The forgotten 1963-1967 Ford Mustang Custom Cars

Picture courtesy David Fetherston

Jeff Speegle collects Mustang stuff since more than 30 years and his "Mustang Research Letter" is very well known in the Pony world. He was first to search his archive and find out something about the Ford Custom Car Caravan and our long time mystery Pegasus Mustang. (see archive).

Here is what he had initially on Ramons Mustang Pegasus:
"The car was built in 65 and from what I can tell  was not "around" after 66. As you can see in the picture the rear of the car is even more unusual than the front. I'm not sure, who the builder was, but I don't think it was Miller and Anderson who were showing the Grand Americans right in the late 65 period. Anderson did a lot of the model cars though. Kind of looks like Barris style of work, but a bit wild and extreme for his work during the mid 60's.

During this period he was doing more of the mild Mustang customs such as the Sonny & Cher in 1967 or the Sinatra Zebra Mustang. Looks like at least some of the work is fiberglass. If so, there were also a number of shops in LA that were setting the pace around the country. Of them Berry and Walt Phillips were doing some very similar work and designs to what we see on the front end." Jeff

Mystery Mustangs always keep me busy, so I searched further and finally found some more info:
George Barris indeed built 6 Ford cars for the Ford Custom Car Caravan 1965 and toured with them, one event of them being the Teen Fair in LA. Ford had learned that the kids under 16 were a very important factor for future sales. Getting them hooked to the brand via Barris cars was an excellent promotion action back then and would certainly be today again.
Barris cars were really hip at that time in the younger generation, so Ford approached George in the early 60ies to work with them. George started building Caravan cars in 1963 through to 1967. 

As we touch the unique custom and concept cars here, Dearborn Steel and Tubing was another outside manufacturer that had a lot to do with the concept cars from Ford like the Mustang Vivace (designed and built by Vince Gardner), an early Mustang III prototype and a short-wheelbase 2-seater Mustang. The last two were at least shown in the Ford Custom Car Caravan. 
Cushenberry, Gene Winfield and Dean Jeffries (having his shop next to George Barris) were other customizers that layed their hands on Ford custom cars for the caravan of the early 60ies. One of the Caravan participants was a Ford 34 Tudor, built by Dean Jeffries. (Jeffries even built the first AC prototype for Carroll Shelby, that he displayed and still has the engine of that prototype).

Another Mustang was the orange with Gold Candy side panels treated  "Out of Sight" Mustang built by Roy Johnson from Barris Kustoms, then the Galaxie Magic Cruiser, Gene Winfield built LTD Executive, The Fairlane GTX A Go-Go plus a Pacifica Pickup and the Strip Star, a Bonneville Coupe powered by a 427 cui. Dean Jeffries and the Alexander brothers worked for Ford as well. 
Later the "Mustang Karavan" was build as well by Barris featuring Cibie lights, 4 functional inset shuttered grilles and 40 coats of Tangerine Pearl over a Golden Frost White Pearl underbase. 
This promotion tour was extremely successfull in the youth program accompanied by seminars of the famous race driver Ak Miller and young kids racing on AMT scale model tracks. 
A number of special Falcons (Falcon Python, The Franciscan and the Falcon Rancho Deluxe) added to the picture.

The Mustang Pegasus was indeed one of the outstanding custom cars made by Warren Veurink and Jack Florence  for Gerald Taggert.

It is still under restoration from 2007 to 2014.
More info and full pics of Ramons car now  on this site