pink mustang

No, My 1965 Pink Mustang is NOT Listed for Sale in Florida!

December 28, 2009 By jonbenya 3 Comments

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

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, Dusk Rose, Mustangs For Sale, My 1965 Playmate Convertible, Pink Mustang Colors, Playmate Pink Tagged With: 1965 Mustang, ford, mustang, pink mustang, Playmate Pink

Convertible Top Pulled for Restoration

December 22, 2009 By jonbenya Leave a Comment

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!

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, Convertible Top, Mustang restoration, My 1965 Playmate Convertible, Pink Mustang Colors, Playmate Pink Tagged With: ford, ford mustang, mustang, mustang convertible, Mustang restoration, pink mustang

Original 1965 “playmate pink” color

December 16, 2009 By jonbenya 4 Comments

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.

When I compare this original paint to 1957 Ford Thunderbird color charts from Ditzler, the color matches up perfectly to Ford’s Dusk Rose.

It’s my belief that the color on the early 1965/1966 “playmate pink” mustangs was in fact Ford Dusk Rose, but because it was not on any paint charts in the mid ’60′s, combined with the hype that came with the playboy giveaway, the “playmate pink” term has gained popularity in popular terminology and led to confusion as to what the original “pink” actually was on the early Mustangs.

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, Dusk Rose, My 1965 Playmate Convertible, Pink Mustang Colors, Playmate Pink Tagged With: 1965, 1965 Mustang, 1965 mustang door, convertible mustang, Dusk Rose, ford, mustang, mustang cowl, mustang fenders, Mustang restoration, pink mustang, Playmate Pink

Building a Stable for the Pony

August 25, 2009 By jonbenya 2 Comments

The Pink Mustang Waiting for it's new garage

Having a love for old cars carries with it an inherent problem: Where do you keep them all? For the odd junker or parts car, indoor storage may not be a necessity, but for an antique that’s in decent shape it’s a different story altogether.
Unfortunately, I purchased the Mustang without a garage space waiting at home. I was simply out of space, and until I found more, I was forced to let the car sit in the driveway, tarped and rather neglected. The immense rush of self-guilt that came from not having a proper garage space for the old car served as excellent motivation, and within a week of purchasing the car I started construction on a new single car garage.

I priced out pre-built garages, and compared with what it would cost me to hire a couple guys and buy all the materials myself. As it turned out, the cost to have one delivered was with about $150 of what it would cost me to build it myself, but the delivered garage would have no windows and would be 60 square feet smaller than what I would build on my own. In addition, the flooring of the delivered garage would be lumber, whereas if I built it myself the slab would be concrete.

We poured a concrete slab instead of wood flooring

The construction itself was incredibly quick. It took about 6 hours to dig out the foundation and pour the concrete. We built a slight ramp into the slab at the garage door, and decided to go with a 9′wx7′h garage door which ran $138 from Lowes.

The framing for the garage took about 8 hours, and then another 8 hours was spent finishing out the roof and walls. For siding I decided to use a smart siding instead of T1-11. It was my first experience with the material and I can’t say enough good things about it. For starters, it was roughly $9 cheaper per sheet, it has a hard primed exterior surface, and it takes paint much better than t1-11 does. If you’re looking to build a cheap shed or garage, check that stuff out!

The garage walls went up fast!

Putting up a garage like this was remarkably easy. I didn’t purchase any construction plans, all the construction was done from memory, right down (or up) to the roof rafters. I still need to build parts shelves in the garage and put up some finishing trim, but as far as storing the car is concerned, the mustang has a pretty new garage to rest in, safe and sound!

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, Mustang Garage, My 1965 Playmate Convertible, Pink Mustang Colors, Playmate Pink Tagged With: 1965 Ford Mustang, 1965 Mustang, Building a garage, Mustang Garage, pink mustang

Paul McCartney at Fedex Field

August 3, 2009 By jonbenya Leave a Comment

Getting Ready for Paul McCartney!

You may or may not have been aware, but Sir Paul McCartney played at FedEx Field in Landover, MD Saturday Night. I went to see the show, and while the music was great, pretty much everything else was a train wreck. I drove the pink mustang out to the show because I was at the Mustang Mania V car show in Columbia, MD earlier in the day. I got to the stadium 2.5 hours before the show, and it’s a good thing I did!

The show started about 1 1/2 hours late due to traffic being completely abysmal, supposedly people were stuck for as long as 2 hours trying to get in to the stadium! It was fortunate that we had avoided getting there at the last minute, because I’m not sure the car would have been too happy with a 2 hour traffic jam to get into the show.

