Not everyone loves 1971-73 Ford Mustangs, but SportsRoof and Mach 1 values are consistently strong for nice cars; therefore, the sky’s the limit for this fully-restored Grabber Blue 1971 Mach 1 with a 351 Cleveland four-barrel under its long hood. It’s up for auction on Hagerty Marketplace in Ontario, New York.
Like any 1967-and-up Ford owned by someone interested in its history, this car has a Marti Report, which tells us everything from the selling dealer (Holiday Ford in Sunnyvale, California) to the date the car was actually built (May 11th, seven days behind schedule). It was sold barely a week later, having been shipped all the way from Dearborn Assembly, so I have to assume that somebody was waiting to buy it.
It was also optioned with purpose, even though we can’t really call it a highly-optioned car. It had the 285-horsepower M-Code 351 Cleveland four-barrel engine (a bargain at $93), a C6 automatic, power front disc brakes, power steering, the Mach 1 Sports Interior, and the Instrumentation Group, which included a tachometer in the instrument cluster’s left binnacle and oil pressure, alternator, and temperature gauges in the center of the dashboard.
You may also notice the car’s Bright Blue paint and blue interior, which was obviously changed when the car was being restored by a Mustang shop in Alabama from 2009-11. The color was changed to Grabber Blue and the interior was dyed (?) white; based on the window sticker, we can see that spoilers were added front and rear, in addition to Magnum 500 wheels. The car came from the Rouge River plant with hub caps, trim rings, whitewall tires, and no spoilers.
Therefore, it would have looked a little like this Mach 1, but it would have been a little more austere with no “hockey stick” stripes or front air dam.
In reality, Grabber Blue is just a somewhat brighter shade, ironically, than Bright Blue (sometimes called Bright Silver Blue). We can also see that the Mach 1’s body color bumper has been swapped for chrome, in the manner of the Boss 351, a fairly common substitution. The engine compartment looks better than new, at least based on the pictures we’re given on the website.
The Mach 1 Sports Interior (an option on Mach 1’s and SportsRoofs) had more upscale upholstery, some strategic woodgraining, upgraded door panels, etc. Once again, the interior was blue from the factory, so I wonder if it was truly dyed or if the upholstery and door panels were replaced. The upholstery is reasonably priced for a full set; the door panels a little less so.
In my opinion, the 1971-73 Mach 1 is a car that looks best by far when it hasn’t been modified, and being that the owner at the time of this car’s restoration stuck to factory appearance options, it looks great. The history of the car is well-documented; it followed the original buyer almost immediately to Tucson, Arizona, where it stayed with him until 2009. It then bounced from auction to auction for a couple years after being restored, and has been with its current owner since 2012. The pictures show that the restoration was done nicely, and very little will draw attention like a Mach 1 in a Grabber color. Nice examples of these cars with 351s seem to sell in the thirty- to forty-thousand dollar range, so it will be fun to see the final bid.
Related Reading
1971 Ford Mustangs: Every Color From Raven Black To Light Gold (by me)
Changing the colors lowers the value quite a bit on any vintage car of this type.
Also, growing up in this era I never noticed changing the front bumper to chrome. My buddy had a 71 Mach One with 429-4V and he loved the body colored bumper because it looked different from the masses of other Mustangs that had chrome.
On another note, I had a 73 Grande’ with the 351Q 4V (lightly modified) and I got a kick out of doing some back road racing with the above 429 Mach. For some reason his 71 was not optioned with the Traction-Lok so off the line he just smoked his RR tire while I got out of the hole with just a peep. I always got him up to around 50 but after that his Mach was a juggernaut and pulled like a rocket.
I LOVED my 73, it felt like driving a torpedo for sure but I loved every mile I put on it.
Very cool looking car and design. I think that this color combination is the best for this generation Mustang fastback.
I’m quite fond of the boss 351 style chrome bumper swap, but I’ve never ever seen a Mach with it done before. Perhaps owing to the relative undesirability of this bodystyle for most of time owners enjoyed a little more freedom in up optioning and shuffling colors than faithfully restoring something like a 71 Cuda.
I really like how this one looks even not being original, the silver and blue is really unique and the chrome bumper breaks up the monotony of body colored bumper Mach 1s. Frankly body colored bumpers on muscle cars in general do absolutely nothing for me anymore with literally every car and truck on the road today having useless blasé scuff prone body colored bumper covers.
I took this picture at Motor Muster in Dearborn this year, and it was one of two Mustangs at the show with a chrome front bumper, so maybe familiarity led me to assume that it’s a common thing. For a second, I wondered if this was the same car as the one for sale, but it doesn’t have a white interior (and the engine has some kind of a dress-up kit).
Who knew that there was something called “Corinthian Vinyl”?
The husband of my wife’s friend who lived down the street that my wife grew up on in Catonsville (MD) bought one almost identical to this (except in a slightly deeper metallic blue) in ’71, optioned similarly but with the front air dam and rear spoiler. Had the silver “hockey stick” &c. He was an absolute fanatic about the car, as well as his house, yard &c, totally obsessive.
He drove it little and it was always garaged, always cleaned weekly, and still immaculate even after 50 years, but oddly it had rusted on the rear panel around the taillights. He told me that it was common due to foam taillight gaskets holding in moisture, probably because he washed it too much! He bought all the OEM replacement parts to eventually repair it, the rest of the car was still like new. Last I knew when he died about 5 years ago he still had the car in the garage, probably under 30 k miles on it, but don’t know if he ever fixed it or what happened to it, he has 2 sons in NC who’d be lucky to have it, even repaired it’d be a 1 owner documented car and 97% all original, worth a ton no doubt. I always really liked it but not as much as the previous generation of fastbacks. The ’69 is my favorite, never affordable now. I’ll have to have my wife ask Carol (his wife) what happened to Gary’s Mach.
Why pull a Marti report if you did all those modifications? It befuddles me.
It’s very pretty but NOT RESTORED as that means only one thing : AS NEW .
I bet this is a fun car to drive and I’d likely enjoy trying it out, I hope it doesn’t become one more garage queen .
-Nate
I’m in two minds about this car (who asked ‘Only two?’).
It would have looked quite attractive in the original colour scheme, and the blue interior would have been more unusual. On the other hand it looks quite nice as it is – but it’s not original any more.
Does this matter with a car as relaitively common as the Mustang used to be? Does this matter when I have no intention to purchase it?
Third mind just chimed in: ‘At least it’s still factory.’
These are still a bit affordable when you find one in average condition. There are worthwhile improvements over the ’70 models. I think that more of these were built with front disc brakes and the gas tank now hangs under the trunk floor, instead of being the trunk floor. These are not big cars they are a bit smaller than later 70’s F body GM cars. Visibility to the rear is terrible but it would now be easy to add a back up camera. The base hardtop has a taller roof and a tunneled back light which I like, and they are much cheaper. Blue is a good color for Mustangs.
Don’t forget Saginaw power steering boxes! If one can get past the looks these, out of the box they are better Mustangs structurally and mechanically than the 65-70s.
I would degrade this car a notch or two because of the exterior color change, interior color change, and the chrome bumpers. Sorry, but your original only once and this car no longer is. By rights, restored as original, should by more highly valued than this car plus it is now and older restoration. Seems it went for $30K which is probably close to right otherwise $40K if original.