Last updated August 1, 2005

I am a member of VMOA, NorCal-SAAC, SAAC and MCA (#48787)

You know you married the right girl when she buys you the car of your dreams.  That's exactly what my wife did for me in 2000.  That's one heck of a Christmas present.

Here is what the door tag translates to:  You will note that it does not match the car very well anymore.  One of the previous owners had changed the interior to black with white trim.  At least they left the exterior paint, the Pony trim and the four speed transmission.  Other than these items everything had changed.  The decode was gotten at .

This is what the car looked like on the showroom floor prior to my wife purchasing it for my Christmas present in 2000.

KK Pony originally came with a warmed-over 289 with a Cobra dual-quad setup, a dual-point distributor and the "K" exhaust manifolds.  This is what the engine compartment looked like when I got the car.

With the dual quad setup, which did not use any sort of progressive throttle linkage, you pretty much got either on or off.  This was not condusive to driving on the streets, so it was changed to an Edelbrock Performer RPM manifold and an Edelbrock Performer 600 CFM electric choke carburetor.  This setup was much more streetable, but it was only temporary, as the injection system had already been ordered.

When I got KK Pony it had the 289 above, a toploader 4-speed wide ratio transmission, an open rearend with 3.55:1 gears and black pony interior with white trim.  It also had the styled steel wheels as well as the full GT trim package.  Much of this has been changed, which you can see on the other pages of this site.

The reason I wanted this particular car was that it was a fastback with apparently straight sheetmetal and minimal rust.  I say apparently because I have not started the bodywork.  That is a project for 2002.  It also was not even close to being number matching, which suited my purposes perfectly since I had no intention of keeping it stock.

I drove the car for a few weeks and started shopping around for a shop to do the actual work.  I would prefer to have done the work myself, but I was told that I could not use the garage to do it.  Eventually I stumbled across Mustang Fever, in Santa Clara.

Mustang Fever used to be run by Chris Jilg , who is a great guy.  I called Chris on the phone and asked him if it would be ok for me to come down and meet the shop.  I'm pretty sure he thought I was a bit odd, but that's just the way I am.  When I walked into the shop Chris gave me the grand tour and I was sold.  You see, I used to have a shop of my own with my father and Mustang Fever felt like home to me.

Finding Mustang Fever was a good thing.  Perhaps the best thing about Mustang Fever is Chris' brother, Mitch.  Mitch is an absolute wonder.  I don't think there is a single thing on a vintage Mustang that Mitch can't do and he tends to be a bit of a perfectionist, which suits me just fine.

Chris has since moved up to Washington state.  Mustang Fever is now being run by Mitch and Scott Jilg.  I have already told you about Mitch and Scott is every bit as good as Mitch is.  You would be hard pressed to find a better place to take your pride-and-joy for work.

The first bit of work I had done was the installation of a 347 stroker that I had ordered from John's Mustangs and Classics (JMC) in San Diego, CA.  This engine was built by Coast High Performance and was an absolute disaster.

While the engine was being put in Mitch also installed my TCP gear.  The TCP power rack is absolutely awesome.  You can drive with your pinky without losing any sensitivity.  The coil-over front end allows the adjustment of ride height so you can get things just so.  I can't say enough good things about the TCP product or their customer service.  If decide to go this route you won't be sorry.

I also had Mustang Fever install a T5 transmission for me.  I then had some discussions with various people in which I found that the T5 is really not designed to handle the kind of horsepower that the 347 was supposed to be putting out.  I drove the car with the T5 in it for a short period and then ordered a Tremec TKO from JMC.  I had already had the hydraulic clutch setup from JMC in the car, so I just kept it there for the Tremec too.  

During all of the transmission swapping we put in an aluminum driveshaft and a Currie heavy duty 9-inch Track-Lock rearend with 3.50:1 gears in it.