Chris & Melinda Barkman’s 1968 Fastback
Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Chris. My wife Melinda and I have owned our Acapulco Blue 1968 GT fastback for over 20 years. We purchased this car in the spring of 1997 as a basket case. The previous owner had disassembled the car thinking he would restore it. When I first saw it I recognized a sun bleached, rust free, dent free car that had spent its whole life in San Jose within 20 miles of that plant where it was built in late 1967. I was amazed as the previous owner pulled out all the original parts carefully wrapped and boxed. The numbers matching original “S” code 390 was sitting on a pallet near the car rebuilt and ready to run again. The numbers matching top loader 4 speed was on another pallet next to it. I spent the next year restoring the car back to its former glory. What I like most about this car was that I was able to restore it with about 95% of its original parts, so if you see a pit, a scuff or the chrome seems a bit cloudy remember that part has a Ford part number and came from San Jose with this car. Our fastback was completed in 1998 just in time for Melinda and I to travel to Bellingham WA for the Mustangs Northwest MCA show during a heat wave. Melinda and I found out the joys of driving a non-air conditioned big block mustang in summer. For those that have never done this it is similar to sitting in a sauna with a blow dryer on high blowing on you. That trip is still mentioned every time we travel through Redding. The car became one of our family members as our children Tony and Ashlee grew up in the back seat attending shows and events throughout the western states. I even taught our son Tony how to drive a stick shift in this car so he could drive it to the student’s car show at his high school. These days the car lives a life of leisure coming out for occasional cruise nights and other driving events. With retirement in my near future maybe a little freshening and a return to the show field could be in both our futures. |
