Big Secz

Thank you for the memories...

2012-02-16T20:18:00.004-05:00

It has been quite some time since I have posted anything on this blog. Not even sure if anyone follows it anymore. But I feel it's fitting that I make this post, to put and end where it all began.

I have accepted an offer on Big Secz and will be bidding farewell to a great car. This relationship has been like any other, filled with ups and downs and plenty of heartache. But it is time for me to move on to other things and hopefully one day start building my "dream" car.

Through all of the bad, one thing is for sure, I have had some wonderful memories behind the wheel of this car. It has been an adventure that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

I find it amazing how a person can become so attached to a car. There comes a point where it's no longer a car anymore. Every wrench turned is not merely working on a machine, but a moment of spending quality time with an old friend. One that you talk to, at times helps you relax, and sometimes aggravates you. But it is time to close this chapter and start a new one.

Thank you for the memories...

3rd Annual KWB Show and Shine

2011-06-11T23:23:00.000-04:00

This Saturday was the annual car show at my daughter’s school. I have attended this show each year since it started. This year’s show had been rescheduled due to bad weather on the original scheduled day. This worked out perfectly since I had prior commitments on the original scheduled day which would have prevented me from attending. So I was actually praying for bad weather that day so it would be rescheduled, and viola prayers were answered.

It was a hot and humid day with lingering clouds flirting with the opportunity to dump rain on us. However it held up and within an hour after getting home from the show the sky opened up and the rains came.

I believe last year there were somewhere close to 100 cars at the show, not sure if it was the chance of rain that kept people home or not, but this year I think there were barely 50 cars. It was disappointing as the proceeds of the show go to benefit the school’s PTO. This year there were horse rides for the kids for $3 and a silent memorabilia auction, again with all the money going to the PTO. I wish there would have been more of a showing.

The number of awards this year was upped substantially. They gave out TOP 40 plaques (25 plaques for classic cars and 15 for late model cars) in addition to their usual specialty awards for Student’s Choice, Best in Show, and Parent with the Coolest Car (which I won the first year). This year I won a Top 40 award.

So my record for this year so far is: 4 shows and 4 awards

Skills USA Show North Stafford High School: Top 30
Cowles Ford All Ford and Mustang Show: 64 1/2-73 Modified Class 1st Place
Stafford Tires Plus Car Show: Top 25
Kate Waller Barrett Show and Shine: Top 40

NCRMC Show

2011-05-09T07:14:00.004-04:00

This past weekend was the Cowle’s Ford Mustang and All Ford Car Show put on by the National Capital Region Mustang Club. This was my first time attending this show, and this was only the second car show that I have attended so far this season. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the majority of the cars would be parked inside. The back half of the dealership housed about 60 or so Mustangs. It was nice to not have to worry about sunblock for a change.

The majority of the cars at the event were late model Mustangs, though I did see a few interesting classics. In attendance was a ’66 GT 350 which was a one owner car, a ’69 Cobra Jet Convertible, and a ’69 fastback that was featured in the September 2008 issue of Mustang Monthly.

As for the late model cars in attendance, it seemed like there were a lot of Shelby GT 500s. I happened to have been parked next to a Shelby Super Snake, which is a nice way to spend about $80k and parked outside was a GT 40, those you don’t see too often. Perhaps the coolest of the late model Mustangs was “Barricade”, the Mustang featured in the first Transformers movie.

The show itself was nice, Hard Times showed up and gave out free food and drinks were available for free but donations were appreciated. The show seemed to be running a bit behind, however the awards were handed out and the show was concluded by 3:15 which wasn’t bad. This was a points based show, which are the ones that I prefer because it takes out the “politics” that are frequently involved in car shows. It helps to even the playing field, and so you aren’t competing against anyone but yourself.

I was registered in my regular 64 1/2 – 73 Modified Class, and surprising placed 1st. This is the first time that I have placed that high at a show. Last summer I placed 2nd in the same class at the Central Virginia Mustang show in Richmond.

Coming home I ran into a few issues with the car. The new power steering system that I installed seems to still need some work, and I now have an exhaust leak. Other than that the car ran fine. I think once I get the steering sorted out and address the exhaust leak, I can have a nice worry-free summer. Of course with these cars you never can tell.

My next show isn’t for a couple weeks as I will be attending my graduation next weekend. I’m receiving a Master’s Degree from the University of Maryland University College. It is also the same day as the 3rd annual car show at my daughter’s school. I have attended this show the last two years, and really didn’t want to miss it this year, so I’m praying for rain that day so the show will get rescheduled. It was a tough choice for me to decide to attend my graduation or go to the car show. I guess that’s how you know if you’re a die-hard or not.

Let the Fun Begin

2011-03-28T19:43:00.005-04:00

After what seemed to be a long winter the time had finally come that us car enthusiast look forward to…the start of the car show season. Getting the Mustang ready for the season was not without issues. Having a two car garage to work in, however meant that I could work all winter to get the car ready.

I spent this winter, while the car was in hibernation, focusing on details on the interior. This included installing a new dash pad, all new knobs and switches, new door lights, new wood grain door inserts, new gauge and clock lenses, and a new sound system. I have already started making a list of things to do next winter.

As the weather started to warm up I decided it was now time to pull the Mustang out of the garage at my parent’s house and bring her home for the summer. She started up with no problems and all was going well until I heard a loud scraping sound. My father’s trailer was in my blind spot and I backed into it. My back driver’s side tire caught the hitch and pulled it into the wheel well scraping the paint off the car. I had to jack the car up in order to get the hitch out of the wheel well. So of course it was not off to the body shop. A fairly simple repair ended up being about a third of the rear quarter being cut out and replaced. Not from the accident, but from crappy previous repairs.

So that brings me to this past Saturday, the first car show of the season at North Stafford High School to support Skills USA. This is my third consecutive year attending this show. I like the show, not just because it’s close by, but it is always well organized, and it’s for a good cause and the students do a great job.

This year was a cold one and the frequent wind didn’t help the matter either. I went with a friend of mine that owns an amazingly restored ’69 Roadrunner. It was his first time at this show, I think aside from the cold he enjoyed himself.

I had never won anything at this show, mainly because the show draws well over 100 cars and the quality of cars has gotten better each year. I noticed the judges started inspecting cars fairly early in order to ensure they finished on time. I observed the judges as they inspected the Mustang and a couple of them even told me how nice it was. It would appear that my hard work this winter would pay off.

There ended up being just over 140 cars this year and some of them were extremely well done. One of my favorites was a ’39 Ford with Levalle (pronounced lee-valley) flames. Short bit of history, they are called Levalle flames because Mike Levalle, an artist, developed the method of airbrushing realistic flames. This car won Best in Show.

The awards, like every year, were really well done. The specialty awards are built by the students and are really professionally and tastefully done. There were approximately 10 or so specialty awards and they also had Top 30 plaques. I was able to break the ice this year winning a Top 30 and my friend with the Roadrunner won Best Restoration.

Then the next morning we had 2” of snow on the ground, go figure.

The Stampede

2010-09-26T14:47:00.003-04:00

Now that Big Secz is back on the road this weekend was going to be full of car events. Friday evening I went to the cruise-in at VA BBQ. I had only been once this year and thought I would try it out one more time. I typically don’t attend this cruise-in due to the location and a few other reasons that I won’t get in to. I saw a lot of the usual suspects at the show, but one caught my attention in particular. It was an old Ford school bus, but this was far from your average school bus. It had been slammed just inches from the ground, and chopped to the point that it was barely recognizable as a school bus. The owners of this bus take it around to local shows and events and collect school supplies for schools around the globe. They even sell t-shirts out of the back of the bus to help promote and raise money for their cause. I just can’t imagine how fun it must be to ride down the road in this thing. I ended up leaving a little after 8 PM and headed home. I had to be up early Saturday for a show in Richmond.

Saturday morning we got up with at the butt-crack of dawn and headed to Spotsylvania to meet up with a group of other Mustangs and head down to Richmond for an all Mustang/Ford show. We had a nice group of cars. Ten in all which consisted of a ‘95 Saleen, ‘04 Bullit, two ‘70 Boss 302s, ‘70 fastback, two ‘69 Mach 1s, ‘65 fastback, late ‘60s Torino, and my ‘70 convertible. We chose to go via Rte. 1 South all the way to Richmond. What a great ride, some nice long stretches of country road. It was nice riding down as a group of old Mustangs and loud exhaust. We turned plenty of head along the way.

Unfortunately we had a few issues along the way. The first of which was the ‘70 fastback. Fuel pump quit working, which turned out to be a result of a blown fuse. A quick rewiring and we were back on the road. A little time later, my buddy Olaf’s ‘69 Mach 1 Cobra Jet started having some ignition issues. After a couple stops, he told us all to continue on to the show and he’d catch up, he had a few tools on hand if he needed them.

The show was hosted by the Central Virginia Mustang Club and held at the Central Virginia Commons Mall. It was very well organized and structured. There were ample classes to help level out the field of cars. It was all based on a points system, you had to score a minimum number of points to even qualify for a plaque.

They had parking all under control, and they gave each car two spaces to ensure that everyone had enough room to open doors and walk around to look at the cars without causing any damage. The only downsides to the show was that there were no food vendors, being that it was at the mall the assumption was people would go to the food court. Which is what we did. However even to get a drink it meant a trip to the mall to the vending machines. It would have been nice to of at least had someone selling cold drinks to prevent multiple trips to the mall entrance. The other downside, and I understand the reasoning, was they banned all canopies and tents, due to liability concerns. These canopies are common at shows and they have been known to cause some damage when not properly secured. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t so damn hot out and there were shade trees around. I was parked near a tree but I think it is the only tree on Earth that doesn’t give off a bit of shade. So to cool off it also meant going to the mall to walk around. Of course one of the major plus sides to the show was that it was at a mall. My wife had no problem spending the day inside the nicely air conditioned mall partaking in what she likes to call “retail therapy”.

