1967 Shelby GT500 that started my car obsession

[shelby69]

Thought I would share this story. I found this 67 GT500 in a yard near my family home back in the early 1980's. I was about 14 years old , me and my best friend were already car crazy and we used to ride our bicycles through neighborhoods and and search for old Muscle Cars sitting in people yards. This 67 Shelby is all I could think about when I found it. I rode past that house at least once a week hoping that the owner would be outside so I could talk to him about it. One day I finally met the owner , but car wasn't for sale and being only 14 he probably thought I was a joke , but he did see I knew somewhat about Shelby's and mustangs, so he let me in his yard to see the car up close. The car is  a real 67 GT500 someone painted it silver , had a black interior , all the Shelby unique parts were still inside , steering wheel , rollbar , dash gauges , ect. The engine and trans were out of the car , but the owner said he had them. I actually got stung by wasps looking at this car , I went to lift up the hood to see engine compartment and there was a wasp nest in there ,I got stung a few times , but at the time I don't think i really cared I got to see a real Shelby. I would keep my eye on this car for a long time. This Shelby would sit in that very spot all the way till around 2013 and then suddenly it was gone one day. It was a shame , the car became very rusty , I would imagine the floors and frame rails had to be rotted from sitting on dirt all that time. The owner of the car had several other cars in that yard along with the Shelby , there was 69 Mach 1 428CJ car , 1971 Boss 351 red , 66 Mustang K-code coupe , 1966 Fairlane factory 427 car , and a wrecked 1969 Boss 429 , it was a Ford lovers dream find. All these cars sat there along with the Shelby from early 1980"s till 2013. I always had a thing for 67 Shelbys since I first laid eyes on this car. I went on in my life to have some pretty rare Fords of my own, I had various 69-70 428CJ Mach-1's and Torino Cobras , a 1970 Boss 302 , and the pinnacle of my cars was a 69 Shelby GT350 Grabber Blue . Never did get a 67 Shelby they were always out of my reach. But still is a dream of mine. Enclosed are pictures of the 67 in the yard with some of the other cars .

[silverton_ford]

Cool!  Thank you for sharing.  Don't give up on the dream.

[JD]

Looks like it has/had a tow hitch ?

Are the top stripes Green, hard to tell?

(Looks like you were able to attach images ;-)

[shelby69]

Trailer hitch and stripes were black.

[557]

Eleanor before there was an Eleanor paint wise...cool pix.

[deathsled]

Great photos from back in the day.  Right around the same age for me.  Lots of memories in Scarborough of seeing interesting cars in people's yards with my best friend around that time frame.  Your pictures take me back and I feel young again thinking about it.

[greekz]

Cool story.

I have never understood the mentality of folks who leave cars out in the open to just rust away.  One of the mysteries of life.

[Side-Oilers]

^^^ That's because they "know that it's worth."  and are  "Going to fix it up someday and make a million dollars."

[daltondavid]

These were cars collected by people smart enough to see the magic the cars possessed, yet can never manage their own lives properly. It is a sickness that usually leads to other people getting the cars from family members after the owner dies.