The 67 Mustang Project

This is the car as pulled from a barn July 2003

The car as of May 2004

After the car was completed I set about to track down the early history of the car.  Dealing only with the Used Car kit that is required here in Ontario with every change in ownership, I had owners names and city back to 1978.

I started with the earliest name on the list who was a Henry Stryker from Breslau, Ontario (a small village outside of Kitchener-Waterloo) and went to the phone book. There were no Stryker's in the Breslau directory but there were several H. Stryker's in Kitchener.   On my first call I discovered the father of the cars second owner who gave me his Son's name and address who now lives only 4 miles from our home.  

A quick phone call to an unbelieving Rick Stryker yielded an invite to drop by with the car.  The adjacent photo is of Rick after taking his old car for a drive.  

Rick was able to relate several good stories about the vehicle during his ownership including having the hood fly up at highway speed while travelling in the USA.  The top was down at the time and the roof struck his buddy knocking him out momentarily.  A piece of wood across the fenders they were able to pull the hood somewhat back into shape and wire it shut.  The windshield was badly cracked but they were able to limp home only to be stopped by the Waterloo regional Police who ordered the car off the road pending a safety check.  A new (used) windshield and hood were aquiired and once again the pony was roaming the roads of Waterloo Region

Rick did let me know that he had purchased the car in 1978 from a family friend. NOTE: I have not yet been able to make personal contact with the original owner so am not mentioning his name at this time.

Rick ended up selling the car in 1988 for about $800 to another friend Steve Murray of Waterloo. 

I contacted Steve by phone who quickly dropped out to see the car and take it for a drive which is when I was able to take this photo.

Steve indicated he was the one who acquired and installed the replacement doors and front fenders (see left photo at very top of page) that were in place when the restoration project began in July of 2003.

To show how small a world this is, Steve had some of the welding work during his ownership within 1/2 mile of where the car ended up for restoration.  Steve has quite a few old photos which he will be providing shortly.

Steve sold the car in 1988 to a restoration shop in London, Ontario who sold the car (no work performed) to Paul Waechter the following year.  Paul stored the car in his barn at his Merryhill area farm until our project began in 2003.