New Project. Non-Mopar

[NHCharger]

True Charger guy at heart so I'm not sure what to do with this. The only reason it's in my shop is that the price was right. Dragged it home last night.
1979 Mustang convertible-yeah I know they didn't make any convertibles that year.
41k miles, no rust. last on road in 2000.
The owner told me that Ford supplied three Mustang pace cars for the Indy 500, prepped by Jack Roush. Ford also provided 100 Mustang parade lap cars. All these cars were equipped with a modified 5.0 engine. All were black, converted to convertible, had the rear seat removed so the drivers or celebrities could sit on the trunk lid during the parade laps.
Some time after the race the convertibles were given away in a lottery. Have had no luck verifying story.
Maybe one of you can recommend a good Mustang site were I might be able to find some info on this car. Been searching the web for several hours. Only thing I can find is some grainy video of the 1979 500 with a 5 second clip of the parade laps.

[JB400]

Looks like a cool project.  Definitely not one that someone else down the street would have.

[BrianShaughnessy]

Interesting. 

Looks like some soap and elbow grease could bring that back to almost new. 

[PrisonHack]

Top looks like a Mclaren

[TruckDriver]

Cool find.    Try this place

http://foxbodyforum.com/index.php

[Aero426]

www.foureyedpride.com

This is an early Fox body (four headlamps) forum.

[alfaitalia]

Sorry....but that is one ugly mo fo.....just my opinion obviously. Im British and we never really got the late 70s/ early 80s stateside cars style....why we never imported any I guess.

[TeeWJay426]

Went to the dark side, eh Brian? Hopefully the price was real good, 'cuz that's gonna cut into the Daytona funds, I would imagine....unless the price was good enough for you to do the 'dolphin' thing! Good luck either way....looks solid, just a lot of TLC needed. Would be a fun ride, if nothing else.

[Troy]

I like it! My neighbor when I was a teenager was a Mustang convertible fan (fox bodies) and always had at least two. I remember one of his was an aftermarket conversion but I don't know the year. I've never owned one myself although I did have a Capri RS Turbo (similar to the SVO) and have had several friends with them. They are fun to drive but very dated these days (and the interiors were never any good). Can't beat it for cheap though!

Troy

[Charger_Fan]

I like it too, show us what it looks like cleaned up!

It's odd that they added a wing window to the doors. It's definitely a unique car, I would have snagged it too! I have an '84 convertible Stang, it's great fun to cruise around in the summer with the top down.

[NHCharger]

How I acquired the car.
Last June I Was dropping my tractor and york rake at my bosses farm house which he has rented to his kids the last five years (he needed to spread some loam). He said "hey, check out this car in the barn". So we go in and there is this mustang, covered with a dirty cover, and a mountain of boxes and assorted shit stacked on top of it (to keep the stuff off the concrete floor). I couldn't even see the car. I told him it was a shame that the car has been sitting here  15 years. Boss said he has donated it to a local high school bodyshop and they were picking it up before school starts.
Fast forward to last Wednesday. I'm walking by my bosses office and he yells "get in here". So I go in and ask what's up and he replied " I'm giving you that car". My reply "What car??" If it was a Mopar I would have remembered. He said he has called the body shop teacher a dozen times a gets no reply so he wanted it to go to a good home. My wife was thrilled 

A couple of the guys at foureyedpride.com knew what it was. They claim no convertibles were provided for the Indy 500, but my boss said his friend that did bodywork on the car back in 1990 called the coach company that did the conversion and my boss has a pic of two convertibles, a white and black at the race. Of course there is no paper work trail and my boss can't find the pics.
I didn't get the car for the story. Being a car guy I felt obligated to rescue the car, even thou it's a brand x.

CF- That's not a wing window. Some type of brace, the door glass is all one piece. The other odd thing is that Ford produced 10,500 Mustang pace car editions. Complete with the the pony and graphics on the sides of the car. This car is # 3415 of the pace car edition. Very unusual for someone to buy the special edition model, then cut it up and paint it black. But then again we are talking about a Ford owner 

[6spd68]

That'll be a cool cheap little toy.  At some point in it's life someone threw the 1982 front clip on.  Would look REALLY cool if you could find a GT/Convertible rear bumper to even out the body lines(not sure why Ford left the back end like that in 82, when the front looked so menacing).  Prices on parts have dropped nicely over the years, and you can likely have a decent 347 Stroker for cheap.

Nice score 

[Charger_Fan]

...(not sure why Ford left the back end like that in 82, when the front looked so menacing).

Technically, they did even up the back end a bit on the GT's, with a spoiler. There wasn't a GT option for the notch back cars, so no rear spoilers for a flat trunk lid would exist for another few years, until the factory GT convertibles came along.

[NHCharger]

  At some point in it's life someone threw the 1982 front clip on. 

If you look at pics of 79 Mustangs the front clip on the pace car edition is completely different than the stock Mustang. Instead of a fender tag the Mustangs have a Buck tag attached to the front end. I found the original buck tag on the front clip.
If you compare the 79 pace car edition with the 82 front clip you are right. They look the same.

[6spd68]

Technically, they did even up the back end a bit on the GT's, with a spoiler. There wasn't a GT option for the notch back cars, so no rear spoilers for a flat trunk lid would exist for another few years, until the factory GT convertibles came along.

I was going more on the back bumper.  Think about how much sweeter that car would've looked if it had the same ground effects in the back as they did the front