A Sprint 200 Classic Mustang Story

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Episode Introduction

1:00Coming up today on this episode of Ford Mustang, the Early Years Podcast. I got a 2019 Mustang GT in April, right as COVID started. You know, all right, I'm going to help the economy out and get my dream car at the same time. It's going to be great. So I got that Mustang, and then I would never have guessed, but then got what I call the old lady a little after that. And we were sitting there, and it's like, if we say to her, hey, I'm going to take the Mustang. Well, which one? Oh, the old one. Well, the old one is actually the 19, because we got it first.

1:34So it was this whole confusion. So for a long time, we had the young lady, and we had the old lady. And that's just kind of stuck in how we named him. The young lady has now gone and been traded in for my wife to get her dream car, which was a Bronco. So we've still got the old lady, of course, and never going to give her up.

Welcome to the Podcast

1:53Welcome to the Ford Mustang First Generation The Early Years Podcast. Every week, we will have conversations with collectors, experts, weekend warriors, and those in the know when it comes to first-generation ponies. Start your engines, and let's go. All right, Ford Mustang community, welcome back to the podcast. Do you have a classic Ford in Southern California, a Mustang, maybe an F-Series, or maybe even a classic Falcon or a Galaxy?

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Guest Introduction

2:51All right, let's get on to today's guest, Eric Redding. Now, from what I can see from the pictures, today's guest is all about keeping it pure. His 19, I think it's a 66, if I notice from the grill. He'll correct me if I'm wrong here. 66 Wimbledon white Mustang coupe with the six-banger 200 under the hood is so clean, you probably could easily see it on a showroom floor after 60 years. Excited to talk. Eric, welcome to Ford Mustang, the Early Years Podcast. Good to be here. Hey, did I get any of those specs right? Wimbledon white and 66?

3:21Wimbledon white and 66, you're correct. Yeah, I have a 65 convertible, and when I first got it, it had the 66 grill on the front. And so many people said, oh, you don't have the honeycomb grill. You got to change it to the honeycomb grill to be the 65. And I'm like, I didn't even know enough about Mustangs when I bought it. But now I know a little bit about the grills, and maybe a little bit more now that I've built some confidence over the last eight years of owning this thing. So, man, I appreciate you being here. First of all, how do you keep your car so pristine?

3:54Because it is in good-looking shape. Like the engine and the valve covers are really, really special. So, when I got it, it was in a rough shape, honestly, in the engine. There was a lot of rust. The exhaust manifold was actually cracked in two spots. And so, you go to replace that. A bolt breaks off, because, of course, that's what happens in the head. And so then I'm like, well, I might as well take the head off. And while I'm doing that, I was like, you know what?

4:24I'm going to go ahead and just repaint the engine. So, as I tore the engine down to get the bolt out and to do all the other things, I just said, all right, I'm going to go ahead and paint it. I got my paints from the 415 stuff and did more sanding and grinding than I can ever want to do again, honestly, because I did it all pretty much by hand. So, I hand brushed and did a rust protective coat on the bottom and did the Ford blue on the top. And other than the engine, and it's a couple of tiny spots in the engine paint, the rest

4:57of the car is original paint. So, when you look at it, one of the key things and one of the reasons why it looks that well, I think, is just garage kept its whole life and only 38,000 miles. Wow. Okay. All right. Let's go. Before I talk about what's under the hood there, because I'm looking at some of the pictures that you posted on Facebook, I mean, down to the fuel lines that look like they are steel all the way right up to the carburetor. There's no hose in there. You have even the label on the inner driver's wheel well.

5:32You even have, it looks like the original label on that. Is that fact? Original label and the trunk has got the original, not only the spare tire label, it has the original spare, so it still has that, and it's funny because I had a guy come out and praise it, and he's like, yeah, shoot, it's not even the right, you know, the codes we use nowadays, the 15, 2, 15, 30, but it's the old style codes, Firestone tires. It's got some of the, of course, some of the original markings and trying to keep it that way, obviously. So, that's kind of been my goal as I've worked on it, is if you lift the hood up, everything

