Thanks to Benjamin Schmitz for contributing this story.
It’s been nearly five years since University of Florida sophomore swimmer Harrison Haines received his first car at the age of 15 from his parents. With just over a month’s work to go on it, Haines, at the age of 20 now, believes he will soon be taking his former Sweet 16 ride for its first spin.
Although it’s not your customary ‘Sweet 16’ or ‘first car’ story, Haines, with the help of teammate and childhood friend, Jack Blyzinskyj, set out to restore the ‘66 Ford Mustang in the their spare time back in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 2011.
“My parents got me this unfinished ‘66 Mustang that was half torn apart, and with reasoning behind it,” Haines said. “Their logic was that if I rebuilt it and fixed it up myself, I’d take a lot better care of it and ultimately drive safer.
“I was okay with it though. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always had a passion for cars and motorcycles — I’m pretty sure the first word out of my mouth as a baby was ‘truck’.”
For Blyzinskyj, a teammate of Haines’ back in Lexington, Massachusetts, at Bernal’s Gator Swim Club, it was a chance to get his hands on a passion for motors in which he’d also held.
“I was the same as Harrison,” Blyzinskyj said. “It started with my dad — who was really into cars and had two original Model As when he was younger — then as Harrison’s love for cars grew even more it engulfed me.
“When he mentioned he’d gotten a ‘66 Mustang and was restoring it, I thought it was really cool. He told me to come hang out and work on it if I was interested. From that point on, we’ve constantly been working at it every summer. On most days, we even had the same routine: we’d wake up, go to swim practice, make a big breakfast and then work in the garage until the sun went down.”
While some high schoolers might ease into mechanics with a task as simple as taking apart a carburetor in shop class, this was nothing close to a typical restoration project for two kids barely old enough to get behind the wheel.
While starting with little more than a frame and some attached metal as their starting point, the duo had more than their fair share of work cut out for them.
“When we got the car, it was about half stripped down already,” Haines said. “A lot of the original parts were off of the car and we had to continue stripping it down before we could begin the rebuilding process.”
Blyzinskyj added.
“There were a lot of late nights where we would be out in the garage until well after 2:30 a.m. and all of the sudden realize that we had swimming practice in a few hours.
“Our coach definitely thought we were crazy at times. We would show up to morning practices with our clothes dirty and covered with oil and we’d say to him, ‘Coach, we need to shower quickly before we get in the pool.’ He’d usually laugh with a response that let us know we’d smelled bad.”
Despite the long days with little sleep, the two never gave up. Some days were longer than others, and some nights saw more progress than others. The only consistency was that each day would bring a new challenge with it.
“I remember one bolt in particular under the rear leaf spring and we’d gone at it all day with power tools and tried every possible way to get it out,” Haines said. “It was rusted, destroyed, and we just couldn’t figure it out — little things like that were common occurrences.
“I spent a good $300 on books and guides showing where everything went but there isn’t necessarily a step-by-step instruction on ‘how to rebuild a car’. We just kind of went at different parts and restored it one piece at a time. We had diagrams which showed how parts went together, but again, it doesn’t always fit together as simple as the books show.
“Restoring this car definitely wasn’t some relaxing hobby,” Blyzinskyj continued. “Especially with a car as old as the ‘66, one problem would lead to 10 problems which would lead to 100 and yet you realize that you still hadn’t fixed the original problem.
“That’s one thing we liked about it though. It was such a challenge and there was always something new with it. We had so many different obstacles and had to figure out different ways to overcome them. Even if it was something as miniscule as a little bolt, it could take us the whole day to try and figure out at times.”
When the two eventually apply the final touches on this project, it will mark a well-deserved completion. The car obviously didn’t happen overnight, and it wasn’t built in a high-end car shop. Rather, the rebuilding took place inside of Haines’ at-home garage. Filled with power tools from Haines’ father, and a stereo set to a classic rock station that hasn’t changed since day one, this garage has served its purpose.
The tight quarters within it weren’t always ideal — forcing the two into questionable working conditions. But, they dealt with it.
“We had so many burns from using an angle grinder,” Blyzinskyj said. “There were so many times when we had to use it in odd areas of the garage and there was no way to avoid the sparks. You were kind of going into it with the mindset that you were going to wind up with an odd burn-rash on you somewhere depending where the sparks would fly.
“There were times when my dad looked at us and said we were fine as long as we weren’t starting a fire anywhere,” said Haines. “I remember when I first started welding, I got a few burns initially. All we’d wore to weld was sunglasses so it didn’t always provide the best cover.”
As the car continued to appear more and more like its original design, both Haines and Blyzinskyj realized that they were learning a lot more about cars than they had anticipated. It wasn’t simply putting together a life-size 30,000-piece puzzle, they’d also taken life lessons from it.
“This car was a huge maturing process for the two of us,” Blyzinskyj said. “We started when we were younger, we worked on it during the summers, and it was easily the most daunting task we ever took on in high school. It was never a required assignment for school or anything like that — it was just something we took on during the weekends and summers for fun.
“I was proud of it the very first day we started working on it and had truly accomplished something on it. I remember the first thing I did on it was the brakes. We converted them from drum brakes to disk brakes. It was such a sense of achievement even though it was such a small concept. Just knowing that we were moving forward and making this a reality was fulfilling in itself.
“The first time we rolled it out of the garage and put wheels on it and got the engine in it turn over — it was an indescribable feeling — I think we both cried a little bit.”
Though the final touches are yet to be applied, these two swimmers-turned-mechanics have already surpassed many of the expectations held by peers and onlookers to their project.
“It was really just an old car that no one needed to drive and we’ve turned it into so much more,” said Haines.
“Not many people can say they’re driving a car they’ve built themselves — especially one like ours where you get the feeling that you and the car are driving together as one. It’s going to be nice waking up every morning and literally driving a reminder of what I’m capable of to work every day. And, I couldn’t be more proud of that.”
Swimming news courtesy of Florida Swimming & Diving.