What A Fucking Waste Of Time

Today was a sad day for me. After 15 years of dependable, and almost-always reliable transportation, I parted ways with my 1968 Ford Mustang. The picture you see here is a scan of an actual emulsion-on-paper photograph I snapped at Rosario Beach Bowman Bay in Deception Pass on August 5, 1991, the day I bought the car.

The car had the original engine, but had a lot of miles and was tired. The old 289 had three years left it before the engine needed to be replaced. In 1994, I dropped a 302 engine under the hood, which is still in the car today and doing a great job. In 2000, I put an Edelbrock intake manifold and Edelbrock four barrel carburetor on the engine. People thought I was crazy considering the cost of gas, but I firmly believe muscle cars should have big engines and big carburetors. Besides, I love passing other cars up an incline! While the engine was fast and strong, I only received 2 speeding tickets. One for doing 56 mph in a 30 mph zone, and another for doing 77 mph in a 65 mph zone. Of course, those two times are the only times I was caught speeding.

The year 2000 also saw a set of Magnum 500 wheels added to the car, a popular after-market wheel! The tires were from Les Schwab, and the whole car looks kick-ass with those wheels.

Over the 15 years, I drove my Mustang over 80,000 miles. While that’s only 5,300 or so miles a year, I made several trips to Portland, Oregon, and an epic trip to San Jose, California with Tina. And, as a member of Island Classic Mustang Club, I drove to many different car shows from Ferndale, Washington to Olympia, Washington and all points in between. Hell, I even won several awards, albeit in the fixer-upper class. The car show circuit was always a great time. The people not obsessed with winning trophies are really nice people.

But, while I’m reflecting on the good times, I’ve made the decision to sell the Mustang because I don’t have the time or money to keep it running safely. In the past couple of years, the driver’s seat back broke (a common problem), I’ve had a few electrical problems (that still exist), the water pump shit the bed, and the front suspension has deteriorated to the point the the front tires are towed in like pigeon feet (which is wearing the tires unevenly).

While it was a very difficult decision to make, I sold the Mustang to a friend at work. I just hope Bob considers me as a friend once he starts in on fixing things. I think I’ve been honest about all the problems with the car. He’s going to fix the Mustang up and do several “restomods,” and has been window shopping the parts catalogs for the past week or so. He’s already talking about engine rebuilds and disc brakes.

One caveat to selling the Mustang to Bob was he had to take pictures of the project from Day One. I offered to register the domain name and create the galleries online. This morning, I asked Bob what domain name he’d like. The following is that conversation, which is pretty comical:

<wafwot> These are available…
Pick one, or come up with your own…
mustangbob.com
bobs68.com
bobsmustang.com
68resto.com
<bob> bobsmustang.com guess this is good enough.
<bob> unless you can come up with a cooler name.
<bob> i like 68resto.com too.
<wafwot> You have any ideas…
<bob> let me think about that.
<bob> bornagain.com
<wafwot> taken.
<bob> bornagainmustang.com
<wafwot> bornagainmustang.com is available.
<bob> how about, restoremymustangthenbangherinthebackseat.com

With that, I logged into our domain registrar at work and registered the domain Bob wanted… and two others. Never joke around with a hostmaster who has access to a company credit card.

<wafwot> Results:
bornagainmustang.com successfully registered
mustangbornagain.com successfully registered
restoremymustangthenbangherinthebackseat.com successfully registered
<bob> are you shitting me?
<wafwot> No I’m not.
<bob> whew. had me worried. explain that to my kids. lol
<wafwot> No… I’m not shitting you… Yes, I registered the domain!
<bob> lol dick

Bob’s a retired sailor, and I know he was just kidding about that last domain name. However, I couldn’t resist registering it and having a bit of fun at his expense. In a year’s time when renewal is due, I’ll just let the joke domain expire.

So, I’ve been a bit melancholy this evening. Selling my Mustang is like euthanizing a beloved pet. Maybe it’s stupid, but I’ve owned that car so long, it’s become a member of the family. Thankfully, the Mustang has a new home that will take care of it and bring it back to it former glory… and I get to live vicariously through Bob while he does so.

http://www.bornagainmustang.com

After hemming and hawing on auto dealer web sites, Tina and I finally decided we could swing a new vehicle… well, new to us. Today, Lance, Mellisa, and I went truck shopping over in Skagit county. I could afford about a thousand down and no more than $200 a month, so off we went.

We stopped at Wilson’s first. The two trucks I saw on their web site were sold, so I test drove a 1996 Chevrolet C2500. It was a nice truck, but… well, it wasn’t a Ford. Besides, Wilson’s won’t finance more than 24 months, they wanted $1500 down, and the payments would have been about $385. Thank you for your time.

Melissa was hungry, and asked Lance to stop and get some food. Mount Vernon is filled with every fast-food joint known to man, and we passed a Taco Bell, a Burger King, and a Jack in the Box, but somehow ended up on the interstate. When Mellisa asked why we didn’t stop for food, Lance decided we’d stop at the ARCO AM-PM for some “gas station food.” Melissa cracked me up with “We passed all those fast food joints, and you’re taking me to AM-PM?” So instead of gas station food, we ended up at Wienerschnitzel. WTF? I’ve never heard of this place. Apparently, it’s the world’s biggest hot dog chain. The one in Mount Vernon is one of three in the entire Pacific Northwest.

I ate my BBQ Bacon cheese hot dog as we headed to Skagit Ford-Subaru to look at trucks. They didn’t have any mid-90s full-size trucks, but I looked at a 2004 Ranger that “Sales Boy” thought he could put me in using my budget parameters. I followed Mr. Eager to his desk and filled out the paperwork for them to check my credit. After 5 minutes or so, he comes back and asks if I could put more than $1000 down. I asked how much, and he said $4000. Holy crack-smoking hell! If I had $5000, I wouldn’t be shopping to finance a truck. He also asked if I could come up with a co-signer. Thank you for your time, jackass. On the way out, we saw this car — a 2006 Ford GT. Wotta bargain for only $165,000.

North Cascade Ford in Sedro-Woolley was next, and they didn’t have any trucks in my price range, so further into this quiet little white-bred redneck mountain town we went, to a small lot in Sedro right on the highway. [I used to link the name of the dealer to their web site, but they kind of pissed me off, so... no link for them!] The sales people were nice and not very pushy. Something that was a refreshing change from the vultures at the Auto Mall on I-5. And their office was eclectic mix of car memorabilia and antiques. There’s was even an old Coke machine in the lobby that works! My saleswoman gave me 4 quarters and I got an Orange Crush. I guess Coca-Cola bottles are hard to come by.

I told my saleswoman my budget parameters, and she thought there should be no problem putting me into a truck. She showed me a couple of early 90s trucks, but I wasn’t impressed. They did have this red and white 1994 F150 XLT with a canopy, four-wheel drive, power windows, power locks, cruise control, air conditioning, the works! It looked really clean and straight. Lance said if I didn’t get it, he was going to buy it. I hopped in and took it for a short test drive. When we got back, I filled out lots of paperwork, and found out my credit score is much better than I thought. This of course, started an avalanche of more paperwork. I signed my name for what seemed to be an hour. I felt like Bart Simpson at the chalk board, but when I was done, they handed me the keys to my new truck!

I made the 36 mile trip back home without any problems. It’s nice to have a vehicle that runs like clockwork and I don’t have to worry about a breakdown.

Here’s some more pictures of the truck, and in the glove box, I found the original window stickers from 1994 when the truck was new! Check them out: front | rear | interior | back seat | factory sticker | dealer sticker