By Design: 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang

[Sarc]

A nice article and design analysis on the first Mustang from Bob Cumberford of Automobile. Good reading for a Friday morning...
PF


By Robert Cumberford, Automobile Magazine

"Let's revert to the slab stern and high luggage compartment, the nearly vertical rear window, the leather strap and 'chunk of road machinery' feeling." That's from a multipage document describing the need for an American four-passenger sports car, a text leading to one of the most successful product launches Detroit ever enjoyed, Ford's April 1964 Mustang. Written in 1956, it was presented to -- and furiously rejected by -- Harley J. Earl, General Motors' styling chief. Its author, Barney Clark, wrote Corvette advertising copy at the time. A few years later, working for J. Walter Thompson on the Ford account, he talked with product planner Don Frey about it. Lee Iacocca may be the "father of the Mustang," but he got the notion via Frey and Clark, and thus indirectly from GM. Even the final 108-inch wheelbase was first determined by GM's Anatole Lapine, who subsequently became Porsche's design leader. Nothing's simple in the car-design business.

The Mustang came along at the right time, when the first of the baby boomers were coming into young adulthood and their forty-ish parents, about to be free of their offspring, could think about something other than four-door sedans and station wagons. So there were two generations that were ripe for buying something both financially accessible and sporty. The car was so perfectly attuned to the market that some 400,000 were snapped up in the first year of production, a record. The base price for a wheezing six-cylinder Falcon engine with a three-speed gearbox and drum brakes was $2368, but even when equipped with a high-performance V-8, the Mustang was a tremendous bargain.

Joe Oros led the winning design team, and quite a lot of the classic 1961 Lincoln Continental shows up in the car, especially the fender profile with the slight rear kickup. The front end, with the high rectangular center grille, is closely patterned on the 1950s Dual-Ghia, styled by Chrysler's Virgil Exner. Once again, nothing is simple in the car-design business. Don Kopka, who retired as Ford design VP in 1987, did the first Mustang restyling when he arrived from Chrysler. He told me he'd thought the Mustang was too flat and rectilinear, so he made the 1967 car rounder and fatter, but he eventually believed "the '641/2 was much better," a handsome admission from any designer.

When the project was first conceived at GM, Mustang was one of many "cowboy movie" names that were entertained, most of which have subsequently shown up on cars and trucks -- Bronco, Scout, Pony, Palomino, and Pinto come to mind -- but the now-iconic name didn't really matter. It could have been called Cayuse or Silver, two suggestions not yet used, because it was the concept and the look that mattered, as proven by the Mustang II deviation. To quote another bit from Barney Clark's document, "You could, in a sense, 'style it and forget it' -- there would be no necessity for yearly revisions or major face-lifts." Today's successful retro design just about proves that thesis.






Front 3/4 view

1 The characteristic grille/air intake allows a long, flat hood, as in classic cars of the 1930s.
2 The line derived from the grille corners separates the engine cover from the flatter panels between the hood and fender peaks.
3 Starting exactly at the edge of the headlamp-surround molding, the fender peak recapitulates the profile of the great 1961 Lincoln Continental.
4 This little kickup simply emphasizes the Lincoln look, subliminally making the Mustang feel more expensive than it actually was.
5 The real inspiration for the roof profile was the 1963 Pontiac Tempest, much admired by Ford stylists at the time, but it's also consistent with the first Thunderbirds.
6 This nasty piece of chrome trim was meant to suggest rear brake-cooling scoops, but they were fake. You could pay extra to have them left off, and Ford threw in a paint stripe around the perimeter.
7 Remember "wind wings"? They actually looked good and were extremely useful before air-conditioning became quasi-universal in cars.
8 Even the base models had full wheel covers -- no cheap button caps for any Mustang.
9 V-8 cars got these badges, although sometimes they were left off. Production details were chaotic in the first eighteen months, when nearly 700,000 Mustangs -- all listed as 1965 models -- were made and sold to an eager clientele.
10 Despite the louvers, no air flowed through the headlamp hollow in the front end.
11 Lovely thin bladed bumpers were easily damaged but were adequate for most use.



Rear 3/4 view

12 Notice the exemplary way the creases fade into plain surfaces. Very nice indeed.
13 One of the nicest surface details was the indent that surrounded the backlight, giving clear definition to the upper structure.
14 The rear fender peak is so subtly curved that it's very nearly straight. All the emphasis in the design is on apparent length. Nicely achieved.
15 The fuel-filler cap carried the badge and was quite elegant.
16 The way the body turned under at the back lightened the whole composition visually and helped to avoid the blunt, cliff like rear ends that we've become accustomed to today. Altogether, the Mustang was a really good, simple design, which is why it lives on with very few changes.
17 Sill trim is pretty much an anachronism now, but it was thought to be necessary in the 1960s.



Interior View
19 Stamping the upper door panels with textured steel so it looked like leather was a clever detail.
20 Door trim panels were simple inserts and could be color-coordinated with the hue used on the faux-leather surround.
21 The deep-dish steering wheel was very Detroit but not particularly sporty, despite fake lightening "holes" in the spokes' trim pieces.
22 The doublebump cowl was a nod to British sports cars like the MG TD -- and it worked well.
23 There was nothing sporty at all in the instrument cluster -- no tach and minimal gauges. But you could buy a "Rally-Pac" to get what you needed. Or thought you did.
24 Front buckets were an overt, and acknowledged, copy of the Lotus Elan's seats.
25 This lever is for the optional four-speed gearbox, which had a nice reverse lock-out trigger. Mustangs were very easy to drive, with decent ergonomics.

[Rot 911]

Yeah, but it's no 944!

[icemann427]

Thank goodness...

[scottmandue]

One of the all time great cars... hope they never go away!


