P.S. The back story and details of the car in the attached article are very interesting. An impressive effort!
Very rare, but not the direction I would have gone. I don't like convertibles, I prefer fastback mustangs, and back when autos were 3 speed and the stick was 4, I always preferred the stick!
That said my brother's 69 Talladega had a Type III auto (a wide ratio C-6). It came with a 428 SCJ and .325 rear gears and the shotgun dual exhaust. With a few engine mods including an 800 double pumper Holley carb and the Mallory electronic photocell ignition, that car launched and ran very strong.
Ironically, all of the Talladega's came with bench front seats and auto transmission (with shift on the column). Only just over 500 were produced, but collector value never reached the expected levels (the opposite of the Mustangs).
We had seen this car for sale in a used car lot before the owner previous to my brother purchased it. It was white with a black hood and had Ts on the doors, no other identification. We did not know what it was, but the "knowledgeable" car salesman explained it to us ... he told us it was a Canadian Torino!
It was not till after my brother purchased it and did some research that we realized what it was.
The car was in a local garage and had a serious engine knock. The mechanic said it was a rod bearing. My brother told him it did not sound like a rod bearing to him. The mechanic insisted it was a rod bearing and said they were going to replace the engine with another one. My brother offered, and they accepted buying the engine for $100. When my brother pulled the heads, he found a nut had been dropped down the carburetor and welded to the top of the piston. He simply chiseled the nut off and put the engine back together and was "good to go".
The idiots at the garage did not understand the different Ford engine families, so they purchased a 429 engine to replace the 428. They had difficulty fitting it in the engine bay, the exhaust was not compatible, and the transmission was not compatible.
So, they called my brother and asked if he would sell the 428 back to them. My brother said he was not selling the engine but asked if they wanted to sell the car. He got it for an additional $500. That is how my brother ended up with a 69 Talladega for $600!
. My son is really into.all that, he has a Lazer engraver that he's done some neat stuff with and he's wanted a printer. He's been getting into sub and repairing amps lately, also got his ham radio ops license( not sure if he got the upgraded one yet, may have). He's a sharp kid and surpassed my knowledge of electricity, not that it took much.
. I basically got everything that was in the front and in the way. I would have probably finished the back, but I got to use that lift, so I burned a couple weeks of "spare" time utilizing that. That saved me a lot of time and money 
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