HERSHEY, PA – With the Ford Mustang being among the most customized vehicles in the world, it’s no wonder there are so many companies that produce and sell all sorts of parts and accessories for Ford’s iconic pony car. One of those companies is CJ Pony Parts, with its headquarters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and a distribution center in Las Vegas. This well-known firm was founded back in 1984 by two friends who enjoyed cruising in Mustangs, and after more than 40 years it has grown to become one of the hobby’s most popular outlets for accessorizing Mustangs, Focus STs, Broncos and F-Series trucks.Of course, having employees who are themselves Mustang enthusiasts and active on social media helps. Like former spokesperson Bill Tumas, whose long-running series of YouTube videos showing and explaining how to install numerous parts on practically every make and model of Mustang helped grow subscribers to the CJ Pony Parts channel over the years from just a few hundred to more than a quarter-million today! With Bill moving on to a new initiative with Duncan Brothers Customs, the CJ brand ambassador torch has now been passed to Cory Jones, who also connects with customers in a personal way, especially after recently purchasing his very own S197.

As a thank-you to those who have supported CJ Pony Parts, the company hosts an annual East Coast “Customer Appreciation Day” car show – which this year was held at the spectacular AACA Museum in Hershey, PA – the Antique Automobile Club of America’s own “American Transportation Experience.” The show was free to attend, encouraging enthusiasts to bring out their stock or custom Mustangs not only to meet other like-minded Ford gearheads but to also get an opportunity to meet the CJ Pony Parts east coast team and tour the AACA’s museum. Despite the intense August heat and humidity on show day and a forecast that included a chance for severe storms, hundreds of dedicated fans and customers still showed up, displaying a wide variety of Mustangs across every generation.
Among the notable rare Mustangs on hand were a one-off custom new S650 Mustang in Yellow Splash Metallic; a 1-of-14 GT350-R wearing Grabber Lime paint; and even a 2022 Mach 1 in Cyber Orange with a “TT002” on its chassis number badge plaque. (For those who don’t know what a “TT” badge means, it stands for a “Tooling Tryout” vehicle – built to test new features, mechanicals, parts, etc., and are typically only driven by Ford engineers or executives. Yet this one was a privately owned “TT” Mustang on display at the show!) There were even some fully built drag cars that were trailered to the show field for display. If you couldn’t attend this year's customer appreciation day event – no worries: We were able to capture some of the cool rides in attendance in our exclusive photo gallery below:

FORD PERFORMANCE PHOTOS / COURTESY JOE DELADVITCH