Why you chose a II?

[Dano78]

A couple things I've noticed from reading our postings-
I don't know if anyone's noticed, but from the sounds of it just about every one of us never intended to ever buy a II. But somehow and in different ways the car had sold itself to us. Not pushed onto us or come to us like alot of the 60's cars do, the "I gotta have one cause everybody else thinks they're cool" cliche. And I too think the MII crowd is a different crowd and that separates us from other classic car groups. We're here cause we WANT to be, enjoy to be, and love our bastardized cars in a way that a '60s Mustang (or any other) owner will never know.
And it truly amazes me how attached we are. Most of us, like someone said, do own 2 or more II's. Now the inside joke to a non-II owner would be you'd need more than 2 to keep one running. Yeah...well, at least there isn't 45 '76 Mustangs that all look alike at every car show or cruise you go to. Being unique has it's advantages. And you can't lie with the numbers. The II must have been a pretty damn good car to have sold in the great numbers that it did and it wasn't the only car in it's class on the market at the time.

 

[IMachU]

Over the last 3 years of going to the Knott's Berry Farm's "Fabulous Fords Forever" car show, I've noticed that each year, there are fewer and fewer IIs in the show. In the 2004 show there were 4 out of about 800 or so cars. That is sad. So is the fact that they are being chopped up for the "vintage Mustang" crowd for the front suspension. So, I said to the boss, er, wife, that the next time I find one I'm gonna save it. The II deserves to be saved because it is a valuable part of Mustang history. So, while working part time at a Ford dealer, I took one on trade from the original owner. It needs work as it has never been touched over the last 140K miles. Just oil and brake changes. But I rebuilt the carb, put new cats on it, tuned the 6er and it passed smog (I hate Calif smog laws). I drive it around town and it runs GREAT. Not bad....a piece of Mustang history, a nice driver with auto, air, P/S and P/B all for about $500 total. I have fun driving the II and my 03 Mach 1 because they are just not your every day cookie cutter car. I can go for days without seeing either on the road, other than mine. Now let the restoration begin....after the 65 Coupe is done, of course. Until the 05 Stang came out, I had all 3 generations at one time in my driveway. My son thought THAT was cool!

 

[LILCBRA]

Resurrecting this antique thread only because I happened to run across it while looking for something else. Lot's of OG names from when I first joined the site! Wonder how they're all doing now....

Anyway, I figured it'd be something cool to bring back for all the new people now - anyone care to share their story?

Here's mine: when I was young - around 9 or 10, my mom and dad were divorced and my dad come to pick me and my brother up for a visit. His car was broken down, so he borrowed someone's Ghia to pick us up. This was in the middle of winter in Iowa and there was plenty of snow around. He decided to take us out for a joyride and went to the mall's parking lot to spin us around. At some point he had the bright idea to hit a snow pile that was plowed to a light pole and took it onto just 2 wheels - like this:

I was in the front seat and plastered to the door panel and thought that that was the greatest thing in the world, so I just had to have one of these cars too! The rest, as they say, is history!

Who's next?!

 

[extra_stout]

I live in Germany and here is the 1gen Mustang, THE classic car, if people think about American cars. I bought a 66 Mustang enjoyed that car a lot. I started swapping in a 5.0HO with carburetors, then a T5 manual swap and than a LSD with 3.55. That was a fun car, but the car ran so good that I didn't know what to do. Because of the worm type steering box, the steering always felt a little bit loose, even with rebuild and so on. I started to look for a new car form Pickup ups to Mustangs, Mercury's... I had an 302 explorer engine laying around and was looking for something to rebuild/mod.
From time to time a Mustang II popped up. And I started to read about that car. I found out, that this is the perfect basis for me: rack and pinon steering, short wheel base, low width... everything that counts on small roads. Beside it was often referred as the most hated Mustang and that there are fewer and fewer around. The perfect fit for me, because there where too much 1gen Mustang around for my taste.
The MII I bought was for 20 years in a barn and the V6 was stuck. Beside it was a fastback/hatchback! Now I have a rare car!!!
After rebuild the inspection was done by a shop that's specialist on classic American cars (they are running a funny car and building dragsters, so they know their stuff). The shop owner said this is the second Mustang II he has seen in Germany...
Even the mechanic was a bit surprised, when driving. He said that it isn't a "power monster", but it's driving very nicely and you feel that there is not much weight.

