1967 GT500 #00925

[allen2438]

Got to agree it's a different color for a 67 GT500.  I'm very pleased to see all the pictures of the car though.  The car is still a very good looking machine.  Hard to believe what it is now compared to back in late 73 or early 74 when I found and bought the car.  Found it on a sunday drive when passing through Daly City, California.  Daly City Motors, long gone.  The car was sitting on a used car lot, was painted Mustang maroon with the Mustrang crescent stripes on the sides.  All the GT500 components were there except the roll bar had been gas axed out, why I have no idea.  Will post more early history I have when I have time.  Allen.

[Bill Collins]

This must be the day for my alumni to surface - first '68 350 #3364 from Costa Rica shows up on the Forum, now '67 500 #925.

I recall that I bought #925 in Denton, Texas in 2002. I attached a photo of how it looked when it arrived. It was a decent driver but had been changed around a good bit mechanically. I sold it to a friend in Kansas City, Mason Jones. He drove it for a few years and then in 2007 decided to Restomod it, as it was not the best candidate for an OEM restoration.

He sent it out and had the bodywork and paint done in a screaming yellow. Then he sent it back to me with instructions to make a real "ground pounder" out of it. He purchased one of Shelby's 500 inch aluminum engines, we added a full JBA header exhaust system, installed rack and pinion steering and made a host of other changes.

It was a real monster when complete - when I drove it on shakedown runs, it was still pulling when I ran out of nerve. We delivered it to Mason at the Tulsa Mid America Meet in June 2008. He took off in it and I didn't see him for the rest of the day. Finally that evening, I encountered him at the entrance to the hotel and asked how he liked the car.

He needled me that it was sitting out along the road shut down. I was alarmed that something had gone amiss until he wryly admitted that in all the fun he was having giving rides in it all day, he had run out of gas.

He still has it, and did indeed display it at the 2016 MCACN show. I will let him know that he should contact you if he would like some early history on it. I did share my part of the 925's history with Dave Mathews when he was working on the 2011 Registry.

[2112]

Yellow   

[SNAKEBIT]

Grabber Yellow is great, but that '67 doesn't look good in that shade of yellow, anyways. I'm really sorry to hear about all the mods people do to these cars. It's a real crying shame, for sure.

[allen2438]

I understand what your saying.  When I started the only thing that resembles a 67 GT500 was all the body unique items and the badging, steering wheel etc in the interior.  That was the reason that when I decided to take her apart and and make her as right as I could afford and did what I did.  The only thing that I got into pretty heavy was the internals of the the engine.  Went back to the Wembledon White, got the correct intake, located a factory roll bar at a SAAC meet and re-installed it, correct spare tire and jack,  put 10 spokes on it as I could get those from a fellow SAAC member.  I'm no purist but do admit that sometimes people get a little wild.  But at the end of the day it is their car so they can still make personal choices about what they want to do to them.   Sometimes you got to remember what the man's intent was when he built these cars and sold them to the public.  Allen.

[owenkelley]

Personally I love to see the modified cars. 99% of them (including mine) look like they did when they rolled off the showroom floor with the exception of Lemans stripes that a lot of people add. I really like bright yellow and black on that car, but could never bring myself to do it to a car that is already done to factory specs. To each his own, but it's fun to go to a Shelby show and see an occasional car that doesn't look like all the others IMHO.

[SNAKEBIT]

Allen, I wasn't getting on your effort. I know it's their car and they have a right to retro-mod it or burn it or make it factory new, BUT the people who own these cars, are not messing with AMCs. They are supposed to be stewards of these cars. I feel, in the same way owners of antique Japanese swords are or those who own the 300SL gullwing Mercedes-Benzs. I know they were not worth back in the '80's what they are today, but they were still considered "arm and a leg" cars back then. I had such a conversation with a fellow Boy Scout in the mid-'80's about them. Ok, paint them the way you want, but cutting out rollbars, losing track of the original engine/tranny combos are very naughty to do.

Owen, I agree that I don't want to have what everybody else has. That is why I want a Shelby. Don't go to a lot of all-Shelby shows. I've noticed that owners of fine cars, NEVER mod them. Take for instance, the V-16 Cadillac limousines and towncars or the Cords or what have you. Ok, to each his own. I'm not a nut-and-bolt purist, either, but I don't like to see such rare cars, messed-up with teenage go-fast goodies. Not calling anyone a teenager, mind you. I've spoke my peace about all this. I will get mine as close to factory as I care to do, without making my wife and accountant freak out!  

[SNAKEBIT]

Btw, welcome aboard, Bill Collins, OwenKelley and Allen2438! Let's give the gents a round of applause!

[allen2438]

Just got time to get back up on the Forum, been a little busy with life.  I apologize to Skakebit and any other members that I may have offended with my comment about mods to these cars.  I wasn't condoning the butchering of any of these cars.  I like, a lot of the "older" people that have had owned them and been around, have seen some tragedies committed on them.  I'd rather see the person that has one just leave it as alone as possible and keep it because they love it.  Sooner or later it will end up in the hands of someone, hopefully, that has the knowledge and financial wherewithal to bring the car back to a state of grace again.   I know I would have puked when I first saw 00925 on that used car lot, if I hadn't have been able to get my hands on the car.  Why they axed the roll bar I have no idea as I bought the car from a used car lot.  We all know how honest and knowledgeable most used car salesmen are!  If they had known what it was, even in 1973, I wouldn't have been able to buy it for $500 + TTL even with a blown engine.  BTW, the only thing that was not factory when I sold the car was the basic engine, short block.  That was blown into about 10 pieces when I got the car.Everything from the back of the block on was original.  As were all of the underhood items, including alternator, power steering pump and brackets, etc.  When I built the 1st engine for it this was just a 390 4V from a salvage yard to get the car driveable.  The original 428 engine had 3 valves dropped on the left bank, busted the block all up, trashed the left head and cracked the crankshaft.  A couple of the pushrods looked like spaghetti.  Everything that was salvable was saved and reused. When I pulled the cam for salvage it turned out to be about the baddest Crower mechanical cam you could by for an FE, definitely not a street cam by any means, I guess the builder found that out the hard way.

Thanks and Kind  Regards,  Allen

[SNAKEBIT]

Allen, no offense taken here. I accept that people can do what they want with their property. I may not like it, or approve of it, but this one thing I have to accept. I spoke my peace about being stewards of these cars, as sword collectors view their ownership of the Japanese swords they collect. We are entrusted by posterity and the future, to take good and proper care of these cars. In 100 years from now or 200 years from now, there will probably be even fewer of these rare cars left in the world. Time and tragedy will take its ultimate toll on them, just as it does all things, living or otherwise, on this Earth.