This just showed up in my mail box today. A brand new shiny HW's Black Box Shelby GT350H. I was quite surprised to see that HW's went to the trouble of using the "H" designation on the tampo, but failed to cut out the rear louvers. Oh well, have carbide burrs, will travel. I Plan on doing the same mods I did to the Jay Leno Shelby with the added bonus of having to remove those nasty louvers and replace them with glass. I also need to remove the spare tire and fabricate a rear seat from my wreckers. It should be quite a challengeing project, but no pain no gain.

BTW: I also have another Jay Leno Shelby GT350 on the way wich I plan to turn into a true 65 GT350R. Now that one's gonna be a real challenge.

http://img488.imageshack.us/img488/8540/shelbyh031at.jpg

Far out

I was quite surprised to see that HW's went to the trouble of using the "H" designation on the tampo, but failed to cut out the rear louvers.

I remember when I first got that casting.....those louvres bugged the heck out of me too.

As a fellow Mustang fan, I can't wait to see what you do with this one. I hope you can pull it all off. You are a brave man for taking a cutter to this one....this casting can be expensive when you find one.

Please document your progress....this will be interesting.

I remember when I first got that casting.....those louvres bugged the heck out of me too.

As a fellow Mustang fan, I can't wait to see what you do with this one. I hope you can pull it all off. You are a brave man for taking a cutter to this one....this casting can be expensive when you find one.

Please document your progress....this will be interesting.
Thanks for the encouragement SD. I hope I don't screw it up either. I didn't pay nearly as much as what they are going for these days so I won't be out to much, but it would still hurt none the less. I plan on taking it very slow and doing alot of planning before I attemp the cuts. I'll do a full documentation of the project as I go along as well.

I finished most of the interior by adding a rear seat from a JL 67 Buick GS. It's not perfect, but it's the best I could find. I also added a few paint details here and there. Lastly I decided to go ahead and carpet the area just behind the rear seat as well as the back of the seat. I just wish I could have found a seat with the patern running horizontally instead of vertically, but I guess beggers can't be choosers. I don't know if I'll carpet the front area since it will never really be seen. I think the rear courtosy lights add a nice touch. I still need to finish the shifter.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/2572/66interior16vj.jpg
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5057/66interior24dh.jpg

Here I added a little extra detail to the dash. Nothing speacial here, move along please.

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/8302/66dash10wx.jpg

Here I painted the cove molding around the grill and added some detail to the shock towers, battery and radiator. Again, nothing major, but in the end all the details we'll add up......I hope. Tomorow I plan on getting some new carbide bits and this weekend I'll go for the money shot :eek:

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/8742/66grill6my.jpg

Looking good. :thumbsup:

Good stuff so far.

Don't stop now, looking great! :thumbsup: rr

After alot of planing and before any cutting the casting is thoroughly wraped in blue masking tape leaving only the small area to be removed exposed. There are two reasons for this. One being that no matter how carefull you are tools are gonna slip at this scale. Second you are handling the car alot and your fingers get full of shavings so it's to prevent scratching as well as rubbing off paint trim from all the handleing.

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5373/louver11ho.jpg

After driling a small pilot hole using a pin vise I grind out enough material with a rotary tool using carbide and diamond tip burs. I only have to grind out enough material so I can have enough room to insert small files and extra fine coping saw blades. The blade and files will go much faster.

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7785/louver23el.jpg

Here we have all the material removed. All that is left now is some fine tuning and smoothing before adding the trim.

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/5792/louver35bu.jpg

Here we have the completed window with trim. Yep, Looking more and more like a real 66 Shelby instead of a faux 65 playing a 66. Total time spent on each louver; over three hours.

http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1115/louver40cm.jpg

Here I have fabricated the side windows from a piece of plastc from a JL package. It will saddle above the main window assembly.

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7061/louver59pa.jpg

A small sample of some of the tools involved in this update. Damn, I'm beat.....

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/3818/louver05nj.jpg

Nice job bro...I'd say time well spent. It looks excellent and I am seriously impressed. You have really done that casting justice by removing the louvres. The hardest part is done.....can't wait to see what you do with the rest.

BTW....thanks for taking the time to document progress and tools. It is appreciated.

