A Site about Travis Smith
	The Mustang Story... When I started out, I wasn't planning on owning a Mustang. I've always been a Chevy guy, so owning a Ford wasn't the idea. I started out dreaming of owning a Corvette. My father had restored a 58-vette while I was growing up and I loved the attention it got cruising around. I also had a need for speed. That got me to start looking at the 68-72 vettes. These are the High Horsepower years. They also had a lot of convertibles in this range. These are still reasonably priced ($12k - $18k) and are going up in value. The problem is that these are old cars. If you play hard with them, they'll break and finding replacement parts can get expensive. Plus if you want the car to remain valuable, it should stay as original as possible, so you shouldn't soup it up. Now I'm wonder if I want something more like a street rod, where I could make any modification I wanted. At this point a friend of mine suggested I do a kit car. I'm thinking take a LeBaron and put body panels on it. But he talks about the Cobra kit cars. They're very fast, high horsepower, and some are reasonably priced. He talked about Factory Five 's kit that was under $10k at the time. You buy the kit and an 87-93 Mustang GT and you have everything you need. except for tools, garage space, time, and a good knowledge of cars. Now I'm looking at building a car. It seems like a lot of work, and I'm sure it is, but there are directions and a lot of guys who've done it before. I think I'm fairly smart and relatively patient, so why couldn't I do it. Just because I haven't done much work on cars since my Chevy Citation in High School, doesn't mean I forgot it all. We already needed a new garage. Our 1 and a half car garage was barely big enough for the 95 Chevy Monte Carlo I drove. So if I'm going to build a garage, I'm going to do it right. A small three car would be the biggest I could put on our lot and still meet city code, so I did it. The garage wasn't to be built until the spring, but in the meantime I started looking for a donor Mustang for the kit. I found what sounded like a great deal through TraderOnline that was in Iowa. For $2900 they had a '90 with a rear hit, standard, and 30k miles. So I thought. I showed the car (on the internet) to my wife, and she thought I should get it. And why not, it sounds great, and if your wife says you should get something, you don't pass it up. So on that impulse we drove the 700 miles one way Friday night to Iowa. We spend the night in Illinois and got to the dealer about 11 AM on Saturday. It was a little dark in the garage, but at least in was inside in January. It was dented pretty well in the left rear, but the rear end seemed intact and that's all I needed. The guy started it with a jump and revved it up pretty good, and then it idled well while I looked it over. I said, "We'll take it." And we worked out that it would be delivered to Ohio for $3100 When I got to work on Monday, I told one of my buddies about the weekend adventure. He suggested I run the VIN through CarFax , since he had a link to use it free, so I agreed. The report came back as having several Illinois emissions checks and the last one was at 93,000 miles. The car's odometer had rolled over and it had 130k miles!!! I called the dealer, and he said that the car couldn't have that many on it, the report must be wrong. He had bought it at an insurance auction and they sold it with 30k on it. I found the insurance company through the Internet and got the guy who handled the claim. He said that their customer hit the Mustang, so they took the owner's word for it that it had 30k miles on it. What a deal for the Mustang owner, he probably got $10k for a car worth $5k. I called the car dealer back and told him I was sure the car had 130k on it and that I was stopping payment on the check. I told him I still thought the car would be useful, but I would only pay $2,000 for it. He agreed, and the car was delivered a week later. I found a convertible on the MPS page that they were selling for $2800. It had tree fall on it, so that mean no major structural damage, but a lot of body damage. The top had been up at the time, so the top frame, driver's door, glass, and quarter glass where all messed up. The hood and right fender where bent up too. Since MPS is near my in-law's place in Georgia it might be easy to pick this up on a visit down there. I talked to the guy form MPS and bought the car over the phone for $3,200 since they added a used top frame and new canvas. We bought a hitch and rented a trailer from U-Haul, and then we were off to pick it up over Easter weekend. We picked up the car the day after we got to Georgia; it was about 2 hours from my in-laws. They