Meet Will Neal, meticulous owner of this 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 and winner of the masters section of the Concours d’Elegance at Ellerslie, an annual gathering of the country’s most dedicated enthusiasts of car hygiene.
Where most of us take no more than an hour to clean our cars, Will Neal will spend the best part of a month pampering and preening his 1969 Mustang for an upcoming special event. The Kawakawa Bay resident recently walked off with the Masters trophy at the annual Intermarque Concours d’Elegance at Ellerslie Racecourse, where amateur automotive hygienists compete against each other to have their car judged the cleanest of the clean. With a total of 559 points out of a possible 590, Neal’s ultra-pristine Mustang set the second-highest score in the 40-year history of the competition. Given that the judges are some of the pickiest, most anally retentive folk in car club sport, and could possibly have respectable careers as sub-editors, that’s quite an achievement.
The judges look not only for dirt and defects but also expect the car to be as close to original condition as possible. For Will’s car, which has 50,000 miles on the clock and may well be on its second time around the dial, this proved his biggest challenge. Take, for example, the battery in the ’69 Mach 1. This consumable item needs to be an Autolite battery, but the brand was absorbed by Exide in 1997, meaning that Mustang and Cobra enthusiasts now must turn to online auctions for original examples, often paying between $800 and $1000 for the privilege. For the semi-retired builder and landscaper, whose passion for his two Mustangs and two Austins, scattered over several garages, is already a cause of minor domestic friction, this wasn’t an option, so Will simply bought a replica cover for his existing battery – and doubtless resisted the urge to smile when the judges failed to notice the deception.
Where most of us take no more than an hour to clean our cars, Will Neal will spend the best part of a month pampering and preening his 1969 Mustang for an upcoming special event. The Kawakawa Bay resident recently walked off with the Masters trophy at the annual Intermarque Concours d’Elegance at Ellerslie Racecourse, where amateur automotive hygienists compete against each other to have their car judged the cleanest of the clean. With a total of 559 points out of a possible 590, Neal’s ultra-pristine Mustang set the second-highest score in the 40-year history of the competition. Given that the judges are some of the pickiest, most anally retentive folk in car club sport, and could possibly have respectable careers as sub-editors, that’s quite an achievement.
The judges look not only for dirt and defects but also expect the car to be as close to original condition as possible. For Will’s car, which has 50,000 miles on the clock and may well be on its second time around the dial, this proved his biggest challenge. Take, for example, the battery in the ’69 Mach 1. This consumable item needs to be an Autolite battery, but the brand was absorbed by Exide in 1997, meaning that Mustang and Cobra enthusiasts now must turn to online auctions for original examples, often paying between $800 and $1000 for the privilege. For the semi-retired builder and landscaper, whose passion for his two Mustangs and two Austins, scattered over several garages, is already a cause of minor domestic friction, this wasn’t an option, so Will simply bought a replica cover for his existing battery – and doubtless resisted the urge to smile when the judges failed to notice the deception.
A painstaking process of restoration and refurbishment then began. Stone chips were hand-painted, left to dry, then painted again, the cycle repeated until dried paint had completely filled the scar and made it unidentifiable. And it wasn’t just the red bits of the car that got the attention. Every compartment and cavity, from top to bottom and back to front, got the full treatment, and any overspray or ‘orange peel’ texture was carefully sanded back until completely smooth. ‘I was scared shitless that I was going to sand right through it.’
The engine and fuel tank were removed so both could be made to look better than brand-new. With an artist’s tiny detail brush, Will hand-painted the exhaust manifolds of the 351 V8 without removing them, a mind-numbing process I can only compare to the precision it would take to replicate one of Rei Hamon’s pointillist masterpieces. ‘I didn’t want to risk taking the manifolds off, as any breakage of a nut or a stud would have been a disaster.’ And it was all worth it, as just a sole point was deducted for the engine bay.
‘I learned a lot about preparing the car this year from my experience in the event the previous year. Back then, the wiring was marked down, and taping it all up this year did the trick.’
Tipped off by a club member who closely followed the judging team in 2012, Will gave the underbody of the Mustang a lot more attention this time round. ‘I found out that I had been marked down in the underbody section because of little scratches in the exhaust pipe bends, so this year I dropped the exhaust system, sanded them out, then painted it up again. You can look at it and think, ‘an exhaust is an exhaust and Ford made it this way’, but it has to be better than factory; it has to be perfect.
‘I also painted the exhaust brackets a different colour because I found out that this is something the judges also like.’ As well as attending to the components beneath the car, Will painted the entire underbody by hand. ‘I got a fair bit of it over myself in the process, but the effort paid off in the end.’
Wheels and tyres are often a problem area for Concours competitors, yet Will achieved a perfect score in that section of the event. He spent two entire days refurbishing the rubber of a brand-new set of OE Mastercraft tyres that he fitted for the occasion; the final effect was a ‘Nugget’ finish, as if shoe polish had been used, with the detailing of the letters picked out in white. And Will was the only competitor in the Masters class to show up with his spare filled to the recommended tyre pressure. A final touch was re-registering the Mustang, as its usual ‘Mach 1’ personalised plate would have earned a penalty.
‘It might have only lost a single point due to the personalised plate, but that point might have been crucial, so I changed it.’
As it turned out, Will needn’t have worried: his closest rival in the Masters class finished an incredible 111 points behind him. So satisfying has the experience been that he says he’ll never go to such efforts again.
‘I’ve done my chips in the Concours and have spent enough time beneath this car. It’s time just to sit back and enjoy it for what it is. The 1969 and 1970 Mach 1’s represent the pinnacle of Mustang design to me.’
He also rates his 1965 Notchback as another high point in the history of the ‘Pony Car’. There’s just time left for the Big Question: does he consider himself an obsessive person? ‘No, but if I’m going to a show, I like to have the car looking right.’ Talk about understatement of the year.
