This ’65 Mustang was given to me by a very generous cousin of mine who wanted to see the car rescued. It has been in my family since new. Although it was a bit rough when I picked it up, it was a completely rust-free, 58,000 original mile car. I debated restoring it versus modifying it, but I just couldn’t fall in love with the original Honey Gold color. I decided to take the plunge and totally change the car. I started by totally disassembling the car and having it dustless blasted. The body and paint were done by Classic Collision and Restoration in Bryan Texas. Even though it didn’t need a lot of bodywork, Doug and his crew at Classic fixed all of the bad factory body gaps and did the paintwork. I built a 332 stroker motor for it. I wanted a stout engine, so I started with a seasoned block bored over .030, put an Eagle stroker kit with a forged crank, rods, and Mahle pistons. Compression should be in the 10 to 10.25 to 1 range. I also installed a Moroso main cap girdle, a Comp hydraulic roller cam (284RF-HR10), Edelbrock Performer, Holley 650, JBA ceramic coated headers -  among other modifications. The suspension is still ’65 era leaf and coils, but with Shelby spring rates, a 1” sway bar, KYB gas shocks and I dropped the car 1”. I kept the 8” diff (for now) but put 3.40 gears with Traction-lock and of course the SST Tremec TKO 600 kit for the Mustang. It went in great and only required a slight trim off some bracing on the transmission tunnel. The car has plenty of power but not plenty of traction! The Tremec shifts great and makes the car a pleasure to drive!

Louis