With my 68 Mustang fastback finished up and no time pressure on getting the engine in my race car back together, I'm FINALLY
getting around to fixing up my 68 Shelby GT-500 convertible. The car has been apart and up on jackstands since 2003, so it
is a long overdue project. I'm about a week into it now, and have been surprised at all the memories that have come flooding
back as I have been working on this car. So, I thought I would take some time to jot down a little about the car, and my history
with it. In fact, this car is the primary reason that I am a high performance and Ford enthusiast; it is an integral part of my
personal history, and I can't imagine what would have become of me without it.
Before I start, here are a few warnings. If you are a purist, GET OUT of this thread LOL! I'm not doing a stock
restoration on this vehicle, and what I am going to do with it will certainly offend you. In the shape that I bought it, it
was not a good restoration candidate anyway. A long time ago a good friend of mine told me, "Stockers are boring". I agree
with him, and have no interest in restoring the car to stock.
Second, bear in mind that I purchased this car when I was a kid of 19. I had no idea what I was doing, but I wanted to go
fast. The car was not valuable back then, so all modifications were on the table. Plus, like most of us I was learning as
I went along. I screwed up with this car a lot, but its nearer and dearer to my heart than any other car I've ever owned,
and I was lucky enough to hang onto it all these years. Over the course of the next year I hope to restore it to its former
glory, and someday pass it along to one of my kids when I finally take the dirt nap.
Lastly, some of what is written below describes illegal speed and racing activities. These may be true, or I may just be
making them up for your amusement ;-)
My saga with this car starts back in about 1977, when I was driving a 67 Mustang fastback that my dad had given me for high
school graduation in the spring of 1976. That was my first car; it had a 289 and a C4, with 3.00 gears. It was completely
rusted out, but in the summer of 1976 I filled all the holes with fiberglass and bondo and had a friend of mine paint it in
his garage. I thought it looked pretty good, although in hindsight the paint job was terrible LOL!. Nevertheless, I was
interested in making it faster, so I cut off the factory exhaust and installed Cherry Bomb glasspacks. Now the car sounded
more like I wanted it to sound, but of course the mufflers dragged on the ground over bumps. This necessitated the next
purchase, a set of air shocks from JC Whitney. The car still had the stock F70-14 tires and hub caps on it, but I jacked it
way up in the air with the air shocks anyway. Even back then I could tell it looked kind of stupid, but at least the
mufflers didn't drag anymore
Next came a Holley 500 cfm two barrel carb (couldn't afford an intake and a four barrel), and
then I found a used set of headers with a couple holes in them for 20 bucks. I bought one of those SolidOx torch setups
from Sears, brazed the holes shut (my first brazing or welding project), and installed the headers on the car, with new
pipes back to the Cherry Bombs. Finally was able to let some air out of the air shocks.
At that point I thought the car was fast (of course it wasn't), but I wanted to go faster, so I began looking at more serious
performance gear. In the winter of 1977 an ad appeared in the local paper, offering 289 HiPo rods for sale. Just to show you
how green I was, I thought the seller was talking about pushrods LOL! Anyway, I called on the ad and went to see them. The
seller was a big Mustang and Shelby guy, and after I bought the set of rods for $40, he showed me some of his cars. They were
in the basement of his business, and I remember seeing a 66 Shelby down there, but what really got my attention was his 68
Shelby convertible. It was fitted with Cragar S/S mags, and had a 428 CJ installed, from a 69 Torino Cobra. No exhaust
system, and no transmission. The seller told me that the car had been originally a GT-350, and when he had purchased it a few
years earlier it had the GT-350 stripes above the rocker panels and had been equipped with a Boss 302 engine that didn't run
right. The seller had pulled that engine and found that the compression was way down in the 8s somewhere, and decided to
drop in the 428CJ. Interestingly, the dash said GT-500, not GT-350. I remember asking the seller about that at some point
and he said that those emblems were easily obtained and probably somebody just stuck that one on there; he was sure it was a
GT-350 originally. The seller had also painted the car Signal Flare Red; it had originally been gold, although I don't know
if that was the color it was when he bought it. It looked great even in that dark basement, but without an exhaust system or
transmission, it was an unfinished project.
