Life got in the way and we had to sell the Roadrunner due to high insurance costs, but we never stopped thinking about it. We bought another Roadrunner a few years later, but it was an auto-matic and just wasn’t the same, so we quickly sold it. We talked about getting another Roadrunner for years, until we found a 1969 Mustang Sportsroof here in Napa. As it turned out it was first pur- chased by Lorin Sorensen, a Ford Historian and longtime member of the Ford V8 Club. He sold it to Dick Myers, one of the Directors of the Towe Ford Museum in Sacramento, who kept it there for a number of years. Dick was building a ’36 Ford and his wife told him he needed to sell the Mustang.
It was 3 a.m. on a Thursday morning in June of 1997 when I saw an ad for a ’69 Mustang Fastback in the Napa Register. I was getting ready for work and I woke Norma up to ask her to call on this car. “Now?” she asked, half asleep. I thought about it and told her to wait until daylight. She called at a reasonable hour and was told that the car was al-ready sold. She said that we were disappointed be-cause we love that model and we belong to a Mustang club. He said, “Since you belong to a Mus-tang club, you can come right over.” Norma called me at work but I couldn’t get off until late in the afternoon. It was a long day! Finally, we drove to the address he gave us and there it was in the driveway! One look and we knew we wanted it; in fact Norma was reaching in her purse for the checkbook as we got out of the car. I told her to put it away until I made the deal. Mr. Myers asked me what our plans would be if he sold it to us and I quickly said, “Keep it Stock.” That must have been the right answer because he accepted our first of-fer. There was no dealing at all and Norma quickly wrote the check before he changed his mind.
It was the original color, Candyapple Red, with black interior and came equipped with a 351 Win-dsor V8, FMX Auto Trans, 9” rear end, Power Steering, Power Front Disc brakes, factory hood scoop and a chin spoiler. It had only 68,000 miles and the owner’s manual was still in the glove box! We couldn’t believe our luck at finding this car for only $6,200.
We have enjoyed and driven this Mustang to Hot August Nights in Reno, Kool April Nites in Red-ding, Fabulous 50s in Grants Pass, the Father’s Day Invitational in Yountville, plus many other great events and shows over the years. 7 Flags Car Wash even used it in a TV commercial and for the past 10 years it has been one of the Classic Mustangs on display in the Ford Building during the Sacramento International Auto Show at Cal Expo.
In December of 2012 we decided it was time to rebuild the 351. We enlisted the help of our friend, Craig Beckley, adding a few horses and fixing a few things. As you all know, that turns into “fix this, replace that” and before we knew it we were into a full-on restoration. As the bills grew, and we were getting ready to put it all back together, I asked Norma about adding just one more thing. . .
She said, “NO!!!” before I could even get the words out to tell her what it was. I then told her how much money we could save if we added Air Condi-tioning now while things were still apart. She said, “Air Conditioning??? . . . Really??? . . . Okay!!!” We both have enjoyed that decision!
In August of 2014 the earthquake brought the next big change for the ’69. It was in our in the garage, covered up, but everything that was on a shelf landed on the Mustang or nicked and scraped it on the way to the floor. (None of our other cars that were outside were touched, by the way.) After the dust settled and we realized it was going to need another paint job, I started taking it to local body shops and found out that it was going to be hard to get someone to paint it. Ron Reppert at Soscol Auto Body finally agreed to do it, but I would have to wait for an opening. It was well worth the wait as Ron and his crew did an outstanding job, including finding the factory paint code and taking the time to do all the detail work that makes it still look good today!
One of the best parts of owning this Mustang, as well as all of the Mustangs that we have owned, is that it has brought a whole group of wonderful people into our lives that have become lifelong friends. By Dan McCabe, (edited by Norma)
