You were taken for a ride. It's not original. Mustangs never had a three on the tree column shift. All of them, regardless of automatic or manual (3 or 4 speed), had a floor console shift. Demand your money back.
All EXCEPT the 64 1/2 & early '65 production run, which were based on the Falcon rolling gear/drivetrain. There once WAS a lot of argument over this; it was confirmed over 20 years ago against vehicles in the personal collections of the Ford family themselves. You need to take what you read on the internet with a pinch of salt, old friend.
Cheers,
mnem
*pwny-car dwagon*
I fully realize that the first generation Mustang was basically a modified Ford Falcon chassis and running gear. We had a '62 Ford Falcon. 170 motor, 3 on the tree. My knowledge of early Mustangs is not based upon the Internet. If there WERE column shift Mustangs as you claim they were most likely prototypes or engineering models that were never (legitimately) sold to the public. It wouldn't surprise me if a Ford family member has one squirreled away somewhere. Many vehicles went through development phases before the final design was released for manufacturing.
And as I side light...for what it's worth...I built a model of a 1964.5 Mustang Coupe and guess where the shifter was?
Uhhh-huh. Now I had a more than passing amount of time invested in this car; I actually had to replace the front half of the original floorpans due to rot in the footwells, and I did the "top-hat" under the intake cowl which leak caused that footwell rot. My god, what a dicksore those seat risers were...
But the rot only went right to the front edge of the risers, and the pans from JC Whiplash were just about 4" longer than I needed.
You know what I DID NOT fuck with? The original driveshaft tunnel, which did NOT have any holes in it for a shifter of any sort. Yes, I know the difference, and yes I know that nobody was in there before me. I've been working metal since I was 12 and I know where to look, and the difference between factory welds and yer cousin Jimbone's birdshit in the corners. I was the first sumbitch to lay grinder or cutoff to the inside of that car.
So stick that in your "Mustang Monthly" and "correct down to the paint marks on the springs" gospel according to Hemmings and smoke it, old friend.
mnem
Been dere, dunnat, burned da shirt. While I was wearing it.