Hot rodding is all about taking an otherwise unremarkable car and making it truly yours. That can be either a good or a bad thing, as these three vintage ponies demonstrate.
First up is this rather, um, interesting 64-66 Mustang coupe that my buddy Chris spotted as he was leaving our local Pep Boys. The owner of this particular ‘Stang appears to have grafted the rear bumper and valence from an SN95 ( 1994-2004 ) Mustang onto his vintage pony, along with removing the factory gas filler and installing a recessed license plate holder in the taillight panel. He also appears to have removed the chrome rear window trim and recessed the rear glass, although he strangely left the vinyl top trim on the rear quarters in place. Oversized donkish aftermarket rims complete the look. I don’t wanna be rude to the guy, so I’ll sum up my opinion of this thing in two words: NO THANKS!
Another interesting variation on the early Mustang theme is this wagonized 64-66, done up in Shelby livery. I spotted this at the Edelbrock car show this past weekend. Whether this is a nicely done restomod, or some rare factory prototype, I have no idea.
The workmanship and attention to detail on this thing is first rate, but still…
The final mutant pony on display is this chopped and shaved ’67-’68 Mustang coupe, also at the Edelbrock show. The paint and metalwork of this car are flawless, but its still not my personal cup of tea. The whacked-down roof with its fake vinyl textured paint, and oversized rims, I could do without. But the car is super-clean though.
Motivation for this crew-cut steed comes from an old-school small block Ford that’s apparently been fitted with EFI ( note the fuel rails ) breathing through an air cleaner styled after a shaker scoop. While I don’t care for the body mods that much, I bet this horse must really giddy up when the owner spurs the go-pedal.
The final modified Stang in this stable is a restomodded but somewhat more conventional 65-66 fastback. The front-end treatment and side exhausts remind me of the mythical Shelby that Nicolas Cage drove in the remake of Gone In 60 Seconds. I’m not sure what the owner was trying to do regarding the fake velocity stacks mounted on the valve covers, but to each his own I guess.
A better view of the engine. It’s kinda weird-looking, but very clean. He should have remembered to remove the part # ID sticker from the upper radiator hose though.
Not a Mustang, but this was rather interesting. Among gearheads, Factory Five Racing is well-known for its Cobra replicas. In their display area was this neat cutaway Cobra showing just how the car is assembled. Note the tiny, modern gel-type battery, explosion-proof transmission bellhousing, and provisions for a passenger rollbar.
A better view.
I couldn’t conclude this post without a parting shot of this Cobra Daytona Coupe replica, also from Factory Five. This one is featured in full race trim, including the front air dam, rear wing, fender vents, and deleted rear quarter trim. There’s a very good reason the gentleman on the right is covering his ears. With a heavily modified Coyote engine breathing through barely muffled quad exhausts, this thing is LOUD. Factory Five’s owner and CEO was on hand giving the demonstration, and I think this is his personal car.
I like the wagonized 64-66 Mustang. It is very Volvo P1800 ES like. I could see driving it.
Is that a Caprice Classic that the photographer of the 64-66 coupe in the first pic is in?
You can see the Donkey in the circle on the C-pillar, so not a Caprice but an Impala SS.
I meant the white car that the person taking the pic of the bondo monster in the first pic is in.
Looks very Caprice-y to me.
It definitely is a GM B-body, 1980 or later because the door handles are closer to the window sill than the 1977-79 models.
Yep. That’s my friend Chris’s ’83 Caprice, and it’s his daily driver. I’ve briefly featured it here before. 🙂
I liked too. 🙂 Btw, Car & Driver posted a review of customized Mustang wagon from the October 1966 issue of C&D. http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/ford-mustang-wagon-review
And here more ‘Stang wagons photos I saw at https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2009/03/30/intermeccanica-mustang-station-wagon-spotted-in-the-new-jersey-suburbs/
I wonder if there’s some Fox-body Mustang wagons somewhere? I heard once of Fairmont/Granada/LTD Fox wagons with a Mustang nose.
Say no to bondo, kids.
hehehehehehehehehehehehehe
A buddy of mine back in our high school days worked with his dad in his dad’s custom body shop, and he always fixed up ’66 Mustangs as his hobby cars.
One of the custom jobs that he had done was to wagonize a ’66 notchback. He had a parts car leftover from another job with a good roof and grafted it on behind where the normal roof ends. He painted it in a sea foam green metallic with forest green stripes and it looked like it came from the factory that way. Pretty car. The rest of the car was just a stock 289, and trimmed out as such. I wish I could find a picture of the thing. He did this back in the late seventies/early eighties. The last time I talked to him about a year or two ago, he said that the guy that bought it from him is still driving it around, albeit only to shows and stuff.
