My 65 K-Code Mustang

 I never expected this to happen, I was not searching for another project car.  I've always had the dream to have a car like this, to stumble onto the opportunity.  I mean, my garage was full enough with two hobby cars and a wonderful modern Mustang, that was plenty.  But when this happened to me I felt like it was just the right circumstances.

I had begun volunteering at the local genealogical society and getting to know the people there.  Now I run the place one Saturday every other week, and help out on other occasions.  Mostly I ride my biocycle to the genealogy society but a few times I brought my 2018 Mustang GT. My one co-worker- Roberta, must have noticed my Mustang and mentioned that her husband had an old Mustang and might be ready to sell it, would I want to come over and have a look at it?  I agreed and a couple of weeks later I arranged to visit.  I met her husband, John, and he showed me towards the garage.  He mentioned that his old Mustang was a K-code, just in passing.  Well, that got me excited, and then there it was in front of me.  Sitting mostly unused in his garage, next to a Jeep CJ7, was this pretty sharp looking 65 Wimbledon White fastback. He fired it up for me and I just drank in the steady tic of the solid lifters and its confident rumble.  John didn't have much time to spend with me that day but I said that I would buy it and made him an offer based on what he said he was thinking about asking for the car.  He said he'd think about it and would call me in a week.  They had their kids and families coming over and would be busy for a while.  

So I waited out the week and more, casually saw Roberta at work and didn't really ask about it, just playing it cool.  But I had also researched what the car was worth on the market and really felt that John had undervalued his car.  So I ended up calling him and told him I thought his car was worth more than I could afford.  I told him that I would pay him more than he had asked and I gave him a sheet I had printed out with the Hagerty valuation tool summary for his car.  I just said that I want the car and I can offer an amount but I would understand if he wanted to sell the car publicly for closer to top dollar.  I said that I knew how to take care of the car and would definitely cherish it.  All he asked was that I not re-sell it immediately, and we agreed to the deal.  Was this a dream?

I backed the Mustang gingerly out of the garage while John watched a little anxiously.  I wondered at the time what he may be thinking.  He had owned the car for over twenty years.  Was he sad to see it go?  Was he anxious that I didn't do something wrong?  It was hard to know.  Obviously, the car had been sitting for some time.  John had a shop retro-fit a power steering system on the car (65 HiPos didn't have power steering as an option) and also put on a dual-chambered power brake system on the original disk brake set-up.  As it sat in the garage it had a pretty large puddle of power steering fluid - signaling a leak.  I had brought Ford Type A fluid and topped off the reservoir before driving the car.  I only lived a few miles away so I just eased the car home and into my garage.

I took some pictures, investigated the P/S leak and decided that it was not worth fixing and I would just remove the system entirely.  And I took it for a drive.  I realized right away that the engine was not running well, it didn't really have much power.  I also found out that the clutch chattered rather violently if I gave it any gas trying to pull away from a stop.  Now I think I know why John was a little anxious when I first pulled the car out of the garage.  But you know, I am a mechanic, and I can make these simple things right.

My first drive with the 65 Mustang