed each other yet :-). Today, I made a final decision about how I will be getting the Mustang up here – I’ll be picking up the car myself and trailering it up to New Jersey. I am going to rent a U-HAUL van and auto transport trailer – probably without any discounts – but believe me, I haven’t given up on that yet, LOL.
I am leaving on May 3rd for a business trip to San Antonio and then I will fly over to Fort Meyers, Florida on May 6th. THEN I will rent the truck and trailer and haul my Uncle’s Mustang here to Jersey.
It’s all coming together without any real hitches so far. That is if you don’t include the bullshit script errors I had to deal with on the blog tonight. 500 errors galore. I couldn’t access anything for over an hour.
I decided to change the theme back to the original – I was using a theme template called Aruna, and I am not entirely sure that was the culprit, but I wanted to keep on the safe side. This totally sucked and I wanted to throw my mac through a window – but I am finally done, I am cranky and I am going to bed. Really, though – if this is the only hitch I have to deal with, I’ll take it!
Tomorrow, I will reserve the U-HAUL equipment and start planning my trip.
My Wife. She is supportive – and nervous and doesn’t want me to write about her in this blog. I’ll honor that – but I am compelled to put her reaction on the blog because her concerns are all legit.
I have never been the concerning type. Shit happens. If I fail or do not complete something, I move on to the next thing no big deal. I am also not the discerning type and I think that is what makes her nervous. This project could potentially cost a significant amount of our hard earned coin. Admittedly, my thing is that when I find things I like to do – it’s often lots of them at the same time – and I only do them for as long as I am interested in them. This has been my M.O. forever – and some might say it’s ADD – and believe me when I say it’s as annoying to me as it is to her if not more.
Things that I have started and not finished:
So God bless her – with all of her support, she basically asks “If we’re gonna put this money into this, are you going to follow this project through?”
I’ll say it again – I hope so, but I am nervous, too. Sometimes I think about how perfectly things have fallen into place with this project and say – “something’s gotta go wrong” and maybe I will get bored? I am gonna keep this going as long as I can – but right now I am committed to finishing this project. I am motivated. I mean, it’s My Uncle’s Mustang!! I have been thinking about this car for DECADES and I’ve been wanting to get my hands on the car to fix it up since Uncle Pete passed away! This is a dream come true, right? Right. This is a dream. A dream that at any cost I am going to fulfill – and I am blessed to have My Wife’s support. That’s not to say that this won’t cause conflict between us – it might – probably will, but I think only if I let the project go or spend too much money without telling her.
So where are we with this? I have her blessing. We have a budget to get the car here and I am going to pull all stops to ease the financial burden – even go to the extent of asking for sponsorships – but I will not ask for money from friends or family. Just moral support – and My Wife is providing that and much much more.
First off – I am COMMITTED to getting the Mustang brought up here by early MAY. REALLY.
Second – I am leaning towards a auto transport company. I know for sure that these companies are like snake oil salesmen – and already the snakeoilyness has occurred. I have been getting phone calls from these auto transport companies for the past few days – really, voicemails because I haven’t been picking up the phone – I even got a prerecorded message. Cheesy. Won’t be calling that one back.
I actually talked to one that sounded pretty good – now the way they got my name is I filled out a form online, and one of the questions was “is the car running” and I let them know it WASN’T!!! So this one company I talked to sounded good – and was all about quality, reliability – and it was actually a person I was speaking to on the phone. Turns out the great price that they gave me wasn’t valid because they quoted me as if the car was running.
The Mustang hasn’t been running in nearly a decade at least. Have a look at the latest pics (published with the permission of Doug Sr!)
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So the gasoline in the tank is probably a decade old, too. There is no way I try to start this car. YET.
More to come – hopefully the next post will be letting you know which auto moving company I will be using. Blech – I hate dealing with folks like this….
So my main hope was to get down there myself, rent a trailer and a truck and drive my Uncle’s Mustang back to New Jersey. Don’t think that’s what is gonna happen based on the cost perspective alone – and it’s looking like there isn’t anyone who’s gonna be able to make the trip with me. Not that I wouldn’t drive this alone. I would, but it’s gonna be much more fun and easier to manage if one of my buddies would go.
So I contacted auto transport companies via the internet – and I have to tell you, this is a VERY competitive market and I got like 10 phone calls today from companies wanting to transport the car.
I really want to do this myself, and I am going to give it till the end of the week to make a decision about this. We’ll see.
The late 80’s early 90’s was a time of self discovery for me. I was newly clean from the fog of drug abuse which enabled me to experience life without the numbing grip that drugs had on me. My life no longer revolved around the “use of drugs and the finding the ways and means to get more.”
During the summer of 1989 I was about 22 years old and in the middle of a dual coast vacation to Florida and California that I was taking by myself. The plan was to go to Sea World and Disney in Florida and California in about 16 days. The first leg was in Florida and after Disney and Sea World I drove down to Cape Coral to stay with my Uncle Pete and Aunt Lotte. I rented The drive from Orlando to Cape Coral was longer than I thought it would be, and as I arrived at Uncle Pete’s house, he was waiting for me in the driveway standing next to his sky-blue ’66 Ford Mustang.