6:07you see looks original, even if it's not necessarily because I've had stuff happen, like, again, the exhaust manifold or whatever, trying to keep that original. So, the carburetor, I put a Petronix ignition in it, but again, you don't see that. It's inside the distributor, so I was good with it. I was like, that's good. I don't have to, you know, mess with points and deal with that, and other than that, try to keep it all that same way. So, besides a more modern battery, that's the only concession I've kind of given myself

6:38because one of those had an issue before. Single bull master cylinder, though, have you considered ever swapping that up? I have changed that. I did actually change that. So, one of the, and one of the reasons is because, as I'm sure a number of your listeners know, in the MCA judging, they actually accept putting dual bull in for concourse. So, I did concourse judging for my first MCA show, and I put in the dual bull because, again, safety and whoever had put, when I got it, whoever had put the top on, the single

7:10bull one, had all the anger in the world because I still, to this day, have never been able to get it off. So, I couldn't check the level, and I was like, nope, I'm just going to, that's enough for me. I'm going to go ahead and replace that. So, while you went ahead and replaced it, did you happen to put a brake booster in there, too, or did you just leave it as a, oh, man, you get a workout, workout. Yeah, well, you know, it's funny. My very first car was a Geo Metro, 1990 Geo Metro. Three cylinders, three gears, perfect car for a 16-year-old because I went 90 miles an hour once and blew the engine, so you can never go too fast.

7:43And it had no power steering. I mean, if it had power brakes, you couldn't have told me that. The darn thing had just no power in any regard. So, I was kind of, it's, to me, it was just used to it. So, and again, I'm trying to keep it original and not add unnecessarily. Looks good, man. I mean, it truly looks pristine down to the windshield washer bag that's the bag style. That looks real good, too.

Car Restoration

8:10So, let's go back to the origin story of your Mustang. So, when did you acquire it? How did you find it? Tell us all about that. So, I'm going to go way back and, to not throw you slightly, back in 1965, my dad was on a committee to decide the name for a new high school in Merritt Island, Florida, which is where the Kennedy Space Center is. And the Mustang had just come out. They called the high school the Mustang. So, Merritt Island Mustangs.

8:40My dad graduated from there. My mom ended up graduating from there. So, then I went there, as well as my little sister did. We all graduated. So, my entire life, I've been in, like, this Mustang thing. My first football game was 11 months old. So, I've got a shirt, Mustangs. Just had Mustang in my whole life. Yeah. And they would do the parade at the, you know, the homecoming and things like that. And I never actually rode in one until I was about eight years old. And at eight years old, my mom's college roommate took me on a drive in that Mustang.

9:16And jokingly, as an eight-year-old, I was like, if you ever go to sell it or anything, you're just letting me know, you know, the craziness of kids kind of thing. But, of course, you know, family, friends, and they'd kind of kept up. And I'd always ask how the car was every time I saw them, obviously. And a few years ago, they were just like, we aren't driving it. All we ever seem to do is try to start it, take it to the repair shop, and then have to bring it back. And we're looking to sell it. And I said, we'll figure it out. My wife was fully on board, which was also 90% of the battle, and got it.

9:51So they were in Tallahassee. So we drove up to Tallahassee, got it running. And then I drove it all the way home to Orlando. And as I look, as I did repairs afterwards, I sit there and go, oh, I'm glad I did not know everything I know now. But I'm the fourth owner of it. It was originally one in a supermarket sweepstakes in Colorado. And from a dealership in Texas, I think it was San Antonio.

10:22I still have the lady's original manual with her information on it. Right. And then she barely drove it. I think it was just a few thousand miles on it and sold it to a gentleman who, same thing, kind of put a few miles on it, only one dent or two in there. And then in the early 80s, sold it to my, I call her my Aunt Diane. And they had it. And luckily, all of them were garage kept the whole time. And not many miles on it. I did 38,000 now.

