Need some help guys

[Jack Houpe]

I have a friend who lives about 15 miles from me who is hot for a 67 GT500, he found one on Ebay and started asking me questions for which I am not educated enough to answer. I know many of you are knowledgeable in this area and your input I can convey to him.

Sorry I have not participated in the forum, I have been very busy with my elderly mother and going back and forth from AR to CA.

The ebay auction for this car is

Shelby : ford mustang - eBay (item 280621665013 end time Feb-03-11 23:00:00 PST)

Please give your honest opinion and your thoughts if you have time.

Jack

OH!! I do plan on the Big Bend Open Road Race in April if all works out with my mother. Team GT40 !!!

 

[Randy V]

Very pretty car.. A lot of cabbage for that one...

Not certain but it may have a reproduction tail ligh panel.. There's one in this car that a customer is having us work on that looks the same way;

GT-500 Convertible

Notice that the tail lights are level across the bottom but the tops slope down at the outside. The tail lights are not perfectly rectangular, but sort of tapered slightly at the outside. I've seen a few original unrestored cars where you can tell the difference. Draw an imaginary line through each tail light lens from left to right exactly in the center.
That line will be perfectly parallel to the top of the back bumper and if the bumper is straight - that line will be parallel to the ground..

Unless it's an optical illusion, the imaginary line on these will be tipped downward at the outside justy like it is on the black car in the link above..

Now I may be wrong and probably am - it is a very nice car.. I wonder if the engine and trans are original to the car or ??

=-=-=-=

On a more important note - I hope your Mom is doing alright...

 

[Jack Houpe]

Thanks Randy, mom is stable for now. You know much more than I and will have him get on the forum and read everyones comments, I know he will appreciate them.

Hay why did you send your weather down south? -8 this morning!

 

[Rich Roy]

Jack, I owner a '67 for 32 years that I sold to my brother 5 years ago to spend the money on a Peter Brock Daytona Coupe. This car looks good in the photos. There is a lot of speculation on how many "427" GT500's were made. The number comes in at 2-10 by all records as far as SAAC can detect. The chances are real good this is "not" one of those cars (no documentation). There are several things that are very tackie on this car. The "427" fender emblems are embarrassing. It has the wrong design hood pins & rivets at the pin plates. The tail lamp panel is correct for an early car (concaved rather than con-vexed). The lamp surrounds are early studded type rather than the later screw on type. The LeMans stripes over the top are incorrect as they are not tapered. (10 1/2" at top to 9 1/4" at tip of hood). The Hurst shifter is great, but not on this car. Front non Shelby seat belts a minus, need to match rears. Chrome pitted at air vents slats(minus). Aftermarket ignition system and added electric cooling fan also detract from this cars originality greatly and affect the over-all value. It also has the wrong tail pipe extensions, Koni shocks were last available on '66 models (even though there better than Gabriels). There are a series of "swiss cheese holes drill in the left side of the radiator core support, and a couple of extra holes drilled in the front of the right suspension tower for something that was bolted there in the past. Poor restoration details like this depletes the valve. The fuel line from the fuel pump to the carbs should be steel. Under the car it looks tackie in some places, springs rusted, exhaust leakage, oil running out of & dripping off rear diff. This car was originally Acapulco blue with black interior, and out board headlamps. Some one switched it to the inner style (which I prefer). The none lovered hood is correct, the type of wheels is correct, as is the non-a/c. The records show it was owned by Don Mathews in 1987 in Canada when it was under restoration then. In my opinion this car is currently over priced as presented based on current selling values I would estimate paying about $75,000 for it. I hope this helps. There's a bunch of nicer cars out there for the money asked. Just dig and they will pop up. Don't loose the ventom to keep looking...................................Forever Ford!!!!

 

[Jack Houpe]

Good info! Thank you! I will pass this on.

 

[Daniel]

"The body and paint is show quality, arrow straight and gorgeous! There is NO rust or bubbles. There are a couple very small unoticable paint cracks by the hood scoop that all 67 shelbys have(unless just painted)."

"The paint was done many years ago and is still show ready beautiful. The marti-report says the original color was blue, so if there was a color change it was done many years ago and was incredibly well done and must have been taken apart when painted."

Look at the pic of the red painted passenger door latch and lower rubber door seal. Were the latches painted the body color or these cars? Is that considered 'show quality"? "Must have been taken apart when painted" but missed the latch? Seems a bit odd the description and picture doesn't match on a small item like that.

 

[Randy V]

Rich - Great information there...
I'd like to know more about the tail light alignment as I pointed out above.. Or have I looked at a couple of (suppoosedly) original cars that were altered?

Also -
The door gaskets are cracked
I don't believe that they had electric chokes in 67
The plastic spacers sitting on top of the carbs suggests that the air cleaner base is not original
Windshield wipers - black? I don't think so. Mine were stainless steel.

 

[Rich Roy]

Randy; The tail lamp alignment does look goofy at the angle the photo was shot. In real life at that angle to the eye it would look much the same, the panel is bowed in at the center, and the lamp lenses (from a 67-8 Cougar) are tapered about 1/2 to 3/4 of an ench end to end adding to the illusion. They also had a poor fit around the gas cap. I can't remember on the electric chokes for sure, don't remember any wiring on the on the manifold for that. The last 500 I did was about 1981. Mine was a GT350 (#1100) with the good ole Holey 730 center pivot bowls, with a manuel choke pull mounted at the bottom of the left dash. We did a fix for the cracking hoods at the snorkel by glassing in a steel rod to the under surface to stiffen it. They cracked by dropping the hood to close it on the factory Mustang latch. This worked well and was not detectable by most, even the judges. Shelby also added a sealant/filler at the fiberglass nose cone where it meets the fenders to keep the wheel well wash from kreaping out (usualy clear composit). It usualy is omitted by 99% of the restorers. This car does have the lower grill mesh panel, only found on about 1/3 of the cars...........