Standard equipment on the 66 Mustang

Here is a list of the noteworthy standard equipment that came on the 66 Mustang.

1)  120hp 6 cylinder engine
2)  3 speed manual transmission with floor mounted shifter
3)  Super diamond luster enamel
4)  Alternator
5)  Long life Sta-Ful battery
6)  Automatic choke
7)  Self-adjusting brakes
8)  6000 mile or 6 month oil filter
9)  36,000 mile or 2 year coolant/antifreeze
10) Fully aluminized muffler
11) Galvanized main underbody members
12) Parallel action electric windshield wipers and washers
13) Dual padded sun visors and arm rests
14) Color keyed carpeting/front and rear
15) Color keyed steering wheel with sports horn bars
16) Cigarette lighter and front ash tray/rear ash trays on convertible only
17) Automatic courtesy lights and glove box light
18) Front bucket seats
19) Padded instrument panel
20) Rocker panel moldings
21) Full wheel covers
22) 5-ply convertible top, manually operated, vinyl coated in black, white, or tan
23) Turn signals
24) Outside rearview mirror
25) Back-up lights
26) Emergency flashers
27) Front and rear seat belts
28) Fresh air heater/defroster

Wow. An even more impressive array of standard equipment than that of the 65 Mustang. In 66 the back-up lights, outside rearview mirror, and emergency flashers were standard equipment, along with front AND rear seat belts.

Standard equipment on the 1965 Mustang

This subject seems to come up occasionally, so, here is a list of things that Ford felt were noteworthy as standard equipment on the 65 Mustang.
1)   120hp 6cyl engine
2)   3-speed manual transmission with floor mounted shifter
3)   Alternator
4)   Long life Sta-Ful battery
5)   Automatic choke
6)   Self-adjusting brakes
7)   6000 mile or 6 month oil filter
8)   36,000 mile or 2 year coolant/antifreeze
9)  Fully aluminized muffler
10) Galvanized main underbody members
11) Parallel action electric windshield wipers
12) Dual sun visors
13) Front arm rests (rear arm rests on convertibles)
14) Color keyed carpeting, front and rear
15) Color keyed steering wheel with sports horn bars
16) Cigarette lighter and front ash tray/rear ash trays on convertible only
17) Automatic courtesy lights and glove box light
18) Front bucket seats
19) Padded instrument panel
20) Full wheel covers
21) 5-ply convertible top, manually operated, vinyl coated in black white or tan.
22) Turn signals
23) Front seat belts
24) Fresh air heater/defroster

It is actually quite amazing just how far cars have come since then. Imagine a manufacturer today mentioning that their cars come with turn signals, a heater, front seat belts, and sun visors. None of that stuff was required in 1965. Parallel action electric windshield wipers? Awesome!! What will they think of next?

Happy Holiday wishes .

I just wanted to take a second and wish everybody a happy holiday season. I normally just say Merry Christmas, but, I realize that there are all sorts of different viewpoints in the world, and different people celebrate different holidays that seem to fall right around the winter solstice. Occasionally there is a big to do made of saying Happy Holidays, instead of Merry Christmas in the United States, but, this seems a little bit silly to me. Saying Happy Holidays isn't excluding anyone, it's just an attempt to include everyone, instead of merely one specific, admittedly large, group. I never have understood why some Christian folks would take offence at a person expressing good wishes to them, along with Jewish folks and the Muslim folks, the Buddhist folks, and everyone else, but, it seems to come up every now and then.  As for me, I would like for everyone to have a happy holiday season, along with a good, fulfilling life. So, Happy Holidays to all.

Voltage regulator adjustment 1965 1966 Mustang

Something which seems to be a bit of a lost art is the procedure for adjusting the voltage regulator. For a more modern electronic voltage regulator there isn't any adjustment, and alternators have all been internally regulated for quite a while, so, they don't even have an external voltage regulator. But, the 65/66 Mustangs did come with a voltage regulator that needs to be adjusted once in a while. And, who better to ask about that than the people that built the cars? This first picture is source material for one of the many training courses that Ford put their factory trained service personnel through. The second picture is the appropriate page for the regulator adjustment. If you are intending to adjust your regulator, you can click on that picture, print it, and have it conveniently nearby when you make these adjustments.

Square sockets for drain plugs

I have noticed that people frequently ask if there is a tool that works to remove drain or plugs on the 65/66 Mustangs, like in the gas tank, rear axle housing, or manual transmissions. And, I just realized that I have never gotten around to mentioning that I have finally found them. I used to use a short 3/8 drive extension on the gas tanks. You put the extension on backwards, as if the tank was the wrench, and turn it with a 12 pt. 11mm socket, but, obviously, this only works on 3/8 plugs. SK makes square sockets, both male and female, which are called pipe plug sockets, and they work great. These are also made by Sears and a few others. The problem that I always ran into looking for these things was sales personnel that would look at me like I was the one that was obviously quite confused since they had never heard of the thing that I was describing, and I didn't know what they were called. Once I found myself a sufficiently old person that remembered back when those were fairly common and knew what they were called, I started checking around and found myself a set very quickly. These things are truly, as the aforementioned old guy said, "Handier than a two-pocket shirt." It would be an awfully good idea for a person to pick up a couple of these in the appropriate sizes for the plugs on their car. I picked up the complete sets, both male and female, for 'just in case', but, that is probably (certainly) overkill, since I don't work on these cars for a living any more.

Scheduled production date for Dearborn 64 1/2 Mustangs

Below is a list of the door tag data that I have collected for the 64 1/2 Dearborn-built Mustangs. If you are wondering about the scheduled production date of your Dearborn-built 64 1/2 Mustang, just fit your VINs sequential number into the series and look at the scheduled production dates of the cars with VINs that are very close to yours, and this will give you a pretty good ballpark estimate of when your car was built. Obviously, this can't guarantee that your car was in fact built on that very day, but, it would have been close to that, certainly close enough for you to order parts, get a new door tag, etc..