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Year 1967
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Mileage 0
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Make Ford
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Interior Black
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Model Ring Brothers
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Exterior Hi-Intensity Blak
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ENGINE
Roush 402R 500hp |
VIN NUMBER
7R02C125616
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The Ring brothers just completed
their latest creation, a '67 fastback dubbed Kona (Hawaiian for black) and are
already dreaming about the next Mustang on the drawing board. "I don't want to give away
all my secrets, but we want to build a car that, when it's done, looks like
it's been almost through the ringer," Jim Ring explained, meaning as if
the car had been road raced, used and abused, yet is brand new. Maybe that's what's next for
modified Mustangs: steering away from the bling bling. That's where Jim and
Mike Ring are headed. In the case of Kona, they tried really hard to make the
'67 appear "not homemade." Just three years ago, their first
creation, a '66 convertible, sent shock waves through the Mustang world. Their
second Mustang restomod, a '65 fastback in a more subdued bluish-gray, grabbed
even more attention. Both cars were heralded as much more than mere modifieds.
Basically, the Ring brothers' Mustangs are more like high-dollar street rods,
yet they aren't. They're restomods. Instead of having a combination of
aftermarket bolt-on parts, a lot is fabricated from scratch. Kona, their third build, has
already gathered as much or more fanfare from the cognoscenti. On display
nationally last July at the 8th Goodguys PPG Nationals in "Not too bad" is the
understatement of the year in the classic Mustang and Ford hobby. "Not car
builders" is definitely no longer true. "Top five" refers to the
top five finalists for Goodguys Street Machine of the Year. The arrival of a new Ring brothers
Mustang has become an event, like the unveiling of a new car. If you're a Web
geek, perhaps you saw this '67 fastback last summer when word burned across
sites like wildfire. We got a phone call from a Mustang aficionado who
feverishly asked, "Have you seen the new Ring brothers Mustang?
Everything's black; the body, the interior, even the wheels. It's
incredible." They named the car Kona for a reason. "I think we're going to start
naming all our cars, so people can identify them," Mike Ring explains.
"That beats calling the first one 'that red '66 convertible' or the second
one 'that bluish-gray '65 fastback.'" We flew to Perhaps most revealing was the CNC
machine operating under the supervision of Todd Milanowski. "He's one of
our partners," Mike explained. Todd was watching the CNC machine bore out
another hood hinge from a block of solid aluminum. "See that row of
aluminum blocks? That's $2,000 worth." Billet aluminum is not cheap.
Dissatisfied with stock Mustang hood hinges, the Ring brothers built one of
their own. After careful consideration, they paid big bucks for a CNC machine
so they could carve out copies of this beautiful set of hinges that make hood
alignment precise and smooth as silk. The owner of the '67 Mustang currently
under construction wanted a set of hinges, at $600 a pop, for his 289 Hi-Po
coupe. In the break/conference room, we
noticed an ink sketch of a '67 Mustang fastback propped up on the window ledge.
A noticeably un-bling green, this 'Stang is the next project. Kona, unlike the
first two Ring Mustang modifieds, also started out as a sketch. "This is the first time we
had somebody help us draw the car. That was Shawn Smith out of Apparently, the Ring brothers are
gearing up. Fabrication-wise, their first two cars were hit and miss. Jim would
build a part basically from scratch, and if he didn't like it, he tossed the
metal in the scrap heap and started over. Such trial-and-error designing and
building is very time-consuming. As we approached Kona in the
corner of the shop, the car appeared cool, although not in the style of a
vintage The scoops in the front valance
are unlike anything we've seen hung on a Mustang before. The taillight housings
are also brand-new, another Ring fabrication, popping out of a custom
carbon-fiber taillight board. A large R in the flat pop-open gas cap matches
the R offset in the blackout grille. The R, of course, stands for Ring. The metal inserts in the tops of
the fenders are extremely cool; ditto for the metal fixtures in the sail panels
of the fastback roofline. Obviously custom-built, they are metal and have an
OEM look about them. Even the rocker panels are custom-built and made of steel. Todd bored out hood hinges in the
CNC machine less than 50 feet away. The Ring brothers are moving towards being
car builders, and Todd could machine any one of these custom parts for
installation on other Ring brothers builds, or if the market is there, on other
custom Mustangs. "If somebody wants to build
the taillight panel, we can sell them the buckets," Mike said. "Or,
like the cowl, anybody could just bolt those pieces into another Mustang,"
referring to the inserts on top of the cowl just behind the fiberglass grille.
