1965 A-Code Mustang Fastback Project

http://www.vintage-mustang.com/topics/myproject/myproject.html


The Beginning

This is how the car looked when I bought it. I had a cheap $400 paint job done on the car in 1987 which left the car somewhat respectable looking in black with white GT stripes. I drove the car as a daily driver until 1990 when I took it apart.


The Tear Apart Stage

Suffering from delusions of grandeur I tore the Mustang apart as far as I could and thought I would be taking it directly to the body shop for sheet metal replacement and paint. I then realized that I had limited resources financially for such an undertaking and I left the car as you see it here for roughly 1 year! Lesson: drive the car until all of your funds are in place, you have a body shop scheduled, and all of your parts are labeled and present. This mistake slowed me down to a crawl when I tried to put the thing back together!


The 'Oh My God!' Stage

I panicked alot during this phase of the cars progress. A good friend (who should probably be doing this sort of thing for a living, he's that good) and I were not doing things on any sort of schedule and things really started to fall apart. The car was in the shop for over a year. The only original metal left on the car is the roof and the hood, pretty much. The floors, trunk floors, quarter panels, fenders, and door skins were all replaced. I spent a ton on parts and labor (thank god for my friend, though, labor should have been about three times as much) during this phase and was ridden with frustration the whole time.


The Balls in My Court Stage

After going through hell (moving twice, getting married, changing jobs) I finally got my car back. Most of my parts that I had bagged and labeled were missing labels or missing altogether. We had a major flood in Des Moines at this time and there was almost constant rain during the summer of 1993; so little work was done on the Mustang. It wasn't until I moved into a brand new house with a two car garage that I finally brought the car back together. After getting into shape mechanically I turned it over to another (read: more expensive) body shop for final tweaking (my friend, I felt, had been punished with this project enough already).


The End Game

What do you think? It was a long four years in the making and a butt-load of cash to do but man, is it fun to drive around.

About the Car

* 1965 Mustang 2+2, Factory Poppy Red with Black Interior
* A-Code (Factory Four Barrell) 225 HP 289 Engine
* Automatic
* Power Steering