I missed being present when my car was judged, I had just finished eating lunch and walked out the door of the mall and saw them put the tag on my car and walk away. I would have liked to have been present so that way I could perhaps talk to them a little to get an idea of what they look for. They did announce that they will mail you a copy of your judging sheet. So that will be cool to see.

When the time came to hand out awards I wasn’t expecting to get any sort of recognition, there were a lot of nice cars in the field of 185 cars. Uniquely enough I had the only 1970 convertible at the show. I had gotten a lot of compliments about the car throughout the day, more compliments than I had ever received at any one show. This could be because it was specifically a Mustang/Ford show. Because the show was based on points, this means that you could have multiple first, second and third places depending on how many people had the same number of points. I was in what I would consider to be a tough class, I was in the Occasionally Driving (OD) ‘64 ½ - ‘73 Modified class. They announced the few people that won first place, one of which was Olaf, in our group, and his ‘69 Mach 1 Cobra Jet. Yes that means he actually made it to the show. He was joking about how they should hand out awards for the most persistent. He ended up pulling over five different times on the way to the show. Then they started announcing 2nd place winners, and then my name was announced. I couldn’t believe it. By the time all the awards were handed out, every driver in our group had received an award which was really cool. It just goes to show you the quality of vehicles that we all had. A lot of time and dedication.

Later that evening I decided to stop by the Brusters Cruise-in in Stafford to see a few friends and tell them about the show. The night was great for it. I prefer this cruise-in, not only because I know more people, but it’s a bit more comfortable. The club hosting this cruise, The 610 Cruisers, give out a hand full of trophies every Saturday night. Some specialty trophies, and some drivers choice. I have never received an award at this show…..until now. I was able to end my night on another high note walking away with an award for best Mustang.

Shows should never be about the awards or trophies, it should be about the company and camaraderie with others that share the same passion. But……it does feel good to be recognized for your hard work too.

On the Road Again!

2010-09-18T22:01:00.001-04:00

She’s finally back on the road. I feel like I’ve been waiting a lot longer than I actually have to get to this point.

First we had to figure out the cause of the coolant leak. Luckily it was due to minor human error. The drain plug from the rear lower part of the block wasn’t installed. This was an easy fix and easily accessed once we had the car up on jack stands. The passenger side is a different story; the starter would have to come out. Once we installed the driver’s side plug we took our chances and started to fill her with coolant and luckily the passenger side was good to go.

Getting her started was a fairly easy process once we adjusted the timing and realized that we had the ignition and starter wires crossed on the solenoid. We played around with some adjustments and she was good to go.

We took her out for a road test after which we checked the fluids, added a little more transmission and power steering fluid and she was done. There are a few bugs that need to be sorted out but for the most part nothing that would prevent the enjoyment of driving her.

The speedometer cable is showing signs that it’s about to go, the transmission linkage still needs some tweaking and the accelerator pedal needs some adjustments. I’m adding this to my winter “to do” list while she’s off the road.

After a quick visit to the transmission shop so they could ensure the shift points were correct, I took her to a local muffler shop to have the headers installed. I’m surprised at how different the car sounds. But naturally this would not go without yet another issue. After the tech pulled her out of the bay he couldn’t shut her off. I played with the key and immediately knew that the issue was the ignition switch. So he left her running and when I got home I disconnected the electronic ignition.

One of the few parts that are not being remanufactured for ’70 Mustangs are…..ignition switches. The only way to get one is off of another car, and even if you can find one good lucky trying to get someone to come off of it, and if they are willing they want top dollar.

A few months back my original ignition switch had quit working and a buddy of mine luckily had one on hand that he gave me off of one of his parts cars. I kept my old switch and rebuilt it.. It appears to work fine but I have never tried it actually in the car. After pulling the cover off of the steering column I immediately noticed that the pin was missing that attaches the switch rod to the ignition barrel plunger rod. So I took the one off of my old switch and problems solved.

After spending half a day cleaning her up, I took my oldest daughter for an hour long cruise in her through some back country roads of Stafford County. It was the perfect weather for riding with the top down.

I couldn’t wait to take her to the local cruise-in to see a few folks that had known about the project and had been asking about the progress. She’s running well and oddly that’s what I have to get used to. I was so used to the previous quirks and tricks to driving her that having a car that I can get in and just drive like a normal car is foreign to me.

I’m still hesitant to get too excited as I’m sure “Christine” will rear her ugly head again. But for now......life is good.

Murphy’s Law

2010-09-12T19:00:00.006-04:00

I got the motor back this weekend, one week behind schedule. In my head, naturally I was thinking we should have her up and running by Sunday…….wrong. I forgot after all this is Big Secz we are talking about, and as my history of ownership has proven this would be anything but an easy or straight forward project.

Mating the motor to the transmission went without a hitch, then came actually dropping the two into the car which created its own set of challenges. After overcoming a small series of obstacles we moved on to other things on the “to do” list, which seemed to be nothing more than Easter egg hunt looking for problems.

The first was the new aluminum pulleys that I ordered, in short the top water pump pulley didn’t fit but the bottom crank did. So naturally the aluminum crank pulley is smaller in diameter than the original so as you can imagine this created belt sizing issues. The power steering belt fit well, the alternator belt was a different story. So after yet another trip to the auto parts store for a new belt, we were still about 1/4” out from having it totally adjusted, so backyard mechanical ingenuity kicked in and we fabricated a bracket to give us the difference we needed.

Finally after buttoning everything up and chasing a power steering pump leak we reached a point to where we thought we were coming down the home stretch. I discovered that my new automatic gear shift rod didn’t fit and the linkage to the transmission isn’t working correctly.

Then we had to chase down an electrical issue, as in the “issue” was I had none….power that is. After about an hour of fiddling with that, the end result was having one wire not connected properly.

The best I saved for last, poured in antifreeze, and out came the antifreeze, all over the floor out the back of the motor. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Moving Along

2010-08-24T09:06:00.004-04:00

Just a quick update. The Mustang was sent off to the body shop last Wednesday (the 18th) and the motor and transmission were dropped off Thursday (the 19th) to get rebuilt.

The transmission was dropped off at Superior Transmission in Fredericksburg. No major modifications there other than the addition of a shift kit. I should have it back some time this week.

The body shop is repainting the engine bay for me in gloss black and should be done some time next week.

The motor was dropped off at Ballos Precision Machine in Richmond. After discussing option with the builder I decided to go with a mild roller cam setup that should put out 320-350 hp conservatively. The motor is scheduled to be done by September 3rd.

I’m getting anxious now to get everything put back together and get her on the road. One other modification I’ll be doing is ditching the stock exhaust manifolds for a set of ceramic coated Hedman shorty headers. So this means I’ll need to make a trip to the exhaust shop to mate my exhaust pipes to the headers.

Other things on my list over the next week are to repaint miscellaneous parts such as brackets, power steering pump, and driveshaft, and install new front and rear universal joints.

Let the fun begin.

The Backyard Mechanic....Literally

2010-08-08T19:36:00.005-04:00

It has been some time now since I’ve had a blog entry. There really hasn’t been a whole lot to report until recently. I haven’t really attended many shows or cruises this season due to the issues with the Mustang. So my enjoyment of the “season” has been little if any at all.

The engine has had an annoying tapping sound for some time now, which I’m fairly confident, is the result of a bad lifter or two, in addition to low compression readings and leaking oil. The Transmission has been acting up as well, making a horrible groaning sound and taking off from a dead stop at stoplights has become somewhat embarrassing between my snails pace accelerations and the clack-clack-clack coming from under the hood.

A few weeks ago I received a notice in the mail from my HOA informing me that they were about to re-stripe the development’s parking spaces and that all cars had to be moved for the entire day. Refusing to park the Mustang on the public street, I opted to park her at my parent’s house. After not starting her for over two weeks I got in her and fired her up. The usual tapping sound was still there as expected, but when the transmission decided to take a turn for the worse and ended up having to drive the entire way to my parent’s house in second gear. Luckily they only lived 10 miles away.

I parked her in my parent’s back yard covered her up and flipped her the bird out of frustration. A friend of mine once told me that the only good thing is that when she finally broke it would force me to fix the problem instead of living with the annoying idiosyncrasies that I have become so familiar with.

So there you have it, now I’m forced to face the fact that it’s time to get dirty and pull the engine and transmission. Between only having weekends available and dodging the few rainy days, this little venture ended up taking three weekends to pull off. Every available Saturday or Sunday I spent disconnecting and labeling parts off of the engine until finally this Sunday was d-day.

I love how every time I mentioned to someone that I had to pull the engine and trans the response I got would always be how easy of a job it is and how quickly they could do it. Yeah, well I’m calling b.s. on that one. Not that it was terribly difficult, however it’s not like it’s a 1 hour job either especially if you are tackling this job in a grassy back yard.

I didn’t run into my first snag until I went to remove the radiator. One of the trans lines going into the bottom of the radiator gave up a fight and the result was a crimped trans line. Simple enough fix, cut and flare the end and should be back in business.

Next obstacle occurred when I went to remove the driveshaft. After removing the U-bolts, I took a large screwdriver and pushed the driveshaft further up in the trans mission to allow clearance for the back of the driveshaft to drop down. This little maneuver almost resulted in a bump on the head when one of the end caps fell off the universal joint. Just add that to the list of parts to get.

