Cobra Jet
01-24-2005, 08:13 AM
Well... You know you are a true Mustang Enthusiast (or just plain nuts) when one goes through a BLIZZARD, to purchase another Mustang...
Let me just say first that I have finally acquired my newest 4Eye from the previous owner, in which I have been in touch with over the last 2-3 years. After numerous emails and phone calls over the last 2 weeks or so, we finally agreed on the sale of the vehicle and a weekend in which a very close friend and myself could go and pick up the vehicle.
The vehicle was located in Plattsburg, NY. We were coming from Berlin, NJ - a 6 hour drive going one way. One more thing I need to mention about the location of the Mustang... It was only 30-45 minutes outside of CANADA.... Go ahead, look it up on MapQuest to see the route.. LOL
Now mind you, this weekend, unbeknownst to all of us, was going to be a normal weekend in Jan...however, that changed once the weather forecasts were coming through on Thurs./Fri night. But, who REALLY believes the weather forecasts and/or weather people 100% anyway?
Our plans were to leave here (NJ) at 2am in the morning, which would be very early Saturday morning, get to the location of the car, drive it on the trailer, strap it down, then leave to get back home at a decent hour. We were on our way at 3am (after packing the truck, checking over important things, stopping to pick up "morning" food/drink and the first fuel up).
The drive is nice - granted it's dark out and very early in the morning, there's almost no one on the roads at this hour. We went from the NJ Turnpike, to Route 17, then to I87. We stayed at a steady 70-75 mph. This was running with a brand new Z71 long bed, dual cab pickup truck and a 17ft dual axle open car trailer. The trip was basically uneventful at this point. It's now about 8am in the morning, we are making really good timing, as we originally thought we may arrive at noon, but we were about 45 minutes from our desitnation at this point. Once on I87, it's ALL MOUNTAINS (Adirondacks). So, the highway goes up and down, along with many twisties & turns. As we were coming up I87, to our left, we see what looks to be a squared off rock-like object... as we are coming up on it closer, it's a tractor trailer that went off the highway and down a 20ft embankment. The truck is laying on it's side and the entire front cab is busted to pieces and the engine is exposed. My friend and I look at each other and are like "Holy S!" So, we pull over to the side of the road and gradully back up our truck & trailer to see if the driver is "OK". I stayed with our truck, while my friend carefully crossed the highway and went over to take a closer look. I can see him standing there looking, then he goes down the side of the hill to the tractor trailer. He eventually came back up and back to our truck. He said the wreck must have happened earlier in the day (or night), as no one was there, but stuff was all over the hill, etc. The cab of the truck was blown wide open, and anything that was fibergalss was busted all to pieces. The Police or whomever tended the wreck just left the truck lying there on the embankment (guess it was too steep to tow it out, plus there was "old" snow all over the place on the hill). But, damn, that was just freaky looking!
The whole drive up - we are looking at the Z71's exterior temp monitor. There were points in time that it was -11* outside (YES, that's a NEGATIVE, as in BELOW ZERO). There were times it was -7, -5, and so forth. One of the radio stations had said it was -15* outside!
Anyhow, now we are in the town where the car is located. We hit the small town Restaraunt to get some morning food (this time, some home cooked eggs, bacon, toast, etc - not your typical diner food - this was the real home cooking deal).
We contact the seller and meet up at the house where the car is located. It's in an old barn (well, garage, but looked more like an old barn - relly cool looking). It was -3* at this point. We could not get the car started, even though it is a running/driving car. So, how do you get a non-running/driving car onto a car trailer without a come-along or a motorized hitch? It has to be PUSHED. Well, of course, first it had to be pushed out of the "barn". Cool - we pushed it out of the barn into "old" snow that's still on the ground. Now, we back the truck & trailer up into the driveway and try pushing the car on it (5-7 of us at this point). Due to the snow on the driveway, we coudl not get enough people traction to get the momentum for getting it onto the trailer. Mind you, yes, it's still -3* outside....
