I love eBay finds like this one.  It’s like Christmas time; you really have no idea what you’re going to find waiting for you with a car like this!

The owner of the car gives us painfully little information, aside from the fact it’s a rebuild motor, rebuilt transmission, and a “custom” paint job.  We don’t know if it’s the original motor/transmission, we have no idea what the data plate codes are, and while the owner says the interior has been redone, the only photo we can see shows hideous seat covers hiding the original seats and a multi-colored dash padding that looks like it was made from the skin of a pink unicorn.

If that’s not enough to give you heart palpitations, check out the price.  Bidding starts at $10,000, with a Buy-it-now of $18,000.  I’ll admit, it someone offered my $18,000 for a car like that, I’d be eager to sell it, too!  The upside is that from the photos this car looks to have potential.  As long as it’s not a bondo-filled train wreck the interior could be easily corrected and it’s entierly possible the car is one of the original pink mustangs. If it’s got the original motor, transmission and data plate, this might just be worth taking a look at!

Another pink Mustang just went up for sale, this time in San Diego, and it looks to be of the Dusk Rose variety.  The car (a V-8 coupe) has been listed by Beverly Hills Motorcars and according to the add, it appears to be mostly original.  Dusk Rose was the most common of the pink colors, but there were still less than 1,000 produced that year.

The beautiful thing about this car is the claim that it’s original paint and interior.  It’s great to have a fully restored mustang, but they’re only original once.  The car could probably use some cosmetic attention, but the owners say it’s in great running/driving condition, so this vehicle might just make for an attention getting weekend cruiser!

I was perusing eBay this afternoon when I happened across a rather interesting 1968 Pink Mustang coupe being offered for sale in California.

It’s not concourse perfect, but it’s being offered at no reserve, and it looks like it’s in excellent condition!  I spoke with the owner on the phone, and here’s what I found out:

The car seems to be an original “special paint” car with no color code.  It also has a build date of February 6th, which would coincide with the February “Rainbow of Colors” promotion Ford used to manufacture Passionate Pink (WT9036) Mustangs in 1968.

Unfortunately, while the car is pink, the color in the photos does not appear to match WT9036.  The car has been repainted, and the repaint looks more mellow and appears to be closer to a dusk rose shade.  All of the chrome looks great, the parchment interior if new and appears correct to the data plate as well.

The chrome looks great, and the owner has put up lots of photos in the listing, so if you’ve been itching to buy a really great looking pink mustang, this no-reserve 1968 is an excellent opportunity.  Bidding is currently at $6,300; anyone want to take a guess at what the final selling price will be?

There’s a pink 1969 Convertible GT Mustang up for sale right now on E-Bay!  According to the owner:

This Pink Mustang is one of ten of a Special Edition: paint color selected by Hugh Hefner himself (paint code 71617). Since only ten were painted in this color in 1969, this authentic Playboy Special Edition is one of the rarest Mustangs ever produced. This beauty is powered by a 351 Windsor V8 MOTOR with 3 speed automatic TRANSMISSION. All original.

He’s got it mostly right here, it seems.  You have to understand, there is no such thing as an “authentic” Playboy Special Edition.  Ford was a rather conservative company in the 1960′s, and they simply didn’t do “special editions” with outside companies, especially companies that made their money peddling porn.

Yes, there were lot’s of special paint cars done for numerous company giveaways, but the idea of “special editions” was reserved for Ford alone (Think “high country special” “twister specials”, or “color of the month”.)

This car is likely to be part of the “Rainbow of Colors” West Coast promotion in 1969.  The paint code 71617 is also known as WT9036, “Playboy Pink”(1967) “Passionate Pink”(1968) or “Hot Pink”(1969).  It’s certainly a rare car, given it’s a convertible, GT, and of course pink, but I would be cautious about claiming there were only 10 of them made in 1969 without a full Marti Report to back that up.

The starting bid is $39,000. At that price, do you think this pink pony is worth adding to the stable?

Is this the original "playmate pink"?

I ordered 8oz of a Ford Fleet color known as WT9301 to test against my car and see if it’s actually the color of the early pink mustangs!  I’ll post the comparison photos as soon as I’m done, but based of of the sample on the top of the can, it’s looking rather promising!