gave us the new canvas in a box and the frame was pulled off some other car while we waited. The used top had white canvas on it wasn't in too bad of shape except for a couple wholes in the back. The weather at this time of year could be nasty and my wife wanted to fill the interior with her personal things that where still down there, so the top needed to be installed. Lucky, my brother in-law was huge help in getting the job done in the limited time we had down there. Now we had some covering, except for the driver's side glass. While working on this I found three small surprises. First the battery wouldn't hold a charge. After $50 at AutoZone, it was fixed. Second the radiator was leaking; it must have been a tree branch. And third was the power steering was out. The battery was the only thing I needed to get in on and off the trailer, so that was enough for now. If I had to do it over again, I hope I'd be patience and pay somebody else to haul it back. I've found places on the Internet that will haul a car for $400. Plus the plastic tarp and bungee cords we used did more harm that good. I found the convertible door and quarter glass I needed on a junkyard search site. (It used to be free, but now they charge $5 a search. I'm not using them anymore.) The door and glass were off a gray 91 LX, it was the closest one I cold find and it was 200 miles away. I should have waited and tried to find an 88 or 89 GT. The 91 LX door had a different wiring harness and the LX's side molding doesn't match. I had to completely replace the wiring in the door and I still haven't replaced the side molding on that door. Oh well, live and learn. If your going to fix up a 12-year-old car, make sure it's from the south. This one was from South Carolina and I didn't have to break a single bolt on it to take it apart. I can't say the same for the Red 90 GT I first bought. It was from Illinois and had its share of rust. I made most of the repair right in my driveway. I hope I didn't tick off the neighbor's. Once I had it pieced together, I made an appointment with the DMV to inspected to get a rebuilt title on it. I'm glad they let you drive it to the inspection. It happened to be a beautiful day to cruise with the top down. I'm sure a lot of people saw the multicolor Mustang and thought "What a P.O.S.!", but I didn't care. It might not look great, but it could fly. Now that I had plates on the car, I could really drive it. The new stress on the car made some of the seals and hoses give out. I had to replace the water pump, since it was leaking around the pulley. The high-pressure power steering hose gave out since I replaced the cap to keep fluid in it. This is a P.I.T.A. to replace. It takes sheer luck to the threads started on the lower end. Once I had some money together for paint I started shopping around. It was pretty discouraging. Most of the shops I talked to wanted $2,500 to $3,000 to paint it. I didn't want to more on paint than I did on the entire car! I had heard about the reputation of Earl Schieb before, so I was worried about the quality, but I just want a one-color car. I gave them a shot. They filled in two dents and painted it with three coats of paint and one coat of clear for $500. At this price, I could have it repainted 4 or 5 more times before I'd have what the other places wanted. It turned out pretty good. For the price difference, I would do it again. I had it painted "Sunshine Yellow", which I like to rename it to "Sun-Fire Yellow". It sounds cooler that way. A local auto upholstery put on the new black canvas, and now it's got the bumble bee look. I added some black Mustang lettering to continue the Black and Yellow theme. I found some used pony wheels & tires on the Corral.Net web site. (Thanks Ryan!) They really look sharp on the car. It worked out really well. I found a guy near Dayton OH that needed my extra bumper cover and would buy it for $100, if I meet him half way. I found the nearest pony wheels in Detriot, about 3 hours away. I told the bumper guy I'd meet him near Toledo OH and I'd try to get the wheels while I was out there. I couldn't get a hold of the wheel guy in time, but luckly he called my cell phone just as my wife and I started back from Toledo. So a quick detour to Detriot and I had my wheels for $350 + gas. (Minus $100 for the sold part, $250 + gas.) I've got the new top & wheels in this picture. I think it looks about finished on the exterior now. These new tires seem to stick really good. At least they don't spin as easy as the old ones. I can't wait to try them on the autocross course in the spring. You'll also notice the black Mustang GT letter I added. These look really good with the black top.
Travis Smith - Copyright 2005

