My 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe
a.k.a. "The Muskrat"

I once had enough time and money to low buck restore a 1966 Mustang Coupe.  Those are some of my favorite model Mustangs.  So I figured I'd make one the way I wanted to.  Here's my story about it:

I had a quest.  I wanted my very own 1966 Mustang.  NOT 64, 65, or 67 or anything like that.  A '66.  And I found one, a '66 coupe with no rust on it (that I could see...), a slightly bent passenger quarter panel behind the "scoop," some faded metallic red color, and funky "multifit" euro mesh wheels.  6 cylinder Sprint 200 and a '67 automatic.  Pretty decent body, over all, didn't run right, but I was gonna redo the whole thing eventually, one day.  So I got it.  It was in a bit of sad shape, but I was able to drive it home.

We figured out that the engine was shot, 1 and 6 cylinders weren't even firing.  All fouled up on the spark plugs.  Amazingly, it actually ran pretty good on the four cylinders!  It had overheated just as we got home, so we figured the radiator was plugged up.  We found just a small amount of rust on the inside door panel on the passenger side, but other than that, I got a GREAT unibody.  The front clip needed replacement, of course, but hey, that's what the parts car was for.  (Oh yeah, I forgot, we had a couple of other Mustangs that Dad graciously let me pick parts from.  Got good fenders and front clip stuff.  Thanks Dad.)  And it appeared to have been punched in the left front some time in it's past.

Now about this time, I figured out that you couldn't just put a V8 in an I6 car.  Basically, the entire suspension, brakes, steering, axle, trans, driveshaft and wheels have to be changed out.  Sigh.  There was a Taurus V6 complete with computer (but no tranny, of course) that I had serious thoughts about figuring out how to put in the car, but due to the complexity of it all, and impatient to drive the thing, I just decided to have the I6 engine and trans rebuilt.  The trans came out great first time.  The AER rebuilt I6s apparently need three tries to keep them from leaking coolant from the head gasket.  But these were fixed, and somehow I got the radiator done too, and I had a running, driving car, yay!

But man, what a hunk.  Red faded metallic paint, doors didn't close right, window cranks messed up, windows misaligned.  Leaked from the front floorboord vents, of course, when it rained.  And a black vinyl interior.  In Houston.  Pour me in a bucket.  Oh yeah, no A/C, btw, but the vents did work.The radio barely worked, and the steering wheel was cracked.  The headliner was torn.  It squeaked a lot.  And it drove funny.

I loved it.

I'm serious.  I loved that car from day one.  Hey, did you know that a bench seat in a 64-66 Mustang is pretty rare?  Well, this had one!  The center armrest didn't work, but I figured I'd redo it one day, I just left it down.

I drove it for a while like that.  I had to get the wheel bearings fixed up, and the four wheel drum brakes had to be redone, but I basically left it alone.  I may have gotten a different radio too.  Basics, ya know?

And then one day I got another car.  (A used Lincoln Mark VII.  It was a really nice car.  Best car I EVER owned, including my lovely Muskrat, but that's another story.)  So the '66 sat.  I got it out a couple of times, just to make sure it still ran, but it sat mostly.  Mainly because I had decided that since I had two cars, I could work on one and drive the other.  As I said, I wanted my '66 MY way.  And then I decided to do just that and...

I took it apart.  Everything came off, everything came out, except for the engine, transmission, and axle.  I figured I'd just do a quickie restore. So I set about doing all the normal things for a quickie restore.  I scrubbed parts down to metal, I fixed dents and such in the body work, I changed out interior parts, redid some mechanicals...

And two and a half years later, I was done!  Stupid fast restoration, yeah?

Well, actually, I did it on the weekends, mostly.  If it was too cold, of course, I didn't, and if it was raining the carported drive way would flood out, but those were the only times I didn't work on it.  I did most of the work myself, including the fabrication of some things, engineering of others.  No, I didn't do the engine or trans work, they were already done.  But I AM really proud of the fact that I filled in all the the holes left by the badging, and the fixing of the passenger scoop.  Nobody but my family and friends ever knew I did that afterwards.  Or at least, nobody told me they saw it.