Anyway, the seller, who turned out to be a super nice guy, had lots of interesting parts for a small block so I became a
regular up at his shop. I was going to school and working part time, so I was often able to get up there during the day and
buy some parts from him. In the summer of 1977 my tires were wearing out, and I was pretty tired of my fancy paint job combined
with hubcaps. I remembered those Cragar S/S mags the seller had, so I went up there and offered to buy them, and the tires,
from him. I told him I'd just swap my wheels and tires onto his 68 Shelby, and put the Cragars and tires on my car. Can't
remember what I paid him for them, but he agreed to the deal, and my 67 Mustang looked a lot better with those wheels and
tires, that's for sure. Later, the seller told me that he had tried to move the Shelby a few weeks after I bought the wheels
and tires, but it wouldn't budge. The Shelby had front discs, and my 67 Mustang had four wheel drums, and the wheels wouldn't
clear the brake calipers! He had to scrounge up another set of wheels for the front of the Shelby in order to move it. I
felt kind of bad about that whole thing, but oh well.
Later that fall I started seeing ads from the seller in the local paper, advertising the 68 Shelby for sale. As a poor college
student I didn't have close to the $3200 asking price, so I had no prayer of getting the car. But through the fall it continued
to appear in the paper.
One day in January 1978 I was up at the seller's shop, and on a whim told him I might be interested in buying the Shelby.
He gave me permission to take a good close look at it, so I went down to his basement with a flashlight and crawled all
around the car. It had been fairly recently painted but some of the paint was bubbling in the door corners and the quarter
panels, so I knew there had to be some rust there. Crawling underneath the car, I found rust holes in both driver and passenger
side floorpans, and was able to pull some large hunks of metal out of the bottom of the rockers; later I figured out that these
were parts of the inner rocker panels, which are very strong on convertibles in order to keep the cars straight. I also noticed
that two different serial numbers were stamped into the Shelby data plate under the hood, and the data plate on the door was missing,
apparently the result of the recent paint job. I pointed those things out to the seller, and told him I wanted to think
about buying the car a little more.
Well, there was no way I could pay even close to the asking price of the car, I was lucky to have $100 in my checking account
at any given time back then. But I started thinking about proposing a deal with the seller to take payments on the car. He
had been unsuccessful trying to sell it through the paper so I thought he might be receptive to that. I made some inquiries
at work and found that I could potentially work more hours if I wanted, and after doing a budget analysis I figured that if
I really watched my expenses I could afford to pay $300 a month on the car. That was a pretty big payment back in 1978.
I went back to see the seller on February 10, 1978, and we struck a deal on the car for $2800. I promised to give him
payments of about $300 per month until the car was paid off. In the meantime, he agreed to let me work on the car while it
was still in the basement of his building, which was a huge plus for me. At the time I was I was living at home with my
parents, and there was no room for a non-mobile vehicle there. I planned to get the parts I needed as I could along the way,
until the car was fully functional, then when paid off I could drive it home.
After we made this deal, of course I became extremely motivated to earn extra money. I wasn't going to slap some junk on this
car, I wanted a good set of headers, a good flywheel and clutch setup, etc. I began trying to get all the extra hours possible
at work, and doing whatever side jobs I could come up with, so I could afford the parts to get the car running. Through the
months of February, March, April, and May, I earned enough extra income to buy a set of Hooker headers, a McCleod 11-1/2"
clutch, pressure plate, and a Lakewood scattershield, and a used toploader to fit into the car. The headers were
a nightmare to install for someone with no experience and limited tools. I ended up renting a floor jack so I could get the
engine up off the mounts and slide the headers into position. Then I had more trouble getting the mounts lined back up and
the through-bolt installed. This was also my first experience installing a transmission, so I got familiar with sliding the
trans from between my legs and onto my chest while I was laying on my back under the car, then bench pressing it into position
and pushing it into place. What a workout, especially since it took about 20 tries to get the alignment right so the trans
would go all the way in. I also purchased a Hurst Super Shifter for the transmission, on the advice of a fellow I knew who
was older and much more experienced with this stuff than I was. The tunnel on the car had already been butchered by some
previous owner, so the shifter fit with only a little more trimming of the sheet metal. But needless to say, there was a
big hole in the tunnel where the shifter came through.