10:52I think I got it with about 34, 32. And I've done about 1,000 miles a year or so. Right, right. Too much. And yeah, so I'm the fourth owner of it. That's incredible. What a great story. I mean, you can even track the origin of the car back to pretty much the dealership and when they, you know, the first, second, and then the third owner you knew for quite some time. So at eight years old in, I guess, the early 80s or mid-80s, when you first got in that car and you said you wanted it, what an incredible turn of events that had to happen in order for

11:25you to get that vehicle. And fortunately, you've watched that vehicle for pretty much the last 30, 40 years in its pristine shape. What a cool story. That's got to make you feel really good about the car, too. Yeah, it's great. And it's, you know, and they, my Aunt Diane, they've done the thing of trying to keep it original. And so, again, I've stuck to that. And I'm trying to get, if you can see it, I want it to look original. You know, and trying to stay that way. And now, you know, my wife loves it.

11:57And I remember very early on, she was having a rough day from something and she came up to me and goes, can we just drive the old lady? And I was like, we can drive the old lady. We can go out and it makes you feel better. So, and the old lady thing is a story in and of itself. So I call it the old lady. I never named my cars. It was just never a thing I did. But I purchased a, I got a 2019 Mustang GT in April, right as COVID started. You know, all right, I'm going to help the economy out and get my dream car at the same

12:27time. It's going to be great. So I got the, the, that Mustang. And then I would never have guessed, but then got what I call the old lady a little after that. And we were sitting there and it's like, if you say to, Hey, I'm going to take the Mustang. Well, which one? Oh, the old one. Well, the old one is actually the 19 because we got it first. So it was this whole confusion. So for a long time, we had the young lady and we had the old lady and that's just kind of stuck in how we named him. The young lady is now gone and been traded in for my wife to get her dream car, which

13:01was a Bronco. But so we've still got the old lady, of course, and never, never going to give her up. Again, great story. And it's, what's interesting about it is, and I can imagine, you know, you're still, you're still friends with the people that sold you the car. I imagine part of it, part of your responsibility in the car is you got to be able to report good things back to them. And, you know, you, it's like, you still probably don't even as, as you're four years, right? Is that how long you've said you've owned the car? So at four years of ownership, you probably feel like the car still isn't yours.

13:31Any changes that you make, you got to get their permission to, to make, or you want to make them proud at least when you, when you are making these upgrades. Oh, for sure. I mean, that's a big one. You know, every time I've done some kind of major things, uh, Hey, here's, here's the latest update and here's what we've got going on with it. And it was fun a few, about two years ago, uh, she was down for a reunion that my parents were also at. And so I was going to stop by just to say hi to some people that I hadn't seen and old, old, old family friends kind of thing. And I drove the car there. And so they, they'd come out and say hi.

14:03And she goes, you know, so just being able to do that and have her still get to see it and, and, uh, experience it every now and then. And, um, I'm hoping they're going to be able to make it to the Jacksonville MCA show. I'm going to drive up there for that. I hope they'll get to see it then. So, um, but it's, uh, yeah. And that's, uh, you're, you're exactly right. Just kind of like, all right, it's mine, but I want to keep that legacy going and keep them, uh, still involved with it. So, so talk to the owners that might be in our listing audience that have a, an original

14:36mileage car. So they know that for sure it's, you know, in your case, 38,000 or whatever the exact mileage is. There are some, there are some issues that you can run into with cars that have not been driven a lot over the years. And some of them are, you know, cracking gaskets and broken hoses and things that you may not think, you know, as you stated, you have the original spare in your, in your trunk, which of course, you know, I'm sure, you know, you will never put that on the car to drive, but there may be somebody in our listing audience that thinks, well, what's the harm

15:08of driving? It does. It's not leaking. There's no problem with it, but there are problems that can be inherent, uh, with a low mileage car. Have you run into any of those, or maybe you can share a little of your experience? So actually right before I got it, and this is one of those things that kind of encouraged this, the sale really was, um, when, especially when it had a single bowl, the brake lines rusted out from just sitting there. So they all saw a sudden go and it's just not stopping. Uh, which was another reason why I was like, okay, I'm going to put the dual bowl on there for sure.

