The Monster Ronster story goes like this. One of the local tow and storage yards called me. They had two Mustangs in their yard that had been lien sales and they wanted to sell them. Would I be interested? Now, I get calls like this all the time. Usually the person on the other end of the phone is miles away and wants a pile of money for whatever they have, even when there’s nothing left on the car and it was hit by a freight train. When I asked what they wanted for both cars, they told me to come look and we would talk about it when I got there. In my mind, this was strike two! Well, the yard was only a couple of miles away, it was 4:30 in the afternoon, and I was getting ready to leave anyway. I figured what the heck. I hadn’t been on any wild goose, er, Mustang, chases lately so I decided I’d stop by on the way home.

    When I got to the yard, naturally the person who I had been talking to wasn’t in. He was out on a call but was expected back in just a few minutes. I was taken out back where two Mustangs were sitting. Or should I say where two things that use to be Mustangs were sitting! Actually, the ‘67 coupe was about 30% complete, having the fenders, doors, and the engine still there. But there wasn’t much more. The other Mustang, a ‘65 coupe, was nothing more than a shell. No fenders, hood, deck lid, interior or engine. The back window glass was the only thing I could see on the car that might be good. Slim pickings, to say the least. To top it off, someone had cut both windshield post all the way through and started cutting on the back roof pillar by the back window glass. Did I mention that there wasn’t any suspension on the car and it was sitting on the ground? I did now!
About this time, the person who I had been talking to on the phone, who turned out to be the owner of the yard, got back from his tow. After exchanging pleasantries, I asked him how much he wanted for the cars. “Fifty dollars”, he said.

    Fifty dollars? Was I hearing right? Hmm. The thoughts started collecting in my head. Now is he wanting fifty dollars each, or fifty dollars for both? And how do I get them back to Mustangs Plus? Double hmm.
    I must have had a stupid look on my face or he was reading my mind.
“Fifty dollars for both of them and I’ll even tow them over to your place for nothing” he says. “I just want to get rid of them”. I looked around and I could tell he ran a clean operation. There wasn’t a car out of place!
    That was enough for me. I became the proud owner of the two Must-things! (Get it?) And so the Monster Ronster saga began. Only I didn’t know it at the time!
    The next day both Mustangs were delivered. If you have been reading our Newsletters for a while, you may remember my oldest son, Ron Jr., took a trip with his friend, Ed Stephens, back to Georgia where they delivered a ‘69 fastback to Gary Jones to be built into a racecar. For the return trip, Ed picked up a ‘67 coupe from a family member and brought it back to restore. As it turns out, the ‘67 wasn’t in quite as good condition as Ed had hoped for. Well, the ‘67 I got from the tow company became an excellent parts car for Ed. So off it went to Valley Springs! For free to Ed, of course. Good deal. One down, one to go!

   The “shell” of what was to become the Monster Ronster sat out beside our shop for the next few weeks. With Colt 351 done, I needed another project to work on. No, let’s rephrase that. I have about a dozen projects going all the time so I really don’t need another one. Let’s just say I wanted to build something different so I wanted to start another project and leave it at that. At least it’s being honest!
    One day Bill Faull, our Parts Manager here at Mustangs Plus, and I were going into the shop and paused in front of the shell. As we stood there and talked about it, an image formed in both our minds as we examined where the windshield post had been cut.
    “Wow! We could make a small windshield out of lexan!” Bill exclaimed. “That would look great! What do you have for an engine that we could stick in it?”

    “I’ve got that new 347 that Coast High Performance built for us,” I replied. In my mind, that was the beginning of the Monster Ronster project!
    A few days later, our good friend and partner in crime, George Galoosis, came down to Stockton and we drug the shell inside the shop. George and I put it up on the rotisserie and then inspected the bottom of the shell to see if there was too much damage to go any further. We found minimal damage for a 37 year old car. There was a little rust in the floor where water had sat, a couple of places where the floors were dented from being picked up by a fork lift, and a rear frame rail that was slightly bent from a long ago love tap on the rear end. But other than that, the bottom of the car was in pretty good shape. In fact, if you live in Snow Country, the bottom would have been a beautiful sight! Remember, David and I grew up in Plymouth, Michigan and we know what rusty cars really are! Dad had a ‘59 Ford Galaxie Station Wagon that ..... well, that’s another story in itself! We’ll save it for another time.

    In the meantime, that’s how the Monster Ronster project got started. Hopefully, you’ll want to follow the Mustangs Plus Newsletter over the next few months as we actually build it!
    The pictures you see here show the Monster Ronster during the first stages of restoration. As it sits today, Thursday, November 29th, 2001, George has most of the Chassis Strengthening Kit installed and I’ve been working on cleaning off the bottom so we can paint and seal it. We’ll probably finish cutting off the top in the next few days. Look at these renderings that Mustangs Plus’ former Graphic Artist Anthony Morelli has done to give us an idea of how the Monster Ronster will look when it’s done. We’ll have more on the building of the Monster Ronster in future Newsletters. So, as the old saying goes, “Let the games begin!”

You can clearly see how close this ol' pony came to meeting the jaws of the crusher!

Before we could put the Monster Ronster on the rotisserie,
George had to support the windshield post.

George paints his welds as he finishes installing the passenger side of the Chassis Strengthening Kit.

With the Monster Ronster securely on the rotisserie, George gets ready for some welding on the underside.

Jumping ahead a little bit, George has the Chassis Strengthening Kit installed, and we're ready to chop the top!

This is a “must have” kit if you’re planning to build a street demon or a complete structure modification from the ground up! This kit is for those trying to avoid twist or flex during acceleration. Also it will provide universal stability throughout the frame. The Chassis Strengthening Kit was used to strengthen the uni-body on our 1964½ Mustang Retractable and the Ronster before cutting their tops off! If you would like to order this kit for your '64-'68 pony:

  CALL TOLL FREE 1- 800 - 999 - 4289 

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