Over the past few years, I’ve become obsessed with body swaps. The concept of placing one car’s exterior on the structure of another goes a level beyond an engine swap, and can result in a huge range of finished products. Some are incredibly gawky, like this Porsche 911 with the body of a 1966 Mustang. Some are gloriously weird, like this Morris Minor that’s secretly a Prius. However, sometimes the result is so impressive that I have to tip my cap, and one of those sorts of builds just hammered on Bring A Trailer for a sum that definitely doesn’t seem crazy.
In concept, the platform of the retro-inspired S197 Mustang and the look of a 1968 Mustang should go together perfectly. However, because the more modern car’s platform shares some exceptionally loose strands of DNA with the Jaguar S-Type, it doesn’t exactly sport ’60s proportions. We’re talking about a machine three inches wider and five inches taller than a 1968 Mustang, but similar in one crucial element. The wheelbase of a 2012 Mustang is only nine-tenths of an inch shorter than the wheelbase of a 1968 Mustang, meaning that with a little massaging, the pieces can be made to fit.
Indeed, one builder decided they wanted a 2012 GT500 that looked more like a 1968 Mustang, so some serious sheet metal alchemy went into melding the body of the old with the underlying structure of the new. The fender lips have been widened, the valence and sills deepened, the substructure altered, and the core support seemingly built from scratch. The result? One of the most convincing body-swaps I’ve seen yet.
What amazes me the most is the level of professionalism with which this Mustang chimera has been finished. Normally, you notice body swaps in the door jambs and engine bay and areas like that, but proper attention’s been paid here to getting those things right. There aren’t huge gaps between the fenders and the underlying structure; those have been filled with metal and painted. It’s a similar deal with the door jambs, where the sills and door frames blend into each other like they were simply meant to. Even the trunk looks completely right, save for two speakers plugged in and left loose.
The result is a heavily altered car that, from the outside, just looks like a modified Mustang built in the 2000s. The only immediate signs from outside that something greater than a body kit and a hood is going on here are the ride height and wheel and tire fitment, the latter of which is far larger and far further out in the arches than you’d see on an original 1968 Mustang. While fitment of smaller rollers would be challenging due to the size of the GT500 donor car’s brakes, I suspect a slightly narrower tire setup would work wonders visually.
On the inside, the door cards of the ’68 have been maintained, but the dashboard, seats, and electronics are straight out of the 2012 car, meaning whoever owns this gets to enjoy modern amenities like satellite navigation, automatic climate control, and a trip computer. It’s not a perfect interior, in that the seats do have a few wrinkles, and the edges of the dashboard have been filed down to work with the classic door cards. But it’s not bad for an at-home effort.
Granted, forcing pieces together that were never meant to fit results in a few downsides. The dashboard displays a variety of error codes, some likely because certain components like the 2012’s door switches and fuel door mechanism aren’t in place anymore. The selling dealer “notes squeaks and rattles when driving.” Still, here’s a 550-horsepower supercharged six-speed manual Mustang that looks old, but ought to drive far more like a 2012 than a 1968.
Now, is the winning bid of $48,500 a fair price for a project based on the chassis of a salvage title car, and seemingly completed about 99 percent of the way? Possibly. Looking at comparable examples, it’s a price right in the ballpark of what a nice, mostly-stock 1968 Mustang Fastback with an older restoration goes for these days, except it comes with a whole lot of go-fast hardware under the skin. It’s a shame that the seller notes that “the builder is no longer with us” because it’s just such an interesting creation. For now, hats off to the mystery fabricator behind this body-swapped Mustang. It takes a lot of effort to pull a project like this together with this level of attention to visual detail.
Top graphic image: Bring A Trailer
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Good lookin’ Mustang Swapback.
It almost looks ready to go offroad. Serious ride height.
The main body swap I would want to do would be something like a Yugo body onto a Polaris RZR. Seems like it would be a ton of fun and could be driven on or off road.
Someone did that to a last gen Honda Fit.
Where I live (Indiana) you’d have no problems making such a creation street legal. Just as long as the donor body has a VIN number attached somewhere and a title to go with it. No inspections beyond a BMV employee glancing at your car in the parking lot to confirm it exists.
This is what makes air-cooled VWs such a good platform to build from. There’s a VIN number in the usual place on the dash. It’s also stamped on the central tunnel of the skateboard type pan. Have a pan with no title? Drop on a body that does. Or vice versa. Imagine that’s helpful for kit cars as well! This is how they get around the 25 year rule importing Beetles from Mexico, just drop everything onto an older pan and use the VIN from that to register in the US.
It will fit right in with the Thunderbird shoeboxes, the ‘Studebaker’ S-10 pickups, the C(5-4) Vettes, and Ferrarieros at the local car show.
Think AMC Eagle. It looks like an early attempt at a four wheel drive Mustang. Also, I don’t want to insult anyone’s taste, but please stop with the Eleanor look.
Except for the ~4 inches of extra body height, ~4 inches of extra track, and huge wheels and tires, yes, it looks exactly the same!
Body swaps are cool, but modern cars have a lot of extra track and a lot of extra body height below the belt line, which makes fitting 50+ year old bodies to many of them rather hard.
Steal thy swap? Thou shalt not!
“You Almost Wouldn’t Know That This 1968 Mustang Is Really A 2012 GT500”
I had to check to make sure that the author wasn’t Stevie Wonder.
