Have you ever wondered what goes on in the mind of a person who takes a good-looking Mustang—one without dents or that’s never been involved in any accident, the type you’d buy even if it was used by ten owners—then ruins it? So this person buys this fairly average-looking muscle car, then wakes up the next day after a sudden surge of crazy ideas over what to do with his latest catch flowed through his evil mind. But the idea isn’t the worst part–execution is what distinguishes good mods from the bad and ugly ones.
Not everyone has the right execution whether they have a really creative or crazy-weird modification idea, but if they get someone who can help them (if they’re really genuine about doing a great mod), it's possible to get something good or better done to their otherwise ‘boring’ car. But there’s an increasing percentage of people who take a good thing and just want to ruin it, like literally show their evil side and add ugly modifications, regardless of what it’ll cost them.
In our view, these people don't mean well at all for any car they get their hands on, which is why they take a great car and ruin its appearance, making it look stupid and horrible, sometimes even transforming it to something else–it stops being a car and is morphed into more of a monster with each added modification. Check out some of the crazy modders who did the worst things on their Mustangs.
22. Confused-Stang
Goodness me! We’ve seen ugly Mustang mods before, but this one should take the crown for being the most confused of all car mods, in general. This looks like a combination of ideas from the front bumper to the colors to the hood–everything. Our guess is that he wanted a sporty look for his car, something like a GT Mustang kind of feel, but the execution brought out results even the owner probably never expected. So, when he couldn’t quite figure out his car after the full reveal, he had to add Ford and Mustang all over the car just so people wouldn’t doubt the car’s make and model. Actually, without the badge, nothing else about this car says it's a real Mustang.
21. Super-Stang
This is one of those car mods where you can see that the owner wanted to achieve so much with it–more like "create a super car" (not a supercar)–as in a car that can be everything he dreams of–comfortable, trendy, souped-up, and smashing all at the same time. The interior, by the way, looks like his own living room, as it's fitted with actual sofas cherry-picked from his own sofa set (or maybe an old set that he just couldn’t sell or give out). Then, there are the scissor doors, the ugly color combo, and the mags on the wheels. Overall, he didn’t do the worst of mods on his Mustang as you’ll see with others, but he still makes the list. No one recreates a Mustang into a living-room experience–it’s just wrong.
20. Slammed-Stang
Although most people may actually excuse this car if it was owned by a lady, it still doesn’t make the mod right. In fact, not all ladies consider pink their favorite color; there are men who love it and would splash it on anything–including their cars. The color isn’t bad, as such, but it just doesn’t augur well with a Mustang. This is a serious car, a strong machine backed by a very rich heritage of automotive excellence, so no one is excused for messing it up like this. If you want to do something hot pink or crazy neon, go with a Cadillac or some ghetto donk in the hood but not a Mustang. To make it worse, it’s slammed, has an ugly hood, and has even uglier fender and side skirting. Let’s not even say more about this car, as we’d need a week to finish venting about it.
19. Continental-Stang
Where do we even begin with this one? So, the owner decided to name it "Mustang Ginny," but that’s not the problem here–that can be dealt with. What we're chiefly concerned about is the ugly continental kit added as an extension to the car, which some people may hail for capturing the '50s look, but we’re in a totally different dispensation today. People don’t do this anymore, at least those who actually understand car design, form, function, and style. There’s no value that that kit is adding; in fact, it probably makes the car even harder to drive or adds to the weight it already bears. It must be even embarrassing to drive it while on the way to getting it removed. It makes you wish you could buy the car from this guy so you could remove that ugly piece of dated continental junk from it.
18. Combo-Stang
This is perhaps one of the best examples of car abuse or cruelty inflicted on a car. Imagine, this was a Mustang. Technically, it still is, but its additions give you the notion that it’s an alien mechanical lifeform. We think the guy had all the good intentions of creating a supercar because this car is literally a combination of different car parts: Lotus Elise headlights, Cadillac taillights, a second-generation Camaro grille, a Panoz Roadster intake lookalike, Testarossa side strakes, a Vortec supercharger, and underneath, a Mustang V6. The owner probably saw that he wasn’t going anywhere with his crazy idea, so he decided to sell it, initially for $32,500, but he later reduced the price to $5,995. If you think you can do something about this, like bring it back to being a ‘normal’ car, you could look for the owner and have a chat–you never know.
17. Hell-Stang
If you look closely at the front bumper of this poor Mustang, the words that pop out are ‘sack of sh*t,’ regardless of the whole quote, and this car is nothing short of that. How do you, in your right mind, take a proper Mustang–because this car looks very strong and able to run despite the faded paint on its body–and then add skulls of all sizes, some, we’re not even sure if they’re from a human or an animal. Why would anyone want to do such evil to a car? If it's not worth your love, give it away, sell it as scrap, or just sell the whole car and get whatever cash you sell it for. This car is a manifestation of how disturbed the owner really is from within. It's hellish!
