Rare Ford Mustang truck crops up on sale

In the distant year 1966, a Ford dealership received authorization from the company to assemble roughly 50 light pickups based on the mass-produced Mustang chassis of that era. Now, a very convincing lookalike is up for grabs for $18,000.

In the late sixties, Beverly Hills Ford reckoned that it could use a compact and lightweight pickup truck in its product portfolio, so it went ahead and designed one on its own. The project received the name Mustero, which was a portmanteau of “Mustang” and “Ranchero”.

The design team behind the project was even able to get an official approval from Ford, In the end, however, the fabricating process had proven too challenging and expensive for large-scale production. It didn’t help that not many people were interested. Only around 50 units were made in total, and only a handful is believed to have survived to this day.

To create the Mustero, Beverly Hills Ford chopped the original muscle car’s roof and shortened the interior to just one seat row. It then installed special fenders at the rear end that made it possible to turn it into a truck bed. There was no hinged tailgate, though – the rear bumper and everything around it stayed stock.

The car on sale right now is not a genuine Mustero, but the seller claims he is a Mustang specialist and knows his way around the model. It looks very faithful to the original design, too.

The listing mentions decent condition, but it’s worth reminding yourself that it’s still a car made in 1968 with 206,000 kilometers (128,000 miles) under its belt. The specific engine model is not mentioned; Mustang truck conversions of that time came equipped with all kinds of engines ranging from 3.3 to 4.7 liters of displacement.