By Daniel
How old is your car? Is it older than your parents? Mine is. As a matter of fact my car is 49 years old. I have a 1965 Ford Mustang. This was Ford’s second Mustang model. This was the first car that my grandfather got when he came to America. My mother’s first car was a classic mustang and my father had a mustang as well. From the first time I was able to ride in the Mustang I was in love with it. I loved the roar the engine made and the material of the seats. When my grandparents moved to the United States from Europe, a friend gave them the Mustang as a gift. However, at the time my grandmother did not drive stick shift and so upon her request, my grandfather changed the transmission to an automatic transmission. After a while they both decided that they were too old to harness the ford Mustang’s power and so for the next 15 years they let it sit in front of their house, only moving it for street cleaning. From a young age, I expressed a lot of interest in the mustang. When I was sixteen I decided that I wanted to get into auto mechanics as a hobby. When I told my grandfather he jokingly said that I should fix the Mustang. Never would I expect that a year later he would hand the Mustang keys over to me. That was one of the happiest days of my life. I knew that with this gift, came a big responsibility. On that day, I made it my mission to have the Mustang fixed up for him with a new paint job. I wanted it looking and running great so that I could make my grandfather proud. When I got the Mustang the first few months were good, but then the problems began to show. The Mustang began stalling on me, I began having problems starting the car and the turn signals did not work. At this point I did not know enough about cars to work on it and so my mother took the Mustang to a mechanic and was overcharged for temporary solutions after spending a lot of money on only a few problems we finally found someone who actually helped out. Two of my mom’s co-workers are big Mustang fans and they were able to troubleshoot a couple of problems and give me tips on caring for my car. They suggested a mechanic that truly helped with my car troubles and finally my car was running again and my turn signals worked. When my car began having starting troubles again I went to my mom’s co-workers for advice. They told me to change the starter. With the help of my brother in-law we were able to change both the starter and the starter-solenoid and ever since then my Mustang has been running like a champ. I am forever grateful to not only my grandfather, but also to all the people that have helped me in the repair of my 1965 Ford Mustang. I hope to pass on my Mustang to the future generations of my family as my grandfather did with me.