The 1971 Mach 1 - Love it, or hate it?

[Mach351]

As with Finley, the owner of this garage and collection of Mustangs, also having driven a 1971 Mustang Mach 1 in high school and thru most of college... this is my dream garage:

https://youtu.be/_KJ03k2-NDg

Blue Oval Car Barn: https://1971mustangs.com/

When Finley says people for the most part either love the body-style, or hate it... i think there is some truth in that.
The bigger body style is all about fitting the 429 big-block between the shock towers... the almost non-existent back seat is only there for insurance purposes.

Grabber Blue Boss Quartet: https://youtu.be/fU6cz7f_ik4

You're not a Mustang purist if you're not familiar with the color Argent.



It started for me in the '80s... when a decent musclecar could be had for $2000, and we drove the crap out of them because it was fun.
$2000 was a good chunk of money back then, but an order of magnitude less than what it costs to restore a musclecar to collectable condition today.
The first thing to go was the AM radio in favor of an FM stereo with cassette player... and 6 X 9s in the rear deck.
The next upgrade was a pointless distributor... and a set of headers.
Then a Holley double pumper... my dad fabricated an aluminum spacer to fit the carburetor because it had the quadrajet intake manifold and carb. (yes, a chevy part pronounced "quadra-junk" with a Ford part number)
Then came a locking differential with a bit shorter gear... and a bit taller rear tires.
Later came an aftermarket intake manifold with a proper square-bore carb base.
Freon was pretty cheap, so it wasn't a big deal to charge the air conditioner with a can, or maybe two, at the beginning of each summer.

No idea where all that original stuff disappeared to; probably a junk yard... worthless back then, might be worth something to a purist collector today.
The next planned upgrade was an electric fuel pump, but we didn't get there until my spawn was in high-schoool.

History repeated itself with a 2004 model...
Touch-screen stereo head-unit with DVD player?... check
Fiore clutch quadrant and adjuster?... check
MGW shifter?... check
Aluminum intake spacer?... check


Is my "new" Mach 1 now twenty years old making me a dinosaur?... check
_

[ab_mach1]

Oh that original owned by the old man's sister was sweet. I don't hate this bodystyle, but it's certainly not my favorite lol. Pretty amazing that Finley dude is just doing it for himself. I can't say that if I had enough money to do it, that I'd do it to the level he is. Or even have near that many, TBH. Props to him, though!