A Site about Travis Smith

The Mustang Story...

When I started out, I wasn't planning on owning a Mustang. I've always been a Chevy guy, so owning a Ford wasn't the idea.

I started out dreaming of owning a Corvette. My father had restored a 58-vette while I was growing up and I loved the attention it got cruising around. I also had a need for speed. That got me to start looking at the 68-72 vettes. These are the High Horsepower years. They also had a lot of convertibles in this range. These are still reasonably priced ($12k - $18k) and are going up in value. The problem is that these are old cars. If you play hard with them, they'll break and finding replacement parts can get expensive. Plus if you want the car to remain valuable, it should stay as original as possible, so you shouldn't soup it up. Now I'm wonder if I want something more like a street rod, where I could make any modification I wanted.

At this point a friend of mine suggested I do a kit car. I'm thinking take a LeBaron and put body panels on it. But he talks about the Cobra kit cars. They're very fast, high horsepower, and some are reasonably priced. He talked about Factory Five 's kit that was under $10k at the time. You buy the kit and an 87-93 Mustang GT and you have everything you need. except for tools, garage space, time, and a good knowledge of cars.

Now I'm looking at building a car. It seems like a lot of work, and I'm sure it is, but there are directions and a lot of guys who've done it before. I think I'm fairly smart and relatively patient, so why couldn't I do it. Just because I haven't done much work on cars since my Chevy Citation in High School, doesn't mean I forgot it all.

We already needed a new garage. Our 1 and a half car garage was barely big enough for the 95 Chevy Monte Carlo I drove. So if I'm going to build a garage, I'm going to do it right. A small three car would be the biggest I could put on our lot and still meet city code, so I did it.

The garage wasn't to be built until the spring, but in the meantime I started looking for a donor Mustang for the kit. I found what sounded like a great deal through TraderOnline that was in Iowa. For $2900 they had a '90 with a rear hit, standard, and 30k miles. So I thought.

I showed the car (on the internet) to my wife, and she thought I should get it. And why not, it sounds great, and if your wife says you should get something, you don't pass it up. So on that impulse we drove the 700 miles one way Friday night to Iowa. We spend the night in Illinois and got to the dealer about 11 AM on Saturday. It was a little dark in the garage, but at least in was inside in January. It was dented pretty well in the left rear, but the rear end seemed intact and that's all I needed. The guy started it with a jump and revved it up pretty good, and then it idled well while I looked it over. I said, "We'll take it." And we worked out that it would be delivered to Ohio for $3100

When I got to work on Monday, I told one of my buddies about the weekend adventure. He suggested I run the VIN through CarFax , since he had a link to use it free, so I agreed. The report came back as having several Illinois emissions checks and the last one was at 93,000 miles. The car's odometer had rolled over and it had 130k miles!!! I called the dealer, and he said that the car couldn't have that many on it, the report must be wrong. He had bought it at an insurance auction and they sold it with 30k on it. I found the insurance company through the Internet and got the guy who handled the claim. He said that their customer hit the Mustang, so they took the owner's word for it that it had 30k miles on it. What a deal for the Mustang owner, he probably got $10k for a car worth $5k. I called the car dealer back and told him I was sure the car had 130k on it and that I was stopping payment on the check. I told him I still thought the car would be useful, but I would only pay $2,000 for it. He agreed, and the car was delivered a week later.

I found a convertible on the MPS page that they were selling for $2800. It had tree fall on it, so that mean no major structural damage, but a lot of body damage. The top had been up at the time, so the top frame, driver's door, glass, and quarter glass where all messed up. The hood and right fender where bent up too. Since MPS is near my in-law's place in Georgia it might be easy to pick this up on a visit down there. I talked to the guy form MPS and bought the car over the phone for $3,200 since they added a used top frame and new canvas. We bought a hitch and rented a trailer from U-Haul, and then we were off to pick it up over Easter weekend.

