FOUND: ONE-OF-ONE 1967 FORD CUSTOM WITH A W-CODE 427

Here's a story for you: in the mid-1960s, a gentleman in New York had his dreams and savings account aimed squarely at a new 427 Cobra, but his soon-to-be ex-wife drained the account and disappeared. Stung, but still determined to get his 427 experience, he special-ordered a less-expensive base-model 1967 Ford Custom two-door sedan and had the Mahwah, New Jersey factory drop in the W-code 427-4V engine, which automatically triggered a four-speed gearbox and 15-inch nylon blackwall tires as “mandatory” options.

It would be the one and only Custom that year built with the W-code engine, which breathed through a single Holley 780-cfm four-barrel to produce 410 gross horsepower. To be clear, a handful of other full-size Fords were built with 427s. They included 10 Customs with the R-code 427-8V engine (dual quads) and 18 additional higher-trim models equipped with the W-code engine. That’s a mere 29 427 cars altogether, out of more than 952,000 full-size Fords built for the year.

And only one of them — this car — was a base Custom with the W-code engine.

Rated at 410 horsepower, the W-code 427-4V engine was a $1,081.81 option that also required a four-speed at an additional $184.02 and specific 15-inch tires at $46.53. Altogether, the special-order powertrain added more than 50 percent to the Custom’s base price. The engine is original and still wears a replacement distributor installed by the original owner. Photo: Barry Kluczyk

That original owner worked for a research laboratory and added a number of auxiliary instruments to monitor everything on the car. He even replaced a length of the radiator hose with see-through Pyrex to view coolant flow. He also swapped the distributor, added some big fog lights to the front bumper and a few other updates, but with all that, he drove the car very sparingly — and not at all by the early Nineties. It was parked outdoors, where it would sit unused (and rusting) for almost 20 years.

Adrian Clements, who started a 1967 Ford Full-Size registry and the YouTube channel “Yours in Old FoMoCo Iron,” rescued the car in early 2011, after the original owner listed it on Cragislist. There were only 15,000 miles on the odometer. With some assistance, he got the car running and driving by the summer that year, but left it unrestored. He didn’t drive it much, either. By late 2023, the odometer had barely clicked past the 16,000 mark.

The years spent languishing outdoors in upstate New York were not kind to the body or its original Dark Moss Green paintwork. Water intrusion at the cowl triggered rust in the floor and some rust-through is visible at the front of the hood, but otherwise the body is remarkably straight and, with only 16,000 original miles, the glass looks like new. Photo: Barry Kluczyk

That’s when Dan Jensen — a collector, engine builder and co-founder of the Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race — learned about the car. Clements was based in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, but had lived in Michigan for a number of years and that’s where the car was stored. Jensen lived less than two hours from the site, but Clements’s home in Moncton, New Brunswick was more like a 19-hour drive. In a tremendous show of faith, Clements mailed Jensen a key to the storage facility for an inspection.

“I love old full-size cars with low options and the biggest engine available,” says Jensen. “It was right up my alley and when I saw the car, I knew I had to have it.”

Inside, the Parchment cabin was cleaned up and revamped slightly with new carpet and replacement of the deteriorated cloth sections of the seat covers, but the rest is original, from the door panels and headliner to the split dash pad. The original owner’s phalanx of auxiliary gauges has been removed. Photo: Barry Kluczyk

A deal was worked out for the Custom and it’s now in Jensen’s garage. Thankfully, he plans to leave the rare 427 Ford essentially as is, focusing mostly on its preservation and roadworthiness. Until a little more than a decade ago, this ultra-rare full-size muscle car was unknown. Its discovery and documentation help complete the history of Ford’s factory 427 cars — and it proves there are still rare gems to be found.

2024-04-21T15:07:30Z dg43tfdfdgfd