Everyone looks at different things when they walk the rows of a car show, and Brian looks at body panel gaps, and more specifically, door gaps. He cringes when he sees a $100,000 show car with bad body seams, and swore he would never let a car out of his shop like that. He welded and filed each seam to be as perfect as the eye could rate. With the panels set, he would continue to add his own, and some borrowed body modifications. Each modification wasn't done to draw attention to a particular part of the car but to make you take a step back and look at the whole enchilada. He removed the front bumper and reshaped the nose for a clean, minimalist form. The quarter-panels received the timeless scoops lucky enough to come on the special Shelby models. Brian carried the Shelby theme across the back, flush mounting the Shelby signature taillights. Everything else he did was to achieve a factory-like look or clean up the body. His focus was to downplay the trim pieces so as not to confuse the eye. He told us, "If it fit in the oven, it was powdercoated black, if it didn't, it was painted, but either way, I wasn't going to have any chrome on this car."
The inspiration for the stripe color came from PHR project '68 Camaro Bad Penny. He knew he wanted it somewhere on the car. The stripe shape came from the Boss diagonal fender stripe that extended down the side and top of the car. He didn't want any stripes on the top so he made his own design and went with it. Brian has his own paint booth so he didn't need to outsource any work, something he is particularly proud of. He has all of his work documented on his website, which reflects his new business name, Hot Rod Transformations (www.hotrodtransformations.com).
When the time came to address the suspension, Brian would not make the same mistake twice, and wanted the best he could get for the car. His original plan was to use coilover shocks, but after spending a lot of time at the autocross events with the guys from Air Ride, he decided to switch to their Shockwave air springs.
The interior was a blend of parts from the '03 Mustang Cobra donor car and the original '67 equipment. He wanted everything extremely comfortable and functional. His main goal through the build, and especially the interior, was to keep it as low budget as he could without sacrificing quality. This meant using as much of the donor car as possible.
Since the build was completed in April 2009, Brian has competed in the annual Motor State Challenge at Gingerman's road course, taking home first place in the Pro Touring category. He has also competed in the Goodguy's Street Challenge Autocross event in Nashville. Unfortunately, he had a meeting with the wall just past the finish line. It took out the front fender, but didn't do any structural damage. He had a great attitude about it: "If you don't exceeded the car's limits, how will you know where they are? This one's are way beyond mine."
The Mustang has already given Brian a lot of attention, and is well on his way to making his dreams of building cars full-time a reality. Though his family wishes he had more time to spend with them, they understand why he needs to go this direction. Brian's wife Nicole told us: "He's the same guy I married 12 years ago; I know what I signed up for."