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Here is a great story about a cool car from one of our fantastic customers!
I purchased this 1968 Mustang GT in 1991 from an old college friend who owned the car in Northern Virginia. It is an S code and has the original 390 GT motor and 4 speed transmission.
The previous owner did not like driving the big block and 4 speed in traffic, because it would overheat. He also despised going through the gears all the time. I “reluctantly” took it off his hands.
The car was a driver for me for about 14 years until my wife finally persuaded me to restore the car. We had just completed a full restoration of her 65 convertible Mustang and were really enjoying that car. J&J Mustang Restoration in Louisa Virginia performed the restoration of her 65, so I took the 68 GT to Jack Sharpe, the owner of J&J Mustang Restoration. I have a very good working relationship with Jack and had plenty of time, so Jack agreed to work on it when things were slow at the shop.
Over the next 3 years Jack completely replaced the typical Mustang rust. During this time, I would take pieces home with me and restore and detail them in my spare time. We had the engine rebuilt, but I just could not put a stock 390 back into the car. The engine was original and had never been out of the car and still sported original standard pistons.
The block was bored .030 during the rebuild and forged pistons were added. A Comp Cams Xtreme Energy XE284H .584 int / .588 exh with factory adjustable rocker arms was added. The original heads were replaced with Edlebrock aluminum heads, and the originals were safely stored away. Hooker Super Comp headers were added for extra "breathing"!
To feed this new motor I replaced the factory intake and carb with an original Ford 3x2 intake with factory Ford Holley carburetors. I had the distributor re-curved and blueprinted and added a Crane electronic ignition. The clutch and pressure plate were replaced with a Centerforce setup, and the transmission was rebuilt and a Hurst Competition Plus shifter added. 2 ½ inch dual exhaust was added along with a pair of Flowmaster Super 44s. The car sounds as awesome as it runs.
This Mustang was built in Metuchen, NJ and first sold by a Ford dealer in Baltimore, Maryland. It is painted the original Candy Apple Red with 5 coats of single stage urethane applied by Ian Williamson of Woodys Body Shop in Arvonia, Virginia. The interior is standard black. I did replace the 68 buckets with 69 standard buckets to add headrests for safety. The car sits on 4 Chrome GT wheels, 15x7 up front and 15x8 on the rear with Goodyear Eagle II tires. To help the car hook I also installed a Competition Engineering Slide-a-Link system.
The car has been entered in many shows and has earned several awards. I also took it to Charlotte this past April for the 50th Mustang Celebration. It took a total of about 5 ½ years for the restoration and a lot of parts from Virginia Classic Mustang. It was worth every minute and every dime.
Don’t ever lose sight of the vision!!!
