Few assembly line markings on 2227

[rraceme]

So, after almost 3 years of ownership I've started disassembly of my GT350. Very exciting time for me. What I'm about to share my not be interesting to anyone but thought someone in our forum might enjoy? Once I finish full disassembly, plan to vacuum complete car and wash  well. Once super clean, my intent is to identify all markings and then measure/photograph each before soda blasting. During restoration plan to replace all markings. All four pictures are taken on the outside of the engine bay (both sides). I will try to load pics in the order in which identified.
1st-  yellow 32-31 located RH side frame rail.
2nd - large yellow D on outside battery tray area inner fender
3rd- yellow  21311 located LH frame rail under main fuel line
4th - white 133 & 16 outside engine bay near where hood hinge bolts LH side

question - did I miss any markings? specifically outside engine bay? until I clean the whole car it will be hard to see any other assembly line marking. My car has been sitting, mostly untouched\unmolest, since late 70's or early 80's.

thank you for your time, Fred

[rraceme]

Pic  2

[rraceme]

Pic4

[rraceme]

Pic1

[rraceme]

Pic3

[J_Speegle]

question - did i miss any markings? specifically outside engine bay? until i clean the whole car it will be hard to see any others. my car been sitting, mostly untouched, since late 70's or early 80's.

On top of the black paint?  Yes there are some "missing" from the typical list based on hundreds of other 66 San Jose examples.

As for the ones you found


1st-  yellow 32-31 located RH side frame rail.

Passenger side fender identifier. Fenders were placed on an overhead conveyor system similar to what you would find at a dry cleaners where there was a hook and a label about it to identify the hook. Because of this arrangement you will see the numbers repeat over and over again during the production weeks, months and year. Pattern is two or three digit followed by two or three digits and only certain numbers between 0-9 were used in the pattern for some reason

2nd - large yellow D on outside battery tray area inner fender

Typical of all Mustangs built at San Jose over the years as far as location and color used. Can be repeated or applied elsewhere in some less often examples based on what shift built the car and worker assigned to that task was "on duty"

3rd- yellow  21311 located LH frame rail under main fuel line

See 1st response

4th - white 133 & 16 outside engine bay near where hood hinge bolts LH side

Really odd mark location Must be "Fred" again. Believe this was a filler worker that applied this. I would guess that maybe one in 500 or more (over the whole production year) had this mark here. "Fill in Fred" is just a name I gave these markings when comparing them to the vast majority of typical fairly consistent markings we've documented for these cars and others.

If your soda blasting and going slow you should uncover marks that would not have been visible on the car when new. Maybe another half dozen on the front end clip area. These would have been applied to the bare steel to guide painters and other workers during the first "half" of the cars construction

Thanks for sharing - will add them to the pile

[rraceme]

Thank you Jeff. I always enjoy reading  your posts\responses within our forum.  In photo # 4, what does the 133 and 16 denote? I'm just curious what those numbers represent? It may not be generally known?  Either way, thank you for your response! Fred

BTW- I have a question about my original San Jose firewall interior insulation. Could I P.M. you and ask a question dealing with possible restoration\reuse? I greatly value your advise.

[J_Speegle]

Thank you Jeff. I always enjoy reading  your posts\responses within our forum.  In photo # 4, what does the 133 and 16 denote? I'm just curious what those numbers represent? It may not be generally known?  Either way, thank you for your response! Fred

Not sure why there are two except for maybe a mistake on one. Based on other examples - the way they are applied, applicator, color and handwritting its likely the cars second rotation number.  As mentioned the placement is very unusual but has been documented. Typically this was applied to the radiator support on the drivers side so that workers could identify the body for the workers as it approached their station/work area at a distance. Same reason it was applied to the rear of the painted body

BTW- I have a question about my original San Jose firewall interior insulation. Could I P.M. you and ask a question dealing with possible restoration\reuse? I greatly value your advise.

Will send a PM

[Tomdeg]

1st-  yellow 32-31 located RH side frame rail.

