1969 Mach 1

Hi everyone. I am Rick Clawson I am a proud owner of this 1969 Mustang Mach 1 you see here. I am also the one heading up the effort to spread God's word in St. Louis, Missouri through the God's Rods Ministry. My father and I built this car together on the carport at his house. He told me that all I talked about as a kid was my love of cars and that some day I would own a ‘69 Mach 1. At the age of 16 I started my own lawn care business (me a trailer and a lawnmower). I was cutting 17 yards a week and packing away enough money by late summer to buy a car. Of course the only thing that would do was a 69 Mach 1. We looked at many over priced and imposter cars before finding this one at Mid America Mustang in St. Louis. It was in the back corner dirty, faded yellow, rusty and ugly. I soon took it for a drive and made a deal to drive it home for $1,500. My dad told me that he would help me build it as long as I paid for the parts, gas and insurance on my own and my grades didn't drop. Mom saw it when I got home and thought that I was nuts.

We spent that winter and the following summers tearing it apart and putting it back together. It needed to be stripped to bare metal, straightened, new rear quarters, door corners, new chrome and of course 1971 Porsche red base coat clear coat paint. We went through the entire suspension and upgraded it with 5 leaf mid eye rear springs, 620lb drop front coil springs, all poly bushings, 1 1/8" front and 7/8" rear sway bars.

The car came from the factory with a 351 Windsor engine but had a 1970 351 Cleveland 4V motor in it when I bought it. So I decided to build the Cleveland for it to be different and mess with the purists minds. I had it bored .030 over and balanced with 10:1 forged TRW pistons, a Comp cams 280 duration .530 lift magnum cam, and Manley swirl stainless steel valves and went through the transmission and got a 2800 RPM stall converter. I set the motor up to accept nitrous but never had the guts to put it on.

Needless to say it is a pretty good all around driver. I drive it to all of the shows and a couple of times a summer I will take it to the track to make sure it still "runs". I have turned low 14's and a couple of high 13's in the quarter on pump gas through the exhaust on a set of BF Goodrich Radial T/A's. My 60 foot times take a beating due to the tire spin, but it does not get much better than running it down the track.

The time I spent with my father building the car was time that I will never forget and will treasure forever. He is a strong Christian and realized that the time spent in the driveway with his teenaged son was worth it. I now have a very good friend in my father and stayed away from the drinking, partying problems that many kids fall into. I only hope that I can do the same with my kids.

Rick Clawson



Clawson@netzero.net
See my St Louis Page, HERE!




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