Ford Celebrates The Mustang's 60th Anniversary

Above, the 1989 Mustang LX in the garage with my other "toys". Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Ford Mustang is celebrating its 60th anniversary. 

The Mustang is one of those rare cars that one can still immediately identify it. Cars nowadays all look like each other as if they came from the same cookie cutter. I can look at a vintage photo of 1950s cars and can tell which is a Ford, a Buick, an Oldsmobile, a Chevrolet and so on. Those were the days when cars had style.

I still drive my late dad's 1989 Mustang LX on a Fox chassis. It was his last car and I really don't see the need to spend $24k and up for a new car. It is a 4-cylinder with a manual 5-speed transmission. It loves the open highway.

KABC-AM's "Motorman" Leon Kaplan has advocated that if one has an older car that runs and looks good, why spend money on cars that cost hundreds of dollars just to diagnose a problem with all their computers and other gizmos. 

I have been approached twice in the last month by people asking me if I want to sell the Mustang,

Fox Business has an article on the 60th anniversary of the Mustang. They go through the evolution of body styles of Mustangs over the years.

They begin it with:

Ford Motor Co. celebrated the Mustang's 60th anniversary on Wednesday with the pony car now in its seventh generation, having become an icon of the American auto industry.

The Ford Mustang debuted April 17, 1964, at the New York World's Fair and has carved out a unique legacy in the decades since its launch, even as its features have changed over time.

"Mustang has stylistically and performance-wise been a vehicle that appealed to the masses — anybody who wants a cool-looking car that goes fast, Mustang is there for you," Ford Heritage Brand Manager Ted Ryan told FOX Business.

They refer to the Fox body (or platform) Mustangs (1979-1993) as the third generation. 

To read the article, go here.

1951 Ford Coupe

Above, the 1951 Ford Coupe model we had, but not quite as gussied up.

Some cars one's parents owned while one is a kid stand out more than others for varying reasons.

One such car was a 1951 Ford Coupe that my parents had around 1962-1965.

It was like the model (same color) above, only it wasn't customized like this one.

One weekend around 1962, we were going to 29 Palms, California to visit my grandmother. We were either on U.S. 101 or had already transitioned to what is now Interstate 10 in East Los Angeles (we had left the downtown L.A. area) when the car's engine blew a rod. This happened near California State University, Los Angeles.

Above, looking west on U.S. 101 towards downtown in
1950. Our car blew a rod about 2-4 miles east of this point.

What seemed like eternity, we were on the side of the freeway waiting to be towed off. Finally, we were towed to a friend of my dad's home in South-Central Los Angeles. We were there until my grandfather picked us up.

My dad's plan was go replace the engine with a rebuilt one from work. At the time, he worked for Engine Rebuilding Corporation on McKinley Avenue and 55th Street in Los Angeles. He was able to get an engine from them relatively cheap (employee discounts do come in handy). Once he got the engine, he and friends installed it into the Ford. 

My dad worked at Engine Rebuilding until 1976 when he sustained a back injury. He was on temporary disability for awhile. Once healed, he went to work at Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, only a mile from home. He worked there until he retired. Engine Rebuilding Corp. went out-of-business in 1977, I found. That's likely why he didn't go back. 

We had the car until around 1965 when he gave it to my uncle. My uncle later totaled the car not too long afterwards. 

What Is It?

 

In Winnebago Minnie Winnie motorhomes on Ford E350 and E450 chassis, this is included on the dashboard. My 2015 Minnie Winnie has one. I've never bothered with it.

This is a topic of discussion in the Facebook group page for Minnie Winnie Class C Motorhome Owners. It has been described as follows:

• On our 2014 31H (with 2013 e450) it’s where the key control is for turning off the passenger front airbag.
• It’s for an audio plug, like if you wanted to attach a player to the radio aux input. 
• It is the passenger seat ejector button for when the wife gets real annoying.