And Here It Sits

Guilty as charged! In 1987 my wife and I bought this 1966 Mustang. And here it sits. It was a slightly older "restoration". Let's just say it had new paint, and a newer (albeit incorrect) interior. Seems like the previous owner had put in a '65 interior combination that wasn't available in '66. No big. To each his own.

But it bugged me enough that as soon as we could afford it I ripped out the '65 stuff and put in a new parchment and burgandy '66 interior. Sweeeet! The car was/is killer- a converible with power top, the c-code 289, with a c-4 "cruise-o-matic" transmission and dealer installed air conditioning. It was an awesome weekend driver, and when the weather was right, I drove it to work daily. Back in the day, we would take road trips to the coast and Yosemite National Park on a whim. The car was dependable as any car we've owned, and a blast to drive. And it STILL is, except that it seems like we only get it out of the garage a couple times a year. There are lots of "excuses" for this, but no good reasons!

So yesterday I decided that it's time to make an effort to drive it more, and if it doesn't work it's way back into our lifestyle then...well let's not go there! So I dug the keys out of the basket in the hallway cupboard (I'm not kidding) and went out to the garage to fire her up. Now this car has always started right up...3 pumps on the gas, turn the key,and "fire in the hole"! Well...after 14 attempts with no such luck, the beast finally woke up, and I feathered the gas pedal furiously to keep it lit. After a minute or two, it sounded like it might stay lit without constant attention to the pedal, and I let her idle. Well, i don't know if this qualifies as "idle" exactly- it sounded like it was running on 7 cylanders and it was belching some pretty rich black smoke out the back end. I've got a slightly bigger cam in the thing, but this sucker was loping like no street car I've ever seen. Anyway, after a slight idle adjustment and a little warm up it seemed like it might actually be drivable. That is after I put some air in the tires. As for that little (or not so little) dark spot on the garage floor, (conspicuously located under the tranny) well that can wait 'til another day!

So, having got to this point, all I needed to do was move my Ford Flex, which was parked in the driveway behind the '66, pull the Mustang out to where I could get to the right side tires and air them up, and go. But, alas, I think I've done enough for one day, so Here It Sits. Maybe tomorrow...