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Mustang Convertible -
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Our Ford Mustang Convertible project car is what enthusiast refer to as a 1964 ½ Mustang. These first Mustang models were offered in a coupe or convertible and featured a base 170-cubic inch six-cylinder engine with a three-speed floor shift transmission. An optional 260-cubic inch V-8 engine was available, in addition to a four-speed manual transmission or a three-speed automatic “Cruise-O-Matic” transmission. The Falcon platform Mustang featured full wheel covers, bucket seats, carpeting, and a padded dash. The Mustang made its world debut at the World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.
According to Ford, 22,000 orders were taken the day of its debut. This came as quite a surprise to Ford executives who had predicted annual sales of about 100,000 units. Within its first 12 months, Ford would sell close to 417,000 Mustangs
The early 1965 Ford Mustangs (64 ½ Mustang) were built in early March to July 31, 1964. Some of the unique features these cars have are as follows;
The “64 ½ Mustang” was factory equipped with a generator charging system.
The “64 ½ Mustang engine options were; a 170ci six (U-code), a 260 2V (F-code), or a 289 4V (D-code) low-compression.
Our Mustang project car has the distinction of being a “D” code car. The “D” code designates the first 289 4V V8 cars. The 289 V8 was not so common on the “64 ½” or ’65 model Mustang. The majority of the first year Mustangs had 170 cid six cylinders or 260 cid V8’s.
The “D” Code is found in the 5th digit of the VIN, which designates which engine was installed at the factory.
Our car was equipped with a generator, another earmark of the 64 ½ cars, which our customer wanted to keep for ascetic purposes.
In addition to keeping the generator our customer also wanted to add air condition. With an A/C compressor clutch pulling a heavy electrical load and electric fans on the condenser and evaporator the generator would surely have a hard time carrying the load.
Don Allen at Don’s Starter & Alternator in Florence, Oregon, built an alternator in the original generator housing, a product he calls a Gener-Nator.
This new alternator would surely carry the load of our added accessories without compromising our under hood layout.
With the “Gener-Nator” installed we then fabricated brackets to install a small Sanden air condition compressor below the new alternator.
A high efficiency serpentine type condenser will then be added in front of the radiator with small electric fans that are engaged with the compressor.
Our air condition refrigerant lines will be tucked out of the sight where possible and a Ford under dash add on air condition evaporator unit will be used inside the car.
In the end we’ll have a very efficient air condition system with as few installation eye sores as possible.
