There is a ton of information available on the web now days - some good and some bad. When it comes to early model Mustangs, it is really hard to know what is correct and what is not. There is a site called www.californiaspecial.com that has a very savy and knowledgable group of owners for which you can almost get any answer - if one exists, and it is not related to the origins of the universe (at least I haven't asked that one yet!). The GT/CS Mustang was a special package available only in 68 (until recently when reintroduced in 2007 Mustangs). in 1968 4,118 is all that were produced and this includes the Colorado High Country Special (HCS) which was introduced with essentially the same body dress as the GT/CS, but only sold in the Colorado area. These were developed off a Shelby Coupe concept car and history happened. I won't get too far into the history, as it can be found in many places on the web - and if you are really interested, check out www.californiaspecial.com.
So to bring you up to speed. This J-Code (302 4V) car was originally sold in good ol' Pasadena, CA - Not sure if the Little Old Lady bought it, but it would have appealed to her for sure! For 1968 it was a fairly heavy optioned coupe - PS, PDB, Console, AT, Dlx Wheel, AC, Dlx Belts, etc. You can see the Marti Report for the car below. Marti Auto Works has the official license from Ford to distribute car specific reports on Ford cars 67-79 and Mustangs and Capri's all the way to 1993. So, if you want to know the details of you car, check them out at www.martiauto.com.
 |
| J Code Marti Report - www.martiauto.com |
When I first saw this car in the late 80's, when I was in high school. It was on a Bronco frame with a 351 Cleveland under the hood. Despite the modifications to the undercarriage, they still had the original Marchal fog lights, grill, and fiberglass. They did have a roll bar and spot lights mounted though - Really! The below photo is from about 1993 when it was bought by a guy who intended to restore to original condition.
I bought from him in 2003 to preserve and eventually restore it. When I bought it, the previous owner (PO) had already put it back on original suspension. He had to replace the front end clip in the process.
After I picked it up, a body shop friend needed some work, so I stripped what was left of the car down, removed all hardware, windows, latches, wiring, etc. and got it sand blasted and primered. He replaced both rear qtrs, outer wheel wells, right full floor pan and welded up a couple of small rust spots in the bottom corner of the driver side door. After being primered, it has been in closed storage ever since 2003 and now I am getting to her.
Because of the cost to restore a classic car, I just wanted to be sure the front clip was installed correctly. I crawled under the car with my 68 Mustang Underbody Dim diagram and could only effectively measure two points due to differences in the frame design compared to the diagram (which differences are also present on my unmolested X-code GT/CS). The difficulty is not having more than a tape measure, so the only two points that I could get to cleanly were the sway bar mounts and front frame rails.
The results? I found that it is highly likely it was not attached correctly. So, I now have an appointment at a local body shop on March 4th to put it on the rack and check it out to see if it can be straightened. The real dilema is the amount of welding the PO did to attach the clip. A local expert (Brad Monroe) feels that it is probably fixable on the rack - if not, he believes he can correct any issues. Hopefully I can get Brad to do the paint on this car - he is EXCELLENT at Mustang restorations.
