Car Of The Month - Sept 09

David Rule's 1967 Fastback, "Brumbie"

Well, this is the story of my “Brumbie”. What is a Brumbie you ask? Well, according to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, a brumbie is a wild horse of Australia. Spelled, “brumbie”, “brumby”, and “brumbee”, "It is similar to the American Mustang."

It’s Australian for Mustang!!

Gallery: BRUMBIE

It all started in 2001 when I saw “Gone in 60 Seconds” for the first time. Seeing “Eleanor” for the first time was like seeing a spectacular girl walk into a bar. I was smitten – my jaw dropped, I lost my breath, my heart started beating faster – I was speechless. “What the hell is that?” I asked my friends. I had never seen a 67 Mustang before or anything close to Eleanor. Mustangs are very rare in Australia, and the most common ones are the 69’s and 70’s.

Fast forward to 2004. I am now working in the USA and a friend of mine from work mentioned that he had a 67 fastback – his father who was restoring it had just passed away and he was thinking of finishing the project for his mother and didn’t want to sell it. Disappointed, I went home to Australia for a visit and talked to my brother about the car – and he was adamant that I go back to him to see if he still had it, and convince him to sell it to me. Sure enough – he had decided to part it out and sell the parts, but I sensed I could talk him to selling me the whole thing. There was over $17,000 worth of new parts, including a worked K-code (originally the car was an A code). I looked at the car – a Brittany blue car in good condition and partially restored, but with one exception – the car was completely in pieces. But he was asking $8000 when empty shells were going for $10k in the height of the Eleanor craze – it was a deal! So in October 2004, I handed over the $8000 and it was mine.

Now what? I had a car sitting under a temporary tarp garage and no idea what I was going to do with it. Do I fix it myself? Do I send it off to a shop? The car was at my friend’s uncle’s (“Ed”) place – his father, brother, and a long Mustang restorer and fan. He understood I didn’t really have a garage to fix my car and offered to keep the car where it was and we would work on the car together. What a dream – to have a mentor to help me fix the car. Well away we went – every Saturday down to Ed’s. First order of business was to get the engine ready – get all the pulleys painted and ready to bolt on. That was when the first of many problems started to rear their head. In order to drive the A/C compressor, we needed a 3 channel pulley that bolted onto the crank and fit inside the huge K-code balancer. I searched high and low – and I could not find the part!! No one was able to find a K-code fitting pulley that would drive the A/C. Do they exist? I still don’t know.

At this point we had a mechanic helping me at Ed’s to get everything together. Then we ran into issues with new motor mounts. 67’s have unique mounts and they are hard to find. I went through 3 sets trying to find ones that would fit. Other issues started to arise, and it was heading towards winter – it was cold and wet and my car was under a tarp and temporary garage. Something I didn’t want. My wife was also complaining that she never saw me anymore and didn’t want me working on the car and ignoring the family. I was stuck. I was making good, but not great, money at Boeing at the time, so I decided to hand her over to a shop to work on. The car had gotten way out of my comfort zone, and at the time, this seemed the only way for me to finish the car. So of it went to my mechanics shop – in a run-down little place beside Tacoma harbor. He wasn’t a Ford mechanic, but definitely old school and Ed trusted him, so why not? I was getting a cheap rate but that also made me last on his list.

I was subscribing to Mustang Monthly and Mustangs & Fords, and started getting Mustang modification envy. Originally, I just wanted to reassemble the car and get it running. But then I needed a serpentine belt accessory system to get the factory air system running on the K-Code. Then I needed to replace the damaged hood, so I got the Shelby fiberglass one. Next I ordered wheels, and got the Eleanor ones. I was out of control. It had to be the best! Then I ordered the Eleanor scoops and I knew – I was no longer re-assembling the car – I was building a custom restomod before I even knew it. I had made the classic mistake of not defining what I wanted at the start and sticking with it. The car was evolving into something that I envisioned, but not originally planned, and I started spending WAY outside my original budget. I had no idea what I was getting myself into!

I remembered my initial lust for an Eleanor Mustang but my tastes had changed—grown up even. Partially because Eleanor body kits were SOO expensive, and partly because I wanted something not as outlandish and plastic looking as Eleanor. In my mind I wanted to combine all the best things of all the Mustangs. I wanted the Eleanor look in the wheels and scoops but the Shelby looking GT-350 hood and the GT-350R front valance that also kept the front bumper. Of course, the Shelby rear end with the cougar lights and tail had to be on there too. I decided that the Eleanor was just an infatuation. My tastes had grown up and were now a little more sophisticated. I was just hoping that once it was all done, it would look great.

Modifications kept happening – all the fittings had to be stainless steel with anodized fittings and the costs started going up. Meanwhile, work was going VERY slowly – frustratingly slow. We couldn’t get the March accessory system working on the K-code. It wouldn’t work—the alternator bracket just would not fit. And then when we jury rigged it, the water pump pulley was hitting the electric fan. No!!! Nothing was working. We tried starting it – and it would not fire no matter what we did. What the hell? We look in the oil filter and there is metal in there – hmmmm, not a good sign. So much for a $5000 blueprint job on the motor. I was later to discover that the shop that had worked on it had completely ripped the previous owners off. Two rings were broken on the motor, it still had shavings in the block, the cam they replaced was used, and the Rhoads lifters were not really the real deal. Well—we decided to fix the issues after paint.

At this point, I started looking around for painters. I had decided to change the colour from Brittany Blue to Indigo Blue, with white super snake stripes. I even put “GT-350E” on the side – to represent the two Mustangs – the GT-350, and Eleanor Mustangs that had been its inspiration. My mechanic friend had someone to do the whole paint job for 14k. And then I went to The Mustang Shop and got a quote for $10k. Sweet, save some money! So off it went to TMS’s recommended body shop. By this stage, I was out of money and credit cards maxed, so I took out a loan to cover the paint job and the rest of the restoration.

So after forking out most of the paint budget, I went down to the body shop to see how it was going. They were not even close – the car wasn’t even in primer yet. With TMS there, we discovered the whole budget was not even agreed to between the shops!! Wow, I was floored. The car immediately left that body shop, and I went looking for someone to finish the job who could stick to a budget. Off to another shop – again we ran over budget. Everyone has really wanted the car to look its best – but at my expense! She looked great though – but I was depressed. I was now broke and had no idea how I was going to finish her off.

Paint was finally done and about to head back to my mechanic friend when TMS came to me with an offer. Knowing how badly the paint job had gone, and my budget for completing the job had vanished, they offered to do the all mechanical work for free. Wow, I might get this done after all. They really came to my rescue. As always, free work is slow work, but we moved along slowly.
The car became a custom beauty with almost everything changed on the car.

My fortunes started to look up and I managed to get a job that paid extremely well, and the project finally took off as I could finally afford to build the car of my dreams. Electric everything - windows, locks, alarm, trunk release. Custom Heidt’s suspension, nitrous, custom interior to match the paintwork and car. It is now challenging to find something on the car that is stock or original!

By the time you read this, the “Brumbie” should be completed. I will have taken the car to the dyno, which we are hoping to dial to 450 rear wheel HP. I also fixed the little defects in my paint and finally have her on the road.

It has been a long, hard, and expensive road, but my dream car is finally here. Like a true Brumbie, this car has been hard to break in and complete – with years and years of time, hard work and yes even tears, but the final result, like when I first saw Eleanor, is breathtaking and beautiful and everything I hoped she would be!