Meet The World's First Mustang Owner: Video

Motor Authority ^ | 2/18/14 | Nelson Ireson

[smokingfrog]

It's 1964, and the Ford Mustang is coming, but it hasn't arrived in any owners' hands yet. People all over the country are excited about Ford's affordable new sporty car. Then Gail Wise rolls down the street in a powder blue convertible and everyone loses it.

This is the first Ford Mustang ever sold to a customer, and it's still in the hands of the woman who bought it out from under a tarp in the back room of Johnson Ford. The dealer sold the car before it was officially on sale.

Over the years the car has seen a lot of use, eventually falling into disrepair. But then, when it was time to get rid of it or fix it, Wise's husband, Tom, completely restored the car.

[A_Tradition_Continues]

My father and I restored a 64.5 Mustang. It was a V8 (think it was a 287 c.i or 289 c.i). Unusual thing about it was the factory bench seats and a factory add-on a/c. It was an automatic with a floor shift.

[Charles Martel]

I remember the Mustang's arrival well. In my memory, the convertible was about a month or so later and the V8 even later. Does anyone out there in Freeperland know?

I think the Fastback model launched shortly after the coupe and convertible. IIRC, the car with serial no. 0001 was indeed a ragtop. V8 cars were sold from the beginning, though initially it was the smaller 260 cubic inch engine.

[Charles Martel]

Yep, the bench seat was an option in those cars. I still see one at a car show now and again, even though the restoration crowd has been sort of shoved aside by the customizer/hot-rodder crowd. I guess that option was intended to make the car more appealing to buyers that saw the Falcon and Comet as "more practical".

Those under-dash A/C units were the only type available in the Mustang through '66. Very capable, too - I had one that would make frost form on the chrome plastic vents.

[jimtorr]

There were no column-shift Mustangs.

You're right, of course. It had 3 on the floor.

I was confusing it with the car I learned to drive in just before I got the Mustang, my parents '63 Chevy.

I bought the Mustang with earnings from my very first job, for only $350. It was cheap because the previous owner had blown the engine, replaced it with a Falcon engine, and got tired of working on it.

I kept the Mustang from '72 - '78, very reliable. I traded it in for a more sporty car, a 1972 Opel GT.

[cpdiii]

There were no column-shift Mustangs.

I had one.

[Charles Martel]

I’ve seen a few, all bench-seat 1st-generation cars that had Falcon steering columns and linkages swapped in. Ford didn’t ship any to the dealers like that, though.

[Fightin Whitey]

I had one.

Sorry to be nosy but you have me curious.

How do you suppose that happened? After-market or after-crash addition?

I see Charles Martel in the post just under yours mentions (apparently) prototype models that didn't get to the dealers..spose it might have been one of those?

[Charles Martel]

I don’t believe the cars that I saw were prototypes, they were just modified long ago by owners who disliked the floor shifter. There might’ve been a few dealers who offered the conversion, too.

[cpdiii]

It was a 1966 Mustang but I bought in in 1995 and that is the way it came. Perhaps it was not a factory job? Unfortunately I sold it. I wish I still had it.

[smokingfrog]

ahh!

[Fightin Whitey]

That’s pretty interesting.

Thank you guys for indulging me.

[houeto]

I don’t remember which driver it was but one of them was asked by a reporter if Petty was really that good. The reply was “Hell No! He just got lucky 200 times.”