I couldn't have done it without the help of Lyle Harris and Mike McNurlen, two guys who used to run Classic Mustang in Houston, and I did the computer work for.  They were always there to help me out.  Nor, my Dad, who did the paint and buffing of the outside (which we painted '88 Ford Oxford White) and the engine compartment and engine (which we painted '66 T-Code Red)  He did an awesome job.  Thanks again Dad.

The other work I wound up doing over those two and a half years of weekends was to compeltely unwrap the engine compartment wiring harnesses, clean them up, and then rewrap them with red electrical tape, paint all accessory items white for the engine compartment, redo the entire suspension up front, redo the springs and shocks all 'round, primer paint the entire underneath, (without a rotisserie or lift!  That kinda sucked, to be honest...) install a '69 gas tank, make a new floor for the trunk due to that, make a custom gas filler neck from my now-too-long '65 one, make a cover for that, carpet the entire trunk in red, install new red carpeting, paint the dash pad red, redo the gauge needles, get a new glove box situation, woodgrain steering wheel, redo the grille with a '65 honeycomb, horse corral delete trim (that center part was hard to find, but I did!) new bumpers, no tow bars under them, put on 5 spoke aluminum 15" wheels with BFG tires, plus a spare of course.  Oh yeah, I got a new carb, which was a pretty penny.  Single barrel carbs for the 200 weren't cheap.  But I was glad I did.  And new plugs/wires, coil, ignition, and a boot from that Taurus motor for the distrubtor!

That wasn't all, of course.  Just a major portion.  But I wanted to slowly speak on this part because I'm especially proud.  The reason it took so long to finish was a) I was taking my sweet ass time, b) sometimes the weather wouldn't cooperate, and c) I was busy making it REALLY cool inside, see here:

I had decided, to make the car red inside, white outside.  This isn't really that hard, if you paint it.  But hey, I'm not that normal.  So I hand vinyled the entire interior.  Except for the carpet, seats, and whatever switchgear, the entire interior had red vinyl on it.  The dash, the doors, the quarter trim.  I redid the package tray with the red carpet from the trunk.  The doors were a challenge near the lower portions, and the dash was difficult because of the switch "pods".  But man, I was a happy, proud camper about it.  I even did the column!  It turned out sweet.  I had a friend help me with reinstalling the headliner correctly, that pretty much bites.  (Thanks for the help Mac!)

The other portion was acquiring '88 Mustang GT fronts and backs.  I traded the bench seat for the entire backs, and I got the fronts by having custom seats made for my dad's Ranchero, which had the GT seats.  Now, the '88 GT seats in the front pretty much bolt right onto the old '66 bucket seat tracks, which I got from Lyle.  You only have to notch the front a bit for a new bolt location, and they bolt right on.

The backs fit in the back perfect.  And they also folded down.  The trick?  Well, it's used to be a secret, but anyone can figure it out.  You just reverse the left and right mounting brackets.  The center one is the center, of course.  And a few sheet metal screws later, you have a folding down seat set.  Neat!

I also availed myself of the power antenna and the dome/map light out of a 1978 Thunderbird that died in our custody.  Put those in my Muskrat as it was beginning to be called.  Oh, and I wired up the lumbar motors in the front seats too. 

Man, I now had the super coolness:  A power antenna, working dome/map light, lumbar pumps in the front,  AND fold downs in the back!  Can't touch that!

So the finishing out of the interior due to those things took a few whiles, but it was worth it.  I put in a very much upgraded stereo with twin angled speakers in the front, 6x9s under the package shelf, and dual bass cannons in the sides of the trunk.  I never got around to puttin' in the A/C, but the car had enough ventilation to not really be that big of a deal, especially since it had cloth now.

Finally, it happened.  The Muskrat was alive!  I was SOO happy.  I guess I did ok too, because it's first showing, I got a trophy.  And a few more after that.  A couple of Houston Fun Ford Weekend ones, and one at a show at Memorial City here in Houston when they were showing off the then new 1994 Mustang in '93.  Maybe a couple of others too, but the one I was most pleased, humbled and honored to get was one of two Jeff Lea Memorial Awards from the 1993 Waco Mini Nats.  The award is in the name of a young man who was killed after going to the show on his way home.  His parents requested that it be awarded to the two best cars owned by people under 25 years of age each year of the show.  I was 24.7 years old at the time.  I won one.  A really nice Camaro claimed the other, and he deserved it, it was extremely nice.  I was somewhat shocked that, in a sea of 600 cars, I had actually gotten something.  Not that I was up against all those 600 cars, mind you, but still, it was somewhat amazing at the time for me.