I removed the engine and trans all at one time and this required some creative maneuvering to pull off. Being in a grassy yard the engine hoist was in a ¾ sheet of plywood to allow some rolling ability and prevent the hoist from sinking in the ground.

So the process went something like this. Lift the engine and trans, drop the car down from the jack stands, roll the car back, bring over a small trailer, drop the motor in the back of the trailer, pull out hoist and away she goes.

So what’s next? Soon I hope to have her off to the paint and body shop to take care of repainting the entire engine bay. I’m still on the fence about buying a crate engine or rebuilding mine, and the same goes for the trans, buy new or rebuild. Right now I’m leaning real heavily toward crate engine and new trans.

We’ll see what the next few weeks bring.

God Must Be a Car Fan

2010-06-05T21:25:00.012-04:00

Today I attended the annual car show held by Stafford Classics at Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Stafford. All proceeds from the show go to help youth missions for the church. Last year was my first time attending this show and I was impressed so I made it a point to attend this year.

There were a few changes to the show since last year. The biggest was the new structure of classes. In my opinion one of the downfalls of last year’s show was the limited options of classes. This show draws such a big crowd, that with limited class options it meant that in some cases classics were being judged against much newer vehicles. When judging on presentation and cleanliness it’s difficult for cars that are 30 plus years old to stand up against cars that are five years old or newer.

The weather was a constant concern as the potential of thunderstorms was in the forecast. But being that it was at a church, I think the staff had a connection and called in a favor to a much higher power as the rain held off for the entire day. The only rain I saw was a few sprinkles on my way home after the show.

Given how hot it has been and was expected to be today. I was up bright and early at 5:30 to start detailing the Mustang before it got too hot. I arrived at the show a little after 8:00 and there were already several cars there. I parked in the Mustang section again this year and had some good company next to me.

Jeff Easter parked next to me with his son’s clean 1970 gold Mustang Grande, beside him was Marvin (I wish I could remember his last name) and his beautiful red 1967 red Mustang Coupe, and beside him was Rick Ford and his amazing 1967 pewter/silver Mustang Fastback. I only got to talk to Jeff for a minute because he was a judge and had to get started evaluating cars. But I remembered Jeff from last year; he also has a really nice 1970 Mach 1, which he didn’t bring out. But I enjoy talking to Jeff, especially since we both can share our passion for the 1970 Mustangs.

I had posted recently on my blog about my disappointment in the classic car culture. Well today I experienced what is great about it. I spent the day hanging out under an EZ-Up canopy with Marvin and Rick Ford talking about cars, shows and the culture. The three of us share similar opinions in what we find aggravating, but these two are a couple of the nicest guys you could ever meet. I look forward to meeting up with them again at future events.

The show this year was in the grass which was much better than being on hot pavement, but it was still hot nonetheless. The show I don’t think drew as many cars this year, which I think was due to the weather forecast. But if I had to guess I would say it was close to the 200 mark.

As to be expected there were some really nice cars and some you don’t see that often. Dale Jr.’s 88 National Guard NASCAR made an appearance, there were a couple of nice Shelby Cobras, a Ford GT, and a slew of Camaros. Apparently there is a new club in town, Virginia Camaro Club, and they were represented well and even walked away with the best club participation award.

There were over 100 awards handed out in 28 different classes. I was entered into the Mustang 1964-1973 class; there were seven of us total in that class. Three very deserving cars took the class; Jeff Easter’s son took third in our class for his ’70 Grande, Marvin took 2nd for his Coupe, and Rick Ford took 1st for his Fastback. The funny thing about it is that’s the same order they were parked in right next to me.

One of the coolest things at the show was the Model T tear-down and rebuild (see pictures below). They tore that car down to the frame and rebuilt it twice. The second time they rebuilt it for speed, and after each time they rebuilt it they drove the car. I don’t know what the final time was but I hear that their best time so far is 11 minutes. Imagine building a car in 11 minutes with a team of six or seven people.

As usual the show was great. Brent McConnell from Stafford Classics did a great job organizing and running the show. I don’t go to many shows but this is one that I am glad that I went to and plan on attending next year.

Meet Christine!!!!

2010-05-21T22:44:00.002-04:00

After a rough week, I figured the best way to relax and clear my head would be to take the Mustang out for a cruise. Friday evening and the weather was perfect for some top-down cruising. I thought I’d take the long way through the back roads of Stafford and stop by the weekly cruise-in at VA BBQ in Fredericksburg. Well the Mustang had other plans.

After dropping the top and heading out of my development, I quickly realized something was wrong when I pushed the brake and my foot went to the floor as the car slowly coasted to a stop. I had no brakes, or at least minimal braking capability. So back to the house I go. I popped the cap on the master cylinder to find that the front bowl is full but the rear bowl is completely empty. I looked under the car to find a nice wet area behind my right rear tire.

All in all it’s a fairly simple fix, or at least it would be if I had the place to do the work myself. Now I have to look at getting her towed someplace that can take care of it for me. Oh, and to top it off I have to have it inspected this month which is quickly coming to a close.

Is it possible for a car to really be possessed? I’ve had this car for 15 months and I have had more issues than I ever expected. If it wasn’t mechanical in nature, it was mother nature. If anyone knows of a priest specializing in exorcisms please send him my way.

Not What I Imagined

2010-05-02T18:17:00.002-04:00

This weekend was the 2nd annual car show at my daughter’s elementary school in Stafford, VA. It was a hot day but a breeze in the air helped to make things somewhat bearable. Last year was the first show for the school and pulled in a modest attendance of around 40 cars. This however, word must have gotten out because attendance nearly doubled to over 70 cars.

There were a lot of nice cars, most of which I have seen several times before, but there were a few that were new to me. Once observation that I did like was that there was a nice group of teens who brought their cars to the show. Naturally they were newer model cars but nevertheless it was nice to see them participating in something that is helping to benefit the PTO of an elementary school.

Judging was tough this year. It consisted of a team of three judges and they were thoroughly picking over the cars. I observed them when they got to my car and the lead judge seemed to have issues with my engine bay as I could see him pointing out several things to the other two judges. The more I observed the judges pointing out my car’s flaws the more I saw my chances of a repeat of winning the “Parent with the Coolest Car Award” going down the tubes.

The show ran over which made it for a long day. By 2pm people were ready to just get the awards done with but there was a lot of cars to judge and only one team of three judges to do it. By 3pm the judging was done and it was a matter of waiting for them to tally the results.

This show handed out Top 30, Parent with the Coolest Car, Student’s Choice, and Best in Show awards. When it came time to hand out the awards, the crowd was restless. The lead judge called out the numbers of the cars for the Top 30 awards as quickly and as efficiently as he could. He made a few mistakes that to me seemed minor but I could hear comments in the crowd and at one time see the patience of people fade and attitudes flare. Maybe it had something to do with the heat. But personally I think the judges did a fair job considering they had a larger than I think expected number of cars and the heat to contend with.

Needless to say I went home empty handed this year, so no “Parent with the Coolest Car Award” for me. I could see the disappointment in my daughter’s face, but it provided me the opportunity to try and explain to her that it’s not about the trophies and that we should be happy for those that won.

In the past few months I have been doing a lot of thinking about the “classic car” culture and I have to admit that I am less than impressed. Before I owned my Mustang I used to imagine joining a club and it being like a “family” or “brotherhood” of people sharing similar passions. I imagined it as people wanting to help each other out on their projects and just enjoying the company of others. I was mistaken.

I have found out that people are less social than I thought. The “family” atmosphere of clubs has given way to cliques within the clubs, working on each other’s cars and lending a helping hand has turned into taking the car to a speed shop and paying someone else to fix it, and instead of just enjoying the company of friends and cars, it’s now all about the trophies.

This weekend, was an event for children, so you would think that setting an example of good sportsmanship and behavior would have been at the foremost of people’s minds. That was not the case. Instead there were a lot of attitudes and grumbling during the handing out of the awards. Behavior I thought set a poor example to the younger generation, but nevertheless behavior that I have seen become synonymous with the classic car culture.

I do not anticipate attending many, if any more shows this season. I’ll take my Mustang, with her tapping engine, groaning transmission, less than appealing engine bay, and all her other flaws and enjoy every minute that I get behind the wheel over being in a “culture” that seems to have lost sight of the what is important.

Rolling Furniture

2010-04-16T13:24:00.008-04:00

On Saturday the 10th I decided to take my oldest daughter to a local car show, the Third Annual Tires Plus Show. I attended this show last year and actually won a trophy, this year not so lucky. Last year the show attracted about 30 cars, this year it was around 50, a good turn-out for a small show that isn’t heavily advertised.

It was a great day, a little cold in the morning but warmed up by afternoon. Saw some really nice cars and met some interesting people. But none of the cars were as unique as the ’32 Chevy pick-up that was built completely out of wood. The frame was steel but everything else, cab supports, cab, bed fenders were all wood. As I walked around the truck I noticed the little unique details such as the piano hinges for the hood, the decorative door handles, hinges for the tailgate and engraved plaque on the side of the cab. I realized that with the right skill, and a lot of skill is involved, you could have actually built the entire truck from readily available supplies from the local hardware store.

Even though I didn’t win a trophy I cleaned up on door prizes, winning three different times, and my daughter had a really good time which is always a good thing. My next show will be the 2nd annual show at my daughter’s elementary school on May 1st. I won a plaque for Parent with the Coolest Car last year let’s see if we can make it a repeat. My daughter is really looking forward to this show.