15:38Cause it was already done at once. I don't want it to get any ideas. So, but you know, they had, that had rusted out and, and just was in a bad state. The cow is another thing. That's a, that's a pain. Um, you know how that can just, I mean, it just happens on any early Mustang really, but especially when they've been sitting, it builds up and you get in there. Um, and you know, any of those lines, I think the biggest issue that I had was the cooling system. You know, it had just had various issues and I did everything out of the book and I had

16:10checked in with, Hey, what have y'all done? What is, you know, every type of thing just to try to get it going, especially down here in central Florida. It, it is, uh, it's just gotta have good cooling cause it's going to get warm. Right. Of course. Of course. Yeah. There's gotta be some things that, and I, again, I'm looking at the, I'm looking at the pictures on Facebook right now and it appears as though the, the, um, the radiator, it looks original. So did you, so it is the original radiator. You just had the original radiator. Yeah. So you just had to work with hoses and thermostat and some other stuff.

16:42Exactly. Yeah. The water pump was just fouled beyond words. The, the, the, um, thermostat housing was, was messed up. So I replaced both of those two, um, just because they were so gummed up with everything and, and had so much buildup. So of course in the block, it was just, okay, how do I clean it out? And it was sitting there for hours, flushing, uh, various solvents and chemicals that are approved for those types of things. And as well as other stuff and, and just spending time on it and just accepting, okay, it's going

17:18to have issues. It's going to have stuff going on. And, and then finally got it right. I will say one of the few things that you may spot it in a photo, the only thing that I've like blatantly leave that is not original as I put a coolant line filter on. So, um, it's not in some of the pictures. I'll take it off. If I'm doing a Concord show, I see it, I see it, I see it, I will, I put that in just to know, Hey, I'm getting flow. Cause I actually, I did have a thermostat fail even after I've gotten it. Um, but I use that, especially early on when I was doing a lot of those flush outs to

17:51make sure I wasn't just sending stuff back into the radiator or anything else. So I kept that filter on there and that was to me, it was a good investment. And I usually leave it on now just in case, just in case anything else comes off. So, yeah, everything looks to be in a, in awesome shape. And the thing that I always come back to with the, um, I six owners, and I'm a proud owner of a, um, of an I six 300 in one of my F two fifties that I, that I have, there are so many haters out there about the I sixes versus in the Mustang world, the I six versus, you know, the two 89, the V eight, or even any of the other, uh, resto

18:26mod options that you have, or anything that might be in the Shelby GTs or any, any of that, man, I love, I love the I sixes. They're so simple to work on. They, they really have a lot of, uh, uh, they do have a lot of flexibility in what you can do. And yes, they are not quite as fast as the two 89s, but does it move fast enough for you? Well, I mean, the way I always look at it is, you know, I love that. I could literally climb in the engine bay pretty much and do some work. You know, I, I, I didn't remove the block from the engine bay.

18:59When I painted it, I left it in there because I had enough room to work to paint everywhere, to do the sanding, to do what I needed to do. Um, so, you know, yes, you could kind of maybe do that in the, in the V eights, but not really. Um, so I'm fine with it. And I honestly do not know many people who drive fast with their classic Mustang, right? Because I know, I know more people that don't drive their car period than people who drive

19:32it fast. And so, you know, it, it does what I need to do. You know, nobody's going to challenge me to erase it. If they do, you know, I'll, I'll wave as you go on by. Uh, but it, it's, it's fun. It's got a little pep, especially once I got it tuned, you know, it's, it's enjoyable and it's just fun to cruise around it. And I have no qualms about it. I can, I can tell you from my experience, even my two 89 gets, you know, 13 or 14 miles of the gallon if I'm, if I'm, you know, driving it highway to, to go to a photo shoot or something

20:03like that. But, uh, those, uh, the i6200 with the one barrel carb, I'm assuming you probably get some better mileage than that, even as it sits right now. You know, it's funny for me, the only thing that like down the line that I might change out if it ever goes is, is the transmission. Cause this is the three speed and it's the, the, the, the two seven seven. So it's the non-synchronized first, um, you know, it's a dog leg. So it takes some brain power to, to get going sometimes, but, uh, so much, especially around

20:33Orlando, you can't go anywhere unless you're on a toll road, right? Cause otherwise you're just going to be in a mess. And even if you're on a toll road, it's still kind of a mess. So I'm, I'm going on the highway so much that it's, I want just to have the higher gears just so it's not rev so high. Cause if you go less than 65, people start getting angry at you, even no matter what car you're in, I had a little lady give me double birds one time for not going this speed and I was like, what is going on in the world today? But, um, so I mean, but yeah, I mean, I usually get somewhere in the low twenties. I've done the math before.

