The “gone but not forgotten” saga of Gene Leopold’s 1967 Ford Mustang GT was almost more of a “gone and good riddance” story.

But Gene’s son Kris was determined to change the ending.

It’s not that Gene, a resident of Superior, Wis., didn’t like the hot Acapulco Blue Mustang GT he bought new back in 1967. Heck, he custom ordered it exactly the way he wanted it, and he loved driving it for the first five years of the car’s life.

But when Kris wanted to play detective and determine if the car still existed many years later­ — and maybe see if he and his dad could somehow get it back — Gene wasn’t so sure.

“We had a couple of pictures of the car, with the license plate on it, and my son was always asking me about it and saying, ‘Man, I’d like to buy that car!’ I figured the car probably didn’t exist anymore and had been crushed or something… Well, my wife knew somebody at the police department and she asked him if he could help us locate the car, and he got back to us and told us who had it. And it was the same fella I sold it to!”

That was about 35 years ago, and Kris and Gene couldn’t resist. They had to go look at the car in person in Ashland, Wis., and see if they could buy it back. And while they had succeeded in finding the car, the happy ending to the story would have to wait a while.

“We went and looked at it, and I just kept saying, ‘Oh man, look how rough it is,’” Gene recalled. “We offered to buy it for $800, and a day later he called us back and changed his mind, said he wasn’t going to sell it.”

That was in about 1990. About 11 years later, Kris sent the man a letter asking again if they could work out a deal to buy the car. This time, the man said yes and stuck to his word. The price had grown to $1,200, but the Leopolds took the deal and dragged the tired Mustang home. Ironically, as rough as it looked, it had barely been driven since Gene had sold it back in 1972.

“It’s crazy,” Gene said. “I drove that car to the East Coast when I had it, and he drove it to the West Coast, but he put it in the ditch and ruined one shock tower, so he quit driving it. He had it in the garage all that time, sitting on a gravel floor, and it just started rusting away. Him and his brother, I think they wanted to restore it, but it’s expensive restoring something like this, because it was so bad. But he was a single guy, he never got married, and he just couldn’t let go of the car.”

After finally locating the car, waiting years for a deal to materialize, retrieving it and getting it back home, Gene admits he still had a few regrets. He wasn’t convinced trying to rebuild the Mustang was a good idea.

“When we first got it back, it was so bad I didn’t even really want it,” he says. “That’s the truth. That’s what it came down to.”

1967: Days of Thunder

For 1967, competition in the so-called sports-compact market was noticeable stiffer. Mercury introduced its fancy version of the Mustang — the Cougar — in 1967. Chevrolet, which had little success responding to the Mustang with the dying Corvair, chose to develop its own entirely new sport-compact model for 1967 it called the Camaro. The Firebird was Pontiac’s version of the Camaro, and it bowed in mid-1967, six months after the Camaro.

Ford was hard pressed to improve on the classic Mustang it had introduced in 1964, but it had to. The competition was getting very keen, indeed. Lee Iacocca and company did a great job with a tough assignment. 

The 1967 Mustang received a jazzy new body, a wider tread for better road grip and a wider range of engine choices. Options included a built-in heater/air conditioner, an overhead console, stereo-sonic tape system, SelectShift automatic transmission that also worked manually, a bench seat, an AM/FM radio, fingertip speed control, custom exterior trim group and front power disc brakes. Styling followed the same theme as the original, but in a larger size.

On the exterior, the 1967 Mustang was heftier and more full-fendered. Especially low and sleek was the new 2+2 fastback, which featured all-new sheet metal. The roofline had a clean, unbroken sweep downward in a distinctive concave rear panel. Functional air louvers in the roof rear quarters were made thinner than before. The wheelbase was unchanged, but overall length grew by nearly 2 inches. Front and rear tread widths went up by 2.1 inches and overall width was 2.7 inches wider at 58.1 inches.

All Mustangs had bigger engine bays. This was necessary, because the first “big-block” option was among the many 1967 hardware upgrades. It was a 390-cid V-8 with 320 hp. This small-bore/long-stroke power plant was related to the Ford FE engine, introduced way back in 1958. It provided a good street-performance option with a low $264 price tag, lots of low-end performance and plenty of torque.