Can You Spot the Not

2010-04-16T13:07:00.004-04:00

I decided to stop by the VA BBQ cruise on the 9th. I don’t go to this cruise too often because traffic is typically a bear when trying to get there. There were reports of it taking people nearly two hours to make a normally 15 minute trip just because of rush hour traffic on a Friday.

To beat out traffic I stopped by my family’s store, Big Daddy Leather, for a bit to see how things were going there. They were getting ready for their open house bike show the next day. I was able to meet Rob from Frenzy. I have been using Turtle Wax Ice Spray Detailer until now. With the flat black paint on my car I can’t use regular wax because it will stain the paint, but the Ice detailer has worked well.

I decided to give Frenzy products a try now that my family carries it in their store. I was really impressed. A little goes a long way and it does a great job. I use the spray wax detailer on the body and chrome and I use the Frenzy vinyl and plastic spray on the top and interior and back plastic window. After speaking to Rob he recommends using the actual wax on plastic, “it’ll make it look like glass”, and on the chrome wheels. So I’ll have to pick some of that up and try it out.

I got to the cruise early which gave me time to get the pollen off of the car before everyone started showing up. Shortly after a few cars started coming in one of which was Steve Corbin in his ’70 Boss 302, not a clone, but an actual 302 car. The last time I saw this car was a year ago and it was a shell on jack stands. So naturally he backs her in behind Big Secz which was cool. People would walk by and compare the two cars. It is a beautiful car and it’s for sale if anyone is interested. Steve tried his best to convince me I needed to sell Big Secz and buy his Boss. Nice try, Steve.

Rob from Frenzy was able to do a few demonstrations on some of the cars that were there. People were so impressed we were approached and asked if my family would be willing to set up a booth to do demonstrations and sell products. I think we’ll be looking to do one Friday a month and see how it goes. Then perhaps hitting the Bruster’s cruise as well and maybe next year hit a few car shows.

Charity Poker Run

2010-04-03T18:39:00.004-04:00

April 3rd, was the Joshua’s Journey Charity Poker Run. Originally this event was only for motorcycles and was sponsored by my family’s shop, Big Daddy Leather. I thought that this would be a good chance to include classic cars as well and integrate the motorcycle and classic car cultures, so I suggested opening up the event to everyone. This was probably a mistake, more on that in a minute.

I volunteered to work the last stop at Mainstreet Grill & Bar in Stafford where with the help of Josh’s mom we collected the poker sheets and I went through and determined the winners. Prizes were given out for first, second, and worst hands. There was also a 50/50 and an auction.

There were 149 bikes that participated and only one car. Yep, only one car although it was a very nice car. I believe it was a 30’s Essex but I didn’t get the chance to look at it or talk to the owner, I was so busy taking care of riders as they came in.

All-in-all the event was a success. Bikers are a very tight-knit group of people and never turn down an opportunity to ride, especially in nice weather. There were bikers that chose not to participate in the run but still show up at Big Daddy Leather and make donations. This speaks volumes as to the biker culture and their generosity.

I was really disappointed in the lack of classic car participation. I wasn’t expecting a ton of cars but it would have been nice to have seen about 10 to 15. Flyers were posted about the event at local businesses all over Stafford, it was posted on two car club websites, and I handed out over 150 flyers at last weekend’s car show. I’m not sure how much more I could have done to get the word out. I participated in a classic car poker run last year on a cold, wet, and drizzly day and I think the turn out was over 20 cars. The one car that did participate didn’t stay that long unfortunately, I don’t want to speculate why, but I imagine part of it was feeling like the odd-man out.

Nevertheless I was happy to see so many bikes came out. It was really something to see all those bikes out in the parking lot and the people in the shopping center scratching their heads trying to figure out what in the world was going on as they looked across a sea of chrome, leather vests, and do-rags.

If you’re wondering, yes I took the Mustang. As I left I drove by the crowd of bikers outside and honked to my friends and family as I drove away proud to be a “non-rider” and represent the classic car culture, top-down and all by myself.

The Season Begins

2010-03-31T14:00:00.002-04:00

Saturday March 27th was the first car show of the season. The Skills USA show at North Stafford High School. This show last year was my very first show that I attended. Last year was sunny but real windy, this year was sunny and real cold. Attendance was down a little this year, 158 registered cars this year compared to just over 170 last year.

A lot of nice cars were in attendance. There was an abundance of late model Mustangs as there typically is when the Stangs and Fangs club is in attendance displaying a nice variety of late model Mustangs. There were also late model Corvettes, Comaros, and Chargers. Surprisingly I didn’t see any late model Challengers. All real nice nevertheless.

There were some interesting classics as well. The gentleman parked next to me had a Corvair camper van. That was an interesting piece, and was nicely restored. There was also a ‘30s model Dodge bus hot rod. Imagine that a bus converted into a hot rod, really cool.

The show was good and the peopled were great. They gave out Top 30 plaques and various custom made trophies for things like Best in Show, Best Truck, Best Restored, Best Mustang, Best Import, etc. Surprisingly there was a nice mixture of classics and late model cars receiving awards. Typically when there are so many late model cars they usually get more recognition over classics. My assumption is because a car that is only a few years old is cleaner and in better shape than cars that are over 40 years old. My only disappointment was that they didn’t give any trophies to any of the motorcycles that came. Granted there were only a couple but one sport bike in particular had a killer paint job with a Spawn theme. It should have been recognized.

I was surprised I even made the show. After the garage collapse this winter things weren’t looking good. But with the help of some great people, Curt Underwood who did the top and Olaf Herrick who’s shop did the body work I was able to make the show. As a matter of fact I had just picked the car up from the body shop on Tuesday and the show was Saturday. Some folks approached me about to see the fresh body work and they all said the same thing, “You can’t even tell it was damaged”, and the paint match is nearly spot-on. A sign of a good body shop.

I still have motor and trans issues. I’ve pretty much figured that I’m going to have to rebuild or buy a crate motor to address my problems. But for now the car runs and since I’m not taking it to the track I figured it’d last me this season, fingers crossed, so this fall I’ll worry about finding a crate motor and new trans.

The Endless Winter

2010-02-26T22:48:00.001-05:00

The remnants of the last snow fall are finally starting to disappear. The temperatures are still unseasonably low. Thank goodness the calendar is reminding me that Spring is around the corner. That also means it will soon be time to break out our cars and start hitting some shows and cruise-ins.

This has definitely been a winter that I’d like to forget. As you may know from my last post an accident from the first snow in mid December left me with a hole in my roof and a nice dent on my right fender. On top of all of that there are still the motor issues that have to be addressed. I had the roof replaced last month by Curt Underwood from Underwood’s Upholstery. He did a great job and had the car done quickly.

Late last year I had thought I would be pulling the trigger on installing a new crate motor. Well, with life come unexpected circumstances, so needless to say the crate motor is on the back burner for the time being and squeezing life out of my original 302 took priority.

Over the course of the last six months I’ve had my Mustang through various sets of hands looking at it trying to sort out the misbehaving motor. With winter now coming to a close and the first car show scheduled for March 27th I’ve had to bite the bullet and take her to another mechanic.

This time around I took her to A-1 Speed and Custom in Fredericksburg, VA. I explained to them all of the issues I’ve had and their preliminary thought is that the cam has a wiped lobe and bad lifter or two. So as or right now the game plan is to install a new cam, lifters, pushrods, and timing chain. With any luck this will take care of my problems.

This winter hasn’t been a complete loss however. I’ve had all new drum brakes installed, and a new suspension kit complete with front and rear sway bars, all new shocks, 4 ½ mid-eye leafs in the rear and 1” drop 620 coils in the front. Other new additions include a Humphugger Cruiser console, two new rear back-up lights, and with any luck before the first show, new door handles, window regulators, and new driver’s side mirror.

Now all I can do is wait to hear from A-1 and keep my fingers crossed it isn’t too serious. Next stop after A-1…..the body shop to get the fender fixed.

It could have been worse...I guess....

2009-12-20T23:26:00.004-05:00

If you read my previous post then you know what happened to Big Secz. The poor road conditions prevented me from getting to my parent’s house to assess the damage. My parents and some neighbors however were able to get her uncovered and one of the neighbors sent me some pictures of the damage.

I guess I should consider myself fortunate because the damage could have been much worse. I still have not been able to see it in person but based on the pictures, aside from a new top, it looks like I’ll probably need a new fender. So that is the optimistic point of view.

The pessimistic in me wonders what I did to deserve this run of bad luck with this car. She still isn’t running right between the valve tapping and smoke pouring out of her tailpipe and now I have to deal with this on top of it. Getting her ready by Spring is looking more and more unrealistic.

You have got to be kidding me!!!!!

2009-12-20T00:20:00.003-05:00

A few days before Christmas and we get a blizzard, for most people this would be a happy time. I was one of those people up until about the middle of Saturday.

With me living in a townhouse I had thought the optimum place to store Big Secz for the winter would be at my parent’s house. In their back yard they have, or should I say had, a 16x20 Portable Garage, a metal framed structure covered with heavy plastic tarp like material.

My wife was on the phone with my mother and from my end it sounded like a typical conversations. Then my wife said “What happened?” and there was a pause, “What? What garage?”, and then there was the “Oh my God, you’re kidding.”

The garage had collapsed on Big Secz. At this point I have no idea what the extent of the damage is, but rest assured the will be some. More than likely the convertible top is complete caved in and all the glass is busted. When you look at the picture the white mound next to the swing set is the collapsed garage with Big Secz buried underneath.

Hopefully I can get there by Monday to find out just how bad everything is. Merry flippin’ Christmas to me…..

