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?

Not only is the website back up and running, so is the restoration of my 1965 pink mustang!  I’ve run out of time to do it myself, and so I’ve sent it to a restoration shop in hopes of getting done in time for the 2011 MCA Grand National Mustang Show in Waldorf, MD.

I ended up having pretty much every single major panel (and doors) replaced.  They’ve been fitted, adjusted, and the car is in the blocking stage right now to get it ready for paint.  Hopefully it will be out of the paint shop by mid-July and ready for re-assembly!

Gallery of Current Images:

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?

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.

I pulled the interior and carpet on the 1965 convertible Mustang with the intention of replacing pretty much everything.  I wasn’t sure what condition the floor pans would be in, but I’ve patched and replaced pans in other mustangs, so the prospect doesn’t frighten me too much.

Here’s what the Mustang looked like before I got started:

(I can only pray that sticky stuff on the steering wheel is oil…)

The seats and door panel inserts looked pretty good, so we decided to save them, and we pulled all the interior components out:

(One of my neighbors called the color “titty pink” back in the 60′s.  Sounds about right.)

(The secret to restoring vinyl: If you overexpose your photos, white seats always look great!)

Next I sanded down any surface rust in the pan and sprayed it expoxy primer.  I also sanded down the door interiors and dash, taped them off, sprayed with epoxy primer, and the painted with 1965 Ford interior white paint:

(Stuffing your mustang in a big plastic bag is NOT an appropriate disposal method)

I also removed the center console and re-sprayed that as well.  The chrome on the console is less than perfect, but it is still very presentable, and at the cost of replacing the chrome, I opted to instead keep it.  I then went ahead and replaced the carpeting with a carpet kit from CJ’s Pony Parts:

(The instructions said “PRE-MOLDED”.  Technically true, but hardly “plug-and-play”)

Once the carpet was done, I reassembled the interior and replaced the padded dash which had been warped over the years due to sun and age. Along with the new carpet and paint, I also replaced the steering wheel and horn ring.  Here’s what the new interior looks like:

(Strategic angles prevent you from seeing the missing kick panel)

(Now, if only I had fixed the rear window cranks while the interior was out!)

The new interior looks and feels great!  I’m thrilled to have it done, and the only thing I’m thinking of doing to the interior now is either refinishing or replacing the gauge cluster, but other than that I have no complaints.  Having done the interior on a ’65 coupe in the past, I have to say that the convertible was much easier considering that I could put the top down as I worked on it!

Anyone looking for a 1967 Pink mustang restoration project? I found this in a Junkyard last week, but it’s probably more of a project than I’d like to take on! Any brave souls (with an up to date tetnus shot). Looking to build their pink dream car?

***UPDATE***  I don’t know the exact address, or the phone number, I’ve always just taken the place for granted.  For anyone who’s curious, the junkyard is called Mike’s Mustangs and it’s located in Bryans Road, MD.  I’ve got it pinpointed on the map below for anyone who’s curious!


View Mike’s Mustang Junkyard in a larger map

I have to admit, the air cleaner on my car was in rough shape.  The paint had been re-sprayed once, and the paint job was poor at best.  The paint was chipping away, exposing the original paint, and there was some severe overspray on both the box as well as the snorkel.

Strip it Baby!

The first task was to strip off all of the original paint, and see if here was any rust hiding underneath the original paint.  To strip the paint, I went to Home Depot and asked for the most caustic paint stripper they had.  It was a rather hot day when I stripped it, and even though I was working in the shade, the paint stripper was boiling as it hit the metal!

I was dismayed to see that there was rust hiding underneath the original paint, particularly in the divot for the distributor cap.  The rust had just started to pit the metal at that point, but otherwise the box was in decent shape, so I decided to take the entire box, lid, and snorkel and brush them down with a heavy wire wheel to eliminate any trace of rust.

Painting The Cleaner

I repainted the cleaner back to it’s factory original colors:  Gold Lid, Gold Box, and Black Snorkel.  I ordered the paint from CJ Pony Parts (Don’t get me started on them again, let’s just say I recommend using another vendor).  I ended up with 4 coats of paint on each part, with wet sanding between each coat.  The finished product looks great, and I can’t wait to get them back on the car!  My next project is getting the valve covers repainted, which I suspect is going to be an identical process to restoring the air cleaner (Albeit much faster!)

I’ll have photos of the Air Cleaner up this weekend.

My brother Thomas and I decided to make the trip up to Martinsburg, WVA to take a look at this car.  We left straight from work, and 3 hours (and several winding backroads) later we had arrived.  The owner uncovered the car, and we searched high and low for some indication of what the original paint color may have been  We were almost hoping to find a trace of vintage burgundy or poppy red, something that would justify that this car was not originally pink.

As it turned out, the original paint did indeed seem to be pink.  The gentleman was asking $11,500, and based on the shape of the car, the price certainly seemed fair.  I had brought Thomas along with me to help me examine the car in detail, and get his instinct on it.  There was a litle bit of bondo sitting in the drivers rear quarter (common), but the floor pans seemed fair, the engine ran and idled well, but the convertible top was pretty much shot.

The owner said that the top needed a new rear curtain, but closer inspection showed several small stress tears, and excessive rubbing on the interior.  I was confident at this point that the car was genuine, but I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to get involved with a “chick’s car”.  I thanked the owner and started the 3 hour drive home.

The owner informed me that he had 3 people coming the next day, and if I wanted it, I needed to make a move quickly.  On the drive home, I started estimating the price of making it driveable:

Retuning, New Top, New Steeing Wheel, Paint Touch-up, New Trim, New Carpet, New Wheel Inserts, New Seat Belts, Rust Remediation, and a Power Steering Leak.

Overall, not a terrible list.  Slightly expensive (The top alone would be $1,300), but most of the work I could do myself, so I just need the money for parts.  Even after all of the work was done, I suspected that I could still come out ahead.

Rule #1 (For me, at least) is that I don’t get into a car project that I suspect I’m going to loose money on.  Maintenance costs are one thing, but I don’t want to spend $30,000 on a classic car that I can’t break even on.  I look at classics as an investment!

The numbers seemed to work on the car, so 9am the next morning I called the owner back and offered him $10,000.  I explained that because of the surface rust pockets coming up I’m forced to do some decent preservation work, and the top is more or less shot (getting stuck in the rain with a topless car stinks).

He agreed to the price, and I dropped off a deposit check.  I got back up there a week later, trailer in tow, and brought the mustang home.  I stopped at a gas station on the way back, and ended up with a crowd of people around the car shocked to see the pink mustang on the trailer.  Any car that can grab that sort of attention at 11pm is worth getting in my book!