Recall seeing this detail many times in the past but never really followed it that closely (no long list of car vins and such) but this last week I noticed it again on another unrestored 65 San Jose fastback which motivated me to look through my files to see if a pattern would appear.
The observation - It appears that during a short period of time workers at San Jose inserted one of the rubber coated wire clips( normally used for hanging and routing wires around the car - example fuel sender wire to gas tank opening lip) on the trunk lid spring possibly to hold it in place during assembly as they often want to fall out of the cutout as you get everything else in place. Its not know if they came up with another method after this one or simply didn't leave the clip but during this time period the clips were left in place and painted the exterior color along with everything else.
Time period identified so far appears to be Oct-Nov 64 at San Jose - fastbacks only.
Three examples to illustrate
Original paint car were the owner at some point removed the clip it appears. Someone likely told them that it didn't go there
Just sharing another little detail (there are a ton of these micro trends/practices) - hope it helps others
