The Best Darn Headlights for Classic Cars

Intro 00:54
Welcome to The Ford Mustang - First Generation, The Early Years Podcast. Every week we will have conversations with collectors, experts, weekend warriors and those in the know when it comes to first generation ponies. Start your engines and let's go!

Doug  01:09
Ford Mustang community. This is going to be an exciting, exciting interview when it comes down to it. We all have these incredible cars or Mustangs that take us from the present day and transport us back to 50 years, to a much simpler time. But, on that day, some of the technology was let's just say less than stellar. So consider for a moment your classic Mustangs headlights. I've driven a few dark roads that no matter how much my high beams put out, it just can't compare to today's high tech lights. Until now. Enter George. George is from Bangin Headlights. Not only is George a classic Mustang enthusiast and an owner, he's an entrepreneur with a dream here to share not only his idea, but his launch of his product and I'm so excited to be able to introduce the product to you guys. You will want this for your classic pony. Welcome George the Ford Mustang the Early Years podcast.

George  01:59
Thanks Doug. Thanks for having me. I'm really excited to speak to you and to your community.

Doug  02:03
We met on… and it's your community too... You know, you're actually... Every time I run into you on Instagram, not only are your posts like racking up the likes, but you have this incredible knack for a great logo, a great brand, a great product and your timing is perfect for your product. So let's start with just the whole idea.

First of all, tell everybody where you are, where I'm actually talking to you today because I know you're not across this country, you're somewhere else.

George  02:31
Yes, I'm based in Australia. I'm based in sunny Perth, Western Australia. We like to think of ourselves as the LA, the California of Australia. Not quite there. But yes, it's a very good spot to be in

Doug  02:45
Beautiful weather and beautiful times there. And actually, it's about 4pm pacific time as the recording of this episode. What time is it for you?

George  02:56
Coming up to 8:00 in the morning,

Doug  02:57
8:00 in the morning. So I got George out of bed to do this interview. I'm excited to be able to chat with him.

Okay, so I found out some stuff during the pre-interview part that I had no idea about. And I want to talk about this for a moment before we jump into the product and talk about your car and talk about all your backstory and everything. You're an accountant. I did not realize that.

George  03:15
Yes, accountant by profession. I worked as a proper accountant, since I graduated out of university that’s over 10 years now. And about a year and a half back, I decided that accounting wasn't giving me the satisfaction I needed in life. And I really have always wanted to make something, to create something, you know, to have something out there that I can say I made this. And I started with... I have a few interests and I started out making leather products, about a year and a half back. And that's kind of when COVID happened. And the story goes that, you know, when COVID happened, oil prices fell, we were in lockdown, the roads were empty, and I just found myself sneaking out at night and driving my Mustang around like I'd never done before. And that's kind of when I realized that, hey, this is a lot of fun, but it would really help if I had better headlights. And I just like everyone else I went on NPD, I went on CJ Pony Parts, I checked out what the existing headlight options are out there. And I tried quite a few options. And I realized that either they didn't work as well as they should have, they didn't look right. Or they were just too expensive, you know, and that’s kinda what… I literally thought I can make better headlights. And I started speaking to a few people on forums, bouncing ideas, saying, "Hey! If I do this, will it work? I'm going for this look, what do you guys think?" And I got a lot of feedback, which kind of aligned with what I was doing. And I had a few people tell me - hey, if you’re making something for yourself, I’d like a piece of that and that's kind of just where I got the idea that yeah, let's just go for it.

Doug  04:58
Yes, let's talk about some of the... Now we're going down the path, I mean, I definitely want to come back and talk about your Mustang, which you gave me a nice little story of a 66 coupe and it's bright red and beautiful. And it's a hot looking car. But let's talk about the headlights for a second because I think that this is an important element obviously for the show.

So the specs, how did you determine what specs you were going to use for it? Because I've seen these on Instagram. And by the way, I'll put a link to George's @banginheadlights Instagram page directly in our show notes. So if you want to see what these headlights look like, and you want to take a cool look at the logo, also very, very crafty, neat idea that George is doing. But let's talk about the specs for the headlights. What compelled you to know that you had something that would be really advantageous for our community to get a hold of when it comes to their headlights for their car?