Finally, the big day in May arrived where I could start the car. After pouring some fuel down the carb throat I was able to
get it to fire, but as it ran there was a loud clanging coming from the bellhousing. I quickly shut it off and got under there
to take a look. Peering through the opening for the clutch fork I could see that the bolt heads on the Long-style pressure
plate were hitting against the bellhousing. The whole thing had to come apart, and after the bellhousing came off I ground
down the heads of the bolts to what I thought was a minimum thickness. Back together, and the problem was better, but the
bolt heads were still hitting. After a week of asking questions, I finally realized that I had installed the ring washer with
the six holes for the flywheel bolts between the crank and the flywheel, not between the flywheel and the flywheel bolts. I
assumed it was a spacer, not a washer, and I could have sworn that when I took the flywheel off, that's where it had been
located, so I just put it back there. Finally, after reassembly in the correct fashion, I had no more contact between the
bolt heads and the bellhousing. The engine sounded good, and had good oil pressure. I was starting to get pretty excited.
Then came the test drive. I had swapped the Cragar S/S wheels and tires from my 67 Mustang back onto the Shelby, and was ready
to sell the Mustang as soon as I could drive the Shelby. I really needed the money at that point, too LOL!. (By the way,
selling my first car, the 67 Mustang fastback, is something I will always regret, and one reason why I bought the 68 fastback
"Memorial Day Weekend Project" that I have now. I just love those cars...) I had never driven a high performance stick car
before, having learned to drive a stick shift in a Volkswagen Beetle, and I thought it would be prudent to have the seller
take it for the first drive. We backed it out of the basement, rolled out of the dirt driveway and onto the road. Everything
went fine in first gear, then came the shift, and the car quit accelerating. Despite revving the engine, the car rolled to a stop
about 150 feet down the road. We were sitting there scratching our heads wondering what was wrong, when the seller looked down
and said, "There's your problem. There's a hole in your transmission!" Sure enough, there was a big hole in the tailshaft housing.
How did that get there?
We pushed the car back down the road, into the driveway and back into the basement. As you may have guessed, the hole in the
tailshaft housing got there because the tailshaft exploded on the 1-2 shift LOL!. The trans was a toploader, but it had been
in a small block car. Back then I thought all toploaders were the same. Another lesson learned...
The Shelby sat for the next couple weeks as I scrounged for the money to buy another transmission. I went to a local junkyard
and found another toploader, this time from a 351C Mustang. Of course, the output shaft was larger so I needed a new yoke,
and there was no driveshaft that fit so I had to have mine modified. But, finally, in June I had the car back together, and
this time the test drive was a success.
I couldn't wait to drive the car, but it still wasn't paid for, so I talked my Dad into co-signing a note for $1000 with me,
and at the end of June I presented the check to the seller. Even with that the car was still not completely paid off, but he
let me take it anyway. I ended up paying off the car in October.
Driving out of the basement and onto the road, I was extremely cautious with the car at first. The 428 Cobra Jet was a
legendary engine to me, and I was scared of it at first. Through the 45 minute drive home I started to feel a little more
at ease with it. Then, finally, on an off-ramp from the freeway close to where I lived, I opened it all the way up. I had
never felt such acceleration before; holy crap! I instantly became an FE guy. No more small blocks for me!
Back in the late 1970s there weren't the quality aftermarket parts available that we have today, and despite enjoying every moment
of driving the car, I dealt with several recurring problems. One was cooling. The car simply would not stay cool in city
traffic. It had a 3 core factory radiator and a flex fan, but no shroud, and it would quickly overheat on warm days if I had
to sit in traffic for more than five minutes or so. I planned my trips in the car to avoid any possibility of traffic jams.
Also, once it got hot it would refuse to crank over. There was no MSD with spark retard, or gear reduction starters, or
coated headers to limit the heat that the starter saw. I must have gone through five starters that summer trying to solve
the starting problem. I began to try to park backwards on hills, so that if the car wouldn't start I could roll down the
hill and pop the clutch in 3rd gear to get the engine started.
