In the collector car world, there are memorabilia collectors, and then there’s Luis Chanes. There are people who love Fords, and then there’s Luis Chanes. The difference? It’s like comparing someone with a garden gnome collection to the curator of the Louvre.
In the heart of Orange County, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Luis Chanes — a man whose passion for Ford is matched only by his skills with a scalpel. This ophthalmologist-turned-collector has been restoring and collecting Ford memorabilia and Mustangs since the early ’90s. Let’s just say that if Ford had a Hall of Fame, Chanes and his Surf City Mustangs and Muscle Cars Museum would be the MVP.
Luis Chanes welcomed me into his world, “I’m an ophthalmologist by trade, and I’ve been collecting and tracking and restoring Ford products since about 1992.” Clearly, the man has been bitten by the Ford bug, and there’s no cure in sight. His passion started young, fueled by the family cars, Falcons, his father owned.
But it was the ’69 Mach 1 428 Cobra Jet that truly ignited his obsession. “When I got out of college and out of my residency, the first thing I did was go out and buy a ’69 Mach 1 428 Cobra Jet,” he said. “The car was acquired locally and drove it a little bit, and then I decided, hey, I’m going to do a full restoration on this thing, and that’s where this all started.
” And boy, did it start something. Chanes has restored this Mach 1 three times, each time upping his gam.