George  05:47
So with headlights... So we started with just going back, the history of headlights. Originally they were incandescent just like the bulbs you have in your house, then at some point they went to halogen which are a bit brighter, but they don't work as well in our cars, mainly because we have old wiring, our wiring is kind of convoluted. It goes via the light switch inside the car. So it's a really long run. And the longer the run is, the more of a voltage drop you have, old alternators… Basically, halogen wasn't cutting it. Which brings us to modern technology. There are two ways of looking at it. There's HID, which a lot of new cars have. But again, it's sucking so much power that our cars just can't cope.

Doug  06:27
And it's super expensive too.

George  06:29
Yeah, yeah. And then there's the magic technology of LED, which uses less power and actually puts out more light. The problem with LEDs is that the way they way put the light out, if you put them in a conventional headlight, which is a reflector, so you know there's a reflector bowl, basically like this mirror, and the light bounces off the back, and then it gets put out there. If you use an LED bulb in a reflector style headlight, what you end up doing is, it looks really bright, it blinds everyone ahead of you, but you don't actually see any better. So what modern car technology has evolved into is we've got projector, which is basically like a little glass lens, which sits in front of the LED. And as the light goes through the LED, it focuses a beam and you know, it puts the light exactly where you need it and nowhere else. So you get this really bright hotspot as we call it, focused on the road. And this is what you see in every new car made in the last three or four years. So I decided I'm going to put this exact same technology in our 7 inch headlights.

Doug  07:42
All right, but you took these headlights and I look at some of the demos of them again, on Instagram, you have a bunch of different stories that you post and I'm sure you got a ton of reels. And you do have a lot of posts that show the difference in the brightness between the incandescent and the LED and maybe even some others that are out there. But you have some really unique features. Like you offer some color options and you, like the demon eyes and you have the circle and you turn indicator as well. So maybe share some of that stuff too. Not that the other stuff isn't important, but it's like - Okay, so I can get a brighter bulb that's a little bit brighter, but share some of these really cool features that you have to offer too.

George  08:19
So we are doing 3 features, which are options. The first and easiest feature is that you can have a blacked out headlight. So instead of a shiny chrome, your headlight can be completely black, which really goes well on as people call them murdered out cars. If you've got a black Mustang, especially I love it when it's on a 68 or 69. Your chrome bumpers have been replaced with black bumpers, if you've got black headlights, it just really completes the look. And so that's one option we do.

The other option we're doing is halos. Halos are basically a ring around the circumference of the light bulb. And we've got two styles. One is the more traditional style where you've got a white day-time running light. And this also functions as an indicator and it's clever enough that it automatically switches between the two. So you know if you've got the daytime running light on and you turn your indicator on, it starts flashing amber. As soon as you turn your indicator off, it goes back to white and it's a very useful feature you know, because traditionally headlights they help you see better, but they don't actually help you be more visible. These day time running lights are designed in such a way that they are eye catching. They are a particular color, particular brightness, which makes you very visible on the road. And I am always worried that some Toyota Camry driver won't see me, will just pull in in-front of me. And we're all worried about that when we’re driving our cars so it's a really neat safety feature to have both daytime running lights as well as a bright indicator. We also do a second halo, which is... It's called RGB, it stands for Red Green Blue. It's color changing. It's controlled with a Bluetooth app. It is just really funky. It's like having a disco in your light bulb.

Doug  10:15
I've seen it. I've seen the demo of it. It's ultra-cool. I'm not sure I'm ready quite for the disc-going. Classic Mustang. But the halo for sure. I saw that I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is totally cool. So you have those three options, those three upgrades. Anything else about some of the special features,

George  10:33
The third option is a demon eye, which is basically... So I get this comment a lot with my headlight because of the projector lens. Many people see it as an eyeball. Some people call it an iris. And we have this little colored chip that we put behind it. You can toggle it on and off with another switch under your dash. You turn it on, and it's almost like the eyeball comes to life. And you can have it in a few really vivid colors like red, green, blue, purple, yellow and it just stands out and it makes your car look mean. It makes it look like it's got personality. And yeah, a lot of people just want to make the car special, give it something unique. And it's a really cool easy way to do it.

Doug  11:15
So talk to me about... You know, me... if you've listened to my show for any length of time you know, I'm not Mr. Technology now while I have put my hat into the ring of being able to make some of the repairs the heater box, the lenses in the bezel and lens in the dash, I've replaced those. But I'm a little concerned about me, Mister no tech, is this something that I'm going to be able to put in without any issue at all.