Now we move the truck and trailer onto the street, in which there is now a slow downhill slope. We then push the car from the driveway, onto the street (yes, it's still -3*), then at full speed (if you want to call it that), the 7 of us push the vehicle down the road and up onto the trailer. YAY - it's now on the trailer. Now we have to strap it down and make sure it's secure. Oh yea - prior to all of this, we had to load up some of the parts of the car into the pick up truck - and boy, if you don't know what -3* is like, it's damn cold... We do the paperwork transaction and now we are on our way back to NJ.
Well, remember previously when I mentioned the weather forecast? Yep - you got it - it was a big time blizzard coming up the east coast. We were trying our best to get back into NJ before there was heavy accumulation. About 40 minutes to 1 hour into our drive, on I87, it starts to snow.... The front of the storm is now hitting the area we are driving through. The snow is light and is blowing around the road as it lands. This type of snow is VERY SLICK. As we get further down I87, we of course are heading deepr into the storm. We pull off to fuel up, and head on back to the interstate. Now the snow is coming down very fast and it's accumulating very fast as well.
There are cars & SUVs going off the highway left and right - not driving off to go to to another destination - I mean these are cars that are wrecking, or have already been wrecked... We are keeping as much as a safe distance as possible AND driving at a moderate speed to avoid any complications and/or accidents. At one point, we pass an accident that had just occured and there were at least 8 cars involved, all damaged beyond repair (put it this way, one vehicle had the trunk pushed all the way into the back seat). As we are going, we passed at least 10 accidents, and more cars/SUV's stuck on the side of the road in the snow than I can remember.
I87 is now 1 lane in our direction that is passable (at best), so we are in a single file of vehicles. Then of course, the snow is getting deeping in those areas that no cars are traveling. There are points in time where the snow was coming down so hard and so fast, there was practically no visibility in front of us - and it was still daylight. We finally get to the New Jersey Turnpike and there is a minimum of 6 inches of snow with NO clear lanes at all - none. Folks were making their own lanes - 2 wide, 3 wide, and not satying in their lanes at all - it was a "free for all"... Again, we are passing accidents and/or people stuck in the snow. Luckily forus, the 4x4 was working extrememly well on my friend's brand new Z71. I'm sure the weight of the truck, the trailer with the Mustang on it helped out with some of the traction too.
We finally arrive to my friend's place safe & sound, with no incidents at all... I took pics from the trip and how the Mustang looked once we arrived home, so check ou the link below.
I'm sure you're all dying to know what kind of 4Eye Mustang I purchased....
The previous owner, Dave, had advertised the vehicle on numerous sites in the past and as recently as October 2004. In fact, he posts on many sites we all post on, including this one. I had been in touch with him when he first listed the vehicle back in 2002 I believe. We went back and forth with emails and such, but nothing ever materialized, partially because I either had other Mustang projects or he was not sure of selling, etc. Well, after being persistent and seeing the ad come up again in Oct., I made another offer and we agreed to complete the transaction.
Details on the car:
Ex-FHP SSP!!
1986 Mustang LX 5.0 coupe
5 speed (original)
A/C
tan interior
manual windows
manual locks
no rear window defrost (back glass has no defroster grid)
no center console (never had one)
The vehicle only weighs 2942 lbs as is, which is relaly light when compared to other 5.0 coupes. It was retired by the FHP SSP in 1990 and auctioned off at that point. The vehicle was then brought to NY by the 2nd owner, where it was eventually "plowed" into the driver's side rear 1/4 panel by a snow plow truck. At that point, the car sat for a few years, even after being purchased by the 3rd owner whom I just bought it from. Luckily the damage is behind the rear wheel well and above the molding and did not damage the trunk pan or the frame rail at all. So, I will be replacing the entire rear 1/4 panel, tail light panel and installing another trunk lid & rear bumper cover in order to get the car streetable again. After the car is drivable again, it IS and WILL BE restored 100% as a FHP SSP Mustang - exactly the way it was when in service with the FHP. I will keep everyone updated as this progresses.
This is why my 85 GT vert is now up for sale as well (for those who have wondered and PM'd/emailed about the GT due to the ad on here).
