I recently purchased a project car that I had been looking for since the mid-nineties, and I am very excited about it. The strange and twisted story…
Back in the early 80’s I knew Kirby – he was the roommate of a good friend and he had a 66 Mustang. This particular Mustang, Kirby had made into a station-wagon; or more appropriately a sedan-delivery. He extended the roofline to the rear of the car, installed square headlights in the front, and 68 Firebird taillights in the rear. In all it was a pretty cool car for the time, and I loved it. This car sat in my memory for years and after the mid-80’s, I didn’t se the car again.
By about 2000, I am a new member in the Mustang Club of Maryland and I am talking to Tom Shockley about some interesting and rare Ford products. Of course, the Mustang sedan delivery comes up – and Tom fires back, “I own that car!” I about fell on the floor. Turns out that Tom and MaryAnn had purchased the car and Tom had set out to put his re-design touches onto Kirby’s original concept. Over the next few years, I had the opportunity to sneak a peak at the progress of the wagon in Tom’s shop; and boy was I impressed! He was doing things like:
- Remove the original roof and re-installed a new roof moved about 4-inches forward
- Remove the 68 Firebird taillights and replace with 67 Cougar/Shelby taillights & spoiler
- Replace the original rear with a new Currie 9-inch, 31-spline rear with 3.73 gearset, tow brackets, etc
- Remove the stock shock-tower front-end and replace it with a Rod & Custom adjustable coil-over setup with power rack-and-pinion steering – and a IDIDIT tilt-wheel setup, too.
After MaryAnn’s passing, Tom didn’t seem to focus too much on the car anymore and it remained in the shop as an empty shell. Winnie had spoken to Tom about selling me the car on a few occasions since he was not focused on it any more, but we never put anything together. When Tom passed away in 2009, it was still in his possession as a rolling shell. I expressed an interest in purchasing the car from the estate, but the car was sold to an individual in Pennsylvania, and I thought it was never to be seen again.
Cut to July 2010; I am running a search for my next project car on Craigslist and I find an ad for a 1966 Mustang Sedan Delivery! The single picture of the car shows me that it is likely the exact car I had been looking for, so I call the number on the ad. The seller tells me that he changed his mind and that he doesn’t want to sell the car. I tell him about my connection with the car over time and it turns out he knows Tom and MaryAnn, too. With this bad news under my belt, I move on to find a rusty-but-complete 71 Torino Cobra and think that this will be a good ‘next project’. Since I am watching this Torino on EBAY, I wait until the very last minute to put in a bid for the Torino.
I am sitting at my computer watching the last 5 minutes of the Torino auction; ready to pounce. All of a sudden, an email pops up. The seller of the Mustang Sedan Delivery has re-considered ‘since I knew Tom and MaryAnn’ and is willing to sell it to me! Boy, if he would have mentioned this 10 minutes later, I would have been up a creek!
So, I brought the car home and boy am I excited to get started on it! I have to finish a few things on other projects first, but I am hoping to get started on it soon. The front-end setup leaves a lot of opportunity for a FORD big-block installation, and now that they are re-producing the BOSS 429 (based on a modified 460 block), I am really interested in one.
I feel very lucky to have been given the opportunity to add my touches to this car, and to have a piece of Tom and MaryAnn’s history, too. I hope that my up-coming work will do it justice…