I loved that car – I remember riding in it when I was a kid and I remember the AC unit hanging from the dashboard. He used to talk about the car with the same pride he would about his autographed Eddie Giacomin goalie stick. I am not sure why I liked it so much – maybe it was because he loved it so much.
I had learned to play golf earlier that summer – and was all too aware of his love for the game. I thought it would be great if we could pass the time together during a round of golf, and I was elated when he had agreed to play a round of golf with me. What I didn’t know was that he hadn’t played since his last heart attack some months (maybe even a year) before. This shocked me and I was nervous that it might not be good for him to play, but he dismissed that. He couldn’t wait for me to get there and swore he would be fine – but one thing had me a bit concerned. I knew that one of his multiple heart attacks occurred on the golf course during what was surely a particularly frustrating round for him. His toned response to my concern “convinced” me not to express it again. We were going to play golf. And we were going to drive to the course in the Mustang!
Yeah, I would love to say that we drove the Mustang to the golf course that day – but we didn’t. Not sure why, but he wanted to take my Aunt Lotte’s Dodge – I think maybe a late 80s Dodge Spirit? I was a bit disappointed but in the end I was just excited to get there and play some golf.
We got to the golf course, and he loaned me some golf balls and I helped him with his bag out of the car. We got into the pro shop and the guy behind the counter was especially happy to see my Uncle. Uncle Pete introduced me to the fella, and the two exchanged quips about how badly Uncle Pete thought he would play after such a long time away from the game. I rented clubs, we got a cart, paired up with a couple of guys we didn’t know to make a foursome and we were on our way. During that day’s round, he taught me “Pete’s Golf Etiquette – Don’t step in a putting “line” on the green, always, and I mean ALWAYS replace divots, don’t move ahead of someones lie in the fairway, play ready golf – get close to your ball if it’s NOT ahead of someone’s shot in the fairway,” etc. All of these things are second nature to me now.
I especially don’t stand in someones putting line.
The first time I stomped on one of the other guys lines on the green, Uncle Pete politely told me not to do it. I was lucky because he was tempered the second, third and fourth time I did it, and then finally the fifth or so time, Uncle Pete knelt down to mark his ball and with his tell-tale half-pissed half-amused grin said, “Son, if you step in the guys line again after me telling you ten times today not to, I’m not doin anything when he kicks you in the ass.”
I looked at the guy who’s line I stepped in apologetically and he smiled and said, “Don’t worry about it, but if you do it again, I’ll kick you in the ass.” They all laughed and I didn’t know if I should laugh or not. Uncle Pete one-putted that hole.
As a matter of fact, Uncle Pete shot an 86 or something like that. I hadn’t played with anyone who shot less than a 90 ever since I had started to play, and Uncle Pete was my hero that day. He was shocked himself, “I didn’t think I’d play that well, either,” and added, “I’m glad we got to play.” I can’t find the scorecard – but I probably shot a 125 or something.
In hindsight, I was amazed with the patience my Uncle showed that day – much more a characteristic of my Dad than it was of my sometimes hot-headed Uncle. I hit about 40 strokes more than him that day, and he could have been a lot less tolerant, for sure. Another influential moment. I can’t imagine that Uncle Pete was that patient on the course all of the time. I see him as more the type of guy that gets pissed at slow play, etiquette illiterates, when he plays “poorly,” etc. But I didn’t see much of that at all – and I think a lot of my patience on the course today (yeah, most of the time) I learned from my Uncle that day.
Another cool aspect of this experience spending that much time with him alone, for the first and only time in my life, I got to see the brotherly similarities between Dad and Uncle Pete – from the way he called me “Son” to the way he expressed himself if he got frustrated – the mannerisms, the half swears – “godda…” and “ahh, your sister’s…” I don’t remember all of the specifics, but a few times as he was speaking, I felt like I was listening to my Dad.
Golf with my Uncle was one of the most treasured times of my life – what I refer to as a Life Moment. As I recall more, I will write them….
So about the garage – I was sitting at my desk at work writing some crap for the job, and began to think how mundane this stuff was which made me start thinking once again about my Uncle’s Mustang. I always had issues with daydreaming in grade school – even college, haha – and there I went right off into “what if” thoughts – and I began to think about the most insane and expensive solutions like “I should just rebuild the garage at my house to fit the car” and “let me rent a closed down auto shop for $2k per month” to “let me rent a friend’s garage” to “what about my parent’s garage” to…. WAIT – a friends garage? That might work, but who? And I immediately thought of my buddy Gary.
Gary had a unique situation on his hands – he had a big house with a nice big 2-car garage and it as just him and a new puppy there. I work with Gary, so I went over to his workstation and told him about the car, the blog, and then asked him if he would rent the garage to me for a bit while I restore the car. Without giving it much thought at all, he said YES.
Forget this. I mean, are you kidding me? Things were just falling into place at every turn. Gary is renting me the place for about $250 per month and to boot, if I need to stay over to get up early to work on the car I can. Now, I come from a place where if something is right – if it is meant to be, all will fall into place. I just need to have faith that it will – and I have. So what’s next? Getting the car up here.