Enjoy the pics!! I will also be adding additional pictures to this same photo album of how the car looked when the previous owner purchased it:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=ug7o8lr.8cycqpfv&x=0&y=-whet06
Let me just say first that I have finally acquired my newest 4Eye from the previous owner, in which I have been in touch with over the last 2-3 years. After numerous emails and phone calls over the last 2 weeks or so, we finally agreed on the sale of the vehicle and a weekend in which a very close friend and myself could go and pick up the vehicle.
The vehicle was located in Plattsburg, NY. We were coming from Berlin, NJ - a 6 hour drive going one way. One more thing I need to mention about the location of the Mustang... It was only 30-45 minutes outside of CANADA.... Go ahead, look it up on MapQuest to see the route.. LOL
Now mind you, this weekend, unbeknownst to all of us, was going to be a normal weekend in Jan...however, that changed once the weather forecasts were coming through on Thurs./Fri night. But, who REALLY believes the weather forecasts and/or weather people 100% anyway?
Our plans were to leave here (NJ) at 2am in the morning, which would be very early Saturday morning, get to the location of the car, drive it on the trailer, strap it down, then leave to get back home at a decent hour. We were on our way at 3am (after packing the truck, checking over important things, stopping to pick up "morning" food/drink and the first fuel up).
The drive is nice - granted it's dark out and very early in the morning, there's almost no one on the roads at this hour. We went from the NJ Turnpike, to Route 17, then to I87. We stayed at a steady 70-75 mph. This was running with a brand new Z71 long bed, dual cab pickup truck and a 17ft dual axle open car trailer. The trip was basically uneventful at this point. It's now about 8am in the morning, we are making really good timing, as we originally thought we may arrive at noon, but we were about 45 minutes from our desitnation at this point. Once on I87, it's ALL MOUNTAINS (Adirondacks). So, the highway goes up and down, along with many twisties & turns. As we were coming up I87, to our left, we see what looks to be a squared off rock-like object... as we are coming up on it closer, it's a tractor trailer that went off the highway and down a 20ft embankment. The truck is laying on it's side and the entire front cab is busted to pieces and the engine is exposed. My friend and I look at each other and are like "Holy S!" So, we pull over to the side of the road and gradully back up our truck & trailer to see if the driver is "OK". I stayed with our truck, while my friend carefully crossed the highway and went over to take a closer look. I can see him standing there looking, then he goes down the side of the hill to the tractor trailer. He eventually came back up and back to our truck. He said the wreck must have happened earlier in the day (or night), as no one was there, but stuff was all over the hill, etc. The cab of the truck was blown wide open, and anything that was fibergalss was busted all to pieces. The Police or whomever tended the wreck just left the truck lying there on the embankment (guess it was too steep to tow it out, plus there was "old" snow all over the place on the hill). But, damn, that was just freaky looking!
The whole drive up - we are looking at the Z71's exterior temp monitor. There were points in time that it was -11* outside (YES, that's a NEGATIVE, as in BELOW ZERO). There were times it was -7, -5, and so forth. One of the radio stations had said it was -15* outside!
Anyhow, now we are in the town where the car is located. We hit the small town Restaraunt to get some morning food (this time, some home cooked eggs, bacon, toast, etc - not your typical diner food - this was the real home cooking deal).
We contact the seller and meet up at the house where the car is located. It's in an old barn (well, garage, but looked more like an old barn - relly cool looking). It was -3* at this point. We could not get the car started, even though it is a running/driving car. So, how do you get a non-running/driving car onto a car trailer without a come-along or a motorized hitch? It has to be PUSHED. Well, of course, first it had to be pushed out of the "barn". Cool - we pushed it out of the barn into "old" snow that's still on the ground. Now, we back the truck & trailer up into the driveway and try pushing the car on it (5-7 of us at this point). Due to the snow on the driveway, we coudl not get enough people traction to get the momentum for getting it onto the trailer. Mind you, yes, it's still -3* outside....
