Vin # 1 is at the Henry Ford museum. It's a white convertible... With a black interior I think. I gotta go back one of these days and take some pics.
The day after Superbowl in 2005 I went to the old Bob Ford dealership which is now Fairlane Ford and placed an order for my '05 drop top. I was one of the first to get one.
Nice memories, I worked at the Worlds Fair in '64 and '65 in Flushing Meadows. That Ford exhibit so got me going that I bought a new Mustang in '65. I have photos of it on the Parkway in '66 with the exhibit partially dismantled in the background. It was a great time, the big deal in the food department then was huge Belgian waffles, had to have one every day. The girls serving them may have been part of the attraction. Da Flash
I had just turned 17 - my dad was a career army officer - we'd recently moved back to the Jersey Shore, and managed to talk my folks into letting me skip school on a Friday. Took the train from Belmar to NYC, then a bus to the fairgrounds - couldn't find anyone else to go with me - all my dumass friends thought it was a waste of their time.... I remember the black mustang vert - prob the one in the thread - I didn't like the color, and clearly remember that it had Oregon plates - where we had just moved from. I rode in a white Comet vert with wire hubcaps and CA tags. Couldn't figure out at the time why they would get cars from 3000 miles away when the local lots were full of new Ford cars.... I later found out the tags were mostly from junkyards to give the ride some realism. The Mustang got to me too... I not only bought one while I was still in high school ( a white/red 289 4-speed) but I also went to work at the Metuchen Mustang assy plant in '67 - if I had waited a bit longer I could have gotten a Cobra Jet for the same price...
There's some good stuff from Disney's Bob Gurr on the design and construction of the ride in the links below. "Every day some new failure occurred with the budget whacked low bidders equipment. Nothing serious, but still aggravating to everyone. The worst shortcoming was in the simplified method used to keep the cars spaced apart safely. Every time the ride stopped and restarted, some cars would get closer to the ones ahead, enough to bang bumpers. Now days, cars are built with Federal Bumper Standards, but not in 1964. The Mercury had big steer horn bumper corners which crushed the Comet tail lights to bits, totally missing the Comet's rear bumper. These two cars were designed in the same studio by the same guys! Very funny. Ford had a local car dealer set up a body repair shop at night to do body and paint work to fix the damage caused by each day's test runs. Ford decided to save money on the smaller cars by not removing any engines so they could sell them complete after the fair as used cars, but I think they must have been VERY used by that time. " http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID108140.asp http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID108150.asp The rest of the Bob Gurr columns are worth a read as well.
There is a 64 T-bird in my area that was once one of those cars, unique beige color, and a pilot car to boot. He has the documentation and jokes about how many people must have rode in that car. Even without a motor and tranny, that 64 Bird weighed a bunch. And I have pictures of that Mustang #1 in my Henry Ford Museum Albums on Webshots. http://community.webshots.com/user/swi66
A few years ago I contacted the current owner, whose family has owned this dealership for decades, and asked if their showroom design is somehow connected to the 1964 World's Fair. He said yes indeed! This is the story he told me. In 1964 his family visited the World's Fair in New York using one of the dealer passes that Ford sent out to dealers nationwide. They were very impressed with the Ford Pavilion, especially the rotunda. In 1967, due to freeway construction, their dealership property was acquired under immenent domain and they were forced to relocate. They found a nice new location (where they remain today). They wanted to duplicate the World's Fair Pavilion in their new showroom design, but didn't have quite the space, so they needed to downsize it. They contacted Dearborn to ask if they could get the World's Fair blueprints to have them downsized, and Dearborn was so enthused with the project, they did the downsizing there in Michigan by just the perfect amount, and sent new blueprints to San Diego. That's why there are less of the classic exterior pillars in their showroom than in the 1964-65 World's Fair Pavilion (the World's Fair rotunda had something like 72), but the pillars are shaped in exactly the same angles. I had been driving by on the freeway in San Diego (I'm from out of town) and spotted it and about ran into the car in front of me my jaw dropped so much--- it was a dead ringer for the Ford Pavilion in New York. I took the next exit and went back to get a phone number for the owner... and later that day had a nice conversation with him, and he told me the story. As for the actual World's Fair, I was 8 when my family visited it in the summer of 1964, and riding the Magic Skyway in one of the convertibles is one of my most vivid memories. Getting a Sinclair Dinosaur hot out of molderama machine (and the smell of it!) also stands out.
By the way, do you like the World's Fair Magic Skyway? Check out this Stella Artois commercial from last year- an uncanny replication of the Ford Pavilion (and opening with a Unisphere too)....somebody at Stella Artois' ad agency must be a big Magic Skyway fan. http://youtu.be/ytYUvJU8pzU "Germany" is actually a replication of the Ford Pavilion's entry rotunda...including the revolving Ford product tree... the girl dispensing the brew is at a replication of the Magic Skyway embarkation area on the upper floor... and the guy with the beard who smiles in appreciation is wearing what looks like a '64-65 World's Fair badge. They must have had a considerable budget for this commercial.
The Jalopy Journal
