My clone prject pics

My clone project pics

Here's a couple pics of my car as it sits now. Believe it or not, I started this in November '02 and thought I'd be finished by Spring of '03. But as usual, it took more time, work and money than I would have ever believed. I'm not sure I would have done it if I'd known ahead of time, but I'm glad I did now. Yesterday I reassembled all the body panels for final block sanding, then I'll disassemble it again to paint the door jambs, trunk and engine bay, then reassemble every thing for final paint. Hopefully it'll be painted and buffed in another 4 to 6 weeks, but I've learned not to set deadlines, because they never work out. Anyway, hope you guys like the pics.

The color is still up in the air. I'm currently trying to decide between white with blue stripes or blue with white stripes. Either way, the lower rocker stripes will not say GT 350, instead I plan to have FORD in the stripes, much like the original GT40's. Seeing BobV's ride in the newest Mustangs and Fords mag has me really leaning towards white. The motor will eventually be a 331 inch, hydraulic roller mild street motor with a T5 trans. I fully intend to drive this car as often as I can, so the motor needs to be dead reliable as well as semi economical gas-wise. But one thing at a time, so I'm mainly concentrating on paint and body, but thanks a bunch for the kind words!

Thanks guys, it's really nice to hear encouraging stuff, when so many times while getting the fiberglass to fit I wanted to simply bolt on the stock stuff, sell the car and be done with it. As pretty much everyone here knows, cars can try your patience from time to time, especially when everything costs twice what you thought, you still need to find time for the wife and kids, stuff around the house has gone neglected, etc. I also appreciate the comments about my garage. The house I live in has a crappy, one car garage that's full of Suburban. Not only that, but when we bought the house, I had to give up a rented 3 car shop. Since I had no place to keep the '65 fastback I had at the time, I sold it rather than see it sit outside. Then after a few years of building equity in the house, we refinanced, got a loan and built a 1500 sq ft, two story shop. The guys that delivered the building materials got quite a laugh out of it, since my house is only about 1400 sq ft! But hey, a guy's got to have his priorities in order! As far as the suggestions about color, striping or whatever, I do really value everyones suggestions so don't be shy about what you think looks good. I like the GT331 idea, and it may still happen, but there's a blue-with-white-stripes '66 locally with a 351 and "GT351" on the lower stripes, so painting my car the same color with the same kinda logo on the rockers would always make me feel a little wierd around the guy, like I stole his idea. I really don't how I'm going to decide which colors to go with, white seems traditional Shelby fare, but about every other car I've ever had has been white. The blue with white looks great, but there seems to be an overload of blue Mustangs in my area and I don't want it to get lost in the parking lot, if you know what I mean. I even thought about something really different, in a Chip Foose kinda way. I thought about painting the car blue on the sides, then from the upper edge of the fender (the horizontal surfaces) up, including the roof, painting it black. But that may be a little too "new car" looking. Especially considering I've got original Shelby 10 spokes, and am really trying for a traditional looking clone, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. Enough of my ramblings...thanks again guys!

Be sure and post pics of your car when you get it back, I've been wondering how it's going. As far as the wheels, nothing special, just Shelby 10 spokes with 245/50's in the back, 225/50's up front. I figure with the prices those things are fetching, my only hope to own one is to build a clone, so bit by bit, I am. So far, the owners of real Shelbys have been so helpful in my requests for info on how things go together and pretty much answered every question with the utmost patience. That was big-time sarcasm in case you were wondering. Probably because they bought there cars finished and don't have a clue as to how things go together. Oh yes, as far as the guy wondering about the drums, yes Wilwoods will be going on all 4 corners.

If anyone needed proof I'm a complete idiot, they need look no further than my garage. Not only do I get all giddy working on a bare shell in primer, with no motor, trans, wiring, etc, but all my buddies come over to see it and they act as goofy as I do. My wife's going to have me take a piss test for sure...