Barn Finds and Treasure Hunts

How about: I know of a 289 Cobra sitting in a storage building in Seattle. The car has some front end damage, is very rough, has a factory automatic trans and can be bought for under $2000.00

 

In barn finds I think the two that Jeff Burgy "found" weren't really lost but people forgot the two Cobra prototypes with different bodywork than Shelby intended were in the storage area of a Detroit museum, not on display. One was the Bordinat Cobra roadster the other the Cougar II. I know museums sell cars but can't tell you if they have ever had an offer for either of these. They have to be worth more than most of the other cars they have been donated. Since Kirkham now has bodywork for 289s available it wouldn't be that big a deal to change them back into 289 Cobras though then you would lose the history of the concept car bodywork.

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Also I heard there was a Ghia Cobra that had its body taken off in Belgium. Maybe even the body would be worth something.

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Then there is the Cobra , 427 chassis, ex-comp car, that runs around England with a 1953 Fiat Supersonic body.

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But my fave is the 427 Ford GT targa that won Sebring. I heard that it was shoved into a hole in a landfill in Los Angeles. Surely some Shelby employee must know where that hole is....even if it's a tad rusty, I've talked to people who dug WWII planes out of the muck of a flooded field in Holland after 50 years and made them flyable so I would think it's a possible salvage. Or am I smokin' the wrong stuff again?

 

I know of a red gt500 kr 4 sp. air car in kansas that I have worked for 21 years now The old grntleman just wont give it up and I resect that although I would love to restore it I will keep working it maybe someday Would anyone out there know how many red 4sp. air gt 500 kr hard tops were made by chance

 

That post should have started "I KNEW of a 289 Cobra..." This happened in 1977, I bought the car, held on to it until 1979 when I made a deal with its present owner for a 65 GT-350.

 

Check this out:

A 1967 Shelby 500GT!

 

So what year did the front high back bucket seats come out of ??---S.

 

What did the car sell for back then??

 

I know of a 67 gt350 in red parked up in someones driveway in alburqerque. been there for decades, all wheels flat but looked complete. paint was heavily faded so that that the fibreglass bits were brick red and the rest of the car was pink. all the local guys know of it, but the guy won't sell and he just collects anything and everything and packs it into his house.

 

There are a lot of people like that. The most extreme case was the woman who owned the last unaccounted for Daytona Coupe. These people are content to simply have these cars with no intention of ever doing anything with them. Some of these people do not have the means to restore the cars and will not part with them so they can be restored.

There was a car sitting in the back yard of a house under a tarp here for 30 years. One day, the wind blew the tarp loose and we got a look at what was underneath. It was a 1957 Mercury "Cruiser" convertible. A friend did some research and found out this particular car was an Indy pace car with some very unique, one of a kind parts and sheet metal. Since the guy who owned it wouldn't even discuss selling it, we pretty much forgot about it. About ten years later, I happened to see it on the back of a car hauler heading for Seattle. Made some inquiries, apparently it was sold in an estate sale for next to nothing.

It's a free country, nobody is going to force you to part with something you own no matter how historic it may be. I wouldn't want it any other way, but I still have to wonder about the mental state of some of these people.

 

My old boss bought a house in the bay area 18 months ago. Guy died, three sons were selling the place. My boss goes out in the garage, 65 GT350 sitting under a tarp with 4 flats, totally original.

He tries to buy it, sons say they want to restore it, and off it goes probably to another garage still sitting there under a trap for 20 more years. I tried like hell to get thier number but to no avail.

 

Not a Shelby but a "real been in the barn since 1950" and hidden story: www.townisp.com/~alsancle

Tango is selling a 350H that looks like it spent the last 30 years in a field:

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A.J.

 

Even if that 350H comes with the original engine, that's still a lot of money for a wreck ($62000)! At a guess, I'd say it would cost $150,000 to $200,000 to get it straight, and then it would be worth about $200,000.

 

This probably doesn't qualify as a "find" but it has always stuck in my mind. Back in 1983 when I was 18 years old I bought a 1972 Mustang for $300.00. I started reading the Mustang publications and learned about and fell in love with the 69-70 Shelbys. Not long afterwards I was looking in the "Parting Out" section of the local Denver newspaper and saw an add that said something like "For Sale-1969 Shelby - No engine or transmission - $1000.00" As I didn't have $5.00 to my name, let alone $1000.00, I never called on it but I have always wondered what happened to it.
Heck, it could very well be the 69 SCJ car that I almost bought 4 years ago (in a Denver suburb) but passed on once I determined that it no longer had the original engine. I could of had that car for $45,000.00 and recently saw it sell on E-Bay for over $140,000.00 (after being fully restored) I noticed the add carefully skirted the issue of it not having the original motor. It had a 428CJ but not the original SCJ.
End of story is that it took 20 years to obtain my dream car but I ended up with a nice unrestored GT500 that is pretty much all original except for 1 re-paint and a few minor other things and it sits the same way it was bought 4 years ago. I have spoken to 2 of the 3 past owners and it has always been a "second" car and has 80,000 original miles. I still smile and say "wow" every time I walk in the garage or take it out on the road!

 

Yea, I love the looks of the 69/70 too. The 68 is my second choice, and I have a 68 GT500 in the garage, I better get fixed before someone takes a pic of it and it will end up as a barn find.