Hello

There is a very large class of people that own 65/66 Mustangs that, as far as I can tell, anyway, have been, for the most part, ignored entirely. They don't really want that 100 pt. show car that is so nice and was soooo expensive that they're afraid to drive it, they also don't want to make their car capable of achieving warp factor three. They just want this car that they dearly love to be able to cruise around smoothly and reliably, without having it dump them out on the side of the road or have it start making weird noises or belching out big clouds of funky-smelling smoke. And I think, truth be told, that this is by far the largest class of Mustang owners. They take their car to some technician when what they actually need is a mechanic, and this, frequently, does not work out very well at all for the owner. They don't want to re-engineer the entire car, they just want someone to fix what broke. These are the people that I am trying help out with this blog. Some problems require a little bit of back and forth, as in, "Try this." "I tried that and it didn't change anything."
" Oh. well, you probably need to try that." " I tried that and it helped, but it still isn't quite right." "Now you need to try this...." If you go to http://www.allfordmustangs.com/ and then go to the classics forums, you will be able to do that with a pretty hefty gathering of some very knowledgeable people that also happen to be very friendly. None of that ridiculous one-upmanship, no flaming or abuse, none of that stuff. Just good, solid advice from people that know what they are talking about.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Recreating your Mustang door tag 1965 and 1966

Many of the cars, after nearly half a century, have either lost their warranty plate (door tag) or, it has become too ratty-looking to read and looks just awful. Brand new replacement tags are available from http://www.martiauto.com/ but, you have to tell them what it's supposed to say. The warranty plate will have the VIN of your car on it, along with some codes that gave the dealerships that would be working on the cars some basic information about this particular car. The first code is body style. For a 65/66 Mustang, how that goes is

Coupe............65
Fastback........63
Convertible...76
with a letter after it. Standard interior would be an A, deluxe (pony) interior would be a B, and standard interior with a front bench seat, instead of front buckets, would be a C. So, if you have a standard interior coupe, that would be 65A, a pony interior convertible would be 76B, etc..

Next would be the exterior color. I have a list of the color codes here. http://thecareandfeedingofponies.blogspot.com/2008/04/paint-codes.html What would be on your door tag would be the single-digit designation above the name of each color.

Next would be the interior trim of the car. Again, I have all of the possible interiors for these cars here.  http://thecareandfeedingofponies.blogspot.com/2008/05/65-interior-samples-and-codes.html and here http://thecareandfeedingofponies.blogspot.com/2008/05/66-interior-samples-and-codes.html In the first column there is a two or three digit designation under 'Code'. That's what would be on the door tag.

Next is the scheduled production date of your car. Ford destroyed the records for the 65/66 model cars, so, there is no way to say for certain when your car was built. However, I have amassed a pretty good data base of cars that the scheduled production date was still known from the original door tag, and, if you go here http://www.allfordmustangs.com/ go to the classics forums and ask about your cars birthday, I can ballpark it within a day or two. This is assuming that nothing goofy happened during production of your car, and it rolled off the line pretty much in sequence with other cars. It would be a good workable date for buying parts for your car, and it's a date that would make sense.

It is not possible to deduce what the D.S.O. ( District Sales Office) code for a car was if the original door tag is gone, because, as I mentioned, Ford destroyed the records, and, basically, the car could have been ordered by anyone, anywhere in the world. If you still have the tag, and are wondering what that code means, then the number designates the city or region that your car went to to be sold originally.
11_Boston
12_Buffalo
13_New York
14_Pittsburg
15_Newark
16_Philadelphia
17_Washington D.C. After 1/1/66
21_Atlanta
22_Charlotte N.C
23_Philadelphia
24_Jacksonville FL
25_Richmond VA
26_Washington DC
27_Cinncinati  After 1/1/66
28_Louisville KY  After 1/1/66
31_Cinncinati
32_Cleveland
33_Detroit
34_Indianapolis
35_Lansing MI
36_Louisville KY
37_Buffalo  After 1/1/66
38_Pittsburg After 1/1/66
41_Chicago
42_Fargo ND
43_Rockford IL
44_Twin Cities( Minneapolis/St. Paul)
45_Davenport Iowa
51_Denver
52_DesMoines Iowa
53_Kansas City
54_Omaha
55_ St. Louis
61_Dallas
62_Houston
63_Memphis
64_New Orleans
65_Oklahoma City
71_Los Angeles
72_San Jose
73_Salt Lake City
74_Seattle
75_Phoenix
81_Ford of Canada
83_Government
84_Home Office Reserve
85 American Red Cross
89_Transportation Services
90-99_Export

