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While I was in high school, i stumbled across a red 1969 Mustang Fastback for sale. The asking price was $6K and it was in pretty decent shape. The downside is that as a high school student I didn't have the $6K. But I was able to secure a personal loan from a family friend, with the agreement that I had to pay it off within 1 year. I worked my ass off that year and made the final payment just before the 1 year mark. Later that same year, I enlisted in the Marine Corps, and after several months of basic training and then technical training for my job within the military, I went home on leave and picked up the Mustang. I drove it to Virginia, and then several months later I crossed the country with it to San Diego, CA. I planned to be in San Diego for at least 3 years (I never left), so I decided to take the opportunity to go through the car, restoring and repairing what I could. Unfortunately, I bit off more than my wallet could handle at the time (hey, who hasn't with these things?), so the project ended up taking much longer than I had originally planned. So much that I eventually, and very reluctantly, decided to sell the car to an older gentlemen that was planning on finishing the restoration with his son. I have no idea what ever happened to that car, but I hope it's still on the road and not sitting in a junk yard somewhere. I always regretted selling that car, and over the years I'd looked casually at picking up another one but it never seemed like the right time. That is until last year, when I was window shopping online and found another red 1969 Mustang Fastback for just the right price. Not perfect, but not a bucket of junk either, which is exactly what I wanted. So after a few exchanges with the seller, I took a road trip to Vegas to see the car in person. I test drove it and it was like a freaking time machine. As soon as I sat behind the wheel I felt 18 again. I bought it on the spot. So that was a year ago, and I've been slowly going through the car making upgrades and improvements. I replaced the cooling system, swapped in a completed MSD system, and upgraded the stock dash instrument cluster with one from Dakota Digital. Then earlier this year I came across a local body shop that does absolutely amazing work (Sylvester's Customs). I drove out to see the owner and spent a few hours learning about his shop, his employees, and his process. At the end of the conversation he agreed to put my car on the waiting list and I couldn't be more excited! Now it seems that I'm all in on a restoration/rejuvenation. I'm not planning on going all original, since I like the idea of taking advantage of the 50 years of auto advancements since the car was launched, but I'm mostly keeping with the original look of the 69 Mach 1. I'll be using this thread to keep track of all the work that I do to the car over time. Right now I'm in the middle of swapping out the Ford 8inch rearend with a 9inch from Currie, and replacing the C4 with a Tremec TKX swap from SST. My original Mustang from high school: My new Mustang: