The good, the not too bad, and the absolute UGLY

It's Saturday morning. I was up bright and early and met up with my brother-in-law Joe.  His son raced in midget go-karts and Joe, well, he raced in everything else.  I believe he has a substantial ticket portfolio to prove it.  Anyway, I invited Joe to join me as I knew he'd enjoy seeing all the Mustangs is one spot. So we grabbed some breakfast at the local diner and headed up to Harrisburg.

 On the way up we talked about the current state of the car and my overall GT 350 vision. I was eager to see the car with the interior buttoned up and cluster, carpet, headliner, and radio installed.  I brought along my camera to chronicle the occasion and to get some pics of some of the cars in the CJPS shop.

We arrived at the shop around 0945 (9:45am for you non-military types) and went around the side by the garage bays.  We walked in and there was Bill, as always with another customer.  I greeted him and proceeded to take Joe into the showroom to give Bill and the other guy some space.  I dislike when folks hover and stare like rabid dogs, so I gladly took Joe to the showroom.

The first thing you'll notice as you walk into the showroom is the floor.  It resembles the checkered flag at a race track and it really gets the adrenaline pumping. (at least mine anyway)

The second thing you notice is the assortment of Mustangs in various stages of restoration and um, preservation. 

What you don't see are dirty rags, oil slicks, tools laying askew, empty food containers, or trash around the cars.  This speaks volumes about the CJPS crew and management in that they respect their craft, customer, and their workspace enough to keep it neat and orderly.  Rest assured there is a LOT of work going on, but chaos is not in charge.

When Bill eventually frees up and we head back into the shop, I see my car up on the lift.  As we start walking around, I am a little embarrassed as I get a good look of the backside of the car for the first time. Shield your eyes if you are squeamish, here comes the ugly:

Bill and I agree that whoever had this car originally rushed the latter part of the restoration and really buggered up the fine detail.  Brake lines are a mess, fuel lines are REALLY scary, most of the rubber is dry-rotted and I THINK the gas tank is dented fairly good on the left-hand drivers side.  As I start to get a little manic, Bill pipes up and says, "No problem, we'll fix them".  Just like that; ba-da-bing!

So, we cover most of the underside which surprisingly isn't as bad as I thought. Besides the line issues and some leaking exhaust pipes, there isn't much that Bill considers risky or unsafe so he starts to lower the car.  I feel like a kid at Christmas!

Once the car is down, I look inside and as before; instant therapy.  The dash is a beautiful balance of black and chrome  with a hint of red; the perfect prescription for any mid-life-crisis-capable male.  Carpet and headliner are seamless and perfect and the radio was an absolute necessary touch. The heater controls worked perfectly although the fan was surprisingly noisy.  Maybe it's just that the new cars are so quiet, who knows.  We'll circle back to that later.  All told, awesome job.

As you can see, my seats are not in the best shape.  At 6 foot 3 inches, these seats are a bit of a liability to me.  I've been in a few rear-enders and my neck is pretty gnarly.  So, I asked Bill about seat options and without missing a beat he showed me 3 different styles from the various models in the shop.  In particular, one white Mustang really close to completion had the seats I liked.  In fact, this car has a lot of things I like including the engine.  That's another plus of having the car at CJPS; they have a lot of examples and working applications making it easier to visualize and make an educated decision.

The last part of the business was the tab for all of this wonderful work.  My grandfather was overheard saying that "If you have to ask how much, then you can't afford it".  My contribution to his legacy is that "If I post how much this cost on the blog, my wife will strangle me".  Seriously though, it is worth every penny. CJPS is very fairly priced and given the added value of professional service and immediate accessibility, are the ones to beat. If you really need to see the breakdown of the expense, just let me know but be prepared to show ID and to prove unequivocally that you are not working on behalf of my loving wife.