$\"Gary$
Proud owner Gary Schweitzer shows off his award-winning Skyway Mustang (Photo credit: Sabrina Hyde)<\/p><\/div>\n
Created by the Walt Disney Company, the Magic Skyway attraction placed people in Ford vehicles for a trip through time. Inside the 2,300-foot, steel-and-glass Skyway, a chain-and-platen conveyor drew the cars through dioramas of scenes from ancient times to the future. The conveyor system became the basis of the PeopleMover and other rides.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cWalt Disney was pretty smart,\u201d Schweitzer says. \u201cHe had these companies pay for his R&D, which he then used at Disneyland<\/strong><\/a> and Walt Disney World.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
$\"The$
This is where the post that pulled the Mustang around the Skyway was originally mounted, under the car’s front lip (Photo credit: Yoav Gilad)<\/p><\/div>\n
With so many people sliding in and out of the cars during their time on the Skyway, wear-and-tear proved to be major issues. But when the fair ended, the Mustang was put back to like-new condition and sold to a Ford employee, Lawry Snyder, on December 23, 1965. Schweitzer says it ended up being driven regularly by Snyder\u2019s mother. When she bought a new Ford Maverick in 1977, she parked the Mustang in her garage on Detroit\u2019s eastside, the odometer showing around 35,000 miles.<\/span><\/p>\n
Through a mutual friend of Snyder\u2019s, Al and Marian Schweitzer heard about the Mustang and arranged for their son, Gary, to purchase it. The enterprising teen had bought and sold a succession of old Mustangs, usually paying around $200 and realizing that much again in profit after fixing them up. This white convertible was another matter, though.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI was only 16 or 17 at the time,\u201d Schweitzer says, recalling the purchase price of $1,300. \u201cIt was quadruple anything I\u2019d ever done before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
Father and son brought the Mustang home to Grosse Point Woods, just north of Detroit, in August 1978 and took it apart, intending to have it restored and ready to show the following summer.<\/span><\/p>\n
It never works out that way, though, and 29 years later, Schweitzer\u2019s wife, Dena, asked if he was ever going to do anything with that infernal car they\u2019d been keeping in storage.<\/span><\/p>\n
Helped immensely by father-in-law Dave Tuttle, who lives close by in Traverse City, Schweitzer set to work, making the most of his summers off from teaching fourth grade. The pair even found an ideal way to divide the labor: \u201cI\u2019m good at tracking down the part and getting it right, he\u2019s good at putting it on the car,\u201d Schweitzer says.<\/span><\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jim Smart of Mustang Monthly<\/em> offered the magazine\u2019s help, making drivetrain restoration a project for publication. National Parts Depot, which specializes in Mustang matters, provided free transportation to California for the engine, transmission and rear axle.<\/span><\/p>\n
The results of the entire project were good enough to photograph last summer when the magazine undertook a feature story. But Schweitzer was still fiddling with little details when I spoke to him by phone a week before he went shuffling off to Buffalo.<\/span><\/p>\n
$\"The$
The Ford logo on the headlamps was a custom stencil job as the original headlamps are no longer available (Photo credit: Yoav Gilad)<\/p><\/div>\n
The moment Schweitzer unveiled 5F08T383386 alongside the Niagara River, it became just the second Magic Skyway Mustang from the 1965 group to go public. The other 10 cars have disappeared.<\/span><\/p>\n
When judging concluded in the Concours Trailered class, Schweitzer won a gold trophy, the highest possible award. It could just be the first of many, as he plans to keep the car show-worthy.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got the original windshield,\u201d he says. \u201cThere aren\u2019t too many 50-year-old cars that have the original windshield. I\u2019m just afraid I\u2019ll drive it down the road and get a chip. It\u2019s not really a car, it\u2019s more a work of art.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t