Amazing how in 50 years Detroit has gone from top of the heap to the bottom.

[Zeke]

The first Mustang still looks good. And that comes from a guy that never liked them and probably never will.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

my first car was 64 1/2 Mustang with the 260 V8, $400. Guy lied about the condition of the motor, said it only needed a valve job, it was junk but could have been saved by resleeving the cylinders. Back then (25 years ago) these cars were valuable, but nothing like today. Sold it a few months later and went into beater 240Zs. Those were the days.

[pwd72s]

When Bob Cumberford writes about design, listen up. He & Stan Mott worked together at GM design back in the 1950's. They also teamed up for the hilarious "Cyclops" features later publised in R&T. Cumberford did the majority of the writing, Stan the crazily detailed artwork.

But guys, we shouldn't talk Mustangs here...it gets certain people upset.

[Cdnone1]

My latests project is a 67 Mustang






It's my first non Porsche resto and boy is it easy to work on and parts are cheap

Steve

[pwd72s]

Decided on a color for the Mustang yet? Probably overdone, but Bullitt dark highland green is pretty popular with the early mustang crowd.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

Decided on a color for the Mustang yet? Probably overdone, but Bullitt dark highland green is pretty popular with the early mustang crowd.

Naw... guards red!

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Naw... guards red!

LOL! Good choice...

[RWebb]

trying to get a friend to update her Mustang -- she has a convertible, but it is about 8 yrs old.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by RWebb

trying to get a friend to update her Mustang -- she has a convertible, but it is about 8 yrs old.

Here's a site to start her off...

Ford Mustang - GT - Shelby - Cobra - Classic Mustangs

[Jim Bremner]

Originally Posted by Cdnone1

My latests project is a 67 Mustang






It's my first non Porsche resto and boy is it easy to work on and parts are cheap

Steve

Man, I saw the front end stripped! I thought to myself, boy...before he does anythimg else I should chime in and tell him what would make that car handle plus not have any shock towers RIP on him....

oops nevermind!

[Jim Bremner]

[speeder]

Jim, what's the mod? Aren't those braces from the cowl to the shock towers stock items?

[speeder]

I've always loved Mustangs and know them pretty well, including their design weaknesses. We had a new '67 coupe with 289/271hp when I was 8 years old and already a diehard car nut.

They represent part of an amazing time in the middle of the most amazing century that ever will be. 700,000 sold in the first model year!! Can you imagine anything ever coming out again and selling like that? It will never happen, unless they roll-out a good-looking $10k car that runs on beer farts.

[Jim Bremner]

Mustang Shock Tower Repair/Reinforcement Kit - Pro-Motorsports

first thing! second is the '67 rustang firewall on the "early" '7 cars is only 14 ga thick. when you stand on the brake or clutch pedal the firewall twists upwards and it takes away from the pedal effort.

I bought a roach of a '68 car, they havea stiffener around the clutch & M/c mount. I welded the whole unit ontop of the my '67's firewall

the third thing to do is to do the "Shelby drop"

DazeCars, Shelby Drop, Klaus Arning drop, upper control arm drop, Falcon, Mustang, Cougar 60-70

If you like your rib cage and you fear being inpaled on the steering shaft it would be a great time to change to a post '68 steerint shaft...the post '68 will collapse.

and if you have a early '7 car it will only have 1 torque box, add another on the other side late '7 or 68 cars had both.

If you want to go further add some triangles to the front of the car from the fendor aprons to the radiator support.

If you place a jack on the subframe of the car around the front door area and lift the car it will lift the front wheel up 4" and the rear wheels will stay on the ground!

I added TCP subframe connector kits #1 & #2 http://www.totalcontrolproducts.com/support/sub/PKG-SFC-01_AT.jpg

Weld the #1 kit in #2 needs to bolt in to change the tranny

If your interior is out look for places to triangulate inside! a little bit of 12ga steel in the right place goes a LONG way in making a '67 car into a track monster

I baseball bat streatched my front and rear fendors out about 1/2" I could fit a set of 245/50/16" on vintage wheel works

Vintage Wheel Works

I ran Global west's road race only springs on the road...The car rode pretty ok, it felt like a honda as far as spring rate

The 600# front springs are too soft!

Dr Gas used to sell a shaclle kit for the leaf springs to the rear of the body.

The shackles are twice as thick and wider so that the shacles wouldn't deflect PLUS had a wrap around bracket
they also used 9/16" bolts over the 7/16" bolts from the factory and delrin bushings





I did 152 mph @5,200 rpm with a engine that was rev limited to 7,000. The car was steady as my C6 corvette at the same speed just a ton more of NVH

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2318041613573633268&q=source%3A015248938240893378436&hl=en#

[Jim Bremner]

ah hell, do not spend a dime on the Lincon Versalles read disc breaks.

They're too small, too much cast iron parts to keep too much heat, too heavy and too many hard to find parts for.

If you want to have a GREAT diff, add a torsen, I had a Detroit locker, a track loc and the torsen. The detroit locker would step the rear of the car out if you got on the gas somewhere around the clip point of the turn, th etrack lock wore out to quick and the torsen was just the best driving diff I ever had. You could drive the car with your left & right hands as well as your right foot.

[pavulon]

Thanks for all the insight, Jim!!!

I bought a late '67 coupe this summer after watching group 6 run at Road America vintage events for the last 4 years. I couldn't take it anymore. I'm building mine the way I want as it won't have to confrom to any rules. So, I'll run the TCP coil-over front and rear suspensions, same subrframe connection set-up as you and a stroked aluminum 302. I want to run 12" discs front and rear if I can get them mounted on a 9". I want to avoid flares and run 10x15" tires on the rear. I'm pleasantly surprised at the volume of parts available for these cars!!