In The Beginning....

So you probably want to know how a computer geek came across a classic mustang when he has no knowledge of cars. Well, let me try to explain. Hopefully I can keep this short.

When I was a kid my Dad decided to reclaim some of his youth. You see, he had a 1965 Fastback as a young adult. Once my Mother became pregnant with my brother they decided it wasn't a good family car. I think my Dad has regretted the decision to sell it as soon as he did. It was many years before he was in a position financially that he could buy a car to play with. Once he did, it soon became a major hobby. A friend of his picked up on the hobby around the same time. They helped each other rebuild mustangs. I'm not sure how many they finished, but I know my Father and Brother (more on him later) completed at least 2. One was a 1965 Mustang Fastback with a 289. The other was a 1966 coupe that my brother drove... until he totaled it... twice. ;) Ok, so his wrecks weren't that bad... on the car. My brother on the other hand had a few surgeries to rebuild his upper gum because he found out that Mustang steering wheels are not forgiving when you bite one in a wreck. My Dad had the good foresight to not allow him to have a big engine. So he was stuck with a 6 cylinder.

Back to the car...

Around the time that I became old enough and interested in learning how to work on the cars is about the time my Dad got tired of working on them. Which means I learned virtually nothing about them. My Father was and still is a great teacher. He has taught me many things. He is a wizard when it comes to fixing things. Some fixes aren't nearly by the book, but that's not a bad thing. Whether he meant to or not, the best thing he has taught me is there is always a way. If you don't know what your doing, figure it out. How? By simply getting in there and start doing something. You'll eventually find a solution. Of course, as a kid, I drove him nuts disassembling things around the house. Mainly because I was very bad at putting them back together. It's not that I couldn't; it was that once I figured out how it worked, I got bored with it. On a side note, I was the kid in school that would only do 7 out of 10 problems because he knew those where right and just didn't care to do the last 3. C is still passing, right?

I think my Dad must have known that I wanted to learn about cars, but he was just tired of working on them. But that worked to my advantage. To this day I don't know what he was thinking, but in my junior year of high school he let me use his pride and joy as a daily driver. Granted, I had to pretty much swear my life away. But he actually let me drive it. That is when I truly fell in love with that car. I will add that I was extremely responsible with it. I never got a ticket in it, never raced anybody, and babied it a lot.

After I stopped driving it after my senior year he parked it. And I mean that's ALL he did. Didn't drain any fluids. Didn't lubricate anything. DID NOTHING! He didn't want to get rid of it, but he didn't want to work on it either. Well, about 7 years ago he decided he wanted it gone. I forbid him from selling it. So, he made me store it at my house. He hinted at the fact that it might officially become mine some day. That day has come. Two weeks ago he signed over the title. I feel like I've stolen it. I still don't know how to thank him or even show my gratitude.

Now on to me...

I am a lazy person. I don't have a problem admitting it. Not much gets me off the couch. My weight and health are proof of that. It took me 9 years to graduate college. Not because I was a 'special' student, but because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I don't even remember all of the degrees I declared during college. After working as a medic for 6 years I finally decided to do something with computers. Yep, I know; that's kind of a big switch, but I couldn't take it any more. Besides dealing with the worst of society at their absolute worst moments in life, the management sucked. They could care less about their employees. So I had to get out. I went back to school and finished up an MIS degree. Now I am a programmer, well, more specifically a desktop applications analyst. What does that mean? Basically the department I'm with can develop small applications, usually MS Access, very quickly. Our IT department is massively behind. Close to 4 years behind. So we are the band aid. Apparently a band aid that isn't going anywhere. At the rate my company lays people off, there is a huge need for automation. I'm not going to say who I work for, but it rhymes with 'hurtz'.

By no means am I completely ignorant about working on cars. I have always had a major curiosity in how the world works. Anything mechanical has to be dissected or at least researched. Same goes for cars. I understand most of the concepts in how cars operate. But I don't know exactly how all of those systems work together, as you will soon find out while reading this blog. I don't know proper names either. I'm sure the parts store guys get a good laugh at me when I come in. But that is what this is all about. I am on a mission to get this car running again and more importantly to LEARN. Beyond that, who knows, I have some ideas. But will have to lay out my plans at a later date.

I'm not going to sugar coat what I do. If I take 12 hours to remove a front fender and scratch the paint really badly in the process, I'll tell you. Hey, that was my first confession. ;) It may not have taken that long, but it did take way too long and I did scratch the paint. I guess it's good that I already plan on repainting it.

I think that just about covers it. My Dad has given me a huge opportunity to learn about this car. I plan on taking it as far as I can.

Oh, that responsible driver thing I mentioned earlier... I'm an adult now and can make my own decisions. So it's time to play!