George  11:42
I have picked up on your apprehensions listening to your podcast. And one thing I can tell is, so when I got my car 10 years ago, I was kind of like you, I didn't really know much about... I knew how to change a tire. But a lot of the nitty gritty, I was the same, I was scared to touch things in case I broke it. But you start off small and you build something, you get some confidence. And if you do something, well, you know that okay, I did this, and I did really well. And I torqued it to torque specs, and I use thread locker and it's not going to come off on me on the road. And you feel like yes, I did it and I did it well, so it's going to work well, and we all have to start off small somewhere. And actually, I was thinking about you and I was installing my headlights, I made a video just the other day about showing how to install the headlights in my car, I thought if there's someone like Doug out there who's a bit worried about what they should do on their own car, installing headlights, it's a very good safe place to start. Because there's not much you can break. And worst case scenario your lights might go out. But yes, I think installing headlights is a good place, you could start.

Doug  13:03
Now I’m looking at some of the specs. And I don't want to go too deep into this because somebody is not that's listening to the show is not going to have the light bulb, the headlights right in front of them. So they might not understand what I'm talking about. And maybe even I'm not even gonna understand what I'm about to say but help walk me through it for just a second. I understand that there's a couple of different options, you have a plug and play option. If they don't go for any of the options, they can basically just change the headlights that they have in place, put the new ones in, if there's none of those options that you were talking about, they're just going to get a brighter LED bulb, which are going to be also Bangin Headlights. The other options are the outer Halo and the iris (demon-eye), they may involve, especially you mentioned putting a switch under the dash. So I assume that there is some additional wiring that needs to be done. But you walk people through that as well.

George  13:50
Yes, exactly. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be making videos that go on Instagram which show how to do things properly. And then by the time headlights are shipping out, I'd have full detailed videos that I'll put up on YouTube so that people can follow it all the way pause it, when they need to. And yes, make it easy for them.

Doug  14:09
Alright, so if you're listening right now live on Facebook, I'm about to give you a link. Now the link that I'm about to give you does not work yet. So if you're listening to this in the replay, or on the podcast, which is where most people are going to be listening to this, the link will be active but just know today, if you're listening on Facebook Live, the link that I'm about to give is not going to be the working link because George and I are just discussing this right now. And we want to make sure that George says something extra special for our Ford Mustang community which is provide a discount to you if you're going to buy these headlights. So here's how you get the discount.

Head over to themustangpodcast.com/headlights H-E-A-D-L-I-G-H-T-S put an S on the end of that themustangpodcast.com/headlights. It will give you access not only to the headlights that George is talking about, but there'll be a promo code that will be built into that as well. So just know, we will make sure that you get the discount. But if you're watching on Facebook live right now, the discount is not available because we haven't started selling these things yet. But we are looking for pre sales and that will be happening very, very soon. As soon as this comes out, you'll have access to the discount. So, share a little bit more tell me what what's your hope? What's your dream? Where are you thinking this is going to go? Do you want to be bought out by a larger company? So you can just sit on the beach in Perth and enjoy your time?

George  15:25
No, it's really funny that you asked me that, you know, because I go to a few small business seminars, meet up with other business owners, even my accountant, they're always talking about or you got to structure it properly. You got to have your intellectual property in place and I'm like why exactly and they're like, oh, so that you know when it's time to sell it then you don't have any legal hassles and I'm thinking why would I want to sell this, I'm doing this because I really enjoy making this product and that's... At the moment very headlight is being assembled by me because I want to make sure that it's going out with my name on it. Quality should be the best possible and I'm doing this because it gives me satisfaction so...

Doug  16:09
Well George, as soon as we get the first ones shipped I'm going to make an introduction to Rick Schmidt who was the owner of National Parts Depot for you and I'll talk to him. Now I don't have the same connection with CJ as I do with National Parts Depot but I do know Bill Tumas from CJ Pony Parts. He'll at least take my email. I don't know that he'll listen to me. I might have a little bit more of an ear of Rick over National Parts Depot. He's a super, super great guy. He put a bunch of

George  16:37
I just heared your interview with NPD the other day.

Doug  16:40
Yes, a great interview. And I've actually had an opportunity since then to use them a couple of times kind of testing out his customer service philosophy and National Parts Depot definitely kicking some major butt and doing a great job on customer service. Fast, super-fast delivery and super cheap too. But don't forget, if you want to take advantage of George's headlights, it's themustangpodcast.com/headlights put an S on the end of that.

