1965 Mustang Fastback
A Day in the Life of a 1965 Fastback: 2000 Journal
December 2000
Dec 23: Got the good news that the car arrived in Arizona
in perfect shape. They've cleaned it up, and will put it in storage until
I get me and mine out there. Soon, to be on the western roads....
Dec 11: I watched as they drove off with my car on the flatbed.
That'll be the last time I see it until I move to Arizona, and right now,
I still don't know when that'll be.
Dec 1: I got in touch with someone in the Copper State Mustang
Club in Arizona, and they're going to be able to help me get this horse
shipped to the desert. I know I won't be able to drive it in the summer
out there, so I've gone and bought a 2001 Nissan Xterra that I hope to get
some good hauling and offroad use out of once I'm out there.
November 2000
Finally, the court proceedings are over. I'm cleared, but I still don't
know if the other driver has a bench warrant out for him yet, even though
the judge said last time that there would be one. He just dismissed the
charges against me, and me and my lawyer bolted. I still think it sucks
that they just let that guy get away with unlicensed driving. He'd
probably left for another state, and this lawyer was just covering for him
to let him get farther away. Doesn't matter... I'm out of here too.
September 2000
Court for the accident again. Emphasis on again. The other driver didn't
show up again, but he had a lawyer show up this time. The judge was
particularly angry that the driver didn't show again, and said that next time
a bench warrant would be issued if he failed to show. I still think they
should have chased him down because I want this over with so I can get on
with moving!
August 2000
New front springs have been installed, and now I'm just waiting for them
to settle... it looks great from the outside, but from the driver's seat,
the front end rides noticeably higher, and will take some getting used to.
I've already decided to wait on the rear suspension work until I've moved.
July 2000
July 21: Got the horse back from the shop... looking good so
far. One of the suppliers messed up an order, and sent him stripes
for a 67 instead of a 65, so the fender doesn't have it's stripes back
yet, but they'll be there soon. I'm also taking it back for some
minor suspension work... I think the front end sits too low. It's
definitely sitting lower than the rear, so we're going to replace
the springs on front, see what shakes out with that....
July 9: Arizona is magnificent, and I even saw a 1962 Cobra
on the road in Scottsdale... along with a ton of other classic and
antique cars. The weather was great, even when it got up to 108 (hot
like I like it!), and the sky and mountains are beautiful. Can you
guess where I'm going to be moving me and my horse in the near future???
June 2000
June 18: Typical. A week before I go on vacation, and some
goof pulls a bonehead move at the same time I'm going through the
intersection, and BANG. Right front fender and grill are mashed, plus
the right front of the hood... pictures later. I think the right rear
wheel of his 1993 Tempo was almost at a 45deg angle from the ground.
He won't be driving that car again anytime soon, and to top it all off,
my insurance is probably going to go up because he was driving on an
already suspended license, an expired TEMPORARY registration on said
Tempo, and no proof of insurance. The address on the police report
was a P.O. Box, to boot. I hate New Jersey, I really do. The horse
is going to be towed back up to Bucks County Mustangs for proper
repair... I just hope it's ready when I get back from vacation.
June 2: Saw a standup in the theaters for
Gone In 60 Seconds,
with Nicolas Cage standing beside "the car".... definitely a 1967 Shelby.
I may go see the movie just to get a good look at the car... found a
website that apparently does the equivalent of casting calls for cars.
Movie Time Cars in North
Jersey keeps photos in house of vintage and unique cars, in case a
producer needs sometime different in a tv show or movie. I'm tempted
to get the hood repainted and send in a photo. Wouldn't it be cool to
see my baby in an episode of "The Sopranos"??
May 2000
May 2: Dead Battery. Completely dead. No jump could save it.
It does seem to start quicker, cold and hot, so maybe I've really needed
a new one for longer than I thought.
May 1: Apparently the car they thought resembled mine was really
a 1967 Shelby GT500, seen briefly in the longer Gone In 60 Seconds trailer...
i still haven't seen the trailer, but another friend,
Sean, the Eclipse Turbo
fiend, had seen it. I'm kinda glad...I always wanted to use my car as
the hero's car in one of the movies *I* make!!
