SD> A Shelby Dakota mystery

[MOPARTEK@aol.com]

Dave,
I can offer this information having owned Shelby Dakota #2 and servicing  
others when we delivered them new to customers and later for return  service.
 
This truck is not a Shelby Dakota just from the VIN alone. The '89 Shelbys  
had VIN's that showed the correct engine application that year and the 8th  
position of the VIN would have been the letter "Y" for a 318 V8 and not the "X"  
that's there for the 3.9 V^ the truck has.
 
Cliff Ramsdell
 
In a message dated 1/20/2008 11:05:08 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
shelbydodge at mindspring.com writes:

A local  friend of mine told me he spotted a 1989 Shelby Dakota in a local 
junkyard. He  was able to grab a handful of unique parts that were left on it. I 
went out  there with him today to check it out and what I found was quite 
unusual.  

First off the body was in excellent shape with the red paint still  looking 
reasonably good. The Shelby decals (of which I'm quite familiar with  :) were 
erased (or polished off) only leaving only a phantom image effect  where they 
used to be on all the areas they should have been. The only decals  that were 
not used or removed were the black overlay decals over the rear  tailgate 
"Dodge" letters.   

The front grill, nose &  foglights were was missing and the places on the bed 
where the light bar would  be had holes where it was previously mounted.  

Here comes the  unusual part, upon a closer look we discovered that red was 
not the original  paint color, instead it was black. We found the original 
black paint on the  inside of the doors (my friend got the damaged outer panels), 
under the upper  section of a replacement bedliner and under scratched 
sections of the paint.  

Otherwise it gave the appearance of a "real" 1989 Shelby Dakota since  traces 
of most of the unique items were still intact except the steering wheel  
which was replaced with a burgundy stock version. It has a badly faded  windshield 
decal which was hard to say whether it was original due to it's  heavy 
deterioration. 

Here's a couple more very unusual details. It did  not have the special 
"modified by Shelby Automobiles" decal on the inner door  jam next to the original 
one. The original one was pretty faded out so that I  could only make out the 
manufacture date of 11-1988. 

The other main  unique label (which I was hoping to cut off and keep) was the 
underhood  emission/vacuum label. It wasn't the special Shelby Automobiles 
version (label  #CS1282) that shows a 5.2 liter 318 engine. It read as a 1989 
Chrysler label  for a 5.9 (360 engine). 

Another huge surprise was under the hood. The  engine was still intact and 
looks pretty original, but it was NOT the 318 V-8  that should have been there 
it was instead a stock Chrysler 3.0 V-6 instead.  It was also using the regular 
V-6 radiator fan instead of the special low  profile dual electric fans the 
Shelby Dakota used.  

There wasn't  alot of paperwork left in the truck but it appeared to be used 
by someone that  did house painting in Lakeland, Florida. I did write down the 
VIN number so  someone could do check it with the list of numbered Whittier 
built vehicles  for me. 

It reads 1B7FL66X7KS073267

I had someone run a CARFAX  report and it spent most of it's life in 
Lakeland, Florida followed by  Melbourne, FL before being retired here to the junkyard 
here in Jacksonville.  

It's pretty unusual (and expensive) for someone to replicate one and  unless 
he bought a reproduction decal package from me since it's extremely  hard to 
find a NOS bedside decal being they've went completely out of stock  since 
before I opened in 1997. 

Most likely it was a well done clone,  but I'm thinking that it could have 
been some kind of a Chrysler (Shelby)  pilot or prototype vehicle. At Whittier 
they did alot of experimentation  creating mocked up versions of upcoming 
models to try out paint & decal  schemes. It would pretty unusual to see one this 
far from the west coast but  it could happen. 

Anybody know anything about this unusual  truck?   

David Salamone
Positive Impressions
PO Box  441761
Jacksonville, FL 32222
904-388-4040
www.unleashedbyshelby.com  






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