Doug  17:03
Tell me a little bit more. So you've been driving your 66 Red Coupe for 9 years. Is that right?

George  17:10
Yes. Coming up to 10 soon. Yes, so...

Doug  17:14
Tell me a little bit about it. Tell me a little bit of the backstory. I know that you're the first guy that had it registered in Australia, although the guy that owned it before you brought it over. So he did all the heavy lifting you just took over from there.

George  17:28
No, he didn't! Going back to the story. So when I was at university, I used to drive this little Hyundai Hatchback. And then I got my first job and I was still driving the Hyundai Hatchback. And I started earning... It was my first proper job. I started earning money and I enjoyed spending it on things like traveling overseas. And I took a lot of holidays initially, but at some point my mom told me... It's funny. My mom told me that..

Doug  17:56
We all have them.

George  17:58
Maybe you should get a better car now you're working a proper job. It doesn't look good that you drive around this little Hyundai Hatchback. And she told me oh, you should check out this VW Polo. And this Honda it's a bit bigger. And I'm like, Ah! Why should I buy some of those cars? And I literally, I remember saying this off the cuff. I was like, I'd rather buy a vintage Mustang! And at that point I didn't… I knew vintage Mustangs looked cool, but I hadn't really researched into it. And that same night, went on carsales.com.au and I typed in... I remember a very randomly typed in 1966 Mustang just because the number 1966 sounded good. And these pictures came up and half of them were red. And I was like yeah, man, I just said it off the cuff. But this is the car I want. And it took me about 2 years from that till I found the car that I wanted. And I literally was so obsessed with it that I'd see a Mustang parked in someone's driveway and I leave a note saying please call me if you want to sell it.

One time I actually went to the door and I knocked on it and the guy came out and he's like, "No, I'm not going to sell mine. But have you ever driven one?" And I said, "No, I actually haven’t even driven one." And he was so gracious that he put me in the driver's seat and showed me - Okay, you've got to pump the pedal twice. And then you got to crank it and you have got to feather it. So it comes on, so that's kind of how it went. But then when I found my car. It was in Sydney and I called the owner and this was the first person I'd called inter-state and Sydney is a very long way from Perth. It's almost a 4 hour flight. So I spoke to him and I was very concerned about a few things mainly rust.

So I just kept asking you’re sure there's no rust, you’re sure there's no problems, you’re sure there's no Bondo, no filler. And he said that he and his brother, they went over to the states and this was the best car they bought that year. And he has some kind of business where he regularly buys Mustangs from the states brings them over either sells them as is or does them up. So he told me that he hadn't done anything with this car. It had been sitting in his garage for about 8 or 9 months, and he had another baby on the way. And it had to be the baby of the car.

So he was letting go of the car and I just organized… I was wondering whether I should go over and look at it myself. But it looked very nice in photos and I took a big risk in hindsight, I got an inspector to go over, check it out, make sure the engine ran smoothly, suspension was good, it wasn't rusty. And the inspector gave me the all clear and I literally, I bought it. I just transferred the money. And a couple of days later it was on a train from Sydney to Perth and took about a week to get here and that was it. Yes, the first time I saw it, it was at the train yard. And that was the first time I drove my car. That's the first time I realized the brakes were completely gone. Because it had manual brake when I got it. I smashed down on the brake. I started the car. And as I put it in drive, as it moved to drive, it went through reverse, and the car started going backwards.

Doug  21:23
Wow. So you really had no brakes. So it's an automatic C4.

George  21:30
It's an automatic, yes.

Doug  21:31
Okay, great. And you have a 289 in there, right?

George  21:34
Yes.

Doug  21:35
And how much work have you done on it because you took me on a tour of your garage and the car just looks like it's in pristine… Now you know, it could be a 10 foot car, you know, it looks great at 10 feet, but you get up to the window and it's little rough, but it looked really really sweet. So tell me some of the work that you've done on it.

George  21:52
It's pretty good. When I got it the exterior was.... I haven't done anything to the exterior. It's probably had one paint job sometime maybe 20, 25 years ago. It's nice, but it's not so nice that I feel too worried about driving it which is a good spot to be in. The interior was very good. There were a few pieces of chrome which either needed to be polished or I replaced, the rearview mirror and you know, the sun visor, they had a little bit of corrosion on it. Changed out the interior lights, I had to do a little bit of rewiring inside, make the interior lights work, make the shifter light work. The headlight switch wasn't working...

