We catch up with the post from a few weeks ago and show you some rather staggering “Mustang Expert” repairs was how it was put to us. You won’t believe that set of pics a bit later in the post! First we start with a little known service that we offer (at our discretion of course), to those regular customers who contact us.

Customer Cars

That extra service we offer is that we put sellers in touch with buyers that we have on our books. An example of process was this little lady that we had in a couple of weeks ago, and we teased you with on the VIN Number.

Those that ‘know’, knew we had a something special in; a “K” code Mustang or a genuine Hi-Po model. These genuine “K Code” cars are few and far between as only 13,214 were made. This ’66 Fastback example is in Wimbledon White.

We have a good friend of ours and long time customer who has been looking for a genuine K Code for a while now. We arranged to get the car into us, road test it, check it over and notify the potential buyer that it was here in Adam’s workshop.

The car is in the ever popular red interior which just looks right with the white over coat. The original dash has been swapped out with this aftermarket version.

At the time buyers of the GT Equipment Package on their Mustangs could add the K-code option to their new ride for an extra $276 back in 1965. The cost to add this engine to new Mustangs without the GT package was $328.

Why was it called “K-Code?” The “K” stood for the engine code on the VIN number of these Mustangs. The K-Code engine was first introduced by Ford in 1963 and was featured in many cars such as the Fairlane and the Comet before the Mustang.

Each K-Code Mustang had a special badge on their front fenders that read “HIGH PERFORMANCE 289”. It was indeed all performance at the time producing a pretty impressive 271bhp. The K-Code Mustangs were not available with air conditioning or power steering. You couldn’t buy K-Code with an automatic transmission until the 1966 model year. Prior to that, the K-Code Mustangs had only four speed manuals. The car also came with a shorter warranty than the typical Mustang; K-Code buyers were looking at a mere three-month or 4,000-mile warranty instead of the standard 12-month or 12,000-mile warranty plan.

The entire driveline of these cars was designed for performance. Things were upgraded like a high-performance clutch, drive shaft, rear differential, and suspension. It was inevitable that Shelby put these engines in his racing performance GT350 Mustangs. The first Shelby Mustang, ‘GT350R’ also featured a modified K-Code engine.

With the car up on the ramps we got to have a good look round the underside. The car has had a few repairs that were not the quality we expect now days. There were additional parts added like, chassis stiffeners and the rear shocks. These are non standard parts on the K code but are usually added to track race cars.

So what’s all the fuss about with the K Code? Well it’s this bit under the hood, mostly. The engine here has had a trick fuel flow upgrade, but most of it remains unmolested.

The K-Code engine was different from the other 289 engines that fell under the D, C and A codes produced from 1965 to 1967 Mustangs. These engines featured upgraded pistons, cylinder heads, carburetor, lifter heads, and connecting rods. In addition, one look under the hood and you’d notice the chrome air cleaner and valve covers. There was also lettering on top of the air cleaner that read “289 High Performance.” As many of these changes were inside the engine it was difficult to tell if it’s real or not and there are many fakes out there claiming to be a “K” code.

There are those buyers out there that just want a K code no matter what, and there are the connoisseurs that want a “K” Code in stock condition.

The potential buyer for this example was going to think about the cost of the vehicle, and take into account the cost to take off all the trick bits and put it back to ‘stock’ and re-restore it again.

Even in this condition this car is still a highly desirable due to the “K” designation alone and the obvious rarity. But, modified like this can limit the market for some future sales.

Repairs.

This next example of a repair from another Mustang ‘specialist’, and we use that term in the loosest sense of the word. Just left us a little stunned.

The strut rod bush kits have a couple of rubber bushes and a couple of specially shaped washers each side. The kits even come with clear instructions on how to fit them.

We took a kit out from our stock just to show you how simple it is. These washers should only be fitted one way and even state on each one; “This side to rubber“.

It’s not hard to read or understand, we will leave these pictures here with you for a moment to see if you can work out what is wrong! (We will give you a clue: read the washers…..)

Which part of “This side to rubber” didn’t they understand? Would you trust these guys to work on anything else in your car?

Unfortunately this sort of thing is not uncommon. So you get what you pay for, somebody to fit them incorrectly and then pay us again to refit them correctly.

FYI – we didn’t actually charge the customer for changing these washers round. It’s a only a couple of minutes job at the end of the day that we did along with a couple of other jobs we had to do.

WebShop

We would like to say a bit “Thank You” very much for the overwhelmingly positive feedback on our new Website. There will always be a couple that hate change and want the old site back. However, in this case it looks like that customer is in a minority of one. We have had a couple of extra ideas to help improve even more and we aim to take those on board too, so thanks for the additional feedback.

Take Care & Stay Safe!