My father, Chuck Sullivan, bought the Mustang from a neighbour back in 1980 (about then). I was not even in high school yet. He was hesitant at first to spend the $7500. My mother made the decision for him knowing it was his dream car and he would regret it forever if he didn’t buy it. Since then she refers to it as ‘her’ car.
I have many years of memories being driven around in the back seat. Going to Las Vegas was fun, but extremely hot with no AC. The beach was always fun. Once in a while, we would go up the central coast! While in university, I came down to LA with a friend to show him around Southern California. He loved the Mustang and my father offered him the keys. He said ‘Take it for a spin!’ He never let me or my brother drive it, yet he just offers the keys to a stranger. I was cross with him for years about that. My friend still won’t let me forget that.
My father would drive the car regularly and kept it running perfectly. He didn’t do the work himself as he was not mechanically inclined. We had a family mechanic who took care of it. Since he retired, our Volvo mechanic has taken over the work. He loves working on it.
It is far from a perfect car but does look perfect from afar. The Pony interior is faded from the California sun but is otherwise perfect. The white convertible top did have a split glass rear window, but that never worked out well. It always had problems with dirt getting between the glass and cracking them. It is now a plastic window. The paint is not original. It has been repainted twice. Once back in (about) 1995 and again a year later. My dad thought the colour was not quite right.
After I moved out of the country I was given permission to drive the car. I guess he didn’t think I could do much harm while living in Amsterdam. When I did, he would not let me drive it very far. He was naturally very protective of it. He was not confident it would handle a 2+ hour drive without breaking down. We tried to explain to him it needed to stretch its wheel on the open highway now and then and go for a good long drive. When I am able to fly back to LA safely, I will give it a good long run. Perhaps to Palm Springs.
I don’t think I will ever consider it really my car. It will always be my father’s car that I am now the keeper of.