Car of The Month July 2020
Ed’s 1969 Sportsroof
Ed Weltens and his 1969 Mustang Sportroof
About the Car:
Model Year/Body Style: 1969 Sportsroof (Fastback)
Engine/Trans: Original 302-2V (5.0L) & C4 Trans
Exterior: Candyapple Red (original T code)
Interior: Dark Red Standard interior
Owned since 1985 (Second owner)
Upgrades:
Wheels/Tires: Coker Magnum 500 15x7” front/15x8” rear with Cooper Cobra Radial GT P235/60 R15 front/P245/60 R15 rear
CSRP Power Disc front brakes
Pertronix electronic ignition
Holley Carb since 1986
Lowered front & rear suspension
Fun Fact: This was originally a non-AC car on a dealer lot in San Antonio. It sat on the lot for months until the dealership installed a dealer AC unit. The Mark IV custom was made specifically for 69/70 model years and hugs the bottom of the dash.
First Love
I first fell in love with the 69 Mustang body style when I was 9 years old and lived across the street from a man who owned one in San Antonio. He would wash it on the weekends and I asked if I could help wash the lower parts of the car or vacuum the back seat that was hard for him to reach. Every time he had it out of the garage, I went to say hi and once when an exhaust hanger broke, I crawled under the car to wire it up with a coat hanger so he could take it to the muffler shop. A couple years later my parents divorced and I moved across town with my mom but my dad stayed there so I still saw it on the weekends.
First Car
My mom married an Air Force officer and we moved overseas for my first year of high school. I was planning to return to Texas for 10th grade and my dad was visiting when he asked, “You’ll be getting your driver's license in the fall, have you thought about what kid of car you want to drive?” My answer, “Just like our neighbor’s.” When I got back to Texas in the summer of 1985, I found out he had already bought it from our neighbor. I drove it all of my sophomore year but went back overseas for junior. My senior year was back in the States so I drove it from San Antonio to Northern Virginia where my parents were stationed at the Pentagon.
Risky business in 1986
For college I came to Austin but did not take the car with me. (It still has an 80s era University of Texas stiker in the back window). I drove it in the summers when back home while working the normal college jobs. Eventually I graduated and got a job but by then the steering was getting loose and drum brakes are not practical in DC traffic so it stayed at my dad’s house in Richmond, VA while I drove a 1993 Saturn to work.
Separation
In 1996 I moved back to Austin for a new job. I used a small rental truck to haul my possessions and tow the Saturn. My dad moved to Mississippi and so did the car. The steering bushings, ball joints and brakes continued to deteriorate and made it difficult to drive so it sat in his garage. Before hurricane Katrina hit one of my brothers towed it to Virginia where it sat in front of his house.
Reunion & Rebuild
I went on a trip to see my brother and showed my wife the car just sitting under a car cover and rarely driven. She asked if I ever thought of getting it back and I said I would love to. So, I worked out a deal with my brother to ship it back to Austin in 2011. It barely ran, the tires didn’t hold air, the drum brakes were worse than ever, and the steering was like pushing a cart with four swivel wheels. I was in heaven but having small children and not a lot of money, things took time. The car was on jack stands for 8 years while I went through the top end, stripped and repainted the motor, rebuilt the carb, replaced the suspension, rebuilt the power steering and upgraded to power disc brakes on the front. With new disc brakes the old 14” steel wheels didn’t fit so I had to upgrade to 15” Magnum 500s. I finished it up in March 2019 and it drives better than it did when I was in high school. The only thing that does not work is the old dealer AC system.
Future
Near term I would like to strip it down to bare metal and have some dings removed and paint it with a clearcoat/basecoat in original Candyapple red and update the faded upholstery and carpet. I would love to get the AC working again and if I can figure out how to get a Vintage Air system to work with my original dealer AC ducts and vents I’ll do that.
Longer term I would like to either stroke the original motor to a 331 with better heads or go with a 351W based stroker and upgrade to a transmission with overdrive and 3.50 gears in the rear.