16. Steel-Stang
Gosh! This car looks so sad. It’s like it wants to cry but still has to be strong because it has the soul of a muscle car. The wheels and rims resemble those of a Toyota–a beater Toyota to be precise. It’s more like the owner is punishing his car because it failed at something, or maybe, one day, it just refused to start or he couldn’t achieve the mod he wanted, so he put the blame on the car. Well, at least, it still has a home, seeing as the garage is clean and well lit. Maybe he could just use a little advice on how to revamp the car, like get a new paint job or some work done on the body and some windows perhaps. This one lost its luster too soon, yet it’s not time to retire it.
15. Nankang-Stang
While we may not know the meaning of "Nangkang," what we do know is there’s a tire shop by the same name, a shop known for selling tires that ‘share your passion for safety, comfort, and reliability on the road.’ Perhaps, the owner of this Mustang got new Nankang tires fitted on his car, so he kept the label on for such purposes, or it’s probably a way of advertising the tires, what with the huge ‘N’ sticker on the door. We’re not convinced that he did any good to the car. There’s a sort of roll cage around the car, the ugly matte color, and the oversized wheels. It looks buffed actually. This is for the crazy ones, though—those whom Steve Jobs termed as the misfits, the square pegs in a round hole. It about those who think it can be done being the ones who actually do–his quote cuts across the board, really.
14. Munch-Stang
It doesn’t take you more than a minute to know that this Mustang owner either lives in a farm setting or is possibly a farmer. How, you ask? The brush guard and the horse feeder give it away so easily. But why would he want to put a horse feeder on a Mustang? Lol! If he wanted a custom bumper or even a grille guard, at the least, he should've gone to a professional, not gone the DIY way and ended up with such an ugly creation. The right way of using a feeder when you want to feed your cattle is on a pickup, not on a Mustang because then, how would you drive through the land while dropping the feed? It’ll be even funnier recording the cattle following the Mustang to eat. But then again, maybe this is Texas.
13. Ranger-Stang
The only good thing about this Mustang Ranger thing is that it was done neatly; otherwise, it should be killed with fire already! The more you look at it, it starts to resemble a boat. You kinda feel like you want to find the owner and hurt him. I mean, look at that derpy hood and the stick-ons on the windows and what not–they really trip you out. In fact, the closest this car gets to isn't even a Mustang or a Ranger. It’s like the twin to the Subaru Baja. The Baja is an all-wheel-drive, four-door, open-bed pickup truck, which was manufactured by Subaru from 2002-2006. This car could handle carrying passengers but still carry loads with the capacity of a pickup truck, and Subaru was happy to sell it for a whole decade.
12. Buff-Stang
This car is totally buffed, more like a Mustang on major steroids. If you saw the army-green Roush supercharged Mustang GT that did rounds on the interwebs about two years ago, this owner probably wanted something just like it. It came close but didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. Either way, this isn't how you do a Mustang mod. Fine, the wheels and the color are fantastic–there’s no doubt about that–but beyond aesthetics, there’s function and performance, which is probably what most modders forget. The wheels are big, stupid and garish, making the car look like a death-race-themed vehicle or something like that. It's like the same style with many bikes that have big, fat tires on them–this isn’t for every vehicle, though.
11. McQueen-Stang
Well if it ain’t Lightning McQueen himself! I think it was Luther Vandross who sang that ‘if you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with.’ Well, it was originally done by Stephen Stills, but you get the point, right? So, this guy, possibly a staunch lover of the Cars animation series—and we think he’s watched all three productions—must be a lover of McQueen. I mean, who isn’t? McQueen has a way of making you just want to transform your car into him, especially the part he says, ‘Speed—I am speed.’ While he may have nailed the whole McQueen look, sadly, it doesn’t go down well with the Mustang because he seems to have overdone it to the point it looks like it's used to market the film. Not too bad, but less really is more.
10. Royce-Stang
There’s a whole lot of modding going on here because, by the time this car was transformed into a Rolls-Royce kind of Mustang, it had taken quite some time, money, and work. This guy seems to have put the Mustang front on the body of a black Rolls-Royce or perhaps painted the whole thing black. Maybe the parts were different colors prior to the final look. It’s like the mullet of the car world, and it seems to be business at the front and more partying at the back–a rather sinfully ugly conversion, which must've been very expensive to do, and we have no idea why he did it. It sort of takes you back to the days of Tiffany Coaches. The front of the hood also looks much taller than the back, and the headlights look out of place–clearly, some people have more cash than taste.
9. Attack-Stang
If you take out the ugly red duct tape and the hideous ‘teeth’ that make the grille on this car, then what you have left is the real shell of an innocent Mustang that didn’t really need to go through all this hell from Cruella herself. This car can be salvaged, actually, because what this guy did is just waste red duct tape to destroy the bonnet, add hideous headlights on top of the hood vent of the car, and then extended the tape to the front bumper, took out the grille, and replaced it with what looks like papier mache teeth–yuck! So now, it’s less of a Mustang and more of an attack car. Thankfully, if you get this car, you can redeem it and breathe new Mustang life into it all isn't lost.