The All New BDL

2009-11-06T12:15:00.005-05:00

This past Wednesday night was the re-grand opening of Big Daddy Leather (BDL) after my Dad purchased it a month ago. The store was closed Sunday through Tuesday for remodeling and reopened on Wednesday.

Sunday Morning I got to the store just before 8 AM to offer a helping hand. It didn’t take long before the improvements were noticeable. The store’s layout previously was less than adequate if you had any more than about 10 customers at one time. It was chaotic with no rhyme or reason as to why stuff was where it was. After putting in nine hours on Sunday I had to call it a day. I was anxious to see the improvements at Bike Night Wednesday night.

Wednesday night came and I was not disappointed. The store looked great. A million times better than before. It truly lets customers know that this is a whole new BDL. Everything was organized, opened up, repainted and did not look like a store that had been there for five years.

A good friend of my Dad’s built a beautiful new counter, put wood paneling accents along the bottom of the wall, and built custom boxes to hold cleaning supplies and hand on garage or trailer walls. It was a whole new store.

Even though it was a little chilly out Wednesday some dedicated rider brought their bikes. I counted about 20 motorcycles at one point and every bit of fifty people. The best part was at one point everyone was inside the store and you could still move around the store.

I listened to what some people were saying and not one comment was bad. All pretty much agreed that all the improvements were much needed and the store had changed for the better. I even had my ego stroked a bit with customers saying how much they liked the new logo, since I’m the one that designed it, it was nice to hear some unbiased feedback.

“Bike Night in the Burg” happens every Wednesday night all year long. People start showing up around 5 and leave around 8. If you’re looking for something to do you should come on out.

Heart Transplant

2009-10-26T19:07:00.001-04:00

If you’ve been following my blog then you know all about the engine issues I’ve been having with Big Secz. This has been a very frustrating summer. I’ve missed several events that I would like to have gone to due to fearing I’d break down along the way. Recently things got worse. Now instead of just and engine tap, I have a knock to go with it. As if that wasn’t enough she’s blowing grey smoke and the engine vibrates terribly.

For the past couple months I’ve been talking to different people and exploring my options. Everything from attempting to fix the problem, rebuilding the engine, or buying a create engine has been explored and discussed. Each comes with their own set of pros and cons. Of course the downside to talking to a bunch of people is that you get a bunch of different opinions, “well if it were me this is what I’d do”.

The first option, fixing the problems, can’t really be accomplished without tearing into the engine. I’ve received opinions ranging from bad lifters to a piston slap. Still if I replace the lifters there is no guarantee that will fix the problem, and in order to tell if there is a bad piston you still have to tear deep into the engine. So this really wasn’t a viable option due to the amount of work and not knowing what the end result would be. I think by going this route I would be fixing the symptoms and not really fixing the problem, and like everyone knows your engine is only as strong as your weakest link.

This brings me to my next option, rebuilding my engine. Since the engine that is currently in the car is the original numbers matching engine, I was really leaning toward this option. I’ve priced this job out with several local shops and they all quoted me roughly the same price, and that was with replacing it with stock-type components. Knowing that if I was going to rebuild the engine, I’d want to upgrade some of it’s components to improve reliability. This isn’t the type of project you want to face again any time soon.

Now that brings me to the option of buying a crate engine. In comparing the pros and cons against rebuilding my existing engine, I chose this option. Here’s why; I can get a crate engine cheaper than having mine rebuilt. The money that I save by going this route allows me to get better than stock parts which will improve reliability. In addition I can get improved performance. Upon the recommendation of someone that knows the owner, I contacted AA Speed in Woodbridge , VA and spoke to the owner, a real nice guy by the name of, Dan.

Dan called me this past Friday and we spoke for a while about these options. Dan emphasized that “it’s not about what anyone else wants it’s about what you want”. He started explaining to me what I would be looking at by rebuilding as opposed to buying a crate. Finally I asked him, “if this were your car what would you do?” He told me that he has a ’66 Nova with a numbers matching engine and he opted to keep that engine but drop in a crate. He said this gives you more flexibility when/if I ever sell it. The buyer will not only have a good performance engine, but the original as well which allows for different restoration options; go back to original or keep it a restomod.

We then talked about the crate option. This appealed to me the most. Dan explained that we can not only improve performance, but increase reliability, and save a few dollars. So then next question then was, “what type of crate?”

Choosing the type of crate engine as well as the components depends on my intended use. I have no desire to hit the track, burn tires, or flex my muscle at stoplights. I’m looking for something with a little more horsepower and reliable. I want to be able to start her up and go on a cruise confident that she won’t leave me stranded. Occasionally that will mean taking her on the interstate.

Dan suggested that I go with a 347 stroker. He’s had a lot of success with these in the past and has used several crates from Proformance Engines. From there he will reuse my Edelbrock Performer intake, Holley 600 cfm carb and MSD billet distributor. He explained that it’s good that I have these parts since that’s what he would have put on it anyway. This Friday I’m going to meet him and talk about details. So after Friday I will be able to post some specs.

Now with a new engine I face a similar dilemma when it comes to my transmission. I’m starting to have a few issues with my transmission so after pricing that out I’ve discovered that it would be worth a couple hundred more dollars and drop in a new transmission.

So hopefully by the end of November Big Secz will be ready to stampede down the highway. To be continued…

Winds of Change

2009-10-10T23:53:00.003-04:00

The wind we experienced this past week I think had less to do with the weather and was contributed more so to the collective sigh of bikers from the Stafford, Fredericksburg, and Spotsylvania area.

A few weeks ago local bikers learned that their favorite Wednesday night hang-out spot, Big Daddy Leather, was up for sale. This tight niche group of bikers was left to worry about who the potentially new owners would be. Bikers all over the area had their fingers crossed that the new owners would be someone from within their close circle. Their wish came true. Late last week my father purchased the store. I don’t know who’s happier, the bikers or my father.

Big Daddy Leather (BDL) was established in 2004 starting from a roadside stand and moving into retail space located in downtown Fredericksburg. BDL has established itself in the biker community as the go-to shop for their bike accessory and leather bike-wear needs. For the past few years BDL is known in the local community for their contributions to charities. Some of the most notable charitable events are the ChildHelp Toy Run, Some Gave All Memorial Ride, and Locks of Love.

The Locks of Love charity consist of bikers cutting their ponytails and donating the hair which is then used to make wigs for cancer patients. The Some Gave All Memorial Ride is in memory of the sons of two bikers that were killed in the Iraq war. These events and their weekly Wednesday night bike night, which had a record turn-out of 168 bikes last year, were all in jeopardy depending on if the new owners would keep them going.

This past Wednesday night at bike night when the announcement was made that my father and his wife, members of this biker fraternity, purchased the business they were greeted with congratulatory cheers of relief.

My only regret now is that I don’t have a bike so I can’t contribute. I told him after he told me that he purchased BDL, “Damn, why couldn’t you have purchased a Mustang parts store.” In all seriousness I whish him the best of luck and he knows that I’m always here to help out in anyway I can for this to be a continued and growing success.

So if you know anyone with a bike or in need of bike accessories send them to:

Big Daddy Leather
http://bigdaddyleather.com/news.php
1900 Princess Anne St
Fredericksburg, VA 22401
Phone: 540-899-0048

Till Death Do We Part…

2009-09-17T15:32:00.003-04:00

One thing I have learned after attending a few local car shows and cruise-ins is that it is nearly impossible to know everyone by name, but in fact it is more likely you know them by their car. Some cars you can see at nearly every show and cruise-in and you know them as regulars. This makes cars you have never seen before more prominent.

One car in particular that was a regular at shows and cruise-ins and always stuck out was a teal colored VW Baja Bug. Beautiful metallic teal paint and snow white interior, this car was always immaculate and a beautiful example of lovingly restored automobile. I never had the pleasure of meeting the owner but I knew him by face and by his car. No matter what show I attended the license plate “POPS VW” and the inscription under the hood “Till Death Do We Part” was the trademarks of Harold “Pop” Wilson’s car.

On September 17, 2009, Pop Wilson succumbed to his battle with cancer with his wife, Sue by his side. Sue is the president of the Fredericksburg Classic and Muscle Car Club. Pop and Sue are perfect examples of what it is to be an enthusiast with immense time and devotion given to the hobby and to their cars.

As I learned of Pop’s passing I couldn’t help but to think of what it will be like to attend a show and not see Pop’s VW, or see the VW and not Pop. Either way it will be hard to ignore the fact that something is missing from the show or cruise-in.

One can only find comfort in thinking that Pop is in a better place riding around in his VW. Here on Earth as we gaze in admiration at Pop’s VW although Pop may be gone he has left a piece of himself behind for everyone to enjoy. As we read the transcription under his hood that at one time had a comical undertone, now takes on a more serious meaning. The reality that we can only enjoy these precious gems for our limited time we have here on earth. But yet we can leave them behind for others to continue to enjoy long after we are gone.

RIP, Harold “Pop” Wilson.

If it were a real horse…I’d shoot it…

2009-09-06T20:45:00.007-04:00

I’m beginning to think I’m cursed. After fixing the starting, stalling, and running hot issues she’s still tapping. I took her to B&R and got her exhaust leak squared away but she still taps badly when she gets above 30 miles per hour. As if that were not enough the transmission is acting up. My first quote for taking care of the transmission was $1,100-$1,200.

So will ALL the great news I decided to say the hell with it and take Big Secz to Fredericksburg Friday night to meet up with the Stangs and Fangs club for their weekly cruise. Everyone I met was great. Good group of friendly people. There were over 30 Mustangs that came out all but two were 90’s or newer. I had the oldest mustang there until one guy pulled up in his ’66 coupe dragster.