We picked up the car the day after we got to Georgia; it was about 2 hours from my in-laws. They gave us the new canvas in a box and the frame was pulled off some other car while we waited. The used top had white canvas on it wasn't in too bad of shape except for a couple wholes in the back. The weather at this time of year could be nasty and my wife wanted to fill the interior with her personal things that where still down there, so the top needed to be installed. Lucky, my brother in-law was huge help in getting the job done in the limited time we had down there. Now we had some covering, except for the driver's side glass.

While working on this I found three small surprises. First the battery wouldn't hold a charge. After $50 at AutoZone, it was fixed. Second the radiator was leaking; it must have been a tree branch. And third was the power steering was out. The battery was the only thing I needed to get in on and off the trailer, so that was enough for now.

If I had to do it over again, I hope I'd be patience and pay somebody else to haul it back. I've found places on the Internet that will haul a car for $400. Plus the plastic tarp and bungee cords we used did more harm that good.

I found the convertible door and quarter glass I needed on a junkyard search site. (It used to be free, but now they charge $5 a search. I'm not using them anymore.) The door and glass were off a gray 91 LX, it was the closest one I cold find and it was 200 miles away. I should have waited and tried to find an 88 or 89 GT. The 91 LX door had a different wiring harness and the LX's side molding doesn't match. I had to completely replace the wiring in the door and I still haven't replaced the side molding on that door. Oh well, live and learn.

If your going to fix up a 12-year-old car, make sure it's from the south. This one was from South Carolina and I didn't have to break a single bolt on it to take it apart. I can't say the same for the Red 90 GT I first bought. It was from Illinois and had its share of rust.

I made most of the repair right in my driveway. I hope I didn't tick off the neighbor's. Once I had it pieced together, I made an appointment with the DMV to inspected to get a rebuilt title on it. I'm glad they let you drive it to the inspection. It happened to be a beautiful day to cruise with the top down. I'm sure a lot of people saw the multicolor Mustang and thought "What a P.O.S.!", but I didn't care. It might not look great, but it could fly.

Now that I had plates on the car, I could really drive it. The new stress on the car made some of the seals and hoses give out. I had to replace the water pump, since it was leaking around the pulley. The high-pressure power steering hose gave out since I replaced the cap to keep fluid in it. This is a P.I.T.A. to replace. It takes sheer luck to the threads started on the lower end.

Once I had some money together for paint I started shopping around. It was pretty discouraging. Most of the shops I talked to wanted $2,500 to $3,000 to paint it. I didn't want to more on paint than I did on the entire car! I had heard about the reputation of Earl Schieb before, so I was worried about the quality, but I just want a one-color car. I gave them a shot. They filled in two dents and painted it with three coats of paint and one coat of clear for $500. At this price, I could have it repainted 4 or 5 more times before I'd have what the other places wanted. It turned out pretty good. For the price difference, I would do it again. I had it painted "Sunshine Yellow", which I like to rename it to "Sun-Fire Yellow". It sounds cooler that way.

A local auto upholstery put on the new black canvas, and now it's got the bumble bee look. I added some black Mustang lettering to continue the Black and Yellow theme.

I found some used pony wheels & tires on the Corral.Net web site. (Thanks Ryan!) They really look sharp on the car.

It worked out really well. I found a guy near Dayton OH that needed my extra bumper cover and would buy it for $100, if I meet him half way. I found the nearest pony wheels in Detriot, about 3 hours away. I told the bumper guy I'd meet him near Toledo OH and I'd try to get the wheels while I was out there. I couldn't get a hold of the wheel guy in time, but luckly he called my cell phone just as my wife and I started back from Toledo. So a quick detour to Detriot and I had my wheels for $350 + gas. (Minus $100 for the sold part, $250 + gas.)

I've got the new top & wheels in this picture. I think it looks about finished on the exterior now. These new tires seem to stick really good. At least they don't spin as easy as the old ones. I can't wait to try them on the autocross course in the spring.

You'll also notice the black Mustang GT letter I added. These look really good with the black top.