This is a cut and paste from an email I typed earlier, but here is the story:
The original owner was the Parts Manager for Hollywood Ford then Cort Fox Ford. They demo'd a 66 Roadster but he said it was horribly underpowered with the straight six. When word came out they were putting in a 289 from the factory he started saving his money. He ordered it to his specs in April of '67 from a buddy that was the Fleet Manager at California Motors in Glendale because they could give him a better deal than Cort Fox would. In the two months he waited for it from the factory he rounded up all of the new Shelby HiPo 289 parts. He went to California Motors when the truck showed up and pulled it off the carrier himself, skipping the detail and delivery steps. With 50 miles on the odometer he swapped the heads, carb, air cleaner, valve covers, and breather with the Shelby parts, while the intake manifold came from Offenhauser since their manifold was low enough that he would not have to cut anything out of the hood to clear everything. He then went to Motor Rim and Wheel and bought a set of 15x8 steel wheels, then went to Holman and Moody-Stroppe to get the Gates Commando tires, fender flares, and roll bar. He parked it around the corner and walked in to work for a few months after getting it so he didn't catch too much flack for buying a new truck not from the dealership in which he worked. All of the FoMoCo accessories were then added over a period of time since he just ordered one or so at a time out of the 1967 Accessories Brochure. He used it for four wheeling adventures in the Sierras and SoCal deserts with his wife, family, and friends for the next few years, then moved to Quincy CA up in the Northern Sierras in 1970 to be the Parts Manager at the Ford dealer there, Quincy Motor Sales. He soon realized that the WhitCo soft top that he installed was not going to cut it in "snow country", and he needed a pickup to haul firewood in, so he sold his beloved red roadster to a friend of the Sales Manager. It still has Quincy Motor Sales license plate frames on it.
Shortly thereafter, the second owner moved from Quincy to Santa Cruz, where they frequented Pismo Beach and travelled to Sand Mtn. NV. I guess it was quite the hot rod 4x4 back in the day with the HiPo 289. He added headers, traction bars, winch bumper, and swapped the Dana 30 out for the newer stronger Dana 44 to keep putting Jeeps in their place, BEHIND the little red roadster. Some time in the early 80's they packed up in Santa Cruz and moved to Etna, CA. The Bronco was getting pretty faded, the top was tore up, and the owner had some time on his hands, so he decided it was time to "spruce up" the old Bronco. He bolted a hard top on it, bolted some Toyota highback seats in it, and decided it needed a paint job. No bodywork or rust repair was needed, so they scuffed up the faded red factory paint (Why!?) and applied a super snazzy two tone metallic blue and charcoal paint job on it. It never got used too much (in it's entire life really) and finally found itself hibernating in a basement garage under a tarp for years until I brought it home on a chilly winter day a few years ago with 57k miles on the clock.