Our new toy we picked up Sunday........

[Dave Van]

Real barn find 1979 Mustang Indy Pace car. Stored in 1988 6K miles. Will needs lots of work but really solid and complete. Thanks

[1930fordpickup]

Very cool. You may need to get some different rims or are these not the odd size rims? 

[Russell C]

Any entertaining story as to why it was stashed so long ago?

[Dave Van]

6 minutes ago, 1930fordpickup said:

Very cool. You may need to get some different rims or are these not the odd size rims? 

Yep 15.3" tires are out there $$$$$$$$

They make copies in 16"......hope to do that.  thx

[Dave Van]

5 minutes ago, Russell C said:

Any entertaining story as to why it was stashed so long ago?

We were told a odd story of the car by the estate seller.  Only comfortable saying 'family issues'.  We did get paperwork showing 6K miles is correct. Thanks

[Russell C]

24 minutes ago, Dave Van said:

We were told a odd story of the car by the estate seller.  ....

In the last decade or so, I've seen a variety of online barnfind backstories - owner arrested long ago and doing a life term without parole / owner bought before going off to fight and die in a war / super rich dude flat forgot where one of his many cars was stashed / hidden from husband long ago out of sheer spite / critical part busted and owner just never got around to fixing it, etc, etc.

Edited April 16 by Russell C
typo

[Dave Van]

5 hours ago, Russell C said:

In the last decade or so, I've seen a variety of online barnfind backstories - owner arrested long ago and doing a life term without parole / owner bought before going off to fight and die in a war / super rich dude flat forgot where one of his many cars was stashed / hidden from husband long ago out of sheer spite / critical part busted and owner just never got around to fixing it, etc, etc.

YEP! This one was very weird and as it is 2nd hand I don't want to post........shows there are still cars in barns out there!!!! Thanks

[Zen]

Heck of a find! Does it have the turbo 2.3?

Are you going to restore it to original or have fun with it?

[Dave Van]

I want to do a driver resto. Not perfect but a good driver. Thx

[slusher]

Great find Dave, congratulations!

[stavanzer]

Awesome Find.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

Have Loads of Fnu!

[peteski]

Nice score Dave!  I do hope you keep it original as much as you can.  I'm not big into resto-mod stuff.  Only 6,000 miles? That is like new (well, except for things aged more than quarter of a century). Hopefully not too much rust.  Will you have to repaint it?  If yes, hopefuly there are reproduction graphics available.

I remember back in the '80s I build a model of this car (I think it was MPC), but I painted mine white instead of silver.

[webestang]

Super sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love me some 4-eye. 😎

 

So sad I had to sell my 85 coupe. At least I still have my 88 5.0 vert. 

[89AKurt]

I had a friend who worked at the Ford dealership, he did end-of-day lock up of the cars outside.  They had one of these in the showroom, first time I sat in Recaro style seats.  If I recall, the tires are metric or something weird?

[Dave Van]

1 hour ago, 89AKurt said:

I had a friend who worked at the Ford dealership, he did end-of-day lock up of the cars outside.  They had one of these in the showroom, first time I sat in Recaro style seats.  If I recall, the tires are metric or something weird?

TRX wheels are 15.3 in dia. Tires are still made but $500 ea. I ordered a set of TRX wheels that are 16" but look the same. MUCH easier to get tires.  Thanks all! 

[1972coronet]

Sweet find ! Love the vintage licence plates, too (can you keep those as legal, on-highway plates ?).

The 16" rims are slick for these. Less expensive than buying those Michelin 390mm TRX tyres ! 

[Dave Van]

5 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

Sweet find ! Love the vintage licence plates, too (can you keep those as legal, on-highway plates ?).

The 16" rims are slick for these. Less expensive than buying those Michelin 390mm TRX tyres ! 

If I find a 1979 WV tag I can use it......current Classic tag in trunk. Thx

[Dave Van]

Waiting on parts so I just was looking around car making mental lists of to do. Door panels will clean up and look great!! So far things are really good....but who knows what we may find....Thanks

 

[Dave Van]

What I thought were common parts are impossible to find. Calipers for the 2.3 turbo model have not been made in many years and a rare!!!! Strange. 

[peteski]

I'm surprised that with all the part interchangeability car industry uses  that they have specific non-interchangable parts made for such a low-run production vehicle.  Any chance having those original ones rebuilt or maybe adapting more generic parts?

Edited Monday at 02:33 AM by peteski

[Luc Janssens]

On 4/16/2025 at 5:36 AM, Dave Van said:

Real barn find 1979 Mustang Indy Pace car. Stored in 1988 6K miles. Will needs lots of work but really solid and complete. Thanks

Love it! Remember building with my dad a Monogram kit of it. Sadly it didn't survive, but thanks to Ebay thru the years I again got one and the Cobra version.

Edited Sunday at 03:53 PM by Luc Janssens

[Dave Van]

Thankfully I have 2 of the Monogram Pace Car kits and a MPC.....I like the car back in the day!!! Thanks

[Luc Janssens]

33 minutes ago, Dave Van said:

Thankfully I have 2 of the Monogram Pace Car kits and a MPC.....I like the car back in the day!!! Thanks

When getting to the stash, I noticed I have two too. When looking inside the box of one of them saw extra parts to update it with the 5.0 and taillites from the early 90s Cobra kit and some Aoshima wheels.

[Dave Van]

9 hours ago, peteski said:

I'm surprised that with all the part interchangeability car industry uses  that they has specific in-interchangable parts made for such a low-run production vehicle.  Any chance having those original ones rebuilt or maybe adapting more generic parts?

With so many different cars on the Fox platform I never thought parts would be an issue. Mustang, Capri, Fairmont, Granada, LTD II, Marque etc.....BUT the 79 Mustang Pace Car WITH 2.3 Turbo has it's own calipers!!  Rebuild kits are easy so we will try that. Thx

[1972coronet]

The lack of brake calipres -complete, rebuilt - is definitely a headscratcher. I wonder if its the piston bore size ? Are the same calipres for the 1983-1986 ; 1987-1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe ? Same 2,3 litre turbo engine, on the same platform...

EDIT

Answered my own question (see link). 

1987-1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe : 1987 FORD THUNDERBIRD 2.3L 140cid L4 Turbocharged Caliper | RockAuto

1979 Mustang with 2,3 Turbo : 1979 FORD MUSTANG 2.3L 140cid L4 Turbocharged Caliper | RockAuto 

I'm sure that you've done your homework - I'm just sharing this info for everyone to chew on.

EDIT # 2 

And then there's these, complete with 1979 part number prefix ( "D9" = 1979 ) 1979-1993 Mustang Brake Calipers - National Parts Depot

Edited Monday at 06:04 AM by 1972coronet