We are pleased to announce that ConcoursMustang.com has gained access to the official Ford photographer for the San Jose plant and have made arrangements to publish pictures taken at that plant through the years that the company still has in their possession.
We are not expecting to uncover the Rosetta Stone of Mustang knowledge from these pictures alone, but instead some new and additional insight as to how things were done in an average day, as best possible, since photo shots were in a great part, staged or of special milestones taking place at the plant.
One challenge is that just like getting pictures from Ford archives, they are not free so we believe we have come up with a way for all of us members in this site can take part in gaining access for all of us to view. It is our hope that the members here will gain benefit and choose to support these efforts. If we are successful in this first procurement, we will plan on repeating it and gain access to additional photos of the Mustang and or Shelby production process.
Here is how we hope it will work. We will accept donations (going to use my PayPal account rather than commingle the normal ConcoursMustang donations and the photo project ones). It doesn't get used for pretty much anything these days and we will post a list in that category of who has contributed to the project for transparency and accountability. As we pay for each photo they will be published to the site in that new member only area.
(To see my email address click on my name to the left of this post or others)In this endeavor we're not looking for any single member to fund the project (already had those offers) but instead believe there is a benefit, to the community, to do this as a group for the benefit of all. In this way everyone can participate by giving a little to reach the goal. Make sense?
Of course, we have also obtained permission from the photographer to post these pictures only on our site making them available to us for research and discussion purposes. So each will carry the sites' water mark so we ask that everyone respect copyrights and permissions. Any problems might jeopardize future access.
Bottom line - Looks like we've got a good eighteen pictures that are going to cost just over $700. They will be posted as we gain resources to pay for each of them (one at a time) . We will explore and figure out how to also post some high resolution pictures so that those interested in them, can enlarge them greatly to explore any small details that might be discovered. We know that most of the time we get poor scans from publications to discuss.
Again it is our hope that this goes smoothly and with its success we can explore obtaining photos from other plants and other years using the same membership participation program. (Have a kine on another six pictures
Think that is it.
Thanks... the management
PS- We expect that there will be questions and comments. For this reason we waited till after the holiday so they could be responded to in a timely manner.