Doug  22:33
That shifter light, I'll tell you that's one little... I mean if it's like the 65 that I have, you take off the little mounting mechanism there's a wire that's in there, that bulb, that's not an easy bulb to find the little bracket that it goes on but so mine doesn't work but my dash lights are all... I think there are 8 bulbs in there, I just replaced all 8 bulbs and the resistor on the back of that, the lens and the bezel it's looking good. Your car looks sweet man! I'm sure it's driving much better than it did the day that you got it, right?

George  23:06
Yes, the day that I got it the brakes didn't work. There were a few things which now I realize are completely gone. So what I did was I drove it home to have my lunch before I took it over to the mechanic and as I was getting close to my house, I looked at the fuel gauge. And I was like oh does the fuel gauge works because it's on empty. And as we got into the drive it, it cut off, I literally had to take my other car, go to the fuel station, fill a jerrycan, come back and fill it up… had my lunch and I went straight to my mechanic. So I've already spoken with this mechanic in Perth, who does just vintage Mustangs, and a few other vintage cars. But I told him that I'm getting this car and you mentioned it earlier, but my car had never been registered in Australia.

So we call it “getting it over the pits” which basically means the mechanic has to inspect it and tell you that everything is perfect and pristine. So you know, it has to be better than many other cars out there which are considered roadworthy. It has to be pristine. So my mechanic, he restored a few things completely to factory. Power steering was leaking, radiator hoses were leaking, the four drum brakes were completely shot. Transmission needed a bit of work, engine needed a big tune up. So when I went to pick it up from him, he opened up the hood. And inside, I swear it look just like I was back in 1966. He had repainted everything. He put the correct stickers, the decals. It just looked so good. And I'm so glad that I had to do it. It cost me a bit. But yeah, it was really worth it.

Doug  24:55
So talk to me about the community a little bit because I know that you play a really active role on Instagram with the Mustang community that's there. And there are literally 10s of 1000s, if not, hundreds of 1000s of people on Instagram that are really classic Mustang enthusiasts, and you monitor and you respond. And you are in it all the time. So talk to me a little bit about the classic Mustang community, at least from a social media perspective, because we're in it all the time.

George  25:25
Yes, I really only discovered this community about a year back and I used to… it's weird. I used to feel conscious about posting pictures of my car on my own Instagram page, on my personal page. Then I saw a few girls - Gelstang and you know, Francesca and Marissa so they had really cool Instagram profiles, and I used to actually write to them and say, Look, I'm meeting up with a friend today, we're going to take photos exactly like you girls do. And I put up a few on my Instagram. And so I realized that this community is very nice. And then when I started Bangin Headlights, obviously, it was all about the community, and I really enjoy speaking to people. I feel like I know so many people personally, even though we've never met in person, many of them have a social conversation, many of them actually send me voice messages instead of speaking. And it really feels like, especially in this whole weird 2 years of COVID where many people haven't really had that social interaction. It's been very good. Not only have I gotten to know so many new people, but they've been really helpful to me in terms of both guiding me as to what they want in their headlights actively promoting it and the community, just being really supportive. And yes, really enjoyed the social media community we have not just for Mustangs, but for all classic cars.

Doug  26:50
How about the actual, real life community that is in Australia in Perth? Do you have a big group of Mustang owners or is it a pretty small microcosm?

George  27:01
It's estimated that there are about 300 classic Mustangs just in Perth and you don't see them out all the time. But we have like an All Fords Day, and we have regular Classic Cars and Coffee and you see a lot of them come out at the same time. And yes, it's a great community, I'm a part of the club. What I find different in Perth compared with what you guys probably have mainly in California, is that a lot of the guys in Perth are of the older demographic, and maybe we had a generational gap. But more and more recently, I've been finding younger guys and girls driving these cars and... Yeah, funny story, but I was at a nightclub a couple of months back, I got into salsa dancing scene during the previous year. Yes, it was great fun, and I came out of the bar, and it was dark, and I’d had a drink or two and I came out it was dark. But there was this neon lighting on the building across. And I looked at this car in front of me. And it was like the 67 Ivy Green Mustang Coupe. And it's like, I must be dreaming because you don't see that out in the entertainment district at night. And it was so cool. And I took a video for my Instagram and I just left one of my business cards under the windscreen. Before I got home, I had a message on my social media saying, "Hey, this is my car, etc., etc. And I saw who the message was from and it was from a guy who I vaguely knew in the salsa dancing scene. And not only was he in that scene, but he's also the lead dancer of the WA ballet company, which is quite a big deal. And he just said, hey, it’d be really great to meet up and the two of us we met up for a drink, we went for a drive and just through this community, I got to make a really good friend. And yes, that's the beauty of these cars that no matter how different you might be, it kind of brings people together.