8. Ghostbuster-Stang
What goes in must go out, and this rings true for many systems, not just cars. But does having an extended dual exhaust really add any value to the process? Let’s just make things clearer so you see why this is the worst thing to do to a Mustang. Every car engine sucks in both air and fuel, which is then compressed then burnt through combustion in the cylinder, and the leftover is forced out through the exhaust system. The main reason for a dual exhaust is to get the leftovers out much faster for the next exchange to start faster, so you can have more horsepower, as it were. So, it isn’t just for looks, like this owner tried to make it–it actually gives significant power increase. But an extended dual-exhaust system that looks like the tailpipes on JWD mods doesn’t add any value–sorry!
7. Cool-it-stang
There's a reason why the radiator of a car is placed under the hood. A radiator, for modders like this one who wouldn't have known better, is meant to keep your car cool. But there are many reasons why this would backfire—at least to the detriment of your car. If you realize that your car is smoking or that the heat just shot up, there's something wrong—there's little coolant left, your radiator cap malfunctioned, or your radiator is clogged. This guy probably replaced his radiator but got the wrong size, and so it just couldn't fit into the engine like it's supposed to. So, what did he do? He tore into his bonnet, let the radiator pop out of the hood, and just like that, the whole car was a mess!
6. Monster Truck
This actually turned out to be a monster or, if you like, a simple Mustang that's been forced to man up (for lack of a better term). However, it has the semblance of what we know as the "gasser culture." Gassers were cars based on closed body models back in the 1930s to the mid-'60s, cars that were stripped of much weight and jacked up with a beam or a tubular axle such that there's better distribution of the weight on acceleration. Today, modders use weight-reduction techniques like fiberglass panels or stripped interiors and the like, but back then, gassers were so popular. This owner most likely wanted a lifted-up Mustang, something that rides like a gasser or just something that would intimidate other road users—we think the latter is closer to the truth.
5. Drag-Stang
We've seen worse Mustang mods than this, but there's a reason this one made the list. Why would you want to do every mod there is out there or that you could think of (probably to exhaust your ideas) all in one car and at one go? This is what the owner of this car tried to do. I mean, you've got a bar in there, a huge spoiler, and ugly stickers (we don't know what particular cause he's standing for). Then, there are the crazy windows and scissor doors like those of a Lamborghini. The hood actually opens up like the gates to Buckingham Palace. Then, you've got the Saleen bumper, the skirts and scoops, the white paint—it's just a mouthful, really.
4. Neon-Stang
When you look at this image, besides the neon-green (or yellow, depending on what you see) color all over its body and the white rims on the wheels, you wouldn't know it's a Mustang unless someone actually pointed that out to you. It looks like a Toyota or a Nissan beater car, or just something that's your ordinary, average beater but not a muscle car like the Mustang. That said, this looks like one of those owners who actually tried to do a clean mod, although some things weren't placed quite right. But then, he or she must've taken a step back, and probably, there wasn't enough money left to make adjustments. So naturally, what you do when the money runs out and the damage is done? You accept your faults, accept your creation, and live with it. Besides, even if you drive it around or park it somewhere, it's yours, and you spent your valuable dollars on it—at least it moves.
3. Racer-Stang
The idea behind this Mustang mod was to stuff an 18-liter engine from the Ford GAA V8 Sherman tank engine into a 1969 Mustang Fastback—isn't this just weird? The modder, who we hear is named "Iowahawk," literally took apart the Mustang engine and replaced it with a DOHC tank motor. This is pure madness! So, after the whole thing was over, he planned to drive it around on what he calls 'short cruises'—this with the aluminum 1,100-cubic-inch V8 engine used in WWII Sherman tanks built in the 1940s! By the way, these engines were gas burners with 500 horsepower and 1,050 lb-ft of torque and used mostly for military service but could do so much more with stock parts—pretty high tech for engines of those days, don't you think? If nothing else happened after this photo was taken, this is a wasted project.
2. Midlife Crisis
This particular Mustang GT has been nicknamed the "Pep Boys edition," and here's why. So the Pep Boys —Manny, Moe and Jack—came together about 96 years ago and started an American automotive aftermarket retail and service chain, which they first called the "Pep Auto Supply Company" and had its headquarters in Philadelphia. Pep Boys provides name-brand tires, maintenance and repair, parts, and expert advice for DIY mods, so naturally, this owner must've gone right there. But it looks like a bad case of midlife crisis because who would go adding silly stuff on a clean Mustang GT like this one, to the extent of adding unnecessary stickers like 'Limited Edition' or 'special edition'? Its got to be someone who isn't quite sure of his current state of being. There's a stage he skipped in life.
1. Mach Gone?
So, this is a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 whose owner was actually selling it. Specifically, it's done over 111,000 in mileage, uses gasoline, and has automatic transmission. The old school car was customized from fabrication without many premade aftermarket parts like those found in today's mods, with Cougar Shelby tail lights, a custom chopped top, and—get this—a custom diamond interior. Lol! Doesn't look like much of a luxury car to us from the outside, but what was once a glammed up interior is now old and faded and needs some replacing. As you can see, the front end is heavy with heavy-duty tilt and has molded fender flares and side vents. Plus, the hood scoop and the taller side mirrors exaggerate the top. The car looks like it's about to laugh its bonnet off!
