I have a lot of respect for all of the experience on this forum and I need some advice on a project I am taking on.

The question is, how important do you think it is to keep an original Mustang ‘original’?
And then, what exactly does ‘original’ mean?

Backstory,

My neighbor down the street works for the fire department and is a really good guy. I owe him a few favors and I was looking for a new project so I agreed to help him with his Moms 1966 Convertible Mustang. Her husband passed away about 15 years ago and the car has pretty much just sat since then. She is still in wonderful health, but a little too old to handle the manual steering and brakes. We are trying to figure out how much to do on the car and looking for the ‘original’ boundaries.

About the car:

She bought it new in 1966 and has put 86,000 miles on it.
They added an aftermarket Air Conditioner in 1967.
It has never had any body damage.
There is a small area of rust on the bottom of the drivers door. Otherwise clean.
They had the long block rebuilt in 1990 at 80,000 miles. All the numbers still match.
It was gold from the factory, but they got a $600 blue paint job in 1980.
The last time it started was in 2014 when they drove it to get an oil change, a battery and new tires. All shot now.
It has always been covered under a carport and under a car cover for the last 40 years.
Interior is almost perfect for 55 years old.
It has manual brakes and steering
It still has points…


Immediate plans:

I talked to John Dinkel at Open Tracker about steering/brake upgrades and he has a Level 1 suspension package plus a lower roller arm and adjustable strut rods, power brake kit with front discs and a power steering conversion kit. We are doing these just for safety and to get it driveable for grandma. (any thoughts on OpenTracker?)

I have pulled the gas tank and we are ordering a new one based on condition. I have a new fuel pump and carb rebuild kit on the way. I am thinking about ordering a Pertronix Points Conversion kit as well.


Back to the question.

Would any/all of this offend an ‘original’ Mustang snob?
Does is it even matter? Or is it cool to just do what you want on these cars? (he wants to paint it red next…)

I’m sure I’m overthinking this, but I still wanted to check the opinions of folks that I respect before going too far off the reservation. Whatever that is...

Thanks,
Richard