There are a lot of old men in America who carry a sort of quiet shame with them every day. That shame is a long-neglected muscle car or hot rod from their youth, slowly rotting away to a pile of rust and debris as time wears it down. There is no official statistic on how many Mustangs are hidden under tons of debris and crushed dreams.

But there are good sons out there who wanted to return the favor for all the sacrifices dad made, who swore that one day they would get that Mustang out of the shed and on to the road. Danny Frechette is one such son. Fender Bender Magazine reports that Danny, who owns his father’s body shop, restored the long-neglected ‘66 Mustang for Father’s Day, a truly special gift from a special son.

Danny’s father, Jean, was a body man himself, fixing cars for decades before retiring in 2001 and selling the show to his son. 2012 will be the 25th anniversary of JRF Collision Center in Bellflower, California, but despite spending years fixing other people’s cars, Jean never got around to restoring the Mustang GT he bought from a neighbor in 1966.

Jean never got around to using the car much either, and it became a work bench, storage area, and sort of forgotten. Jean expressed an interested in restoring the Mustang, but never did. So it fell to Danny, who invested between $35,000 and $40,000 into restoring the ‘66 Mustang and over a 1,000 shop man-hours into the Mustang. They cleaned, polished, and painted every bit and piece of this Mustang, and in many ways it is probably better now than when it rolled off the factory floor.

The Mustang was unveiled last June at the 25th anniversary part of JRF Collision, with Jean in attendance.  How did dad react to the finished car? He fell to one knee and kissed the fender.

Now that’s a happy Father’s Day.