I'm 28, have a lovely Irish girlfriend and she doesn't mind I'm a car freak. So yeah, this is like winning the lottery twice! Oh and she's real Irish, she still lives in Ireland. hehe, not like my Irish, where my grandfather, being Irish-Canadian; having a father from Ireland... But yeah, since she lives IN Ireland, and we dont get a lot of time together, so I spend my days working on my cars.
I'm returning to college to finish the other half of my degree and then the work on the car will really begin, I wont be going out on weekends to find parties/girls, so I'll be spending any non-academic time, working on my Mustang.
About my Car:
1969 Mustang Coupe, 302, A/C, Automatic with powersteering and leather. (hehe, I had the leather done, it wasn't a Ford Exec car..)
It's about 20% Restored... I'm going to be finishing up the non-superficial sheetmetal work this fall. The roof, hood and quarterpanels are finished, but it still needs the doors and front fenders touched up and in primer.
Custom stuff:
-Shaved Quarter Panel Scoops.
-Shaved Quarter Panel Lights.
-I've the Maeir Racing Decklid and Endcaps for that extra bit of flare.
-Leather Mach 1 Front "high-back" seats and matching faux leather on the coupes back seat... I swear you can't tell the difference in material by looking and BARELY by touch. And I like the tall seats over the lowback style.
The car WAS red, but I'm going to have it done in Kona Blue with white stripes.
I purchased the car in 2001, and it's been in three bodyshops.. I swear you get what you pay for and when I choose the cheaper of the shops, I got hosed...
Shop 1: Having worked for me in the past and not doing anything less/more than I paid for, I liked them and asked for a respray. (it was all it needed at the time). I gave them a $1k deposite, and went back overseas *I was in the Navy* and they just threw on a s**t ton of bondo and I completely lost the body lines on the quarter panels. And they never contacted me by email after that, I had to wait till I got some more leave time and picked it up, in sad shape and primer all over the original interior. I later found out that they got into meth something fierce.
Shop 2: I agreed to his "pay as we go" plan of paying him $1,500 at a time. He replaced the quarter panel and tail light panel, finished the roof/quarters and things went well enough, but he was SO SLOW. He ended up having me cut out the tail light panel, "teaching me how to install the shelby lights" and it ended up looking like crap, cause he'd never installed shelby lights... *out of the Navy at this time* He started getting into drugs and more of my money was being spent on blow than my Mustang, so with $800+ credit on the books, I just came by and got my car, with the help of his father, because the bodyman refused to let me take my car and then said, "I hope you know that left over money is for storage.." I was upset, but what could I do, I just wanted my car back. Not even two weeks later, he was sent to jail for sleeping with his 15 y.o. stepdaughter.
Shop 3: He started SOME work, I only paid $400 to get things rolling, he cut out the radiator support, tail light panel and then got deported back to Europe, cause apparently a marriage from prior had surfaced.. and thus he lied on his green card app... OOPS... So yeah, lost my butt again...
Shop 4: This guy is the one person I should have gone to originally, he's done work for friends on both daily driver repairs and show cars... his rate is nearly double the other guys, but his work speaks for itself... He said, "I will do $2,000 worth of work at a time and then wait for payment, if you don't get around to paying me, I keep your car. I allow up to six months storage before it's mine" OH and everything he does is pre-quoted and on contract. Also, everything in his shop is top notch, I swear it looks like a hospital, albiet on a large scale.
By Feb 2010, I should have about $3,000 saved up. I'm putting away $100/month and going to apply my tax return to it and then keep saving till I'm sitting at around $4,000. I think that should buy some snazzy paint/parts to get it very much on it's way to being a whole mustang once again.
1969 Mustang Coupe New to Forum *waves hello* 
Welcome!!
