Topic: 1968 Trunk mats

[69bossnine]

Hello all...

I made a recent discovery in my dad's NOS collection, and was wondering if anyone could shed more light on it...

I found two NOS 1968 fastback trunk mats, one being the expected speckled-burtex, the other being the "gray fiber" plain mat.

Both are in original packaging, labels, stencils, etc.. Both share the SAME Ford part # C8ZZ-6345494-B2P.

I'm going to use the speckled mat in the almost-completed restoration of my GT500KR, but the plain-gray one I'd really like to get more information on. Is there an accepted plant(s) and/or date-range for that mat? Or was it just a service replacement? Looking around the web, I'm not finding much that I would consider "authoritative" for 1968 mats, just confusion.

Any input would be appreciated, because if I did sell it to someone, I'd at least want to represent it correctly.

Thanks,

Rick
NPD

[J_Speegle]

Think there were four different mats installed in 68 depending on plant and time period (not all well documented at this point I believe) 

First question about the gray one (might work best if you post some pictures)  is it dark (almost black) or a lighter color?

Guessing the speckled one has unsewn corners.

[69bossnine]

The speckled burtex mat does not have sewn corners.

I've attached a "montage" of the two mats, showing labels and the box that the gray mat came in, but the photo is NOT representative of the color, it's way too dark. In-person, the color of the gray mat is a medium-gray, very much like the skin color of an elephant.

[CharlesTurner]

Here's a picture of an original in a low mileage San Jose '68.  Jeff probably has pics of this one too.  The mat had some glue holding it down.  Not a consistent coat, just a splattering to keep it in place.

[TLea]

Rick,
There were at least 3 different mats used on 68 Shelbys and all were used in the time period of your KR.