My mind often wanders in various directions. There is no GPS for my brain. It doesn’t go from point A to point B. Instead, it goes from point A, totally bypasses the original destination, pausing for a second at point C, somehow reroutes to point L, which isn’t even on the map, and then eventually finds its way back to point B.
The other day as I was driving to work, I was thinking about the fact that in two years James will be in high school, and in four years he will be 16. Then I had an interesting thought. Should we buy James a car for his 16th birthday? I know what you’re thinking. “James won’t be able to drive so why would you buy him a car?” Hear me out for a second.
For as long as I can remember, long before James was born, I always envisioned myself buying and fixing up an older sports car with my son. I thought it would be an awesome father/son project. That dream kind of died after James was born and we learned that he had quad cerebral palsy and that he would probably never walk, run, ride a bike, or drive a car.
This may be a midlife crisis creeping up on me, but the thought of him turning 16 in a couple of years resurrected that dream. I mean, sure he would never be able to drive it, but does that mean we shouldn’t do it? I think he would feel pretty cool cruising around town, being dropped off at school, or even going to car shows in a car that he worked on with his old man. Of course, we’d have to modify it so that he could sit it in—probably not with his wheelchair—but if we could find some kind of special seating system that would keep him safe and secure.
If we were to do this, what kind of car would I buy? Well, ever since I got my driver’s license, I’ve wanted a third generation Mustang, commonly referred to as the Fox Body Mustang, which was built between 1979 and 1993. Can I use James as an excuse to finally get one? I will be almost 50 when James turns 16, so can this also be a 50th birthday gift for me?
To give you an idea of what a “Fox Body” Mustang looks like, this a 1990 Mustang GT:
“1990 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 Hatchback in Ultra Blue, front right” by Mr.choppers is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 
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I started to look around a bit to see what’s for sale and was a little bit discouraged. The prices are a bit higher than I thought they would be for a 30+ year old car. I guess they’re starting to become classics which is driving up the price. I have also noticed that a lot of them have been modified, are pretty beaten up, or have been just plain neglected. I’d like to find one stock (unmodified), and in relatively decent shape if possible. I don’t want to have to do a complete restoration, which could be really expensive. I also don’t know what it’s going to cost to modify/adapt it for James. Maybe it won’t even be possible, but I’d like to give it a shot.
Stacy and I are fortunate that both of our cars are paid off. I don’t want to take out a loan to buy a car that is going to be a project. I think that would be pretty stupid. I don’t think people would want to donate to a fundraiser for this project, would they? Would people and businesses be interested in becoming sponsors? Kind of like NASCAR, we could have stickers done up for each of the sponsors and put them on the car.
What do you all think? Am I just dreaming, or do you think this would be a cool project that James and I could work on together?
