Topic: Question about 1965 Dearborn production numbers

[Bglover67]

I have a GT convertible with a data plate date of March 26, 1965 and there is currently a 'K' code GT convertible for sale on eBay with a date of March 25, 1965.  Interestingly, it is 1615 numbers earlier.  I believe both cars were factory GT's.  I know it's difficult to make any conclusions out of this information, but does anyone have any idea how many Mustang units were produced daily at Dearborn at this time?  I was told that 3/26 (and now 3/25) must have been fairly early in production for a GT since the first units were released on April (17?) of 1965.

Such a shame we don't have the production numbers for 1965/1966 like we do for 1967-on.  That was a sad day in history when the information was deleted.

[J_Speegle]

Not that odd since the projected build date was assigned when the order was received at the plant days, weeks or in rare cases months before they started to build it. Also (you likely know) that they did not build cars in sequential order (by VIN) and we have examples where cars with numbers as far apart as 4,000 numbers ran down the line next to one another.


Have no idea of how many Mustangs were produced in a day - Ford stuff I've seen only speaks to total production at a plant for a day, an hour or smaller increments in publications and films - including all cars and lines at a plant.  They wanted to advertise the big numbers also production likely was much different before the release, the months after and a year later as the model year tapered off

[Bglover67]

Jeff, do you have any idea at this point in history (3/65), how much longer the actually build date was compared to scheduled build date shown on the data plate?  I ask because the block, heads, intake and other items are stamped only a few days before the car's scheduled build date. 

[CharlesTurner]

Without the records, we can never know for sure.  The only clues are observing all the various date codes throughout the car... sheet metal, components, etc... to get an idea of the time frame the car may have been built.

[J_Speegle]

Jeff, do you have any idea at this point in history (3/65), how much longer the actually build date was compared to scheduled build date shown on the data plate?  I ask because the block, heads, intake and other items are stamped only a few days before the car's scheduled build date.

We can only guess by applying the spreads found at the same plants 2 years later during the same period of time. Problem would be that sales volume was likely different during some of that first year,, which may have affected date spreads somewhat,  but I believe that is the best you can do with the facts that are known.


What we have done in the past is to collect all of the sheet metal dates on the unibody (so we are only dealing with parts that can not be unbolted and replaced with ease) then compare those to examples from 67-68 where we do have solid dates for vehicle production and see what that provides.  Results would not be accurate down to the date or even likely the week just what we have to work from

[jwc66k]

Using the "Mustang production Guide, Vol 1" as the, if not the only valid source of production information, 1965 production in Dearborn started on August 1, 1964, and finished on July 30, 1965, a full year. The first VIN assigned was 250001, the last known VIN was 806693. That's roughly 556,692 Ford cars made on the Dearborn line. Not all were Mustangs. Assuming that production was around 300 days including Saturdays, a six day work week, that's around 1850 cars per day. A five day work week would yield 2225 cars per day. The real world is probably some where in between. A "range" of 4000 VINs would be 2 to 2 1/2 days of production at Dearborn.
The first Mustang GT models were documented to be built in late February. 
Note: A Mustang built on March 25, 1965 would have been built on a Thursday.
Just about everything else is speculation. There may be some Mustang to plant data, but it's not readily available to me.
Jim