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Rare 'Branded' Mustang Kit Leaves Its Mark on Collector Community

As if Ford needed a gimmick to sell more Mustangs back in the day . . . this is a story about "Branding" the Mustang, or how a hot customizing kit was created to add extra appeal to used ponies.



By mid-1967, the once-unique Mustang had acquired plenty of company, if not actual competition. Ford's pioneering pony still outsold the Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, Plymouth Barracuda, and Mercury Cougar combined. More than 5 percent ofall new cars sold in the United States were Mustangs.



The Mustang's impact on the used-car market was significant as well, as owners of the original '64-1/2-to-'66 models traded them in for longer, wider, racier '67's -- or traded up to other Ford products -- creating an ample supply of second-hand 'Stangs priced right for lower-budget enthusiasts. And to help spur the sales of these pre-owned ponies, Ford's marketing mavens created the "Branded Mustang" program.

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Central to the program was the "Branding" kit, manufactured for Ford by DSI of Plymouth, Michigan. Each kit included one pre-cut, hand-sewn vinyl roof cover; a set of pre-cut "Thoroughbred" tape stripes; two large running-horse emblems for the left and right C-pillars; two chrome moldings to blend the lower edges of the top into the quarter panels; two cans of Mastic glue; and installation instructions; all neatly packed into a 3-foot mailing tube and priced (to the dealer) at $47.25.

Hot sellers at the time, these Branded Mustang kits had been all but forgotten when Fran Cosentino discovered one on eBay nearly a decade ago. An aficionado of unusual Fords, Cosentino purchased the kit and learned all he could about the program. He then shared his research with former Mustang Monthly editor Donald Farr, who published the article "Branded Marketing" on the website Mustang 360 in December of 2012.


Like the Mustang itself, the Branding kits offered plenty of options. The 4-inch-wide stripes -- cut to run the full length of the car, literally from bumper to bumper -- were available in red, white, black, blue or gold. The vinyl tops offered even more choices: 15 combinations of color and pattern, including paisleys, tweeds, "leathers" and "sculptured" florals.



"They ran from pretty cool to butt ugly," said Cosentino. "But keep in mind it was the '60s."

Even the C-pillar emblems could be ordered in "silver" or "gold." to better blend with the top color, or just to provide more opportunity for individual expression.

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"A" and "B" kits fit '67-68 and '64-66 hardtops, respectively. But how to fiddle the stripes through, past, or around the faux rear-quarter scoops that varied from '65 to '66, and again from '67 to '68; or how to deal with a '68 model's side marker lights was left up to the installer.

"The instructions would give you a general idea of where to put them," Cosentino commented, "but I don't think a whole lot of thought went into it. They would just figure it out, and I'm guessing no two were exactly alike."



A seven-page brochure distributed to Ford dealers sometime after April 1968 suggested displaying a few pre-Branded ponies as traffic builders, while encouraging buyers to create their own combinations. It also hawked promotional kits (at $11.95 each) consisting of two showroom posters, two "windshield girdles" (cardboard advertisements that unfolded inside a windshield, like a sun shade), 300 direct-mail flyers, and a camera-ready newspaper ad. Brochure text went on to note that Branded Mustangs had been successfully displayed at the "Winter Nationals" in February, and at the "National Mustang Round-Up" in April, where potential buyers told inquiring pollsters that they'd drop an additional $157 for a Mustang that was brandishing a Branded kit. In short, Branded Mustangs promised more sales, at higher margins.



With kits available through parts departments, some enterprising agencies even applied the Branded treatment to brand-new Mustangs. In the D.C. area, Shelton Ford promoted their "exclusive California Mod Mustang," sporting a Branded kit without the roof emblems. Weigand Ford-Mercury of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, advertised well-optioned "Weigand Specials," and urged potential buyers to "Hurry -- only 2 left in the corral." Cosentino recalled speaking to a man who had worked for a Ford agency near Baltimore.

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"He told me that in '68 they were ordering brand-new hardtops with Branded kits in the trunk,” he said. “They unloaded the cars, installed the kits, put them on the lot -- and they sold like anything."



Ultimately, Cosentino acquired six different kits, a copy of the brochure, two sets of Branded Mustang cufflinks (one set in a silver finish, the other gold), and, after a year-long search, an actual Branded Mustang. The '67 hardtop had endured years of Texas sun and occasional hail, "but it was all there," he told Farr, "including the bleached-out top, partial stripes, and emblems still attached to the C-pillars."



With its two-barrel 289, automatic transmission, power steering and console, it was likely just the sort of mainstream Mustang trade-in that the Branded program was designed to dress up. More serendipitously, what remained of its white stripes and tattered top matched the kit that Fran had found on eBay. The car had originally been painted a bronze-tan hue called "Burnt Amber" and fitted with an off-white interior, a combination that the white stripes and tan floral top complimented just about perfectly.



After a thorough 18-month restoration, Fran's car appeared on the cover of Mustang Monthly, and featured prominently in 50th Anniversary celebrations in Dearborn, and at the Ford Nationals in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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"People would see the car," Fran recounted, "and say, 'Ford never made anything like that.' And then I'd pull out the instructions from Ford. The emblems for the C-pillars even have Ford part numbers. It was such a big promotion then that Ford even had those cufflinks made."



Still, after the Mustang's 50th anniversary, Cosentino found he wasn't driving or showing his Branded Mustang as much as he once did.



"I've been collecting cars on and off for 30 years," he told us. "I'd buy them and restore them, and get into the background on them -- and then I'd sell them and get on to something else. The real fun for me is the hunt, and then filling in the background. So usually I had only two, sometimes three cars; but by 2008 I had seven. And when I'd had them for about a decade, I decided that I'd had too many of them for too long."



Still, he said the Branded Mustang "was the hardest one for me to sell. It will always be my car."

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Last spring he sold it to Marlene and Keith White. "We had known about the car for years, through a mutual friend," said Marlene. "We like cars that are a little different. We have a '71 Torino wagon with low miles. It's just a basic wagon, but everywhere we take it people love it because it's different. And when we had the opportunity to meet Fran and see the Branded Mustang . . . there is something about it 'in person' that's very striking. The story behind it is fascinating, too."



Furthermore, "Keith likes to drive it. He drove it home from Fran's, and we drive it to car shows. We drove it down to the [Pittsburgh Vintage] Grand Prix. We don't want it to be a trailer queen; we want to enjoy it.



"It's funny, though, because people can't keep their hands off of it. They look around to see if anyone's watching, and then they touch the roof. It's like they can't help themselves."

It's unlikely those folks have ever seen another one. As far as Cosentino knows, his Branded Mustang is the sole survivor of the whole ambitious program. Of course he still owns five different Branded Mustang kits. "Every three or four years I'll get an e-mail from someone looking to buy one of my kits. I don't get back to them.

"I don't want anybody making one up."


FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY FRAN COSENTINO and JOHN F. KATZ