GAH ! .
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I’ll never be ale to unsee that first wretched abomination .
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No surprise it was at Pep Boys .
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Proving yet again that ” in matters of taste, everyone else is _wrong_ ” .
.
-Nate
Zooming in on the velocity stacks on that blue Mustang – it looks like they -aren’t- actually attached to the valve covers but are in fact attached to twin air cleaners shaped like valve covers… having said that, they still seem to be totally nonfunctional pieces of, er, bad taste.
I like the wagonized Mustang but if it were mine, I’d dump the Shelby side scoops. We know they’re just bling pieces and, to me anyhow, spoil the otherwise clean lines of the car.
The quality of workmanship of the dark maroon Mustang is impressive. At first glance I thought hat it was just a late model Dodge Challenger.
The 65-66 Mustang is a fairly decent design…this example? No. I can understand folks relocating a license plate, but in this case the license plate looks like it fought the passenger side turn signal for space, but lost.
The Mustang “wagon” : I’ve seen 3 or 4 examples of this conversion and this is okay, I wouldn’t change a thing. However, I seem to remember that there is a version with a different “C” pillar treatment.
The 67? If you are into that kind of thing, this isn’t too bad. Just not my cup of tea, though I am considering painting the top of my late model Crown Victoria with “vinyl look” paint.
The blue Mustang? Again, nicely done for what it is, but a touch overdone for my taste. Aside from the….”velocity stacks”, I don’t care for the fog (?) lights in the front as they look fake.
The blue one with the velocity stacks; the first thought that came to mind, was of the DOHC Ford engines that won Indianapolis.
I wonder if it was an homage__of sorts__to the appearance of that engine?
Otherwise, I got nothin’!
Might be some sort of cross-ram setup?
As to the wretched first car pictured, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
“They said I was mad to build a concrete car, but I’ll show them! Mwuahaha!”
Grand pa was the local Dentist and after he died i found these boxes of Dental Amalgam in his garage so i figured why waste it ? .
-Nate
(who once rejected a cheap 1957 VW ‘Ghia because the entire nose was made of this stuff)
Here’s a concrete car. It actually runs, has reportedly done over 600 miles under its own steam since being built! You need a two-way radio for someone on the outside to give directions.
I like the Mustang wagon, years ago I saw a Mustang ute that had a similar C pillar but with a bed instead of the roof extension.
I like the Mustang wagon, it reminds me of coachbuilt European “shooting brakes”. The more professional looking custom jobs I get, but don’t particularly like.
The Pep Boys Special – hmm. It reminds me of when manufactures had to keep producing an old 50s/60s/70s model due to budget constraints, but desperately tried to modernize it by dechroming it and throwing ungainly bits of plastic at it. I’m thinking Bristol, Hindustan, Volga, Tatra, and Peugeot 504s built in Nigeria and Argentina after the use by date.
I wouldn’t lump Bristol in with those others. Yes, they were modernizing a very old body, but it was also a very expensive car marketed to a very niche market.
There used to be an aftermarket kit for turning a 65-66 Mustang convertible into a wagon. You’d just put the top down, and then slide the wagon roof/tailgate into place, with no modifications to the car. I think that’s what was used on the Mustang wagon pictured here. (There’s no obvious seam between the C-pillar and the fender, but still looks like one of those kits.)
The Mustang looks like something from a a parallel universe where the original design was kept for decades and just updated periodically, like an Argentine Falcon or even this.
Maybe it’s because the first car I ever knew was my Mom’s 85, but that Jetta is way more appealing to me than the modern one.
You question what goes through the head of people who appear with the equivalent of basketball shorts and a dinner jacket.
And then when that mentality involves large sums of money and an inability to view perspective, you get the first Mustang.
Seen in Oakland CA last year.
Bleah! I don’t like anything there. I don’t even like the Shelby Coupe replica.
I want mine with a 289 and actual road dirt & paint chips, so I can drive it.
Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder.
Geebus… that lead pic is an assault on the eyes! Who in their right mind thought THAT was attractive???
@Roger ~
If you’re really unsure, go look at peopleofwallmart. to see *exactly* who likes this car .
-Nate
I don’t mind the shooting brake at all. The burgundy coupe and the blue fastback are well-finished, if a little boring. The one at the top–I have *no idea* why someone would think that was a good idea.