Home 1968 Shelby Cobra GT350, GT500 & GT500KR My 1968 Shelby Cobra GT350 Pictures Gallery Links Early Pictures from the 1980’s

Early Pictures from the 1980’s

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I acquired this car early in 1982. After fixing the basics like brakes and the clutch, my project car was ready for body work. Remember, in those days it was just a unique Mustang. I would take it to car shows and people would ask me what is this car? It doesn’t say Mustang any where on the car but it is obviously a Ford Mustang. Then I would explain what a Shelby Mustang was. That didn’t mean much to most people. Only real diehard Mustang fans had any idea what a Shelby Mustang was.

These first pictures were shot at Noah Yoder Ford in Hicksville, OH. Noah graciously loaned a stall to Biff and me to disassemble the car prior to taking it to the Yoder Body Shop for repair and painting. Note the rear quarter panel rust. The front fenders were just as bad. 100,000 mile Ohio car. The floors were also shot. Biff and I replaced those in his garage. I wish I had gotten more early pictures. Didn’t think of that at the time plus I bought my first decent 35mm camera during this process. This was a long time before smart phones. Heck, the internet was barely alive then.

My new car was rusty in all the expected places since it lived most of the prior years in salty Ohio
A very young Dennis removing the engine at Noah Yoder Ford

We pulled the engine out to rebuild and to open up the engine compartment for cleaning and painting

After new quarter panels & fenders were added, the car was painted the original Candy Apple Red color. The rims were steel with wheel cover/hubcaps. I had added the rear window slates. This picture is from the summer of 1984.

I replaced the steel wheels and Shelby wheel covers shortly after these pictures were taken. I assumed this car had those steel wheels because the original buyer just didn’t order the aluminum wheels. Turned out that was not the case. I learned, after I added the aluminum 10 spoke Shelby rims, almost all the ’68 Shelby Mustangs got the steel wheels and covers. Apparently, the Kelsey Hayes single piston front discs would not fit the aluminum rims. I sold or traded the steel rims and wheel covers shortly after putting the 10 spoke rims on it. I imagine those original wheel covers are worth their weight in gold today.