Shelby GT 500 KR Convertible risen from the ashes....

[cjshaker]

Been pretty busy lately, but I just wanted to share this because I thought it was pretty amazing.

Long story short....guy buys new '67 (or '68, can't remember) Shelby GT 500 KR Convertible. Guy drives it for 24,000 miles then parks it in a barn. 40+ years later, guy decides he wants it restored. Car is ate up from 40+ years of damp storage. Guy wants it restored anyway.

A VERY good Ford loving friend of mine, who is responsible for my love of the FE engine, is back doing his art after a long hiatus. He has tons of experience rebuilding/restoring cars and does first quality work. He was contacted to do this job, but after seeing the car decided the body was too far gone. It literally had pinholes EVERYWHERE except for certain parts of the front clip, and all the sheetmetal was very thin. So bad that even the rear torque boxes, inner rockers etc. had pinholes throughout. The car was 100% ALL original including ALL rubber and engine components, but the body was wasted. After looking extensively for a good replacement body, none could be found. Shelby convertibles have several unique pieces that make it different from the standard Mustang from what I understand. A Dynacorn body would not work.

After much thought, he decided to build a body from scratch using the unique Shelby parts removed from the original body, which, amazingly, were the only pieces salvageable on the whole body. He built a jig, then proceeded to take precise measurements of every spotweld, part and piece on the original. Then he proceeded to build the replacement body....frame rail by frame rail, body panel by body panel. He just finished the body, and I am totally amazed at how accurate and original looking it turned out. The pictures don't do it justice. It has to be seen in person to appreciate the quality and amount of work that went into this thing.













Here's a shot showing just how thin and rotten the original metal was, in areas that you normally don't see even in a rusted old Mustang unless it's been sitting in a junkyard for many years.



I know some guys will scoff at the car not being "original" anymore, and it's true, it isn't. But it's saved, and there will be another Shelby KR convertible back on the road soon with it's all original 428 drivetrain and optional equipment just as it came from the factory. My friend never ceases to amaze me. I think he did an outstanding job!

[jayb]

That is quite an effort, and it looks like it turned out very well.  It is a '68, by the way, same as mine, although mine is just a GT-500.  One of the unique features of the 68 Shelby convertibles was the sheet metal where the roll bar is attached.  Looks like in the pictures he has cut some of that away to get the roll bar out.  I was amazed when I first took my car apart at how cobbled up the factory bracket and welds for installing the roll bar looked, but that's just the way they did it back then.

[machoneman]

Nice and thanks for the story. I wonder if he'll share how many hours he has in it or will have when it's done.

[cjshaker]

One of the unique features of the 68 Shelby convertibles was the sheet metal where the roll bar is attached.  Looks like in the pictures he has cut some of that away to get the roll bar out.

Jay, he dismantled the original car piece by piece so that any salvageable part could be re-used. Luckily the front shock towers with engine mounts, windshield frame, dash and the all-important top well were still useable, as was the fiberglass hood and decklid. He was working on the roll bar when I was there. I had some pictures of the build in process but accidentally deleted them on my phone

Nice and thanks for the story. I wonder if he'll share how many hours he has in it or will have when it's done.

Bob, he told me the hours he had in it but I can't remember. I've been pretty busy lately and this was about 3 weeks ago. My memory doesn't go back that far.   I do remember him saying that he had just a tick over $20,000 in the body, including his time. He's experienced in this sort of stuff so he's very efficient. That's still less than a Dynacorn body which would have required a lot of work to be transformed and still wouldn't have been as correct as this body. I'll give some updates as the build progresses. The original engine had to have the pistons hammered out, but it was saveable and is having machine work done now.

I watched him rebuild the whole rear of a '64 1/2 Mustang convertible years ago, and I thought that was pretty crazy. But that was at the height of the '64 1/2 craze, so it was worth it at the time. This guy was a huge influence on me when I was younger. There was/is nothing he can't do once he sets his mind to it. I used to walk into his shop and gawk at the row of 427 blocks, steel cranks, TP, HR and aluminum "X" TP heads that he had. He had a couple of FE powered Mustangs (one being an injected drag car) and his brother had an original '69 Boss 429 that was powered by an SOHC. As a teenager, how can you not be influenced by that sort of thing?

