A Look of Rags to Riches
Ron & Liz Normandin’s 1968 GTCS
This is a story of a car most people would have towed to a junkyard in the condition I first saw it in. This car was hard to take in sitting there no engine, absolutely no interior, and the automatic tranny in the trunk along with a box of misc. parts. Where it sat it looked like a tree was growing out of the right rear side of the car. Thoughts came across my mind, was this worth buying? But this young guy who majored in Automotive in a Vocational High School in Massachusetts looked at it with a vision that would hopefully be an eye catcher. After getting this 1968 GTCS (California Special) around 1992 from a friend living in Napa, Ca, I met my wife Liz. In 1994 we were newly married and bought our first home and I thought it would take forever to get the car looking nice. For a moment I thought about restoring it back to original ... lol. That was short lived. I looked in the box of misc parts one day and found the last registration card from the 2nd owner which was last registered 15 years prior making me the 3rd registered owner. Another hidden treasure was the original black license plates, and original owners manual. But the BEST part was about to come. Thanks to Paul Newitt writing a detailed book on the California Special, I eventually found more information on the GTCS which was very helpful to me. With the build date of 13 Feb 68, and Paul Newitt’s help, I found out it was most likely one of the first 200 made. According to the Marty report, mine was designated to Ford Motor Co. (not to a dealer) most likely as a display premiering the GTCS model in San Francisco. "Wish I had a picture of that event with the car", so I pressed on deciding to build the car my way. I painted it a 95 Toyota blue Mothers day in 1995. Liz was very understanding about it - (thank you babe / snookums). Taking about 3 years from 92, with me doing 85-90% of the work, I started to see my vision coming to light. As we started to see noticeable progress it motivated us further. A custom interior had been made, and before we knew it I was putting on the stripes in time for our first local car show at Andrews Park in Vacaville, CA. A gentleman named Jack Davies (GHMC member) was walking around and stopped by chatting with us admiring the car. Liz and I felt good with all that we accomplished on it. This is where Liz and I were introduced to the Golden Hills Mustang Club, and have been a member since. For me, doing all that work and taking the look of the car from rags, to riches is the most rewarding. Getting a thumbs up on the highway isn’t bad either, especially from the Highway Patrol. By Ron & Liz Normandin |
