Topic: 66 Idler Arm paint mark

[lancelot66]

Bill,
I'm not sure this will apply to '67 or not, but mine ('66) had a couple of medium green stripes on the frame bracket that I discovered after some EvapoRust soaking. I also see that it was applied to a restored example on Virginia Mustang's blog, '66 GT350 Carryover car, restored by Jeremy at Maple Hill. His shows just a single stripe and the washer looks like P & O, but can't be certain. Others hopefully will weigh in. It's an opportunity for me to learn something new again, if nothing else.

[J_Speegle]

Since this is a bit off topic and would not be easy for others to find buried in a 67 Shelby personal build thread I split it off and separated it

[Bob Gaines]

Bill,
I'm not sure this will apply to '67 or not, but mine ('66) had a couple of medium green stripes on the frame bracket that I discovered after some EvapoRust soaking. I also see that it was applied to a restored example on Virginia Mustang's blog, '66 GT350 Carryover car, restored by Jeremy at Maple Hill. His shows just a single stripe and the washer looks like P & O, but can't be certain. Others hopefully will weigh in. It's an opportunity for me to learn something new again, if nothing else.

67 GT350 /regular Mustang idler arm is different in shape compared to a 66. Also all 67 Shelby's have a Power steering idler arm . 66 GT350 is manual. The most common paint marking on a 67 idler arm is a yellow mark around the arm section which designates its power steering application.

[J_Speegle]

Using the words  "66 idler arm paint mark" in the search feature I found the following thread that might have answered you question.

https://www.concoursmustang.com/forum/index.php?topic=22585.msg141593#msg141593

Not saying this is the reason for the difference but please understand that differences can be due to where the restorer is located and where the car was built. Its not unusual for builders to copy what they see on local cars (from other plants) and their details rather than what was typical from the factory the car is being restored.   Se this ALLOT

In my experience the vast majority of San Jose cars were marked with two green strips like the one you have and that is from hundreds of examples. The pattern continued through the later 60's on Mustangs.


Here are just a few I threw in a single picture



Have seen a very few with a single stripe or in some rare cases three stripes. Kid must have gotten carried away that day or just not paying attention.

[J_Speegle]

Green paint mark is the typical manual idler arm indicator 65 up.

Politely have to disagree as that does not match what I've seen

As we've seen in another thread the paint identifier for some of the later years was located under where the idler arm slid over the attachment bracket. Likely best to discuss the other years and identification in another thread if needed

[lancelot66]

Interesting and informative you guys. Thank you! I should have mentioned our car has factory power steering.