21:04I keep track just cause honestly, it's more of going, okay, there's something off, you know, and I'm, I'm losing some fuel or something like that. So 17 to 22 is kind of where I live. Right. Right. And, and I, I love, I love the care that you take with your, with your Mustang. You were, you posted some questions about, um, about, uh, getting dialed in on the, on the, on the vacuum. I don't know that you had a compression test on it, but you did a vacuum test on it and you found that it was all. No, I did a compression test cause it was after I, I did the head and the compression

21:37was, I honestly, it was, it was not as pervert as you can get. I post that maybe somewhere else or in my local group and, uh, whatever the spec sheet in the, in the book of doom, I've got my shop manual here, uh, it was right on it, you know, within, within spec. So it was more of just trying to nail down what was happening with the, the tune. And it was really just, again, the, the, the, the Scott that had been taken to before I got my hands on it, it just hadn't done really good work, um, on some stuff and whether for

22:11whatever reason. So, and that's, that's been the other piece for me, especially as a somewhat younger person in the pile is trying to do everything myself. And I mean, I won't even tell my wife it's the, it's the labor that gets you on things, you know, the water pump. I mean, it was, I think it was $40, maybe 20 something dollars for a lot of things. The, the exhaust manifold was, I think a hundred bucks, which is the most expensive thing. I single part I've done, you know, it's all the labor that gets it. So for me, it's all doing it myself and two parts of that puzzle is one, I really like

22:44doing it. It's, it's fun to me, but two is, as I also know in, and it scares me, but in 20 years, how many people are going to have that knowledge that could do it? Yes. And in 30 years, how many people are going to be left that have some of that knowledge? So it's kind of like, I want to absorb as much as I can and do as much as I can so that I know how, so that I can a do it, still be able to do it. And also be able to share that with others who hopefully get into the hobby and maybe don't have some of the folks that are as active as they are now in the various groups that we've got. Totally agree with you.

23:14And I, and I couldn't agree more as it relates to labor costs on some of these things. You know, I look at like even just a simple brake job. Now, I don't know, are you a four wheel drum on, on your drum? Yeah. Okay. So four wheel drum on that to replace all of that, you know, I can only speak from my own experience to replace a couple of disc brakes and a couple of drum brakes was a few hundred dollars in parts for me, but it was going to be like $1,200 in, in labor on all four wheels. By the time they replace everything that I wanted to replace, I wasn't just going to

23:46replace shoes. I wanted to make sure I, you know, did, did it all properly. And I only want to do it once. So it's a hundred percent, um, you know, a money savings to do it on your own. The thing that most people don't consider, uh, and I know you've probably had a chance to consider this because you've made a lot of these repairs or all these repairs on your own is the confidence level that you build every time that you make a repair. And when you do it on a 65 or 66, in your case, Mustang, it's almost like, well, you know,

24:16I could probably do the same thing on my wife's car, or I could probably do the same thing. Not that your wife's car has drums probably, but it's, it's probably easier to change disc brakes than it is to change drum brakes. Oh yeah. No. And I mean, again, I, you know, I had that Geo Metro and it was a great car as a young person because I broke everything on it and I had to replace everything on it, you know, I, and my dad made sure I did that. So I did all the brakes. I did the literally swap the engine out, you know, did all my, my oil changes, all of those various things.

24:47And it's, it's, it's just weird and foreign to me, not have not doing that. And so, you know, one of the things my, my wife, she likes to joke, she wants to be a four horse family because she loves Broncos. So she's got a nice new Bronco. She wants a classic Bronco. And I was like, well, we'll, and she loves oddly enough, the 66 Broncos. I'm like, well, we'll get a 66 Bronco. We'll put a 200 in it and we know how to do it. We've got all the tools we can, we can manage that. She's like, that sounds great to me. And I'm like, this, this is one reason why I married you.

25:18I didn't even know it at the time. Well, you, you brought up a, you brought up a really valuable and valid point is behind every Mustang owner is oftentimes a spouse that's either nagging them or, or, or, or cheering them on. And in your case, it sounds like you have somebody that's, that's cheering you on. And not only is she cheering you on, but it sounds like she's not adverse to turning some wrenches herself. She'll, she'll at least help out, but she really has, she wants me to do it and then have it work. Right. So I'll call out.

