After college I was pretty tied up with starting my career, going out with friends, etc, and the car wasn't high on my priorities. I bought a house in '89 and a garage was a high priority, living at my parents, their 1 car garage always had too much in it to get my car in there, so it lived outside with a car cover on it. I don't know that it had ever been garaged, and unfortunately I came to find it had a lot of leaks.
My interest in Mopars got renewed in the early 90's and in '97 I bought a Challenger convertible. Buying that car and taking it to local shows got me thinking about starting a full restoration of my T/A, by now the trunk floor was pretty rusty and some bubbles were popping up here and there.
A guy at my work who had lived in MI and had a small collection of Shelby Mustangs and Ford race cars gave me the name of a guy over there in MI who he claimed "was the best in the world in fixing rust". Who knows more than a "Rustang" guy about the old "tin worm" right???
Although he was mainly a Mustang guy, he had recently finished a restoration of a '68 Charger that ended up getting best of show at its first show (Mopars at the Red Barn) and placed at the Nats. So I took the plunge and got on his waiting list. This was '99, I think.
I started disassembling and documenting the car, and a few months later he called and said he was ready to have it. He drove over with a trailer and picked it up. I figured I'd have it back in a year or so. Little did I know!!