Dateline Michigan, 1989. I’m a 12-year-old kid on a Huffy 12-speed, on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Indiana Street. There is a house on the southeast corner, and in the driveway sits a car exactly like this one. The owner, to my eyes, is a 2,000-year-old woman. The car is pristine and ungaraged, a real trick in Michigan’s harsh winter climate. What 2,000-year-old woman drives a Grabber Orange base model Mustang? Unfortunately, I never find out.
I’ve been around Mustangs since birth; my Grandpa Vic bought my ’65 hardtop for my Mom in 1968, so it has been in my family 46 years. Mom and Dad still drive Mustangs today: an ’88 and a ’12. So for all of my love of offbeat machinery, I still am drawn to the galloping horse. In attempt to defend this apparent paradox–the offbeat Mustang–I’ve assembled a few photographs of Mustangs that aren’t too common today. Most car show ’70 Mustangs are Mach 1s and Boss 302s, but it seems like base and Grande hardtops (and base Sportsroofs) are tougher to find.
I love the late 60s and early 70s vibe, and it’s almost solely based on the available color palette that the auto industry offered. The hardtop pictured in this brochure is bedecked in that ubiquitous refrigerator-like Harvest Gold, which is probably “Yellow” in reality. To me, it looks like a scene from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, sunstreaked, like every moment was an hour or two before sunset.
Almost equally “70s” were the loud Grabber colors, like the Orange on the ’70 hardtop of my memories. I never ended up talking to the lady who owned it, and I assumed she passed soon afterward, because her car AND house disappeared almost overnight. I took this picture at a Ford show about 30 minutes from my home, and I wonder if it’s the same car. There can’t be too many like it. It’s too bad I didn’t take a picture of the interior, because it looks like it’s a matching red/orange (Vermillion, as Ford called it). Today, interiors are mostly dull black or gray, but in 1970, it was party time! This hardtop had the sober 302-2V, rated at 220 horsepower, which was plenty of power for almost every type of driving. I have miles and miles of experience behind the wheel of small-block Ford propelled vehicles, and they’re great engines.
Almost equally uncommon in today’s “tribute” world is a base 1970 Sportsroof model. This nice example with standard wheel covers exhibits a more subdued “Medium Blue Metallic.” Other than the arguably more attractive roofline, this Mustang seems to be optioned much like the orange hardtop above, and it likely is 302-propelled as well. I’m still undecided as to whether I prefer the four-headlight 1969 model or the cleaner 1970. I think the ’69 is definitely more menacing, but the ’70 seems more coherent.
The base Sportsroof shown in the brochure with a lucky coach appears to be painted “Yellow,” which, strangely enough, didn’t have a cutesy name.
The final 1970 Mustang in my car show trifecta is this “Bright (or Medium) Gold Metallic” Grande model. Only in the early 70s would a car maker offer more than one gold. This one has some added cost options, like fancy wheel covers that look about 250 times more awesome than the base ones. It also has a strange, but also strangely alluring, toupee-style half vinyl roof. It’s like a reverse mullet.
The Grande interior was quite a step up from the base Mustang’s. It had “Houndstooth” print bucket seats that look like some of my dad’s old sport coats from years back, a sporty console and a whole bunch of fake wood trim. Grandes also came with extra sound deadener over the base Mustangs. I don’t know which engine propels this one, but I’d like to think it was the optional 351-2V, which would have likely been a Cleveland in 1970, but who knows with Ford? Only Ford would create four different engines with the same cubic inch displacement (the 351s were actually 352s, with their 4.00 inch bore and 3.5 inch stroke equaling 351.86 cubic inches, identical to the FE-based 352).
According to my materials, Ford produced just over 197,000 Mustangs in 1970, far from the nearly 700,000 1965 models. The 1970s had much more competition from other makes, however. Of those 1970s, 82,000 were hardtops, about 46,000 base Sportsroofs, and only 13,000 were the deluxe Grande models, so they can’t be too common today.
Even as a 12-year-old, I sensed that my neighbor’s base ’70 wasn’t quite as special as my ’65 (I was already messing around with it at that time). It was a neat oddity, but not too much more. Today, I find that weird orange hardtop to be far more interesting than I did then. It was a way to be mainstream odd, and that’s not a bad way to be.
Just FYI: If you have any interest in first generation Mustangs, a great resource is the Mustang Recognition Guide above. My parents got me a copy when I was in the third grade, and I read it until the binding broke. When I was older, I bought another copy. It’s been out since the 1970s, I believe, and contains codes, color names, and all kinds of neat facts about early Mustangs.
Wow, that ad with the basketball team should read: “Now he’s the creepy coach up on statutory rape charges”. Geez.
Stalker, maybe. I seriously doubt statutory rape. Those are the oldest looking high school girls I’ve ever seen.
