Mustang Pegasus
Designed by Mark S. Gustavson

First generation Mustangs have not only been the subject matter for high performance modifications, but they were also the subject matter for a select group of Sixties' customizers who saw greatness in the design if only some of the factory styling hiccups were restyled. Note here that I don't mean merely customized Mustangs which, too often, mean mindless changes without a sense of design and gracefulness.

Before we get into this supplementary article on my Mustang Pegasus, I want to express my thanks to Scale Auto editor Jim Haught for the opportunity of presenting a summary how-to article in Contest Cars 2006. Jim did a great job with the article presentation, and was more than willing to give a link to my site in the article. Thanks, Jim! This article and images that follow are intended to supplement, and not supplant, the excellent article in Contest Cars 2006.

Rather, a restyled Mustang is the goal. The best purveyors of revised vintage Mustangs were the famed Alexander Brothers. Probably the best known of their restyled Mustang, the famed Tasca Mustang (yeah, that same Bob Tasca who built the drag cars as well as commissioning another custom Ford from the A-Bros. – the Tasca Thunderbird) which Mustang featured:

• rectangular Cibie headlights set into extended front fenders next to a reshaped the hood;
• a reveal in the trunk that closed onto a wall-to-wall taillight matched to a horizontal rear bumper;
• handformed steel scoops on the rear quarter panels that really did route air to the rear brakes;
• 1965 T-Bird taillights with the sequential taillight feature; and
• a cleaned up body.

And this car was no slouch in the performance department – what amounted to a "R"-code 289 was fitted with an even stronger cam and dual 4-barrel carbs on a factory Total Performance intake manifold. This car handled well with several suspension changes, and was fitted with a beautiful new interior. American Rodding named it their Perfect Performance Car for 1965. The Tasca Mustang was a restrained restyling statement and was in stark contrast to the largely insane custom car trends of that era. The car still exists after going through a couple of owners.

The work of the A-Bros. greatly influenced me when I created my own design of a restyled Mustang. Picking up some cues from those Detroit stylists, and being influenced by the Vivace Mustang that was Dearborn Steel Tubing designed and later sold to Lincoln-Mercury chief Ben Mills, I also wanted to infuse my own thinking into the process. Here's a brief list of the many changes I made to the venerable Revell1965 Mustang Fastback kit :

Bodywork:

1. Reshaped roof – curvature and radius of the roof was enhanced;
2. Character line removed from the sides of the roof;
3. Rear quarter windows filled in;
4. Rear fenders extended 3 scale inches, and further extended/angled at the bottom to meet bumper that was moved rearward;
5. Reshaped rear bumper. Bumper widened and reshaped with license plate reveal removed;
6. Factory trunk removed, and deck lid dropped down to meet new taillight;
7. Top of rear fenders raised to accentuate shape, with "peak" then rolled downward to meet the peaked bumper;
8. Reveal in trunk. This recess echoes work done by the great Alexander Brothers, and picks up the scoop on the hood;
9. Custom Taillight. Machined clear red Lucite with incut aluminum grille bars;
10. Reshaped rear rolled pan. Rolled pan extended rearward, with reveals cut out for twin exhaust;
11. Reshaped top of the rear fender by B pillar. The factory angle was moved forward;
12. Narrowed moldings on windshield and backlight. Factory moldings narrowed for a more delicate appearance;
13. Lower character line stops at leading edge of door. The lower front fender smoothed, with line ending on forward edge of the door;
14. Reshaped cowl. Cowl raised to pick up hood scoop, with photoetched vents added, and cowl reshaped to pick up hood reveal;
15. Scoop on hood. Ferrari 250 LM-style hood scoop built, and extended into cowl. Leading edge of scoop angled to reflect the leading angle of the hood;
16. Extended hood in the front to create a gentle "V" shape to match extended headlight eyebrows;
17. Lowered and extended front fenders. Top of fenders are lowered, and dropped lower than the lowered and peaked edge of the fender tips;
18. Extended front grille shell. The lower and vertical shape extended to match the hood;
19. The front rolled pan, beneath the bumper, is opened up to generally mimic the 1967 Shelby pan;
20. Front fenders rolled at extreme front;
21. Headlights are tunneled with machined bezels; Tunneled headlights;
22. Rocker panels extended downward and "thinned" for realism;
23. Door outline is reshaped to mimic shape of A and B pillars on the roof;
24. Front bumper is reshaped;
25. Reshaped door openings.

