68 Mustang 428CJ, original paint 135 car

[tom406]

Visited my friend Gary McKay yesterday and it was nice to see him turning his attention to #028, one of the first 50 428CJ Mustangs made. This is a car I've posted pictures of before. He bought it from the original owner, who raced it into the early 70s without modifying it too much (original wheel wells, springs, etc) and kept it in climate controlled storage for its entire life. It wears its original Wimbledon White paint and black interior, and its a real time capsule. Its still fitted with its original race motor, a 427 service block sleeved down to 428 bore size. The original engine was removed and put under the bench. It was recently torn down, checked, and reassembled. It will be dyno tuned to make sure everything is good, then displayed on a stand next to the car for the foreseeable future. That last picture is the passenger front wheel well-with no real undercoating applied on these quasi-"lightweight" homologation models, that's what a perfectly preserved wheel well looks like. I just stared in there awestruck for a little bit. I'm placing a wanted ad for some 15x4" or 4.5" Cragar S/S in the classifieds for this car. The plan is to display it with Cragar S/S skinnies and chrome reverse wheels in the back with large add-on Cragar centers ala the Gas Ronda '68 Winternationals car. I just got the Cragar centers off of Ebay last week.

[tom406]

The Gas Ronda car:) Some other great background on the 135 cars and their preparation and performance at the Winternationals at Scott H.'s awesome 428cobrajet site. https://www.428cobrajet.org/drag-racing

[Tracker1]

What a fantastic Mustang!

[Xplantdad]

What a fantastic Mustang!


Agreed!:worship:

[Ryan1969Chevelle]

I have a real thing for 135 cars!!!

That is a special special special car!!!

Love it.

Ryan W31

[Tracker1]

I have a real thing for 135 cars!!!

That is a special special special car!!!

Love it.

Ryan W31

Yeah, those first run of white Mustangs were bad-ass stormers! If anybody would care to read more about these very special cars, go here: https://www.428cobrajet.org/135

[mockingbird812]

What an impressive specimen..........original paint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!

[ScottG]

It is a no sound deadener 135 . That is the rarest version of that rare 1968 Cobra Jet car.

[tom406]

It looks like a no sound deadener car to me, but the door tag special order-DSO is 844660, which according to Scott's site signifies a car with seam sealer and sound deadener. Not sure what to make of that-I'd have to look at an unrestored 844661 car and see if they're just running no goop anywhere at all, or if this car was built to the "lightweight" spec in error.

[ScottG]

It looks like a no sound deadener car to me, but the door tag special order-DSO is 844660, which according to Scott's site signifies a car with seam sealer and sound deadener. Not sure what to make of that-I'd have to look at an unrestored 844661 car and see if they're just running no goop anywhere at all, or if this car was built to the "lightweight" spec in error.
Scott's site could be in error. That car surely has no seam sealer now..

[sah62]

Scott's site could be in error. That car surely has no seam sealer now..

It could be, but it isn't. The DSO information on my site comes directly from Ford production records.

[A12pilot]

Tom,

There's remnants of seam sealer on the right inner fender picture where the outer firewall meets the right Torque Box / Floor toe board, is there not? It's sprayed Wimbledon White as well. No?

Regardless... freaking Kick-Butt car! I would have cloned my 68 S-Code into that had I not gone the Bullitt route. My favorite Mustang EVER is a 135 car.

Cheers
Dave

[tom406]

Hi Dave!

Yes, I did see what you're seeing there. My comment was a lack of sound deadening, not seam sealer, which is evident in the picture there. I may have muddied the water by just noting what I perceive as a lack of undercoating-type material anywhere under the car. This car just doesn't have much evidence of the guy with the spray schmutz getting anywhere near it. I will try and look at the insides of the quarters next time I'm down there and see what it has for the back and forth spray most Mustangs have. I knew Scott's website was based on Ford documents (at least one of which is shown on the site) and didn't doubt the accuracy. I would have to assume the x661 cars were just welded together and painted, ala the Galaxie lightweights. Besides being noisy as hell, these no dum-dum cars fared very poorly if they ever ended up as street cars since the corrosive water was allowed to run free throughout.

Now put down your carpenter tools and fly into Seattle one of these days:)

[A12pilot]

Ah, gotcha. Yes, inside quarters and rear wheel wells would reveal body color painted sound deadener.

I know it! I gotta get to Seattle! Perhaps a quick trip for a day is in order to see these cars Gary has!!

Cheers
Dave

[tom406]

OK, had to run to Tacoma last night so I swung by and snapped a few more pics of the 135 car. It's definitely a seam sealer/sound deadener car, as indicated by its special order DSO# 844660. Attached are pics of the inside of the quarter panels. I also shot one inside (note 30k on odometer and no radio-ever plate) and under the hood to see how the hole was cut and scoop was mounted. A clarification: I looked really closely in the wheel wells and can see that the previous owner did some painting underneath to clean things up. So while the condition of the metal and hardware inside that wheel well is still amazing, at least some of the bright white finish probably had a little help:)

[tom406]

It definitely has the 8 studs vs 7 studs with a center rear. It appears like light colored fiberglass in person, my iPhone pic is perhaps not representing its true color well. Or perhaps the "yellow" example shown from #034 might have aged a little differently. I'm not sure. Here's the explanation, again from the 428cobrajet.org site:
https://www.428cobrajet.org/id-hood-scoop-68

[tom406]

Things are coming together. Chrome reverse wheels and NOS Cragar center caps for the rear and I believe he has secured a pair of 15x4 S/S for the front. Picture shows Al Joniec’s car with the same combo (plus another chance to see Lovely Linda V:) ).

[markjohnson]

Big fan of ALL the factory drag cars of the ‘60’s. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t ask what’s with that Black ‘62 Bel Air in the background?! Thanx!

[tom406]

Hi Mark,
That '62 Bel Air is a super nice black on red 409/409 car. It was purchased from a broker/dealer already restored, without much known previous history. It replaced a red/red Bel Air with Z11 upgrades he had prior. I can say that it is likely the nicest sheetmetal '62 I've ever seen-everything underneath is excellent, with every spot weld, drain hole, and dimple seemingly present and accounted for. It just seems like most of these '61-64s rusted somewhere underneath and usually you can find a patch someplace, where even if its done clean you inevitably seem to lose some sort of detail. This car apparently lived in a world without moisture. I'll try to shoot some pics of it along with its Bubbletop cousin, that Honduras Maroon '61 Impala SS 348/350hp car I've shown before. That's another incredible original sheetmetal car. McKay is known as a Ford guy and collector, but he's built a pretty impressive Chevrolet wing over the last decade or so.

[markjohnson]

Thanks Tom! Would love to see more photos of the ‘62 if it’s not too much trouble!