The Bullitt Page

A Day in the original Bullitt Movie Mustang #8R02S125558

© Federico Garza/ hosted by Wolfgang Kohrn  March 6th 2017
USA  
Federico Garza met the owner  of the 2nd Dark Highland Green Mustang used in the Bullitt movie in his business store for fasteners.
 
Here is his report about the 4th most important day in his life, but the best in his Mustang life...


Remark: Why 2nd Bullitt Movie Mustang?
Because the 1st one is known to exist for a much longer time and resides in
Tennessee.



My day with the 1968 Mustang  Fastback “Baja Bullitt”

 By Federico Garza Mexicali, BC Mexico ,  March 6th 2017

It was about 3 months ago, I was attending a good friend and customer at my bussines when Ralph Garcia Jr, Don Luis and 1 or 2 more co-workers walked in the door.

I had met Ralph , as I have met many people over the counter or by referals , I sell fasteners for a living and I
've been involved in Mustangs since I was 17 years old. My dad bought me a 64 ˝ coupe so we could work on it together, he of course giving the technical guidance and paying the bills and me wrenching on it. I still own that coupe today, its currently being transformed in to a fastback  in order to fulfill my long life dream of owning one, it will be passed on to my daughter.

Ralph walked in that day with Don Luis , looking and asking for specialty  fasteners, he told me a good friend refered him, he told me he just opened a shop here locally and was doing Eleanor conversions,  we talked about an hour then afterwards he invited me to go look at his work at his shop.

Sure enough, I drove over, very modest shop,  and he has a handfull of fastbacks, convertibles, coupes , all in various stages of modifications, most getting the Eleanor treatment.

That day out of the blue, Ralph hits me with what I would never expect to hear in person at my store
:
"Do you know the Bullitt Mustang?"

I surely answered that yes, as I often lurk the internet and read almost all ponysite.de and all its stories.

Then he continues I have one of them……. I truly could not beliv
ee him and thought he was bullshitting me."I've found one of the Bullitt Mustangs"  he says again, I've never seen him so nervous, I'd tought he faint right there on the spot.

He takes out his cell phone and proceeds to show me the pictures of the
Vin, Title in both the owners names and Kevin Marti’s report and emails.

I was blown away by all these, more than often I wondered how many “truly” collector cars made it in to Mexico, as at one point or another they were just used cars, salvage or junk. And we here in Mexico have a long story of buying used cars from the US. I had often asked the old guys around here about vintage Shelbys with no positive answer.

Of course I asked immediately to see it, but told Ralph to let me know when it would be a good time, I
'd figured it was not going to be nice on my part to bug and nag him, so I said, I will wait till he calls me or lets me know and not bother him.

He comes back a couple of times to the store, we talk about the car, and my visit, without a negative but not a set date, I wait pat
iently, until he politely tells me "Bring everybody that you want to see it and take pictures."

He starts telling me that he wants to have people come look at it from the states, but wants to show it to the world, I graciously offered to set him up with one of my friends that have reputable fab shops to see if they will host the showing , but we le
ft it at that.

On his next visit he says that
yes, he wants to unveil the car to the world and was trying to get the dealership just crossing the border to host it.
I told him I have 2 good friends that know the owners of the local
Ford dealer...if he'd like I would try to get him an introduction, to which he agreed.

I make some calls, and finally am able to get in touch with Rafael  E. the manager of the local
Ford dealership. I explain to him what has been discovered, and he promptly set an appointment for us with the PR lady at the dealership.

I let Ralph know, but request he bring all the documentation that he has so he can sell his case to the dealership. When we arrive at the dealer Ms. Marcela C. graciously received us and to my surprise they already did there due diligence on the car
.
And to say that they were excited was understatement. They agreed to host the unveiling on march 3rd. and they take care of everything on there side, Ralph just needed to bring the car.

Ralph tells me that he
's going to ask the dealer to let me put some advertising of my bussines for my time and help, I thank him for the good gesture, but tell him, its  his day… I'd just be happy to take him on the offer to see the car before the unveiling, privately with nobody .

So I am patiently awaiting my time to go see the car, weeks have been busy at work, I invite a good friend to come with me, Mustang  fan also, Edgardo C. He texts me everyday, Bullitt, Bullitt, Bullitt, hahahaha, I reply I'm busy ...let me clear a full day and we will go have breakfast and see the car, without any pressure.

That day finally comes on Feb 28
th. We drive over to Ralphs shop, he
's not in, but his workers are, they let us see the car.

To say im bedasseld, mesmerized, and numb just to see it is
...is an understatement, the car is on jackstands, no front suspension, 9” rear end installed, it looks like it has been recently repainted, and they are slapping parts on it… still I start looking , staring and touching it…. To think this care tore it up in the San Francisco streets, behind the wheel the king of cool himself, in one if not the most iconic mustang movie chase of all time, just surpasses me, I just could not belive it was beside that same car………….

Ralph comes in, me and Edgardo C. start chatting with everybody about the car, cars and general, and start taking pict
ures of it and with it. Time stood still for almost 2 hours…. WOW and WOW.

The seats are laying on the ground and I tell Ralph I want to sit in the same s
eat Steve sat in and take a picture. He graciously accepts, I pick up the seat and install it, proceed to sit in it and look at the empty dash… at a worn steering wheel and imagine the darn thing revving like crazy while going sideways or doing jumps while chasing the Challenger.

Ralph tells me to go ahead and let the world know of the cars existence, he gives me h
is blessing to upload the pictures on the Internet, and like they say... the rest is history, that’s my story of me and the “Baja Bullit”.

I
'd just like to wrap up saying that day Feb 28th and the following have been the highlight of my Mustang hobbie, I have had the chance to make great friends with this hobbie, Ralph, Don Luis and the workers at his shop are some of the many people, I hope this will continue happening.

Just to be clear I did not say it was the most important day of my life because I have 3 days that have that place already:

1.-The day  I met my now wife Quinora

2.-The day my daughter Hawa was born

3.-The day my son Carlo was born

I love you all 3 thanks for putting up with my hobbie….
Federico Garza