Car of the Month
John and Sally O'Toole's 1968 Coupe
"A Car in Transition"
Sally and I have owned our 1968 Mustang coupe since 1996. It originally started out as a project car for my son, Dan, and I, but he was already 16 when we bought it, so it became his daily driver and the work done on the car was minimal for about the first two years or so. The car was originally a 289 C code with a 3 speed manual transmission. The car came with a lot of fiberglass parts to try to make it look like a Cal Special. Dan and I didn’t care for the look and set about replacing all of the plastic with the original parts. When we acquired the car, the motor had already been replaced with a rebuilt 302 to which the prior owners then added several modifications. It’s still the same motor today with very few changes. I don’t know how many miles have been accumulated, but I would guess well over 150,000 on the car and at least 70,000 to 80,000 on the 302.
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With Dan driving the car every day for the first couple of years, not much work was done. I started acquiring various parts with the idea that someday we would be able to put them on the car. We were pretty sure that we didn’t want to do a full restoration, just bring the car back to a good looking cruiser. When Dan wanted to move on to a later model Mustang in 1999, I decided, with Sally’s blessing, to keep the coupe,install all the parts I had accumulated and finish the car. It was a slow process and I soon realized that this was going to be a lot of work. When I purchased the car in 1996, I knew very little about Mustangs. I joined the VMOA that same year and began to learn; and, you know the old saying, “if I knew then what I know now”, I wouldn’t have started with this car. As I learned about Mustangs, I developed a pretty good idea of where I wanted to go with the completion. The car was originally Pebble Beige with a lot of primer spots on it and I finally settled on Wimbledon White as the color for the repaint. Sally thought it looked too plain and started pushing for the Shelby stripes. Between the painter and Sally, they finally convinced me it was the way to go and the stripes went on. |
Anyway, over the next few years the car was painted, reupholstered and modified. Except for the exterior paint, I did most of the work myself. Finally it was at the point where I felt I could submit it as Car of the Month. That occurred in March of 2004 when the club still met at Swanson Ford. The coupe has changed little since that time. I have added power disk brakes, replaced the gear drive with a double roller chain and replaced the headers with cast iron units from a 289 K code. The rear end is a 3:55 Ford limited slip which works very well with the five speed transmission. The car is more fun to drive than anything else I own. |
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Sally and I have taken a lot of road trips in this car although none have been a very great distance from home. I’m told that the distance will only increase with the addition of A/C and reclining seats. In any case, folks seem to enjoy seeing the car whereever it shows up.
Sally has always been almost as much of a car girl as I am a car guy, and I’m thankful that we can share this fun activity. Last October, we took the coupe for our first open track session at Thunderhill Raceway Park. I drove up and Sally followed in our ‘support’ vehicle. I was nervous about a lot of things; the car holding up, me staying on the track and out of other people’s way, but I worried for no reason. The car held up beautifully and I managed to stay off the dirt and clear of other vehicles. There was plenty of help and advice for a novice driver from members of NorCalSAAC and other friends of mine who own and drive vintage race cars. This was our first open track, but not the last. We probably should have done this years ago and our intention is to keep doing it as much as we can. So, I guess, there goes the A/C and the reclining seats and here comes the roll bar and 4 point harness. Stay tuned........ John And Sally O’Toole
