I was overhauling the engine and it was totally part when I

I was overhauling the engine and it was totally part when I received my acceptance to attend Rice. I had a love hate relationship with this car and I understood the acronyms for Ford (found on road dead and fix or repair daily). At some point it jumped a tooth on the timing belt. The cool thing was that I diagnosed and repaired this.

Side story - I figured out that if while cruising at speed, turning off the ignition for two or three seconds and then turning it back on caused a backfire that sounded like a shotgun. This is pretty abusive to the running gear, but that was not particularly my concern.

One day I was driving on FM105 just west of Bevil Oaks with my Thomas cousins in the car. I got the car up to about 80 and turned off the ignition. I coasted down to about 50 and on the bridge over Pine Island Bayou, I turned the ignition back on. The backfire was stupendous!!! It blew most of the fiberglass packing material out of the mufflers. The cloud of fiberglass behind the car was a sight to behold. It also blew a hole in one of the mufflers, so the car sounded like a real hot rod.