So while I was in high school, my Mom decided to change careers and went to what's now Salt Lake Community College.  She had lots of friends, but one of her best friends (Mark) happened to have a really cool yellow '71 Mach 1.  Of course, I'm 14 at the time, and it was the coolest car in the world - I decided that someday I was going to have one of my own.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010, and I see the pictures above on Craigslist in San Angelo, Texas.  My pal Jim had just picked up a 1963 1/2 Ford Galaxie 500 XL (fastback) and was having lots of fun figuring out exactly what he'd just done by doing so (he got lucky with his and scored a really nice 'running' project car).  Since I had pretty much gotten the Jeep where I wanted it (minus the engine and transmission swap), I had the itch for a new project of my own.  If I hadn't found this Mach 1 during that time, I would still be looking for 'something' as a project, but at least now I can say I 'killed two birds' by restoring a dream I've had since high school.

We got almost finished up in October 2014 to the point of being "car show ready," and entered it in the annual Goodfellow Rec Camp Car Show.  It was a big hit, winning Best In Class - '70-'79 Modified.  I guess nobody noticed the missing seat belts, windshield wipers, exhaust tips, and non-functional signal lights.  Since then been working on the final details and got it road-worthy.  Check out the Mach 1 blog for more details on various things that have been going on (I'm still catching up on logging the restoration things, though).