Project Reclaim from Mustangs Plus and The Restomod Shop is finally complete and we've taken our first test drive. This "born again" fastback is fun to drive with abundant torque, a throaty bark, crisp handling, and comfort. Much of the car's restoration and restomod efforts were covered in previous issues of Mustang Monthly.

Project Reclaim, a '65 fastback saved from the crusher by Mustangs Plus and The Restomod Shop, is nearing completion. We have installed the plush pile carpet from Auto Custom Carpets and are ready for speaker kick panels and lighted sill plates from Scott Drake Reproductions. Lighted sill plates are a cool innovation because they catch the eye quickly as you enter or exit. What's more, they work hand in hand with courtesy lights, which means they're lit whenever doors are opened. They're affordable at just under $130 suggested retail and can be installed in about one hour. What's more, they work hand in hand with courtesy lights, which means they're lit whenever doors are opened.

Project Reclaim from Mustangs Plus and The Restomod Shop is closer to completion and a Fall/Winter debut in Mustang Monthly. Hard economic times over the past couple of years have slowed Reclaim’s progress, but not stopped it by any means. Now we have a mostly completed ’65 Mustang fastback that was once a stripped-out, rust-bucket parts car in the Mustangs Plus storage yard. This month, Reclaim is getting Electric Life power windows, along with new Dynacorn doors fitted with tinted reproduction window glass, wing window assemblies, door latches and mechanicals, and AutoLoc window switches.

By the very nature of their unitized construction, classic Mustang bodies are pretty solid as grocery getters and weekend cruisers. However, when we put them to the test with hard driving, vintage Mustangs struggle with design weaknesses. The shock towers need all the structural support they can get, which is why Ford installed export braces on Mustangs headed for rough roads outside the United States. Carroll Shelby understood the benefits of export braces and installed them on his GT350s and GT500s as an important factory mod.

We’ve got some exciting news from Classic Auto Air. The longtime vintage Mustang air-conditioning experts now offer a true climate control system for ’65-73 Mustangs. It doesn’t clutter the dashboard, transmission tunnel, or foot well area. Best of all, CAA’s new Perfect Fit climate control system delivers air-conditioned comfort in summer and warm feet in winter.

For three decades, Mustangs Plus has made it easy and affordable to dress up a classic Mustang because restomod has always been a matter of policy at the Stockton, California, company. The latest example is the new aluminum billet grilles for '65-'68 Mustangs. You can get into a billet aluminum grille for under $150 and get all kinds of positive attention when cruising.

Last month we took a '65 Mustang with a 225hp, 289 4V and did some minor engine tuning to see what kind of performance improvements we could make. After some work on the ignition, the spark plugs, and the air cleaner, we only added about 4 hp and 5 lb-ft of torque, nothing outstanding, but still significant. This month we'll take it a step further with this question: What can you do if you want more power from your vintage small-block?

Painless Performance offers enthusiasts a wide variety of electrical system options, ranging from entire electrical systems to supplementary add-ons like fuse boxes, circuit breakers, and junction blocks. You can also look to Painless for starters and alternators, fuel injection harnesses, and cool PowerBraid wire wrap, a great-looking antichafe wire protection system designed to both protect wiring and enhance your Mustang's underhood appearance. We decided to order a couple of PowerBraid wire wrap kits for a '66 Mustang project car and Project Reclaim at Mustangs Plus.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could take your Mustang's factory instrument panel and trick it up to suit your personal tastes without major surgery or an expensive aftermarket cluster? Well, now you can, thanks to Northwest Mustang, Mustangs Plus, and Ford Racing Performance Parts. Mustangs Plus offers a molded plastic, five-pod cluster adaptor from Northwest Mustang that enables you to take a stock Mustang instrument bezel and fit it with Ford Racing instruments over a weekend.

In the early 1980s, we were grateful for reproduction seat upholstery kits of any kind for our '65-'73 Mustangs. As time passed, more and more colors and styles became available from the Mustang aftermarket. Over time, quality has only improved along with fit and finish. Few aftermarket companies have tried any harder to get it right and offer more options than TMI Products.

Project Reclaim from Mustangs Plus and The Restomod Shop has been progressing quietly for the past few months on its way to completion this fall. The engine and transmission have been installed. Soon to come are windows and the interior. Right now, we're going to show you how to install a headliner using Reclaim as an example.

One thing is certain about Halogen tri-bar headlamps-Mustang owners are either passionate about them or they don't like them at all. Rarely will you find middle ground on this trend-setting Mustang accessory. Whatever your position, you can't beat tri-bar headlamps for bright light and good looks.

When we began Project Reclaim from Mustangs Plus and The Restomod Shop, we envisioned cleverly appointed fastback air extractors to dress out the roofline. However, we weren't pleased with the outcome, so Terry Simpson from The Restomod Shop and Bill Faull of Mustangs Plus reverted to the time-honored and practical Shelby quarter windows. Traditionally, Mustang fastbacks have always looked great with Shelby quarter windows from Tony D. Branda Performance. It is a time-proven modification originally inspired by Shelby American on the '66 GT350s. It remains popular today.

