Steve Magnante's 1001 Mustang Facts. Steve Magnante
Mustang’s 28.8 to 31.7 inches.
153 Speaking of Cougars and Mustangs, one item shared among all 1967–1973 Cougars and Carroll Shelby’s 1967 Mustang GT350 and GT500 was the sequential taillamp treatment. Thanks to multiple relays that cycled power to the taillamp filaments in series, signaling for turns triggered a nifty light show. To defuse overt copycat criticism, Shelby omitted the Cougar’s 22 vertical chrome bars in favor of a simple translucent red lens. All 3,225 1967 Shelby Mustangs received the modified Cougar taillamp treatment.
154 In 1968, Shelby once again raided the Ford corporate parts bin for a unique taillamp treatment. This time, the donor was the 1965 Thunderbird, which used the same sequential blinker system as the Cougar but with the red lenses divided into six segments. To camouflage them from their Thunderbird roots, assembly workers removed the standard black painted outlines with lacquer thinner (by hand) before installation on the 4,451 Shelby Mustangs built in 1968.
155 The 1965 Thunderbird sequential taillamp assemblies returned on the 1969 Shelby Mustang. This time, the laborious task of removing the black painted borders was eliminated, thanks to the blacked-out taillamp panel assigned to all 1969–1970 Shelby Mustangs. This meant the lamp assemblies could be installed right from the box. A total of 3,153 1969 and 1970 Shelby GT350 and GT500 Mustangs were fitted with surplus 1965 T-Bird taillamps.
156 Raising and lowering the side window glass in all pre-1971 Mustangs was done strictly by hand using traditional rotary cranks. Surprisingly, power windows were not available from the factory during Mustang’s peak sales years. By contrast, competing Camaro and Firebird pony car models offered power side windows from their 1967 launch onward. Oddly, the Mercury Cougar offered power side glass starting in 1969 ($104.90) but Mustang didn’t, not even on the most costly Shelby GT500 convertible, despite its $5,027 base sticker price.
157 Rotund Mustangers appreciated the new-for 1967 Tilt-Away steering wheel. For an extra $59.93, the vacuum activated system rapidly swung the steering wheel hub 45 degrees inward any time the driver’s door was opened. Cars so equipped came with a metal vacuum canister bolted below the passenger-side hood hinge, or under the battery tray (depending on engine size, presence of A/C, build date, and build plant). To prevent accidents, electrical circuitry ensured that the transmission was in Park (or Neutral) and the ignition key was in the off position before an electric solenoid triggered the vacuum motor to kick the wheel inward for easy exit.
158 The convenience of the Mustang Tilt Away steering hub was short-lived. Federally mandated anti-theft measures for the 1970 model year caused Ford (and all of Detroit) to move the ignition key switch from the dashboard to the steering column to form part of the ignition-steering wheel interlock system. The revised steering column clashed with the Tilt-Away hub so the system was canceled after 1969. A simpler up/down-only tilt steering wheel took over for 1970 and beyond. Its simpler components led to a price reduction to $45.
Something killed the convenient Tilt Away steering wheel in 1970. See Fact No. 158 to learn what it was.
159 A noteworthy exception to the federal mandate requiring anti-theft locking steering columns for all 1970 model year U.S. passenger cars came in the form of 789 leftover 1969 Shelby Mustangs. Thanks to increasing in-house competition from the Mach1 and Boss Mustang performance models, demand for 1969 Shelby Mustangs dropped drastically. As the 1969 model year approached its end, A.O. Smith (by then in charge of assembling Shelby Mustangs) still had 789 unsold units. Beating the January 1, 1970, deadline, A.O. Smith converted the unsold cars by adding chin spoilers, hood stripes, and 1970 VIN plate switch overs. Because they were built during calendar year 1969, the steering column-mounted ignition key and locking steering wheel hub did not apply. This made the 1970 GT350 and GT500 the only 1970 Mustangs with the ignition switch still located on the dashboard.
