The depressing thing about great accomplishments is that some of them don’t last very long. You can spend hours creating an impressive sand castle, only to have it dissolved and washed away by the tide. A multicourse Thanksgiving meal takes all day to prepare, but is devoured in a matter of minutes.
That knowledge didn’t stop Ford, though. They waited almost 50 years to put another one of its Mustangs on the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. The automaker also spent six weeks preparing to cart up and assemble a 2015 convertible model of its icon 1,000 feet above the streets of Manhattan. Ford only had six hours to get the car up there and put it back together, and has two days – April 16 and 17 – to display it. This amazing feat will vanish by 8 a.m., April 18, when the space opens for the day to the public.
Ford turned to the company that helped it do the same thing back in 1965: DST Industries. Due to the edifice’s top spire and height, the use of a helicopter or crane was out of the question. The two companies had to use the Empire State Building’s freight and passenger elevators without damaging their art deco wood and brass trim. In order to prepare, Ford gave DST two prototype 2015 convertible shells. One was for the vehicle that would ultimately be displayed. “The second body was used as a donor by DST metal fabricators to determine where to make the cuts and to fit a custom-built tubular steel subframe that would hold all the sections together.” DST even constructed bespoke carts and crates to transport each section of the Mustang.
The firm practiced reconstructing the drop-top over the course of several days in order to meet the tight build-time constraints.
You can see pictures of the tear-down in the gallery below.
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
