I have no problem doing the old buy, fix, flip deal, I've done it several times, no complete paint jobs though, it's too much work, I prefer to buy the ones with mechanical issues. Also, the economy isn't great around here, I try too keep the cars I flip around $1500, anything more than that takes to long to sell.
Most likely, the Mustang will hang around for a while. I've always wanted one of these cars, I had a 1981 Black Magic Capri in High School, but it was a 2.3, I had an 85 LX, but it had a 2.3. I never got my 5.0, then wife, kids, life in general, other toys have come and gone, and I've learned my lesson about letting them go.
If you want to read it, here's the long drawn out story of how I got this car
I've been into Motorcycles for awhile, I never had them growing up, no dirtbikes, or anything like that, I always liked bikes, just never had or rode one. Well not long after my 30th birthday I decided it was time, so I bought an old Yamaha XJ750, got my learners permit and started riding. Fast forward 10 years or so and several different bikes later, I had the orange Sportster Roadster that's hanging out in the background of some of the Mustang pictures. I had done a bunch of trading, It's hard to sell a Motorcycle around here, it's that crappy economy thing, but trading is no problem, so after a few trades this is what I ended up with. I really bonded with this bike, bought lots of extra parts, made several modifications, basically had it set up exactly the way I wanted it. I painted a larger gas tank for it, could have it switched from bar hopper, to road trip ready in less than an hour, I've done several multiple day excursions with it, Tail of the Dragon, Back of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, Forum get togethers, basically riding was my hobby.
In June of 2018, I was out riding in S.E. Ohio, a lot of good hilly curvy roads down there, anyway, I was really hitting the curves hard that day, at least as hard as you can on a Sportster, it's not a crotch rocket after all, one of the curves decided to hit back and next thing I know me and the bike are sliding down the road together. Luckily, I didn't really get hurt, just some road rash, the bike was damaged some, but not to bad. I healed pretty quickly, I settled up with my insurance company for just enough that the bike didn't total, I had enough spare parts to put it back together, I think the only thing I had to buy was a mirror, that I won for $1 on eBay. At this point the bike was a wash, the insurance check was more that I had into it because of all of my trading to get the bike in the first place.3 weeks after the wreck, I'm healed, the bike is fixed, and I'm at the Tail of the Dragon for the Xlforum meet-n-greet. I'm invincible, no little slide down the road is gonna keep from riding!
I did another road trip in August of 18, on that trip I decided I wanted a bigger bike to travel on, I didn't want to get rid of the Sportster, just wanted a second bike. So I ended up getting a pretty good deal on a very nice Softail Deluxe, this bike was pristine, the old fella that I bought it from hadn't ridin it much the last few years, but liked to sit out in his garage and polish it. So I made a few changes to this bike, just things to make it mine, and put about 1000 miles on it. On Sept 16, 2018 I set out on an all day ride, leave early in the morning, be home in time for dinner, I've done it a 100 times before, usually no destination in mind, but this day I wanted to return to the scene of my crash, which I did with no Issues. The issue came on the way back home, coming around a blind curve, I find a deer standing in the middle of my lane, of course first reaction is oh
I need to stop. Well that didn't work out in my favor, I didn't hit the deer, but crashed trying to stop, I ended up locking the rear wheel, sliding off the road, got thrown from the bike, broke a bone in my right wrist, tore up my right knee, tore up my left hip. Luckily I never hit my head, no helmet in either of my crashes.
Anyhow, insurance wrote that bike off, good thing too, because I was out of work for 3 months and used that money to pay bills. I had surgery and a cast for my wrist, plus lots of physical therapy for my knee, hip, and wrist.
Well, during my healing I decided I'm done with motorcycles, don't want to ride any more so the Sportster has to go, if I still have it come spring I'm just going to ride it so it has to go now. The insurance already paid for the Sportster after the first wreck, so anything I get out of it is just a bonus. So I end up trading the Sportster for the Mustang, he throws some cash on the deal too, and everyone is happy.
Until the weather got nice, and everybody got their bikes out of storage, and I have to see them ride by, I have to hear them, and I don't have mine, it's gone, forever. I've never had sellers remorse so bad in my life, why did I let it go? I could have kept it, my wife even told me to keep it, but I thought I knew what I was doing. With Mrs Gravydogs blessing, I set out to buy another bike, I even tried to contact Jack, the guy I got the Mustang from to see if he would sell my bike back, I never got a response. I ended up getting a good deal on another Sportster Roadster, but it wasn't my bike. I made some of the changes that I had done to the orange bike, but it wasn't the same. I ended up trading that Sportster for a Fatboy that didn't run, it had been sitting for a while. I did the usual, drain gas, clean carb, change fluids, new battery, fix previous owners mistakes, clean it up and had a good running, decent looking Fatboy. I couldn't stand that bike either, it was just like riding the Softail Deluxe I had crashed on, so it had to go.
So I started looking around for something to trade that bike for and was searching on Craigslist only to find MY Sportster for sale. Now on paper this doesn't look like a good trade, but I don't care, this is my bike, and I want it back! I couldn't dial the phone fast enough, it was Jack on the other end, he had gotten a new phone number, that's why I couldn't get ahold of him when I was bike shopping the first time.
Anyway, Jack likes his Fatboy, I have my Sportster and the Mustang. I still have all the extra parts and accessories for the Sportster, I had kept them originally, I'm not the Road Warrior I used to be, but won't rule it out for the future. I will probably never sell the bike, I don't know about the Mustang yet, but I do know if you like something, keep it, they don't always come back home.