All of the 1966 engines were carried over, plus there was a new 200-hp version of the Challenger 289 V-8 with a two-barrel carburetor. That engine was standard in cars with the GT option. The new designation used on cars with automatic transmission and GT equipment was “GTA”.

Other technical changes included front suspension improvements and a competition handling package that cost quite a bit extra and didn’t go into many cars. The 1967 Mustang GT 2+2 with the 390/325-hp V-8 could do 0-to-60 mph in 7.4 seconds and the quarter mile in 15.6 seconds.

Specific breakdowns were not kept of how many Mustangs carried the GT package, but total Mustang production for 1967 was whopping 472,121, with the hardtop leading the way at 356,217 assemblies, compared to 71,042 fastbacks and 44,808 convertibles. 

Zooming down memory lane

Gene Leopold was a car guy to the bone and he didn’t cut corners when it came time to plunk down his hard-earned cash on a new Mustang in 1967. “I wanted to go fast, basically. Yes I did,” he laughs. “And this was basically the fastest Mustang they had in ’66-’67.”

The blue GT was equipped with the big 390 V-8 with a four-speed, limited-slip differential and 3.25:1 rear gears. It also carried a tachometer, AM radio, fold-down rear seat, heavy-duty battery, extra cooling package, two-tone paint (gray on the tail below the trunk lid), tinted glass and black Comfortweave bucket seats.

“I ordered this car myself when I worked at the dealership in Park Falls [Wis.],” Gene remembers. “I was going with this gal and we got married in August ’68, and I put a trailer hitch on it and I pulled a U-Haul trailer and drove it up to Superior where she was going to school, and I got a job at the Ford dealership there.

“I drag raced it in the Cities, yes I did, but I was actually very careful with the car. I drove it hard…but I took care of it.”

One of Gene’s favorite memories of those early days with the Mustang GT involved racing off and leaving a local police officer in his rearview mirror — a move that didn’t particularly sit well with his father, who was a police officer himself. “I took off out of town and got it up to about 125 and made it around a corner and lost him while he was still trying to get the carbon out of his motor,” he laughs. “I turned into another little town near us and, of course, they never found me… My dad heard the next day about one of the officers ‘chasing and losing a blue Mustang’ and he knew. The next day he’s asking me, ‘Gene, what were you doing last night?’”

Once fatherhood arrived, Gene began to realize the Mustang might not be the ultimate family car. He didn’t want to get rid of it, but eventually he relented, and he never even had to put the GT up for sale. 

“Some guy came by the dealership and said, ‘I’d like to buy your car.’ Out of the blue. And by God, I thought maybe that was the time to sell it to him. So I got rid of it in ’72.”

After Gene and Kris swung and missed at getting their ’67 back the first time, Gene eventually bought and restored another one just like it. “It was identical to it, made two days later in the same factory!” he says. “I bought it out of Wyoming. It was even the same color, Acapulco Blue, but it still wasn’t my original car. I think it was a good thing that we did that, because we restored this car better than we restored that other car.”

Father and son had that first 1967 Mustang GT re-done from top to bottom, with no screw left unturned. After dreaming about having the car back on the road for several decades, they didn’t take any shortcuts.

“It’s my son’s car now. He wanted it more than I did, and he funded most of the restoration,” Gene says. “We had the engine overhauled… had the transmission overhauled. Had the rear end all done. Everything is brand new underneath. Every suspension part is new. Everything was re-done, exactly how we ordered the car. We had to wait an extra two and a half weeks because it had knit-weave vinyl seats. They said we could put standard seats in it and you can have it, I said no, it needs to be knit-weave vinyl, no matter how long it has to sit there.”

Gene laughs and says he still has to pinch himself sometimes when pondering how his “lost and found” Mustang somehow survived and made it back home into his garage. He is quick to credit his son for making it all happen, with maybe a little divine intervention along the way. His first voyage in the car after it was “new again” made it clear that the waiting and effort had all been worth it.

“I was extremely proud. I did not think it would be possible to find this car. I thought it would be crushed like so many were,” he says. “Even though it was so bad, I thought, ‘If we could get this all restored like a new car again, I would just love that… And for my son to have the car!

“Kris is the one who wanted the car more than I did, at the time. And we were lucky, to be able to find it.”

