21-YO Is Gifted Her Dad's 1968 Mustang That Sat for 18 Years, Her Reaction Is Unexpected

In just two years, the Mustang had fallen by almost 50%, from the all-time best of 607,568 recorded in 1966 to a lukewarm performance by the time Bullitt was making waves on the silver screen. Yet, the car wasn’t entirely without appeal since 317,404 buyers opted for it. One of them was an airline pilot for United Airlines, and his Wimbledon White coupe with red interior must have been quite a looker back in the day.

The car no doubt turned some heads when it drove by, but none as much as the pilot’s neighbor, a car-nut-in-the-making boy who didn’t shy away from popping the question fair and square, ‘Do you want to sell the car?’

Decades went by, and in 2002, the airman, probably tired of the perseverance of the relentless prospect, gave in and sold the car. Yes, the boy from 1968 had grown up to still be a gearhead and kept chasing his dream until the end. And this is where it gets interesting.

After buying the life-long-awaited Mustang, the new owner strangely left it to sit in his garage, slowly collecting dust, mice, and put-away stuff in and on it. After just four short years of happy ownership, the car was sent into retirement with no clear timeline for its revival.

The new owner had kids, and they grew up looking at the derelict car and asking about its fate. One of the man’s daughters kept nagging him about taking her on a dive in a Mustang one day (just like her father had done with the car’s original owner). Finally, the magic day came for the young woman, too.

The car got a well-deserved and long-overdue detailing, courtesy of the merry lads from WD Detailing (save for two OCD-triggering spots that got the YouTube viewers going; do you see them, too?). The owner doesn’t say why he put the Mustang away for the last 18 years, but it’s obvious that the lovely pony made the most of its dusty retirement.

There are some blemishes here and there, but nothing aggravating – the interior probably better shows the car’s 100,000-mile (161,000 kilometers) active service. The first owner, the airplane pilot, would drive it to and from work, so the white Mustang got more than its fair share of sun-baking. The red carpet shows the ultra-violet overexposure most, with one side fading into a not-so-nice shade of grey. That could also be from the heat of the three-speed automatic transmission.

Linked to the console-shifted tranny is Ford’s fabled 289 V8 (the 4.7-liter signature Blue Oval small-block) and a four-barrel carb (that needs some adjusting, and a fire extinguisher nearby).

During the long retirement, the fuel pump succumbed, and replacing it is the only way to bring the 1968 Mustang back to life. One of the owner’s daughters will enjoy putting the 195-hp, 288-lb-ft (198 PS, 391 Nm) notchback through its paces after a literal lifelong wait (she’s 21, and the car has been in her family for 22 years). The man handed her the keys to the vehicle once the detailing job was finished (is it only me, or she wasn’t precisely pleasantly surprised?)