I kept it for a few years, and each time I drove it it was great.  But I had done too good a job.  I was always nervous about driving it in the city of Houston, where some of the best drivers and roads in the world are.  Not.  It didn't help matters that for some reason, it developed a case of vapor lock or something and wouldn't run for 2 hours after it sputtered to a halt.  That turned out to be a bad fuel pump, but it took a while to figure out, what with the sporadic driving  Seemed to be heat related at the time.

Anyway, paranoia set in, I couldn't drive it any more because I was sure it'd get bent.  I sold it in 1996, I think (I really don't want to remember anyway...), and it went to Indiana.  I heard that they wrecked it in a corn field.  Guess that's to be expected for a four wheel non-power drum brake car.  And while that's kind of sad, it is, after all, a car, and these things happen.  But for a while, it was not only my car, it was MY car, the Muskrat, ready for adventure!

Now, why at this late date (Sep. 2004) am I bringing all this up?  I finally found my copies of Mustang Illustrated, where my Muskrat had gotten a two page spread!  I had thought I'd lost them.  But now they're found.  And, I have this web page.  So, here, in all it's glory, is my Muskrat, or the Low Buck Special as they called it (not my name, but it's fitting, I think.) in it's only magazine article!  As you can see, it came out a couple of years after I sold it.  I was surprised to finally see it, since the pictures were taken at the '93 Waco Mini Nats mentioned above, which means it took 5 years to see the light.  I was proud all over again.  

BTW, the girl isn't mine.  Oh well.  I did get to take her (and her boyfriend) to their hotel whereupon she changed into a bikini.  (Well she didn't really, she was still a girl, but she was wearing the bikini.  Grammer IS fun.)  And then brought them back to the scene of the shoot.  No, I didn't get to see her change outfits, what is the matter with you?

The photo shoot itself is fascinating.  It's all about lighting and composition.  Bob McClurg, the photographer, and I believe editor at the time(?), was a cool guy.  Ford had given him a '93 cobra for that weekend to show at the Mini-Nats, that's how well known and connected he was.  Dunno what happened to him, I would suppose he's OK.  Bob, gimme an email!

And now, the article!  (click 'em, they grow!)
    

So, there you have it.  I'm famous or something.  Man, I really miss that car.  Since it's really really gone, I guess there's only one thing to do.  Gonna have to drown my sorrows over the loss of Muskrat in a new 2005 Mustang GT.  Not really the same, but I really think it'll ease the pain nicely...

Back to MikeyB's Presence

Except as noted below, all content contained Copyright (c) 2004 by Michael A. Binckley, all rights reserved.  You know what that means.  If you use it for money, I want a share, so contact me first. And now, key words for the searchbots, just ignore them:  1966 Ford Mustang Coupe 1966, Ford, Mustang Coupe, restore, restomod, resto-mod, T-Code Red Interior, 1988 Ford Oxford White, 200 Cubic Inch 6 Cylinder, Sprint, Michael Alan Binckley, MikeyB!, houtex, Mike McNurlen, McNurlen, Binckley, Richard Binckley, Lyle Harris, Harris, McNurlen, Bob McClurg, McClurg, show car, straight six, Classic Mustang, Low Buck Special, Mustang Illustrated, Mustang, Illustrated, Jeff Lea Memorial Award, Jeff Lea Award, 1993 Waco Mini Nats, Fun Ford Weekend.  Whew.  Glad that's over with.

Oh yes.  The article shown above and in it's expanded form appeared, as can be seen in the lower portions of the scans, in the Mustang Illustrated magazine, the May 1998 issue, and was written by Steve Lancaster, with photography by Bob McClurg.  That content is obviously not copyrighted by me, but by those individuals/companies.  If you want to reproduce them, you'll probably have to ask them, and I don't know how to get a hold of them myself anymore.  I only have them here because I'm kinda proud about it, and thought I'd share.  I don't make any money from these scans, and it's MY car.  Or was...  So.  If anyone has a problem, well, email me at houtex[atsign>wt{dot)net, and let's discuss it. I assume you can read what not to use there.