Restoration of 04052

[Peter L.]

  Ha ha. Thought you guys might like to see some pictures that were sent to me by Bill Collins.
This is 04052 some time in the '70's I believe. The car was rolled in 1971, from what i'm told, and other than that I know little else about who crashed it, or the circumstances surrounding it.
The pictures are a lot worse than it looks, and most of the damage has been repaired.
  Stay tuned for some more recent photos.
Long shot, but does anybody know any more details, or heard stories of such an accident.
Photos are in my gallery but haven't figured out yet how to get them from there to here.  One step at a time but they are available to be seen by the forum.

                          Pete.

[67_1183]

Let's see if this link works:

http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=159;u=566

[Bill Collins]

Well, I just had to weigh in on this. I recall that I found #4052 in about 1981. I may have a file on it that will pin down the date, but I moved last September and most of my records are still at my former house.

First of all, yes, that is me in the one photo. The story behind this car started when I met some members  of the Capitol Region SAAC (TCR) at SAAC 4 in 1979. I joined TCR and regularly traveled to the Washington area over the next decade to attend their meetings and shows. They were a great bunch and I always enjoyed myself in their company.

Of course this association led to leads on cars, and the Washington, DC metro area had many interesting Shelbys and Mustangs still lying around at that time. This led to me being introduced to a fellow by the name of B.I (Butch) Mattingly, who lived in a rural area of the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

I was told Butch had a project '66 Hipo fastback for sale, and one weekend some TCR members took me to look at it. Upon meetng Butch, I learned he also had a '69 Boss 429 and a '68 GT500, neither of which were for sale. But as he showed me the GT500, he mentioned that he had used parts from his "other" Shelby in redoing it.

I asked "What other Shelby?". Whereupon he took us to a ditch that had been excavated on the property. At the bottom of the ditch was the remains of #4052. Athough wrecked and largely parted out. it was remarkably solid.

Following some discussion, I bought it. We returned a week later with a truck and trailer. The car had no suspension, so we had to hoist it out of the ditch. Butch had a bucket loader so we put a chain around the roof and attached it to the bucket. Three of us climbed into the bucket at the other end of the loader to counterbalance the weight of the car.

Following a somewhat suspenseful ride, Butch set #4052 onto the trailer as you see it in the photo with yours truly. Later we put some suspension under it so it could be rolled, as shown in the other photos.

I sold #4052 later that year to Phil Askew of Michigan. Phil worked on the body over many years, but did not complete the car. He sold it to Peter, who has now also had it for many years,

Being a black 4 speed A/C KR, it is a rather cool car. I'm glad I was able to be part of saving it and I wish Peter success in getting it together!

Oh, and I did buy the Hipo fastback from Butch.

[Peter L.]

  Thanks for the input Bill.
Just to update a little further. 04052 was sold by Phil to a man named Jim Hay, across the river in Port Lambton, Ontario Canada. The car was to be a father son project, but unfortunately a falling out between the two resulted in the car being for sale. I heard about it by word of mouth, and upon looking at it, my brother Charlie and I bought the car in 1996, along with 2 truckloads of parts that they had been collecting along the way.
  Over the next few years we slowly picked away at the project, and recently decided to go ahead and just put the car back together, trying to preserve as much of the originality as possible.
Who knows, maybe there is a full restoration in the future, but for now our goal is to get it put back together and drive it.
More pictures to follow as work progresses!
By the way Bill, do you remember anything in regards to who the previous owner was, and how it got crashed?
                           Thanks,  Pete.

[Peter L.]

Added some new photos.

http://www.saacforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=159;u=566

[Peter L.]

  Started cleaning the undercarriage on the KR. UNBELIEVABLE!  Totally blown away at how clean the underside of this car is.
With the exception of where the tunnel was hacked out, and a couple of spots, and not to get all cliche', the floors and frames look as if it just rolled off the assembly line. I'm totally convinced now that the 21,000 miles on the odometer is true and correct.
  The primer, the overspray, the sealer; incredible. I'm going to continue cleaning and just leave it alone.
Will try to post some more pics if anyone is interested.

                            Pete.   #4052