The 1995 FORD PROBE GT
MY FIRST CAR
When I was 16 I worked at a local cinema and drove a 1986 Pontiac 6000 LE - LE stands for Luxury Edition - it had power windows. It was a pale yellow car that I borrowed from my parents so I could earn some money and buy my own car.
One day I was driving home, and on the side of the road there was this blue sporty looking (in my eyes anyway) car for sale on the side of the road. I pulled over to look at it - a 1995 Ford Probe GT. The good one with a 5-speed transmission and all leather interior - just pure sexy. I had to have it. This had to be my first car.
This was before the internet really served as many purposes as it does now - I couldn't just pop online to see the good bad and the ugly about Ford Probes. What I did know though, is that The Fast and the Furious had just come out and I was obsessed with the idea of taking a normal, everyday car and making it look cool and different. I never knew that kind of car culture really existed. I knew all about muscle cars and car heritage... but this whole idea was new to me and I wanted to be a part of it.
I drove home, and talked to my mom. I told her I had to have this car and needed her to loan me some money so I could afford it. After all, paying back mom and dad $4,500 on a 0% loan was a good deal. I begged and pleaded and they caved - they lent me the money and told me I could buy it.
My dad drove me over there to pick it up. I sat in the passenger seat while he test drove it. He pushed it as hard as he could and it felt fast. Keep in mind, I was coming from that damned Pontiac that did 0-60 in about a day and a half. This thing was fast. We got back, did some negotiation and it was mine just like that. Why did I sit in the passenger seat you ask? I didn't know how to drive a stick. No idea in fact. So dad drove it home for me.
IN LOVE
For the next several days, I washed and waxed that car about 50 times. I remember my dad telling me 'you're going to wash the paint right off that thing if you keep it up.' I didn't care, this was my pride and joy. Our neighbors at the time had a super long driveway right next to our house. I drove up and down that driveway over and over again until I understood the mechanics behind how a manual transmission worked until I was forced to take it on real roads because the fuel light came on. The maiden voyage in that car was to the local Shell gas station, where I topped it off and felt like an absolute stud.
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
This car served as the sole entry point for everything I'd fall in love with in the motoring world, and would serve to create countless memories that I still hold dear today.
To start - that big decal on the side. That's where I started in vinyl. I had a friend I went to high school with who's dad owned a sign shop. He offered up a few bits of scrap vinyl to me to use for the car. I designed the tribal decal in AutoCad, printed it out on a huge roll of paper, and hand-cut that entire decal with an X-Acto blade. We applied it together, and it completely changed the look of the car, and kicked off my obsession with both vinyl, and customizing the appearance of cars.
The tail lights - at the time, Altezza tail lights were the big thing. Everyone wanted clear lenses and you'd see them all over the place, mostly on Honda Civics but sometimes on pickup trucks or late-90's mustangs (Ugly AF). Of course they didn't make them for the Probe - it wasn't the most popular car choice so nobody would make any money. I uninstalled them, taped them all off and painted the outline in white to match my decals. It looked incredible!
The engine bay - I had no money. I couldn't afford all the cool upgrades. I did manage to save up enough money to buy new stainless steel headers for it, and that's where I fell in love with the mechanical part of cars. Taking all the pieces apart, learning what they did via my trusty Haynes manual, and putting it all back together - and having it work again! It just felt incredible. I painted the engine manifold bright green to contrast with everything else. Nobody would see it... I did it for me.
Exhaust - I also managed to save up enough money to buy a nice PaceSetter exhaust for the car. None of those parts came out easy, as you'd expect, so I got real familiar with power tools I'd never used before. Namely, the sawzall.
I loved all of it. The mechanics, the smell of oil and gas, the looks, the endless customization options, dreaming about what it could be, and finding myself becoming obsessed with all cars. There was a point where I could name a car just by looking at its headlights. I learned so much. My dad taught me and helped me anytime I needed it, even though his expertise didn't include fuel-injection. A lot of the 'just try it' mindset came from working on this car with him - isn't that what Dad's are for? The whole experience was something I'll never forget.
IT'S STILL A FORD PROBE
If the internet existed, I'd have known ahead of time what I was really in for. The Probe wasn't exactly reliable. It wasn't so much a bunch of different issues, just the same exact ones over and over. These things have huge problems with their distributors. I went through 4 of them in the time I owned that car, each of which costing around $500. That was a total killer for a young kid with no money. The other big problem was the timing belt. The tensioner on that engine is a pile of garbage. It was weak, and would allow slack in the timing belt so when you pushed the car, it'd slip and fuck up the timing. That's how I learned what a non-interference engine was. I got stranded in that thing all over the place. The one I'll never forget was at a campground up north in the woods. Watching the wrecker come down and pick it up was devastating.
With all those things though - I loved that damned car. It took me everywhere - from all the way down to Myrtle Beach, to as far north as Traverse City. All the date nights with my girlfriend (now wife), and all the memories shared with friends. I'll never forget the probe.
