Blame it on Charlotte or blame it on the photos of my first 1966 hardtop in my office, but my wanton desire for another vintage car has grown stronger in the past few months. I believe I am even having separation anxiety from our now 99.999-percent complete Project 1968. I know I can visit Project 1968 anytime and I'll see it at local shows, but the car still isn't mine after four tough years of scraped knuckles and ups and downs. Come to think of it, I will blame it on Charlotte (and Editor Ford's foray into my previous 1966 possible rareness). When we had the 1968 on display in our vendor tent in Charlotte, people went gaga over it. Comments such as "I've been following this project with my own 1968" and "Your 1968 fastback came out really nice" made me feel good about the long hours I spent on the car. I wasn’t standing there with the keys in my pocket, though--the owner of Project 1968, Bill Currie Ford's Frank Cossota was. I had to have another vintage car. Cancel the cable TV, sell all my die-cast cars on Ebay, and let's go find another 1966!
Over lunch, Editor Ford and I hatched a plan. Let's find a 1966 hardtop and restore it to match my first Mustang. Kind of like paying homage to "the one that got away." Everyone has a favorite Mustang story about their first Mustang or the one they wished they hadn't sold. Well, what's preventing us from restoring another Mustang to look and feel like that remembered car? I coined the term "resticate" since we are restoring the Mustang and we want to replicate a long lost Mustang.
I put the word out with some friends and with the local Mustang club of which I'm a member. John Lindsey, the club's membership director and past president, told me I was in luck. He had a 1966 hardtop--a six-cylinder with standard interior. It was real rough, but all there. He said I was welcome to buy it for what he paid for it a year and a half ago--a total sum of $300! I talked it over with Editor Ford and we thought (sight unseen) that the hardtop would be perfect (short of the car being rusted in half). Since it had a six-cylinder, our mountain of reader letters inquiring about converting a six to an eight and from standard interior to Deluxe could finally be answered with some great tech articles, not to mention the vast amount of 1965-66 tech we could get from the car. Here we will present our initial findings. Oh, and one last thing. Can anyone think of a better name than Project 1966?