You are correct; my apologies for shuffling magazines and not paying attention.
Yes, I am vintage sensitive.
Yes, I am vintage sensitive.
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Show posts MenuQuote from: Bill Collins on December 29, 2025, 12:50:26 PMMy experience is that they are different. I have confirmed this by examination of various '68 Shelbys that I have sold. See photos attached. These are both original, formed from sheet molding compound (smooth back side), as opposed to hand laid up fiberglass (chop glass back) reproductions. Sheet molding compound was produced by Armstrong Industries for AO Smith. They used it to achieve more uniform tolerances, resulting in improved panel fit. See the photo for an illustration of this process.
Ford often combined part applications to streamline things in service, especially on lower volume items - e.g. Cobra Jet carbs C9AF-M (manual) and C9AF-N (automatic) were both serviced by C9AF-U (Universal).
Ford published OSI (Obsolete, superseded, interchanged) manuals in part to advise of such consolidations. Affected numbers were often noted "m/w" (mixed with) "r/b" (replaced by), etc. So, it is plausible to suspect that both end cap styles were serviced by one surviving part number.