I got a lot of compliments on Big Secz and she drew a lot of attention, especially because for the first two hours I had the only classic there. Two that caught my eye were Brian’s yellow tricked out GT complete with supercharger, Xbox and Lambo doors.

Another one well worth mentioning is Dave’s GT with an unbelievable paint job. The detail work under the hood was unbelievable. I like the horse heads in place of the stars, a nice touch.

Saturday night the wife and I dropped the top, enjoyed a good dinner out sans kids, and headed on over to Bruster’s Ice Cream for the Stafford Classics weekly cruise. It was a great night. We got to chat with some really good people. I look forward to seeing Bobby and Nina at future cruises. Bobby has a ’71 Ford F150 with a 302 that would stand up to just about any big block.

I met a guy, Nick, who brought his ’65 Shelby GT 350, and as I told him my issues with Big Secz he recommended that I call A-1 Speed and Customs in Fredericksburg. He’s about the third person to recommend them. So I think I’m going to give them a call next week to get their take on what my issues could be. It seems like just as one thing gets fixed something else pops up.

On the Road Again

2009-08-31T20:24:00.001-04:00

It looks like I’m getting closer to having Big Secz all sorted out. I picked her up from Jimmy Graves shop last Wednesday. Jimmy installed an MSD billet distributor, MSD coil, new starter solenoid, plug wires, replaced spark plugs, new fuel line and new fuel filter.

On the way home from Jimmy’s shop I noticed the temperature starting to rise. By the time I parked her in front of my house she was spitting antifreeze out of the overflow and the temp gauge was pegged.

I put in a call to Olaf and we discussed some options. Olaf remembered that when he installed my new intake that my radiator was looking pretty bad. He ran a thermal test on it and noticed an inconsistency in temp toward the left side. I decided that now was probably the time to upgrade to a bigger radiator. I also remembered that also installed a 160 thermostat and in my searches online and other people I talked to they suggested that I should bump it up to a 180 thermostat.

So I placed an order with my favorite distributor, Virginia Classic Mustang, on Thursday and the parts were delivered to Olaf Friday morning. We had made arrangements to install the new radiator and thermostat at Olaf’s shop in Fredericksburg Saturday morning.

Olaf was going to meet me at his shop at 10am but I knew I needed to get there earlier in order for the car to cool down enough for us to work on her. So early Saturday morning I made a break for it down 95 with the heater blasting praying that she wouldn’t overheat. Sure enough just as I put her in park at Olaf’s shop she was spitting antifreeze again.

Olaf showed up right on time and we didn’t waste any time getting a start on her. Olaf handed me the brackets and a few other pieces of his for other cars and pointed me to his blasting cabinet as he said, “I’m gonna put you to work.” No problem with me. I hate to stand around and watch and not feel somewhat useful, I have no problems getting my hands dirty. As I blasted the parts his brother in-law, Steve, painted them.

As we took a short break and waited for the parts to dry I looked over the ’69 Mach 1 they had on a rotisserie that was one of their current projects. Shortly after the parts dried it was done.

The good news is she runs cool now. I took her for a pretty long ride Sunday and the temp gauge only reached the halfway at its hottest, which was by the time I got home. I’m satisfied considering I couldn’t driver her before for more than 20 minutes. The bad news is, my exhaust leak has gotten worse so I’ve scheduled an appointment with B&R to take car of that.

The following video is a cold start, much better than she was before.

The following video is at idle.

The Happy Dance

2009-08-25T22:36:00.000-04:00

Finally, some good news. It looks like Big Secz may be coming home real soon. I took a ride to Jimmy’s shop today to see how the progress was going. They had the new MSD distributor installed and I noticed my fairly new, only a few months old, Petronix ignition coil was disconnected and a much older one connected instead. The mechanic told me that my coil was bad. Now that really chaps my ass. I just purchased the Petronix Ignitor II ignition and the Petronix Flame Thrower II coil and neither one of them were worth a damn. Oh well, now back to the good news.

A few minutes later Jimmy walked up with a brand new MSD coil. The mechanic hooked it up and started her up. First thing out of the mechanic’s mouth, “I don’t think she’s ever run this good.” I listened intently for any engine noises, other than an exhaust leak that I already knew about, there was nothing. She was running great. The mechanic picked up the timing gun, “Damn, she’s almost perfect,” then with a quick adjustment to the distributor and the curb idle speed screw on the carb and she was done.

I asked the mechanic what was wrong with her and he told me he thinks it was a combination of the bad distributor, bad coil, and my carb settings being all boogered up that was giving me problems. As for the tapping, well naturally it wasn’t doing it anymore. Their explanation was that if it should be doing it all the time if it were the lifters. They believe all the other issues created a dead cylinder which was explained to me can cause a similar noise.

Alas with all good news there are always some bad. The mechanic told me that my ignition switch was bad. The car would start but you couldn’t turn the car off. Now with any other Mustang this would be as simple as picking up the phone and calling Virginia Classic Mustang or any other parts supplier and ordering one, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not with a 1970. Are you kidding me! They only made this ignition switch for one year for the Mustang and no one makes them. I called Virginia Classic Mustang and was informed the only way you are going to find one is on another Mustang.

My first call was to Olaf, knowing that he has a few 1970’s, but I got his voice mail. Then I called about ten junkyards and one a nasty toned lady said, “Yeah I think I got a 70 sitting out here”. So off I go trying to get there before they close. As I drove up the half-mile dirt “road”, I use that term loosely for if I had not had a four wheel drive I wouldn’t have been able to make it, completely lined with junk cars wedged between ever tree and available nook and cranny. Finally arriving at their “office”, a junk trailer, the nasty lady on the phone point to an area and said “If I got it, it’s over there somewhere.” As fought my way through forest of cars and trees, spiders and poison ivy I noticed quickly that the only Mustang in that general vicinity was an ’83. If there ever was a car’s version of hell, this place was it.

Olaf had called me back, it just so happens that he had a 70 Mach 1 that he was going to restore but just recently decided against it and he’d give me the ignition switch off that one. Now you know you are a die-hard Mustang guy if you have spare parts like that available. Luckily his shop was not too far away from the crap yard that I was at and Jimmy’s shop isn’t far from Olaf’s. So Olaf pulled through in a clutch and I was able to get the switch dropped off to Jimmy. With any luck I may be able to pick her up Friday. Fingers crossed.

4 Weeks and Counting

2009-08-21T22:57:00.000-04:00

Well today I went by Jimmy Grave’s shop, Graves Auto Service, in downtown Fredericksburg to meet Jimmy in person and get an update on Big Secz. Well….I don’t know any more today than I did yesterday. Jimmy told me that he wants to get the car running in somewhat decent shape before he starts to address the engine noises or other issues.

Jimmy seems to think a big problem was the distributor so his recommendation was to install a MSD distributor and tune the car. He seems to think the car will run like it should after that. Then he’ll focus on the engine noise and internal issues. I’m frustrated beyond belief at this point, but I’m learning quickly that it comes with the territory when you own these cars.

On another note a local Mustang club, Stangs and Fangs, had their Friday night cruise-in, “Round Up”, in a small shopping center off of Rte. 17 in Falmouth. Needing to get my car fix for the week I decided to go. Olaf was there with his Saleen. Olaf and I spoke for a while about my car and some of the problems. He felt real bad that he couldn’t get her running right for me. Olaf is a great guy, he can build these cars with his eyes closed, but he admits that he doesn’t get too deep in engines and transmissions other than taking care of some common issues prone to these cars.

Nevertheless we chatted for a bit before he dropped the bomb on me, “Dude, get this I found the perfect car for you, I wish I had found it in February when you were looking.” Then he proceeded to fill me in on a new car he added to his collection, a ’70 Mach 1, Medium Lime Green Metallic. He picked this car up from someone that had owned it for just over 30 years. He said that it really doesn’t need much work, he’s just doing some basic stuff to it and then he’s going to flip it. Car is loaded with all the options, disc brakes, power steering, A/C, rear spoiler, rear window louvers, deluxe interior, and center console just to name a few. My reply was simple, “thanks, man I feel so much better about mine.” We shared a laugh on that one.

Anyway, Jimmy seems to think he’ll have Big Secz running by early next week. I should hear from him by Tuesday hopefully with some sort of prognosis and a recommendation for a plan of attack.

3 Weeks and Counting

2009-08-17T17:52:00.005-04:00

It looks like Big Secz is going to be out of commission a little longer than expected. A week before I went on vacation I had her towed to Olaf’s shop so he could try his luck with sorting out her issues. Olaf stayed in touch with me keeping me updated on the status; I wish I could say it was good news.

After spending two weeks trying to troubleshoot why she was running so poorly, Olaf still couldn’t figure it out. Swapping out the distributor and carburetor helped a little. I know what you’re thinking; didn’t I just buy a new carburetor? Yep, I purchased a package deal from Summit Racing which included a Holley 4160 series carburetor with a non-adjustable float. Apparently these are crap. Live and learn I guess.

Olaf’s recommendation at this point is to send it to Jimmy Graves’ shop, Graves Auto Service, in downtown Fredericksburg. From what I understand he’s a highly recommended mechanic in the area and is a die-hard Ford guy. I’m going down Friday evening to meet him and discuss my options, but at this point it looks like Big Secz will be getting an engine rebuild. It appears that the motor was weak to begin with, and when throttle stuck on me a few weeks back it over revved the motor pushing it to the limit. So at this point I can either try to fix the symptoms or I can fix the problem. To prevent continually throwing good money after bad I think my best bet is just to bite the bullet and rebuild the motor. So I’m at three weeks and counting without my car. I’m starting to forget that I even own a Mustang.

