Over those 5 years, I put another 46,000 miles on it, which included 2-3 years of a $99 Maaco blue paint job (a fun color but not its original 1968 Seafoam Green), a transmission transplant, several routine old car maintenance 'things' (batteries, alternator, starter, radiator, master cylinder, etc.), and in the fall of 1982 I had it painted back to its original color plus I replaced the original 289 v8 engine with a new (rebuilt) one.
But alas, 15 years of midwestern Winters and salted highways had taken its inevitable toll. The bottom was rusting out, especially leaf springs which held up the car's rear axle. It was sagging to the point where opening and closing doors required a special 'technique'. In the Spring of 1983 it was retired to a Michigan garage when I moved to Chicago.
In 1986 I was married and soon thereafter, the Mustang's Michigan home was no longer available. My wonderful mother-in-law had some unused space available in a raggedy old stable in her Waukegan backyard so we hauled it over and that became the car's home. For the past 22 years, I'd take a peek every now and then as it became a rusty home to racoons, squirrels, and probably lots of other varmints.
I always held onto it, survived occasional temptations and the wife's suggestions to sell it for a few hundred dollars, thinking that someday I might want to yank it out of there and see what I could do with it.
Someday has arrived.