Paint:

1. Custom mixed DuPont Acrylic Lacquer by builder:
2. Based upon 1964 Lincoln Continental Academy Grey, but then "spiked" with blue and aqua DuPont synthetic "pearls."
3. Three coats of color top-coated with three coats of DuPont acrylic lacquer clear lacquer.
4. Finished rubbed out with Finesse-It and Meguiar's #3 (no wax).

Styling Critique:

There have been several critiques (some with photos!) submitted by readers. See them here...

Check out these photos that supplement the article in Contest Cars 2006:

Because of the design of the hood, the cowl had to be modified too: the factory vents just wouldn't work! So, a special photoetch piece was made up (thanks for the artwork, Bob Wick!) that feature a different design for the cowl vents. To give depth to the vents (aren't you tired of the shallow kit engravings?), the kit plastic under the photoetched vents was excavated and painted flat black (the vents would be protected by tape until the final painting scheme). Later, small lengths of brass tubing were added to simulate the emergence of the windshield wiper nubs.

With the hood scoop roughed in and the photoetched hood vents in place, I added a shape on the cowl (between the vents, and matching the hood scoop). Check out the difference between the Pegasus and the Shelby hood (L).

Though not directly related to the restyling, I removed the molded-in kit battery and filled in the resulting hole. Careful work eliminated the work for all but a tiny bit of catalyzed polyester putty.

I wanted to tunnel the headlights into the front fenders a bit. First, the panel that meets the grille surround was extended forwarded. Note here that the modified front valence panel has been modified (with a '67 Shelby-esque opening shape added).

Using a resin headlight kit from Custom Styling Studio, I grabbed a Dremel tool with a round cutter and CAREFULLY routed-out the reveal for the headlight. You have to be careful here since the wall thickness of this headlight insert requires you to grind out in the inside of the side of the front fender to very slight thickness. Then, carefully place the headlight "bucket" into the fender being careful to get it straight into the fender – no sense in having it at an angle to the length of the body. Secure the insert in place with a bit of 2-part epoxy applied from the back so that you have the time to adjust the angle of the insert. Repeat this step for the other side.

Because of the constraints of manufacturing a model of a unibody car, the multi-piece body/unibody don't always fill in the gaps. Ideally, the builder would opening the doors and trunk up and then mate the body to the unibody platform for the sake of realism. However, we don't have the time to do this with this model so let's place a piece of sheet styrene on top of the rear of the wheelhouse at the front of the model. Trim a piece of file card to roughly match the hole and trace the same onto sheet styrene matching the thickness of the kit plastic.

The blackened part here is the shape of the plastic added to the unibody platform. Repeated test fittings (after the roughly-shaped part was first installed with instant adhesive) resulted in a very closely-fitting part. Do all that you can to fill in gaps for the sake of realism!

Another effort to induce greater realism required us to match the interior "tub" to the unibody platform. Be sure that you place the tub to the platform by double checking it with the body, and then use instant adhesive. Gaps will have to be filled using a quality catalyzed polyester putty.

As detailed in the Contest Cars 2006 article, the trunk was dropped down dramatically after which the "hip" at the base of the rear window was eliminated it with a bit of putty. Though it looks like a lot of putty was used, actually not much remained after carefully sanding that ensured that the transition from the roof resolved in a constant radius to the lowered rear panel (the trunk was eliminated).