This past Saturday night I decided to stop by the Stafford Classics Cruise at Bruster’s. I haven’t been in a while, boycotting them really because I know all I’m going to do is get sick about not having mine. There were some real nice cars there, some cars I had never seen before. All-in-all I was glad I went to get my classic car fix.

I haven’t been to the Fredericksburg Classic and Muscle Car Club Cruise at VA BBQ since the night I started having problems with Big Secz, but another Stafford Classics member, Chuck (http://wherewereyouin62.blogspot.com/), had posted pictures from the past two weeks. I always check out, Chuck’s blog and photos to see what I’m missing and get his take on the various shows and cruises. In browsing through the pictures I noticed three cars that looked real familiar. After emailing Olaf I confirmed it. It was Olaf’s ’70 Boss 302, and ’67 fastback with a 427 Cobra Jet, and Steve Corbin’s Blue Maverick.

These are some real nice cars. By now you all know who Olaf is, but if you don’t remember Steve is a friend of Olaf’s and someone that also spent some time under the hood of Big Secz. I posted a picture of Steve’s ’68 Shelby GT 500 a while back. These are some excellent examples of wonderfully restored cars.

Thanks again, Chuck for giving me permission to use the photos.

Trial Separation

2009-07-31T23:05:00.001-04:00

Well today I had Big Secz towed to Olaf’s shop. He’s going to keep her for a couple weeks. Partly because I’m going on vacation on August 10th and won’t be back until the 14th.

This morning I had planned on turning Big Secz around, backing her into my parking space, so that way she could be pulled up onto the tow truck. She started right up but when I put her in reverse she died and I couldn’t get her started back up after that.

Again I have to give a huge kudos to AAA and Eddie’s Towing and Recovery. I called AAA and requested a flatbed and there was no hassle at all, the only thing was since it wasn’t an emergency there was a 45 minute wait time for a truck, no big deal. About 10 minutes later Eddie’s called to let me know that their roll-back was tied up and that it would be another 30 to 40 minutes before anyone could get to me, again no big deal. I was just glad someone had the courtesy to call me.

The driver showed up what seemed like only 20 minutes later. The driver was great. He was telling me how he was going to pull her on the bed then he stopped and said, “You know I’m going to have to take a picture of this right?” I thought he was being smart so I asked, “Are you a Chevy guy?” As he pulled her up on his trailer, he said, “Yeah, but this car is bad ass.”

Now I’m not paid to endorse AAA, however if they wish to give me and endorsement deal I am more than open to the concept, but every time I have dealt with them I have received the best customer service and their contracted drivers have been great.

So as it stands now, Olaf is going to fiddle with Big Secz for a couple weeks and I’m going to go on vacation and try to forget about her for a little bit. Assuming he can get her right and it isn’t anything too costly or devastating, like a complete engine rebuild, I may opt to go ahead with a front disc brake conversion and suspension upgrade. But we shall see what the next couple weeks bring.

Rocky Relationship

2009-07-25T12:22:00.001-04:00

After the events of last week with the sticky throttle issue I had just about had all I can take. I battled with myself this past week contemplating over whether to sell or keep the car. I know what you’re thinking, “Didn’t he know that owner and old car would be a lot of work?” and yes I did know. Contemplating on selling the car was not necessarily because of all the work that is involved and more due to safety reasons.

I had my seven year old daughter in the car with me when the throttle stuck and it scared her half to death. I have to admit I was a little shaken up at first too, and her screaming in fear next to me didn’t help the matter. I can handle the occasional breakdowns hear and there, it’s losing the feeling of safety that is a hard pill to swallow. I have lost all trust in the car and now I will slowly have to try and build that trust again.

Just like being in a bad relationship, I didn’t even want to look at her for a few days. I left the cover on her and ignored the fact that she was even there. Then Wednesday evening I went out and pulled the cover off of her and instantly fell in love with her all over again. Then I decided that I wouldn’t sell her, I was over reacting a bit. I just need to get her issues sorted out.

I spoke to another friend of mine and told him what was going on even after I had changed the throttle cable. He came by and took a look at her for a bit. After some WD40 on the carburetor cam the throttle linkage was working beautifully. We then decided that we should take the chance and go for a test drive.

She ran really well for the test drive. The throttle wasn’t sticking and there was no hesitation when you pressed the accelerator. Then after we got back to my house and parked her, I pressed the throttle and she died. Go figure.

I started her backup and then we noticed a tapping sound coming from the motor. It appears that I now have a rocker or two tapping. So that was the end of my driving for that day.

Then this morning I decided to take her out for a quick spin and record the whole thing. So here’s what you’ll see.

Cold Start
I first started the car and she wasn’t running right. She sputtered when I pressed the accelerator.

Test Drive
During the test drive there is a slight hesitation in the accelerator. Notice too in the beginning of the video. You’ll actually hear me say, “Hmmm”, the car almost stalled.

Idle
Here toward the end of the video you can notice the tapping sound starting. Me saying, “What’s up”, is because one of my neighbors came up to take a look at what I was doing.

Tapping Sound
This video you can really start to hear the tapping sound. It seems louder toward the back of the valve cover.

Thank God for AAA

2009-07-19T11:28:00.004-04:00

Comedian Dane Cook posted the following on Twitter: “Just found an old pair of jeans. 40 bucks in one pocket and a 68 dollar unpaid parking ticket in another. Thanks universe!”

Let’s just say the universe thoroughly kicked my butt this weekend. It started on Friday evening. I had received my new throttle cable and cable bracket from Mustangs Unlimited. Thinking that it shouldn't be that difficult of a job and the weather was nice Friday night, I decided to go ahead and tackle replacing the cable.

After removing the dash from the car and squeezing my arm in spaces so tight nearly cutting off circulation, it became literally painfully obvious that the people at Ford never thought about anyone having to replace a throttle cable. In a last minute act of desperation I ended up cutting the cable at the firewall and taking a drill and drilling out the black plastic clip in order to remove the old cable. This actually worked out really well and only took a few minutes. Of course I had already spent hours struggling trying to remove it from inside the car. So I hooked up the new cable and bracket only to discover that the new bracket doesn’t work. It stretches the cable too far, so ended my Friday night.

Saturday was my youngest daughter’s birthday and we did the whole cookout thing earlier in the evening. That night after the party was over I ran to the auto parts store and picked up a new bracket and some odds and ends and fixed the cable issue. Then when I got in the car to test it to be sure, the pedal fell off, so ended my Saturday night.

Sunday morning, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and the universe would be waiting to kick me in the rear one more time. I fixed the pedal and was ready to go out for a spin. My older daughter wanted to go for a ride. Thinking that because I don’t quite trust that she’s fixed at this point I would stick to less traveled back roads for a this test drive, smart move on my part.

I noticed that if I mashed the accelerator there was a slight hesitation. So I played with the pedal a little bit trying to get a feel for what was going on and then it happened, the accelerator got stuck WIDE OPEN. Not knowing what to do and my daughter scared to death I managed to get her over to the side of the road, tires smoking. I shut her off and two consecutive loud BANGS. She backfired. I popped the hood and there was coolant everywhere.

I checked the throttle cable and linkage and all seemed to be in working order. But when I start her up it’s as if I have the gas pedal mashed to the floor. My assumption is it’s a carb issue. Anyway, thank God I was in really the ideal place to break down, if there ever is such a thing. Traffic wasn’t too heavy and I wasn’t far from a housing development. A passerby on a bike stopped and helped me push her into the development, where I sat while I waited for AAA.

Let me say, AAA is money well spent. I had just become a member a week ago, perfect timing. I called, and customer service was real nice, they let me request a flatbed with no hassle, and because I had my daughter with me and they could hear traffic in the background they put the call in as an emergency. I had a tow truck in about 15 minutes.

The tow driver, Jake, from Eddies Towing and Recovery was great. He took extra care to make sure he didn’t damage any part of my car and walked me through what he was doing. He told me that I needed to pay attention so that if I ever had to get towed again I could tell the next driver how to do it.

So now, Big Secz sits. What’s next? I have no idea…

A Color That Grabs You

2009-07-15T10:08:00.007-04:00

Whether at a car show, crusie-in, or gas station, wherever I go people comment on the color of Big Secz. The overwhelming majority of the people I run into ask me if it’s a custom color. It is in fact a production color called, Grabber Blue. With Big Secz out of commission for a little bit and a lack of inspiration; I decided to take this opportunity to provide a little history lesson on the Ford production color Grabber Blue.

Originally introduced in 1969, the Grabber color line was only available on the ’69 Shelby GT 350 and GT 500 Mustangs. There were four colors available in the Grabber paint line, Grabber Green, Grabber Orange, Grabber Yellow, and Grabber Blue.

1970 would be the first year that the Grabber paint line would be available for standard production Mustangs; however out of the four colors Grabber Yellow was only available on remaining Shelby GT 350 and GT 500 models that were carried over from ’69 to ‘70. The remaining three Grabber colors were popular on the Mach 1, Boss 302, and Boss 429 sport models. Grabber Yellow would be available under the moniker Competition Yellow on standard Mustangs for 1970, this was the same paint as Grabber Yellow.

Due to the popularity in the Grabber color line, in 1971 Competition Yellow from the previous year would be renamed Grabber Yellow. The Grabber line also saw another change in the Grabber line, Grabber Orange would be replaced with Grabber Lime.

Then in 1972 all the Grabber colors were dropped except for Grabber Blue.

