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The Story of Heidi
Author: Short Round (more...)
My name is Josh Walker and I am 17 and from Phoenix, AZ. Throughout
the course of my still short life I had always wanted a mustang
fastback. It wasnt until I was about 14 when i was introduced to a
1965 Shelby GT 350. Automatically falling in love with that car, I
knew that I had to have one. By the time i had turned 15 i was
fortunate enough to find a mustang fastback that would one day be my
very own GT 350. The history of this car dates back quite long way.
I am the third owner of it, however when i got it, it was not exactly
the best shape ever. It was originally a six cylinder car but the
guy had recently pulled the engine out for a V8 conversion and if
that was not bad enough, it was also Spring Time Yellow. By far the
best color ever put on a mustang! Soon after bringing my new car
home, i began the long process of sanding. Every young boy's dream
to rush home from school every day and spend long hours in the garage
sanding your dream car. While still in the sanding process, it came
about the time to find an engine and the whole nine yards I would
need to make the car a V8. Luckily we were able to find a 64 1/2
mustang that had been wrecked and the engine and most of the
suspension parts were still in working order. The engine that was
put into my car was 260 with a C4 automatic. After about another
month the life long dream of hearing my car run for the first time
came along. Starting the car with the open Tri-Y headers is enough to
scare a young guy like myself who had never really heard a muscle car
run. From that point on i fell in love with my car. Then the
frustration of the restoration came into play. The body work. The
roof of this fastback looked as though some one had simply jumped
upon the roof of the car about 150 times. Other then the roof, the
car was very straight for being nearly 30 years old. Skipping along
to the paint where I chose the color combination of wimbeldon white
and a dark blue metallic. Once the car had come back from paint, I
had to come up with a name. The name that stuck out in my mind was
Heidi, the name stuck and to the day remains. And then it happened
about six or seven months after the paint job. I had gotten into a
little bit of a fender bender. Bad enough to make me cringe to see my
beautiful car and the hard work some what slip down the drain. The
accident only ruined the driver's side head lamp bucket, the stone
deflectorm the grille, the lower valance, and most of all the
fender. The engine however, untouched. Lucky me. After about two
thousand dollars my car was back again. This time i had thrown on a
3" fiberglass cowl hood and the front racing apron that uses the
bumper. Finally time passed and the automatic was no longer enough
excitement to keep me going. So when we had gotten ahold of a 4
speed for my car only to realize that a T10 out of a '66 mustang will
not bolt onto the early production 260s because of a different bell
housing used. This would cause a problem. Two transmissions on the
ground and not wanting the automatic back in it. Fortunately enough i
had a long term process of building a 289 engine that had been
stroked over to 308 cubic inches. This long term process became a
process that would have the engine built in less than a month.
Stripping down the engine completely and rebuilding it completely was
a great learn experience and gave me a better understanding of the
car i drive every day. Finally the day when this engine would run.
I thought the first engine scared all the life out of me, and then i
heard this one and it was just true love in the making. With a four
speed and the 308 engine, i felt like i was on top of the world. To
Top of my GT 350 clone i purchased the cobra side exhaust from Tony
Branda which allows the car to be heard just about anywhere. The car
is most definately a head turned and my dream car. That is the story
of Heidi.
Let me know what you think of my car, or if you have Questions, thank
you..
Hottysmurfette@yahoo.com
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