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Suggest those needing these get them NOW - good stuff (very correct reproductions) are hard to find, sell quick and the prices rarely go down.

Well said! I wont start doing 390 for a while, just going to drive it for a little bit... but I am buying as many parts as I can right now. Makes no sense to wait.

Over time  you dont have to be Nostradamus to know the following...
Taxes will always go up
The dollar will be worth less
Reproduction Parts will be less prevalent and lower quality (hopefully with exceptions)
and in the words of Matthew McConaughey... "I get older.... but these Shelby Mustangs just stay the same" 

Vern

[WHAT CARS USED THIS STYLE OF DOOR INSERT?]

Hey Guys,

The other day Bob Gaines was here at the shop looking at GT350 #390 and we got to talking about parts needed to an eventual restoration on the car. The car retains its original "early" style brushed door inserts but, as with most all cars with their inserts, they are not going to be nice enough to reuse during the restoration.

WHAT CARS USED THIS STYLE OF DOOR INSERT?
These inserts have long been regarded as the "early" style of insert. However, a fairly recent post on the Shelby Research Group Facebook page had around 40 responses and seems to indicate that the preponderance of cars up till mid production generally had this style of "early" insert. Contrary to popular belief, these are not something unique to nothing but the "earliest cars". There is a lot of debate about where the cutoff point for these is and whether the "later" version was sprinkled in here and there during early to mid production. I am not here making this post to adjudicate that but you all can feel free to debate back and forth here on the thread  my popcorn is popped and I am melting the butter as we speak!

During his visit, Bob explained to me that these earlier style brushed inserts were only reproduced in a small run by Burton Antique Auto Parts a few decades ago but that Burton was still the best supplier for the most correct appearing inserts... albeit what they currently sell are the "later" style. He encouraged me to give them a call regardless to get a set of those and at least ask about the early panels on the off chance they still had a set knocking around.

I called and here is what I found: Burton is now run by the daughter of Mr. Mort Burton... it is a real, small American business. They have a few guys in the shop and one guy in particular who makes these panels who is in his eighties and still going strong. This is the sort of business we should all feel good about supporting.

When I initially spoke to Mort's daughter, she agreed to take the pictures attached to this post to the gentleman who makes their inserts to inquire about the possibility of producing more of this style of insert. She called back the next day and said that they would be happy to do a slight modification to their tooling and produced a set for me but that they would really prefer to have more orders for the inserts so that the extra time spent was worth their while... which I think is more than reasonable.

My only question for them was "how many is too many?" and they said they would produce as many as I could find orders for... but that they didn't really want to produce them on a set by set basis over the years because of the complications of constantly changing the tooling. In addition, for reasons already posted above.. who knows how long a great company like Burton will even be making these panels. As time goes on, we are seeing less and less companies making a truly nice quality reproduction part.

Soooooooooooo... here's the details... the Price is $455/set plus shipping. This is the same price as they charge for their high quality "later" style inserts. I made two phone calls yesterday and already have 8 sets spoken for.

IF YOU WANT A SET... you need to reach out to me at vestes85@gmail.com or through PM on this forum or PM on Facebook. I need a name and an email to put together a final tally on the number of sets we'd like them to produce. I don't know how long I am going to plan to take names and emails before giving them the "go-ahead". Once I have what I think is a pretty decent pile of names and it feels like we have given everyone a chance to throw their hat in the ring, I'll share the list of names and emails with Burton and they will reach out to you to process your transaction and begin making our run of inserts.

Special Note: I know I'm a used car dealer and all... but I want to make clear that I am making approx $0 doing this. I'll be paying for my inserts just like all of you.. I am just thankful they are willing to make this additional run of them. Reason for saying that... accumulating this list and spearheading all this will take some time on my end. If you intend to be a PITA in any way, please feel free to not reach out... my day job compensates me for dealing with that sort of nonsense but when it comes to these inserts I am accepting no payment...therefore I am also not accepting any complaints 

Kind regards,
Vern

PS- shoutout to JD Kaltenbach for the nice example pictures attached!

Found a dizzy and a radiator shroud thanks to a great friend.

Now just need that darn RAD-E-ATE-TOR

Kind regards,
Vern

Thanks dooooooods!

