I attended the Fall Carlisle show on Friday 10/1/10 and I found and bought the 1966 Ford Mustang that my father bought new in 1966. This was the first new car my parents ever bought. The car was in our family until about 1993 or 1994 and I sold it. My oldest son has become a car enthusiast as I am and has been wanting a Mustang since before he could drive. He has been attending Carlisle events with me over the years and we always looked for Mustangs in his price range. We could never find one in good enough shape or small enough price to get. I could never find one that was in as good of shape as the one I sold and at a price that was affordable.



At the Fall 2010 show, I just happened to look at any and all Mustangs in the car corral, just to see what the prices and conditions of the cars were. I was walking down the hill and saw a white '66 Mustang that had some scratches on the front fender that were like the ones on the car I sold so many years ago. I thought that was odd for another car to have the same scratches. I looked at the pin stripe and it was a single blue pin stripe, which is incorrect for that car, but it was just like the one that was on the car I sold. The rear drivers side fender had the same "pock mark" on it as the car I sold. This was too many things to be coincidental. I looked inside the car. Mustangs in 1966 had 4 seat belts, 2 in front and 2 in back. My father had 3 kids so he installed a 3rd seat belt in the rear. When I sold the car, there was a tear in the center seat belt. When I looked in the rear seat, there it was, rip and all. There were a few other markings that I recognized as well. The thing that was really cool was that the key that I sold wit hthecar was on the same ring that I sold with the car. I asked the owner for the VIN number and called my wife to tell her of this wierd happening. I gave her the VIN and asked her to look for the copy of the original title. She called back and couldn't find it. I called my parents and told them and asked my mom if she had anything from the car. Long story short, she found the original lien and an insurance paper with the same VIN. I thought is was cool to find the car and when the wife said you have to buy it, that was even cooler. I had no intentions of buying a car that weekend, and certainly not the car that I was so sorry I sold all those years ago.



This car was sold about 16 years ago and it looks almost like the day I sold it. It looks like the person I sold it to, last name Davis, in Maryland, put it in a garage, the person he sold it to, last name Butterbaugh, in Virginia must have kept it in a garage. The person in Virginia sold it to a gut in Maryland, last name Palmer, who must have kept it in a garage and he sold it to a teacher who kept it in a garage for about 3 years. The teacher called the guy he bought it from, Palmer, and asked if he wanted to buy it back. He did and took it to the Fall Carlisle show and sold it to me. All these years and all those hands changing and nothing seems to have been done to it from the day I sold it. I've told a couple of people this story and they all thought it was pretty cool. I could have looked for years for that car and never found it. I just happened by it in the car corral and there it was.

 

God works in mysterious ways indeed.

 

That's a very neat story!

I had the similar thing happen to me. My father-in-law owned a 51 Panel truck back in the 80s. He sold it in the mid-late 80s to pay for rent while he was unemployed and had a family (with three kids, one of them is my wife). He had tail lights from a 65 Mustang that he installed in the rear, as well as a fan on the inside to keep the family cool and installed some seats from a sedan. It was orange and had lakeside pipes. It was an ex-army truck and was still painted OD green on the inside.

A few years ago, I was cruising the local CL ads for 48-52 Ford trucks when I came up on a listing for a 1951 Ford Panel truck. The listing had four pictures of a blue truck with a grey primer right front fender and door. The pictures also showed the rear and the interior. Guess what I saw in the pictures, the Mustang tail lights, the fan and the seats. I immediately phoned the guy and we set up a meeting to see it. The truck was about 15 minutes from us. My wife, her mother and father, and me went to see it. It was very interesting to see all three of their faces light up with smiles and how they all talked about their memories. We even found traces of the orange paint on the hood moldings. Needless to say, we already had purchased a different 51 Panel truck about a year before for my father-in-law. We didn't buy his old Panel truck.

About six months later, I had a friend that was looking to buy a Panel truck and he found one on CL a few hours away from here, up in the Sierra foothills. When we got there, the truck was in grey primer and had a black stripe going down the middle of the hood. When I got inside, I noticed the fan, the seats and the green color. The Mustang tail lights were still in the rear. I quickly realized that this was my father-in-law's truck that we saw six months ago. I guess the PO sold it to this guy, who was a wheeler and dealer.

About another six months later, I saw it for sale at a swap meet. The guy that was selling it, traded another car for it to the previous owner. This new owner was from central California.

Oddly, the selling price kept going up with each time that I was it. First time it was around $6k. Second time it was around $8k. Third time it was around $10k.

After seeing it last, I lost track of it. I wonder where it is today.

 

great story, how many of us dream about getting back a car we once owned. with me it would be the 40 ford coupe, the 68 mustang and/or the 70 opel gt.