Editor’s note: MCSD member Richard Blackman’s latest project is to find a trouble free 1969 Mustang Mach 1 and integrate the parts from a solid 2016 Mustang GT donor car. Richard will contribute future arti-cles as his project progresses. 

Three years ago, I took a very clean 1968 GT500 tribute car and converted it into a modern driver, complete with a Coyote 5.0 and Tremec T56 6 speed transmission. That car and its journey made it into a national car magazine publication. The experience had its ups and downs but overall, it was a very rewarding one. 

I’m in the very early stages of another project car and I’ll be writing a series of articles I’ve titled Conversion and would like to take you along as the project unfolds. 

Rather than have a completed car and write about it after the fact, I thought you might enjoy traveling with me as I experience the frustrations, but also the joy of converting a 50 year old mus-tang into a modern daily driver. An article will appear in the club newsletter eve-ry couple of months to give you a sense of what’s involved and perhaps inspire you to take a similar journey. 

Conversion begins with the objective of finding a “trouble free” 1969 Mustang project car. If you’ve been out there scanning the car adds, the internet, or subscribing to a multitude of classic car magazines, you know my objec-tive was a little unrealistic. A project car is intended to have issues. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t be a project car but rather a 50-year old driver or better yet, a show car. So, I did the next best thing, I tried to find one that was drivable, had a straight body, no rust, no major accidents and clean title.

After several months of scouring a variety of sources, I chanced upon what I thought was a good beginning car. Michelle and I drove up to Riverside to see for ourselves the car. VIN’d as a Mach 1, much of the design queues that make a Mach 1 different from your standard sport-roof were missing. We didn’t care. The motor, a 351W, was positioned in the car but not hooked up. The body looked in great shape so I thought and was told so by the seller. He was planning to restore the car, but life got in the way so it sat in his back yard. He bought the car 14 years before from a friend. 

Satisfied that it was a good and solid beginning, we nego-tiated a fair price. On May 21st, a good friend of mine Richard Dinnen, a guy who has worked on cars all of his life, and I used his trailer to haul the car back to San Die-go. 

We parked the car at Jeff Audia’s, (Quickdraw Racing) facility where most of the suspension, and drivetrain work would be per-formed. Jeff allows me to work with him as the work unfolds which I enjoy. 

My target was to get a drivable 2014 through 2017 GT. Buying a car through an on line auction is quite the expe-rience. Cars going up for bid are posted on a web site several days before the auction date. Once you’ve submit-ted your bidder’s fee, a bidder’s assistant contacts you to help you through the process. 

After following several GT’s, I was ready to place a bid on two that had come up for bid on the prescribed date. 

The first car I bid on went well beyond my budget. The second was unexpectedly pulled by the seller, (Farmers Insurance). Shortly thereafter, my bidder’s assistant called to let me know that a car that I had not looked at was on the auction block as we were talking and that she believed I could place a winning bid if I went two hundred dollars over my budget. After viewing the car on line, reading about its damage and that it was claimed to be drivable, I agreed. Less than five minutes later, my bidder assis-tant called to say I had the winning bid. The car was located in San Jose, CA. so the shipping was arranged and the car arrived in San Diego about a week and a half later. 

Having both cars in the same location, we immediately tore into the 1969 Mach 1 only to discover “rust”! When buying an older car, I try and stay away from this issue as I know from experi-ence it’s costly, frustrating and time consuming; emphasis on 

costly. The rust issue will be dealt with in a future article. 

For me a Conversion requires a list of parts and a time line. Two of the first tasks I do to help define the scope of the work. I organize the parts into four major categories. The first is the suspension, and frame. The second is the engine and drive train. This includes the engines management system. The third is the body and all of the ancillary parts. The fourth and final category is the interior. 

Contained in each of these categories is the merging of parts or systems of the newer mustang into the older mustang. I use Scott Drake, C J Pony Parts and Summit Racing as after-market sources for selecting and pricing the parts I’ll need for the con-version. 

In my next article I will share with you how I go about dismantling the ’69 Mustang and what’s involved in installing a modern front-end suspension, and dealing the with “rust” issue.