April 2000
Apr 21: Now I'm curious. A co-worker has said that he's seen
a commercial for an upcoming action movie, and they've used my car either
as part of a chase scene, or it's the hero's car and he's being chased.
Of course, he couldn't remember the name of the film, so now I'm on a
search to find this flick...
Apr 21: Finally located Steve's Carburetors...he's in Hilltop NJ,
not in Runnemede or Blackwood. Dropped the car off this morning, and turns
out the problem was not with the carb at all... the fuel pressure was too
high, and flooding the system. I don't know if this means I'll need a new
fuel pump sooner than later, but for now, he's put a regulator on, to help
control the pressure of the gas jetting into the carb. He also adjusted the
choke a little. It's raining like crazy out today, or I'd really run it hard
to see how it behaves, but I can already tell that it starts and runs much
much smoother than at any time since the 4bbl was put on. Yeah, baby....
Apr 18: The nick in the front of the hood just got bigger, and
there's more rust under there than I'd thought. Time for some sandpaper and
touchup paint. I do want to get the entire hood sanded and repainted again
before taking it to any real shows. I've heard there's one in Wildwood in
May... don't think I'll have time to get the hood done before then, but it
can't hurt just to camp out the weekend with some other pretty cars...
Apr 12: Still having major flooding problems with the carb, and
even got a backfire that scorched the air cleaner cover (one more thing
to clean!). A couple of guys that I've met that run cars down at Atco
Raceway (straight track) have mentioned that there's a guy nearby off of
Black Horse Pike who specializes in carburetors, and he's good at what
he does... the hunt is now on.
March 2000
Mar 31: Typical. The left front fog lamp died, and this lamp
doesn't seem to be anything that the larger parts stores (Pep Boys, NAPA)
carry on the shelves. While I'm looking, I might as well switch to the
amber lamps so other drivers stop flashing at me and getting annoyed at
me thinking I'm running with my brights on. They don't seem to realize
that other drivers don't seem to notice me at night with just the normal
headlamps on...
Mar 26: More intermittent carburetor problems are popping up,
and now I'm not so sure if it's the carb, or maybe the fuel line. It runs
great when cold, sometimes real rough after it's warmed up and hot. Yeah,
I know the jokes..."it's a Ford, so anything's possible." I'll just keep
driving it and feeding the symptoms to the Bucks County Mustangs mechanics
and see what happens...
Mar 10: The car is still running very rough, idling way too low,
stalling out every chance it gets, and I definitely smell gas now and then.
I'm wondering if it's getting too much gas, or if the fuel line is clogged
(it happened in my old 6cyl, why not in this one). Have to take a run
up to Levittown to have to checked....
Mar 1: As far as I'm concerned, Winter's over. I took the
car out of storage today and out for a spin. It's running a little
rough, but that might be from being idle for a month. But it's got a
full tank and it's a very pretty day...
January 2000
Jan 31: Having just gotten the car back from another session in
the shop, I've gotten paranoid about driving it in bad weather the rest of
the winter, and on a pre-planned whim, the car is now in the care of a
Classic Car Storage facility (appropriately
Antique and Classic Car Storage).
Great guys to deal with, and I just barely got the car inside in between
snow storms...
Jan 24: Now this is ridiculous. I spill a little antifreeze as
I'm adding a little bit, and thinking I'm being wise, I go get some warm
water to rinse it off with. As this water runs down the side of the
radiator, I start hearing hissing. This is definitely a new sound. It
continues for a few minutes before I notice the sparks coming from the
wiring running alongside the radiator, down at the base where it goes
into the frame. At first I'm not worried, until the sparks turn into
smoke, and which point panic sets in, knowing that my tools are too far
away from me to get to to unhook the battery. Luckily, one of my
neighbors was nearby, and already in the back of his truck...he came
rushing over and popped the cable off for me, definitely saving the car,
and my sanity.
The guys from Bucks County Mustangs are coming down with a flatbed to tow
it up... apparently wire harness chafing was a problem until the design
was modified in 1967... so I ask myself why didn't we implement this tiny
but important safety-related change while we were building the car? I'm
guessing because I didn't know, I couldn't ask them to do it...
previous years