160 Although extremely uncommon, in 1969 and 1970 it was possible to get the sexy Shaker hood factory installed on 351 2-barrel and 390 2-barrel (1969 only) Mustangs for a mere $84.25 ($65 in 1970). A beautifully restored 1970 Mustang 351 2-barrel Shaker hood convertible sold at the 2015 Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in West Palm Beach, Florida. Verified with a Marti report, the 2-barrel Shaker was correct right down to the standard single exhaust system. With its limited intake-tract capacity, the single muffler and tail pipe were adequate for the needs of the mild 351 small-block. Thus, 2-barrel Shaker Mustangs lack the special under-bumper rear valance panel fitted to dual-exhaust Mustang applications. The tail pipe was a simple, unadorned unit made of mild steel tubing.
Did Ford really offer the Shaker hood option on base 351 2-barrel Mustangs? See Fact No. 159 for the scoop.
161 The 1969 Mustang Shaker hood option was the U.S. auto industry’s first mass-produced engine-mounted, through-body air scoop. Copycat efforts from Chrysler and Pontiac followed in 1970 although neither one shared Ford’s rugged die-cast metal scoop construction. Even though Ford dropped the Mustang Shaker hood option after 1970, it remained available on the Ford Torino through the 1971 model run. Beware: Mustang and Torino Shaker scoop housings are not identical. Numerous design differences abound, barring interchangeability.
Similar but different, 1969–1970 Mustang and 1970–1971 Fairlane Shaker scoops are not interchangeable.
162 Add-on brake cooling scoops were an integral part of the Shelby Mustang’s muscular look but were they functional? Yes. No. Yes. First appearing in 1966, 3-inch flexible ducts fed cool air from the scoops to the rear brake drums on all fastbacks. The quartet of experimental 1966 GT350 convertibles posed a problem. Their folding-top mechanisms interfered with the plumbing, so their brake cooling scoops marked Shelby’s first use of bogus scoops. In 1967, Shelby continued using the brake cooling scoops on all GT350 and GT500 fastbacks (no convertibles were built in 1967) but only cars built in the early part of the model run were fitted with functional brake cooling tubes. The GT350 and GT500 lower bodyside scoops were purely ornamental for 1968. The 1969 and (leftover) 1970 Shelbys returned to functional lower bodyside scoops on all models, including convertibles.
163 The 1969 Boss 302 Mustang program provided many challenges to workers in the Ford paint shop who had to apply matte black paint graphics to the hood, rear window surround, trunk lid, and taillight panel during assembly. The most problematic blackout treatment was applied to the outboard headlamp bezels. There, a razor sharp definition line had to be maintained between the outer (body color) ring and the sunken blackout sections. Expert application of masking tape and drop cloth shielding was called for. Today, unrestored survivors show fuzzy parting lines, proof of the challenging nature of the job when attempted in a mass-production setting. The headache-inducing Boss 302 masking job was repeated 1,628 times in 1969.
164 Another detail found only on 1969 Boss 302 Mustangs was the elimination of the faux rear quarter panel brake-cooling body duct inserts. Mustang styling studio boss Larry Shinoda is known to have hated them because they weren’t functional. All other 1969 Mustang SportsRoof fastbacks (including the Mach 1 and Boss 429) retained the scoops. Ironically, the SportsRoof’s faux scoop openings allowed Shelby’s return to brake air scoop dignity for the final two years of production (see Fact No. 162).
165 If the 1969 Boss 302 bodyside tape stripes look familiar to fans of Ford’s international road race program of the 1960s, it’s because they were inspired by the C-stripes applied to Ford’s 1967 Le Mans-winning Mark IV GT40. Boss 302 stylist Larry Shinoda liked them so much he adapted them for Mustang use.
166 Although the 1970 Boss 302 repeated the blacked-out trunk panel treatment of 1969, a subtle change was made to the stainless steel trim surrounding the backlight. Physically and functionally identical, the 1970 trim was coated with matte black to enhance the blackout effect. The 1969 backlight retained the same bright chrome appearance