Crackpipe/Nice Price: REBODIED 1965 Shelby GT-350 $100,000

In case this ad goes away..... http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/cto/4523781912.html

Text from CL ad said: 1965 Mustang GT350 pretty much an survivor Mustang never rusty, all original Ford body panels painted 10 years ago or so. Original interior. Very complete and correct. Nine inch rear end with correct 2.5 inch brakes, 3:89 gears, correct front disc brakes, Master cyl. and distribution valve. original Shelby wheels, correct Shelby stuff on the engine Valve covers, intake manifold, carburetor, oil pan, headers. solid lifter cam, distributor and dampener. Front suspension arms lowered, Koni shocks and over the axle traction bars. Dash looks correct as does everything else. Has the original Shelby serial # Now the downfall it was rebodied. I do not know the original body numbers.

So is a re-bodied Shelby worth a hundred grand?

My buddy built and sold one (may be this one) 10 years ago for $100k, so I'm thinking yes.

If it's in the Shelby Registry, it might be. That ad is 16 days old, if it were a screaming legitimate deal...it would've been gone by now.

That's not a rebodied Shelby. That's a fake Shelby.

In reply to Woody:

Hmm, I didn't read the ad. By the sound of it you are likely correct. My buddy's was a real GT350 that he bought to restore, but when they stripped it all down it was obvious that they had two choices. They could replace most every part of the car short of the cowl and the roof with what all of us Mustang guys know are cheap, ill-fitting Chinese repro panels, or rebody it with a solid original body. He chose the latter, and documented the entire process of the restoration. He used all the original Shelby bits, and never tried to pass it off for anything other than what it was. It was a top notch restoration, and he quickly sold it for $100k when the going rate for the same car without a rebody was around $150k.
The guy selling this car is very vague about whether it's a Mustang or a Shelby, which means its a Mustang, and worth about $35k at best.

he does say it has the original shelby serial number. which would say he or someone did the same thing your buddy did. rust free base shell, swapped everything including the numbers off the shelby to it.

In reply to patgizz:

Guess I read it wrong again! I somehow read that as him saying it did have original Shelby numbers but he didn't know what they were, which is as good as not having them in the first place. But if he knows them, then why not list them? Pretty much every legitimate Shelby is in the registry, and every time I see an ad for a real one it lists the VIN so you can check to make sure it's legit.

speaking about "legitimate" Shelby's...

the 1st one I owned... SFM6S1299 is now in Ireland... and someone has fitted it with sequential tail lights... and is saying that they were original....

http://www.mocgb.net/forums/showthread.php?59105-Wheres-my-old-car-now

He also says there were a handful built that way...

Kind of like the old story about George Washington's hatchet...the head was replaced twice and the handle three times, but it's still the same hatchet?

If it's been 'rebodied' it's not a true Shelby anymore, it's a regular Mustang with a bunch of Shelby parts on it.

This is where the whole collector car hobby is getting confusing IMHO. Where does a rebody fit? My opinion is it's a clone. That the body is the car and even you build a 100% accurate car using a different body then it's just the most accurate clone out there. I mean I can theoretically buy a vin tag and a title from a salvage car and then build a C Code mustang into something that it never was from the factory.

Let's face it, the 65 GT350 are easy to clone. They are close enough to the standard mustang that a good builder to pass most sniff tests.

stuart in mn wrote: Kind of like the old story about George Washington's hatchet...the head was replaced twice and the handle three times, but it's still the same hatchet? If it's been 'rebodied' it's not a true Shelby anymore, it's a regular Mustang with a bunch of Shelby parts on it.

But keeping only the parts that have the VIN on them and replacing everything else with Chinese sheetmetal is still a real Shelby? Or how about an over-restored car where the restorer corrected all the factory flaws? I have an original Mustang and can tell you that in this case that would take a ton of massaging to the sheetmetal. Is THAT still a Shelby? Where is the line drawn?
I see nothing wrong with re-bodying, and neither does the Shelby club as long as it's well documented. It's not as good as the original, but it's better than the car not existing at all, and absolutely better than a car cobbled up by inferior reproduction sheetmetal.

