A little family history

 I've had Ford Mustangs in my life most of the time.  Our family bought a 1966 coupe used (one year trade-in from Diller Chevrolet) when I was 10 years old. That was at Corona, CA.  I rode in that car throughout the western US, making trips to Crater Lake, Grand Canyon, the Grand Tetons, Loveland pass in Colorodo, Monument Valley and more.  I never got to drive it but still the same it was our family car. It was a 289 2V with the Cruise-o-Matic transmission.  After a year with the stock rims and cheezy hubcaps my brother, Bob, who worked at J&M Speedcenter in Riverside, brought home a set of chrome reversed rims.  That's what's in the photograph at the right.  That photo is dated Jun 69 so that must have been our last trip to Mankato, Kansas, before we traded it in and bought new our 1969 Mustang fastback.

The fastback was such a beautiful color, Champagne Gold, and it was a 351 2V, again with the Cruise-o-matic transmission.  The Mustangs were primarily my mom's cars, my dad still drove his 1962 Ford Galaxie 500.  We kept the 69 Fastback until 1977 so I had many opportunities to drive it.  Bob brought home the set of Cragar GT wheels with the grey cast inserts. We also took it on many trips including all the way across the country to Bath, New York to visit my sister, Suze, and her family.  One time we were driving in Colorodo when the engine started making terrible knocking noises.  We took it to the dealership in Greely, Co, who pulled the driver's side head and de-carboned each cylinder.  I stayed with my dad all day there at the workshop watching all this take place and I remember how coked up the valve stems were!  

I should mention that my dad was a mechanic, in WW2 on B-17s and B-24s, but also a hot rodder before the war.  He opened up a new Shell Station in Corona in 1965 and all of us in the family had our part to play in running the station, I started pumping gas when it was $0.27/gal.  We had three more Shell gas stations in Santa Maria, CA after we moved there in 1970, and I worked with my dad at all of them, doing basic oil changes, lube jobs and such.  

Any way, back to Greely, Co, the dealership mechanic put the engine back together after doing just the one side and started it up and the knocking was just as bad.  He went into the supply room and brought back a can of Wynn's Engine Tune and poured the whole can down the running engine.  The knock cleared up and we were on our way!  The knock never came back.

After I left home at the beginning of 1977 my folks traded in the Mustang and brought home a new 1977 Camaro.  What a pig of a car!  It had the 305, which was gutless, but then everything suffered through those years.  By then I was driving a 1962 Triumph TR4 and I also bought a 1970 Triumph GT6+ and I was really into the sports car scene!  Through college I did the practical thing, sold my Triumphs, and bought a used 1974 Honda Civic.  I drove the piss out of that thing, touring all over California going to collegiate bicycle races from San Diego to Stanford, Davis and Chico.  I had to rebuild that engine in the parking lot at our apartment after if blew up on the return trip from Sacramento.   That's enough for part 1.