Despite the issues I loved the car, and even back then people would point and wave when they saw me driving it. Several times
that summer I came back to the car after parking it at work, and there were notes on the car offering to purchase it. But
there was no way I was going to let it go. I drove everywhere with the top down; I HATED to put the top up. And if ever there
was a chick magnet, this car was it! One Saturday when my parents were out of town my brother had a party, and invited these
three girls he knew who lived quite a distance away. They knew about my car, and told my brother he had to send me to get
them. I drove to their place with a friend of mine. On the way back, on the freeway, they all decided to sit up on the back
seat of the car and hold onto the roll bar. I quickly discovered that as I accelerated past 70 MPH their shirts would blow open,
and of course they were bra-less. My friend and I fought over the rear view mirror to get a better look all the way back home LOL!
As time went by that summer I began to do some research on Shelby Mustangs, and my car in particular. Riveted on the fender
apron under the hood was the Shelby data tag. In the books I had taken out of the library on these cars (no internet for
research on these cars back then, of course) there were pictures of these data tags with the serial number of the car stamped
into them. But my data tag looked different; it actually had two serial numbers stamped into it. One number matched the car's
VIN number on the dash tag, but the other was a completely different sort of number. I spoke with the seller about this at some
point because I couldn't imagine how the car could have two serial numbers. The seller swore it was an original Shelby,
but he couldn't explain the two serial numbers either. This situation kept me baffled, and a little uneasy about the car's
heritage, for almost 20 years.
However, judging from the one number stamped into the plate, and the same number on the dash, the car was an original big
block car. The engine code was "S", which is the code used for 1968 GT-500s. Those cars came with the 428 Police Interceptor
engine; the later GT-500KR Shelbys came with the "R" code, and the 428 Cobra Jet engine. So, my car was originally a
GT-500, not a GT-350 like the seller had told me. That made me happy, because I had no intention of pulling out that 428! It
also meant that when I had purchased the car it was on at least its third engine, because the seller had pulled the Boss 302
out of it.
Eventually that great summer ended, and winter began to approach. I was not going to drive the car in the winter months, so I
bought my first winter beater, a 67 Galaxie, for $75. It had a 390 and a C6, and it survived until April when it blew a rear
wheel bearing and I junked it. But despite a very cold winter, that 390 never failed to start. No block heater, no garage,
and it always started reliably. It became more reinforcement for my affection for the FE. Shortly after that I purchased
another Galaxie, a 69 two door fastback, also with a 390 and C6. That was a pretty nice car, and I had to pay $600 for it, but
I wanted another car because I had decided to go through the engine on the Shelby. It had been using some oil, and I was
anxious to tear it down and rebuild it.
I arranged to use a friend's garage for the summer to get the car apart, since there was no room at home. I yanked the engine
with a rented engine hoist and tore it down to find one of the strangest failures I've ever seen. The oil slinger on the
crank was damaged, and half of it was broken off and just laying in the groove in the main cap when I took it apart. Also,
the #5 main cap and the block was cracked in that groove; it looked like the broken piece had gotten wedged between the
slinger that was still attached to the crank and the cap/block, and cracked both the cap and the block as it forced its way
past. I ended up buying a used 428 PI short block, and getting it bored to fit my pistons, before I could get the engine
back together with new rings and bearings. Took the whole summer, and I got it running just in time to put it away for
the winter again.
The summer of 1980 I drove the car a lot, and went to a bunch of local car shows with it, plus some national events like the US
Nationals at Indy, and the Performance Ford Club of America show in Columbus Ohio. I was enjoying the heck out of the car, but
by the end of the summer I was noticing a serious problem with the car. On both sides, but especially on the driver's side, the
gap between the top of the doors and the front fenders and quarter panels was pretty much gone. The car was sagging in the
middle, due to the rust issue. The inner rocker panels were severely rusted out, and with no roof to hold the car together,
the structural integrity was pretty much gone. At the end of the summer I pulled the engine and transmission out again, gutted
the interior, and flat towed the car to a guy's shop, who was experienced with chassis work. Back then, of course, there were
no patch panels or replacement panels to speak of available for the car. After discussing this with the chassis guy, we decided
to add some bars onto the factory roll bar to straighten the car out. The chassis guy ran a bar forward on each side from the
factory roll bar, just below the factory padding, to another bar installed across the car just under the dash. He did the same
basic thing in the rear. This was all done after the car was up on jack stands and straightened out so that the door gaps were
back where they were supposed to be. He also added some bracing in the floor pan, between the convertible seat pan and the rear
torque boxes.
