Photo: eBay User:green2clean
A short time ago, we got to test drive a 1968 Ford Mustang, heavily modified with a modern drivetrain and interior by Velocity Restorations of Florida. With a sticker price well into the $300,000 area, chances are good that this is the most high-quality restomod Mustang ever to come out of an American shop. But not everybody's tastes are the same, and not all crave a Coyote motor and a modern ten-speed transmission. Some people just want to break out of the saws and get to hacking.
Such is the case with this 1968 Mustang that's taken a remarkably different path than what gets built at Velocity. This time around, this Mustang had practically its entire rear end replaced with a pickup bed, hence the nickname "Mustero." You might get it in your head that this is some kind of DIY botch job done by people in a shed with a sawzall and some mig welders. But you'd be wrong; in fact, this Mustero is only a few degrees of separation from being OEM equipment.
In truth, the massive overnight success of the Mustang in the mid-to-late 1960s prompted one particular Beverly Hills-based Ford dealership to try something altogether novel. Instead of purchasing a Mustang for weekend trips and a Ranchero as a daily work truck, one dealer decided to combine the two by taking a perfectly normal Mustang coupe and creating a cavernous truck bed where the rear end of this car used to be. Through surprising professional build quality and good workmanship, the end result actually didn't look like something built by some friends in a garage.
With professionally installed drear glass and a truck bed coated in healthy layers of liner, you could almost trick someone into thinking this is some long-lost prototype from Ford that never saw the light of day until six decades later. But no, as many as 50 of these ultra-rare Musteros left Beverly Hills Ford with new owners before the initiative was shut down, never to return again. From there, the owner of this example founded Pats' Mustang in Jacksonville, Florida, along with his wife, which became the impetus for acquiring this Mustero roughly 15 years ago as a project to complete alongside his daughter.
Over this time, little bits and pieces of interior and exterior trim as well as any mechanical snafus that may have transpired to create a vehicle seemingly pristine in appearance. With a 200-cubic inch (3.3-L) Thriftpower straight six under the hood, this isn't going to be winning drag races any time soon. But this Mustero will be turining heads everywhere it goes hence forth from sea to shining sea. For just $18,000.00 out the door, it undercuts a Velocity restomod by a pretty penny.
In truth, the massive overnight success of the Mustang in the mid-to-late 1960s prompted one particular Beverly Hills-based Ford dealership to try something altogether novel. Instead of purchasing a Mustang for weekend trips and a Ranchero as a daily work truck, one dealer decided to combine the two by taking a perfectly normal Mustang coupe and creating a cavernous truck bed where the rear end of this car used to be. Through surprising professional build quality and good workmanship, the end result actually didn't look like something built by some friends in a garage.
With professionally installed drear glass and a truck bed coated in healthy layers of liner, you could almost trick someone into thinking this is some long-lost prototype from Ford that never saw the light of day until six decades later. But no, as many as 50 of these ultra-rare Musteros left Beverly Hills Ford with new owners before the initiative was shut down, never to return again. From there, the owner of this example founded Pats' Mustang in Jacksonville, Florida, along with his wife, which became the impetus for acquiring this Mustero roughly 15 years ago as a project to complete alongside his daughter.
Over this time, little bits and pieces of interior and exterior trim as well as any mechanical snafus that may have transpired to create a vehicle seemingly pristine in appearance. With a 200-cubic inch (3.3-L) Thriftpower straight six under the hood, this isn't going to be winning drag races any time soon. But this Mustero will be turining heads everywhere it goes hence forth from sea to shining sea. For just $18,000.00 out the door, it undercuts a Velocity restomod by a pretty penny.
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