Ok Ok Time To Stir The Pot Just A Little.... Carpeted Package Tray....1965 GT350

[Vernon Estes]

Hey guys!

I bought 5S345 some time ago. The car is mostly unrestored and has a pretty interesting early history. In short, the car was delivered as a lemon to the first owner. Lots of mechanical issues far and above what were the typical issues often experienced in early 65 ownership. One of the many significant issues was a complaint that the the rear end of the car was very noisy. The first owner started complaining of the issues right when the car was delivered, he complained to the selling dealer (McCoy Ford in Anaheim) and received no help. He then complained to Shelby American and received no response.

As a last ditch effort, he wrote Henry Ford II and HF2 wrote him back in a letter which I still have. HF2 put the Los Angeles DSO on the case to investigate the selling dealership (they had also not performed any of the agreed upon terms of the car's sale when they sold him the car which included not striping the car when it was supposed to be included in the purchase) and he also cc'd Shelby American's Dante Cardone on the car's issues. This, obviously, led to Shelby American being more open to providing assistance 

In the weeks that followed, McCoy Ford lost their Shelby American franchise.. the 3 65 GT350s they received in their first shipment would be the only SAI cars they ever sold.. and the car was sent to Mel Burns Ford where they striped the car but refused to cover any of the extensive mechanical issues with the car because they claimed that a car with the sort of issues it had could not have possibly been delivered in that condition.

As a result, the car was taken back to Shelby American under the care of Chuck Cantwell and Harry Neumann. Harry was Shelby American's head of Service and Warranty. They brought the back to the factory, sorted out the various issues, and redelivered the car to the first owner. After that, the original owner followed up in a glowing letter to HF2 about the great service he received at SAI.
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When I bought the car, it had this carpeted package tray in it. Under that package tray it was packed with yellow foam similar to that which is seen under the package trays of carryover cars... except every spare square inch of space was packed to the gills with the foam.

When I first saw the tray carpeted, I knew I had seen something like this before but couldn't put my finger on where I saw it. Of course, as should be expected, when I have shown this tray to a lot of people, the gut reaction is that the carpeting was obviously put on by a prior owner. Fair assumption- it's obviously out of the ordinary.

But was it put in at the factory?

Have any of you ever seen a carpeted package tray like this in a 65 GT350 prior to restoration?

In my humble opinion, we as a hobby get jaded into thinking we have learned all there is to learn about these cars. There are so many instances that come to mind where owners are trying to justify something on their car as "factory" when it clearly is not. At the same time, I think it is also important to maintain an open mind towards the fact that there is probably still plenty left to be learned about the cars we all love.

What do you guys think? Have any of you seen cars with similarly carpeted package trays?

Kind regards,
Vern

[Vernon Estes]

The HF2 Letter, for all the paperwork nerds

[Special Ed]

Good idea as carpet would help keeping beer cooler from sliding around ya thank

[Bob Gaines]

Good idea as carpet would help keeping beer cooler from sliding around ya thank

I was thinking the carpet would be better and keep your skin from sticking to the slick package tray when you were laying in the back with your girl friend on a hot summer night.   

[Coralsnake]

 

[Vernon Estes]

Would have been nice if they had designed a hinge into it so all your beer and other goodies could be stored underneath it, Eddie-BOY!

[Special Ed]

Yes and your  8-tracks and weed!!

[TA Coupe]

Bob, I'm still contemplating your response to this subject that you deleted?

     Roy

[KR Convertible]

Someone put a lot of work into that carpet. Maybe it was added to muffle the noise from the rear? Maybe they added the rear speakers for the same purpose.

Have you asked Chuck if he remembers the car?

[Vernon Estes]

Someone put a lot of work into that carpet. Maybe it was added to muffle the noise from the rear? Maybe they added the rear speakers for the same purpose.

Have you asked Chuck if he remembers the car?

Rear speakers were for a blaupunkt Am-Fm.. the 3rd owner was an associate composure for the Las Vegas symphony in the 1970s and 80s from what I understand.. speakers and radio were added post-1970.

I have asked Chuck about the first owner and if he had any memory of a car coming back to the factory like this. He said he did not remember it. I imagine it was something he likely handed off to Harry Neumann pretty quickly when he became apprised of the issues.  At the end of the day, sorting out a street car for a random customer was probably not of great importance to a guy like Chuck. Right around that time he would have been full bore into executing the 66 Trans Am effort.

Off-topic side note: the car has original R-Model shoulder harnesses in it and had an R Model fire extinguisher mounted on the trans tunnel as well. Paxton supercharger installed in the first week of April 1966 at the speed shop "EngineMasters" in Garden Grove. Also had magnesium American GTs on it prior to going back to SAI.  In specific, the harnesses hardware holes in the floor are punched just like on a Group 2/R Model.

[Vernon Estes]

When I got 345, I started to ask around about carpeted package trays and was pretty quickly told by Craig Conley and Curt Vogt that there was a belief the carpeted package trays, though rare, did originate from the factory. The reason for certain cars having these carpeted trays was not known. I asked them if they were aware of specific cars which retained their carpeted trays and the first subject car which was mentioned by Curt was 5S179, currently owned by Jim Cruden.

This car is unrestored. As you will see from the pictures of this car (attached) the carpeted tray is very similar in some regards to what is in 345 but also different at the same time. Same piping and type of carpet, same seam line just short of the spare tire hold down hole, same curvature of the piping near the front screw in areas of the tray. But a fully carpeted "cove", additional piping at the seam line, and it clearly had a different shaped pad over the hold down hole prior to it seemingly coming off

[Rickmustang]

My car, 5S131, is documented as being a factory carpeted package tray car. Somewhere it says one of six factory cars. I have the documentation in my files.

[Vernon Estes]

My car, 5S131, is documented as being a factory carpeted package tray car. Somewhere it says one of six factory cars. I have the documentation in my files.

Nice Rick! Hard to believe I didn't know this about your car after knowing you for so long... so cool!

[Vernon Estes]

Here is another picture of what is believed to be another factory carpeted package tray. This piece is obviously not currently on the car but it is retained with the car. The car was restored without the carpet on the tray because it was figured that justifying the carpet was going to be a constant uphill battle.

The serial number is 5S087 and the car was/is a remarkably complete and original car prior to restoration. Every significant part remained on the car prior to a recent restoration. As you can see, very similar to the carpet in 345 but with no "pad" around the spare hardware hole.

This car was bought by Craig Conley from its long term owner and restored by Craig as as well as Kit Sparks.

Kind regards,
Vern

[CharlesTurner]

Interesting subject, thanks for sharing... now we're going to have to deal with a whole slew of '65's showing up in SAAC concours with rear carpet!