25:49I, I, it was really funny. One time I was, I was working on, I think it was actually the brakes. Um, the, the stopper for the brake pedal had just fallen off and I was trying to get it back in there and I was twisted in the weirdest way possible. Cause I was trying to get my hands in there. And all of a sudden I realized I couldn't get out. It's like, Hey, babe, I need some help getting out of here. And she's like, all right. So that's about as far as she'll usually go occasionally holding a light or, or pushing the accelerator or the brakes or something to help me out when you need that second set of hands. But, um, she lets me get and dive into it and go to town.

26:21So, and I, I will more than take that. And luckily my, uh, I'm hoping I get my daughter. She's almost two. I'm hoping I can get her to, to be my wrench hand one day. So, uh, we'll see about that. I saw her helping you do some brake work on one of your Facebook posts. So, uh, I'm sure that she will grow. If she grows up around the Mustang as a part of the family, the Mustang becomes a part of the family that she wants to help keep, uh, keep well, you know, um, it's interesting. I think about the support that I get from my partner also JJ and she, uh, while very similar

26:56to your wife, she doesn't get under the hood and do the work, but if she, but if I needed a flashlight to help, or if I needed to can't get in quite the right spot, or if I need to bleed the brakes or something like that should go in and help me with that as well. There's a big difference in, in Ford Mustang community. I'm sure you understand this too, through listening to the show. There's a big difference between somebody that is, uh, just indifferent versus somebody that's encouraging and to have an encouraging partner, uh, is great. Now it doesn't mean if you don't have an encouraging partner that you can't have someone that's

27:28still supportive, it just means, you know, you know what you have, but it's great when a weekend comes up and I have, uh, three, four, four classic vehicles. So I have three trucks and my Mustang, most of my weekend could be taken up completely by just working on stuff on those vehicles to know that she's okay. If I have to take a weekend and do some stuff with it, as opposed to, you know, we'll still have our, our own time, but it's, it's great to have somebody that is there that says, do

27:58the stuff that you have to do. Cause I want you to have, you know, I want you to be happy also. So it's gotta be a cool feeling. Oh, and it's, it's one of those things. It's just like in any marriage, you know, it's, it's compromised a little bit and it's finding, finding the common ground. So, you know, I, we don't go to every single show or cars and coffee and all that stuff. Uh, we'll hit a couple of, of, of big ones. Like I said, we're, we're going to try to do Atlanta and we're going to do Jacksonville cause they're, you know, they're within driving distance. She's got president Atlanta, that kind of thing. We always do our local shows and we love being part of our local club.

28:32And so like, I always take my daughter to our local club meeting. So they love her little two year old running around and, and, uh, saying Mustang, which is always funny for everybody and being in the parade, still get in the car and stuff like that, but, uh, we actually, our club hosted mid Florida Mustang club. We hosted the Mustang show, uh, last April, which was my daughter's birthday, obviously enough, her first birthday. So my wife, she had fun cause she got to decorate things and that's one of her passions. So she was able to do that and, and find and be part of that.

29:04And I was, I was helping out with the show and doing work there. So just finding those things, you get to kind of combine interests and do that joy together. Now you live in Florida, not, not South Florida, but you're living in, I guess, is, is Orlando considered central Florida? I'm sorry. I don't know the geography as well. So right there in central, central, nice. So central Florida, I, it still gets pretty darn hot in this spot that you are and you're in a coop. So you got a roof around you and you don't have AC in that. Do you typically find yourself not driving it as much in the dead of summer or do you just

29:38throw caution to the wind and just do your thing? I don't mind it because, um, oddly enough, my wife and I are both sixth generation Floridians. So I'm used to it. My old geo when I was in, as a young lad, it didn't have AC. It did, but it was broken and, uh, I never bothered to flip it except for once. And then it was, it was dead after another week. So I was used to the first thing I get in the car, roll down all the windows. And so, you know, nowadays it's, I'm still doing that and I don't mind it as much. Uh, I, I coach high school football as well.