Mustangs get your blood pumping? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week-1966-shelby-mustang-g-t-350-h

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week-1970-ford-mustang-boss-429

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1981-mclaren-m81-mclarens-first-mustang

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A good friend of mine was a high school classmate of the original owner of our car. My friend had been trying to buy this car for years and finally convinced her (the owner) to sell; however, when the time came, he decided he had too many projects going on to take on another. My friend knew that my “first car” was a 1969 Firebird; same color, same engine (but it was a coupe), so he called me to gauge my interest, and I immediately said of course, I wanted it! My wife and her twin sister shared a 1968 Firebird convertible in high school, so there was a strong affinity for this car from both of us. Ultimately, my buddy was able to make arrangements to have his friend (the owner) sell the car to me.

Beyond my personal affinity for Firebirds, my wife’s family has been in the car business for going on 100 years. Her grandfather started an Oakland franchise in 1929 which of course in time became Pontiac. In the 1930’s he added Cadillac and at one time was the oldest Cadillac dealer east of the Mississippi. In 1975 they added Honda. The dealership is now GMC/Buick/Honda in Rocky Mount, NC and is still in the family and managed by the third and fourth generation. My wife worked in the business for almost 20 years and obtained her dealer certification from NADA, but when our daughter was born, she “retired” from the car business.

The car was originally purchased in June of 1968 from Lexington Motor Sales in Lexington, Virginia (approximately 35 miles from where we live in Staunton, Virginia). The car was purchased by a dad as a gift for his daughter’s high school graduation. It never left the area and was daily driven by the daughter until 1991 when it was parked in the family’s dairy barn. The daughter retained ownership of the car until we purchased it in late 2020 after it had been sitting for nearly 30 years, with 42,250 actual miles. The car is “matching numbers” with a 350 c.i. 2-barrel V-8 with a two-speed automatic transmission. Factory options include AM radio, floor console, rear speaker, door edge guards, remote mirror power steering, power convertible top, custom trim group, and floor mats. The exterior color is Verdoro Green with Ivy Gold interior.

The car is almost entirely original, including paint, interior, and convertible top. I even still use the original floor mats. I had a paint correction performed along with an application of ceramic coating. Unfortunately, during the time, the car was parked in the barn it sat alongside a lime truck which caused some surface rusting, particularly on the trunk lid, which got into the paint. Nevertheless, I have decided not to do anything further to the paint as most of the car looks fantastic for its age. The top only needed a good cleaning and coat of protective sealant. The interior needed cleaning and some touch up on the kick panels and the panels on the back of the seats, which had turned brown with age. I did replace the carpet but in hindsight probably could have saved the original. Fortunately, the car did not suffer from any serious mouse infestation. I am told by the mechanic that worked on the car originally that he was able to get the car running before we did any enhancements. I got a chance to look underneath the valve covers during the initial renovations and it looked like new. I would say the majority of the cosmetic improvements were underneath the hood. I painted the engine bay and the engine and replaced (with period correct OER parts) all of the hoses, hose clamps, belts, etc. and added a Delco “battery topper” and period correct battery cables. The original hood insulation was still there and completely intact.

Aside from cosmetic enhancements and replacement of certain limited-lifetime components, the engine and transmission have not been touched. I replaced suspension bushings, front springs, rear leaf springs, and installed period-correct Koni adjustable shocks. For safety and drivability, I installed power front disc brakes. I also period-correct dual exhaust. Vintage Rally II wheels and period-correct redline radial tires were installed (I went to 15-inch wheels and tires to accommodate the disc brakes), and the original deluxe steering wheel was restored. All updates were done using period-correct components when possible. The original “space saver” tire and inflation can is still in the trunk.

The car is a “driver” and we are certainly enjoying it! I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the original owner of our car and was able to get some neat photos of her with the car, one of which is a photo in her graduation gown and cap. The car won it’s AACA Junior award in Gettysburg 2023 and it’s Senior award in Hershey 2023, and in February 2023 received a “Judges Award” at the Motorama show in Harrisburg, PA.

Owners: Grace, Julie, and Leonard Pittman, Staunton Virginia

*Images courtesy of Leonard Pittman

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While walking the Iola Car Show grounds in 2024 we came upon this fiery-red Pontiac Trans Am SD and had to find out more. 

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