Story time! Let the epic lengthy posts resume.
Picked up an '01 Mustang GT last month after being 'Stang-less for a little over a year - the '09 Crown Vic was comfy, but a poor substitute. It was hard to find one that didn't have a metric crap-ton of miles already on it and/or hadn't been modified to death by prior owners, but I did manage to score this one with 121k on the clock and in almost completely factory condition, aside from a terribly cobbled-together and rotten cat-back, a stupid aftermarket alarm system, Eibach springs that lower it just a tad (without caster camber plates, grrrrr), and a couple of minor cosmetic mods. A Carfax revealed that I am the EIGHTH owner of this thing - sheesh - but overall, it's in decent shape:
It originally started out in Tennessee and then came to Arizona sometime around '08 and was apparently very well cared for by all seven prior owners, so there's no rust to speak of underneath. Bought it from a kid in Scottsdale who was selling it because he'd picked up an '03 or '04 Mach 1 (can't remember which year). At some point, someone tried to kinda give it the Bullitt look by deleting the rear wing, filling the holes, repainting the trunk (you can just barely see the fill spots if you look at just the right angle), and adding a few aluminum pieces inside and out (fuel filler door, pedals, mirror/window/lock buttons, shifter ring). Came with the Mach 460 sound system, but of course the factory head unit was starting to crap out, so the prior owner kid had an aftermarket Kenwood head unit swapped in (he did include the original in the trunk, FWIW) - sounds okay at best, but probably going to need to replace the speakers soon. Prior owner kid included receipts for all the stuff he'd had done for maintenance, so most everything seems to be kept up on for the most part.
As cars in Arizona tend to go, the clear coat is making a departure from all horizontal surfaces as quickly as my hair has been disappearing from the top of my head. Prior owner kid covered it up creatively with flat-black Plastidip by adding a Mach 1 type stripe down the middle from the scoop, as well as stripes over the top of the fenders and "hash marks" coming down the sides - very subtle, can't really see it in pics unless you're at the right angle. Clear coat looks horrible on the rear bumper, which also has a bit of a hole in it from where someone backed into something at some point in history. (This is the only pic I have handy at the moment.)
And lastly, the crappy cat-back had a GIANT hole in one muffler where it had rusted/rotted through internally and then blown out, and the passenger-side mid-pipe was pinched almost flat where the kid had backed out of his driveway and dropped it down too quickly over the curb. That and getting the front end properly set up (again, it's lowered without caster camber plates to properly align it) were my immediate concerns. Sooooooo ... that's where I was about two weeks ago.
Picked up an '01 Mustang GT last month after being 'Stang-less for a little over a year - the '09 Crown Vic was comfy, but a poor substitute. It was hard to find one that didn't have a metric crap-ton of miles already on it and/or hadn't been modified to death by prior owners, but I did manage to score this one with 121k on the clock and in almost completely factory condition, aside from a terribly cobbled-together and rotten cat-back, a stupid aftermarket alarm system, Eibach springs that lower it just a tad (without caster camber plates, grrrrr), and a couple of minor cosmetic mods. A Carfax revealed that I am the EIGHTH owner of this thing - sheesh - but overall, it's in decent shape:
It originally started out in Tennessee and then came to Arizona sometime around '08 and was apparently very well cared for by all seven prior owners, so there's no rust to speak of underneath. Bought it from a kid in Scottsdale who was selling it because he'd picked up an '03 or '04 Mach 1 (can't remember which year). At some point, someone tried to kinda give it the Bullitt look by deleting the rear wing, filling the holes, repainting the trunk (you can just barely see the fill spots if you look at just the right angle), and adding a few aluminum pieces inside and out (fuel filler door, pedals, mirror/window/lock buttons, shifter ring). Came with the Mach 460 sound system, but of course the factory head unit was starting to crap out, so the prior owner kid had an aftermarket Kenwood head unit swapped in (he did include the original in the trunk, FWIW) - sounds okay at best, but probably going to need to replace the speakers soon. Prior owner kid included receipts for all the stuff he'd had done for maintenance, so most everything seems to be kept up on for the most part.
As cars in Arizona tend to go, the clear coat is making a departure from all horizontal surfaces as quickly as my hair has been disappearing from the top of my head. Prior owner kid covered it up creatively with flat-black Plastidip by adding a Mach 1 type stripe down the middle from the scoop, as well as stripes over the top of the fenders and "hash marks" coming down the sides - very subtle, can't really see it in pics unless you're at the right angle. Clear coat looks horrible on the rear bumper, which also has a bit of a hole in it from where someone backed into something at some point in history. (This is the only pic I have handy at the moment.)
And lastly, the crappy cat-back had a GIANT hole in one muffler where it had rusted/rotted through internally and then blown out, and the passenger-side mid-pipe was pinched almost flat where the kid had backed out of his driveway and dropped it down too quickly over the curb. That and getting the front end properly set up (again, it's lowered without caster camber plates to properly align it) were my immediate concerns. Sooooooo ... that's where I was about two weeks ago.