I designed a custom taillight design which required a machined clear-red plexy lens fitting into a "receiver" that would not only refract light through the serrated lens, but also define the perimeter of the lens so that I was assured that the lens would fit tightly after painting. Cody Grayland machined the parts from drawings that I submitted to him.

The taillight design required two things: the back of the lens had to be machined to include a cross hatch design so that light going through the lens would look realistic, and include two very small polished taillights "bars" that would break up the otherwise large lens (it turns out that my design for the lens was too large). The grille bars are a press fit. Again, Cody did the machining to my specifications.

Another thing to do for the sake of realism is to thin about the body panels at the bottom of the rocker panels. You should use a coarse sanding stick and sand the length of the rocker panel from the OUTSIDE of the panel – if you sand from the inside, then there'll be a gap between the body and the unibody platform. Make sure that a uniform thickness is present along the entire length of the rocker panel.

The roof was very substantially modified, even though the changes are not readily apparent. The first things I did was to fill in the incut character line (thereby eliminating the complex shape) and also filled in the rear quarter window. All filling was done with our favorite catalyzed polyester putty.

The top of the roof was also modified by applying a shape dollup of putty atop a rough sanded roof. The goal was to increase the front to back, and side to side, rounded shape. Because with such changes – too much curvature will just look out of place.

Check out how the putty looks after careful sanding. You should sand the putty with a coarse sanding stick applied at a sharp angle to the length of the body so that you can avoid flat areas. You should taper the putty to the plastic around the perimeter of the roof panel.

I really dislike the first-gen Mustang door shape. So, why not change the shape? The front door line was extended forward and the back line picked up on the angle of the leading edge of the B pillar. Using a Dremel tool with a round cutter, "rout out" the original door line and taper the reveal so that a gentle putty fillet can be added – DON'T just fill in the line which would just appear after painting. Block sand the putty with a coarse sanding stick to make sure that the surfaces are smooth.

With the basic body work done, apply a couple of quick coats of grey lacquer primer and block sand that putty (once really dry) with a medium sanding stick. You'll discover high spots (where you've sanded to the bare plastic) and low spots (where the primer remains). Apply another coat of primer at this point, and overcoat it with a very light mist of flat black lacquer and sand it – you'll be surprised at the additional bodywork flaws that you'll discover.

Rather than just place the twin exhaust ports under the rear valence, I decided to install flared openings in the valence into which angle cut exhaust tips (made from polished aluminum tubing) would be placed. To maintain a sharp shape consistent from side-to-side, a piece of aluminum tube was first gently "squished" a bit (go easy: aluminum tubing is soft and crushes easily!).

Some of the changes to the body of the Pegasus can be seen here. When you prime your custom bodywork, confine that priming just to the area(s) being reworked: no sense at all in spraying the entire body when doing bodywork on specific areas.

I like the kit five-spoke wheels, but the all-chrome look is unattractive and unrealistic. Use a quality, heavy-bodied water soluble masking agent and brush it onto the chrome rims leaving the spokes available for painting. Secure the wheels to a piece of wide masking tape attached to a putty knife.

You'll need to apply several coats, and watch out for "bloopers" where your brush inadvertently coats areas the should be painted. Also, airbrush your wheels to a thin, even coat. For these wheels, I mixed up a special magnesium color using Metallizer paints (you can cross-mix those colors), followed by two quick coats of sealer. When the paint is really dry, carefully pick at the masking agent and remove it – be careful, though, to grab a thick place of the masking so that you don't nick the chrome (use a sharp pair of tweezers to remove the masking).

I also sent the steering wheel and column to be plated (I had drilled out the holes in the spokes). I masked the spokes, painted the column medium-gloss black, and flowed two coats of a thinned special-mix of colors to simulate a wood steering wheel. Because the brown color was thinned, it "pulled away" from the simulated rivets on the kit part (airbrushing this color would have covered up those "rivets"). The dash board was detailed paint using The Detailer, silver paint, and candy red.