30:10So I'll drive it to practice sometimes and, you know, it's, it's hotter. It's, it is what it is. And I'm just kind of used to it. I'm used to being out in the sun in the afternoon anyways. So, uh, to me, it's not a big deal. Uh, that's more of, is it what the car wants? You know, it's the old lady good with the temperature today. Right. She running a little warm is, is whatever's going on. That's really kind of more of the decided than anything else. I love it. I love it. You know, you're saying everything that is totally relatable to those in our audience. To me, certainly as a, as a guy that has a classic Mustang that has no AC.

30:45Now I do have a convertible and I don't live in quite the extreme climate that you do here in Southern California, but even with a convertible, it gets hot and I, you know, I'm, I'm not used to the heat. So I ended up taking an AC vehicle, whether it's my Toyota Highlander 2011 or my 67 F two 50 that I put a vintage AC system in, which is, which is great, but I'm always watching that, that water heat, the water temp. I'm always, always watching that to make sure. So your car as pristine as an, and as original as it is, I'm sure you probably have a wish

31:19list of things that you still want to do to it. So what are some of those things that you're, are going to get to eventually? You know, besides again, maybe if the transmission fails one day, putting a T5 in there at this point, there's just some tiny cosmetic stuff that I want to deal with on the doors. There's a little bit of rust on the inside that I want to get taken care of. And it's, you know, it's that textured metal. So it's, it's dealing with all of that and getting that squared away, which is just a

31:49challenge. Um, and a couple of the seals, uh, weather seals pretty much are something that, you know, they go and just replacing a handful of those. And I, it's one of those where I'm kind of going back and forth. I'm like, am I going to deal with it with the transmission or will I actually deal with it separately? But I'm 99% sure my rear main seal is leaking. And so it's one of those one day, but it's just a, you know, one of those tiny drips. And then I'm just dealing with it right now.

32:19And just every now and then top off the oil every six months. So, um, it's not anything crazy, but yeah, that's the thing. And that's what almost a nice thing with keeping it this original is that there's not giant things else I want to do. So it's more, okay, it's to a point where it is mechanically sound, knock on wood. And now it's just enjoyed as much as I can. So that's one reason why this year go to, go to two shows, um, two MCA shows again in Atlanta and Jacksonville, hoping to do that and try to take it out and enjoy it as much as I can.

32:49And, um, you know, kind of, if I don't have my daughter with me, I'm going to drive it.

Family and Mustangs

32:54And even one time I actually took her with me in the, we did a, the Memorial Day parade Memorial. The one in November, is that Veterans Day? Let's see. Memorial Day is in May and Veterans Day. So it's a Memorial Day one. There it was. So we did the Memorial Day. No, I'm very January. It was the Veterans Day parade. I love the brain. Um, we did the Veterans Day parade. And so I just had her in the car and, you know, you're in a parade, you're going two miles an hour. And I don't think anybody's going to report me for that one. So she was able to wave to the crowd and be in the car and she loves it, you know, and she'll walk by sometimes the ground Mustang and want to get inside.

33:26And I love just letting her climb in and have fun in there. You know, I'm, I like not being too worried if something gets dang, you're messed up. It's, I'd rather have her enjoy it than again, just, you know, not putting it out on the road and driving it and having her and myself and our family enjoy it. Now you, you probably know the answer to this or, or maybe you don't and it's worth investigating. Do you know the, the birth date of your, uh, of your Mustang? I do. It is June. Hang on.

33:56I used to have my note because I always forget. It's so many things around that exact same time. Uh, June 6th. Nice. I'm looking for mine right now. I think my, my birth date or my Mustang is July 20th, 1965. Mine was a San Jose. So it's gone all the way from, from, uh, over there in California and come all made up to all over the other coast. That is very cool. Very cool. Is there anything that I should be asking you that I'm not Eric about your, uh, about your car or any unique stories you want to share?

34:26I think the only other thing is, is the fact that it's a sprint 200 and it's so rare to find ones with everything. And that's one of the key things with it. So it's the, the, the things that make it a sprint 200 is it's got the pinstripe on the side that comes from the factory. It's got the Chrome air cleaner. It's got the sprint 200 sticker, which my wife made into a t-shirt for me. And then it's got the center console, the full length center console. Nice. And then it also has the side ornaments on the doors deleted.

