Okay all you Shelby folks out there... I need your help in chasing down a 1968 GT350 4 speed. # is (supposedly) 8T02J204853-03354
Before I jet halfway across the good old USA, only to find out I am being hoodwinked, I would like to know as much about this car as possible. Is it listed in the Shelby Registry? If so, what is the color scheme and options? Any PO history?
The reason I am somewhat leery of the car is it seems to be the old "Too Good To Be True" scenario; a Barn Find, stored (properly, I'm told) for the past 17 years, with less than 5K original miles showing. But (and there always is a BUT!) from the photos I have seen, the engine compartment is painted body color, NOT black, as every other Shelby GT I have ever seen is painted, and from the closeups, I have to say the engine compartment paint is factory original, not a respray. The other issue is with the Valve Covers... they say COBRA, POWERED BY FORD, but they are not black krinkle coated; there is black between the ridges on top, and around the letters, but the rest is a plain aluminum color, but not polished... really dull finish... is it possible over time the black just flaked off? And the rest of the engine compartment looks sort of "Bare"...hard to explain, but it just looks like it is missing a few things, like decals and such. Also, the Cobra oval air cleaner looks to have a carburator top bolt right thru the middle of the lid of the air cleaner, between the other hold down wing nuts! The engine still has cast iron exhaust manifolds which look to be original and the rest of the car looks okay, but the engine area has me wondering!
Then there is "The Rest Of The Story"... supposedly, the car was originally sold to an American expatriate living in Costa Rica, who rarely if ever drove the car and then sold it to it's current owner after 22 years, with less than 3,000 miles on the Odo! The car still has the Costa Rica license plate on it!!! Just too good too... well you get the idea! Any info that you might be able to shed on the car could save me a lot of travel time and trouble. Thanks in advance!
Need Help Tracking Down a Shelby GT350 
No mustang or Shelby left the factory with the engine bay painted body color in 68.It is definitely not original.Somebody else did that, 100% for sure.The valve covers would look like that if they had been run through a bead blaster, re-installed and then sat somewhere for a very long time.Here's a picture of what the air cleaner and valve covers should look like on a 68 Shelby.As far as the ' less than 5000 miles' thing goes, I could beat around the bush and find a nice way to say it, but the bottom line is that the guy's lying. If the car sat in a barn for 17 years, that still leaves over 20 years of being in service, and the person that bought himself a brand new Shelby in 68 put 5000 miles on it in a couple of months.I have a car that sat in a barn for about 25 years and it had something like 10K showing on the odometer, but that was 110,000. Time wears on something in an entirely different manner from use.The reason the decals, ink stamps and factory paint splotches are missing is that the car has a whole bunch more than any 5000 miles on it.
