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Jim Young's Twin 68 Shelby Cobras
Author: Jim Young's Twin 68 Shelby Cobras (more...)
The fastback is #1484, out of 1053 '68 GT-350's made. I bought it in April of 1987. It was completely stripped out and sitting in a trailer park. I had seen the car sitting on the side of the trailer since 1975. The owner was going to make it into a drag racing car and lost interest, then moved to Alaska to mine for gold. They kept saying it wasn't for sale, etc, etc. It was at his mom's trailer home, and she was ready to have it hauled off to the junkyard if he didn't sell it
quick. When I bought it I paid $2000.00 for it, but I thought I was just buying the car. After handing over the money, the mother said to take all the junk car parts from out of another small travel trailer they were using for storage. I ended up with a few GM parts, buts
scored virtually everything to put it back together including the shifter knob. In restoring it, I replaced a lot of the original parts with reproductions, since the finish on the old parts wasn't that good. I wish I would have saved all that stuff, but in '87 who knew? It took 9 months to put it back together. I took photos at various stages along the way. It was pretty much a family effort, with a lot of help from my dad (now deceased) and brothers. My brother Tony did the Acapulco Blue paint in a paint booth we made in my parents garage (Mom was thrilled).
My girlfriend and I drove it non-stop from Las Vegas to Portland, OR. (and back) for the SAAC convention in '95. I try to drive it a few times a month. #1484 was scheduled for build on Jan 22, '68, but actually built on Jan 23, 1968. It was built Acapulco Blue with black Comfort-weave interior. It was equipped with optional (some mandatory options from Shelby)power steering, power Disc brakes, Tilt-Away column, Extra cooling package (larger radiator), deluxe interior, 8K tachometer and trip meter, fold down rear seat, and AM radio. It has the J-code 302 engine with the unique for Shelby aluminum manifold, and Holley 4V carb bringing up the rear. The only things I added were a mild camshaft, beefed up engine internals, beefed up trans parts, and optional for '68 mustang head rests, '68 AM-FM radio, a '70 Mach I factory rear sway bar set-up, and Shelby 10 spoke aluminum wheels. the car had no rust other than surface rust from sitting outside with the glass out for years. The car currently has 82,000 miles on it. The instrument cluster showed 62,000 miles when I bought it in '87.
The convertible is a GT-350 # 0308, out of a total 404 convertibles, the majority of which were big block GT-500's. This car was an early GT-350 convertible, being built on Dec 1, 1967. It was scheduled for Dec 9, 1967. I bought the car in September of 2000, from a man in San Jose, CA. He has owned it since the early 70's. It has 62,000 miles on it, and still has the original Gabriel shocks. The car in mazingly intact, with many of the original parts still on it. It is equipped with the 302 J-code 302 and Shelby aluminum manifold, but with the C7ZF-D Autolite 4300 carb. Early '68 Shelby's were delivered with cast iron 4V manifolds and 4300 carbs, as the aluminum manifold and Holley were not EPA certified in time. In March '68 the cars were recalled and the manifolds replaced with the Shelby unit. This car is almost exactly a twin of the fastback, except the interior is not Comfort-weave, as that was not available in convertibles. I obtained the original copy of the dealer order form, and it shows that when
Courtesy Motors of Littleton, Colorado ordered the car for dealer stock on September 9, 1967, they requested a red GT-350 convertible. The notation on the form, said substitutions could be made, and the car was actually built and shipped as an Acapulco Blue car. Since the car was driven very little in the past 10-15 years, the transmission stopped working as soon as we took it off the trailer back in Las Vegas. The cooling system needed to be flushed, and water pump
replaced, and the brake system gone through. The original leather rear axle seals began to leak. It still has the original interior and white convertible power top in excellent condition. After the bugs were worked out from sitting idle so long, the car is an excellent
running and driving car. I try to take it out every so often so it won't dry out again.
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