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Thank you gentlemen for your insights. I will let the owner know of these findings.

My understanding is that the switch for high beams remains bare metal on 65/66 Shelbys. Does this hold true for a 68 G.T. 350 or is there a rubber cap? Was visiting a friend today who has a black 68 G.T. 350. I told him likely no cap. He has it bare metal so I told him it is correct. I hope I gave him the right information.

Are there letters JAX stenciled into the mirror?

That took some serious carving skill.  Well done!

It wasn't so much that one would break the case, it was more about the fact that as the engine power capabilities increased, the cars got heavier, the tires and suspensions got better providing greater "bite", the aluminum cases just weren't rigid enough, this allowed the gear sets to push move out of position excessively, upsetting the drive load conveyance relationships between them and resulting in, if not breakage, just poor service life.

    Also, the case bearing bores, particularly that for the front input shaft would get "oval(ed)" or just lose it's "hold" on the bearing race as the alloy would become compressed or be displaced, and allowing it to then "spin" damaging the case and again allowing the gear sets to move out of their intended positioning; this also being less prevalent with cast iron examples.   

    As for the tail-housings, they were fine until the same vehicular advancements that took place, and then when one managed to induce "wheel-hop", with also greater frequency and force, the aluminum tails would be snapped-off. The cast iron tail-housings "fixed" part of the problem, but then, in truly violent instances, it wouldn't break, but instead, when the aluminum alloy was tested beyond it's capabilities, could be ripped off the back of the aluminum case, or more frequently, the whole transmission just being removed at the bellhousing juncture, leaving the aluminum case ears behind, still bolted in place! 

    The conversion to cast iron was just the most efficient and judicious (aka. cheapest) way to extend the life span of the T10 product into the next decade, without a 'complete' re-engineering effort; as B.W. obviously felt that that would have been capital better spent on the "next generation" of transmission.   

    Scott.

Thanks for taking the time to provide this detailed explanation!

Looking at a possible '65 purchase. Are there any known street cars that were produced with a cast iron T-10 housing? Page 229 of the 2011 Registry says the R-Models could have had either aluminum or cast, but from what I'm seeing it appears the street cars only had aluminum. Thanks!

It was 66 production when the trans started to evolve. 65 was typically all aluminum with the exception of some of the competition models.

By your observation that some "R" models had the cast iron T-10, is that suggestive that the cast iron T-10s were more durable i.e. stronger that the aluminum ones?

Very Sorry this happened.
Hope the occupants are OK.  I'd suggest getting an accident attorney and get a complete physical.   All four corners of the car appear to have damage.  Ouch. 

Agreed.  It would not be surprising if the putative defendant had no insurance. (He certainly drives like it.)  Then it becomes an uninsured motorist claim against their own carrier.  Get a lawyer onboard asap I say.  Statutes of limitation vary from state to state.  There may also be limitations for filing an uninsured motorist claim.  Beware.

the belongs to our friend and neighbors, it belongs to his wife, he has a later model Mustang. We had planned to go together to the Rockville Classic Car show and this happened on the way home. I didn't go because of an issue with my car. He had recommended to me to get an in car video camera several years ago and I did based  upon his recommendation.  The quickness of the accident gave him almost no time to react. They say that they are OK but I can't imagine that they aren't a lot more injured then they initially thought.
I hope the car isn't totaled as it is a great car and they love driving it and showing it. They usually drive in many of the National Parades in Washington DC

As a suggestion, tell your friends to follow up medically. Brain bleeds are a thing and one might think they are okay when in fact they are not. Look at Ace Frehley of the group Kiss. Also, I had a friend who had a closed head injury for over a month and he went in after complaining of headaches and a brain bleed was shown on the scan. He had to undergo immediate surgery to drain it. He was same age as me, 62. What one easily can survive and walk it off at 20 years of age is sometimes not so survivable at 60, 70 or 80 unless you get fully examined.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQAYv-0kSmT/?igsh=MTR4ZXRsNG9pcHN4NA==

Yes, it's Instagram but there is no other media reporting it. (For anyone thinking to assert that I somehow invaded privacy, allow me to preempt you right now. This Instagram account is a public posting with over 2,993 followers and 3,000 plus posts.)  There is some way to log on if one does not have an account.
"Directly search for a public profile: Open a web browser (like Chrome or Safari) and type instagram.com/username, replacing "username" with the person's actual username. This works for public profiles but may be blocked if you scroll too much."

To sum it up, some guy in plastic sandals and a long beard ran a stop sign thereby striking the Shelby who did not, in fact, have a stop sign or any other traffic control device at that intersection.

 Hoping the owner and his wife recover fully from their injuries.

As a further addendum, the car is described as #1759 a matching numbers 1 of 402 made in 1968 and 1 of 18 with dealer ordered options as described in the Instagram post.  Maybe it can be saved.  I don't know.

How has this project worked out for you Deathsled? I am visiting Chicago in December to see the wife's family for Xmas and plan on bringing back a set of R model gauges in my luggage. I like the idea of the CS reproduction gauges from Branda vs the more generic Stewart Warner gauges. However I have heard one or two negatives about the reliability of the CS reproductions from Branda. Can anyone shed any light on the topic?

Have not installed the gauges yet.  As for reliability, I will eventually find out and as each one fails, it will be replaced with a Stewart Warner gauge.  That's the plan.  Just driving the car around as is for the moment and having fun in it.

Looks mighty quick.

$3.44 in the Western Suburbs of Chicago.  ($3.34 with ten cent discount card at the nearby Shell). As the price increases, just by less food and buy more gas.  Win win all around.

Good finds

The plate on the 67 needs to be CA VRD389 - the Blue Lady

The metal sign looks like it was originally a portion of someone show board.

Agreed.  There is always some frustrating detail as in when they do a run of 1:64 R models and put the number 86 on it instead of 98.