1967 Mustang Fastback Restoration
Ken Dalton , the president of MRP Design Group, is kicking off a project that has been close to 37 years in the making!
In 1978, while still in high school, Ken purchased his first car. Over the next several months this now tired, old 1967 Mustang fastback will be brought back to life as a beautiful 1967 Shelby clone that will be used for promotions for our firm. Today we have the first blog installment where Ken speaks of the cars background.
The year is 1978 and I am a junior in high school in Columbus, GA. Having grown up a Ford fan (do not really know why) I really wanted a fastback Mustang. Having looked at several, one day I read a newspaper ad for a 1967 Mustang Fastback located in East Alabama. Upon my arrival I found a pretty sad car that was painted an awful yellow/orange color, and had a red interior with multi color shag carpeting. The one bit of good news was the price, $800. So I purchased the car and within days the car was sitting in my back yard broken down.
I decided to pull and rebuild the 289 motor. Having never done a motor rebuild but armed with the courage of youth and with help from several friends I got the motor running and drove the car while I slowly rebuilt various parts of it. I spent one of my summers during college stripping the paint and getting a new red paint job. The car really took shape and I even received offers to show the car at local small car shows. I continued to drive the car daily through college, my first jobs and even delivered my first son to daycare in it.
Once married and having two sons while trying to get MRP Design Group rolling my poor Mustang fell into neglect. I placed the vehicle in a barn that my father-in-law had and it there it stayed for years. Many asked why I had not sold the car but as it did not really cost anything to simply own, I held onto it with the hopes of one day getting it back on the road. Upon the passing of my father-in-law I loaded the Mustang on a trailer and brought it to the parking deck in the lower parking garage of the MRP Design Group offices. There it sat collecting dust for several years.
With both of my sons out of college and on their own I felt like the time was right to pursue my dream of getting the Mustang rebuilt with the goal of not only going through the entire vehicles systems but adding some creature comforts like power steering, disc brakes, a new engine, and air conditioning. The other big change, and the one I am most excited about, will be not only bringing the car back but converting it into an iconic version of the Mustang, a 1967 Shelby GT350. Stay tuned for more updates and photos.
Until next time,
Ken