To this day, those modifications have kept the car straight. Unfortunately, it took the chassis guy over a year to get the work
done, so I didn't get the car back until the spring of 82. I got the car back together and drove it again that summer, but
on the way back from a softball game late in the year I was showing off for a friend in the car and overrevved the engine.
The sound of the engine changed, and I was still 20 minutes from home, but I drove it the rest of the way home anyway. By the
time I got back home the engine was clattering pretty good despite the fact that I still had oil pressure, and when I pulled
the valve covers I found that I had dropped a valve in #5. Obviously the hydraulic lifters had pumped up, the valve had kissed
the piston, and that was that. The #5 cylinder was completely shot, with a big hole in it, and the oil was filled with water
from the cooling system. I found the #5 exhaust valve in the left side header. It amazed me that the engine still ran well
enough to get me home after all this damage.
At least it was the end of the year, so I pulled the engine again and took it into a local machine shop, where the machinist
had a good reputation. He looked at the block and said he could sleeve it. The number 5 rod was bent, so I had to get a
replacement, but the crank was still dead straight. The next spring the engine was back together and running fine. I still
have that engine; it spent some time in my Mach 1 when I first acquired that car, it was the basis for my 428 Dyno Mule
described in my book, and it now resides in my 68 Mustang and is driven regularly. The sleeve has never leaked, or given me
a bit of trouble.
About this time the magazines started running articles featuring what they called "Cafe Racers", these were 60s musclecars
with big tires and fender flares, lowered with suspension mods to make them handle corners better. I really liked the
looks of those cars, and with the Shelby name associated with road racing success, thought my car was a natural for that
approach. I also had another goal for the car in mind; back then the national speed limit was 55 MPH. I wanted my car
to be able to TRIPLE the national speed limit, and go 165 MPH with the top down. Lowering the car and improving the tires
and suspension would help me with that goal.
The car also was ready for paint, so in 1984 I set to work converting the car to a road race configuration. Centerline had
come out with their Champ 500 wheels, which I thought were really cool. I bought four of them, and then another four of
the standard auto/drag wheels, because I needed a specific offset and width for the BF Goodrich Comp T/A tires I wanted to
run. I drilled all the rivets out of all 8 Centerline wheels, then picked the rim halves I needed to get a 9-1/2" front
wheel width and 10-1/2" back wheel width, with offsets to set the wheels as far inboard as possible. I bolted the wheels
back together and sealed them along the rim joint, which gave me the most unique set of wheels in town. I used 225/50VR-15
Comp T/As in front and 275/50VR-15 Comp T/As in the rear.
Next, I did the Shelby drop to the front upper A-Arms and boxed them, plus boxed the lower control arms. I went with the
620 pound front coil springs that were popular for Mustang road racers back then, plus cut a coil and half off to make them
even stiffer, and lower the front end of the car. I replaced all the rubber bushings with polyurethane bushings, added a leaf
to the rear springs and had them re-arched to stiffen them up and lower the rear ride height, then added a rear sway bar.
I installed Bilstein shocks all around, then adapted a 65 Shelby quick-steering kit with roller bearings to the steering box and drag link.
With the chassis work done and tires and wheels on the car, I custom made a set of fiberglass fender flares and grafted them
onto the front and rear fenders. I had seen fender flares that I liked, and ones that I didn't like, and none of the store
bought flares would do. As an amateur body man my fender flares weren't perfect, but in the end I got them looking pretty
good. After doing most of the body work myself I hired a guy I knew to finish it up and paint the car in his shop. I wanted
it candy apple red, and he got the color just right. I finished it off with removing the front seats that were in the car and
replacing them with a set of Recaro seats from a 79 pace car Mustang, along with a full complement of Stewart Warner gauges. I
built my own console (the original console was gone before I bought the car), filled it with switches to control various
functions, and added a 3 quart Accusump hidden in it to provide additional oil in case the oil ran away from the pickup in the
corners.
