Sometimes Mustangs come my way simply because I’m known for being a Mustang guy. This time it was my wife’s reputation for driving Mustangs that lead to finding a pair of ’69 Shelbys in a barn. A school acquaintance noticed that my wife drove a late model Mustang and mentioned that his father had collected Mustangs most of his life and that the family needed to get rid of several stored on various properties. After a year or more of discussion, I purchased a ’71 J code 429CJ Mach 1 from the family for twice they had been offered by the neighbor. And I was able to get it moved (with a lot of help) right before the new property owners took delivery of the house keys. It was local and not too expensive, so I took the chance and was satisfied to make a few bucks and help the family out in a timely manner.
The discussions continued about the other cars in the collection, including a few Shelbys. About a year after buying the ’71 Mach 1, we had a fairly serious discussion about a few cars on a family farm in the mid-west. I was able to get the VIN numbers from the family and verified that they had a legitimate GT500 and GT350 (more on this car in another story). With only VIN numbers and vague recollections of the condition, I made a trip to the family property and was able to check the vehicles out. As you can see by the pictures, they were stuffed in a barn down on the lowlands, 1 of only 2 buildings on several hundred acres. You could see John Deere tractors through the garage doors with windows, but the Shelbys would require moving a very heavy gate, finding the keys to the door and fighting our way in. With the help of the property owners son and some workers on the property we were able to get a look inside and slowly uncover the Shelbys. We encountered Yellow Jackets and a lot of mice, but fortunately the only snakes we found were build by Shelby Automotive.
As we pulled back the boxes, carpets and rodent corpses we found 2 complete ’69 Shelbys in relatively good, if not dirty and smelly condition. We didn’t dare crawl under them to check the condition of the underside for the boards with nails and dead rodents were abundant.
The other ’69 Shelby stablemate
Since we were both so far from home I took a couple of hours to value them as-is, where-is and made an offer on the lot. The family slept on my offer and agreed the next morning.
The next day was busy, with coordinating a rental trailer and tow truck driver to pull the Shelbys out of the barn and haul them up to the house on the “bench” 200 feet above. Luckily we got a great tow truck driver named “Tank” that did the heavy lifting. He was patient and most of all careful with the cars. He remarked that he had driven past that barn for 30 years and had no idea those cars were there, he was quit enthusiastic about his job that day.
Tank had to drop the GT500 near the corral to pick it up backwards. He then did a great job hauling the GT500 up the hill and dropping it gently behind my rental trailer and helped me and the property owner’s son load it up. The next morning I headed home with the GT500 with plans to come back and pick up 2 more cars later in the year.
After a few days of travel I dropped the GT500 off at a friend’s shop. As you can see he is no stranger to Mustangs. He went through the drivetrain, brakes and suspension. Thankfully he only had to drain the fuel system, rebuild the carburetor and rebuild the brakes.
After the mechanicals were in working order I dropped it off at another friend’s shop who is a world class detailer. He de-moused the interior and cleaned decades of dirt off of the body. It really turned out nice.
After it was detailed I got it home and finally had a chance to take it for a spin. It starts right up and the 428 runs like it should.
I’d like to thank Matt, Ronnie, Brian, Debbie, Tammy and other Matt for all of their help through this journey.
