[PLATINUM6BBL]

Hello Gentlemen

This is Mike Bonsanti, logging in under Lon's username...Still haven't seen an email, not sure what's up there...Anyway...

Just a few interesting tidbits about the 69..

The guy that owns it is not "in the loop" so to speak..>To him, its just a great car that he takes very good care of, as he does all of his stuff.....The story is that he bought it new locally(it was ordered), and it was meant to be just something to have a bit of fun with while still having some room for his kids...The crazy part is that while it has such low miles, it has actually gone from NJ to California on two family vacations in the early 70's...This was before rt 80 and all...He estimates 15K of the original miles are in those 2 trips..

He got busy with work and basically stopped using it...Years became decades...You know the story..Amazingly, he has 3 sons and none of them have any real interest in the car...He was hoping one of them would take it and care for it as he did..I know, nuts...

He's a very fussy guy...Every shred of original documents he has...There are both sets of orig keys, one set hasn't had the knockouts removed yet..Even with regard to the trailer hitch..When he went out to get a hitch installed, he didn't want any holes drilled...None of the ones available at the time allowed for this, so he had one fabricated by a competent welder..

It is as good a survivor as I have ever seen, and I have had quite a few really good cars through my shop...(I also own a 2800 orig mile 71 Hemi Challenger [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] )...I know what a truly great survivor car looks like and what to do with it..

I've had several offers to buy it...Of course, I tried as well..I highly doubt he'd sell it at this point...Its not about money...These folks like what they like...As a matter of fact, I just finished getting an all original 49 Ford Custom 2 door with a flathead 8 up and running for them that was sitting as well, that <span style="font-weight: bold">his wife's father bought new and they still own!!...</span>

Anyway, he wants to drive the car a bit in nice weather...He knows it's important to maintain originality...And that's the goal...It's not the typical &quot;barn find&quot; low mile car with rat infested interior and rusted/stuck engine..It looks as one of these would if it was carefully driven and well cared for after 2 years or so....Amazingly the fuel doesn't have that turned over smell and rust color/contamination..It hasn't run in decades, but he does remember treating the fuel..We are just going to do a basic cleaning, make sure the ignition/fuel systems are working, etc, prime oil system, etc. and get it up and running...I've pulled a few plugs and sent a borescope down the cylinders and they look clean with the crosshatch still evident..Its not stuck, either...

Basically do as little as possible, to get it into safe operating condition..We are considering getting an additional set of rally wheels and leaving the originals mounted to the original tires...I don't trust them, even though they hold air and amazingly don't look dry rotted..It was stored on stands with the suspension slightly loaded..

Anyway, thanks for interest...These types of finds are almost impossible at this point, so its truly amazing...Proves again, they are still out there!!