Well my story is similar to Jano's as far as working hard mowing lawns, bagging groceries at safeway, during the school year and then worked with my uncle in construction during the summer months putting away money. I was already interested in early Mustangs, but when my uncle was able to purchase his uncles 65 fastback, that kinda locked me onto looking for a 65 fastback as well. I had saved up 5k and my uncle I bought one for $1500 and by the time we drove it back to California, it had new paint, motor, and interior. I had $500 left of my savings for a set of 65(mustang) rally wheels. I had the car from the beginning of my Senior year in high school until one stormy night 5 years later. It was rainy cats and dogs my car was fishtailing just going down El Camino (main strip in the bay area) but I made it home safe, I put "THE CLUB" on the steering wheel and locked it up thinking it was safe for the night.... I woke up the next morning the sun was out and my car was GONE>>
Well as much as I hoped the Police would find it, me and a friend drove up to the sunset district, and looked with no luck. After a couple of months the insurance company said they would cut me a check for the current value, which was a decent amount. 8 months after it was stolen they found my car along with a friends 85 Grand National which got stolen the night before mine. Both cars were in Oakland, and were being driven into the ground by some thugs. I went to the auction and got to see my car I had built up with my uncle, that I had washed religiously. They had replaced the drivers door probably because they used a screwdriver to get the original open, the steering wheel was taped together and besides the paint looking terrible they had put 75,000 miles on it in that time. The car didn't run, but still bid up to 4k in the auction which surprised me. I didn't bid higher than 3 knowing it would need to be completely taken apart and would have a salvage title when it was done. Instead as luck would have it my uncle was finishing another 65 Mustang fastback, that he originally conceived would be more for him since my aunt had taken over the other car which was an automatic, power steering car. His carhe was about to finsih was a factory 4V 289 with an original 4 speed, and had the handling package with quick ratio steering. My aunt ended up talking him into selling it to me, so I bought my second car form my uncle as well, which happened to be the same color as the one that got stolen, Candy Apple Red. I bought the car and then spent another grand swapping over 4 piston caliper disc brakes from a GT parts car he had bought a few months prior.
When I look back at what happened, I miss the good times from the first car, the car races at sears point, picking up chicks, and out running the cops. BUT the car I ended up with is so much cleaner, is a factory 4 speed car and is really a polished up version of my first car:
