This 1969 Mustang Mach 1 is a 450-hp restomod that leaves nothing to chance

As the 2022 Detroit Autorama was winding down, someone told Craig Cushing he ought to stick around for the awards ceremony. His restomod 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 had drawn more than a little attention from the judges and they rewarded it with a first-in-class trophy. "It was a moment of great satisfaction," Craig says. "I’d always wanted an Autorama-worthy car and for the car to win its class during its first time there was absolutely the thrill of a lifetime."

Craig is quick to credit the work of Jim Chatas, who built the car at his Detroit-area shop Motorcity Grind, which specializes in vintage Ford restorations and restomods. The two wouldn’t even have come together for the project, either, if Craig hadn’t been eavesdropping at a restaurant.

"I was having lunch with a co-worker one day and kept getting distracted by the guys at a nearby table, who were talking about Mach 1s, Mustang fastbacks, and things like that," Craig says. "After a while, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I went over to introduce myself and asked about the cars they were talking about."

One of those strangers was Jim, who was talking shop over his own lunch.

"I told Jim right there that I wanted to build a 1969 Mach 1," Craig says. “He told me that if I found the right car, he was the guy who could do it."

About six months later, Craig found the car. It was an authentic Mach 1, but an H-code (351-2V) car that wasn’t particularly rare or in original condition. He made a deal for the car and, in the pouring rain, hauled it down to Motorcity Grind.

"I knew what I wanted to do with the car," Craig says. "Jim immediately understood what I was looking for, and we really connected about it. When I threw out the budget I thought I wanted to spend on it, he just grinned at me."

Authentic shaker hood scoop funnels air to a Holley Sniper EFI throttle body mounted on the engine like an Autolite 4300 4V on an original 351W engine.

It wasn’t a "No sweat" grin. Not at all. It was a "No freakin’ way" grin. But Jim told Craig to take the car home and disassemble it himself, which would save him a few thousand dollars.

"Jim said, ‘Bring me a roller and we’ll get started,’ and that’s what I did," Craig says. "It became a family project, with my kids and father helping to remove the parts and bag-and-tag them. Everybody got into the project."

It won’t surprise anyone who’s built a car to learn that after the Mustang’s rolling shell returned to Motorcity Grind, the project— and budget —accelerated like a Gapp and Roush Pro Stocker. That was especially true after the car returned from the media blaster.

Well, the remnants of the car that returned, that is. The rear quarters, the taillight panel, and more, disintegrated in a cloud of rust and walnut shells. It was underlying damage that would add even more time and money to the final tab. Even the hood needed to be replaced.

"Prior to media-blasting, the car didn’t look too bad," Jim says. "But our jaws all dropped when we saw the extent of the rust damage. The body needed a ton of work."

While Jim and his crew got to work replacing the corroded sheetmetal and straightening what hadn’t been consumed by the tin worm, Craig focused his attention on tracking down the parts that would elevate the car’s performance, from the chassis and suspension upgrades to the engine.

Modified Windsor engines, with their thin-wall castings, can run warm, especially when stroked, like this 408.

That means a robust cooling system is a must, and this Mustang has it.

"I didn’t want to do a Coyote swap," he says. "I wanted a traditional Ford engine for this vintage car." Sticking with a traditional engine was more economical than shoehorning a Coyote, which requires modifications to eliminate interference with the stock shock towers.

He settled on a 351 Windsor-based 408 stroker crate engine from Wisconsin-based Tri Star Engines. Rated at 450 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque, its ingredients included forged pistons, a hydraulic roller camshaft, and Dart Pro 1 aluminum cylinder heads. It was also topped with a Holley Sniper EFI system that gives the engine a more traditional appearance under the hood.

The engine is backed by a Tremec five-speed transmission, which transfers torque to a 9-inch axle fitted with a Traction Lok limited-slip differential and 3.89 gears. It’s a combination that Craig reports delivers a great balance of on-demand power and highway-cruising comfort.

"With the overdrive, the car drives on the freeway just like any modern vehicle," he says. "And Jim really has the cooling systems for these cars worked out. The gauge never rises above 180 degrees, even in the gridlock of the Woodward Dream Cruise."

That cooling system includes a thick-cored aluminum radiator from Cold-Case Radiators, which is matched with a pair of electric fans collectively worth about 3,300 cfm of airflow.

"These stroker Windsors need a lot of cooling capacity," Jim says. "We’ve had good luck with this setup on other cars. It works very well."

Additionally, the engine exhales through FPA headers that blow into a custom 2.5-inch exhaust system formed and welded by MotoFab.

This Mustang does have a coil-over swap, front and rear, along with a change from the original recirculating ball steering system to a power rack-and-pinion system from UniSteer, but the front suspension upgrade from Street or Track didn’t require shock-tower surgery. The rear suspension, also from Street or Track, is a three-link conversion that swapped the original leaf springs for Bilstein coil-overs.

"In addition to vastly more responsive cornering and good ride comfort characteristics, the coil-over upgrades allowed us to dial-in the car’s stance just where we wanted it, especially in the rear," Jim says. "The car sits perfectly and looks great from every angle."

