Topic: 66 San Jose Hood Hinge date code question and possible oddity?

[Morsel]

So I always have been under the impression that my hood hinges were original to the car. I was looking into having them re-phosphate finished correctly. As I started looking at them I noticed one side is dated coded with OB 1 24 3, so January 24th third shift, that goes right along with my build date and other sheet metal stampings. My other side doesn't have a date code stamp, but it does have this SKD stamp on the other side (and not SDK like scott drake)... as I've been looking around, I'm not the only car from San Jose around this time period that has the same thing going on. I found another post here on the forum, and I've found two other San Jose cars built that have the same thing, a drivers side with date stamping and a passenger side with no date code stamping but this strange SKD stamp on the back side. For example here's a set I just found on ebay while looking for a passenger side one and it made me think maybe I do actually have an original set, as mentioned I had no reason to think one had been replaced. Also here's a link to the thread I found where s2ms mentions it as well vaguely in the 8th post from the top, his March 66 san Jose car.

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=409.msg4532#msg4532

What are your thoughts and have any of you seen this before.

Thanks,

Jason

[Morsel]

Just found another set, same thing, one date coded one not, but with same SKD stamp... except this is not an OB date code...

Jason

[rrenz]

I need to replace my Driver side hinge. I picked up a set that had this same configuration at Carlisle a few years ago. One of them was bent so I picked up a second hinge. The second one also has the SKD stamp on it as well with no date code. I was going to post about it before restoring it but hoping we can make some light of it here.

[Morsel]

Since I posted this a couple weeks ago I did find a few more hinge pulls from "untouched" cars with the exact same thing OB dated code one on drivers side and "SDK" no date code on the passenger... don't know if this helps or not, but I decided for myself that mine are original to my car so having them phosphated right now

Jason

[rrenz]

Thanks for the info. My car originally had a proper date coded passenger side and the driver side had the SDK. I replaced them with some freshly blasted ones I found at a show thinking one had been replaced at some time. Guess ill start cleaning up my originals to put back on..

[Morsel]

Well, I don't want to lead anyone down a wrong path, this was just a decision I made for myself, I have no real proof of this being a real thing... just what I found so far doing searches of similar cars during this time period... but it doesn't mean that all of these weren't replaced at some point including mine and yours... just want to make sure I'm not saying something as definitive proof for others reading this

Jason