Next will be the axle code, which tells you what the rear axle gear ratio is. The 9 inch rear end was not the only rear end that had an optional limited slip gear set-up. This was also available on the 8 inch rear end used in the A code and C code cars, as well as with the integral carrier used on the 6 cylinder cars. This was extremely rare on cars destined to be sold in the United States, though. One would be safe in assuming that this is not what their car came with unless the car was originally sold in Canada or Europe, and then made it's way back to America. Here are the codes for the door tag. This will be in the form of 'if the motor that your car came with was a_____ then the axle code on the door was _____
Before 9/01/64
170____________ 5
260____________1
289____________1
289HP (K code)__8 (3.89) or 9 (4.11)

After 9/01/64

200/auto__________2
200/manual________3
289/2bbl__________6
289/4bbl__________1`
289/4bbl/HP_______5(3.50), 8 (3.89), 9 (4.11)

And, finally, the transmission code. This is just for the 64 1/2-66 cars. There were some minor changes in the codes and options at the beginning of the 67 model year.

Automatic transmission___________6
6 cyl/three speed manual__________1
V8/three speed manual___________3
V8/four speed manual____________5

After determining what your car actually came with, this should provide you with all of the information that you need to recreate your door tag.

7 comments:

Pete Bush said...

Hey Veronica,

Good info there. Just a few observations from a 6-cylinder guy.

First, the 3:20 (code 3) and the 2:83 (code 2) rear ends appear to be used interchangeably on 3-speed and automatic 6-cylinder cars. Source = Build Sheet samples & the Mustang Production Guide Vol. 1.

The other thing I'd like to point out is that the Dagenham 4-speed transmission was also an option on 6-cylinder cars. I believe the code would have been 5.

Pete

Veronica said...

Thank you, Pete. I was not sure what the code would have been for the Dagenham, but, since those, like the limited slip rear ends on assemblies other than the 9 inch, were used predominately on export cars, I didn't want to put something in here that might turn out to be wrong.As you have no doubt become aware, I am very, very tentative when it comes to making definitive statements. I don't recall ever having seen a car that was both A) definitely sold in the United States, and. B)definitely came with the Dagenham. But, my knowledge on the six cylinders is pretty sketchy. So, again, thank you.

mustang gal said...

Anyone out there do the research for door plates?
I have the vin#

mustang gal said...

Looking for some help. All I have is vin# for 66 mustang. Need to replace door plate with info but not enough info. Original door was replaced due to being sprung. Please help

Veronica said...

If you could tell me the VIN I could ballpark the scheduled production date within a day or two, along with which rear axle ratio it would have come with. The more you can tell me about the car, the more I can tell you.

mustang gal said...

It is a 1966 ragtop
Wimbledon white
Vin# 6f08c322709

This car has been rebuilt
My dad is considering selling and the antique dealer said he wouldn't touch without door tag. Dad is wanting to make it as complete as possible whether he decides to sell or not. Found a place to make replacement door tag(warranty tag). Martiauto.com.
Just needing as much info as possible and codes if possible. Thank you Veronica

Veronica said...

Sorry this took so long. Holiday preparations. The body style would be 76A, assuming that it is standard interior and has two front bucket seats. The paint code for Wimbledon White is 'M'. The trim code would depend on which interior the car has. The scheduled production date would have been about 20D, which is April 20th of 66. The DSO is lost forever without any original documentation, but, all that represents is the district where the car was sold originally. The axle code would be '6' on your car. The transmission code would depend on whether the car came with an automatic or manual transmission.