If memory serves it was late summer 1984 when I finally got the car back on the road. Looking back, I really regret not taking
photos of the car when I first got it, or anywhere along the way. In fact I have no photos of the car that I took. However,
after I got it done in 1984 I brought it over to my Dad's place and he snapped a couple of pictures. He then had them blown
up into posters for me as a present. The pictures are below; these are 2 of the only 3 pictures that I have of the car from
back then:
I do have one other picture from back in the day, and I believe this was taken at the Car Craft Street Machine Nationals
in St. Louis in 1985. Again, there is a story behind this one, which was taken by a friend of mine. I was down there with
some friends at the show, just hanging around by the car, when this very attractive young lady came up to me and started asking
questions about the car. She was very friendly and had a delightful southern accent; I thought, "Hey, I'm going to get lucky
at the car show!" On the way to the show that morning we had stopped at the liquor store and they had a beer we had not seen
before, called King Cobra beer. Of course we had to buy some. We talked this gal into sitting up on the roll bar in my
Shelby, holding a can of King Cobra beer, so my friend could get this picture:
Well, all was happiness and light for the next five minutes or so, and then her boyfriend showed up. Apparently he had been about
four cars down, talking to some guy with a Chevelle, and she had decided to wander off. Probably just wanted to make him jealous.
She smiled and said goodbye. We were all crushed LOL!
Back to the car modifications, it was stiff and rode very harshly with the chassis modifications, but boy could it go around
corners. I could take freeway cloverleafs at ridiculously high speeds. All the BS about big block cars couldn't be made to
handle went right out the window as far as I was concerned. In the spring of 1985 I started to get serious about a high speed
run. I had invested in a Doug Nash 5 speed transmission, with a pretty deep first gear, and swapped to a 2.75:1 rear gear
in the 9". I also found a spot on a closed roadway where I could make some high speed runs without endangering anyone else.
In early summer I began to test. My speedometer only went to 160 MPH, and I didn't trust its accuracy up there anyway, so I
calculated that the engine had to be turning 5900 RPM on the tach, in fifth gear, for me to hit 165.
My first test came with an unexpected surprise. Passing through 130 MPH in fifth gear, the inside of the car suddenly became
a sandstorm. All the dirt that had been in the carpet floated up out of the carpet at speed with the top down, and
began swirling around the interior. It stung my face and my eyes; I had to let off for fear I wouldn't be able to see.
Note to self: vacuum the interior before the next test.
In subsequent testing I was able to reach about 147 MPH, but the car simply wouldn't go any faster than that. It was clear
that I needed more power if I was going to reach my objective.
This was back in the early days of nitrous, and I was very interested in trying out a hidden system. So, I pulled the 3X2
intake that I'd been running off the car, and sent it to an outfit called Marvin Miller Enterprises to get a direct port
nitrous system that was hidden under the intake manifold. When the manifold was returned I wasn't overly impressed; a couple
of the nitrous or fuel lines plumbed into the bottom of the intake were in line with the pushrod holes, so that the pushrods
couldn't be installed in those locations. I had to rebend some of the lines myself to make them clear. The system was
advertised at 275 HP, but with the small solenoids that came with it, I doubt it was more than 100 HP. But it was completely
hidden under the intake, with only the nitrous line, fuel line, and a couple wires feeding out through the road draft tube
opening, so it satisfied my desire for a stealthy system.
Next time out at the "test track", the nitrous had the desired effect. The tachometer crept just past 6000 RPM before I let off.
It would have kept going, but I figured that was fast enough. Shortly after that the construction work finished on my test
track and it opened up for regular traffic; I never got a chance to go that fast in the car again.
In the spring of 1986 I was driving the car around town again. The April issue of Hot Rod magazine appeared in the mailbox, and
I was horrified by what I saw. On the cover: "Omni GLHS Whips GT-350!" There was a picture of Carroll Shelby leaning against
one of those butt-ugly Dodge Omnis, with a 65 GT-350 in the foreground. Up until then, Shelby had been my hero. Now, I saw him
for the money-grubbing publicity hound that he was. Within a few days of that magazine appearing, I was at a local gas station
when some guy with an Omni GLH (not a GLHS) pulled up. He whipped out a copy of the magazine and proclaimed that his little
box of crap was faster than my car! What a jackass. I said, "The freeway's right there; let's go!" Needless to say I had four
car lengths on him before I hit second. What a joke.
