This wasn't the first 1969-1970 fastback mustang that my dad has owned, but if I were to say the least, this car is probably what captured my interest the most. I was 16 years old and in the phase where I was helping my dad in the garage most of the time either on his Ram3500 or my moms BMW. I was still way to interested in video games but once he bought this car my opinions really changed on being in the garage. I found out that there's more than just maintaining your daily drivers. You can restore and modify cars to the way you want them to perform or look. Although we didn't really do too much to this mustang it sure was fun to ride in and it was the first car that I was actually interested in working on considering it broke down all of the time! This "Boss 351" was a 1970 fastback with a screaming 351 Cleveland Cobra Jet. This was such a cool car because it was a 1970 with painted on gloss black 69 boss stripes and gloss black hood and tail panel with a boss 429 hood scoop. It was really whatever the previous owner had wanted to do to his car. I really liked the idea of doing whatever you wanted to your car.
That being said, it must have been pure coincidence that my uncle was doing an engine swap in his 70 mach 1 from a 351 Cleveland to a 428 Cobra Jet that he had just rebuilt. My dad and I were interested enough and my dad seemed like he wanted something mustang to do since we had just moved back from living in Germany for four years with no mustangs! I'm only saying that since all I can remember are piles of unrestored 69-70 fastbacks sitting in the driveway during my childhood. So considering he knew what he was doing and I wanted to learn a thing or two about cars we decided to take the Cleveland off my uncles hands.
I don't think we really even considered doing a car restoration at the time that we had bought the motor. I was scanning ebay every once in a while for unrestored fastbacks but nothing serious at the time. At the time I was really mainly interested in figuring out how internal combustion engines worked because I didn't really know and it seemed pretty cool! I took down some old engine and ford books that my dad had stored up on the top shelves and slowly pieced together how these beasts worked. I was really excited to start tearing down this motor after reading up on the different types of 351 Clevelands I was really hoping it would be a 4 bolt main block capable of some serious power.
Lola
Alright so I guess I'm going to have to give the short story behind the name that we decided to give this car.. I'll start by saying that I'm just about 19 now, I was 16 then. I thought it would be really sweet if the car had a name just like how the 67 fastback in Gone in Sixty Seconds had. So my best friend Kody and I sat down and had a serious discussion.. The name had to be original, nothing common. I remember we were brainstorming car names on a word file on my computer in my room one night, then we narrowed it down to a few names and we finally decided on Lola. It stuck, so might as well keep it now. Kody and his dad had just bought a 1967 firebird and a 400 motor that they were rebuilding at the same time. What are the odds?! Anyways if I remember correctly we decided his firebird should be name Layla but I don't think stuck. I think it's funny that they are both pretty cool songs too though.
Well, I've started this blog now at the age of 19. The car is still in the long but fun process of restoration. I decided to start this blog mainly because I would like to document the process of every detail on this car so I can look back at it or show people who care about this stuff enough to read it. Hopefully it helps anyone who is in the midst of a DIY mustang restoration as well though too. Not only this but there is a blog called Night Mission Boss 302 that kind of got me interested on this blog site as well. My plan is to start going through all of the pictures that I have taken of this restoration so far, and since they are in chronological order I plan to touch on every step of the restoration in as much detail as I can remember and hopefully catch up to where we currently are by the time this car is done. My dad and I have been doing a fairly meticulous job so far on the car so this isn't just another boring factory restoration! This car is being built to be driven. Weather permitting as my dad would note. Feel free to ask questions as I post. Enjoy.
Above is a picture of my dad and I on pickup day. Before all of these posts gets started on this blog I would just like to thank him because without him none of these cool pictures would be put up on here and I wouldn't be able to experience this awesome project! THANKS DAD! LOL
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