[CruX]

Title's not entirely accurate, the four-banger I've been driving around since I was 19 is still around (and I still pay a note on it). But last week, this thing finally got into town...



Got it from a private seller in Alabama. It's a Mustang Grande, built in 1973 (which was pretty much the last year you really saw Mustangs like this being made). I've heard there were only 500 some-odd Grandes produced in that year, though I haven't confirmed it. Even if that's not accurate, this thing could still be worth quite a bit once I get it restored, since it came with all the original documentation, from the owner's manual, to original bill of sale, right down to a few insurances policies its first owner had on it. It's actually only had three different owners including the guy I bought it from, and for at least ten of its thirty years, it sat in a carport. It's not in perfect running shape, but I'm amazed at how strong it runs, the engine's good, as is the transmission (It's automatic. Don't have to pump the gas to get it to start and haven't had the transmission slip yet), and it stops on a dime without squealing or anything.







The interior is in damn near mint condition. There are two small cracks on the dash that you can't quite see in this picture because of the sun. Other than that, it's almost flawless inside.



So, here's what's wrong with it;
The alternator is (was) almost totally SOL. When I first got the car, it fired up twice, and just died after that. Wound up finding out shortly thereafter that the alternator was bad, and the belt going off of it had nearly snapped in half, so I got that torn out and installed a new one today. Also had to rip the negative cable going off the battery because it was almost completely corroded on one end, got another one and had it put on. Two of the fuses are blown (one controls windshield wipers and the other controls turn signals), so I've got to look into getting those replaced tomorrow, and one of the headlights are burnt out. The muffler's going to have to be replaced, and something's wrong with the front end that's causing the car to make a dull, repetetive thunk sound whenever it rolls forward, so I'm going to look at that once the other minor stuff is out of the way. As you might be able to tell, the car had a vinyl hood that had been ripped off, but I'm not too upset about that. Takes care of some of the work for me when I'm ready to have it repainted (the paint job is awful, btw), because I hate vinyl hoods.

[ryche]

Sweet score. Very nice looking. Good luck restoring it.

[Gambini]

Never saw this thread before. I stumpled upon it accidentally. It´s been almost two years, how´s progress going? That´s a badass car! I love it! I once rode in a Mustang Mach I (as a passenger) and i was completely amazed by the power and sound, and it was "just" a 5 litters engine, can´t think of how would a 7 litters run (or 429 cu.in as americans call it). Which of those is under that hood?

This is the car i´m talking about.

[CruX]

Gambini, on 09 March 2012 - 04:58 PM, said:

It´s been almost two years, how´s progress going?

It's been two years already? Wow I'm sad to say there hasn't been much progress at all on it. I bought the car while I was living in a place called College Station. The store worked at there was huge, I got tons of O.T and (sic) I was making a lot of money. However two months after I got the car, my fiance' got a job placed up in Dallas and we wound up moving up there, the O.T slacked off, the bills got steep (Dallas is an expensive place to live in), and while I'm not struggling by any stretch of the imagination, there hasn't been enough extra cash-flow to work on it. I've had the car sitting in a garage in the current apartment complex, and I occasionally tool it around the parking lot so it won't start to vegetate and shit, but the last thing I did with it was replace a few blown fuses in the console so the windshield wipers and the turn signals would work again, and that was a little over a year ago. I did some rearranging with my daily drivers, however, and got out from underneath that stupid Rio this past July, so my current car is this GTI...




The Mustang has a 351 Cleveland, which is in pretty good shape considering it's original. Mach 1's are fucking awesome but you can't even find an empty, rusted up body for one that's less than a few grand. Funny as it is, the one old school muscle car I'd want more than a Mach-1 is a Dodge Demon. I hate Darts, but for some reason those Demons are kick-ass.