Tom Honegger, the owner of ‘67Shelby GT350 #0073, wrote an article inthe 1984 issue of The Shelby American #45titled “Early 1967 Shelbys.” The article ad-dressed some of the differences betweenthe early ‘67 GT350s and the later cars,both small blocks and big blocks. Tom wassurprised to find there were so many dif-ferences between his car and others, bothearly and late. Like Tom, many of us havetraveled a similar path as more informa-tion and a clearer view of the variations inthese cars has been discovered since thoseearly days.

Changes made within a productiionyear are common in the automobile indus-try. Shelby American and other small vol-ume manufacturers, perhaps more so sinceracers have a tendency to create solutionsand then adjust or improve upon themlater. The ‘67 Mustangs had a revised uni-body design. Shelby dealer feedback indi-cated that the Shelby models needed tolook different from Ford’s standard Mus-tang and should also be more usable as adaily driver than the ‘65 and ‘66 ShelbyGT350 Mustangs.

The previous years had taught Fordand Shelby that the more Shelby specificmodifications made at Ford’s San Jose(Milpitas) assembly plant, the betterthings would be for both of them. Thingslike the Shelby-unique intake manifolds,carburetors, wheels and tires were in-stalled by Ford during assembly. Add-onitems like exhaust headers, extra-capacityfinned-aluminum oil pans and over/underride traction bars were eliminated. MostShelby-added items would be bolt-on parts

(with exception of the roll-bar base platesthat had to be welded on) to reduce inten-sive labor rework once the cars got toShelby American.

Or so they thought. In addition to anew look, added features like air condition-ing, power steering, factory power brakesas well as an alternate engine choice for asecond model were incorporated into the1967 models.

District Sales Order (D.S.O.) #71-2505revised to #84-2505 for 100 GT350s with4-speeds, no air-conditioning or thermactoremission controls was the first quantityproduction order and was placed in earlyAugust of 1966. On September 23, 1966, aFriday, Ford workers at the San Jose as-sembly plant put together the first cars inthis group to Shelby specifications. Thelast few cars of this D.S.O. were assembled11/4/66, again a Friday, resulting in a totalof 100 cars built over an eight-week period.By the time the last car of this D.S.O. wasassembled at San Jose, approximately 34of the cars had been converted into GT350sat Shelby American’s LAX facility andwere off to dealers. Some of these wereidentified as “Showing Cars,” intended fornew car showrooms and auto shows.

According to Shelby American records,cars #0003 and #0018, were completed atShelby American on October 19, 1966, aWednesday. The last ‘67 Mustangs built toShelby specifications at San Jose werecompleted on July 12, 1967, also a Wednes-day. It is important to note there is paperwork stating that Shelby had to be out ofthe buildings on the airport grounds andall production car items needed to be

shipped to A.O. Smith in Ionia, Michigan.It is thought that this move occurred inlate summer, yet there are Shelby Ameri-can records that indicate 12 cars were com-pleted in August/September and 18 morewere completed in October of 1967, the lastof those on 10/26/67, a Thursday.

Around the same time as D.S.O. 2505,other D.S.O.s were launched which re-sulted in additional groups of GT350s andGT500s. Some of the earliest D.S.O.s in-cluded the first production GT500 (#0100)and the one coupe. “Li’l Red” (#0131), aswell as the convertible (#0139, that even-tually became a ‘68 prototype). All threecars were red, big-block automatics.

While the first groups of cars werebeing completed, both Ford and ShelbyAmerican were fine-tuning their designsand procedures. This resulted in numerouschanges. Some of them were immediatewhile others were as “running changes,”implemented as new designs, current in-ventory and vendor supplied parts could beincorporated without disrupting produc-tion. Documentation and study have re-vealed clues as to the time frames of someof the changes, so between a car’s D.S.O.date, San Jose build date and the Shelbycompletion date, concours judges can nar-row-down what was likely to have been ornot been on a particular car.

