The Beginning

In 2018, my wife bought me a $1200 1968 Mustang for my 50th birthday (and the 50th birthday of the car). Original Mustangs were always my favorite car and I had wanted to rebuild one. I had virtually zero experience on anything automotive related. I didn't even know how to weld. About the only auto repair thing I had ever done was replace brake pads and standard oil changes. But I love to build and fix things.

I set a clear goal for myself from the start: I wanted to build a 2018 version of the 1968 Mustang with equipment and looks that I wanted. I know that most people like the fastbacks over the coupes. Not me. I know that most purists like a standard over an auto. Not me. I didn't want to "restore" the car. I wanted to replace it with modern parts that gave better performance, reliability and safety. My intent was for this to eventually be my daily driver. But it still needed to have attitude.

So I taught myself to weld and practiced relentlessly until I was ready to start. I stripped the car of everything. Every rusted panel was removed. I then had the car - what was left of it - media blasted.

Over the next 5 years I built the car, doing all the work myself. Then I primed it all with my first HVLP paint job. I bought a high performance 302 crate engine and installed it. Between my day job and 5 kids, I could only work on things 20 minutes at a time.

The car came out better than I had any right to expect. And it looks f'ing awesome! I love to drive around and see how long it takes for someone to give me a thumbs up or yell "Nice ride!". It doesn't take long!