34:58And if they've ever been repainted or stuff like that, that's honestly the only way to tell is to strip the paint and see if it's got the holes for those. Cause the sprint 200s don't have the holes for the side ornaments. Okay. Wait, so, so on the door, actually on the door itself. On the door itself, you know where it's got right behind the door, excuse me, behind the door. All right. So I'm looking at a quarter panel, the rear quarter panel there. Exactly. You know how there's nothing, it's just the pinstripe and there's nothing where normally

35:29you've got the little bars right there in that little spot on the quarter panel. Oh, that's right. That's right. I have my, I don't know what those are. It's like the, I couldn't tell you what they're called either. They're ornamentals. They're faux air vents. Exactly. Right. The faux, the faux air vents is probably the best way to describe it. So the sprint 200s don't have those and don't have the holes for them either, which is about the only way you can tell when it is, is the sprint without the stuff. But especially because it's 66, we don't know how many there are, how many were made, how many are left, all that various stuff.

36:00So it's kind of made it interesting and just another piece of the puzzle. And I know that was one of the things when I was getting it appraised and I was just looking around like, what do they look like? What did, what can you find them? And I didn't find one with all the bits and bobs. Right. Back in years of auctions. And so having all those pieces is, is pretty neat. I, I have the same exact wire wheel covers on, on. That's the other piece. The wire wheel covers were a sprint 200 that was just part of the group.

36:30So. Yeah. I, I don't know if mine was original equipment on the car. They certainly look like their age, like they are original equipment. I don't know that they came on my, uh, on my 289, um, a convertible. I, I kind of want to upgrade to the, to the, um, the wheels as opposed to the steelies that I, that I have with the, with the wheel covers on it. But I kind of like the uniqueness of the, uh, of the wheels themselves. I do remember when I went to replace my tires, which were probably 15 years old. And I don't know why I drove it home, you know, 800 miles from San Francisco or whatever

37:04it was from where I was, but I, uh, when I bought it, but, um, uh, when I went to replace the tires, the, they did not have access or at least to the tire shop. I went to the white walls. I love those white walls that were on my car and they gave me white letter, raised white letter tires. And it just takes, it takes, it puts a whole new look on the car. My, they're now about six or seven years old. Cause I bought them less than a year after I bought it. So I may go back to the white, the white walls like you have on your car. I like those. Yeah.

37:34I like that touch. I think it really adds to it. And, um, with the wire wheels that are just, I think they really set the things off. Um, um, I've got two spares of those covers just in case anything happens again, knock on wood, but you're a fan of Facebook marketplace. I take it. Oh yeah. No, actually they, um, did I get those on the owners? The previous owners actually had two spares because they were worried about it too. And then just in case, you know, I've actually bought completely different, um, numbers just

38:07in case I ever wanted to have them off for some reason, but I've leave them on because I, again, I think they're beautiful. Yeah. It looks great. Yeah. It's part of the sprint 200 package. So, you know, again, trying to keep it to that look. It, uh, it looks really good. It's in great shape. And, and I so appreciate you sharing your, your story about your, uh, your sprint 200. And I know that there's a lot of people that are out there that are, that are cheering you on because they have probably listened to a hundred and plus episodes of this show. And like, when are you going to have an I-6 guest on your show? And I just finished with another I-6, uh, uh, guest just last week or a couple of weeks

38:42ago, if you're, if you're listening to this in, in real time. So, uh, check out that episode as well. But, uh, Eric, thanks for being here on the show and sharing your story. Very awesome. Thanks for having me. Hey, Ford Mustang community. Thanks for listening in another week. If you have a, uh, any, um, suggestions for the show, or if you think that you would be a good guest for the show, send me an email directly. It's Doug at turnkeypodcast.com. I'll put a link in the show notes so that you have access to that. Thanks to our guest, Eric Redding today. More information is right there in the show notes. Keep it safe, keep it rolling and keep it on the road until next time.

39:14Thanks for listening to the Ford Mustang first generation, the early years podcast. Please subscribe rate and review wherever you listen to your podcasts ideas for the show. Click the link in the show notes. Thanks again for tuning in.