1966 Mustang GT K Code Coupe

• Built 12/65 San Jose, California
• Wimbledon White
• Red Pony Interior
• AM/8 Track with Door Speakers
• GT Package
• 4 speed Top Loader
• Proper VIN Engine
• Proper Dated Heads/Intake/Carb
• Original Headliner, Dashpad, sunvisors, mouldings, floor mats, door handles, and much more

• Dealer Option Tri-Power (Buddy Bar)
• Cobra T Pan (real)
• Cobra Open Letter Valve Covers
• Hurst Shifter
• AFX Style Tear Drop Hood
• Torque Thrust D wheels
• Shelby Under-ride Traction Bars
• Moto Lita Steering Wheel
• Sun SST-802 Tach (Dated 11/65)
• Dual Master Cylinder for safety
• 
  

o All Sheet Metal is FoMoCo

o Factory Solid Lifter 271 HP Engine rebuilt with the following:

NOS Piston & Connecting Rods

NOS Camshaft

NOS Timing Set & Counter Weight

NOS Flywheel

NOS Crankshaft Damper

Boss 302 Windage Tray

Fully Balanced

All (8) Cylinders sleeved to standard bore

Rebuilt Dual Point Distributor (bushings, NOS gear and points purchased from Bob Ford, Dearborn in 1984)

o All hood latch items restored

o New at restoration 9” 3:91 Traction-Loc Rear End

o Original 3:50 open center section included (needs repair)

o New Axle Bearings, June 2007

o Brand new Center Force Clutch, June 2007 (comes with GENUINE K CODE Plate and Disc which need repair, roll pin fell out)

o All Springs, Shocks and Suspension components new at restoration. Proper rates directly from Detroit Spring which is local for me.

o All brake parts Brand New, except: rotors & drums

Anything else not listed was replaced, repainted or polished.

FLAWS: (2) One small dime size paint blister since day one of resto. Appears someone got skin oil on the metal before painting, shown in picture. One small blistered/flaked spot under hood. Likely from heat. I was going to make a hoodliner out of aircraft firewall foam but never "got around to it".

This car has a VERY INTERESTING HISTORY and a One in a Million Engine. Read the story below featured in the Performance Ford Club Employee Newsletter to see why:

A 1966 Mustang GT K-Code had Lost It’s Engine For 20 Years…

This is the story of a 1966 Mustang GT K-code 289 High Performance (Hi-Po), I acquired from my father as a rolling painted shell in December of 2004. He started restoration in 1996 and had lost interest over the years. So he called and asked if I would be interested in finishing the car and using it. Let’s see…I had to decide if I wanted to own and drive a classic Mustang with a 289 Hi-Po engine. Not a hard choice!

For the restoration I had to build the engine from a bare block, the rear end, the front end, the interior and everything else on the car. Everything needed attention, all the way down to hand rebuilding the Carter Carburetor X Fuel Pump.

The car is a real factory GT, K-Code 289/271hp Mustang. It is Wimbledon White with Red Deluxe Pony Interior, a factory AM/8 Track radio and a 3:50 rear. The car was built December of 1965 at the San Jose, California plant.

My dad bought this car in 1988 with an incorrect 289 engine. In 1992 my Father decided it was time to restore the car. It had been a driver for the last 4 years and had been beat on at the dragstrip plenty, quite a bit by myself. So during the summer of 1992, during a local cruise night, a guy walks up and asks if anyone would be interested in a 289 Hi-Po engine. He said it was complete from the carb to the oil pan.

My Dad thought to himself, “Here we go, chrome valve covers and a 4 barrel and the guy thinks he has a Hi-Po”. So he went to look at a K engine laying in an alley for the attaching hardware, carb, water pump, etc. to complete a Hi-Po engine I sold him when I was 16 years old after totaling my 65 Mustang GT fastback (Life Lesson #1: Don't let your kids buy their own classic car even if they have the $$$). Well what he found that day was a real Hi-Po engine. So he purchased it and brought it home.

