Mustang of the Week 11/30/01

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My name is Aaron LaRoque, my VMF handle is alaroque.

I am a 31 year old Engineer for the Water Engineering Department for the City of Phoenix. I love cars, not just mustangs, although I have only restored them. I have pretty much done all my own work, except for rebuilding the transmisison. My current project car has been this 1969 Mach 1 Mustang. I bought the car from a parts yard 4 years ago, it was pretty much a wreck, although salvagable. I restored the car to a mostly original condition and drove it for a few years, but pretty much was itching for a new project. So, instead of selling the Mach and buying another wreck to restore, I decided to tear the 69 apart and start all over again, only this time, I was building it the way I wanted it.

I started out by buying a used 1994 AODE Mustang GT transmission from a parts yard and having it rebuilt with upgrade kits from Baumann Engineering. I also bought their Transmission Control Unit which is controlled by a laptop with a windows based program. I next built a custom 351W, 10.2:1 compression motor. It has flat-top Keith Black hyperutectic pistons, trickflow aluminum heads, Eledbrock RPM intake, Edelbrock 750 RPM carb, and a comp cams 268 Extreme Energy cam (.512 inches lift). I then stripped the body down and repainted the car Indigo Blue with a basecoat clearcost application. I custom built a cowl induction hood by buying a steel cowl and cutting it to fit the curvature of my hood. I also cut out the center hump on my hood and welded in a flat piece of sheet metal. It has Cobra R rims, 17x9 with 5.95 inches backspacing. In order to get the tires to fit up front on the Granada spindles, I used 1.25" adapters, the tires are Nitto 245/45/17. Out back, I have 275/50/17 Nittos. The steering is a 1993 Dodge minivan power rack and pinion I custom installed, the rear disc brakes are from a 1979 Cadillac Deville I also custom installed. I re-wired the car with a GM standard American Autowire harness. The interior is no longer stock, I also customized it. I stripped the woodgrain from the dash pieces and painted them the same as the car, installed all Autometer Phantom gages, built a custom console, installed a steering column from a 1985 Cadillac Seville with tilt and telescopic, and put in front buckets from a 1992 Ford Probe (I also took the front seatbelts from the probe and welded in a support bracket for them to mount into my quarterpanel area). The restomod process can be very frustrating but the way the car drives and handles makes it all worth the effort. Hope to see you at the shows!!