It seems everywhere you look on this car, there is a unique, fabricated part. Press the red button inside the
rear scoops and the door pops open. Inside, the Ring brothers have gone to
extreme lengths. "My mother always said, if you can get over the dog, you
can get over the tail," Jim recalled, "And I guess what I mean by
that is, if you can get through the outside of the car, you can spend a few
hours on the inside." Anybody can buy and install parts.
What makes this interior pop is the fresh, new layout. The white gauge cluster
is completely custom, laid out on a carbon-fiber dash directly in front of the
Waterfall steering wheel from Tor Caraway, who has experience
fabricating parts clear back to Shelby-American at the "It's a fuel-injected
eight-stack," Jim said. Horsepower is around 500-525 for the Roush 402R,
which is a bored and stroked 351. The stacks refer to the four Momar injection
units, each topped with a small air cleaner sandwiched between polished
housings, too much bling for Jim's ever-accelerating pursuit of a more
OEM-appealing restomod. "You either revert to all
painted stuff, which has been done a billion times, or all chrome stuff, which
has been done a billion times. We're trying to find a way through the middle of
all that mumbo jumbo to come up with something new in the engine
compartment." As you can see, the Ring brothers
are treading a fine line in the looks department, and although going fast is
not the be-all, do-all, end-all purpose of their build, Kona is no slouch on
power. This is a hot rod, but the Ring brothers question the exact meaning of
hot rod and the direction of state-of-the-art, Mustang-restomod car building. "What do people want in a hot
rod?" Jim asked philosophically. "To feel shook up and deafened by
the exhausts or clean, crisp, unseen ideas put together with good horsepower,
good brakes, and a smooth, quiet ride? If that's possible in an old car, what
are we chasing?" Jim and Mike even discussed the
suspension. Basically, it's got a Fat Man front suspension with an Air Ride
four-link in the rear. They contemplated going back to all rubber mounts and
trying to build a car that's "cool and soft." As far as looks go, cool is the
objective. Jim believes everybody throws up their hands in resignation,
thinking the only thing that's cool is to go back to the early days and the "It was cool, don't get me
wrong, but nobody can think outside that box. That's what we're trying to do,
think outside that box to create ideas and things that people will look back on
30 years from now and want." We can't wait to see the next Ring
brothers Mustang. Give them another seven to eight months. We'll be back. The
Details 1967
Mustang fastback, Kona Owner:
Les Orosz, Engine * Roush 402R, 500-plus horsepower * Concept One pulleys * MSD Pro-Billet distributor * K&N air filters * Momar eight-stack fuel injection *
Weldon fuel pump and filters * * Earl's fittings and braided hose * Fuel Safe fuel cell * Classic Tube stainless fuel and brake
tubing Transmission * Ford Racing flywheel * Performance Automatic C4 Rearend * 9-inch by John's Rearends * 3.55 gears Exhaust * Hooker headers * Flowmaster mufflers and tubing, 21/2-inch * Exhaust tips made from 1/4-inch aluminum
plate Suspension * Front: Fat Man with Air Ride air struts * Rear: Air Ride Air Bar * Total Control X-bracing and sub-frame
connectors Brakes * Front: Baer brakes, 13.5-inch rotors, PBR
two-piston calipers * Rear: Baer brakes, 13.5-inch rotors, PBR
single-piston calipers Wheels * Front: SSR 18x9, exclusive through Tire
Rack * Rear: SSR 19x10, exclusive through Tire
Rack Tires * Front: Goodyear F1 Supercar, P245/40ZR18 * Rear: Goodyear F1 Supercar, P285/35ZR19 Interior * Honda S2000 start button * Flaming River steering column and
Waterfall steering wheel * Stewart Warner Maxim gauges from Fuel
Systems of Milwaukee, WI * Recaro seats * Kenwood stereo and speakers * * All Mustang parts purchased from Mustangs
Plus * Dash, console, door panels, rear seat
delete, rollbars, and sill plates handmade by Ring brothers Exterior * Glasurit Hi-Intensity Black applied by
Sim-the-Great * Molded-in rear valance, aluminum diffuser
in valance * Three-piece bumper * Carbon-fiber taillamp panel * Custom-designed taillight housings built
with CNC machine * Ground effects made from steel * Eliminated door handles and drip rails * Custom-designed front-fender inserts
built with CNC machine * Reworked Shelby-style hood * Complete front nose made from foam and
fiberglass * Custom-designed front brake scoops built
with CNC machine * Front bumper length and width cut down * Custom-designed cowl covers built with
CNC machine *
Hand-built engine compartment * Custom-designed hood hinges built with
CNC machine * Rolled all four fender lips * Hand-fabricated aluminum belly pans |
Lease from
$ per mo.
