1965 Ford Mustang

1965 Ford Mustang Convertible

For consignment, a 1965 example of the very popular Ford Mustang from the first yearand in convertible form. A mild restoration was performed in the early 90\'s years ago, along with a repaint and an engine rebuilt to make for one great driving, simply to work on 8 cylinderpony with an automatic transmission. A driver\'s driver if you will. Retaining the correct color from the factory, a deviation from original on the interior, which is clean and basic yet functional, and a smoothly working convertible top. One of the many examples here donning the halls of Classic Auto Mall.

Exterior
Driver quality calming Prairie Bronze paint drapes the straight steel rust free panels of this car. A few inclusions and minor scratches are seen in a few areas along with a few areas of prior body work noted. Overall shiny and nice, the bronze paint is draped over straight steel panels that are minding their gaps to make up the body. Up front, flanking the galloping Mustang badge within itscorral and surrounded by added on GT foglightswithin the side spears are the single headlights in the faux vented inserts. Like new chrome, correct and very nice badging, the hockey stick cove with the chromed trim on the rear quarter and clean lines running the length of the body. With 14-inch steel wheels wearingspinnerequipped wheel covers and thin whitewall radials, this first year Mustang has you arriving in style and class. A black canvas top is on and shows a few tearsand repairs along with no rear window, but does move flawlessly up and down with power motion to top this classic.

Interior
With nearly every part of a 1st generation Mustang interior available from a catalog it\'s hard to tell these days what\'s original and what\'sreplaced. But I can tell you this, there has been a color change on this car and the interior before us is clean, mean and looking just fine. Black ribbed vinyl door cards grace the textured steel door shells and are dressed with chrome for the cranks. Slipping inside leads our posteriors to a pair of tuck and roll and smooth vinyl lowback bomber style buckets, all in excellent condition, nice and tight, and showing no signs of wear. A matching bench is in the rear and appears as nice as the buckets. Black carpet, clean and like new, floats this interior and is protected by Mustang embroidered mats up front and holds the chrome ribbed console on the hump. Within the console is a small storage compartment and a slot for the chrome T-handle shifter to poke through before the console rises up and disappears into the dash. In front, this dash is all original with the central speedometer, and a single flanking circular gauge cluster on either side. A nice factory steering wheel is in front of this dash with the optional Rally Pack holding a tachometer and clock strapped on right in the driver\'s field of vision, and as we pan right, a modern AM/FM radio is inserted and installed into the center. A note to the trunk space with the plaid vinyl liner, which looks just fine.

Drivetrain
Under the hood we see a rebuilt in the 1990\'s 289ci V8 that has been treated to a .030 overbore. It is in a clean black engine bay with the engine painted black and contrasting gold painted valve covers and chrome topped air cleaner to compliment it. On top is a 2-barrel carburetor and nice supple rubber hoses and no corrosion can be seen under this hood. On back is a non-original C4 3-speed automatic transmission which sends power to a Ford 8\" rear axle weighing in with 2.80 gears and TracLoc.

Undercarriage
Overall very nice underneath but not without faults and flaws. While the shock tower bases remain solid and intact, the unibody, torque boxes and inner rockers havesuccumbed to invasive rust and will need repair/replacement in the near future. Drum brakes are on all 4 corners, and for the fully redone suspension we see an independent coil spring arrangement in the front and traditional leaf springs in the rear. Single exhaust is in stock form and looking good, albeit with some surface rust.

Drive-Ability
A very easy starter, and smooth idle during warmup. Off to the test track, and here at said track, this car performed well with nice smooth acceleration, tight steering, and bias free panic stopping. Shifting was a breeze with the automatic, and cruising at highway speed proved no problem for the 8 cylinder under the hood. A few notable frowns reared their heads on our drive with those being the Rally Pack not being functional due to not being hooked up, the heater blower not blowing and the brake lights not illuminating when prompted.

With some nice new restored parts on this car it has a touch of pony class, but is in need of some TLC on the undercarriage. A drop top to enjoy and drive without the fear of a stone chip or scratch in a multi-thousand dollar paint job. Money well spent on the interior and engine which all w

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