Topic: 1968 GT stripe question

[thumphries]

This summer I was fortunate enough to finally purchase the '68 GT Fastback that I've been lusting after since I was 16. The car has lived it's whole life in Arizona, so it's rust free and I have the entire original drive train. It was originally Acapulco Blue with a deluxe parchment interior, 4-speed manual, J-Code 302, tach (~5% of '68s), and the ultra rare convenience panel (~1% of '68s). Naturally I'm going to take such a beautiful car back to it's original colors and configuration, and I'm going to have a lot of questions along the way.

My first question is regarding the C-stripe. I assume since it had a white interior and a dark color exterior, it had a white C-Stripe. However, I've seen some original Ford literature that says you could also get a '68 with the '67 style rocker stripe. My car is an early '68, it was completed in December '67, so I certainly think it's within the realm of possibility that it came with a rocker stripe instead of a C-stripe.

Is there any way to tell? It's obviously not on the Marti report.

[J_Speegle]

My first question is regarding the C-stripe. I assume since it had a white interior and a dark color exterior, it had a white C-Stripe. However, I've seen some original Ford literature that says you could also get a '68 with the '67 style rocker stripe. My car is an early '68, it was completed in December '67, so I certainly think it's within the realm of possibility that it came with a rocker stripe instead of a C-stripe.

Is there any way to tell? It's obviously not on the Marti report.

Not sure if the 67 style GT stripes were phased out by almost mid year production - sure the 67-8 guys may have some idea.  Just my observation but the rocker stripes were not very popular and most buyers wanted the "new" striping rather than a stripe that made it look like you bought last years model.

As far as color choice of stripe it was up to the buyer. If they were willing to order and wait normally they could get the combination they wanted. Cars built for inventory typically seem to have been built to the combinations suggested in the sales manuals  from my experiences

Buildsheet would be a way to determine which stripe the car came with don't believe it was noted on a buck tag if your car was built at one of the plants that used them in 68

[thumphries]

Okay, that's helpful and makes sense. Hopefully one of the '67-'68 experts can weigh in on this.

My car was special ordered by an individual (as reflected on the Marti report). White is the most likely C-stripe color, but as you pointed out, the person who ordered it could have ordered black due to personal preference.

The possible stripe colors were: white, black, blue, red and gold. I think the only two colors you could get with an Acapulco Blue car were black and white.

The car was built at San Jose if that's helpful.

[J_Speegle]

My car was special ordered by an individual (as reflected on the Marti report). White is the most likely C-stripe color, but as you pointed out, the person who ordered it could have ordered black due to personal preference.

The possible stripe colors were: white, black, blue, red and gold. I think the only two colors you could get with an Acapulco Blue car were black and white.

Does your Marti report state "Special Order" in the Order Type?  Sounds more like a customer order unless you have a 6 digit DSO on the door tag and got the envelop in the glove box with the details of the non-RPO items included in your car.

White and black would have been the suggested combinations though the others were possible as evident by other examples and "out of the ordinary" combinations that have been seen/documented

Will take a look through my collection of 68 San Jose stuff and see how late of an example I can find with the rocker style stripes. Not going to be many to go by for the reason mentioned in my first post

And sorry that in the first post I didn't take the opportunity to welcome you to the site. Must have had something else on the mind. Again Welcome

[thumphries]

My Marti Report (which I attached to my initial post if you want to see it) says the car was a "RETAIL" order type, which according to this post: http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=942.0, means "an individual comes to a dealership and orders an as yet unbuilt vehicle"-which is all I meant. Someone specifically checked off the order form and had Ford build it, so they could have asked for their preference of stripe color.

Thank you, it's great to be here, I'm looking forward to absorbing your collective knowledge and eventually getting this car perfect!

Thank you for any more information you can give me, I greatly appreciate it. It seams like the best we're going to get is a "most likely" answer to this question. I will probably end up putting white, non-reflective C-stripes on it, as that has about a 90-something percent probability of being what it originally came with and no one is going to be able to definitively prove it correct or incorrect.

[J_Speegle]

Guess all of the ends of the stripes (in the door jamb, around the rear edge of the fender ....) are gone?  Just grasping at possibilities

[thumphries]

Unfortunately yes, long, long gone. My friend bought it in 1992 as a very complete car, but it was in primer even then.

I'm just happy to have all the original sheet metal except for one front fender, the original motor and transmission and even the original GT wheels! This thing is going to be pretty straight forward to put back to almost entirely original with the exception of the interior, wiring and so on which must be replaced.

[gtamustang]

I will suggest, based on your Marti report that your GT came with C-stripes. And as Jeff stated the rocker stripes were not popular at all for 68 and were probably discontinued by Ford soon after the strike ended. I have seen gold, white, black, reflective gold, and reflective white (both part of the visibility group option) c-stripes on 68 acapulco blue mustangs. If you cannot find any traces of the stripe as wrap around on the doors, door jambs or fenders, then pick a color that appeals to you.

BTW, looking at the dates on your Marti report, I doubt it was an individual order and more likely a dealer order looking for a hot combination. It was built in December after the strike and sold in March...4 months is a very long time between being built and being sold!

Regards,
Pete Morgan

[thumphries]

Pete,
Thank you for your insight, man I think gold stripes on Acapulco Blue would look strange, but they did a lot of things I don't understand (like the color Lime Gold).

As for the Marti report-I always wondered about that! If an individual ordered it why in the world did he take so long to pick it up! I bet you're right that the dealership placed the order. At least it was ordered by a human being who put together a great combination! Even if it was a dealer employee, what they came up with is a lot better than what we often see. My '67 Fastback was white with an AQUA interior!

-Tim