Found 68 Shelby and need help
 

I stumbled across a 68 Shelby GT500KR over the holidays in my travels and need a little help and advice. I will give a description with the hopes that some of the more knowledgeable Shelby people can tell me what it may be worth. I was able to convince the seller to let it go but as of right now the seller and I are a LONG ways off on value. He has owned the car for 37 years.

It is a 63B 2+2 Fastback with luxury black interior.
Color is M or White
Trim is 5AA
Build date is mid year 1968
Axle is H or 3.50 Traction loc
Trans is 5 or Toploader 4 speed

The car is completely disassembled, needs quarters, doors, fenders, firewall repair at the pinch welds, outer wheel houses and some floor pan work. Torque boxes are iffy and I was really not able to get underneath the car to see how bad it was but will consider it to be like the topside of the car. Another oddity is it has front side marker lights but no rears but has what appears to be two mounting holes bondo'd closed but no actual side marker opening though I am not sure the 68's used lit markers or just reflectors. The Shelby VIN plate is intact and in good shape and still attached to the fender apron though the drivers side apron has been replaced so this is laying loose.

The engine (short block) is not original and is a 66 428 A code and not the original 428CJ C code that came in the car. It has a complete running (as of 8 years ago) engine minus the smog. The Holley carb is correct but is a 1976 over the counter unit with all the Ford numbers but the date being correct. Intake is the correct C80OE-9428-C cast iron unit.

The transmission is original as I believe is the rear diff. It also for some odd reason has the 67 Shelby wheels on it and not the 68.

The original Lucas running lights are with the car.

This car will need a COMPLETE nut and bolt restoration with much of the sheet metal needing to be replaced. The interior is all there but not sure how much can be restored vs having to be replaced. The Shelby console is there but has a small dent in the vinyl from one of the interior panels laying across it and I am not sure that will come out.

The seller has given me a price (that he was offered many years ago) and I told him he should have taken that and run. I believe it is worth a little more than half of what he is asking. Any help based solely on my description would be much appreciated. I will not post the VIN number at this time as I do not want to lose the possibility of buying the car.
Thanks for any help and opinions.
Rick

----Rick,,,Can't help much with the value but can caution you about the cost of a lot of the correct parts to replace what you have mentioned. For what these cars are bringing I would think he might give you money to haul it away,,,LOL!...…..Bill S

Rear markers are just reflectors, and were typically surface mount Cougar units (midyear change due to supplier issue with flush mount units used initially) by the time KR production happened mid year. I think 68-70 Shelby prices have notably settled more than 65-67 in recent years. There was a time when KR convertibles were top of the Shelby heap, but not anymore. 66 428s seem to end up in all the CJ cars just like 70s truck 454s seemed to end up in all the SS Chevelles, and the market discounts them similarly. I don’t think I’d want to be in a white non#s fastback more than $100k, and you’ve got some spendy parts to find and OEM sheetmetal to source. 4speed is probably a 10-20k boost on these, but still. I think $25k range is enough for what you’re describing, and being a restorer, you know that probably doesn’t pencil out these days.

I agree with Tom - if it was a '67 it would be worth messing with.

Tom's price is exactly where I was at after looking at the car. The owner wants almost double that. The cost of the restoration would just be too much to justify which is unfortunate.

Rick all SCJ 428's came with an oil cooler mounted in front of the rad support. In addition, SCJ's had either 3.91 or 4.30 gears...the oil cooler was plumbed into and out of the oil filter adapter which in this case isn't. The top loader will be identified with a tag indicating RUG-AE or RUG-AE1.

Trans is correct. I had forgotten about the oil cooler when I looked at it and that would have been obvious. On another note, I thought that I came across some information that stated that the 3.50 rear was available with the SCJ. I better recheck that as maybe it was only the CJ. I did some double checking this morning and the R code is for the 428 Cobra Jet so you are right. At this point I do not think the owner will sell it for much less than he was offered many years ago as that figure is now stuck in his head and it is just not worth anywhere near that.

I think we have all been up against those "offers" made, mostly made by people that don't have the means to purchase even if it were accepted. Its a shame as the cars continue to deteriorate..

It needs to be saved but he needs to be realistic.

Scj in a kr500??