Passenger side fender identifier. Fenders were placed on an overhead conveyor system similar to what you would find at a dry cleaners where there was a hook and a label about it to identify the hook. Because of this arrangement you will see the numbers repeat over and over again during the production weeks, months and year. Pattern is two or three digit followed by two or three digits and only certain numbers between 0-9 were used in the pattern for some reason


3rd- yellow  21311 located LH frame rail under main fuel line

See 1st response


Jeff, this is of special interest to me, as I have the car sequentially after Fred's (in both San Jose and Shelby American). So would then the numbers on the frame rails on my car be expected to be 32-32 and 21312? Mine have been painted over. There is a time in the future when I'll do a forensic investigation, but not yet.

[J_Speegle]

Sorry was on Christmas break

Jeff, this is of special interest to me, as I have the car sequentially after Fred's (in both San Jose and Shelby American). So would then the numbers on the frame rails on my car be expected to be 32-32 and 21312? Mine have been painted over. There is a time in the future when I'll do a forensic investigation, but not yet.

First to note is that if your car/order was assigned a sequential number over (for this example Fred's) that would not identify when the car was built in relation ship to his car. A car with an "earlier" or smaller sequential number could have just as easily been built before or on the same day. 

The number of cars built on that particular line at San Jose (there were many all going at the same time) is unknown. So the numbers on which they hung the fenders that were painted for you car could be very, very different on an a very rare case be the same numbers at they rotated though their use and returned to the start of that line again.

[Tomdeg]

Please forgive me if I'm not grasping the idea, but hypothetically, would the car directly behind Fred's on the San Jose assembly line be expected to have a 32-32 number?
That being said, would it not be conceivable that cars destined for SA with similar DSO builds, and similar colors (Sapphire Blue), be built in batches?

[J_Speegle]

Please forgive me if I'm not grasping the idea, but hypothetically, would the car directly behind Fred's on the San Jose assembly line be expected to have a 32-32 number?

Only if the hooks were numbered in order and there was only one set of rotating tracks for the hooks.

Also we don't really know the pattern of the numbering. 32-31 might have been followed by 32-311.

That being said, would it not be conceivable that cars destined for SA with similar DSO builds, and similar colors (Sapphire Blue), be built in batches?

Based on your wording I guess your referring, in the statement above, to the first part of the cars build and not the second after the order of the bodies were rearranged. Have not found any workers or managers that stated when asked that Shelby's were built during the first part of the build in batches as you mention during 66 production. 

If in the first part of the assembly the cars were painted with some of the other cars painted the same color and it appears that there were twenty or more possibly in this order group (didn't count them at this point) there is nothing I can see that would indicate, based on San Jose's normal practices, that your car and not one of the others was painted right after the body that would become 6S2227. If your simply looking for a possibility and you haven't found any of the original marks since the car has been restored I guess one number is as good as any as long as they fit the identified pattern that has been found

Have been told that there were other issues and details they took into consideration when they figured out the order of build during both halves of the production process there at San Jose and other Ford plants.

[Tomdeg]

I guess then the only way to know for sure is to hope the markings are still on the car.
One interesting fact is that between Fred"s car (2227), mine (2228), and 2226, we have verified that we are all sequential VIN numbers. All cars are identical color and build. I'm sure Howard Pardee could delve further to see if there are more. This could shed light on these cars being built in batches. Especially since Sapphire Blue was a special color not available to regular Mustangs.

[J_Speegle]

Sequential Ford numbers are not a surprise and it was standard practice to assign VIN's as order groups arrived at the plant. Sometimes a month or so before the cars were even started. That group likely had more blue cars than any other in 66 ours may have been the only one in it's group.

Since Ford doesn't have any of those records not sure anyone can be certain of even when any of the cars were started. We could at possibly look at 67 San Jose Shelby production since we do have those records. If we take all the cars from a specific DSO and group those by colors then determine if all of those in each group were started on the same day then we would have some solid data to continue from.

Don't think the results are going to show this took place based on other crunching done in the past but at least it shows what they did that year that might be a continuation from the prior year if it worked for them