1969 Ford Mustang - Carlos Pineiro

Yesterday I took Debbie to the $2 car wash, then parked the car and took some pictures.

The car is a modified 1969 Grande (originally 302 2v). The theme: '70s Street Rod. When the Grande came out, I thought Ford sold out and turned the Mustang into a boring luxury car. Chrome appointments, Vinyl roof, cute ignition lights so you know where the key goes etc. Very Cougarlike.

When I was a kid, we used to take these pretty cars and mess with them. I pretty much applied elements that were popular then, including cutting a hole in the hood to make the ornamental scoop functional, mounted a tach on the hood, installed extended shackles to make room to big, white letter tires on 15" Cragar SSs, added chrome traction bars, chrome side pipes with glasspacks (36" Smithys that are long enough to sound mean and throaty and not raspy). I even put real 1969 water decals on the quarter window like a lot of kids did. And the taillights are LED sequential.

Performancewise, I was pretty conservative, since I have to drive this car everyday. I beefed up the suspension with HD springs and Koni adjustables, added an Edelbrock 650 4v AVS, 3.50 open gears, and 60 series 7" front and 8" rear tires on 15" wheels. The glasspacks are a recent addition, and they perform and sound great. I also added a K&N flow top air cleaner and a tranny cooler.

There are parts on the car from other stangs like the '65 pony steering wheel, the '66 rear view mirror, and Mustang emblems on my glove box door. I also added a Mach 1 paint application and Mach 1 spoilers. The only problem is that when I painted the car (Never again. It took me 6 months of sanding and I burnt my hands to boot), I went from a photograph (There was no internet at the time) that was wrong, so the black on the hood (I chose glossy) came down too far, just like the photo of a car that was also painted wrong, lol)

I like the car, and that's all that matters. People compliment it every 5 minutes, but the car is really for me. It used to be for sale, but I'll never be able to point to another car and say. "I personally restored this myself from the ground up". As soon as I can afford a Tesla, this baby's going to be a weekender. For now, Debbie takes me everywhere.

I am the second owner, bought the car in 1991 right after I learned how to drive, and yes there's a little over 367k on the odometer. Debbie is my first car.

I have all the original parts. One day, I will bring this car back to original.

Maybe.

CP

Check out these pix: http://s498.photobucket.com/albums/rr343/SantaMonicaDebbie/?action=view¤t=03d66ffd.pbw][IMG]http://s498.photobucket.com/albums/rr343/SantaMonicaDebbie/th_OrigGrande6-1.jpg