Written by Mike Williams | 05 January 2011

Big Blue

Mike & Lori Williams' '73 Convertible

I bought my first Mustang when I was 20 years old from George Thompson Ford in East Point, Georgia. Prior to that I owned a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 383 Magnum and decided that the insurance premiums were a little beyond my means. So my mom and I made a trip down to the Ford dealer to trade “UP”. That evening I sped away in a 1973 Mustang coupe. It was a car that had been brought in for the boss’ son with special order paint, Medium Aqua, but when he saw it he did not like the color.

Fast forward five years and two or three cars later I was living in Meridian, Mississippi and driving a 1975 Firebird when I was driving home one evening from work and spotted a beautiful white 73 convertible. Within a week it was mine! I drove that Mustang for several years and sold it in 1979 to make a down payment on my first house.

Twenty years later my first wife Cathy had just returned from a trip to Hawaii in which she had spent our entire life savings on. Being very guilty and all, she suggested that I go looking for a “car” like I used to have when I was a kid, so for about six months we looked for another 73 Mustang. We finally found and bought “big blue” from a guy who lived on Lake Norman near Charlotte, North Carolina. We enjoyed driving the car for several months and my oldest son Brian actually learned how to drive in it.

The car was pretty well ragged out and needed more TLC than I could provide so off we went looking for someone to bring it back to life. I contacted the MCA office in Pensacola and asked for restoration shops in our area and they recommended Larry Vanderwalker in Waxhaw, North Carolina, who was a member of the Carolina Regional Mustang Club. Cathy and I took our beauty to Larry in May of 2000. That was one of the reasons we became members of CRMC. Larry kept the car for close to six years. We would often kid Larry about rolling the car into the weeds as Cathy and I drove off that afternoon.

A lot of water passed under the bridge during the course of the next six years. Cathy was diagnosed with cancer in September of 2000 and passed away on December 8^th of 2000. My sons Brian and Steven both graduated from high school and I of course became very impatient and purchased two more Mustangs during the course of waiting on “big blue” to be finished- another 1973 convertible and a 1983 Mustang LX convertible.

Much time passed and I was blessed with another lady who came into my life, my wife Lorie. So the car(s) that were originally to be a bonding tool for my sons and myself became one of the things that Lorie and I enjoy doing together. Lorie became my hit man with Larry and began to persistently pester him on the progress of our Mustang that he had in his shop. Within 6 months Larry finished our beloved blue Mustang.

Excepting for the fact that our car was a convertible it was identical to my first Mustang that I owned. It has a 302-2V with an automatic, Deluxe interior with Mach 1 gauges, air conditioning, power steering and brakes, power windows and intermittent wipers. Another unique feature on this car is the working factory 8-track. It turns heads when you pull up to a traffic light with the top down and Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein is blaring from the speakers. Lorie and I started showing the car in the spring of 2006.

Our first show was at the annual Cherry Blossom festival in Macon, Georgia. Lorie and I have been showing the car at various local shows and Mustang Club of America National and Grand National shows since then. We have had so much fun driving, being part of local parades and just meeting so many good people who also drive and own Mustangs. We have enjoyed this part of our life so much that we have purchased two more Mustangs, a 2008 GT convertible and 1975 Mustang II Ghia.

This spring our blue Mustang will have earned enough show points that hopefully we will awarded a Blue Grill Medallion at the National show in Jacksonville, Florida. I suggested a couple of months ago that we consider selling our blue Mustang after the 2011 show season. Lorie said she would get rid of me before we got rid of “big blue”. It has truly become a major part of our family’s activities.