Isaksen and Strege drove to the property. When they arrived, Isaksen said, “I can’t believe we might have found a ’68 Shelby here.” They walked into the barn and were greeted by a man, and when asked, the man confirmed he was the owner of the car. He’d recently bought it and needed a place to store it. The owners of the barn were family friends and offered to store it for him.
According to Marti Auto Works, of the 299,821 Mustangs built by Ford for 1969, more than half — 150,637, to be exact — were coupes. Furthermore, just 138 of those coupes came with the R-code (Ram Air) 428 Cobra Jet engine, and of those, 86 had the four-speed transmission.

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An R-code surprise

From a distance, Isaksen looked at the weathered, white rolling body shell and immediately knew that it wasn’t a ’68 Shelby. Instead, it was a rusty, disassembled 1969 Mustang GT hardtop coupe missing the engine and rear end. Even though it wasn’t what he was looking for, Isaksen looked at the car’s VIN and something caught his eye. The VIN contained an “R,” indicating this coupe left the factory as a Ram Air 428 Cobra Jet car. He asked the owner what had happened to the engine and rear end. His response was, “I bought it like it is, pretty much a rolling chassis, and my plan was to put a 390 engine into it and make it a daily driver.”
The 1969 Mustang GT coupe as found in 1989. It didn’t look like much, but the VIN indicated it was an original R-code car, making it worth restoration.

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