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These last couple years have been a huge change for me in terms of adventuring - Washington is different in so many ways from the SouthWest and between the Covid situation (lockdowns, furloughs, etc) and now my wife's health preventing her from working, I've really had to rethink my creative outlets, my "spare" time (to indulge in activities for my own enjoyment rather than work or chores), my budgets and capabilities. Even things like the weather - one can go camping almost anywhere in Arizona 365 days a year; it's not the same here in the inland NorthWest where the few open public roads that lead to public land are covered in snow several months of the year and scattered with downed trees for another couple months after that.
Note to self: get a battery powered chainsaw.
So why am I posting this under the heading of "The GT Car" ?
Ten-ish years ago my wife bought the mineral colored 2002 Mustang at the top of this topic. Two years ago I picked up the pink rescue project presented in the posts above this one. I did a pretty comprehensive job of restoring it mechanically, it's a joy to drive and I don't want to tinker on it because there's really very little I could do at this point to make it better. You've gotta know when to stop..
The problem is I still want to tinker... in fact I wanted to start with an even worse basket case so I'd have a lot more tinkering potential. Something so bad that even if I "ruin" it by overtinkering, it's still not worse than it was when I started!
Just about 10 months ago I bought another Mustang.. this time a real mess. I didn't buy it as transportation. It's an arts-and-crafts project I can do at home, cheap while we're basically unable to travel for health and financial reasons.
If you're counting yes that means we have three Mustangs, plus a pretend Jeep and a stubby Ram 1500. For two people who don't commute for the time being.
I don't know if this one is going to be involved in a whole lot of adventure travel; not that it's unsuitable for it - just that it's more a crafting project to help me meditate in the way I know calms me and keeps me sane when I can't be exploring. The nice part of it is that classic car insurance through Hagerty is extremely affordable, registration is close to nothing so I really don't have much invested in this. It's cheaper than drinking or playing cards or buying video games..
Anyway enough justification and talk - y'all just here to see pictures.
First one is the for sale ad as I bought it, second one is how it's going so far. I know it looks like a massive transformation & in a lot of ways it is (it's more than superficial paint and wheels.. ) but in terms of dollars it's less than a set of tires for my truck, all in.
Just time and the application of what I know.
Before the cold season started we did take this car on a little trip up to the Canadian border for some swimming at the boundary lake so it officially has one adventure under its belt!
This has also been a good macguffin for developing my youtube production skills and audience. I'm not gonna lie and say I'm good at youtube yet but I did get a 1099 tax form this year so that makes me officially not-a-failure! 😎