It’s such a quintessential classic American dream that it’s almost cliche: restoring a classic American muscle car. But it’s been one of my dreams since I was a little kid.
You see, I grew up listening to classic oldies: ‘50’s, ‘60’s, and ‘70’s. I didn’t even start listening to ‘80’s music until I met my husband in the late ‘90’s. In retrospect that music was initially responsible for my love of all things vintage and mid-century. When I was a teenager I desperately wanted at 1969 Mustang convertible (except for the brief period where I dreamed of owning a GTO).
But it was not to be. Teenagers and classic beauties like these rarely lead to happy endings. Seemingly they more often end in stories of how someone’s cousin’s sister’s friend knew someone who went to their rival high school that got one for their birthday and then totaled it two days later. I also still harbor a dream of redoing a 1957 Thunderbird convertible just like Elvira’s gorgeous ride. But I digress.
As some of you know I’m about to start my last year of my Master’s degree. Last summer I decided that I would finally get myself a classic car and begin restoring it after grad-school. When COVID-19 hit I decided I would go ahead and start my search now.
The search was fun, I’m not going to lie. Much more fun that shopping for a regular car. I looked at a 1960 Fairlaine 500, a 1974 Camaro, a 1966 Mustang, and a 1967 Mustang before finding my new baby, my beautiful nearly all original blue 1968 Mustang hardtop. She has the 6 cylinder engine and she’s an automatic (it was much harder to find a manual than I expected!) but that’s fine. I would most likely just have gotten myself in trouble with the 8 cylinder anyway. 😉
I’ll leave y’all with a few pictures. She’s in amazing condition, having been previously loved and pampered by a retired mechanic, so there is really not a whole lot to be done but I’m still super excited about learning to work on her and taking her on adventures. So far I’ve been taking her for short country drives, getting used to driving without power steering or brakes. I love the way her engine just purrs. My first project with her is to have a small 1″ x 3″ hole under the front passenger floorboard patched. Since that will require welding it’s not something I can do myself so I’ve started contacting local restoration shops for estimates.
