Kenny Dillon’s 1970 Mustang Muscle Machine is a Dream Come True
Whether it was a $300 beater or a new-at-the-time muscle car, many of us harbor the dream of owning that first ride again, or one like it. For Kenny Dillon, that dream car is the 1970 Mustang Mach 1 he bought after high school graduation.
Flash forward a few decades and Kenny is living his dream, albeit with a much-improved Mach 1.
“The first car I bought fresh out of high school was a ’70 Mustang Mach 1,” Kenny says. “And I always wanted another one. After building a couple other cars, I was never satisfied until I had another ’70 Mustang.”
Kenny finally found what he wanted – another 1970 Mustang – at a car show swap meet several years ago. “It was rough,” he says, “but it was somewhere to start.”
Kenny turned to Clayton and Joe Bond at their shop, Bond’s Body Shop, in Olive Hill, Kentucky, to polish five decades of wear and tear into the shiny finished product you see here. They started with a Roadster Shop Fast Track chassis to deliver a low and aggressive stance and agile handling. The new chassis included Wilwood disc brakes at all four corners behind Forgeline 18×9- and 19×12-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin 255/35/18 and 345/30/19 tires.
Under the hood, a big-time boost in power comes from a 5.0-liter Coyote engine built by Kennedy Performance and topped with a 2.9-liter Whipple supercharger, a combination that delivers an impressive 737 horsepower at the rear wheels. An accessory drive system from Power by the Hour Performance, a PRC cooling system, and custom headers are all part of the package, while a Tremec six-speed manual transmission from American Powertrain handles the gear-changing duties.
The Bonds restored the Mustang’s aged metal and applied the PPG Colorado Red paint. Body modifications include reworked front and rear pans, as well as a custom grille insert and custom under-hood panels. The front roll pan was modified to add driving lights, while the rear pan was tweaked to remove the stock backup lights and to route the exhaust tips through the pan. A custom hood scoop and LED conversion headlights from Dapper Lighting were also part of the exterior updates.
The Bonds also performed the interior transformation, using black leather with red highlights on 2019 Mustang GT bucket seats. The rear passenger space was reworked to highlight four woofers and provide storage space. Dakota Digital gauges reside in the original dash, while a Sparco steering wheel sits on an Ididit column. Vintage Air and Wilwood pedals help finish things off.
After a five-year build process, would Kenny change anything about his 1970 Mustang? “Nothing!” he says. We agree.
Photos by Damon Lee