Then, it happened again! This time I was parked at a restaurant with my girlfriend of the time, and an Omni GLH pulled in next
to me. This guy wasn't as obnoxious as the first guy, but he seemed to think his car was pretty fast. I offered to race him
for $50 and he agreed. My girlfriend held the money, and once again it wasn't even a race.
When I got home that night I decided I should write a letter to Hot Rod. I took a few liberties with the truth to make my
point, but after their BS article I felt no need to be perfectly accurate. My letter said something like this:
Dear Hot Rod,
I wanted to write and thank you for your cover story
"Omni GLHS Whips GT-350". Ever since it hit the
newsstands I have been mobbed by excited Omni GLH
owners claiming that their cars are faster than my
68 Shelby. I managed to talk four of them into
trying to prove it, and in addition to beating them
all by what could best be described as several
buslengths, I managed to pocket $200 for my
efforts. I can't wait for the GLHS to come out,
they ought to be worth even more money.
By the way, I have a friend with a 69 Dodge who's
a little short on cash. Could you please run a
cover story entitled, "LeBaron Stings Super Bee"?
Jay Brown
St. Louis Park, MN
Surprisingly, Hot Rod published my letter in the August '86 issue, under the byline "Sting Operation". As a result I became
an instant celebrity with the Ford guys in my area. The editor responded to my letter in the magazine with some snarky
comment that I should leave on the first yellow when I raced a GLHS. My friend JC said that was the only way I could lose,
by redlighting LOL!
Back in the early 80s I'd found out about SAAC, the national Shelby club, and joined. In 1987 SAAC published their World
Registry, listing all known owners of Shelbys, along with partial serial numbers for all the cars. I bought a copy and
anxiously looked up my serial number; sure enough it was listed as a GT-500 convertible. This was something of a relief,
given my doubts about the origin of the car. However, my name was not listed as the owner, so I dashed off a letter to
SAAC with all the information on the car, plus some questions about it. I never did get a response from them.
1988 was the last summer that I drove the car a lot. I had dropped out of college in 1981 after five years of part time
studies and not really knowing what degree I wanted. By 1988, after experience with the Shelby, I was sure I wanted to
go into engineering, so I enrolled at a local state college. The car was stored until I graduated in 1991. Shortly after
that I met my wife, and for some reason the car didn't get much attention for the next few years. Imagine that! Then came
the kids, and even less time for the car, you know the drill.
In 1997 SAAC came out with another World Registry. I bought a copy and was anxious to see my name as the owner of the car.
Sure enough, it was there, but to my huge surprise and relief, there was a half page article in the registry explaining the
presence of Dual Serial Number cars! Finally, the two serial numbers on my Shelby data plate were explained! As written
in the 1997 World Registry:
"During the beginning of 1968 Shelby production, in
November and December of 1967, the cars were given a
unique 14-digit Shelby Vehicle Identification Number
(similar to the 1967 VINs), along with the standard 11-
character Ford Mustang VIN. Both numbers were
stamped on the aluminum Shelby identification tag
riveted to the driver's side front fender inner panel.
Because the cars were not built in strict numerical
order, these "dual-serial number cars" are dispersed
among the first 500 or so 1968 Shelbys."
"The dual serial number system was most likely discontinued
due to its redundancy with the Ford VIN. The
two numbers were combined. The last five digits of the
unique Shelby number, connoting the car's place in the
sequence of production, were merely added to the end of
the standard Ford Mustang VIN. The 1968 Shelbys
which received dual serial numbers were titled and registered
by the standard 1968 Shelby VIN (the 11-character
Ford VIN + the 5-digit Shelby production Number)."
I had already determined that my car was a very early car in production, so this explanation made perfect sense. This entry
in the registry answered a question that had been nagging at me for nearly 20 years. Any doubts I had that my car was an
original Shelby vanished with this article. Since that time I've heard stories that the dual serial number system came
about because of the switch in production from Shelby to Ford for the 1968 cars; there may have been some confusion about
whether to title the cars as Shelbys or as Fords, and with no decision made, both serial numbers were put on the data
plate. Sounds like a reasonable explanation to me, but I don't know if its really true or not.