Doug  29:09
Well, I 100% agree with you. I think that there was or maybe there continues to be a little bit of a generation gap between the older generation and younger generation, most of the people that are listening to the show. And if you don't fit this demographic, and you're listening to our podcast right now, I apologize for just a moment. Many of our listeners, the ones that I have spoken with are between probably 55 years old and 80 years old. And the challenge is how do we get the 20 somethings or the 30 somethings into the classic Mustang world. And you know, guys with kids, it's kind of our responsibility to pass our cars on to our kids.

You know, try not to flip the car, just try to give it to a family member, somebody that's younger that can love and appreciate the car as much as you do. And yes, I think the younger community is beginning more and more to embrace the classic Mustang world, you have guys like Bradley Belcher who is the classic, or is in charge of or head of the millennial Mustang registry. And, you know, you understand that there are many people that are in their 30s. While it is still mainly an older guys, unfortunately older guys, industry, there are a lot of women that are getting involved in it. And there's a lot of younger people that are getting into it too. We just need more of them. So if you know a woman in your life that would love to learn more about classic Mustangs, this is the place. If you have some kids that would love to learn a little bit more you can hear we're not all tech and spec here on the show, we're probably more story than tech and spec, have them listen to the podcast. And again, I want to get back to the headlights for a quick moment before we wrap up George. What is it that is your... What's your hope? What's the goal? I know it is probably to get more headlights in more people's cars. But you tell it in your words, what do you hope to accomplish with putting these headlights of this product out to the world?

George  31:01
I feel like, this is a popular saying – “these cars are made to be driven”. And we shouldn't let ancient technology get in the way of enjoying our cars. So there are a few... I mean, there are a lot of people out there who believe in keeping things stock and I can agree with that. But there are some upgrades which you do, which are, I'd say – unobtrusive, reversible, which make your life easier, make driving your car more fun. Something like putting Pertronix electronic ignition in your car, putting an AOD transmission in your car, improves your fuel economy.

Doug  31:38
Fuel Injection, Disk brakes on the front….

George  31:48
Yeah!! Some of them cheaper than others, some of them for safety, some of them for performance, and I think headlights are one of those things that you know, they're a safety thing. They make night driving more enjoyable. You can customize your look. And yeah, I speak to a lot of guys, when I go for car shows in Perth, and I talk to them about headlights. And they usually say “I don't need headlights because I don't drive at night”. And then I asked him why don't you drive at night. And they say, “Because I can't see!!”.

Doug  32:16
Well, it's time to correct all of that, you know, I'm excited about... I know you've probably have pre-sold a bunch of these, I'm going to be one of your presale customers because I'm looking forward to not only getting them in my car, but to talk about them after I've put them in my car to, for the ease of installation, which I know there's going to be always some hurdles for me to jump when it comes to technology. But I'm willing to put the time and the energy into it, not only to improve my safety, but to also support a guy that has supported me on social media and you're just one of those guys that people just fall in love with, George. So thank you for being that guy.

George  32:59
Thank you.

Doug  33:00
So again, Ford Mustang community, the way to get a hold of the headlights if you're listening on the podcast right now. So you can go over to the link now which is themustangpodcast.com/headlights put an S on the end of that. If you're watching live on Facebook right now. Just wait till the episode comes out and we'll make sure that we have the proper discount code for you and the link will be working.

One final piece of advice George to give to anybody that's in our community. Maybe these are classic Mustang enthusiasts, somebody's looking to potentially buy a classic Mustang. What advice would you share as a fellow classic Mustang enthusiast?