Project Reclaim from Mustangs Plus and The Restomod Shop is a '65 Mustang fastback that was hauled out of a salvage yard after wasting away for 20 years. It was an accident-damaged six-cylinder parts car that had been picked clean by enthusiasts and tin termites. Now we're on the home stretch of this revival project and are in the process of assembly.

Last month, we introduced you to our new Timber Wolf '69 Mustang project car. Obtained as part of a Timber Wolf Moist Snuff sweepstakes, the Boss 302 clone is currently undergoing a transformation at Flores Motorsports. Rick Flores, with assistance from Rusty Mahan and Gary Cass, will build the fastback into a modern Boss 347 restomod.

We have a new project car-but this one is different. For one thing, you'll have a chance to win this '69 Boss 302 clone after its transformation into a muscular-looking restomod at Flores Motorsports. In conjunction with Timber Wolf, we're going to rebuild this Mustang with numerous improvements and upgrades during the next several months. Then it will be given away as part of a Timber Wolf Moist Snuff Speed Shop sweepstakes. See the sidebar for more information.

Project '66 took about two years to complete. We learned a lot along the way. As you'll see, a restoration project will always have a few surprises. Follow along as we take the car from the beginning to the finished beauty.

There's always one last item that makes a project perfect. The handblown glass Christmas-tree topper, the fancy ribbon around a gift box, or even the cherry on top of a sundae are examples that come to mind. For Mustang Monthly's Project '66, the one item we wanted to top off our restoration was a Rally-Pac. The Rally-Pac Ford offered in the '60s became a much-coveted option through the years, and having one in your restored Mustang was icing on the cake. Though our project car has been completed and on the road for more than a year, we've added a few items as they became available, such as the newly reproduced console trim that allowed us to finally install a console. Now we can do the same with a Rally-Pac.

Our Project '66 is now running and getting some much-deserved break-in miles, but a few items remain: the Mustang's options. Since the soul of this project has been to replicate a previously owned Mustang, we want to add the same options that were on the original car. We added power steering, Deluxe interior options, and wanted to add a console like the one on the original, but didn't have one to restore.

Our destination on the long, hard road to completion is upon us. We've come so far since 1999 when we started with a $300 rusty shell to the nearly completed car on these pages. If it weren't for the continued support of our advertisers and readers, our '66 could have become just another unfinished magazine project car. But we prevailed and the little hardtop is done. Some of you saw the almost finished Project '66 at the Silver Springs Mustang Roundup in January. Others saw the completed car at the Mustang 40th Anniversary Celebration in Nashville. And, of course, the finished car was featured in "How I Restored My Mustang" in the June issue. For this article, we're backtracking a bit to show the process of installing the Mustang's drivetrain.

So you want to find a vintage Mustang and restore it? Don't we all. There's more than one way to restore a Mustang, and people have different definitions of "restored." To some, restoring a Mustang is a quick paint job and some new carpet and weatherstrips (we've all seen them advertised in the local paper). At the other extreme is the person who restores a Mustang down to every last nut, bolt, and trim piece with expensive and hard-to-find N.O.S. parts. These cars are beautiful, and the owner should get credit for diligence, but for the most part these restorations are financially out of reach for typical vintage-Mustang owners.

Whether at a local burger-joint cruise or a Mustang Club of America National, one of the first areas a budding enthusiast or knowledgeable Mustanger will look at is your Mustang's engine compartment. If your Mustang is a daily driver that's serviced by the local auto parts chain without N.O.S. parts, the non-Autolite distributor cap, yellow plug wires, and flex fan can be forgiven as long as things are clean, painted, and presentable. But when it comes to being correct and standing tall next to your competitors on the show field in concours classes, it's going to take some serious elbow grease and a paycheck or two to get that 289 spiffed up and ready for the judges.

Getting the 289 together for our project car has given us a much needed boost of enthusiasm. While you're reading this second part of the engine buildup in early 2004, due to editorial lead times we're tapping away at the keyboard in November. We've completed the drivetrain installation, and the car is almost complete. Barring any major setbacks, our project should be running by the end of 2003 and any bugs worked out in plenty of time for a debut at the big 40th Anniversary bash in Nashville.

During the course of a restoration, there are hundreds of decisions to be made. Some are made up front before a single wrench is turned, while others are often made on the spur of the moment because of a great deal on a rare option or for personal changes. For Mustang Monthly's Project '66, we knew right up front this hardtop was going to be converted to a V-8 with all the correct and proper accoutrements, such as V-8 suspension, steering, and brakes. Most of the conversion fell into place easily, since these areas needed a complete restoration anyway. Instead of replacing the six-cylinder steering with new six-cylinder steering components, we simply ordered the V-8 parts instead.