Also love the traditional “BA, MA, PhD are always less valuable than a Mrs.” attitude.
To the 20-30’s crowd in this site: Yes, we actually thought like this at one time. It was normal, not un-PC.
the blonde looks like she’s wearing a wig to me
With those eyebrows? I’d say boxed Sassy N’ Brassy! And is that not a wedding band on her left hand?..
Speaking of statutory rape (and aren’t we all?) either Chrysler’s ad agency or Ford’s proposed calling a deep magenta color “Statutory Grape”. What a bunch of wacky guys! Don’t think it made it onto the showroom floor.
Early Mavericks had the goofy colors names: Anti Establish Mint, Hulla Blue, Freudian Gilt, Thanks Vermillion. I remember Statutory Grape being mentioned as a joke.
Ahhhhahaha comment of the week!!! The “and aren’t we all?” part is what really killed me!
Not to worry, it’s all so fake. Female basketball players never look like those women
Photoshop !
In reality that’s a bunch of long-distance truck drivers.
The Sportsroof is the winner in looks with this generation of Mustang.I like Mustangs a lot but it was downhill styling wise for the big bloated 71s that came next,then even further back with the Mustang 2.
I far prefer the look of the ’70 to the ’69. I know of a non-Mach 1 sportsroof, yellow, with a 351C-4V complete with 4 speed and factory shaker hood. It had the same wheel covers as the gold Grande as well. It sounds odd and there can’t have been many like it but it’s a refreshing change from Mach 1s and Boss’s.
I’m a bit surprised that mottled vinyl upholstery was used in the ‘Grande’. Even as a kid I found it, ‘kitschy’, and used in the least flattering ways. Gives the ‘Grande’ a ‘Larry Dallas’ quality.
This would have complimented that ‘Grande’ interior…
I was thinking more along the lines of some Brut or something.
My brother used to go through a bottle a week of Brut in the 70s!Didn’t make him any more successful with the girls,he should have asked for his money back
Am I the only one that remembers Hai Karate, that supposedly had self defense instructions packed in with the after shave?
TV ad for the stuff here.
Until about two years ago, there were two base model Mustang coupes parked on my in-laws property. Both were white; one packed a 302, the other had a straight six of some displacement.
My wife had driven the six cylinder for a while in high school. She still calls it the Rustang as moving the floor mats would expose a vast expanse of pavement beneath you. She said it also had a nasty habit of dying when coming to a stop.
It was pretty worn by the time she saw it and it was passed around a few more times before it would up back in her brother’s ownership and dumped at their parents.
This same brother took the 302 powered one back to his house. It had not ran in a good fifteen years, but with a little gas and some penetrating oil, it was running again. That was the only thing going in the poor things favor.
Some people see a ’70 Mustang coupe and think of Mary Tyler Moore. I think of two white heaps off near the woods, wasting away. Aaron thinks of the orange one in Detroit. Ain’t life grande?
Ha ha! Life is grande indeed…
When I was in high school, a friend’s older brother drove one of these – medium blue coupe with a V8 and a stick. I spent some terrifying moments in the backseat of that car while the driver did his best Steve McQueen imitation.
The back seat of a Mustang was pretty terrifying without Steve McQueen at the wheel. A space best reserved for small children and double amputees.
These are a nice change from the Mustangs you usually see at car shows. Is there an article on that 1965 Mustang you mention having been in the family since 1968? The house I grew up has a Harvest Gold stove and I always thought Harvest Gold was a light Yellow, but turns out the stove has faded somewhat over the decades from being cleaned often. I do not know when my folks will replace it because you can buy new elements and use aluminum foil to supplement the tired reflectors and the wiring still looks good.
One of these days I’ll write up my Mustang. I’ve rebuilt the body twice (once when I was 17 with my Dad, and again a few years ago) and have driven it 75,000 miles since I started driving it in 1994. It’s a looooong story.
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!
Broughaming Mustangs kinda ruined their appeal to me
Me too it’s ,like wearing carpet slippers with a leather jacket.That vinyl roof looks like a bad hairpiece!At least it hasn’t got a Continental kit!
Way back when my dad had a law clerk working for him that had a ’73 Cougar that was an exact twin to that gold Grande. Poor Cougar had to wear hand-me-downs from big brother Ford…
Hah! You go to the “Motor Muster” at Greenfield Village. I recognize the Village’s perimeter wall behind the blue one and the Edison power house behind the gold one with the half vinyl top.
I saw an awesome 69 Mach 1 at the MM one year. Dark red/black interior, and lacking the louvers on the back window and the spoiler that most Mach 1s have. Very nice clean design without that extra stuff tacked on.
A Mustang 351 2v is probably a Windsor. That’s what my 70 Cougar had.
Motor Muster is my favorite car show; I go every year. I’m about 2 hours away from Dearborn. I’ve seen ’70s with both Cleveland and Windsor 2 barrels–who knows with Ford?