Nice job bro...I'd say time well spent. It looks excellent and I am seriously impressed. You have really done that casting justice by removing the louvres. The hardest part is done.....can't wait to see what you do with the rest.

BTW....thanks for taking the time to document progress and tools. It is appreciated.
Thanks. Yeah, the hard work is done thankfully. Now it's all the little details. My wheels and tires should be showing up in the next couple of days. I can hardly wait so I temporarily swapped the chassis from my Leno GT350 to see how it would look with the proper wheels and it's awsome :thumbsup:

Thanks. Yeah, the hard work is done thankfully. Now it's all the little details. My wheels and tires should be showing up in the next couple of days. I can hardly wait so I temporarily swapped the chassis from my Leno GT350 to see how it would look with the proper wheels and it's awsome :thumbsup:


Where are the wheels and tires coming from?

I looked for my parts cars for back seats with horizontal lines to ship out to you....unfortunately....nothin'. I checked out a JL '68 Shelby GT500 that is on my trade list, but it has vertical lines in the seats as well.

BTW...that looks like a pretty nice pin vise. Mine doesn't hold my bits as strongly as I would like it to. Where did you get it?

Where are the wheels and tires coming from?

I looked for my parts cars for back seats with horizontal lines to ship out to you....unfortunately....nothin'. I checked out a JL '68 Shelby GT500 that is on my trade list, but it has vertical lines in the seats as well.

BTW...that looks like a pretty nice pin vise. Mine doesn't hold my bits as strongly as I would like it to. Where did you get it?
The only JL's that I know to have the narrow blackwalls is the 62 Chevy Bel Air. So I went ahead and ordered a couple off epay. I even checked all the stores for some crappy JL's with chrome magnums with no luck. Plenty of silvers, but no chromes; damn! So I ordered a dirt cheap car with those wheels from the same place.

Thanks for the efforts tryin to find a matching seat SD, but I think I'll have to wait until I can find a 66 JL Mustang fastback. I know that interior has horizontal running lines on the rear seat, but since I want one for my collection I'll have to wait untill I can find at least two.

The pin vise I got at Sears. It was about 3 years ago so I don't know if they would still carry that particular style. It's a real nice heavy little pin vise. Came with 2 double ended collets. Widget Supply (http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/CTGY/dremel-pin-vise) have some excellent little pin vises as well as alot of other great tools, espeacially dremel bits. Also, if you have a Fry's electronics around you you'll find that they carry alot of hobby tools as well.

Project is coming along sweet an the detail in the step's an tool's is a bonus. :)

looking good.

i do want to mention that you have to becareful useing tape and dremal. those that know useing a dremal for a long period of time the casting gets hot and guess what? the glue on the tape doe's too.
i had this happen to me only once and learned my lession quick. it actualy looked like super glue on the paint.
when the project starts to heat up and you feel it in your fingers its time to take a 5 min break...lol

looking good.

i do want to mention that you have to becareful useing tape and dremal. those that know useing a dremal for a long period of time the casting gets hot and guess what? the glue on the tape doe's too.
i had this happen to me only once and learned my lession quick. it actualy looked like super glue on the paint.
when the project starts to heat up and you feel it in your fingers its time to take a 5 min break...lol
Excellent tip Gunn :thumbsup: Myself, I never had any problems with overheating. I would only grind for maybe a few minutes before I would rest my hand and evaluate how things are going so there was always a period to let things cool down even if it was just for a brief minute it was more than adequate to disipate any heat. Actually I was a little more worried with heat coming off the hand holding the casting and melting the glue. To avoid that I wrapped the casting in a cotton cloth at the handling points.

I would like to mention that there is a distinct differences in build quality between this BB Shelby and the Leno Shelby. The Leno Shelby being more superior in overall build quality. Everything from fit to finish is just better on the Leno. I'll go into it in more depth when I finish the car and how it negatively impacted this project.

I would like to mention that there is a distinct differences in build quality between this BB Shelby and the Leno Shelby. The Leno Shelby being more superior in overall build quality. Everything from fit to finish is just better on the Leno. I'll go into it in more depth when I finish the car and how it negatively impacted this project.

That is an interesting observation. They look identical at first glance, with the exception of some paint details.

