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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Knobby tires, and that would absolutely go through most trails, especially with that ride height.
Holy ride height, Batman. That is deeply unsettling.
This is hideous, bad take…..
Like CGI humans (think Polar Express), this just falls into the uncanny valley for me. I can tell something is off, even if technically it looks right. It’s a no for me.
If you have been “obsessed with body swaps” lately, please consider bringing up the following idea at the next meeting of the Autopian politburo as an idea for a series, possibly after Torch and Tracy finish putting together that crate Jeep, which came to me at the bottom of a rabbit hole that I was thrown into by an article on this very site:
The wheelbase and track of a second-generation “bustleback” Cadillac Seville is only a half inch different in each direction from that of a Cadillac CTS.
Someone, anyone, please produce the most hilarious body swap I’ve ever thought of, and film your efforts.
I think we need to find the author a really well done body swap car so he has something to compare this to.
Is this the dreaded Mustang SUV we keep hearing about? Man alive, that ride height.
You’re right, I wouldn’t have been able to tell it’s specifically a 2012 GT500, but you can easily tell something is deeply wrong with this one.
I don’t find it convincing whatsoever. The ride height and stance are all kinds of wrong.
Looks nothing like a 68b
Weird choice, taking one of the most predictably retro styled cars and putting all that work into fitting the original body it was styled after over it. Of course it tracks that Dr Frankenstein here took a body that’s been further ruined to look like that terrible remake movie “Eleanor”. As ugly and cheesy as they are, those awful C1/Bel Air-C5s make more sense than this as at least the styles are so far removed.