Sheri, great question!

My family was strictly a Ford / Mercury group. My very first car was a 1970 LTD with a 390 in it. My father had bought it new, sold it to my older brother (who beat the crap out of it) and then sold it to me. I was 14 at the time, and did not yet have my drivers license. So I set to work re-building / restoring it. I had never done anything like it. I did get a lot of help from my father, but I did most of the work overall.

My fgf world started back in 1980 when my best friend bought a '68 RS Camaro. (he still has it today). I still had my LTD, but was tired of people asking me "did your dad let you borrow his car?". So I knew I needed something more "me". After looking at a number of '68 Camaros, I saw my first '68 Firebird, and was hooked. I looked at about a dozen of them, before purchasing a Vedoro Green / Springmist Green 350 coupe with AT for $400. I knew right away the greens had to go, so I changed to a black interior and a black / charcoal two-tone scheme. (I liked the Hurst/Olds cars at the time). I need to dig out my old photos and post some here for all to laugh at. I replaced so many things on this car I can't believe it. I think I knew what every junk yard's inventory was within 200 miles of my house. (I sent my original 'bird trim from this car to ho428 for his race car)
A couple of years later I bought my first '68 convertible. It also was a 350, but was a 3-speed. This was a real rust-bucket from Florida. But hey, the top went down and it was fun to drive. I called it the blue bomber. (blue/blue)
This is right about the time I got engaged, graduated from college, and started to work full time.
So long story short, I sold both cars, and regretted it for many years. I stumbled across a '67 convert about 4 years ago and just about had a heart attack seeing the asking price of 12k. It took me two more years to decide it was something I still really wanted and could finally afford. I looked for about another year for a nice '68 400 convert, and finally found my red one in the DC area. It was red/black, auto, and only had 79k original miles. The PO had it 26 years and put 11k miles on it in that time.
About a year ago I bought my '67 convert on impulse, and have been restoring - parts hunting ever since. It was mostly disassembled, but most everyting was there.
As I have said before, I will likely never sell either car, but turn them over to my daughters some day. (like when they are 30 or 40)
I have pics of both cars on my photobucket if anyone is interested. Both cars have original interiors. Not too bad for 40 years old.