Topic: Cougar VIN cheat sheet anyone?

[J_Speegle]

Always trying to match up Cougar VINs with approx or projected build dates for comparison with the other Mustangs and such. Anyone have a cheat sheet that shows at least VIN ranges and dates?  Would make some things for me a bit easier.

Thought I would ask - Thanks for viewing.

[preaction]

Jeff, outside of CJ and B302 cars most cougar owners don't aspire to complete a restoration such as is seen here, it seems most are modifiers and trends in Vin numbers just aren't part of that, unless your Scott from WCCC.

[J_Speegle]

I know they have registrars for different years and models as well as the club or individuals int he club have been collecting VIN data for years. Guess I'll ask over there or some of them directly.

Just thought I would ask here first

[Mike_B_SVT]

Jeff, outside of CJ and B302 cars most cougar owners don't aspire to complete a restoration such as is seen here, it seems most are modifiers and trends in Vin numbers just aren't part of that, unless your Scott from WCCC.

Consider the number of Mustangs built vs Cougars built.  I think you would find a similar ratio of restorers vs modifiers in the Cougar ranks as you do in the Mustang ranks.  You also have to keep in mind that Cougars do not enjoy the benefit of a plethora of reproduction parts like the Mustangs.  Restoring a Cougar costs considerably more, and is usually not practical for a non-CJ / non-Eliminator car.

I know they have registrars for different years and models as well as the club or individuals int he club have been collecting VIN data for years. Guess I'll ask over there or some of them directly.

Just thought I would ask here first

You want to ask Phil Parcells.  He has enough data that given a Cougar VIN he can narrow the build date and DSO quite accurately.

[preaction]

Consider the number of Mustangs built vs Cougars built.  I think you would find a similar ratio of restorers vs modifiers in the Cougar ranks as you do in the Mustang ranks.  You also have to keep in mind that Cougars do not enjoy the benefit of a plethora of reproduction parts like the Mustangs.  Restoring a Cougar costs considerably more, and is usually not practical for a non-CJ / non-Eliminator

Mike I'm with you on all of this above, as a 67 6.5 liter car owner I agree. Last years fords at Carlisle celebrating the 50Th anniversary of the first year of Cougars there was a very strong showing of 67-68 cougars of which maybe 5% were restored to original let alone concours condition. This has been my experience.

[krelboyne]

Jeff, I responded over at the Classic Cougar Community forum.
Can you show me an example of what we need?
VIN spread by each week? I can get the scheduled for build dates from all of my Cougar door tags; 1967 Dearborn, 1968 Dearborn, 1968 San Jose, 1969 San Jose (until late Nov 1968), 1969 Dearborn.
I would not be able to do 1970, since the buck tags do not show dates that year.
I believe that most of the 1971-73 buck tags have scheduled for build dates? Dearborn only.

[J_Speegle]

Jeff, I responded over at the Classic Cougar Community forum.
Can you show me an example of what we need?
VIN spread by each week? I can get the scheduled for build dates from all of my Cougar door tags; 1967 Dearborn, 1968 Dearborn, 1968 San Jose, 1969 San Jose (until late Nov 1968), 1969 Dearborn.
I would not be able to do 1970, since the buck tags do not show dates that year.
I believe that most of the 1971-73 buck tags have scheduled for build dates? Dearborn only.

Since door tag dates are possibly off by up to three months at this time I think by month may be the best we can do or early month or late month. Think I can work that out in a spreadsheet using what Kevin provided in the Tag book.  If you could, could you compare a few door tag dates to what he wrote.

Wondering if his information (most likely) was pulled from the Ford data base. If that is the basis for the data that may be more accurate than door tag dates

Thanks for the offer

Will post this same reply over on the Cougar site so that the members over there don't think I'm ignoring your post there   

[krelboyne]

Since door tag dates are possibly off by up to three months at this time I think by month may be the best we can do or early month or late month. Think I can work that out in a spreadsheet using what Kevin provided in the Tag book.  If you could, could you compare a few door tag dates to what he wrote.

Wondering if his information (most likely) was pulled from the Ford data base. If that is the basis for the data that may be more accurate than door tag dates

Thanks for the offer

Will post this same reply over on the Cougar site so that the members over there don't think I'm ignoring your post there   

Will do. My door tags all came from 25 years of junkyarding and WCCC. They will not be 'special editions', or big blocks. Common, hard top Cougars, with small block engines is what my collection primarily consists of.

Can probably tighten up the VIN range from the Mustang and Cougar Tag Book, by Kevin Marti.

[J_Speegle]

Looks like Kevins book info is pulled from the Ford records because the ranges are all over each other by tens of thousands of numbers. This is very likely correct since we know cars were built often way out of sequence  but its going to make guessing an approximate time period unless the VIN is almost in the midd of one of those month ranges.

But I don't think we have anything better to work from. It just is what it is