Topic: 66 Data Plate Mystery

[msmith]

A while back on a different forum, I had posted a pic of my Dearborn 66 Convertible's door data plate. Someone pointed out that the placement of the axle code stamp on the data plate was wrong and that the plate was likely a reproduction added to the car after it was a built, perhaps to reflect some changes made to the car.

Taking the expert's opinion to heart, I ordered a new reproduction plate from Marti Auto Works, one that would be more correctly stamped. When I received the Marti plate and compared it to the one I took off my car, something immediately jumped out that made me question the original diagnosis.

Here is a photo of the new Marti repro data plate (on top) and the one that was on my car when I bought it (on the bottom). You can clearly see that the Marti plate's Ford logos are different than the ones on my original plate. The tail of the bar through the middle of the "F" in Ford is much longer on the logos of my original plate.



So, I did some google image searching for some original door data tags, and these all seem to have "long tail" bars on the F's like my original plate, and unlike the Marti reproduction. Here are a few examples.





What are your thoughts? Is my original plate likely original but with a weird stamping 'error' (even though the axle code is actually centered better than on all the other original data plates.

Or is my original plate just a better reproduction of the original Ford data plate artwork, but still a reproduction?

Thanks in advance for your expert opinions.

[NEFaurora]

Would have to agree with your original dataplate being a repro.  The Axle code is almost always stamped further to the right on original Dearborn stamped Door Data plates.  Also Something like 3 different fonts were used between all the three plants, and also there is someone else out there stamping repro dataplates with a specific smaller font only seen on repro dataplates.

Tony K.

[msmith]

Thanks for the reply, Tony.

Would have to agree with your original dataplate being a repro.  The Axle code is almost always stamped further to the right on original Dearborn stamped Door Data plates. 

When you say "almost always stamped further to the right", have you seen some stamped differently? I've never seen another one stamped like my 'original' one.

Also Something like 3 different fonts were used between all the three plants, and also there is someone else out there stamping repro dataplates with a specific smaller font only seen on repro dataplates.

Are you referring to the font of the stamping dies? I was talking about the silkscreened "FORD" logos on the plates. My 'original' one looks like a genuine plate, whereas the repro from Marti has a different look altogether on the logos. Look at the detail of the "F" in the Ford logos.

Best regards,

M. Smith
66 Dearborn C-Code Convertible
Wimbledon White