Chicken Coop Find! 1969 Mustang GT R-Code Convertible
The two-decade evolution of a worn “chicken coop find” that was restored to one of the best thoroughbred Mustang GT R-Code convertibles on the planet
The car collecting community has coined the phrase “barn find” when referring to vehicles found in old buildings where they were stored away for years and, in many cases, even decades. The fascination with these barn finds has taken them to the top of the spectrum within the collector car industry, and barn finds (we normally call them Rare Finds inMustang Monthly) are arguably the hottest thing going within the collector car hobby right now. Despite the phrase, a barn find need not be found in an actual barn. In many cases, barn finds are found in garages, old buildings, or other types of structures. Such is the case with this 1969 Mustang GT convertible with a 428 Cobra Jet and four-speed.
On December 18, 1997, this GT drop-top was rescued from a chicken coop in Santa Rosa, California, where it had been stowed away for nearly five years. Steve Skinner found out about the car from his brother Mike Skinner who’d seen it in the classifieds of a magazine. Mike had first dibs on the car, then backed out and handed it off to his brother, and Steve jumped on the opportunity to purchase it. Skinner and seller Al Weis reached an agreement on the purchase price and the GT R-Code convertible was loaded onto an open trailer and transported to Skinner’s home in Montana.
The car was purchased prior to the “Marti Report Era,” but Skinner knew it was rare and he’d always wanted a big-block convertible GT Mustang. While researching the history of the car, he learned it had been purchased from a Ford Dealership in Eden, North Carolina, and then traveled west where it had resided for nearly a decade near San Francisco.
After purchasing the car, Skinner transported it to his Montana shop where it was carefully dissected to evaluate its condition. Skinner decided to give the convertible a complete rotisserie restoration. He’d restored several Mustangs in the past and intended to add this restoration to his resume. He wasted little time and started the restoration process soon after acquiring it in late 1997. It didn’t take long for Skinner to realize the most difficult challenge in this Mustang project was locating N.O.S. or OEM parts. Over a 15-year period, he amassed an inventory large enough to fill the basement of his house. He’d acquire one part, then locate another of better quality, and before long, his parts inventory turned his basement into a small warehouse for the ’69 Mustang GT convertible.
As the actual restoration project started to take form, Skinner started realizing just how difficult the restoration of this rare Mustang was going to be. The Internet and social media hadn’t really taken form as a tool for automobile restoration projects of this magnitude. It was still in its infancy and acquiring parts and information related to restoring a rare Mustang of this caliber turned into an issue as time went on. It was a decade or so later when Skinner eventually obtained a Marti Report and realized just how rare his ’69 Mustang GT convertible really was. Ford Motor Company equipped fewer than 30 of them with the four-speed R-Code 428ci engine option. Only four are known to exist today according to the R-Code registry.
Skinner turned to longtime friend Buzz Rose to rebuild the date-code-correct 428 Cobra Jet engine. Buzz went through the engine from top to bottom and performed his wizardry to make it a top-shelf, factory-correct specimen. In Skinner’s words, “Buzz Rose sleeps, eats, and breathes Fords; he was the right and only person to build my engine for the Mustang.”
