Mustang dreams in the Bay

Hennie Smit always dreamed of owning a classic Mustang and eventually managed to get his hands on a ’69 Mach 1.

However, the car was in a bad state of neglect.

In order to turn back time on a piece of automotive history, he approached the guys at Shalom Car Body Specialists for help.

They did a great job of restoring the car from the ground up.

The Mach 1 was essentially a fastback GT with different stripes and a more upscale interior.

A spoiler and rear window louvres were optional.

By decoding the VIN number, Hennie could retrace the cars tracks right back to the day it rolled out of the factory on 14 July 1969 in Dearborn, Michigan.

This information helped Hennie and Shalom to restore the car precisely as it was.

Missing accessories, like wipers and speedometer, were sourced from e-bay or from John’s Mustang in Texas.

Birth of a legend

Mustangs are regarded as a pillar of American automotive lore and have been capturing the hearts of drivers for nearly 40 years.

The original Ford Mustang debuted on 17 April 1964, at the attractive price of $2368.

Dealers were inundated with requests for the sleekly-styled new vehicle.

In Garland, Texas, 15 customers thronged to bid on the same Mustang.

The winning bidder resorted to sleeping overnight in his new car so that it wouldn’t be sold out from under him before his check could clear.

Ford initially forecasted annual sales of about 100 000 units.

On the first day alone, dealers took 22 000 Mustang orders.

Shortly after its introduction, the fledgling vehicle’s success was official when it was featured on the racetrack as the pace car for the 1964 Indianapolis 500.

During the Mustang’s first 12 months on the market, sales built to an astounding 417 000.

Within two years, sales had catapulted to one million.