Now we move the truck and trailer onto the street, in which there is now a slow downhill slope. We then push the car from the driveway, onto the street (yes, it's still -3*), then at full speed (if you want to call it that), the 7 of us push the vehicle down the road and up onto the trailer. YAY - it's now on the trailer. Now we have to strap it down and make sure it's secure. Oh yea - prior to all of this, we had to load up some of the parts of the car into the pick up truck - and boy, if you don't know what -3* is like, it's damn cold... We do the paperwork transaction and now we are on our way back to NJ.
Well, remember previously when I mentioned the weather forecast? Yep - you got it - it was a big time blizzard coming up the east coast. We were trying our best to get back into NJ before there was heavy accumulation. About 40 minutes to 1 hour into our drive, on I87, it starts to snow.... The front of the storm is now hitting the area we are driving through. The snow is light and is blowing around the road as it lands. This type of snow is VERY SLICK. As we get further down I87, we of course are heading deepr into the storm. We pull off to fuel up, and head on back to the interstate. Now the snow is coming down very fast and it's accumulating very fast as well.
There are cars & SUVs going off the highway left and right - not driving off to go to to another destination - I mean these are cars that are wrecking, or have already been wrecked... We are keeping as much as a safe distance as possible AND driving at a moderate speed to avoid any complications and/or accidents. At one point, we pass an accident that had just occured and there were at least 8 cars involved, all damaged beyond repair (put it this way, one vehicle had the trunk pushed all the way into the back seat). As we are going, we passed at least 10 accidents, and more cars/SUV's stuck on the side of the road in the snow than I can remember.
I87 is now 1 lane in our direction that is passable (at best), so we are in a single file of vehicles. Then of course, the snow is getting deeping in those areas that no cars are traveling. There are points in time where the snow was coming down so hard and so fast, there was practically no visibility in front of us - and it was still daylight. We finally get to the New Jersey Turnpike and there is a minimum of 6 inches of snow with NO clear lanes at all - none. Folks were making their own lanes - 2 wide, 3 wide, and not satying in their lanes at all - it was a "free for all"... Again, we are passing accidents and/or people stuck in the snow. Luckily forus, the 4x4 was working extrememly well on my friend's brand new Z71. I'm sure the weight of the truck, the trailer with the Mustang on it helped out with some of the traction too.
We finally arrive to my friend's place safe & sound, with no incidents at all... I took pics from the trip and how the Mustang looked once we arrived home, so check ou the link below.
I'm sure you're all dying to know what kind of 4Eye Mustang I purchased....
The previous owner, Dave, had advertised the vehicle on numerous sites in the past and as recently as October 2004. In fact, he posts on many sites we all post on, including this one. I had been in touch with him when he first listed the vehicle back in 2002 I believe. We went back and forth with emails and such, but nothing ever materialized, partially because I either had other Mustang projects or he was not sure of selling, etc. Well, after being persistent and seeing the ad come up again in Oct., I made another offer and we agreed to complete the transaction.
Details on the car:
Ex-FHP SSP!!
1986 Mustang LX 5.0 coupe
5 speed (original)
A/C
tan interior
manual windows
manual locks
no rear window defrost (back glass has no defroster grid)
no center console (never had one)
The vehicle only weighs 2942 lbs as is, which is relaly light when compared to other 5.0 coupes. It was retired by the FHP SSP in 1990 and auctioned off at that point. The vehicle was then brought to NY by the 2nd owner, where it was eventually "plowed" into the driver's side rear 1/4 panel by a snow plow truck. At that point, the car sat for a few years, even after being purchased by the 3rd owner whom I just bought it from. Luckily the damage is behind the rear wheel well and above the molding and did not damage the trunk pan or the frame rail at all. So, I will be replacing the entire rear 1/4 panel, tail light panel and installing another trunk lid & rear bumper cover in order to get the car streetable again. After the car is drivable again, it IS and WILL BE restored 100% as a FHP SSP Mustang - exactly the way it was when in service with the FHP. I will keep everyone updated as this progresses.
This is why my 85 GT vert is now up for sale as well (for those who have wondered and PM'd/emailed about the GT due to the ad on here).
Enjoy the pics!! I will also be adding additional pictures to this same photo album of how the car looked when the previous owner purchased it:
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=ug7o8lr.8cycqpfv&x=0&y=-whet06