That is an interesting observation. They look identical at first glance, with the exception of some paint details.
It may have something to do with the Leno being a more exclusive item. Though I'm not sure of the production numbers of the two, but I think there were fewer Leno's produced. Also, one of the Leno shelbys was presented to Leno himself so that may have had something to do with it as well. I do have another Leno Shelby coming so I'll be able to say with certainty then.

where did you get that cast my father in law had the same car. i would love to find that

For your enjoyment I present you with the only accurate 1/64 1966 Shelby GT350H in existence today....OK, JL did make one a while back, but do you really want to go there? I know I don't.

Here's a run down of all that was done since the last update. Replaced the front grill with a more accuate overlay. The grill bars now run horizontaly as they should instead of the egg crate grill found on the 65. Repainted the engine bay flat black and added a few more paint deatails. Fished the interior by painting the steering wheel and shifter knob (one more thing they neglected to do on the BB version). Added the new tires and wheels and added a few details to the undercarriage. Oh yes and front turn indicators. Don't want to getta ticket now do we.

I think it came out pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good espeacially considering the beguiling fragileness of this car. A great deal of the window trim I had to reapply. It just could not hold up to any type of moderate handleing (unlike the Leno version). The chrome plating as well is very thinly apply on this version. The slightest amount of general handleing will rub it right off. In more than a couple of places I had to apply silver paint to touch it up. The dash board was sheer hell to get out of this car. The rivets were so badly crushed over the plastic that I had a hell of time reworking the plastic in order to get it to fit right again...just barely. The paint is not what I would expect either from a high end product from HW's. It seems to be softer than the Leno version and scratches very easily witch is only compounded by the fact the car is black. I had to repolish it in many areas with some novus plastic polish to bring back the luster. The paint on the undercarriage is so thickly applied that it looks more as if it was dipped than sprayed. It is also a high gloss black instead of a semi-flat black on the Leno version. This is not a mod I would recomend for the faint of heart, or doing any mods to this car for that matter. Hell, I'm just glad it's over.

http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/4382/66shelby047do.jpg
http://img466.imageshack.us/img466/8764/66shelby081jz.jpg

Just got this one in the mail today.

The object of this lesson is to turn this....

http://img428.imageshack.us/img428/4593/shelby65r1a9ji.jpg

Into this.....
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3845/shelby65r1b5ta.jpg

Lets see. Bumper removals, Front apron mod, rear abrevated glass, roll bar, tires and wheels, oil cooler, air cleaner replacement with a proper plenum assy. Vent window mod and rear louver overlays. Wow! What I have I got myself into this time.

Oye. That turn'd out sweet man. From the sound's 'o it, I tink I woulda end'd up settin' it on fire an call'd it the crash'd an burn'd one. :)

Oye. That turn'd out sweet man. From the sound's 'o it, I tink I woulda end'd up settin' it on fire an call'd it the crash'd an burn'd one. :)
Thanks. I came close a couple of times to torchin this puppy, but with the time and money invested there was no way that was gonna happen. Last night I replaced the bumpers with those from the extra Leno car since I wont need them on that one. Now It's sporting nice shiny fresh chrome :)

Awesome Bro! You pulled that off nicely. The quarter windows make a big difference and, like your last project, so do the wheels. Even the changes in the engine bay make a huge difference in the realism of the model. Are those plug wires I see in there? Big kudos to you for having the guts to attempt this one and pulling it off so well.

So how did you do the grill? Did you do anyting to the chassis?

Nicce work! Looks way better!

Awesome Bro! You pulled that off nicely. The quarter windows make a big difference and, like your last project, so do the wheels. Even the changes in the engine bay make a huge difference in the realism of the model. Are those plug wires I see in there? Big kudos to you for having the guts to attempt this one and pulling it off so well.

So how did you do the grill? Did you do anyting to the chassis?
Danke, buddy. Yeah, those are plug wires you should have them on yours as well. The grill I made from an old memorex audio casette. It had the perfect pattern near the capstan housing. Filed it down to the proper thickness and then cut the grill out and adhered it using 2way tape. I was very surprised how well it worked out. The chassis? Nah, I haven't done anything to it yet. The paint is just to thick on it right now (gloss black) to pick out any details so I have to wait untill I strip it and spray it ultra-flat black and then I'll detail it out.