Topic: Missing Assembly Manual Pages -

[jwc66k]

The Jim Osborn produced Mustang Assembly Manuals are fairly good sources of references for what went into the cars on the assembly lines. There are several problems most notably is missing pages. Another is missing books. In some instances, a missing book can be compensated by using a different year's same book. Using another year's book gets you close, and marking up the book to show diferences is one method to document yours. Another source is the Ford Car Part books but those often show service replacement items and not assembly line original items.
Attached are two .jpg pictures of a missing page, the body front end in the 1966 Mustang Body Assembly Manual. I used the 1965 equalivent page to provide the illustrated assembly, and created a spread sheet to document the part numbers in a bill of materials foremat. I included portions documented in the Electrical Assembly Manual and portions of the Illustrated section from the Ford Car Parts and part numbers from the actual parts and from the part number section of Ford Car Parts.
These were created about four years ago and several sets were sent out to local Mustang owners who have 1966 cars, including Shelbys, for feedback.
Use these as reference, and like Jeff states, be leary of plant and assembly date differences.
Jim

[J_Speegle]

For me the bottom line is I'm just happy that Jim too the giant effort to hunt down all the different versions and copies he could from around the country and produced what he did. Perfect no... but we knew that in the beginning (discussed with him)  I think he might have used a 3rd of what he collected since so much of it was moth eaten, water stained and damaged from how many were stored. We had just about given up any of these were still around after all those years.

But as you mentioned we have to help others (through reminders) that these are the last word no more than a single claimed unrestored car would be as to how these cars were originally built


Jim - looks like you've got allot of free time on your hands   LOL

[jwc66k]

As far as I know, the 64-73 Mustang has the most complete factory documentation of any mass produced classic car. A couple of Corvette owners wished they had access to GM assembly line drawings as we do. Thnks to the effort of Jim Osborn we do.
Yeah, and about that spare time. I'm in the process of transferring some 600 LP vinyl records to digital when I get the "time".
Jim

[J_Speegle]

......Yeah, and about that spare time. I'm in the process of transferring some 600 LP vinyl records to digital when I get the "time".

Ya I started scanning and OCRing the complete TSB catalog a few years back....... that one got side tracked. I'm way behind on the picture labeling and cataloging

[Pete Bush]

Seems I'm beginning to collect more and more in the way of pictures and documentation, and was wondering what methods you use to catalog and file the vast amount of information you've both collected over the years. Every time I try to look up something related to something I've collected, I have to figure out where to find it 
You guys always seem to have the answer at your fingertips. What's your secret?

[J_Speegle]

Seems I'm beginning to collect more and more in the way of pictures and documentation, and was wondering what methods you use to catalog and file the vast amount of information you've both collected over the years. Every time I try to look up something related to something I've collected, I have to figure out where to find it 
You guys always seem to have the answer at your fingertips. What's your secret?

Document organization seems to be the most difficult for me since naming is what its all about. For TSB's I went through the six inch thick stack and made a cheat sheet (number, subject and an short description) in Word and organized the major ones in a logical order there. As for all the other stuff (letters, special service, inventory list and the like) its a challenge.

Right now I store most of what I've on digitized in different directories by year and by related subject, then sub directories and branches from there. Unfortunately I still have to rely on memory to start the search.  Of what I currently have I don't have 30% of it all scanned and in truth I've got a few piles that I've never looked through yet. 


If I had the time I might consider converting everything to Acrobat so that the embedded text would be searchable (did this a number of years back with a training manual I developed that was about 800 pages long) But that is a big job - though started doing that with the TSB's a number of years back. That way all a viewer would have to do is type in 66 Mustang seats (for example) and the program would go through all the files and find those articles, service letters and what ever that were related. But each page requires about 6 steps to get a finished product.

Pictures are a bit easier for me. Cars get labeled by VIN (then stored by year then factory)  Detail pictures from those cars get saved in another directory for those details so sometimes there are two copies of the same picture (though it may be cropped and contrasted differently.  For examples I've got 20-40 pictures of 6R09A123456. So those all get labeled with the vin and stored under

- 66 then
- San Jose then
- 6R09A123456

Lets say it has some good pictures of the drivers side rear wheel well and paint inspector marks. The wheel well pictures get duplicated in the

-66
- San Jose production
- Wheel well
- 6R1200-140000 section.


While the paint inspectors pictures are copied to

- Paint Marks
- Inspector Marks
- San Jose
- 66
 


Have been doing some more converting for the Library on the site and was thinking I've got to break that list up into separate threads since the list is starting to get too long

Just something else to do.

Bottom line IMHO is to start somewhere. If you don't the job may become too large to catch up with.  Just have to choose to do it the good thing is that you can always alter and adjust to fit your needs.

Also I STRONGLY suggest that you pay for one of the offsite back up services it is VERY IMPORTANT.  Have had my system crash a number of times taking out all the hard drives. At one point was backing them up local but you know that you start out doing it on a regular basis and before long you forget.   Also on site storage just means that in the event of something major you lose your computer and your back ups. Consider that most of the stuff we're discussing can not be reproduced or possibly found again. Protect it for yourself and for others

Sorry for the long post

[jwc66k]

I use a different approach, but I use a computer as well. I have a spreadsheet based hardware database that I started in 1992. Here's the why. I needed a bolt so I went to a local (now out of business) Mustang Store and asked - "I need the bolt that holds the clutch return spring bracket to the brake pedal support on a 66 Mustang." The counter guys had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, no way to find it, and, as this didn't involve me spending big bucks in their shop, didn't care. I made up my mind that if they didn't know, I would find out - and document it. I've been involved with databases since 1965 in engineering, procurement, inventory, manufacturing, reliability and logistics. I used my experience to do "stuff". Oh, the bolt is 43490-S8, 5/16-18X3/4 hex hd with a split ring lockwasher (Osborn AM0005 pg15, AMK Fasteners pg34).
The database has over 9200 entries taken from the Jim Osborn Assembly Manuals, the Ford Car Parts manual, the AMK Products Guide To Ford Fasteners, the two Ford Standard and Utility Parts Catalog, TSBs, and personal observations of my and others cars. If a question arises on a certain car's area, say an electrical question, I can sort my file and see what references I've accumulated on that subject. I also have a spreadsheet listing based on topics from Mustang related magazines that I want on restorations and photos. Same concept, sort by subject and pull the magazine.
And as Jeff states - memory is good too.
Jim
Oh, and the free time thing - I ride my bike five to ten miles a day (weather permitting and not on a NFL game day) to keep my doctor happy; design and build furniture (my own); grow some crops (kiwi, avocado, tomatoes, jalapenos etc); and even dabbeled in some creative writing (SF).
Jim