Hi again. For your car to be an october built San Jose 260 car, Toxic MX, the vin would be 5R07F and a number between 143000 and 152000, depending on the day of the scheduled production date. I must say that this would be very strange indeed, since all of the 260s were five-bolt, generator cars and were phased out in august of 64. It is possible that the door tag has been replaced with a reproduction and whoever did it simply got the date wrong, and it's actually a july built car.Or it could be that that you were unaware of this.To be october, the tag would say some number followed by the letter K, not J. They did not use the letter I for date codes because it looks so much like the number 1. If your car is actually something like september 2nd, that would make a lot more sense. If you could post the vin and just leave of the last couple of digits, I would be able to tell you a whole lot more about what the deal is on that.
I'll get the vin# later today. I ran the vin when I first got the car and I may have forgotten the build date. I do know for fact that it is 260 3-speed manual car. It is black now, but it is supposed to be red/red interior. I always thought it was a 65 as I think all vin's say that.
Yes it was a generator car.
The VIN on my 65 6-cyl conv. is: F508T254456. My door plate numbers are: (Body) 76A (Color) M (Trim) 26 (Date) 04H (DSC) 15 (Axle) 3 (Trans) 1. I think I'm reading these right, but would appreciate your opinion/comment.
The VIN on my 65 6-cyl conv. is: F508T254456. My door plate numbers are: (Body) 76A (Color) M (Trim) 26 (Date) 04H (DSC) 15 (Axle) 3 (Trans) 1. I think I'm reading these right, but would appreciate your opinion/comment.
Thanks
Hi again. 76A is a standard interior convertible, M is wimbledon white, 26 is black standard interior, 04H is aug 4th of 64, that DSC is DSO (district sales office) and 15 means that your car was originally sold in Newark, N.J., axle 3 is a 3.20:1 rear end and trans 1 is the 6cyl version of the three speed manual. That sequential number is just a bit high to be considered a 64 1/2, but if the car came with a generator instead of an alternator, plus some of the other stuff, like the hood, then that's what I would call it. Hope that helps.
Very good write up... I recently finished a ground up restoration of a "641/2" and there are a lot of subtle differences and pieces that are not available after market. I am looking for the rest of the splash shield for the generator. It is mostly original a few things are not like the color, interior, intake, carb and Magnum 500 wheels. Mine is a San Jose car vin 100624 with a 289. Rick
Very good write up... I recently finished a ground up restoration of a "641/2" and there are a lot of subtle differences and pieces that are not available after market. I am looking for the rest of the splash shield for the generator. It is mostly original a few things are not like the color, interior, intake, carb and Magnum 500 wheels. Mine is a San Jose car vin 100624 with a 289. Rick
Thank you. The rubber part of the generator shield is now being reproduced. The sheet metal part is something that you will have to find an original. I'm pretty sure that I've got a couple of the entire assemblies stuck away somewhere. I could poke around and see if I can find one if you like.
Hi again. You're far too kind. There are a lot of people that know a good bit more about these cars than I do. This would probably be a good thread to lock on the top so that new people can go to these links and stuff. That would certainly make things much easier for them.
Hi again.
Since I was 8 or 9 I have been wondering about why Ford gave the Mustangs that we call 64 1/2s 65 VINs. They started building them in like feb. of 64. There isn't a single part anywhere on the car with a 65 part number. If you see a part with the number starting out C5Z and going on, that part has been replaced. Ford quit using 5-bolt, generator charged motors at the end of the 64 model year. All 65s had 6-bolt, alternator charged motors, etc... Everything about the cars says that they are 64 model cars, with the exception of the VIN. Why did they do that? Someone had to make that decision, and the decision was made before they ever built the first Mustang. What was the rationale behind it? I think that it has finally occured to me why they did that. They started out by building about 25,000 Mustangs to start selling on April 17 of 64. They felt like that would be enough to carry them through until the 65 model year began. However, they sold every one of those cars, plus took orders for 15,000 more on the april 17 of 64. They also introduced several other pretty cool things in 64, like the factory lightweight T-bolts and some K code Falcons and stuff to hedge their bet on the Mustangs. They had no idea if these cars would sell or not, and just in case they still had 20,000 of those first 25,000 Mustangs in aug. of 64, they could still sell them as brand new 65 model cars. They didn't know. Maybe those Mustangs will do the same thing that some other seemingly good ideas on car design did, namely, they couldn't give them away. They didn't do it to confuse and bewilder as yet unborn enthusiasts at all.It was one more way to hedge the bet.
You would think that I would have come up with that a little more quickly than a quarter of a century, but, on some days I'm a bit slow. Flashing on that has made me very, very happy.I have actually pondered this question on a regular basis and have come up with nothing for a really long time. It just made no sense to me. Everything about it is a 1964 model car, and yet, someone made the decision to title these things as 65 model cars in the winter of 63/64, They weren't building any other 65 model cars. They weren't even making any parts for 65 model cars yet. They were advertising them right beside other 64 model cars. It is a very strange decision to make. It would probably have never even crossed my mind to do that, unless I was sitting in a meeting discussing this and someone said, " You know, we're all going to be looking for jobs if these things don't sell" Then we would start brainstorming about how to avoid that very unattractive eventuality, and THAT'S where the idea for 65 VINs came up.
For as far back as I can remember, I would just sit down and think about something that pertained to a 65/66 Mustang on a regular basis. Sometimes I put my car up on jackstands and crawl around underneath it, just looking at stuff. Like watching television. For hours.This 65 VIN thing has confused me to no end for the longest time, and, again, finally coming up with something that makes sense about this, to me anyway, very perplexing question, has made me really happy. I feel as if I have accomplished a life goal.
So Veronica, Once my 64 1/2 rebuild is complete do I register it as a 64 or 65 Mustang? Also I'm going to get a new Marti door tag done and would like to get a new engine tag as well, trouble is I don't have the original so no numbers to work with. If I gave you the vehicle details do you think you could work out a "suitable engine number" so I can get a tag made?
Many thanks
Hi again. You would register it as a 65, since the vin on your car starts out with a 5. And yes, the more you tell me about the car, the more I would be able to tell you If you pm me the vin, I could ballbark it with a day or two on the scheduled production date.
I bought a new Mustang Coupe in June of 1964. It was Wimbledon white with Red vinyl interior. Mine had the chrome lock buttons. My Radiator core support had the battery vent holes oriented horizontally, where the production 65's were vertical. The hood extension (junction of grille and headlamp doors) were not rolled under as they were on the 65 models. Mine did have the C code 200 CID six, and the automatic option. 13" wheels as well.
For your car to be an october built San Jose 260 car, Toxic MX, the vin would be 5R07F and a number between 143000 and 152000, depending on the day of the scheduled production date. I must say that this would be very strange indeed, since all of the 260s were five-bolt, generator cars and were phased out in august of 64. It is possible that the door tag has been replaced with a reproduction and whoever did it simply got the date wrong, and it's actually a july built car.Or it could be that that you were unaware of this.To be october, the tag would say some number followed by the letter K, not J. They did not use the letter I for date codes because it looks so much like the number 1. If your car is actually something like september 2nd, that would make a lot more sense. If you could post the vin and just leave of the last couple of digits, I would be able to tell you a whole lot more about what the deal is on that.
There are a lot of people that know a good bit more about these cars than I do. This would probably be a good thread to lock on the top so that new people can go to these links and stuff. That would certainly make things much easier for them.
This 65 VIN thing has confused me to no end for the longest time, and, again, finally coming up with something that makes sense about this, to me anyway, very perplexing question, has made me really happy. I feel as if I have accomplished a life goal.