Motor Muster is my favorite car show; I go every year.
I think we had this conversation once before. I live about 20 miles from Dearborn, and have had an annual membership to the Henry Ford for the last couple years.
Going to take a break this year and pick up a membership to the Gilmore, so I can go to all their shows, several of which conflict with events at Greenfield Village.
Lucky I went to the Corvair meet at the Gilmore last year as the Corvair club has it’s meet elsewhere this year.
Oh yeah, we did. Michigan does have some nice car museums and shows…at least we have THAT going for us.
Gilmore is such a nice place…they’ve been really updating it over the last 5 years or so. I hope it doesn’t become so nice that they ruin it. It was always so quiet to go sometime during the week in the summer when there were few visitors.
More construction going on at the Gilmore campus.
Grand Opening for the new Lincoln gallery is August 9
http://www.gilmorecarmuseum.org/html/events_details.php?event_id=75&nav_id=5
Their planned Cadillac gallery will be patterned after a late 40s dealership building. I saw a rendering of it when I was there for the Corvair show.
My memory is failing. This is the 69 Mach 1 from the Motor Muster in 06 or 07. White interior. yesh. Would much rather have black. Nice car anyway. The new “retro” ones seem so bulky compared to the original.
Haven’t seen this 69 at the show since the year I took the pix.
I’ll have to check my photos if they are from 2013, that was one the stops on our US trip last year. Saturday at the Nascars at MIS, Sunday at the Motor Muster.
I am not a fan of the hardtop version of this Mustang, nor of the way-inboard headlights on the ’70.
Nice to see a clean original looking base coupe in a great ’70s color.
I can’t remember ever seeing too many really basic 1970 Mustangs and I gotta say this changes my perspective on them a little. Not that I didn’t think they were good looking already, but I just never gave them too much thought. The orange one looks very cool and I even kinda like the effect that the half-vinyl roof creates on the yellow one (although I’m sure I wouldn’t like it as much from some other angles).
that gold ‘final of the trifecta’ is a killer looking ride! I love the color and those wheelcovers are VERY cool looking..they look like a steel rallye wheel.
I think its pretty cool that some ‘lower level’ muscle cars are being restored. We all love the Boss versions and hi po goodness but seeing the more everyday ones from this era is interesting. Nice finds!
Those “mag” type wheelcovers are strange: all the ones I’ve seen are a deep dish design that fits the 14×7 wheel. I did not know Ford made a narrow version.
Although not a fan of those 1/4 Landau tops of the ’70s, I am a big fan of the halo tops. That one really looks good on the gold example above. They look real good on the ’71-’73 Cougars too. I almost ended up with a light blue ’72 Skylark with white halo top and white interior — it was a gorgeous car. Buick continued to offer the option in ’73 also and it looked very nice on the colonnade sport coupe bodystyle.
Thanks for sharing the non-clones with us. What a refreshing blast of realness to see these cars wearing full wheelcovers and real Ford blue under the hood (no chrome). My favorite Mustangs are the ’67 and ’68 but any Mustang prior to ’74 does it for me, so long as it’s not modified.
I always thought the 1st Mustang coupe & convertible were just right,the 67/68 fastback just right.I could easily put up with the yellow sportsroof(without the creepy basketball coach)
I’ve always hated the front end of this model. It looks like they just moved the headlights into the grille to reflect the styling of most other pony cars of the day, but they should have extended out the grille on both ends instead of looking like they put some “slats” on either side to cover up where the headlights originally were. It makes the car look wimpy and cross-eyed…. in my opinion, of course.
“Mary Richards” drove a white ’70 base notchback coupe in the openings of MTM show for first 2 seasons. I could see her in an orange one too!
The later seasons had clips of her washing a blue ’73 convertible in closing credits. Also, one episode had Rhoda paying for a new Mustang with cash she owed “Mair”, with actual cars in the studio set.
You might like this post, if you haven’t seen it before:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-tv-the-cars-of-the-mary-tyler-moore-show/
Only 7600 RAGTOPS in 1970 makes them somewhat rare but no mention above.
Love me some small block Fords also.Here’s my 302-2v base ’70 rag.
I’m not sure how I missed this story before – great stuff!
My first car was a ’70 Grande in Medium Metallic Blue over blue/black houndstooth with 302 and automatic. Last year, I picked up a Grabber Blue example with a 351C – originally a four-speed car (weird for a Grande), but now running a C6. This previous owner modded it a bit and I’ll slowly return it to looking more cosmetically stock. It was born as a 351C-2V, but a previous owner swapped on the 4V heads and a 600CFM Edelbrock. I’ll be keeping those mods…
http://www.oddimotive.com/2014/03/the-oddimotive-fleet-has-new-addition.html