The car was being used and it was great fun for the ride on Sunday afternoon and Ice cream runs.
The Girls are now ready for the first prom and Dani asked to take the car. I wanted to get the brakes replaced so I would feel better about the big night out.
While the brakes were being replaced, it was realized that the rust that was eating away the car has reached a point were it needed to be dealt with before it would consume the car like a cancer.
One of the cars previous owners had made a decision to cover the floor pans with diamond plate aluminum. This must have seemed like the right thing to do but it was, in fact, the worst.The plates only covered the rust and did not ad the stability that was needed for the stresses of being a convertible.
Very little happened to the car between Danielle's prom and the rainy prom night for Becca.
We still would take the car out from time to time but with the college expenses starting, the Mustang could not get the love it needed until a wonderful friend and great technician got involved.
2010...the infamous "tune-up"
See...it was Mark Blair who had been encouraging me to bring the car to him for "a look"!
A LOOK!!!, it would end up being so much more.
You see; Mark is a dreamer. He built "The World's Quickest Jeep" and has a heart for a project.
Mark and I went to school together and he was always into cars.
I trusted he would be honest with what he found and I would not hesitate leaving him a blank check for he or Lisa (Mark's better half) to fill out when he is done. He possesses the kind of honestly that has been long gone. I am blessed to know him.
When I took the car to him, it was intended to be evaluated and I hoped he would be able to wave some magic wand or something over the car to make everything better. I was not expecting free magic. I was going to get the repairs done for Dee as another surprise. Her birthday is in November, the end of November so there would be plenty of time.
I had put aside 500.00 because I knew this was not going to be cheap. I was willing to go to 700.00 if we really needed to because, after all, it was for Denise.
This is where the fun begins
Mark got to poking and looking and decided that the car was in need of a lot of love.
The first thing he did was remove the Engine and Transmission to get to work on them.
Mark is a Transmission guy from way back. He rebuilt them for a living before getting his own shop.
That only exposed the real problems that the car had. Mark was stuck with substandard help. ME! I planned to be there for the 5-10 hours needed to clean the engine compartment and get it ready for paint. Remember...the engine compartment was the sore spot I mentioned before. I was ready to make everything better by cleaning and painting it. I would also replace those ugly blue hoses too. I had plenty in the budget to do those hoses. Remember I was willing to spend the extra 200.00 on the surprises that we might uncover because Mark is "good" and "good" ain't cheap.
I was doing my part and went to Blair's and started cleaning the compartment and we came to the realization that the floor pans were in desperate need of replacement. They were not that expensive. I purchased them from Dad's Mustang and was ready to have them installed too. This is where the bad got worse.
I would need to come to the conclusion that the car really needed to be repaired properly. This would include the Inner Rocker panels and and who knows what else. We pulled up all the diamond plate and it exposed some terrible facts. The repairs would be much greater then once thought.
