Topic: Unrestored - 68 San Jose Tear Apart Pictures

[J_Speegle]

Doing my daily labeling of pictures thought I would share some of the many I took of this Feb 68 San Jose/Milpitas   coupe. Car was likely part of the Color of the Rainbow or Color of the Month  promotion that was done for a number of years to attempt to boost sales when they normally dipped in the spring. Car's DSO was  721187 so if it is part of this promotion there will be other cars out there with the same DSO.


Car had some interesting details I knew of just never recall taking pictures of them in this particular year and plant. Hope they help a number of you.


Couple illustrating the light grey primer surfacer application under the final exterior color.

Here is shows under the rear valance attachment surface





and under the rear caps - also showing the paint wrapping around the cap as it was loosely/partially installed at the time of final paint coat.





One of my favorite out of this group. This shot shows how the exterior color passed through the back up light hole in the rear valance and flowed onto the rear frame rail.





Under the car the evidence appears to suggest that this painter (the guy doing the pinch weld on this side) kept the gun real close (seen this before - must be the same guy   producing not allot of overspray but allot of paint in a concentrated area - on those panels hanging down close to the edge.









Rear frame rail showing the amount of body color overspray that got into the area through the wheelwell and rear (back up light) hole in the rear valance. Notice the two dolly marks - forward one used for the Mustangs and the rear one aligns with the rear dolly hole on the Cougars built on the same line and dolly's




Couple shots of the rear trunk drops and the seam sealer on the bottom edge sealant that was applied during this period at the plant (bottom edge of the quarter panels have been bent upward - I'm guessing a floor jack)






Finally a shot of the trunk showing some of the spray sealant pattern. Take notice of the painted rear bumper guard mounting bolts (were installed before the valance was installed - real pain to add them later) This is an often missed detail 




Again hope that these help someone and stimulate some discussion. Also I hope it shows that cars don't have to be 100% perfect to have something to offer in the way of original details and information.

[outlawincorporated]

Jeff.

2nd last picture.  notice there is a white paint stamping on the top side of the rear spring. is this something that u have further info on. further more do you believe the rear springs are original to the car.. my interest is more 65 66 stuff, but believe i have seen this on a unrestored 66 coupe i had many years ago but i cant locate the image at present.

regards,

PHILL BERESFORD.
MELBOURE.
AUSTRALIA.

[J_Speegle]

2nd last picture.  notice there is a white paint stamping on the top side of the rear spring. is this something that u have further info on. further more do you believe the rear springs are original to the car.. my interest is more 65 66 stuff, but believe i have seen this on a unrestored 66 coupe i had many years ago but i cant locate the image at present.

Springs are after market so ignore that detail.  Take notice of the side profile and ends in pic #7

Now NOS ones were often painted all black and had a stenciled part number of them.  In the late 70's it not uncommon to see owners paint theirs black and add the stenciled number (remember a couple of Boss 302's being shown that way)  since our understanding of what most NOS parts were was pretty fuzzy at the time

Here are two examples

[CharlesTurner]

Agree with Jeff, only seen a stenciled number on repro springs and Ford replacement (one size fits all) springs.

[tim_morrison82]

were rainbow of color cars of the same color, all done in one batch on the same day? a friend of mine has a whipped cream car, dated 16 feb, and we found another whipped cream car mentioned with the same date. makes sence that they did them together to use up the paint?

[J_Speegle]

were rainbow of color cars of the same color, all done in one batch on the same day? a friend of mine has a whipped cream car, dated 16 feb, and we found another whipped cream car mentioned with the same date. ...

Yes and no from our understanding.  they likely didn't do them all on the same day but in groups at least for the first half or the production over a number of days

Why you refer to the dates are these real or projected build dates as the projected dates would be bunched together in smaller groups (as orders came in) and the plant would have guessed the same date as they punched in the numbers

Looking at my documents I've got the 68 orange cars spaced out over a period of time (not all at the same day) some of this might be because they were used in different promotions like many of the other colors but all in the spring - the period of time Ford and other car companies ran these promotions. To stimulate lagging spring sales

[ruppstang]

Thanks Jeff interesting and helpful.
Marty

[tim_morrison82]

the date is just the stamped dataplate info. we were talking about the dataplate last night on facebook, and a simple search found a car withthe same data plate date warranty codes as his car, the only thing that made me question Iif it was the same car or a different one, was my friends car is a c code, and the username of the poster we found similar info was called my68302, so I think his is a J or F code. otherwise we stumbled across the previous owner...