After he had the engine hot tanked WHOLE because it was too rusted for disassembly, he looked for a VIN number on it, as most K-Code cars have their VIN stamped into the block. He found it and it looked familiar. So he went over and opened the hood on his Mustang and looked at the VIN on the Left Inner Fender.

IT MATCHED!!!

He just sat down in a lawn chair and stewed on it checking back & forth multiple times before calling anyone to tell them. How could this be?

The story goes that the car came from California in 1982 with no engine, the previous owner whom my Dad purchased the car from had it shipped to Michigan sight unseen. The engine, we discovered, appears to have come here sometime in the early 70's. It belonged to a former Gapp & Roush employee that used it for drag racing and lived in Belleville, MI. When he moved he didn't take it with him and the guy my Dad purchased the engine from pushed it outside because it was in his way. When he was tired of looking at it he took the engine to his brother’s house in Wyandotte, Michigan, where it sat in an alley for 10 years uncovered.

It still amazes me that a car and it’s original engine were separated in California and rejoined in Michigan after being apart for 20 years.

To save this engine it was sleeved in all 8 cylinders by Chuck’s Engine Exchange in Plymouth, Michigan where my cousin has worked for 20 years. The Autolite carb was restored by Pony and many NOS parts were used where possible. I used a dual point that I rebuilt when I was 15 years old that my Dad had kept with the rest of the other Hi-Po engine parts for the past 20 years. The engine was assembled using 8 NOS pistons & rods, an NOS damper, NOS camshaft, NOS timing set w/counter weight, NOS Autolite Spark Plugs, NOS Flywheel and pressure plate/clutch disc. Many of these parts I purchased when I was 15 years old with paper route money, and I was now getting them back.

There is not one single part on this car that has not been replaced, painted, cleaned or polished prior to being installed. The engine was assembled in March after Michigan’s snowmobile season ended. So April 1st that was out of the way. But I had a long way to go and Mother Nature was not helping.

I purchased my first batch of parts to start the rest of the restoration on April 25, 2005. That evening the work began. I drove the car the 1st time on June 25th. I could have never completed this car in that time frame had I not: A) Had a gazillion years experience working on old Ford products, and B) an understanding employer, where I happen to dyno test engines for a living, and C) the best part, a REAL understanding and helpful wife, and lastly, a very helpful family!!!

My dad or wife polished and detailed every shiny part on the car.
My 15 year old son sandblasted any part that needed it and did simple assembling.
My 13 year old played with the then 4 year old so we could work.
My 4 year old helped assemble the engine and donated UNWILLINGLY her blue Play-Dough after I ran out of clay to check valve clearances. She is still upset when I mention it and claimed the 1st show trophy as hers and displays it in her room with great pride. She cried the 1st 4 Car Shows because we didn't place. "No one likes our car" is all she kept saying. As a father that tore me up. But I was happy with all the compliments, I didn't need hardware for my ego. Those were club shows with participant vote. Once we went to a judged show it all changed.

My proudest moment to date is my “Best Muscle Car” award presented at the West Michigan Muscle Car Club Show. The show was held at the Gilmore Classic Car Museum. Our car was picked out of hundreds of gorgeous Muscle Cars by Gilmore Classics themselves.

I built this 1966 Mustang to recreate what someone may have done in 1966 with available parts. I did this using an original Cobra Tri-Power, Cobra “T” Oil Pan and reproduction Cobra Valve Covers. I installed a restored Sun SST-802 tachometer with a November 66 date stamp and Stewart-Warner Oil Pressure and Temperature Gauges from the era also. The original Autolite carb, stock steel hood, Styled Steel Wheels and original valve covers are restored, wrapped up, and put away.

The hood is a fiberglass tear drop, replicating the A/FX Mustangs from the 60’s; just like the Bob Ford and Gas Rhonda Mustangs used to have. Lastly, it rolls on 15x7 American Racing Torque Thrust D wheels with 65 Mustang GT350 R replica centers with Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 rubber.

This Mustang has been a lot of fun so far, and is not a Trailer Queen. It is driven to shows and cruises.