 

[extra_stout]

At some point he had the bright idea to hit a snow pile that was plowed to a light pole and took it onto just 2 wheels - like this:

He's a champion! Really!

 

[MustangIIMatt]

I was 16. I'd never seen a Mustang II, only heard that they were awful. Then I saw it, this glorious white hatchback car with blue stripes and "COBRA II" emblazoned down each side in white letters. I thought it was one of the coolest cars I'd ever seen. I knew jack about it, didn't even know it was one of those "awful Mustang IIs" that I'd heard so much about. I told my dad about it when I got home and he referred to it as a "Fauxbra".

I didn't care, I knew I'd just seen something so damned cool that I had to have one. So I hit the interwebs (via 21k dial-up) and found out EVERYTHING about the cars that I could, and in the Thrifty Nickel, I found an ad for a '74 Mustang II Ghia for $400 with a clean title. It was a rusty old hunk of junk, and it only ran on three cylinders, but after some negotiating, I bought it for $200 cash and we towed it home with my dad's Suburban. I put a new cam, followers, and lash adjusters in it, as well as a timing belt, water pump, belts, and all of the hoses and got it running with it's mighty little 2.3L engine. That car became my education. I learned how to do everything on that car, eventually swapping the engine for the one from a 1988 Ranger with an electric fuel pump feeding a Holley carburetor. I deleted all of the smog gear and ported the intake manifold. I tried my hand at body work and decided I sucked at it. Eventually I tried to sell it, eventually dropping the price to "free, clean title and extra parts included, just come get it", and it ended up parted out to fix up the '76 with a V8 I'd bought that was in much better shape (something that happened again when I bought the '75). It didn't matter, it was the start of something. I've owned a Mustang II continuously since 2001. So far none of them have been a Cobra II like I've always wanted, in fact, all three have been Ghia coupes, but I've not been without one since that day.

 

[IICrew]

My first II came about as I could not afford anything older that was in driveable condition. That no one else had. I always went against the grain. I hated Led Zeppelin . Only because everyone loved them. I listened to obscure bands no one knew about. Waysted, UFO, Iron Maiden. I never fit into a crowd.

I had $1500 back in 1986. I did not want nor could I afford a fancy newer car as they were mostly fwd 4 cylinders. I did not want any GM product. Everyone I knew had them. Nothing from Chrysler at the time was interesting. Even then the 60's mopars were expensive. I did not want a rust bucket. Mechanical problems were okay but no body damage. I knew the II was talked about being a bad car from the magazines but also remembered they raved about them just 10 years earlier. It was car of the year in 74. My uncle started giving me his car magazines around 1980. He gave me his old ones as well and being a book worm I devoured them.

I started searching and ran across a v8 ghia coupe. My best friend at the time took me to test drive it. It was a nice car but I wanted something sportier. We left. We then went and test drove a white 78 with gold pin strips. It had unusual gold cloth and pleather seats. I drove it home. It needed tires and a battery so it sat for a week or so. During those days my friend returned and bought the Ghia.

He drove his Ghia from day one so when I got mine on the road everyone thought I copied him. Here I searched for something different from my friends and now there were two of them in the group. Both white. One a coupe one a 2+2. Needless to say it kicked off the Frick & Frack horsepower wars. His sister started driving a year later and guess what her first car was. Yep another II. Hers was a faded yellow plain coupe with v8 and ac. I would go on to own all three at some point in their lives.