The world wants to know what on earth you do to support that Shelby habit (don't even think about telling us).
Well we did it the old fashioned way.
Bought our first one unfinished, and it took Mr.ConservativeParty about 5 years to do the work. Then we found another unfinished one (orange one) with the wrong engine (a 427). The owner agreed to take out the expensive but wrong engine and sell us the rest. Took 16 years to restore that one. Meanwhile sold the first one (red). Bought a black daily driver (well not daily, but in driver condition). Mr.ConservativeParty saved a ton of money doing all but paint himself. Along the way, over 25 years, he learned a lot and won the big national shows and now he has more restoration customers than you can shake a stick at. He does have a “real job” but the Shelby hobby is very important to him. Not a bad investment either, as it turned out.
Cheers!
PS- back in 1988 our first Shelby was purchased for 11,000 dollars. How about that. Those were the good old days. Second one was a mere 16,000 in it’s unrestored state. That was bought about 20 years ago. Best investments we ever made. They just get more rare as the years go by and a few more get wrecked or rust away, especially the factory orange car which is one of about 6 made that year. Met a whole lotta nice folks over the years too. That is priceless.