Topic: Metal framed hood on GT500

[kkupec02]

While checking my hood latch for Jeff, I remembered another question that was raised by a fellow Shelby owner when he checked out my car last year. He said that most GT500 air cleaners didn't fit under the early hoods and usually the metal frame was cut out/modified in the rear in order for the air cleaner to fit. He was surprised that mine didn't have a cut out, yet fit. Is this a true story?

[Bob Gaines]

While checking my hood latch for Jeff, I remembered another question that was raised by a fellow Shelby owner when he checked out my car last year. He said that most GT500 air cleaners didn't fit under the early hoods and usually the metal frame was cut out/modified in the rear in order for the air cleaner to fit. He was surprised that mine didn't have a cut out, yet fit. Is this a true story?

Well it is true that the GT500 steel innerstructure hood typically was cut in the rear for clearance. It was automatically done on hoods meant to go on specific GT500's before the hood was painted. It was not typically a wait and see if it fits.  A possible explanation is if it was a extremely early model in the low 100's before when SA first started fitting the hoods and found the need for the extra clearance.Your car 817 is way past that point. Service hoods would come un cut for use on ether GT350 or GT500.  More likely IMO the hood was replaced at some point in its past.

[kkupec02]

Maybe an uncut one was used as the hood is date coded 11/30/66 3rd shift. Woodhaven. All matches with my 1/67 build date.

[Bob Gaines]

Maybe an uncut one was used as the hood is date coded 11/30/66 3rd shift. Woodhaven. All matches with my 1/67 build date.

Maybe the date code is relevant to a batch of service hoods being sent to Ford inventory too.There are all kinds of maybe/what if  scenarios one could postulate. The point being that since the hoods were typically automatically cut to compensate on a known possible clearance problem before painting that it is unlikely that SA would decide on this car with hundres of cars done the typical way prior to so that they would abandon normal operating procedure to take a chance that this one would fit. Could it happen ?  Of course it could but not very likely in the scheme of things.  In this case I am guessing a minor front end collision sometime early in its life. Back in the 60's the body shops didn't repair fiberglass they replaced it. What is considered a minor fiberglass and or metal (steel inner structure) repair today would have been no question just replace it back in the day what with minimal fiberglass repair experience in the 60's marketplace.  Occam's razor is the principle that, of two explanations that account for all the facts, the simpler one is more likely to be correct. It seems that a minor collision would be more likely the simpler explanation and a out of the ordinary build technique compared to the typical GT500 would be not so much. I have lived with 67 Shelby's for over 50 years now ,studied the marque in the originality sense extensively for over 35 years,been a concours judge for first SAAC and then MCA for 28 years and the educated guess is base on that experience . It is however just a guess based on the evidence or lack of evidence at hand. In the end it is your car so you can do as you like. I only comment because over the years I have heard all of this before many times. So many of these hood switch scenarios (cut hoods vs uncut, all fiberglass hoods on early cars and metal inner structure hoods on very late cars ) debunked before so much so I forget the count. Another reason is - you asked.