Over the course of 372 days (based onthe documented completion dates) 3,225cars were completed and the differences inthose cars is the meat of a lot of debate,confusion and at times angst for owners,restorers, buyers, sellers, parts replicatorsand admirers.

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A Year of Changes, Variations and Transformations– J.D. Kaltenbach

Some of the differences in the cars arethe result of “running changes” made byFord, that affected parts or features ofMustangs coming out of the San Jose plantfrom September 1966 through July of1967. [Items listed in italic type indicatethe Ford changes.] Others are the result ofthe Shelby operation altering a design,components, supplier or a procedure tospeed-up and/or simplify or take expenseout of the completion process. Then thereis the human factor, intent vs. reality.What a car was supposed to get and whatit did get—what actually happened duringits build—is another factor. Add to this thefact that Shelby had a tendency to use pro-totype parts on production cars. If a vendorsubmitted 6 pieces for evaluation, theywere likely to end up on a production car.Some previously completed cars had partsscavenged off of them to complete othercars in process. Because of this and otherfactors cars were not completed in strictVIN number sequence. At times cars werestarted, stopped then restarted. Some carswere shipped missing items. Parts fromthe previous year were used until existinginventories ran out, newly redesignedparts arrived or suppliers changed. All ofthis added more to the mix of irregulari-ties. The years have revealed some docu-mentation, answers or clues to the timeframes of some of the changes and helpedto separate fact from fiction or incorrectsupposition.

It is important to keep in mind thatthese cars are now over forty-six years oldand most have had numerous owners dur-ing a period when it was common for own-ers to maintain, customize, wreck and/orrepair their cars. Many of these repairswere not “factory correct.” Just because apart is on the car and is “old” you cannotassume it is the correct assembly line ver-sion of the part. Keep in mind there arethirty-year old reproduction parts, whichmay have been installed twenty years ago,or are being sold as NOS (New Old Stock)service replacements. These are not thesame as assembly line versions. N.O.S.does not necessarily mean “correct oldpart.”

I've been “educated” more than a fewtimes on ‘67 GT350 #0026. The third ownergave me a very adamant account of someof the parts on the car as “original,” sincethey were on the car when he got it in theearly ‘70s. Some proved true and some not.

Researching the history of a car is eas-ier with the Internet, but previous ownersare disappearing or losing memory. TheSAAC forum (www.SAACforum.com) is agreat resource, as are the Shelby AmericanAutomobile Club publications, including

the 2011 4th Edition Registry covering ‘65,‘66 and ‘67 Shelbys with footnotes on spe-cific cars and an outline of the ‘67 RunningChanges beginning on page 787. Buy one:it’s very educational.

Much has been learned since Tom’s1984 article and the learning curve onthese cars seems to be never-ending, andmay never be fully understood. The inten-tion of this article is to provide an updatedlook at some (not all) of the more obviousvariations on these cars, not to draw a linein the sand. More is learned and broughtto light on these cars all the time. This isnot the effort of one person; I’m just theonly one dumb enough to put it out thereand catch the flak the is sure to follow.Also, this is not intended to be a guide tobuilding a fake Shelby.

The following list generally movesfrom the front of the car to the back. Notethe images are to illustrate the differences;some of the surrounding area or elementsmay not be original or concours correct.

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One-Piece made with Fiberglass cloth(chopper) backing. Two Piece [not pictured]is made with fiberglass cloth backing

One Piece made with "chop gun" (randomloose-fiber) fiberglass backing

Also, some early cars had one to four fas-teners at the bottom of the upper openingto hold the fiberglass nose to the nose sup-port bracket, later cars got rivets as partof the upper grille attachment.

Two gauges of material were used, initiallyheavy and then lighter. Some with an“open” area in the license plate supportbracket, some “solid,” and some had a holein each of the tri-angular vertical endplates.

