Here’s the story of my 89 SHO. I bought it new from the Ponca City OK Ford dealer in Oct 1989. It had been sitting in an OKC dealership with no takers. I needed a car (my first new car) and my auto friends raved about the SHO. I read up and decided it fit my needs and desires. When it was delivered I saw that there had been many test drives before I got it. I should have expected that! It was a powerful and trendy vehicle.
Two months after the purchase I drove to my widowed Mom’s home in the Florida Keys, Christmas lead-in. Stopped in Tupelo MS and toured Elvis’ birthplace. Two days before Christmas so it was only me in the two-room shotgun. The lady gave me all the time I needed for questions and my own memories of The King. I was feeling pretty good when I left.
I-10 was closed for icy bridges so I took US 90 from Madison, east. Wasn’t tired so I kept driving. Round about midnight I hit some black ice near Live Oak and spun across the median. A simple donut since there was no curb and the median was coastal flat. Ended up straddling both westbound lanes. I got out to look at the car and saw my right rear tire was horizontal on the ground. No way I was driving out of this mess. Flagged a car and got a tow truck to take me off the road. Turns out he had a daughter in Homestead; he and his wife wanted to see her for the holiday. So that overnight on half the state of back roads that weren’t closed he towed me the 500 miles to my Mom. They had a half-hour reunion Christmas Eve morning to exchange presents and goodies before we hit the Keys.
From then it was months of repair attempts. The wheel casting had broken and twisted the axel. The Homestead Ford dealership was sloppy and couldn’t work on it for a while so I flew back to Ponca City. Flew back a month later, driving the car back home but the suspension was bad. Wore down that tire. Needed more repairs.
There was also the question of cause. I sent the busted casting to a research lab for analysis. They found clearly a pre-existing fracture. I sued Ford. Took me four years and many more repairs before I was made whole. Arbitration made the corporation pay for everything, tow included. All repairs. After settling with my lawyer I had $500 left. And the satisfaction of being right. We learned that they had many such defective castings. The pencil-pushers decided it was cheaper fighting a few lawsuits than scrapping all those parts. I found nothing in Ralph Nader’s files until after the suit was settled. That seemed strange,
As you all know maintaining SHOs is tricky. And getting trickier as the years pass for the older models. Mike Stimson from SHO Source found me a motor mount that my shady tree guy installed. In 2018 he put me onto a retrofit of the clutch, his parts going to a transmission shop. Kinda funky gear box with about half the throw of the original but it’s tight and durable. Mike has been a regular resource for my 89. Good guy.
I was offered $1000 for it when I bought the 2013. I said nope. Too much personal history! And Mike keeps talking up the Zen of being a hands-on owner of such a classic. How could I do anything different?