[mlcraven]

Great job and nice to see the old girl coming back to life.

As a teenager I was fortunate to have a similar mentor; although he wasn't a Ford man but a retired Chrysler dealership owner (Mathers Motors, Exeter, ON Canada).  Harry started out as a apprentice auto mechanic at the tail-end of the Great Depression and, after WWII service, went to work at the local Chrysler dealership, eventually ending up owning it.  After selling out in the mid-70s, he worked part-time for my mother's family doing odd jobs that interested him, in the process taking the teenaged-me and my '71 340 Duster under his wing. There was nothing, absolutely NOTHING, car-related that he couldn't do -- mechanical, electrical, paint, body, upholstery, fabrication, whatever.  Even more impressive, he was a great teacher and loved sharing his storehouse of knowledge.  He had only one standard -- excellence.

Funnily enough, he had little time for muscle cars, claiming they were hard-to-sell, uneconomical, warranty pigs.  He passed away a few years ago in his 90s.

Apologies for the hijack; but the level of exquisite craftsmanship brings back memories.       

[cjshaker]

No hijack, Michael. I enjoyed reading your story. If it weren't for mentors, most of us would struggle to improve or even learn the car craft. No internet back then, so teaching a younger person and passing on a skill was important. Still is, actually. I was lucky to have a couple, my Dad being the big one, but this guy fired my love of the muscle era  Fords.

[BruceS]

Doug,
+1 from me and I've really enjoyed seeing the pics and reading about the progress.  It would be interesting to see how he set up the cut-apart unibody on the jig to keep it straight / square and get the suspension pickup points correct, etc.  It's the ultimate in recycling for a valuable and desirable machine.  The fact that it's a convertible is even more difficult I imagine.  Can you say more on why the Dynacorn unibody was not as desirable?  Is it the fact that there is no original Ford sheet metal?  Or are there other problems with those bodies that are tough to make correct?

Bruce

[babybolt]

Well there's proof you don't need a fancy chassis jig or surface plate to do a good job.  It looks like a sheet of plywood on a wood frame with a sheet of steel on top.

[cjshaker]

Doug,
+1 from me and I've really enjoyed seeing the pics and reading about the progress.  It would be interesting to see how he set up the cut-apart unibody on the jig to keep it straight / square and get the suspension pickup points correct, etc.  It's the ultimate in recycling for a valuable and desirable machine.  The fact that it's a convertible is even more difficult I imagine.  Can you say more on why the Dynacorn unibody was not as desirable?  Is it the fact that there is no original Ford sheet metal?  Or are there other problems with those bodies that are tough to make correct?

Bruce

Bruce, I did have some pictures of the "jig" he made to set the frame up, but stupid me deleted them off of my phone before I downloaded them   The Dynacorn wasn't a viable option for several reasons. First, they're not available in a convertible body style. Second, even if the fastback body had been used it would have required removing the top, windshield frame and the entire back half of the body sheetmetal since it's all different on a coupe, even more-so on a convertible, and even more on a Shelby convertible. Given the price of the body, he would have had more money in doing it that way than the way chosen. Lastly, if he had chosen that last route, there are subtle things about the body that would have immediately been give-aways to a trained eye that it was a Dynacorn. I'm not saying the Dynacorn isn't a good body, because it is, it's just not intended to mimic the factory body in every detail. The guy isn't trying to deceive anyone, but given the options, it was decided that it would have been the "less incorrect" way of doing it...to make up a word 

Well there's proof you don't need a fancy chassis jig or surface plate to do a good job.  It looks like a sheet of plywood on a wood frame with a sheet of steel on top.