|
|
|
|
The Ring brothers just completed
their latest creation, a '67 fastback dubbed Kona (Hawaiian for black) and are
already dreaming about the next Mustang on the drawing board. "I don't want to give away
all my secrets, but we want to build a car that, when it's done, looks like
it's been almost through the ringer," Jim Ring explained, meaning as if
the car had been road raced, used and abused, yet is brand new. Maybe that's what's next for
modified Mustangs: steering away from the bling bling. That's where Jim and
Mike Ring are headed. In the case of Kona, they tried really hard to make the
'67 appear "not homemade." Just three years ago, their first
creation, a '66 convertible, sent shock waves through the Mustang world. Their
second Mustang restomod, a '65 fastback in a more subdued bluish-gray, grabbed
even more attention. Both cars were heralded as much more than mere modifieds.
Basically, the Ring brothers' Mustangs are more like high-dollar street rods,
yet they aren't. They're restomods. Instead of having a combination of
aftermarket bolt-on parts, a lot is fabricated from scratch. Kona, their third build, has
already gathered as much or more fanfare from the cognoscenti. On display
nationally last July at the 8th Goodguys PPG Nationals in "Not too bad" is the
understatement of the year in the classic Mustang and Ford hobby. "Not car
builders" is definitely no longer true. "Top five" refers to the
top five finalists for Goodguys Street Machine of the Year. The arrival of a new Ring brothers
Mustang has become an event, like the unveiling of a new car. If you're a Web
geek, perhaps you saw this '67 fastback last summer when word burned across
sites like wildfire. We got a phone call from a Mustang aficionado who
feverishly asked, "Have you seen the new Ring brothers Mustang?
Everything's black; the body, the interior, even the wheels. It's
incredible." They named the car Kona for a reason. "I think we're going to start
naming all our cars, so people can identify them," Mike Ring explains.
"That beats calling the first one 'that red '66 convertible' or the second
one 'that bluish-gray '65 fastback.'" We flew to Perhaps most revealing was the CNC
machine operating under the supervision of Todd Milanowski. "He's one of
our partners," Mike explained. Todd was watching the CNC machine bore out
another hood hinge from a block of solid aluminum. "See that row of
aluminum blocks? That's $2,000 worth." Billet aluminum is not cheap.
Dissatisfied with stock Mustang hood hinges, the Ring brothers built one of
their own. After careful consideration, they paid big bucks for a CNC machine
so they could carve out copies of this beautiful set of hinges that make hood
alignment precise and smooth as silk. The owner of the '67 Mustang currently
under construction wanted a set of hinges, at $600 a pop, for his 289 Hi-Po
coupe. In the break/conference room, we
noticed an ink sketch of a '67 Mustang fastback propped up on the window ledge.
A noticeably un-bling green, this 'Stang is the next project. Kona, unlike the
first two Ring Mustang modifieds, also started out as a sketch. "This is the first time we
had somebody help us draw the car. That was Shawn Smith out of Apparently, the Ring brothers are
gearing up. Fabrication-wise, their first two cars were hit and miss. Jim would
build a part basically from scratch, and if he didn't like it, he tossed the
metal in the scrap heap and started over. Such trial-and-error designing and
building is very time-consuming. As we approached Kona in the
corner of the shop, the car appeared cool, although not in the style of a
vintage The scoops in the front valance
are unlike anything we've seen hung on a Mustang before. The taillight housings
are also brand-new, another Ring fabrication, popping out of a custom
carbon-fiber taillight board. A large R in the flat pop-open gas cap matches
the R offset in the blackout grille. The R, of course, stands for Ring. The metal inserts in the tops of
the fenders are extremely cool; ditto for the metal fixtures in the sail panels
of the fastback roofline. Obviously custom-built, they are metal and have an
OEM look about them. Even the rocker panels are custom-built and made of steel. Todd bored out hood hinges in the
CNC machine less than 50 feet away. The Ring brothers are moving towards being
car builders, and Todd could machine any one of these custom parts for
installation on other Ring brothers builds, or if the market is there, on other
custom Mustangs. "If somebody wants to build
the taillight panel, we can sell them the buckets," Mike said. "Or,
like the cowl, anybody could just bolt those pieces into another Mustang,"
referring to the inserts on top of the cowl just behind the fiberglass grille.