COTD
COTD!!
I don’t know what to think about everyone on here bitching about this car.
Actually, I do know what I think, but for once I will refrain from elaborating.
If you want an authentic car, go look for one. If I had the need and the wherewithal, I’d buy this in a second, because it’s cool.
I love the concept of a body swap. But every time I see one it reminds me of the aliens in men in black pretending to be the farmer. Very uncanny valley. Especially when it comes to ride height and wheel offset, like this one.
(Gurgling noises) ITS A LONG TRIP… ILL NEED A SNACK.
I’m very body swap-curious, but getting the right donor and swap combo is critical. Getting cars with similar wheelbases is a start, but the track and even the dash to axle ratio needs to be close (I recently saw a late model ford focus swapped onto a C5 vette, that actually worked better than you’d think, but the dash to axle of the vette had the dash jutting way too far into the passenger compartment, and the driver practically sitting in the back seat of the focus)
Older trucks on modern car platforms seem to turn out well because the trucks have the width in the body to make up for the wider tracks on modern cars, and the design of most truck beds makes shortening the bed to get the rear wheel wells lined up somewhat trivial. I’m also pretty partial to old VW bodies on 986 Boxster chassis, because the fenders of a bug can be widened pretty easily.
I know that a body swap project is sometime in my car building future, but I’m very acutely aware of the weird uncanny valley quality you mentioned.
The Edgar suit!
This is totally the best of both worlds. Good looking exterior, modern drivetrain.
I love body swap builds. They are super fun to do and the results can provide all sorts of upgrades in one lump sum. I’ve built one myself, and I’m planning others. So many of them (including mine currently) suffer the same biggest issue as this one, which is the modern dash in the classic car. It creates a visually clash that I do not like. I have a vintage dash that will go in to mine, but its not there yet.
This one not only needs a different wheel tire combo, it needs to be lowered at least an inch. It currently feels monster trucky.
That’s a pretty incredible build, but yeah I’d source some skinnier wheels pronto.
IDK, this is like uncanny valley to me. Those wheels, especially in the front, look way off
The wheels are also what really jumped out at me. Shows the old body is much narrower than the modern one. Otherwise, nice looking project.
The headline isn’t asking a question, but Betteridge’s Law still applies.
No.
Needs more widebody kit. Then the stance wouldn’t be so off.
IMSA or Trans-Am-series clone would do it.
It would be so much easier to just do an engine/interior swap and have your pick of suspension and brakes from the enormous aftermarket for these cars. I truly don’t know why you wouldn’t go that route given how easy these are to modify.
I think the idea is to preserve all of the creature comforts and tech from the donor car, which is a lot easier to do with a body swap vs. a powertrain and interior swap. You keep the climate control, electronics, traction control, ABS, etc. etc. with minimal disruption if you maintain all of the stock sensors. Plus you keep the modern driving dynamics. Plus, you can buy all of the classic mustang body panels as new stampings, so you don’t need to suffer though finding a good classic car to resto-mod.
I do think that finding a donor chassis that’s as close as possible to the original wheelbase and track is crucial, though. Or committing to the box-flare life to fit the modern track.
well said. also much less rust.
I think Chris at B is for Build did it better. Or at least got the stance closer, and got all of the factory sensors and things to work right. He also did a really good job of articulating all of the issues that doing the body swap brings with it. The wheel fitment was definitely one of the hardest parts, since you can’t get a deep-dish wheel on the back without really bumping out the fenders because of the donor car’s IRS and track width.
“Almost” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that title. I’ve seen enough of these over the years, mostly using second generation Ford Ranger and Chevrolet S-10 chassis, to know exactly when somebody’s drywall screwed two incongruent cars together. Granted most of the time it’s with a Chevrolet Blazer, Camaro, or C/K, but strangely old Mustangs Chrysler B-bodies, first and second generation Toyota Celicas, and S30 Datsun/Nissan Fairlady Zs are all popular for that treatment.
High offset wheels are often the giveaway of a hat car.
Yup – it’s not the thickness of the wheels that’s the problem so much that they aren’t dished.
Ya the offset here looks terrible… especially the fronts.
“Hat Car” made me lol- I’ll be using that term from now on for these
This build just reinforces the importance of stance and wheel fitment and how getting these things wrong can ruin the overall effect.
Barf. The stance just ruins it.
The wheels and tires really break the illusion. It’s a cool project, but the wheels are just so, so bad.
The break angles should make it a hit at Moab.
Too bad it isn’t a convertible, as this would make an excellent choice for a Thomas Crown Affair Mustang clone.
I’ve never quite understood this type of build. It never really works out quite right, this is one of the best I’ve seen but the proportions, especially the wheelbase/track width etc, never quite work out right and you always get some strangeness to the looks. And the looks are the point from what I understand. The only times I’ve seen it work are on trucks and rat rod type stuff, not unibody cars.
Yeah, there is always some level of uncanny valley. I saw that top shot and it just felt a bit wrong. The front end, the wheels, the wheel wells, the side vents…they all are just a little off. Nothing jumps out and just is the wrong thing, they’re just all a little off and leave you feeling like it’s just not quite right. Great work by the builder and I’m sure the new owner will love it, but it’s too close to feel like it’s just retro styling and too far off to feel right for me.