Springtime Yellow 1966 Mustang GT 2+2, Restoration
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Horse Heaven's elite staff begins the careful disassembly and documentation process...
A reasonably good car to start with. We located this car in Visalia, California in 1983, and stored it until 2004.
As always, the process continues with high pressure, high temperature washing.
Document, measure, photograph. Then disassemble. At this phase, we're assessing damage, and deciding what is saved and what is removed.
Ultimately, the left quarter panel is replaced, and the right one is saved.
The body is sanded to metal, and the right-side quarter panel gets a lower patch welded in.
Fresh sheet metal is carefully fitted and then welded in place.
Templates help us correctly locate each of the emblems before paint is applied.
The painted unibody rolls out.
Painted in the same order it was in 1966, interior surfaces first, then the Springtime Yellow exterior.
The body is moved into the finishing room, where we begin by assembling the doors and suspension.
In a miniature way, we try to duplicate the factory process, by having all the sub-assemblies, wiring, and fasteners grouped in order of assembly.
The suspension used during the body and paint process is replaced with the properly detailed, original components.
The 289 Challenger Special was painted Ford corporate blue for the first time in 1966, then, again, in June, 2005.
Carefully hidden under the blue paint, this time, is a 303 horsepower, dyno-tested 289. The manifold is a cosmetically re-sculpted Edelbrock Per'FORD'er RPM. Look closely!
There's a sound system hidden in there, too, with high-end speakers set in our own tuned capsules behind the stock kick panels.
To allow the higher frequency sounds to pass, the stock kick-panels are perfed with a unique, if not original, design.
The finished engine looks as good as it runs.
The parchment deluxe interior with black carpets and woodgrain details looks just like it did forty years earlier.
The cathedral-bowled Holley and polished valve covers produce one of the best looking engines ever.