I’ll be testing the sample this week to see if it’s right!

**update**

WT9301 turned out to be far too pale, unfortunately.  After further research we found the paint had actually been batched incorrectly.

Getting an antique convertible back into top shape is no easy task.  By far the worst part of it is stripping down the car and seeing first hand what years of damage and neglect have done to a once beautiful car.  It’s also difficult to bear in mind that before I started stripping down the car, it was actually a decent looking driver with crummy looking paint.

At any rate, I’ve managed to document the damage to the car that rust has caused, and I’ve outlined a plan of action in order to get the car back into shape:

Left Hand Rear Quarter Panel

Bottom of quarter panel is completely rusted out, White Paint indicates small rust hole

Inner Drop-Down Panel is rusted out as well

Slight Rust Out on Lower Side of Wheel Well (Passenger Side Rear Quarter Panel)

Tail Light Panel

Taillight Panel. No Rust, but lot's of little damage

Panel Between Vert Top and Trunk

This Panel is Just Ugly. Best to chop it out and replace completely.

Front Drivers Inner Fender

Another Shot of this Hole. It looks like it was Sealed Up with a Rust Encapsulator at one time, preventing it from getting any worse!

Engine Bay

The battery trays commonly rust out because the old batteries had a tendency to leak. It's a low visibility area, so the plan is to seal it and put some metal filler in.

Underneath The Car

The Convertibles had a unique panel below the door that was designed to add rigidity to the weak body structure. The panel on the drivers side is completely rusted out. Fortunately, the passenger side is solid.

Drivers Side Door

Leaky Seals caused water to pool in the bottom of the drivers door, rusing out the inner panel. Although the outer skin is fine, the inner panel will need to be repaired/replaced. A New Ford Tooling door will cost nearly $400, so I need to decide if it's more cost effective to replace the door or repair it.

All in all, not too bad!

 

 

There’s a 1967 pink mustang up on E-Bay right now.  The color looks to be “playboy pink”, and the Marti Report says that the color matched to WT9036.  It’s a rare color, to be sure!  The car is in need of a full restoration and it’s only a coupe, but it seems to be pretty complete and has a 289!

With a little bit of time and effort, this could be a great potential project!  The car is located in Colorado, if anybody who reads this site buys it, let me know and make sure you add the car to the Pink Mustang Registry!

A special Thank you to everyone out there that called or emailed me regarding the apparent listing of my vehicle by a dealer located in Pompano Beach, Florida.  For the record, this dealer took what he called a “stock photo” until he could get real pictures of the car up.  I’m not going to get into the issue of him using a copyrighted photo as I am not the copyright holder on that particular image, but I did take issue with images of my car being used in an advertisement for sale.

I contacted the seller, the sites the car was listed on, and the FL Attny. General’s office.  Thankfully, the photos of my car have been removed, and photos of a different car are now up.

My concern was that this may have been a situation where my was at risk of theft.  It seems now that this was really a case of a dealer not thinking anyone would notice the wrong car being posted online.  Either way, you can never be too careful in this day and age.

Link to conversation regarding listing on VMF

I’ve got the top out the mustang, and I’ve packed it away safely for the winter while I work on the body of the Mustang.  Pulling the top out itself was simple, I did it by myself in about an hour.  I was expecting it to be a lot more complicated that it really was!

Notice the original paint vs. the mis-colored respray

Here’s an image of what the original “playmate pink” on a ford mustang looked like.  This photo was taken during the current dismantling and restoration of my 1965 convertible.

There’s always a lot of debate about the “proper” color for the earliest pink mustangs.  Because I was fortunate that my trunk interior had never been re-sprayed and I found a considerable amount of original paint under the dash, I was able to test a wide variety of color possibilities.

I tested every color imaginable, and even had a spectral analyzer take a crack at it.  In the end, the color known as WT9301 was a nearly perfect match, as you can see in the photo below.

A variety of 60's paint color chips, courtesy of mustangattitude.com

WT9301 Tested as a 2-stage paint against the original factory paint.