Turning my attention to the interior, I modified a Mustang console and sent it to Dale Horner for plating. I wanted to have chrome ribs and the adjacent textured surface. Dale did a great job with the plating. I masked the inset sections of the console with our masking material, and then airbrush the top, both sides, and rear aspect in the darker of the two colors used on the inside. Before painting, I scuffed up the plated areas with 1000 grit autobody paper for the sake of adhesion. Once the paint had dried, I removed the masking, and flowed The Detailer (black) into the textured areas which produced a really neat appearance. The kit four speed boot was modified to fit, and the shifter was cleaned up, detail painted and installed.

The door panels and seats were coated in two colors (the inserts on both the lighter of the two colors) as was the dashboard (the top of the dash wasn't primed because I want just a bit of 'crazing' to give it texture. Carpeting was added, 'natch, along with door lock plungers. You can see the so-called "Y" headers suspended in the engine compartment: to get rid of the tell-tale header -to-exhaust joint, I used Krystl-Kleer to "glue" the primed 289 engine block into the frame which permitted me to locate the engine so that the headers could be correctly placed. After the headers were firmly attached to the exhaust pipes, I removed the engine and the entire exhaust system for finishing work and painting . Thereafter, the "Metallized" exhaust system was installed; when the engine was painted and wired, it dropped right into place with the headers fitting tightly to the engine.

I've covered lacquer painting before; go here (soon) for a photo essay on how to paint using acrylic lacquer products. After the last coat of DuPont clear lacquer was applied, I set the model aside for two weeks to let it dry thoroughly – being patient at this time not only permits the paint to stop shrinking in the drying process, but virtually eliminates the problem of scaring the paint when you color sand it. Here, I sanded the entire body of the Pegasus with 1200 genuine 3-M autobody paper using a bowl of tepid water with a drop of liquid dishwasher liquid . Sanding the broad panels is easy - it's the reveals and small areas that are problematic. Also, sand the moldings, too, and don't worry if you happen to cut through the paint to the primer or plastic (as I did here). Remember, Bare Metal foil can't be smoother than the surface over which it is applied. If you properly sand the clear, it will have uniform dull finish – if you have any shiny areas, you haven't sanded that area!

I use Finesse It to rub out lacquer surfaces. Grab a soft cotton rag (an old cotton diaper is ideal), and drop a dollup of Finesse It onto the surface. Note that the paint on the window moldings (narrowed from the width of the kit size for a more realistic appearance) ended up being sanded away when the body was sanded with 1200 grit paper. I should have block sanded those moldings better before painting.

Use that soft cotton rag and lightly rub the painted surface in a gentle circular pattern. Let the compound do the work (no heavy pressing!), and always support delicate parts of your model (including reworked sections) with your fingers to prevent breakage – A pillars are particularly vulnerable to breakage. Check the progress of your work frequently by wiping the surface with another clean cotton cloth; re-apply the compound until the surface is shiny without any sanding marks remaining. Don't use any compound heavier than Finesse It!

Once assembled, the custom work can be more easily seen. As detailed in the Contest Cars 2006 article, the hood was lengthened and shaped into a gentle "V" shape integrated into extended "eyebrows" over the headlights. The horse attached to the photoetched grille was carved from a kit piece.

You know, the taillights are too tall! I specified them with too much height. I like the horizontal grille bars and the thinned bumper is cool. Check out the subtle exhaust ports.

I like this satellite-view of the car. If I were to do this again, I'd removed the broad curve at the back of the rear window in favor of a shape that would match the leading edge of the rear window. This is a major styling mistake.

I really like the rear quarter panels, but I'm much less pleased with the front bumper. The front bumper, ala 1969 Cougar and 1969 Shelby Mustang, should wrap under the front grille (as Jim Devine and Doug Whyte have presciently suggested) and up around the sides of the front fenders. Otherwise, the rear bumper might have also been horizontal in design – as the A-Brothers did with the Tasca Mustang.