Jeffery Alton of Thomaston, Georgia, is a man who seems to live his life with his Mustang as a series of coincidences. In 1994 Jeffery was on his way home and decided to take a shortcut down a dirt road. Unfortunately, it was the wrong road for speedy arrival. Fortunately, this detour ended with Jeffery sitting at the end of a long dirt driveway, peering into the side glass of a Lime Gold fastback.
"The owner told me he had bought the car a couple of years ago for his son," says Jeffery, "but he was now selling it because his son had not kept up his grades."
A boon of extra parts accompanied the car, with the most notable parts being an extra 289 and a C4 automatic. For two years, Jeffery drove and enjoyed the little '68. Then in 1996 he decided to restore the car. "After a couple of false starts from paint and body shops that were 'too covered up' to finish the job," says Jeffery, "I finally hooked up with Todd Peaden.
"Together, we finished the bodywork, and he installed a floorpan, quarter patch panels, drop offs, and a trunk lid. After this was done, Todd applied the basecoat/clearcoat finish in the original color."
As for the rest of the work, Jeffery took on the tasks himself, with a little help from Andy George and some other key players. "Todd's job transferred him out of town before we could get the stripes done," explains Jeffery, "so Andy helped me get them finished." Of course, there wouldn't have been a "finished" without the assistance of Jeffery's family. While Jeffery refinished parts in the oven, cleaned them in the dishwasher, and re-covered the ivy gold seats in the house, his wife, Angie, lent an understanding home to the madness.
Jeffery's daughters, Whitney and Haley, were also on the roster as helpers. Originally, the '68 was practically an optionless car, outside of the factory fold-down seat, but Jeffery saw fit to rearrange that. During the detailing of the engine and the undercarriage, he added some items to make life a little better behind the wheel. After the interior was reassembled, he added an aftermarket AM/FM cassette stereo and the optional in-dash clock. For safety, he planted power disc brakes on the spindles. For fun, Jeffery pitched in a stock four-barrel intake and a 4100 Autolite carburetor.
When Jeffery bought the car, the foglight grille and the pop-open gas cap were the only signs of the Sprint package. Long gone were the side stripes, indicative of the Sprint package. Even so, Jeffery took it upon himself to replace the stripes in his favorite color, black. He also added (or so he thought) the low-gloss blackout to the turn-signal hood. He found out later that he had, by coincidence, put the car back exactly as it had been built in 1967.
It seems to us that our intrepid owner has had an inordinate amount of coincidences where this Sprint fastback is concerned. But the question that begs to be asked with this many coincidences is, was all this coincidence or fate? We'll let you decide.