Rounding out the chassis details is a Street or Track-supplied "big brake" kit, with 14-inch front and 13-inch rear rotors. They nicely fill out the space behind 18-inch Forgeline SP3P aluminum wheels. Nailing the width and offset of the rims was a painstaking process to ensure they fit the wheel openings just right. At the rear, the wheels are 9 inches wide and paired with 275-series Michelin Pilot Sport rubber, filling the wheel openings as much as possible without the need for mini-tubs.

The other big aesthetic considerations for the car were the paintwork and the interior, and they, too, involved plenty of careful considerations. For the exterior color, Craig insisted the car would be blue. Fourteen spray-outs of different shades were tested before Bright Atlantic Blue Metallic was selected. It was used on the New Edge Mustangs circa 1999.

"It’s still a Mustang color, but a more contemporary example," he says. "I think it complements the car’s lines very well."

Those lines are purposely unadorned by aftermarket and custom enhancements, as Craig was adamant about keeping the overall look of the car classic, down to the front and rear spoilers and shaker hood scoop. A few subtle concessions, however, include body-color front and rear bumpers— with the rear bumper tucked up flush with the body —and the addition of tinted taillamps and aftermarket door handles.

Inside, it’s a mix of vintage and contemporary appointments, starting with leather trimmed Recaro seats that were accented with red stripes to mimic the same feature in the original seats. The rear seat was also re-trimmed in leather to match the fronts. That work and more of the cabin’s craftsmanship was handled by SPC Interiors.

One of the more distinguishing features is the replacement of the stock woodgrain appearance on the dashboard and door panels with a more contemporary wood look achieved with hydro-dipping. The results look amazing and truly update the interior while maintaining the decorative spirit of the original trim.

There’s also a custom center console, Dakota Digital gauges — the look and performance of which we’ve extolled with other recent restomod cars we’ve featured— and a custom audio system that Craig personally assembled. It’s centered on a Kenwood Excelon head unit and supported by Herts Millie Legend speakers and amps.

A modern twist on woodgrain décor comes from hydro-dipped versions of the original dashboard. It’s a water-transfer process that involves immersing the parts in a solution that also contains the decorative film.

"I’m an audio-video guy by trade and I wanted a system that would show off how clean and crisp a car audio system could be," he says. "It sounds great for all the right reasons."

It’s also another example of the painstaking attention to detail Craig and Motorcity Grind invested to transform this vintage Mach 1 into a modernized muscle car — one that remains instantly recognizable but has been thoroughly reimagined. Its Windsor power plant delivers 200 horsepower more than the original 351 two-barrel, while the contemporized suspension and overdrive transmission elevate the car’s driving dynamics by several decades.

"It drives amazing," Craig says. "I think it looks even better. It’s exactly the car I wanted."

The 2022 Detroit Autorama judges agreed, awarding Craig and Jim Chatas for sweating the details.

OWNER'S VIEW

There are some cars that just have ‘the look,’ and for me it’s the 1969 Mustang Mach 1. It has the four headlamps and rear quarter scoops, which the ’70 models didn’t have. It’s the vintage Mustang that really calls to me— it looks fast while it’s sitting still. I plan to drive the wheels off of it, and my young children love it. They think it’s loud, but the smile on the face of my son when we take it out is priceless. The bottom line is that it’s the car I wanted to build for a long, long time, and I think it’s going to be in our family forever.—Craig Cushing

SPECIFICATIONS--1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1

ENGINE

Block type: Ford Windsor-type "small-block" OHV V-8

Displacement: 408-cu.in.

Bore x stroke: 4.030 x 4.000 in

Compression ratio: 9.75:1

Horsepower @ rpm: 450 (rpm unknown)

Torque @ rpm: 500 lb-ft (rpm unknown)

Valvetrain: Hydraulic roller with Scorpion roller rockers and Comp Cams pushrods

Camshaft: 581-in lift, intake/exhaust

Fuel system: Holley Sniper EFI

Lubrication system: Melling oil pump with steel gears

Exhaust system: FPA 1-5/8-in headers and 2.5-in exhaust by MotoFab with Flowmaster mufflers

TRANSMISSION

Type: Tremec TKO 600 five-speed manual

Ratios: 1st/2.87:1 … 2nd/1.89:1 … 3rd/1.28:1 … 4th/1.00:1 … 5th/0.82 … Reverse/2.56:1

DIFFERENTIAL

Type: Ford 9-inch with limited-slip differential and Strange hardened axles

Ratio: 3.89:1

STEERING

Type: UniSteer power-assisted rack-and-pinion

Ratio: 12.5:1

BRAKES

Type: Street or Track power-assisted four-wheel disc

Front: 14-in slotted rotors with four-piston calipers

Rear: 13-in slotted rotors with four-piston calipers

SUSPENSION

Front: Independent with Street or Track coil-over conversion, and anti-sway bar

Rear: Solid axle with Street or Track 3-link location, coil-over shocks and anti-sway bar

WHEELS & TIRES

Wheels: Forgeline SP3P forged aluminum

Front: 18 x 8 in

Rear: 18 x 9 in

Tires: Michelin Pilot Super Sport

Front: 245/40ZR18

Rear: 275/35ZR18