Car of The Month August 2022
Mike’s 1965 Mustang Coupe - The Red Car
Mike Jenniges’ 1965 Coupe
It all started in 1999 when a friend of mine who was into Cougars wanted to go look at a car in Lockhart, Texas. The name of the place was Mendez Mustangs, owned by Lewis Mendez. We drove down to his shop and while my friend was looking around at Cougar stuff, I happened to glance out of the back door of the shop, and I noticed a derelict old ‘65 Mustang Coupe with a GT badge on the fender, languishing away, all four tires flat. I went and looked at the car and thought with a little work it would be the perfect daily driver for me. I asked Lewis what the story was on the car and he said he and his brother had been drag racing it for years and had decided to put it out to pasture. My first Mustang was a GT Coupe, so I was a little partial, and I asked if it was for sale and he said, sure. I asked what he wanted for it and he said $1200 and it came with the engine and transmission, but they were not in the car. I excitedly made a deal with him and brought the car home. Unfortunately, as most car deals go, you never quite look closely enough at the car before purchasing. When I got the car home I realized it had a little more rust than I had hoped, but it was salvageable. Although the car was rusty, I was excited when decoding the data plate to see it was originally Rangoon Red with a white interior, and I knew I wanted to restore it back to data plate specifics due to the iconic look of a red ‘65 Mustang. I took it to Abernathy Restorations in Johnson City and had it sand blasted. After sand blasting, Vintage Motor Cars did some panel and frame rail repair and then I worked on it until I got it to roll and steer with all body panels on and to a condition where I thought it was ready for paint.
I am an old guy now, and it was around this time I had to stop driving because I couldn’t pass the drivers eye test. I called Lewis to see if he wanted to buy the car back because I was never going to be able to drive the car. Thankfully, he declined, because this Red Car brought many new friends and experiences into my life.
After Lewis turned me down, a soon to be good friend, Brandon, showed up looking for mustang parts. He did paint and body work as a hobby and looked over my car for a bit while he was at my shop. According to him, the car still needed quite a bit of panel fitment and body work and he offered to do the work in exchange for me working on his High Performance Fastback he had just acquired. A deal was made and the excellent work he did on the Red Car helped land him a job with the Martin Brothers from Iron Resurrection in Johnson City, and then subsequently start his own business of Diamond in the Rust.
After paint and body was done I finished the car’s interior and all mechanical work. It was finished in 2016 and the Red Car won Best in Show, on its first go as a finished car, at the Wounded Warrior Open Car Show at Camp Mabry with over 80 cars. It continued to win numerous Best in Class and Class awards at multiple other shows and was also mentioned in a small article in Mustang Monthly.
It was around this time my daughter got involved with the cars as well, and she ended up with two cars of her own in my garage, maxing out the storage space. Since we were running out of room, I couldn’t drive anymore, and had a new High Performance Convertible coming out of the paint booth to finish, I decided to put the Red Car up for sale and it’s now living its best life ever, basking in the sunshine on the coast of California.
Operation American Muscle 2016 - Best of Show Trophy