Hi, my name is Katy and I was born on
September 27, 1965, in Dearborn, Michigan. I was always a “sporty” gal,
what with my 289 V8 and I liked to take my top off (if you know what I
mean).
The 60’s were very, very good to me, so I
don’t remember much about them, or the 70’s and heck most of the 80’s. I do
remember; however, winding up in Kerrville, Texas on a used car lot, where
they started to rejuvenate me. I knew however, that I was a long way from
St. Louis where I was delivered to.
Steven and Marissa got me away from those
people and took me to a nice ranch
outside of Fredericksburg, Texas. I thought I had gone to a nice retirement
in the country (I can still smell the peaches), but when Steven put me in
the pole barn, all these crazy critters wanted to well…..use
me! The goats rested on me during the hot Texas days, the chickens roosted
and laid eggs in me
during the night, the mice and rats
love
d making nests all over me and even the
yellow jacket wasps made nests on
the inside of the windshield! I don’t
know how long I was asleep there, but one day the most embarrassing series
of events started happening. Someone, I think it was Mark, put a
chain over my, excuse my rudeness, “rear end” and Steven hooked that chain
up to a Ford tractor and yanked me
out of my home! I knew I was out of shape, but did you guys really have to
use a tractor to get my lazy “quarter panels” out of that barn? Then it got
worse, I couldn’t roll up on the trailer. Steven’s
brother and his buddies, who had
been riding 3- and 4-wheelers, all came over and picked me up so rudely and
set me on the trailer! Mark and Dawn hauled me into Fredericksburg’s 25¢
car wash and gave me a nice bath, shoot, they even massaged me with
the foam brush! That was in March 1990.
I was in Mark and Dawn’s back yard with a
tarp over me for a couple of years while Mark took me apart, piece by piece,
and put all these pieces in little plastic bags and wrote stuff on those
bags. He even had a little helper come along and she had a name that some
of my brothers had, but Mark and Dawn spelled it “Shelbie”.
Over the years, Mark worked on me when he
could, he took my unibody to have it completely submerged in stripper, right
down to my bare metal skin (I really felt Naked!). He then washed me up and
put acid etching primer over my whole body. Next thing I knew I was on a
rotisserie and Mark was cutting out bad metal and putting in new, I was
getting a Complete Makeover! The bottom side of my body got seam sealed and
painted black acrylic enamel with hardener and he installed subframe
connectors. My interior metal was seam sealed and painted white (my
original color).
A Lincoln Versailles rear axle was
rebuilt with a “Randy Meyer” traction lock 3.70 gear set and installed in
the disc brake housing. Randy Meyer also rebuilt all of my power steering
components and steering box to original Ford specs. Mark installed front
disc brakes (4 caliper) and I was ready to come off the rotisserie and hit
the ground after 3 years.
Somewhere in that 3 years, Mark and
Richard bought Alamo Classic, so as a rolling chassis, I was towed there so
my balanced and blueprinted 5.0 litre engine and T-5 transmission could be
installed and I was running again! After making me “street legal”, Mark set
about in getting me painted and after hiring and firing 6 different painters
or shops, he decided that Michael Ramirez, who already worked at Alamo
Classic Mustang, should take a crack at painting me because he was a student
at Saint Phillips College’s paint and body program. Michael put epoxy
primer on and block sanded it twice, once happy with how “Groovy” my
voluptuous curves were, he put on the sealer, 2 coats of Wimbledon White
base coat, 2 coats of Blue Pearlesence metallic, Guardsman Blue Lemans
stripes and 4 coats of clear.
Dawn designed a blue/white pony
upholstery to keep the Lemans stripe theme running through the interior and
Mark had my rollbar powder coated. Kaitlin named me “Katy”. Curtis at
Alamo Classic designed and installed a Pioneer, 8 speaker, 600 watt, AM, FM,
Cassette, and 6 disc changer CD. Hey, Mark and Curtis even gave me some “SAS”,
come check it out! I never had those kind of tunes in the 60’s.
We are ready to cruise again. Hey, “Are we on Overhaulin?”