Any Mustang modified by Carroll Shelby has always commanded a premium price at auction, but the last couple of years has seen prices reach ridiculous levels. Just a few months ago a one-off ‘67 Shelby Super Snake sold for an incredible $1.3 million, while more “pedestrian” examples regularly sell for well into the six-figure range. The average joe just can’t lay out that kind of money for Shelby Mustang.

But if you’re the handy type who doesn’t mind investing a lot of time and money into a potential project, we may have found the perfect Shelby for you. Up on eBay is a 1968 Shelby GT500 numbers-matching barn find with a big 428 engine and a four-speed manual that needs a lot of work. If you’re a Shelby enthusiast with a limited budget though, it might be your only option for owning a legit classic.

Not that this GT500 doesn’t need tens of thousands of dollars in work. The seller mentions that both the transmission tunnel and floors are in “bad condition”, which is an immense understatement. There pretty much aren’t any floors left, and you don’t have to get under the car to see the driveshaft. The seller recommends that this Shelby should be “rebodied” which would pretty much destroy any value it has as a Shelby Mustang. It’s a bad idea.

What we would do, should we meet the seller’s reserve price, is take this Shelby and very, very slowly over the course of several years restore this Shelby as best as we can. A professional bodyman could restore the floors, tunnel, and rest of this rusty Shelby for relatively little money, though there are sure to be some big-ticket purchases required for a proper restoration.

But with the proper engine and transmission included, some of the costliest parts come with this car, making it even more valuable to collectors. The right buyer could restore this Shelby for less than $50,000, and with similar cars selling for over $300,000, it could, maybe, possibly, be a moneymaker…if you knew what you were doing.