Once I was inside I found that the water stopped running in the bathrooms due to a blocked up pipe, supposedly they had it fixed 25 minutes before the start of the show, but the show started at 9pm, and I found the water had stopped at 7:25, so that’s at least an hour with no running water in the stadium. Hardly the picture of sanitary conditions.

Food concessions were almost as bad. After waiting for 20 minutes to get sodas, I found the credit machines had crashed (Cash only, folks!), the soda taps weren’t working, and they were waiting on the beer kegs to be changed out. Essentially it was $5 bottles of water or nothing! I spent $200 on tickets for the show, but the condition of the facilities certainly didn’t reflect it!

Paul McCartney Rocking FedEx Field!

The mass exodus at the end of the show was also a nightmare. I assumed I would wait until the rush died down so that I wouldn’t get caught in a heavy back-up with a 1965 mustang. I waited for nearly 1.5 hours and the traffic was still heavily congested! I took my chances, and ended up getting out of the complex about 2 hours after the show ended.

90,000 people go to FedEx Field for Redskins Games, but 50,000 concert goers was apparently overwhelming. Don’t forget that they charged a $10 parking fee per ticket, but you don’t get that money back if there’s more than one ticket holder in your car! Oh, there’s also more seats than parking spaces there, so they were essentially charging for a commodity that didn’t “technically” exist!

McCartney himself was awesome, 2.5 hours of great tunes from a legendary artist, but FedEx Field really short changed their patrons, IMHO. How do you charge $10 for parking 50,000 times if there’s only 22,001 seats? It should be illegal to charge money for a parking spot that

Isn’t used
Doesn’t actually exist!

I will say this much: If McCartney comes back in town, I hope he goes to another venue. I’d love to see him again, but there’s no way I’ll ever pay to see another concert at FedEx Field!

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, My 1965 Playmate Convertible, Playmate Pink Tagged With: 1965 Mustang, Concert, FedEx Field, Landover, Macca, Maryland, MD, Mustang Mania V, Paul McCartney, pink mustang, Redskins, Redskins Stadium, Washington D.C.

Anyone want to buy a 1967 pink mustang?

July 22, 2009 By jonbenya 6 Comments

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?

Filed Under: 1967 Mustang, Dusk Rose, Mustang restoration, Pink Mustang Colors, Playboy Pink Tagged With: 1967, Dusk Rose, ford, mustang, pink mustang

What The F@*# Did I Just Buy?!? Part 2

June 22, 2009 By jonbenya 5 Comments

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!

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, My 1965 Playmate Convertible, Pink Mustang Colors, Playmate Pink Tagged With: 1965 Mustang, 289 v8, antique cars, antique vehicles, convertible mustang, ford, ford mustang, mustang, pink mustang, Playmate Pink, sports cars

Is that your Mom’s car?

June 13, 2009 By jonbenya Leave a Comment

I pulled up to a traffic signal today, top down, enjoying the sunshine, when a woman in a Cadillac pulled up next to my pink ’65 Mustang.

I knew she wanted to say something, and as I rolled down the window, she asked: “Is that your mom’s car?”.

I couldn’t resist, so I piped up and told her “No, I asked them to paint the car Poppy Red, and they the paint shop thought I said Pepto”.

Her jaw dropped! She responded by saying “Well, I LOVE the color! Are you going to have it fixed?”. I told her I haven’t decided yet as I pulled away, and got a good laugh as I took off.

I have a feeling this is just the beginning of a very long journey that’s going to be filled with plenty of gawkers. I knew a straight man driving a pink mustang would draw attention, but this car easily gets three times the attention of any other classic car I’ve ever driven!

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, Funny Mustang Comments, My 1965 Playmate Convertible, Playmate Pink Tagged With: 1965 Mustang, pink mustang, Playmate Pink

The Earliest Pink Mustang Color: Playmate Pink

June 13, 2009 By jonbenya 1 Comment

In 1965, The first factory pink mustangs were released. Known as “Playmate Pink”, they were done to match the 1965 Mustang given to Playboy Playmate Donna Michele, shown above, as reward for winning playmate of the year. The color carried over to 1966, and the original pink cars were all special orders, with six digit DSO’s on the data plates, and a blank exterior color code.

It is interesting to note that this original image seems to be over-saturated, and the original color of the car may in fact be a considerably lighter than this image seems to indicate. examining under the door code plate of an original 1965 playmate pink yields an interesting color:

The Pink is very light, almost a flesh-tone, and it’s interesting to note that there is at least one other first generation mustang floating around in this pale pink tone. Could this perhaps be the correct “playmate pink” color tone from 1965-1966?

Filed Under: 1965 Mustang, 1966 Mustang, Pink Mustang Colors, Playmate Pink Tagged With: 1965 Mustang, 1966 Mustang, mustang convertible, pink mustang, Playmate Pink

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