Hey Guys,

On the hunt for appropriately dated pieces for a car built at SJ in December of 66. If it matters to you, the car is a keeper and its a very special car being 1 of the 35 Paxton Supercharged cars built. Not being flipped or shelved in a parts hoard.

Any help is greatly appreciated in finding these pieces! If I find a part, I'll delete it off the below list.

PLEASE privately message me if you have something or reach out directly to my cell at (9 one 3) 687-16six8

Thanks!

Parts Needed:
-Radiator W MO C7ZE G2
-Radiator Shroud C7ZE-8146-B (((GOT IT)))
-HiPo Distributor C50F-12127-E (((gottttt itttttt))))

Kind regards,
Vern

Overall good $ for the Shelby marque. Surprised 1965 #262 didn't sell after $660k for a later car. Gulfstream Aqua 1969 GT 500 vert was on the low side, especially for a four speed car IMHO. Fun to watch today!

Certainly, the auctions are always entertaining to watch.

IMO 500k high bid on 262 was generous considering the car's history and originality.

As for the later car,.. I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb assuming that the new owner probably didn't talk to Howard before buying it.

Kind regards,
Vern

Found one, thank you guys!

I have a car which was owned by a person who was a very early member of COCOA... I was curious if anyone has or knows of copies of the club's earliest Newsletters that I could access to see if the original owner's name is mentioned in those newsletters?

I owned newsletters #1 and #2 back in 2012 which I obtained from one of the founding members of COCOA. I did not make copies back then, though, and the person who bought them has them buried away it seems.

Attached is a screenshot of those two newsletters... to be clear, Id be interested in either of these two newsletters but also any other newsletter or club correspondence from late 1965 to 1971.

As an aside, the history of COCOA has always been an interesting one as I feel most are not aware of the fact that the club was founded in conjunction with the factory. The original "clubhouse" for meetings was Hi-Performance Motors.

If anyone out there has any early newsletters, could you please reach out?

Thanks so much!
Vern

913 six eight seven - 1668 is my cell
email vestes85@gmail.com

You can still get auction coverage through their website for free, im sure. Its on the homepage whenever they are holding a sale. Hope this helps.
Vern

closer up pics of the headliner areas in 345.

Sorry to hijack the thread Mark but I think you now have ample justification for your missing hooks LOL

Vern you are a trouble maker dude .

I'm just over here helping Mark document his car as being of the highest echelon of 65 GT350 collectability.

Some of us have always known that these late "coat hanger delete" examples are the ones to have...  it's now time to inform the unwashed masses 

My understanding is that Ken Miles himself phoned the San Jose line and in his thick English accent said "delete them coat hangers out of the interiors... nobody drives these damn things in the snow or rain and we need those extra grams on the track".

Some people probably couldn't square with how hardcore these stripped out, hyper special examples were and the hangers were eventually placed back where they belonged.

At least that's the way I heard it.

Vern

443, another car very close on Ford VIN to 345, 332, 541.. had been painted but a largeley unrestored car which retained a beautiful unrestored interior. No hooks.

5S541 was original paint and had a sweet original interior before it unfortunately got restored. I don't know the exact Ford VIN number of this car but I have a block picture where I can read everything up to the 4th sequential digit which tells me that it is very close to 345 and 332.

You guys have me going down a rabbit hole now on coat hooks 

5S332, this car has sat idle (until recently)... maintaining its original interior and a very nice headliner. No hooks.

332 and 345's Ford numbers are extremely close to one another.

I also looked back at pictures of 5S335. It has hooks but it's Ford VIN is quite a bit earlier than 332 and 345.

hey doods,

Just jumping in here as I just noticed discussion on the coat hooks. I am currently cleaning up 5S345 which is an unrestored car. The car has its original interior from carpet to headliner, melted gauge pod and everything in between. Headliner is about as mint as they come... no coat hooks. Also no evidence that I can see of a hook being installed on the passenger inner interior vent trim. If there was a hook there, I would assume there would be some sort of witness mark on the original paint showing something pressed into it there.

I will look closer at the inner vent trim today and can take a much nicer pic of the headliner (surprised that this is the only image on my phone currently of that area)

While 345 and 444 feel like a long ways from one another in terms of Shelby number, the Ford numbers are probably right next to each other. Happy to share mine with you, Mark, if you'd like to confirm.

Love the progress Mark, keep it up!

Kind regards,
Vern