George  33:38
When I was looking to buy my car, so I asked somebody who was in the know how. And he asked me very specifically "Do you prefer Fastback or a Coupe or Convertible", and I said, "Yes, Coupes, I really actually like the Coupe or Convertible." So he's like, okay, that body styles good, you will find a few Coupes." And then he asked me, "Do you like a 66 or 67, 68 or 69 style?" And I said, I like the 66. So he's like, okay, cool. Once you've got your body style and your years sorted, the only things you need to look out for are... He told me, Automatics are better, because they make driving more pleasurable. He told me make sure it's left hand drive. And he said that if you really want to be discerning, make sure it's a V8. So I was like, okay, cool. I'll take off those three, especially because in Australia, they're kind of harder to find. So, those are my three criteria, and he said, "What color do you want?" and I said "I want a red". So that's what I was looking for. But the only thing which I tell people is check for rust. The tip I was given was take a bucket of water and throw it down the cowl and see how much comes onto your feet.

Doug  34:51
If you do that, and the current owner yells at you then you know that you have a car that's not going to... that has rust in it.

George  34:59
Yes. And the other thing I'd say is that don't be scared to work on your car. There are so many YouTube videos out there I have seen every single YouTube video out there on changing your suspension, doing the Shelby drop, upgrading to disc brakes. And the more you watch, the more confidence it gives you and then when you do things, just do it properly the first time. Don't take shortcuts and you won't have any worries when you're on the road.

Doug  35:26
Wise advice, George and thank you so much for not only sharing your product but sharing your personality and your inspiration with our community. I was excited to have you on the show and you did not disappoint. It was a great episode. Thanks for being...

George  35:39
Cheers Doug!! It was really good talking to you.

Doug  35:41
Yes, my pleasure. Good talking to you as well. So Ford Mustang community if you have a question or you want to be a guest on the show, or you think you know a good guest for the show, just send an email directly to me. It's Doug @turnkeypodcast.com Keep it safe, keep it rolling and keep it on the road. Until next time!

Outro 35:57
Thanks for listening to the Ford Mustang, First generation, The Early Years Podcast, please subscribe, rate and review. Wherever you listen to your podcasts ideas for the show, click the link in the show notes. Thanks again for tuning in.

Doug  36:13
Alright, so we're back for one quick moment. As soon as I stopped recording, George said, I have one more story I want to share about my car. So George, you are on now. This is just a bonus for those that are listening to the podcast episode. Go ahead, George.

George  36:24
Okay, so when I got my car, it came with a bunch of registration papers from the last LA owner. So I had all these DMV documents. It had her name, it had her address on there. It was a lady called Carolyn Mason. And I remember when I first got my car 10 years ago, I thought let me check out this address. Look at it in Google Streetview. See if my car's parked in the driveway. I tried looking for her on Facebook, but I didn't find her. And then last year, out of the blue, I was like, let's see if I can find her again. I don't even know if she's around anymore! So I just did a Google search, I put in Carolyn Mason, the LA address. And it came up with a page saying “Carolyn Mason – Author”, and it had the same mailing address. So I sent her an email saying, "Hey, did you ever have red Mustang 66? If so write back to me." And she wrote back to me. And we just said, let's do a FaceTime. I'll show you the car. And we FaceTimed and she told me the most amazing stories about this car. So she told me that the original owner was this guy called Dr. Milton Trager. He was based out of San Fran, just across the bridge. I think it's called Mill Valley, the area's called Mill Valley where he had his clinic. And he was really famous chiropractor who has developed his own method of chiropractic. And she used to work for him. And she said that ever since she saw the car, she wanted to buy it. And then she ended up buying the car from him. But she told me the whole story about the car, it's a San Jose car, lived in LA, went up to San Francisco, then the doctor moved to Hawaii, in Honolulu. And it made a lot of sense, you know, because I found all these car dealership, car service cards from Honolulu in my dashboard. And I couldn't understand why…

Doug  38:21
The car was taken to Hawaii?

George  38:23
Yeah! So not only was my car taking to Hawaii, but it came back to LA and then it came to Australia. So it's crossed the Pacific Ocean three times. And now it's in Perth. So it's on the Indian Ocean. So this car has been places. And I just feel like you know, when I drive the car, not only is it like a piece of history which I'm driving around and preserving. But it also has so many memories attached to so many people that I'm responsible for. So it feels like a really good but big responsibility to have when driving my car around.

Doug  38:57
What a great story. Thank you for sharing that George, I very much appreciate you. You're telling me hey, hit record one more time I want to share a story about the car. Thanks for sharing that!