From the beginning, Dana Carter couldn’t do anything to prevent himself from becoming a car nut. His family lived in Nashville and his two oldest brothers owned a ’65 fastback and a ’55 Chevy while friends constantly showed up driving a colorful assortment of hot rods—anything from a custom Henry J with a Hemi to a ’67 Chevelle 396 4-speed.
“It didn’t take long for the car craze to get in my blood,” says Carter. “At the time I was ‘forced’ to learn about cars, not realizing as a youngster they were doing me a favor and what they didn’t realize is that they were creating a monster.”
When his second oldest brother returned from Viet Nam, he headed straight to the car lot to replace his ’55 Chevy with a ’66 Mustang “straight shift” 289 Hi-Po. Of course, his other brothers followed suit and purchased their own Mustangs as well.
“Once again I was ‘forced’ to work on this baby in below zero weather at night in Tennessee, ‘under a shade tree,’ doing improvements or general maintenance,” says Carter. “This car was used for everything from street racing to getting him to work and back as the only transportation he could afford.”
Of course, the young Carter was driving too—just not a Mustang. Not quite. At 15 years old, he was cruising around a ’64 Falcon Futura, what he calls “the first Stang.” Lucky for him, a friend had recently totaled his Grabber and sold him his 302 and 4-speed. “What a fast car!” he says.
Carter moved from Nashville to Dallas in 1990 and purchased his first ’65 Mustang. “It needed help,” he says. “So I brought it back to life.”
After he had nearly restored the ’65 with only a paintjob left, Carter heard that a friend’s friend was selling a Dallas-based AER-built 302. When he approached the owner about the engine, an additional item was thrown into the deal: a ’67 coupe, already stripped and ready for paint. He took it.
He sold his ’65 and began an 8 month restoration of the ’67. When it was all said and done, his ’67 was Springtime Yellow and, as he put it, “fast, fast, fast!” Unfortunately, “life got in the way,” according to Carter, and he was forced to sell his beauty after only owning the finished product for a year and a half.
As time passed, he went through several other vehicles—a motorcycle, a ’65 Malibu SS and a Chevelle.
But one day, his passion for the pony car and fate collided head on. He and his friend were at an event with their rides, a Chevelle and a ’67 Mustang convertible. For five years, his friend had been decidedly reluctant to sell his Mustang, of which his father was the second owner who passed it down to him after he passed away. But Carter had always insisted that, if the car was ever for sale, he was interested. Today it was for sale, and his friend wanted him to be the first to know about it.
“My only response was, ‘what time will you be home?’” says Carter. “Of course, I bought it and sold the Chevelle.”
Dana and Jamelyn Carter have redone the Mustang’s brakes and suspension. They have restored the Mustang to include all of its original numbers matching the “untouched original survivor.”
In 2007, they were arguing with a representative from Marti Reports over his color and axle codes—the rep insisted that they were being misread. However, the report came back specifying that color code “N” was Diamond Blue and axle code “O” from the Thunderbird line was not available in the Mustang until 1969.
What happened? 35 of the 1967 Stangs were six days late on the production schedule and were therefore outfitted with a variety of 1968 parts. Another 64 units were in production with the same options and interior combinations, including Diamond Blue paint and “1” red interior unit.
The couple searched for a year for another survivor from that unique line of 99. They searched the MCA, the forums—everywhere. But finally, this year, while entertaining new friends they met online, they identified another “survivor” from the line.
41 years later, they’ve only found two of the 34 Mustangs that were just a bit late to the line. But there may be more…
Be sure to say hey to Dana and Jamelyn Carter on the forums! Their username is
TenBeers.
For more photos of their 1967 Ford Mustang, check out the
StangPlanet Featured Rides Gallery.
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