One of the rarest options for a 1966 Mustang was the AM-FM Radio. I believe that the first one that I purchased about 20 years ago was around $450.00. Recently, they have brought way more than that. Of course, now there is the nice reproduction available at a reasonable price.This post is more about a very unusual AM-FM Radio that I purchased a long, long time ago. All of the original units that everyone is familiar with had "FORD" engraved on the slide bar. Well, I have a radio that actually has "MUSTANG" on the slide bar. I've shown the pictures to many people, but no one seems to have ever seen one like it or know the story behind it.
It is a very early unit with a March 5, 1965 stamping. It also appears to have originally had a black painted chassis. Here are some pictures of the radio along with some pictures of a "regular" AM-FM with the FORD on the slide bar.
The below pictures show the "MUSTANG" Slide Bar with the more polished or rounded edges.
This picture shows the "sharper" edges of the FORD slide bar.
The FORD Slide Bar also has a deeper engraving than the MUSTANG one.
My question is whether or not this radio is actually original, or is the work of a creative builder cobbling together a Comet Chassis with a Mustang knobs, slider and bezel.
ReplyDeleteActual Mustang AM/FM radio assembly probably didn't begin much before early April 1965, as evidenced by serial numbers cited in a Mustang Monthly article introducing a 1986 attempt at an AM/FM repro.
That article does make reference to another supposedly original 1965 Mustang AM/FM with a Comet chassis, though that unit, unlike yours, had a Mustang-overstamped prefix.
The 'MUSTANG' slider is certainly interesting -- it seems hard to believe a 'fantasy' piece would be created as a one-off casting, yet why haven't we seen any more of these? And if the part was an unused prototype, one would think it would more closely resemble the production 'FORD' slider. Either way, the 'MUSTANG' slider appears to have seen very little use.
Dave,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. We may never know why or who originally created this radio.
I can tell you that appears as a "factory" part. As the images display, the engraving on the slider is very well done.
Due to the quality and "factory look" of the slider, it very well may be some type of prototype like this badge that I wrote about in another post: http://blog.virginiaclassicmustang.com/2009/07/grand-sport-mustang.html