Mustang up on the autopsy table

MUSTANG UP ON THE AUTOPSY TABLE

I was walking near the headwaters of the mighty Gowanus Canal when this horrific vision presented itself:

This is what's left of a 1967 Ford Mustang convertible in Wimbledon White. There are only 2 ways I know of to visually discern a '67 from a '68. The first is moot because it involves the letters F O R D being on the hood in '67, but there's no hood here at all! The second is that in 1968 they introduced front and read side marker lights of which this has none. 1967 it is!

This was the first redesign of the original Mustang. This is still considered the first generation Mustang but I can't figure why as the overall dimensions increased. For the first time you could fit a massive 390 or 428 big block V8 engine under the hood.

1967 is my favorite year overall for American cars and this is no exception. Of all the Mustangs I find this to be the most well proportioned. The rear bumpers are nicely integrated into the overall look. The concave real panel and taillights are more dynamic to me than the earlier ones that looked glued on.

If this wreck wasn't a convertible there would be zero chance of anyone bothering with it. However it will be worth somebody's while to restore a drop top every time. Since Mustangs were built on a massive scale you could get a disaster like this and a running parts car hardtop without breaking the bank too severely.

For as brutally ravaged as this ride is it looks like the rust happened while it was sitting somewhere as opposed to driving. The quarter panels are some of the nicest parts of the car which almost never happens. Being a convertible (especially once with the top & windows open) water easily gets in and works it's dark magic. The bottoms of the doors are rotted out which means they filled with water. I'm sure the floors are gone too. Everything is available from catalogs for this ride though.

Well that's where I'll leave this for some brave soul to conquer. Given the chance I would love to roll around town in a '67 convertible Mustang. While they're valuable the high performance Shelby versions are priced in the stratosphere with nice examples selling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars! There are currently a couple of nice '67 convertibles on ebay under 20 grand and one "easy restoration" candidate for under $5,000. If you saw one for a reasonable price snatch it up!