Topic: Radiator support seal - 69 San Jose

[cbrown]

Did the radiator support seal get trimmed on 69 mach 1s just short of the hood pins?  My car is nov 68 build San jose  r code.   
also   What designated the car getting this seal?   I can not find in assembly manuals.

chris

[rockhouse66]

I can say that all of the Cobra Jet cars got the seal and the one on my original 3/69 built SJ car was trimmed short of the hood pins.  I say trimmed, but it sure looked like it was made that shorter length and not actually "trimmed".

[cbrown]

Thank you Jim..

chris

[J_Speegle]

Each plant appears to have handled this detail differently as discussed in other threads  so thanks for including that you are focusing on 69 San Jose


Here are some prior thread that will illustrate the detail

http://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=8811.msg51335#msg51335


There was another thread that had additional pictures but the links may be dead

Here are some more examples

9R1575xx




9R1662xx




9R1359xx




9R1473xx

[specialed]

i have an original short seal (same as 70 with hood twist pins) if u need the lenght.

[Daven]

Did that special clip eliminate the staples?  My car still has broken remnants of the staples remaining.  My car is a San Jose Sept. built. 

Daven
9R02R107xxx

[J_Speegle]

Did that special clip eliminate the staples?

"Eliminate" ?  San Jose choose to use the clips rather than deal with the stapler for 68 and 70. As we've seen at Dearborn the stapler has issues at times forcing that workers to switch to a different style of clips when the machine was down. Guess San Jose just too the easy way. Might have been quicker also especially if they installed the clips on the seal before hand

My car still has broken remnants of the staples remaining.  My car is a San Jose Sept. built. 

Is/was your car an unrestored car when you got it? For decades (especially on San Jose cars that made their way east) restorers and owners added staples since it was believed in those areas that "all 69's were stapled"  altering the original design and leaving details as you have found them. This seems to be more common on CJ cars  so when you check these against 6 cylinders built about the same time the conflict and likely addition stands out.

Just mentioning a possibility - as I do have San Jose 69's that have staples added I believe in my picture files but what gets interesting and suggest they were added.

Earliest car I have with seal but no signs of staple use would be in the 9R106xxx range

[specialed]

There are good photo of a  SJ 69 cj shaker car in LA with smog on craigslist  & its on the 428 cj forum under stuff seen on the web & it has the short rad rubber seal but looks like it is stapled on that or somebody removed the clips?

[rockhouse66]

I think you are right Ed.  Some marks look like where there used to be a clip but there are certainly some staples in this one.

https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/cto/d/1969-ford-mustang-cobra-jet/6582237928.html

[J_Speegle]

I think you are right Ed.  Some marks look like where there used to be a clip but there are certainly some staples in this one.

Interesting that this car was finished a month or so before the time period Chris was asking about. Have others within days of this real build date without staples. We've all seen in the past where the early CJ dates were allot different from the other non CJ cars likely due to all the problems and issues they were having.  If they did use staples at the beginning still believe that the common practice by at least November was clips from what I'm seeing right now

Challenge is always do we trust what we find or see on cars after all these years.  And that becomes the reason for finding as many examples as possible to rule in or out the odd ones

[J_Speegle]

Getting off thread a little - looking at the earlier cars there may be a good possibility after looking at another group of cars that San Jose did use staples prior to when Chris is asking about.  The next step will be to see if this fits a date based pattern which is a little more difficult given that we don't currently have real build dates for all cars found.

Here is 9R10840x a T code car. Car is not untouched so can't be sure but offering it to the discussion with those possibilities

[Daven]

I will dig around and see if I have the original seal laying around and look for evidence of clip marks.  I'm sure the way my engine compartment looked that the seal wasn't replaced.

Daven
9R02R107xxx

[cbrown]

Wish I could say mine gets staples because I  don’t have any of those flat clips.    I have no holes in my radiator support  right now  Though.


Chris

[J_Speegle]

Wish I could say mine gets staples because I  don’t have any of those flat clips.    I have no holes in my radiator support  right now  Though.

There was a batch of reproduction made. Think there was one run by a hobbyist so that he could have some. Think the left overs were sold to NPD, if I recall correctly. No way of knowing if any are left. Think this all took place about a year ago

[specialed]

Wonder if that flat clip was used at Met plant also as our car has no holes but we got another met car built around the same time with staples & rivets but the rivets may have been added by PO.