And that's not the end of the story.
LIKE A BOOMERANG
I drove the hell out of that car for 4 years before finally deciding to buy a 2001 Dodge Durango. I had huge plans - use the Durango as my daily driver and pull the engine out of the Probe to do a full rebuild. It was 2007 at that point, and that's what I did. I pulled the engine. I was in way over my head, but I did it. I put on Nine Inch Nails, and ripped that shit out in my dads barn. The problem is, once I got it out, and looked back at how much work it was (especially as a complete amateur) I lost nearly all the motivation I had to put it back in. So it sat. And it sat for a long time.
A little over a year went by and I decided to get back at it. I never actually rebuilt the engine. I just became disinterested. All the parts were scattered everywhere, and enough time had passed that I had very little recollection of what went where. I learned that next time around, label everything. I got the engine back in eventually, and it was mostly put back together. I had a more experienced friend come over to help me wrap it up, and it ran again. I couldn't believe it. What I remember though, was that the uphill climb from there to get the car to a point where I'd enjoy it was a steep one. I didn't know what to do.
So I sold it to my brother. He drove that car for a year or two, then he gave it to my dad. He drove it for a year or two, then he sold it to my uncle. This is no shit - this car was driven as a normal daily driver that I put back together for that long. I had no idea what had happened to that car after my dad had it, and that he sold it to my uncle. I missed that car. I thought about it all the time and still do to this day. Not so much the car, but the memories tied to it.
There was a family Christmas party in 2018. My family and I pulled in, and holy shit there it was. My Ford Probe. Not one that looked just like mine... my Ford Probe. My uncle still had it. I asked him all about it like an obsessed mother; he loved that car too. He talked about driving it through the s-curve and how it just stuck to the road (that was thanks to my dope ass strut tower braces). How it sounded. All of a sudden I started to miss it again.
GUESS WHO'S BACK
Fast forward a few months. I found out the car was parked. It died, and was just sitting in my uncles garage. This was my chance - I told him I wanted to buy it from him. He was real hesitant - he actually planned to fix it and give it to his step-daughter as her first car (horrible idea), but eventually he caved.
I bought my 1995 Ford Probe GT a second time, 18 years later, for $200 and 229,000 miles
My wife was pissed. The car was sun faded. Had a mis-matched hood. It didn't run. It replaced her spot in the garage. But I had it back. I wanted nothing less than to restore it back to its former glory and rekindle all those memories. So I started fixing it. I knew everything about it, and knew exactly what the problem was. The distributor. I went to AutoZone, picked one up along with a new battery and slapped that bad boy in there and guess what? It fired right up.
Step one in rekindling my romance was pulling the engine. I have all the right tools now so I went to work. But it was different this time. The bolts were rusted and broken. I found a lot of rust damage. It was disgusting inside. I knew it wouldn't happen, but this time I knew I'd get closure and see it off the right way.
I always wanted to rebuild that engine. I told myself I'd at least do that, so I did. I stuck with it this time. I bought new seals, gaskets, rings, pistons, timing belt, bearings, the whole kit. I bought a model engine to understand the inner workings of a motor as a reference. I dug out that same exact Haynes manual that I hid under the hatch carpet 17 years prior, torqued everything to spec and I did it. I had a fully rebuilt 1995 Probe Engine with no home, but with potential.
FAREWELL
I realized the amount of work I'd have to put into this car was not worth it. Parts are limited for them, and the parts you can find are expensive now. I had to come to terms with losing it again. But I was OK with it this time. It took nearly 20 years but I did the things I wanted to do. There was some closure. I decided to list the shell and the engine separately on Craigslist. I knew there was a real slim chance anyone would want either of these things and that I might have to send it off to the scrap yard, but just in case there was some other Probe lunatic out there - I'd give it a chance. Spoiler alert: There are other lunatics out there!
Locally, there was a young kid who had a Probe that he loved. He needed a few body parts to replace rusted/damaged parts on his Probe. This reminded me of me when I was a kid. I sold him the whole shell for $100.
But more impressively - I got an email from a father-son duo who was looking for an engine and they wanted to buy mine. I told them everything I could about it - it was rebuilt, I did it myself, and that since the rebuild I have not run it - I couldn't, but that I was very confident in my work. We set up a time and they came to pick it up. Super cool guys - they drove probably close to 2 hours to pickup the engine! We shot the breeze a bit in the driveway and talked about what his plans were.
They were going to take this engine from a Gen 2 Probe and retro-fit it into a Gen 1 Probe. I find this absolutely fascinating. These guys were going to give the engine new life, and his son was going to be able to make his own memories, with his dad. I fucking love this idea. I sold him the engine for $100.
I still check in with them to keep up on progress, and he does the same. As of writing this, they're super close - and I've posted a few pictures below on the progress they've made. To me, this is the equivalent of a heart transplant for your child. When they get this thing running, I'll probably cry.
