My Old Toys

This picture was taken near Watson Lake outside Prescott, Arizona just after moving there in 1981.	And by the way, the car still hauls! Check out the rear wheel speed.	Here I am at Phoenix Drag way in Whitman, Arizona putting a little heat into the slicks before making a blast down the quarter mile.
This was taken just after installing a new engine. And what an engine this was. 410 cubic inches of big block Ford. This is one fun, fast car...	428+ cubic inches of Cobra Jet power fitted with all the necessary good stuff to haul A$$!	This ''horse'' now resides in a garage at my brothers house in Indiana. Hopefully it'll get a much needed restoration someday soon.

These top pictures are all of my first Mustang, a 1969 mach 1 that I picked up for nearly nothing while attending college in Lima, Ohio. In fact, I traded a guy straight across for a car that I had purchased for only $700.00! The car originally came from Georgia and luckily never got driven in that God for saken winter weather. That was left to my second 1969 mach 1. The engine picture is of the monstrous 428 Cobra Jet that I installed. It was bored .30" over with 12.5:1 pistons, a radical Isky camshaft, ported and polished Cobra Jet heads with all Isky valve train components. As for the rest of it, a nice balance and blue print job on the lower end and topped off by a 427 low riser intake manifold with two 660 cfm Holley center squirter carburetors. Behind this engine, a 12" Zoom clutch & pressure plate mated to a Ford top loader that sent all that horsepower and torque back to a Ford 9" rear end that housed 5.14:1 gears. Trying to get all that power planted to the pavement was another story... If you're wondering about those non-factory stripes on my first mach 1, I was waiting until it got repainted instead of wasting my new set.

This is the only picture I have of my second mach 1. This car was quite a "dream machine" when I purchased it for an amazing $50.00. Granted, it looked NOTHING like it does in this picture and even if I had the "before" pictures I don't know if I could post them, lets just say it was in very, very sad shape. My brother-in-law put many hours and dollars into restoring this 351 Windsor powered Pony. It too was backed by a dependable Ford top loader four speed.

This truck, a 1978 F150 four wheel drive with a 400 cubic inch engine, Crane cam, Edelbrock intake with a Holley 650 cfm carburetor, crane camshaft and headers made all kinds of torque. Mated to a heavy duty C6 automatic transmission and sent that torque to Torsen differentials with 4:10/4:11 gears. The Torsen differentials are much the same as those used now day in 'Hummers'. These torque sensing differentials are a must for any serious four wheeler. I can't count the number of times they probably saved my hide. I traded my older brother the top Mustang straight across for this truck in 1983.

	All right, once you have a Mustang it gets not only into your blood but they find a special place in your heart. After having the truck for a couple of years my heart grew hungry again for another '69 mach 1. After searching frantically for months through Ad Kings, Auto Traders and newspapers I finally found one, so off to trading AGAIN! I found the blue mach 1 *(top)* in Phoenix and it was a done deal, I traded him straight across for my truck. This presidential blue 390 cubic inch beauty was so original all the way down to the sloppy Ford four speed shifter and Motorcraft four barrel carburetor that it was almost unbelievable! After finding out that this horse didn't come blue from the factory it got transformed into the candy apple red beauty as seen the blue.

Here's former means of transportation, a 1987 Ford E150, 351 HO Windsor with an RV cam, Edelbrock Performer intake manifold, Carter AFB four barrel carburetor and a K&N air filter. As for the exhausting all the burnt gasses, it's a two into one 3" tubing with a very low restriction catalytic converter and muffler. The C6 transmission has been gone through and includes a shift kit and RV torque converter. It has a five inch drop floor and a Ricon Uni-Lite W/C lift.

Here's my newest van, a 1996 Windstar that I purchased from a friend. It came with the 200 horse 3.8L V-6 and I changed out the factory air filter with an Accel Cool Blue air filter and a freed up the exhaust by having the factory mufflers trashed and one stainless steel free flowing muffler put in their place. The power difference is unbelievable and in our mountains, you need everything you can get! It has a 10" drop floor and kneels on the passenger side to aid in getting in. In the very near future if not by the time you read this it'll be swapped out with an air ride suspension so I can raise and lower the ride height along with lowing it even further to aid in getting in the van. For it being a "mini van", it's gets it's share of heads turned to check it out.

The 3.8/232 cubic inch engine is about to get a M112 (or M90 since I have both) supercharger installed on it. It's not that the 200 HP isn't enough but isn't more better? Once you have the adrenaline in your veins it NEVER goes away! Pictures will be posted as soon as my intake, engine computer and other parts get here.

UPDATE: 02/26/08
About to be installed is my new engine, a 3.8 liter supercharged, balanced, ported heads, roller cam, full roller rocker arms, higher lift cam and on and on. You can click here to see the new engine.