Topic: Black Duct Tape location? 70 Dearborn

[1970 Snake]

Would anyone have an idea why the factory assembly line workers would have put black duct tape over the passenger side lower door hinge mounting plate access port, it was NOT applied on the drivers side

[rockhouse66]

I thought that area was supposed to have blackout paint?  So you wouldn't see the primer through the vent louvers.

[Bossbill]

Duct tape usually has a shiny finish.
The factory uses Gaffer's tape, which has a cloth, textured finish to it.

Also duct tape is 1.5". On my 67 the callouts for Gaffer tape are generally in round numbers up to 3" wide.

[J_Speegle]

Would anyone have an idea why the factory assembly line workers would have put black duct tape over the passenger side lower door hinge mounting plate access port, it was NOT applied on the drivers side

Top picture is not typical looking at the pictures and the cars I've seen built at Dearborn in 70. Not sure why someone did that that way.

That vent tab isn't/wasn't damaged or broken was it?

[1970 Snake]

No this is the way the car came from the factory, the fresh air vent had never been removed until I removed it for restoration. It may not be typical but it was there and was asking if anyone had seen this before and maybe knew why it was there. BTW all pictures posted are from my car during disassembly not others.

Regarding the Bossbill duct tape comment, mine was 2" wide not 1.5" and was semi gloss, and my car had what I am calling duct tape and looked like duct tape not like cloth backed hockey stick tape, in a number of places from the factory. I have attached pictures which show some of those places, the DS and PS door bottoms, the DS door opening tail light and accessory wire channel, and the tape at the PS fresh air vent. It also had a piece of duct tape from one side to the other across the lower wind shield area right in front of the dash, on the tail light housings and on the gas gauge wire in the trunk, and several other places I just can't remember now and they where all 2" wide except for the one across the lower windshield/dash area mentioned above it was about 1" wide and had been torn to that wide length ways from probably a 2" wide piece and all where factory installed.

[J_Speegle]

Those other locations, doors, trunk and taillight to cover the hole during shipping to the car assembly plant are pretty typical. At least the taillight application was done at another location, supplied by possibly different supplier and may differ from the ones applied at the plant.

And as usual the suppliers likely differed between car assembly plants so that may explain why different people have seen differences over the year.

[1970 Snake]

Jeff, you mentioned above the tape on the tail light to cover hole while shipping to the assembly plant. Why is the tape still on the housing after all these years? I thought it was there to hold the wires against the housing so they are not hanging loose in the trunk and getting caught on luggage or something. Please explain I am a bit confused as to the tape on the tail light housings.

And the reason I started this topic, I have also decided to replicate the tape under my fresh air vent actuator on the PS of the car just as it was when it came from the assembly plant, yet have no idea why they did it.

[RocketScientist]

That is an odd one as it would make installing the wiring harder and slower - something you don't want on a production line. Maybe they forgot to black out that area and thought this the next best fix?
Brad

[70cj428]

Jeff, you mentioned above the tape on the tail light to cover hole while shipping to the assembly plant.

+1 , I have a pair of NOS Bucket assemblies that still have the hole covered with the black tape. Since they were shipped from the supplier with the lense and gasket installed, any dirt or debis that got inside would require disassembly of the light to clean.  My recently acquired Q code still has the tape on the bottom of both taillights.

John

[1970 Snake]

Thanks John, the picture I posted earlier in this thread of the two tail light pods are the ones from my car and the tape is exactly as it was when I purchased the car in the late 80's. So what I am hearing is that the tail light pods complete with lenses where installed into the car and when the tail light bulbs in their holders where installed in the pods on the assembly line the work just pulled the tape off and stuck it to the outside of the pod. I assume the intent then was for the dealer during delivery prep was to remove the tape as part of the prep and cleaning for hand over to the new owner, but in some cases that never happened just like the rear shipping tie down brackets where not removed.

If you take a look at jpg 1579 which I posted along with the tail light pic, there is a piece of tape inside the rear quarter just behind the door latch and under there wire loom. This tape was present on both the DS and PS and by looking at its location I believe the assembly line worker installed this there to protect the tail light wire harness from chaffing on the ruff sound deadener sprayed inside the quarter, any thoughts on that??

[specialed]

yes but the taillight wire only routes on the LH side  I have seen black tape on top of metal rail on floorpan where the rear side panel bolts to the floor,

[1970 Snake]

Well that is a good point but not necessarily true as there is another wire on the PS for the sail panel light and my guess is that the assembly line workers on BOTH sides of the car probably followed similar patterns of install. See attached picture and tape on PS although not directly under the wire it looks like it has probably come unglued due to rust or other and drop a little or the wire has moved over a number of years of driving on bumpy roads or both. BTW that little plastic wire loom clip in the picture that the wire goes though is also on both sides. Just thought I would show what I have found on my car during disassembly and will be replicating this in my restoration even though it will never be seen, just like the tape under the PS fresh air vent control slider.

What I do find a bit puzzling is why there is such a large piece of tape on the tail light housing when all that was needed was a cover over the bulb hole to stop foreign particles from entering during shipping??
And there is a light blue paint dot on what was the PS housing near the bulb hole, not sure what that would signify, see pic about in this thread.

[J_Speegle]

What I do find a bit puzzling is why there is such a large piece of tape on the tail light housing when all that was needed was a cover over the bulb hole to stop foreign particles from entering during shipping??

And there is a light blue paint dot on what was the PS housing near the bulb hole, not sure what that would signify, see pic about in this thread.

We don't always understand why certain things were done but just like everything in life its easy to look back and have an opinion as how something could have been done better. Things were just different and we don't always know or understand other things that were going on at the time

As for the blue markings they may have simply identified the Mustang taillight from the others being installed on that particular line at the plant from other cars on the same line. Or could have been applied for workers purposes in the plant/subcontractor that made/built the taillights but very typical of that year and application

[1970 Snake]

Thanks for the comments Jeff, yes its interesting to see some of the results of the different processes that must have went on almost 50 years ago, if only the parts could talk

[70cj428]

Just FYI, here's a set of NOS 70 taillight assys with the tape still attached. The tape is 2" gaffers tape …….

John