In 1973 there were no Grabber colors available for the Mustangs and in 1974 Light Grabber Blue was introduced for one year only.

The Grabber line of colors would remain extinct from production until in 2007 Grabber Orange was reintroduced and was available on Mustangs from 2007-2009. The newly designed 2010 Mustang will replace Grabber Orange with Grabber Blue.

The Grabber color line was also available for the Grabber sport model of the Maverick. Grabber blue was available on these models from 1970-1971. The Mercury line used Grabber Blue under the sales name of Competition Blue. From 1973-1974 Mercury offered the color Bright Light Blue with the sales name Light Grabber Blue.

An Early End to Summer

2009-07-11T19:21:00.010-04:00

My relationship with Big Secz has been a roller coaster ride. The highs being on nice sunny days riding around with the top down, and the lows, well the lows are examples of what happened last night. It seems like as of lately she’s made up her mind not to cooperate.

With a laundry list of issues that need to be addressed I have made the decision to park her for the rest of the summer. Next month I’ll be putting her away in my parent’s garage, assuming I can get her there with no issues. I’ll take the time between now and next Spring to chip away at my “honey do list” such as, brakes, suspension, and carb issues.

It’s upsetting to say the least, but alas I’m learning that this is what it means to own these types of cars. It takes a lot of time, devotion, money, and love to keep these cars on the road. Then just when you think you’ve given all you can they demand more.

Changing gears for a moment. Last night was the cruise-in at Virginia BBQ and there was a great turn out, over 80 cars. The variety of vehicles was spectacular. There were some that really stuck out.

Steve Corbin was in attendance with his ’68 Shelby GT500 that I had mentioned in a previous post. What a beautiful car. Everything about his car is spot on. There isn’t one detail that has been overlooked. It’s exactly what you would expect in a $100k car.

Another car that deserves mentioning is a lowered and chopped Chevy that I saw. This car was amazing. Everything had been shaved from the exterior, no door handles, no emblems, and the black paint highlighted the lines of the car.

Finally the Karb Kings were in attendance. This group would be the equivalent to the greasers or outlaws from the ‘60s. Their cars are a style all their own, from their trademark flat black paint, stickers all over, and other oddities, these cars really are an acquired taste.

Dubbed “Rat Rods” these cars will never win any beauty contests with their intended rough looks, function takes precedence over aesthetics. But nevertheless they are beautiful works of art in their own right. One interesting touch that I saw was one of them used a Monster soft drink can as an overflow for their radiator.

With that so ends my summer of cruise-ins and car shows. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Has she left you stranded yet?

2009-07-10T22:13:00.003-04:00

A week ago when Steve Corbin was working on my Mustang he asked me, “Has she left you stranded yet?” My answer was “No, not yet.” He looked at me and said, “She will, it’s just a matter of when and where.”

Well tonight it just about happened. After enjoying the Friday night cruise-in at Virginia BBQ in Fredericksburg, I was heading home. I decided to take Rte. 1 since it was such a nice night and traffic was minimal.

I was sitting at a light behind two cars waiting to make my left off of Garrisonville Road onto Mine road when it happened. I pressed the accelerator and she died. I put it in park and attempted to work the accelerator pedal to try and get her started. It wasn’t happening. I noticed that the accelerator pedal didn’t feel right. There was resistance when I pressed the pedal and it wasn’t bouncing back.

So, totally embarrassed at this point, I pop the hood. I have no idea why, like you can really see anything at 9:30 at night under an unlit hood. As people honked and yelled remarks like, “Fords suck!”, and “Get a Chevy!” My immediate observation noticed that nothing was poring out of the radiator and there was no smoke coming from anywhere. I take a glance behind me and see there are cars lined up at this point.

Then I thought, well the accelerator pedal didn’t feel right. So I put my fingers on the accelerator cable at the carb and noticed it was stuck. A quick jiggle and it was free. I jumped behind the wheel and she was struggling to start. I was living the scene from my favorite movie of all time, “Gone in 60 Seconds”, to help with the visual I’ve included a video of that scene.

For that moment I was Memphis Raines sitting in Eleanor saying, “No, no, no, don’t do this, don’t, don’t start with me. No, no, start, start, start, c’mon, c’mon. I need you Big Secz, I need you now, now.”

Then just like in the movie she fired up. The only difference, other than the fact I’m not Nicholas Cage, I wasn’t in Eleanor, and I wasn’t being chased by the cops was when I looked up the light had turned red again. As I sat at the light waiting for the green arrow I was saying a silent prayer that she’d go and we wouldn’t have a repeat. She did and I managed to make it home. So tomorrow it looks like I’ll be rooting around under the hood and seeing if anything looks out of the ordinary. Wish me luck.

I’ll Let Him Explain

2009-07-10T11:46:00.007-04:00

A cousin of mine, Rob, is as passionate and enthusiastic about motorcycles as I am about classic cars. His current ride is a Harley Davidson Street Bob. Rob has started a blog of his own “I’ll try to explain…” which is a great look into the motorcycle culture.

Recently, Rob has enrolled in a program at the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute (MMI) in Orlando studying to be a technician. His blog offers a great insight as to the work that is involved in following this career path. Additionally he offers explanations and insight into the world of motorcycle enthusiasts.

Essentially, Rob’s blog is the two-wheeled equivalent to mine, and may even be better. I wanted to highlight Rob’s blog for different reasons. At one point I did not fully understand the stigma surrounding motorcycles, and still have a hard time wrapping my head around certain aspects; such as the whole riding with no helmet thing. Additionally it is blogs like his, mine, and so many others that play an important role in keeping this passion going.

Even though I may be ignorant to a lot of what it means to be “biker”, I love looking at bikes. Just as my artistic background allows me to appreciate car design, it is the same for motorcycles. I clearly have a type of bike that I like and type that I don’t. This love for motorcycle design at one point had me believing that I wanted a motorcycle and like so many bikers, I had my dream bike picked out. It was the Prodigy by Paul Yaffe.

Alas that dream came to a screeching halt one afternoon when my wife saw me reading the motorcycle manual from DMV. With a response of, “You can get a motorcycle license, but you’re not getting a motorcycle.” I knew that this was one battle that may not be worth fighting. After discussing her concerns behind motorcycles, we settled on a compromise of a car. This was fine because I have always been a fan of old muscle cars and am just as satisfied with my Mustang as I would be with a bike. To be completely honest bikes scare me to a certain extent. I’m not so much worried about what I may do but what other drivers may do. Nevertheless I still have a respect and appreciation for motorcycles and the culture.

It doesn’t matter if you prefer two wheels or four, we all have something in common. That is our love for our pieces of automotive machinery. Whether you’re a biker or car enthusiast, both can appreciate the time, money, and devotion it takes to participate in the hobby.

Mustang with a Bad Horseshoe

2009-07-03T22:25:00.002-04:00

I took Big Secz out this past Thursday night to Fredericksburg to meet up with some friends. She ran great and the temp stayed right where it should. Then sitting in traffic on 95 someone pulled up next to me and informed me that my back tire was wobbling. My first thought was, "What now?" After the evening was over I took it easy on my way home. I could just see me losing a tire on 95. It'd be my luck.

Friday morning I pulled out the jack and lifted Big Secz's rear in the air. My first move was to try and see if the rear tire had any play in it by trying to jiggle it. It didn't, it was tight, which is good news. My next thought is, "well it's either the lug nuts are loose or the tire isn't balanced". So I tried the obvious, tightening the lug nuts. Now this isn't as simple as pulling out your average tire iron. Not with Foose wheels. This requires me to use my 19mm deep well socket, a ½" drive ratchet and an extension.

All five lugs of the rear driver's side tire needed to be tightened down. As I worked my way around it was the same for all of the tires. Then I got to the rear passenger tire and the first lug wasn't even finger tight. I'm real lucky, and hopefully I haven't done any serious damage. I took my oldest daughter out for a spin afterward and she drove fine so I think I'm okay (fingers crossed).

So I included some pictures of my motor that Olaf took while he was installing the new intake and carb. One picture includes the matching VIN number proving that it's the original block. That was a nice find.

Michael J. Norman
www.mjnorman.com

Big Secz

Thank you for the memories...

3rd Annual KWB Show and Shine

NCRMC Show

Let the Fun Begin

The Stampede

On the Road Again!

Murphy’s Law

Moving Along

The Backyard Mechanic....Literally

God Must Be a Car Fan

Meet Christine!!!!

Not What I Imagined

Rolling Furniture

Can You Spot the Not

Charity Poker Run

The Season Begins

The Endless Winter

It could have been worse...I guess....

You have got to be kidding me!!!!!

The All New BDL

Heart Transplant

Winds of Change

Till Death Do We Part…

If it were a real horse…I’d shoot it…

On the Road Again

The Happy Dance

4 Weeks and Counting

3 Weeks and Counting

Trial Separation

Rocky Relationship

Thank God for AAA

A Color That Grabs You

An Early End to Summer

Has she left you stranded yet?

I’ll Let Him Explain

Mustang with a Bad Horseshoe

Timing is Everything

The Grand Total

Good News/Bad News

Mustang Videos

The Frustration of Old Cars

The Saleen Experience

Big Secz Will Rise Again

Big Secz is out of Commission

Swapin' Scoops

Time Machines

My Apology

Daddy/Daughter Day

Stafford Calssics 3rd Annual Show

Bruster's Cruise

What rain?

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

Field of Wheels Car and Craft Show

Field of Wheels Car and Craft Festival

Inaugural Country Roads Rally

SkillsUSA Car Show

April 4th Show