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Celebrating the 50th birthday of my mustang today. I purchased it over 10 years ago from Oregon and shipped it to Australia where it’s had a well deserved restoration. I hope I look this good when I turn 50 in a couple of years lol.

Boy, things have changed. I've pretty much gone into the "I'm going to do this the best I can" mode. This could be the last major project car I can do, I am not getting any younger or in better health. I really wanted to do this with a 69 Mustang Coupe, but odds are that will never happen. I ended up scrapping the 89 Mustang. Decided that since ultimately I want a big V8 I might as well just do it now. So I bought an 89 5.8/351W from a Ford Van. Seller had already stripped the van, was going to use the engine in a project but is moving and can't store it right now. Came with a C6 that I was going to use, but after hearing about how bad it would fit and again realizing it wasn't what I wanted, I am going to sell it, along with the EFI (including the computer and harness) and am looking at a T5. I figure that an 89 shouldn't be too hard on a T5. Eventually I will need to go with a TKO of some sort, but I'll wait until I really get into the engine. I have bought a Quicktime Mustang II bellhousing that will fit the T5 and a TKO down the road. For now I am just going to use a used 4bbl Edelbrock carb I have for the Ranchero. Bought an Weiand Stealth intake already. Also a Summit HEI distributor for it. I wanted to avoid having to use a box with the ignition, hence the HEI for now, but here I had to compromise on cost. We'll see if that comes back to bite me later. Got the largest aluminum radiator that Speedway makes. Might have overdone that, bought it without measuring, but since I don't have to worry about fitting it into the radiator support it won't be a big deal. Oh, I bought rear 5x4.5 rear axles from a place called Dutchman Axles. These are made for the Mustang II rear end. Speedway still has the front brake kit on back order. But I went ahead and got a new master cylinder for 4 wheel disk brakes, and two proportioning valves. One that has the distribution block, brake light switch, etc, and one that is just a valve that can be turned to zero if needed, as I have heard that sometimes the other prop valves don't have enough adjustment. Going to be using 2002 Crown Vic rear disk brakes. Was for the Ranchero, but I can always get another set later. Oh, I did something I thought I would never do. I bought a 21 ckt Painless universal wiring kit. Decided that it would be easier to start with that than to try to piece together something, especially at the price of just the fuse boxes. I will be heavily modifying it though. The fuse box is NOT going under the dash! But it is a good starting point. And I won't have to worry about 40 year old wiring. And it was on sale. Summit and Speedway must be loving me right now. I've spent like $3500 in the last month and a half. Need to get a trans so I can get the engine mounted properly. Need to get the rear axles bushings pressed on, but I need to dig out the instructions for the CV brakes to see what else needs to be done at a machine shop. Taking today (thursday) and tomorrow off from work, was hoping to work on the Pinto, but I have to work on our Subaru instead. So if nothing else, I am taking Jan 4 thru 11 (I think) off to concentrate on the Pinto. Still facing the March deadline. But if I get real progress made, I think we can renegotiate that a bit. Ok, probably way more than anyone here cares about. So I will stop here for now. Thanks, Russ

happy birthday, great looking 50 yo.

Hard to believe I'm 13 years older that my damn car!

Happy birthday! Hard to believe these cars are half a century old!

Happy Birthday.

Those look real nice, and comfortable! Hmm... Just what I need, another project changing something that doesn't need fixed.