Fast forward to 2003, and my kids were old enough to be left alone in the house. The car was waiting patiently for me in the
garage, and I decided now was the time to get to work on it. It still had rust holes in the floorpan, the inner rocker
panels were rusted out, and the bodywork around the fender flares was starting to show its age. I was done with the Cafe
Racer mentality, but still being a hot rodder at heart, I wasn't going to return the car back to stock. However, my new
concept for the car was to return it to a stock appearance, maybe a little lower in stance, but upgrade the engine for
more power. I was also tired of jumping over the side bars across the doors that had been added 20 years before to keep
the car straight. So, it was clear a ground-up revamp of the car was necessary. Fortunately all the sheet metal parts
needed to repair the rust damage on the car were now available, so I figured with the necessary floorpan, inner rocker
panel, and torque box replacements I could cut those side bars out and get in the car like a normal human being again.
In the fall of 2003 I put the car up on jackstands and tore it down. The engine, which had been running fine, came out
and was put on a stand. The interior was removed and I started drilling out spot welds and removing rusted out panels.
But the work was slow going, and I absolutely, positive, HATE sheet metal work, so I did a little at time through the
fall of 2003 and winter of 2004. I got the passenger side finished up, with a new front torque box, new rear torque box,
new inner rocker panel, and new floor pan. I also got started on the engine project, which included a Shelby block, Blue
Thunder heads, and a Vortech V7 centrifugal supercharger. In the spring of 2004 I went to the dyno with that engine and
made 850 HP.
Then, in the summer of 2004, a freshly painted 1969 R-code Mach 1 showed up on ebay. It was complete - except for the
engine. Of course, sitting on the stand next to my Shelby was a complete, running 428CJ. Hmmmm, I always wanted a 69
Mach 1...
The Shelby was suddenly forgotten. I bought the Mach 1, slammed in the 428CJ, and drove it all summer. The next year I
put in a bigger engine and went to the first Drag Week. In 2007 I put the supercharged engine originally meant for the
Shelby in the Mach 1 and ran a different class at Drag Week. Somewhere in there the cammer bug bit me, and before I knew
it 14 years had gone by. The Shelby was still sitting up on jackstands in the first bay of my shop, with half the floor
replaced, waiting to be finished.
At the beginning of September we got my son sent off to college, so the time window has opened up for me a little bit. My
wife has been bugging me for the last couple years to get my Shelby put back together; she isn't into the car thing much,
but when we were first dating she did enjoy driving around in that car. So, now is the time. Here's a picture of the car,
warts and all, as it sits in my shop today:
I've been working on it for the last week and a half, and now the driver's side floorpan, inner rocker panel, and rear
torque box are welded in. I'm currently welding up all the holes in the engine compartment that I put in there over the
years. When that is finished I have a partial frame replacement to do on the driver's side, back by the rear leaf spring
mount, and then I will cut off the quarter panels and fix the outer wheelhouses and trunk drop downs (they are completely
rusted out). In about another two weeks I have a guy coming here to do a complete dustless blasting job on the car. Then
I will epoxy prime the whole car, replace the quarter panels, and finally be done with the sheet metal work! Meanwhile,
all the fiberglass parts are out getting plastic media blasted. When they are back I can finally start the bodywork. I'm
hoping I will be able to get the car painted in the spring.
The supercharged engine I had originally planned for this car is sitting on an engine stand, removed for the high riser
that is now in my Mach 1. I plan to use it in this car, but I'm trying to make a Whipple work rather than the centrifugal
supercharger; we'll see if that turns out to be possible. Also I'm pretty sold on those Tremec T-56 Magnum six speed
transmissions, so I think I'll get one of those for this car too. I have a complete Global West suspension that I will
install, along with subframe connectors to try to keep the car as stiff as possible. I'm also planning to use 16X8
Vintage Wheel Works wheels in the original Shelby Mustang style. They will allow the use of some pretty good tires but
not be so big that they look stupid like some of those 19 or 20 inch wheels.
I will try to post periodic updates on this project as I go along. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcome, and
thanks for indulging my trip through the past with this car - Jay