This happens a lot, but mainly with euro cars like Ferrari's and ex racecars. It's generally accepted in those circles.

bravenrace wrote:

stuart in mn wrote: Kind of like the old story about George Washington's hatchet...the head was replaced twice and the handle three times, but it's still the same hatchet? If it's been 'rebodied' it's not a true Shelby anymore, it's a regular Mustang with a bunch of Shelby parts on it.

But keeping only the parts that have the VIN on them and replacing everything else with Chinese sheetmetal is still a real Shelby? Or how about an over-restored car where the restorer corrected all the factory flaws? I have an original Mustang and can tell you that in this case that would take a ton of massaging to the sheetmetal. Is THAT still a Shelby? Where is the line drawn? I see nothing wrong with re-bodying, and neither does the Shelby club as long as it's well documented. It's not as good as the original, but it's better than the car not existing at all, and absolutely better than a car cobbled up by inferior reproduction sheetmetal.

My point is the original car has ceased to exist. Nothing wrong with putting Shelby parts on a regular production Mustang in order to have a neat car that looks like a Shelby, but it's not the original car anymore.

Isn't the best way to sell a re-bodied Shelby for that much money is in the vintage seller magazines?

As someone that has driven a few real ones, it looks reasonably correct, but I want to know why a PCNW car was rebodied and why they've lowered it.

The kicker is if he has the shelby numbers(that are real) and the title reflects that. It still isn't worth as much as an all original one, but still worth more than your average mustang. The all original ones are well over $200k now.

Edit: for some reason those wheels look a little off to me.

bravenrace wrote: Pretty much every legitimate Shelby is in the registry, and every time I see an ad for a real one it lists the VIN so you can check to make sure it's legit.

There's a genuine '65 around the corner from me that is absolutely not in the registry. I know the owner and he has had it for over 30 years. It will be big news when it finally surfaces again.

In reply to Woody:

Well that's one.

Since the paint is at least ten years old, who knows when this swap took place, maybe years before that? Perhaps back when a Shelby was just a cool old car, someone took a rust-free Mustang fastback body and combined it with a wrecked and/or rusted genuine Shelby. If so, it is possible this one isn't in the registry either.

Also, is that a Morgan next to it in the garage?

yamaha wrote: As someone that has driven a few real ones, it looks reasonably correct, but I want to know why a PCNW car was rebodied and why they've lowered it. The kicker is if he has the shelby numbers(that are real) and the title reflects that. It still isn't worth as much as an all original one, but still worth more than your average mustang. The all original ones are well over $200k now. Edit: for some reason those wheels look a little off to me.

He said the front suspension arms were lowered. He did that because that's what Shelby did to the standard mustang to improve the camber curve. IOW, that's correct for this car. The wheels that are on the car are actually fairly rare and were an option on these cars.

The '65 wheels were made by Cragar. The original wheels were steelies, but you rarely see a set on one.

I'm sure there are a number of cars not in the Registry, for whatever reason. It just makes it easier to document and authenticate the changes.

In reply to JFX001:

Yeah, I never said they were all in there, but the vast majority of them are.

bravenrace wrote: In reply to JFX001: Yeah, I never said they were all in there, but the vast majority of them are.

I know.

I remember reading about all of the ones that have been pulled out of Mexico and Central/South America. Some stolen, others forgotten.

bravenrace wrote: He said the front suspension arms were lowered. He did that because that's what Shelby did to the standard mustang to improve the camber curve. IOW, that's correct for this car. The wheels that are on the car are actually fairly rare and were an option on these cars.

That explains the wheels, but this car still appears to sit lower than it should(even being a shelby)

In reply to yamaha:

I really can't see that from those pictures, which aren't the best for telling if it's lowered or not. But my point was that he was talking about the arning/shelby drop, which he should have done if he wanted it to be like a Shelby would have been.

My Mini has been re-shelled. After owning the car for over 10 years and having it titled in 4 states as a 1965, the state of NC has decided to title it as a 1974 car that is a replica of a 1964. The only numbers on the car are correct for 1964, but it truly is a body shell from 1974. No way in the world would my car be priced comparably to an actual 1964 Cooper S, unless there was a very shady seller and a very gullible buyer. Now, with my new 1974 paperwork, I guess that is not likely to happen.

All I know, is that any car with Shelby in the name and that is in the Shelby register will fetch a lot more money than the same car that is not.