If you’re old enough to remember this jingle ...
      “Wherever wheels are rolling,
       No matter what the load,
      The name that’s known is Firestone,
      Where the rubber meets the road.”
... then you probably remember when you saw classic Mustangs on the road every day. A large number of them, along with most Ford vehicles, were shoed with Firestone tires. Th is was because Harvey Firestone formed a lasting relationship with Henry Ford. However, as the ’60s wore on, an increasing percentage of Mustangs were being produced with other brand tires.

A while back, racing legend George Follmer told me, “We’d have won more races if we didn’t have to use those Firestone tires.” And the performance-minded Mustangers knew that. Goodyear became the “name that’s known” on the Boss 302s, Cobra Jets, and Shelbys with their Polyglas tires, in part aided by Goodyear’s backing of Shelby’s race team. Go to a car show and you expect to fi nd Polyglas Goodyears on every car that has a G, Q, R, or Z as the fi ft h digit of the VIN.

But life is never that simple, at least in the Mustang restoration world. Take a look at this invoice for a Cobra Jet Mach 1 and the listing for “Goodyear Brand Name Tires.” Anyone restoring this Pony would likely call up Kelsey Tire and get those Goodyears winging their way to his or her home so the local tire company could get them mounted on the rims. Ouch, that would have been a $1,000 mistake.

Take a closer look at that invoice. Penned below the options is a note: “OK to sell with Uniroyal. No GY available per Cal Ryan,” and then signed by Frank L. Davis. A spot shortage of F70X14 Goodyear tires took place in late September 1969. Th is Mustang was delivered with Uniroyal tires, as were a batch of them around this time.

Occasionally in an assembly-line environment, changes are made on the go. It’s much too expensive to shut down a line. In this case, it would have cost Ford about a quarter-million dollars an hour to halt an assembly line. So, substitutions and changes were possible, within limits.

Restoration is a tricky business. It takes a person with special skills, like patience, diligence, and attention to detail to truly restore a vehicle to its original showroom confi guration. Ask any winner of a national Mustang show and they’ll tell you they didn’t get there on their first outing. Heed Yoda’s advice, “Patience you must have.”

Research is the number-one task that should never be ignored when planning a restoration. Use a digital camera and take hundreds (if not thousands) of pictures of the Mustang as it sits and at each step of disassembly. Contrary to what you’d like to think, your memory is not photographic. These photos are a big aid in re-creating that original assembly-line look of well-done paint stripes and chalk markings where appropriate, and without the cartoonish appearance occasionally seen at a national Mustang show with the neon colors (because the restorer wanted to make sure you noticed his work) or perfectly lined stripes or daubs (really — do you think the assembly-line workers cared that much about their work?).

Even before the photographic phase, though, another important research step is the acquisition of any available documentation. It might save you buying the wrong tires as previously discussed. Or, in the case of the Shelby invoice shown as an example, it might reveal something you just didn’t expect or believe possible. Shelbys are very unique cars, and the GT500KRs are some of the most sought after. This one Shelby fastback was produced with front seat headrests (there were two convertibles so produced). A dozen issues ago I did an article on some rare versions of ’68 Shelbys. That I am aware of, only two of these have surfaced. Do you know you don’t have a one-off production car?

A casual restorer might have come across a ’68 Shelby with headrests and thought someone added them sometime in the ’70s and, believing he was restoring the car, removed the headrests. The careful restorer should research to identify whether he has a unique car and carefully document this so that upon display at shows he can highlight this special model.

A well-restored classic Mustang is a national treasure. It speaks of a time when American-made held a special meaning throughout the world. It consists of serious work that brings a particular satisfaction of knowing you are re-creating an actual piece of history. As we rapidly approach the 50-year mark for the Mustang, I find myself often contemplating the Mustang Centennial. Though I probably won’t live to see it, some of you will — and so will some of our Mustangs! Will yours be one? What will it say to an as-yet-unborn generation?

Letting others catch a visual glimpse of the past, of the way things were, is a gift that is born of the person willing to trade his time, talent, and money to wear some battles scars (knuckles come to mind) for the enjoyment of themselves and others. These men and women know where the rubber meets the road.

Want to hear an original recording of the Firestone jingle? Go to www.martiauto.com/Firestone.