On the road again!

Home in our driveway

Well, the little Mustang is safely in her new home, which is our garage at home.
The morning after we painted her, we rolled her out on a cool early Sunday morning, took a deep breath, and pointed her to the house. It was only a mile and a half, but it was a long journey for Daniel and I. I had planned to bring it to the house for the day and just tinker and tune, but once we had it in the driveway Daniel asked me what reason did we have for taking it back to the shop. After all, it was registered, insured and, well, I could think of no reason. So....

Underlayment and carpet going in

This was one week before Daniel's prom, to which Daniel had set a goal of driving the Mustang. I asked him to commit to a week of hard work after school each day to get the interior installed and the car safe for driving his girlfriend, to which he agreed. And I have to say he came through. Every afternoon he came home ready to work.
The Wise One graciously allowed us all the time we needed in the evenings, so that by Thursday night things were looking pretty good.

Wrassling with the "molded" carpet

Then Daniel added a twist: could he drive it to school Friday morning? This was a moment that I had been looking forward to, but also dreading. All of our work, our mistakes, our learning curves, our sweat and pains came down to the moment when it was time to put it on the road. Thinking hard to come up with some reason not to, I could find no argument against, and said yes. I can tell you this was one nervous Dad all day Friday until he was safe at home again!
Of course, he was beaming after being the talk of campus that day, but that was what he had been looking forward to himself for a long time.
Saturday was spent with little details, tightening, shining and generally getting ready for prom. Just
like a doting mom with her daughter! It was all worth it, though, to see Daniel, all dressed up, slip behind the wheel and drive off into the setting sun to pick up his date.
The night brought one more check for Daniel's bucket list, as the prom was held inside the Daytona Speedway in the clubhouse. Each time we go to a swap meet at the track, Daniel has vowed to someday drive his own car through the famous tunnel into the infield. That night, dressed in a snappy black tux, his girlfriend seated next to him, he proudly cruised into the infield in the little Mustang.

Things are coming together

He had a chance to have fun with the sheriff's deputy who was keeping tabs on the kids. The deputy approached him as he parked and demanded to know who's car he was driving. At first he refused to believe it was Daniel's, but eventually he was convinced and gave him some nice compliments. I'm happy to see Daniel enjoy these accolades, because he really has
earned the right to them. From day one, I have said that if he wanted a car like this, he would have to earn it. And he has. As well as the compliments.

Time to enjoy the rewards!

We're far from done, but Daniel is driving it daily as we continue to tweak. There's the front end that is in bad need of alignment. There's still a good portion of the interior to install. We need to do some tuning on the motor. We have yet to wet sand and polish our paint job. And yesterday the passenger door suddenly decided it didn't want to open. Plenty of more posts to come, for sure!
Oh, and by the way, that's our car in the header now!