Bolt, he took great pains in making sure that the home made jig was perfectly flat. He started by tacking some small square tubing to the sheet to set the frame rail widths and keep them parallel and at the correct geometry. LOTS of measuring, checking, remeasuring and double checking on the original car was done to insure that it was duplicated exactly. When I first saw it, he just had the front and rear frame rails set and nothing else. I can tell you I thought he was crazy, that's for sure. But the man is very good at figuring out how to do things without big dollar set-ups. Spacers were also used at key points to get proper horizontal angles. The only issues he's having are with the aftermarket fiberglass parts. The fit just isn't what it should be, but he'll rework them. Except for the hood and decklid, the original fiberglass had become too brittle and unusable.

I blame this guy for my OCD in trying to make everything perfect when I work on something. At least that's my story.
I'll probably stop back over this weekend and see how it's progressing.

[chris401]

Looks like what I have a head of me on my 65 F100. It seems Ford engineers didn't put a lot of consideration into water drainage. I have rust pockets in places that just hold condensation. I saved my doors by drilling extra holes in the bottom. Probialy should tell dad thanks, one of the few times I followed his advice without any lip (15yo).

[Qikbbstang]

panels/subframe of a Mustang  from scratch for $20,000.

    Am I missing something he actually manufactured from sheet metal the fenders, doors, quarter panels, floor pan etc.?........ Or did he use reproduction parts/sheetmetal and spotweld them in the original points?...........
   I ask because I scored a matching pair of original 67 doors that obviously were from a desert location all their life. The cars original white paint was wearing thin on the C sections of both outer door shells and the brown factory primer was showing through them big time yet they were not even surface rusted. The chrome of the vent window assembly (only got on side) was 100% pit free even inside the door.  I had a high end Thoroughbred Mustang aficionado/dealer give me a value and I was surprised, but well understand - they are "mint", NOS is not available and a door is so easy to inspect on the car for correctness/modifications. To think of the complexity of making a correct door with the textured "grain" on the interior facing sheet metal, hinge and latch end of the doors, all the guts reinforcements within and the correct drain holes etc would seem to me to take hundred$ of hour$ just to reproduce a correct door.   


 Re: "After much thought, he decided to build a body from scratch using the unique Shelby parts removed from the original body, which, amazingly, were the only pieces salvageable on the whole body. He built a jig, then proceeded to take precise measurements of every spotweld, part and piece on the original. Then he proceeded to build the replacement body....frame rail by frame rail, body panel by body panel."

[cjshaker]

panels/subframe of a Mustang  from scratch for $20,000.

    Am I missing something he actually manufactured from sheet metal the fenders, doors, quarter panels, floor pan etc.?........ Or did he use reproduction parts/sheetmetal and spotweld them in the original points?...........

  Yes, BB, he used aftermarket parts and welded them together. He's pretty darn good, but not THAT good.

[427Fastback]

BB...NOS is out there.You have to be relentless in your search and don't give up.This is my NOS 68 door.I purchased last year and I found it where anyone could have...

I can certainly appreciate all the work involved in the resurrection of the GT-500.Its a huge amount of work and can be very frustrating.Those appear to be Dynacorn doors.I have one on my 67..The door itself fits fine but I spent days fitting the vent window frame and dealing with the door latch hole being slightly out...That's the price for a rust free door tho.....Cory








 

[cjshaker]

20 years ago you could find NOS easily and get a good price. 10 years ago you could find them after some searching, but you'd pay for them. Now NOS takes a lot of searching and you'll pay dearly for them. But most in the know will readily admit that later NOS parts can be ill fitting due to worn out dies and still require lots of massaging and work to get a good fit, especially with body panels. Older dated NOS parts are the best route but near impossible to find. That's why original rust free parts are the best choice, but with Mustangs having been so popular, the original parts supplies have all but disappeared.

Getting aftermarket panels to fit and work properly is the most time consuming and frustrating part of any build, but it's also the key to getting a car to look good and not appear to be some hack job. It takes an enormous amount of time. People who pay for these restorations often fail to understand that.

[427Fastback]

Agreed....NOS Mustang stuff has pretty much finally dried up.What is still out there has doubled in price..I also agree that most people don't realize how much fitting is involved...the welding is usually the easy part..

The only thing that is a "bolt on" is a air freshener..