It seems everywhere you look on this car, there is a unique, fabricated part. Press the red button inside the
rear scoops and the door pops open. Inside, the Ring brothers have gone to
extreme lengths. "My mother always said, if you can get over the dog, you
can get over the tail," Jim recalled, "And I guess what I mean by
that is, if you can get through the outside of the car, you can spend a few
hours on the inside." Anybody can buy and install parts.
What makes this interior pop is the fresh, new layout. The white gauge cluster
is completely custom, laid out on a carbon-fiber dash directly in front of the
Waterfall steering wheel from Tor Caraway, who has experience
fabricating parts clear back to Shelby-American at the "It's a fuel-injected
eight-stack," Jim said. Horsepower is around 500-525 for the Roush 402R,
which is a bored and stroked 351. The stacks refer to the four Momar injection
units, each topped with a small air cleaner sandwiched between polished
housings, too much bling for Jim's ever-accelerating pursuit of a more
OEM-appealing restomod. "You either revert to all
painted stuff, which has been done a billion times, or all chrome stuff, which
has been done a billion times. We're trying to find a way through the middle of
all that mumbo jumbo to come up with something new in the engine
compartment." As you can see, the Ring brothers
are treading a fine line in the looks department, and although going fast is
not the be-all, do-all, end-all purpose of their build, Kona is no slouch on
power. This is a hot rod, but the Ring brothers question the exact meaning of
hot rod and the direction of state-of-the-art, Mustang-restomod car building. "What do people want in a hot
rod?" Jim asked philosophically. "To feel shook up and deafened by
the exhausts or clean, crisp, unseen ideas put together with good horsepower,
good brakes, and a smooth, quiet ride? If that's possible in an old car, what
are we chasing?" Jim and Mike even discussed the
suspension. Basically, it's got a Fat Man front suspension with an Air Ride
four-link in the rear. They contemplated going back to all rubber mounts and
trying to build a car that's "cool and soft." As far as looks go, cool is the
objective. Jim believes everybody throws up their hands in resignation,
thinking the only thing that's cool is to go back to the early days and the "It was cool, don't get me
wrong, but nobody can think outside that box. That's what we're trying to do,
think outside that box to create ideas and things that people will look back on
30 years from now and want." We can't wait to see the next Ring
brothers Mustang. Give them another seven to eight months. We'll be back. The
Details 1967
Mustang fastback, Kona Owner:
Les Orosz, Engine * Roush 402R, 500-plus horsepower * Concept One pulleys * MSD Pro-Billet distributor * K&N air filters * Momar eight-stack fuel injection *
Weldon fuel pump and filters * * Earl's fittings and braided hose * Fuel Safe fuel cell * Classic Tube stainless fuel and brake
tubing Transmission * Ford Racing flywheel * Performance Automatic C4 Rearend * 9-inch by John's Rearends * 3.55 gears Exhaust * Hooker headers * Flowmaster mufflers and tubing, 21/2-inch * Exhaust tips made from 1/4-inch aluminum
plate Suspension * Front: Fat Man with Air Ride air struts * Rear: Air Ride Air Bar * Total Control X-bracing and sub-frame
connectors Brakes * Front: Baer brakes, 13.5-inch rotors, PBR
two-piston calipers * Rear: Baer brakes, 13.5-inch rotors, PBR
single-piston calipers Wheels * Front: SSR 18x9, exclusive through Tire
Rack * Rear: SSR 19x10, exclusive through Tire
Rack Tires * Front: Goodyear F1 Supercar, P245/40ZR18 * Rear: Goodyear F1 Supercar, P285/35ZR19 Interior * Honda S2000 start button * Flaming River steering column and
Waterfall steering wheel * Stewart Warner Maxim gauges from Fuel
Systems of Milwaukee, WI * Recaro seats * Kenwood stereo and speakers * * All Mustang parts purchased from Mustangs
Plus * Dash, console, door panels, rear seat
delete, rollbars, and sill plates handmade by Ring brothers Exterior * Glasurit Hi-Intensity Black applied by
Sim-the-Great * Molded-in rear valance, aluminum diffuser
in valance * Three-piece bumper * Carbon-fiber taillamp panel * Custom-designed taillight housings built
with CNC machine * Ground effects made from steel * Eliminated door handles and drip rails * Custom-designed front-fender inserts
built with CNC machine * Reworked Shelby-style hood * Complete front nose made from foam and
fiberglass * Custom-designed front brake scoops built
with CNC machine * Front bumper length and width cut down * Custom-designed cowl covers built with
CNC machine *
Hand-built engine compartment * Custom-designed hood hinges built with
CNC machine * Rolled all four fender lips * Hand-fabricated aluminum belly pans |
