Until I stumbled onto this site I thought I pretty much knew the differences between a hipo and nonhipo kar. Now I find myself running outside to check my leaf springs, axle bumper, fuel pump, etc. The information is great, even when there is disagreement, at least we can draw our own conclusions.
Alright, this is my little story on how I became an accidental K owner. I was driving a 65 coupe in high school and a 66 coupe in college. My senior year of college was 1989 and I answered an ad in a local shopper listing two 65 Mustangs and one 67 Mustang. Upon arriving at the owners farm it was obvious that two other guys were there before me which meant if there were any good deals they would get them. The cars were literally behind a barn in the weeds, so I started checking out the one car no one was looking at. The hipo fender emblem made my heart skip a beat, but while looking the car over it became obvious I didn't know how to tell a hipo from a 289-4v. After ten or fifteen minutes the prospective buyers left and the owner approached me. Instead of telling me the cars were sold, he said, "You can have that car for $500, but you've got to take all three." That was a great deal, but I was a flat broke college student, so I had to borrow the money from my parents and use their pickup and trailer to haul them to their farm.
Once the cars were safely home I found an old Mustang Monthly with a hipo identification article. The good news was most of the hipo driveline was intact, the bad news was that the car was rusted beyond repair. In the early 90' a Hemmings ad located an affordable 65 K fastback body shell in Mississippi that I brought home with intentions of combining the two. Over the years some nice parts have been collected, but progress more or less ground to a halt. Hopefully this post marks the beginning of some progress and over time a ground up restoration.
Dave