FRONT “NOSE” FIBERGLASS

NOSE SUPPORT / LICENSE PLATE BRACKET

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GRILLES

Two-piece vertical “outboard” grille: thelights mounted at the outer ends of theupper grille opening. Note that the meshused in the upper and lower openings forthese grilles was different than the previ-ously listed grille variations.

One-piece grille: on early cars they wereangled top to bottom with inboard high-beam headlights protruding through thecenter of the grille. These have “cups” thathid the bottom portion of the lights. Thissame piece also served as the grille for thelower opening.

Two-piece angled grille: had an upperopening grille section with inboard lightsprotruding like the one-piece; a separatepiece of grille material was used for thelower opening.

Two-piece vertical “inboard” grille: a verti-cal grille section designed to mount in theupper opening and a separate piece ofgrille material for the lower opening, bothriveted in place. The top portion is notslanted.

Early cars did not have the 3-section hori-zontal emblem with model designationmounted in the grille.

EMBLEMS

GRILLE EMBLEMS

Early emblems did not have a raised em-bossed snake and the snake was slightlydifferent. This was true for all emblem lo-cations: dash, deck lid, fenders, gas cap andwheel centers. The color was a light/paleGold/Bronze anodized aluminum. Some ofthe very early dash and trunk emblemswere slightly smaller in size.

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The SHELBY AMERICAN

An early Mag-Star non-embossed centeremblem relocated on a 10-spoke wheel.

FENDER HEADLIGHT MOUNTING

GRILLE-MOUNTEDHIGH BEAM HEADLIGHTS

Early cars used metal bands that clampedaround the headlight buckets. These wereattached to a fabricated metal brace thatattached to the radiator core support andthe fender. Later the headlight bucketswere attached to metal plates that were at-tached to the radiator core support.

These are often incorrectly referred to asdriving lights. They are high beams.

Early cars used metal bands that clampedaround the headlight buckets (similar tothe method used for mounting the fenderheadlights). These band/clamp and buck-ets were attached to a fabricated horizon-tal sheet metal brace that attached to thevertical hood latch support brace. A latermethod used metal plates welded to thevertical hood support brace with the head-light buckets attached to these plates.

The outboard grille headlight buckets wereattached to sheet metal pieces with theupper end bolted to the radiator core sup-port and the lower end to the back of theShelby American nose/license plate sup-port. It should be noted that the location ofthese lights also affected the location of thehorns.

HEADLIGHT TRIM RINGS

HOOD PIN LANYARDS

On early cars the fender located headlighttrim rings were painted the same color asthe body of the car and the grille headlighttrim rings were painted semi-gloss black.Later, some cars got the painted fenderlight trim rings and chrome grille lighttrim rings. By the end of production carsgot four chrome trim rings.

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The SHELBY AMERICAN

On early cars (with one-piece grilles) lan-yards were attached to the top of the grilleat the outer ends. In two-piece verticalgrille cars they were attached to the topbut inboard a bit. Later they were attachedto the hood pin bracket(s).

HOOD SEAL

HOOD PROP ROD

HOOD SPRINGS

HOODS

All 1967 Shelbys were built with theheavy-duty cooling package, part of whichwas an extruded rubber hood seal, stapledto the top of the radiator core support.However early GT350 cars do not have theseal or any evidence of staple holes thatwould be present if there had been a sealwhich would now be missing.

Reportedly a very few early cars had a Fal-con-type prop rod for the hood. The major-ity of cars relied on the springs to hold upthe hood.

Early cars had a steel frame hood with theShelby design fiberglass bonded to it; theseused a Ford hood spring. Later the allfiberglass hoods got a pair of “Shelby”S7MS-part # smaller diameter hoodsprings with lighter tension.

Early cars had steel-framed hoods with acustom Shelby American-designed fiber-glass top. The hoods of this constructionthat were used on GT500s had a notch cutin the metal towards the back to permitclearance of the larger air filter assembly.All of these hoods were painted body color,top and bottom. Later cars had one-piece,all-fiberglass hoods using the lighterweight hood springs. These hoods typicallyhad body color over-spray on the under-side.

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