Hi all ! New guy hear . A friend of mine just inherited a Gold 68 W/ 289 Cougar VIN # 8R91C510343 from his Grandfather . Very good condition . My question is , where is the most common place to find the factory build sheet ? We have all ready looked under back seat cushion & behind it . I have heard some times they are behind the back interior wall panels .
THANK YOU !
The build sheet have been found in many different places, I have found them taped to wire harness at steering column, under seats, in engine compartment under hood hinges, in trunk under mat and mostly under the front floor mat, and have found some cars without any.
Also under the carpet behind the drivers seat in some cases.
I feel like I answer this question a lot, so I made a file in my Notes folder so I can just copy / paste it now. I’ll have to add Carlton’s engine bay info to my notes (thanks!).
For those looking for their Build Sheets, they can be found in several locations. My understanding is there were up to 5 build sheets that travelled down the assembly line with the car during the various build stages. Look for them to show up…
- Under the carpet. Anywhere under the carpet and / or sound deadener matting (although most often on driver’s side).
- Inside door panels.
- Under / Behind the dash, possibly wrapped around wiring harnesses.
- In the trunk, under the mat or even under the tar-based sound deadener.
- Behind the back seat, in / around the trunk divider material.
- Inside the back panels on the front seats
- Underneath the seats, inside the seat springs.
Note that in most cases, San Jose cars had the build sheets thrown out, so you probably will not find one. Dearborn build sheets turn up the most often.
If your build sheet is largely intact but stained black from the tar-matting and is unreadable, it CAN be cleaned!
Build Sheet Cleaning
http://concoursmustang.com/speegle/Articles/Article%20-%20BuildsheetRestoration.pdf
Here is an example of cleaning. At the bottom of the thread is a “before and after” of my own build sheet.
I have found 2 stapled to the back of the R/H door panel. Both were early 70 Dearborn built. 1 being the Green 70 XR-7 I had about 20 years ago and the other being a CJ Mach-1 I helped with the restoration of.
Just want to say THANK YOU for all of every bodies help ! Looks like we have a treasure hunt in front of us ? I will let you guys know if we have any luck . THANKS AGAIN
Most cars don’t have a build sheet as the factory protocol was for them to go into the trash cans along the line. If you find one anywhere it will be a minor miracle.
There were likely at least two dozen of these printed for each car during the second half of the assembly process. A couple tapped to the unibody the rest to stations building sub assemblies that would be placed on belts or hooks to meet up with the body on the line. Each plant handled these copies, the ones at sub assembles, differently. At Dearborn they were typically attached to the subassembly (back of a door panel, between seat spring and seat cushion…) while San Jose they had the worker write the second rotation number from the upper left hand of the build sheet on the sub assembly and then the sheet got thrown away.
Since your car was assembled at San Jose/Milpitas there is a good chance that none were left in the car since there was a much lessor chance that multiples got anywhere near the car
I have had the interior completely gutted in our San Jose built 69 and found nothing. Throughout the years we have had this car, I have been everywhere in the door panels, trunk, seats, etc, and have found nothing. Just like trying to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
It’s my understanding, San Jose never left them in the cars.
rcode
That, in my experience, would be an incorrect statement. As mentioned above it is a rarity, due to how the workers used them, but I’ve come across some of them over the 45 years or so spending allot of time in yards, owning my share of San Jose cars, and being on the internet since it became available to the general public.
Guess I have just less than 50 examples not counting the add/delete sheets from 67 Shelbys
Here are three as examples from different years
Just checked and from all factories Looks like I’ve got about 600 examples/copies of buildsheets from the 65-73 period. Just about all Mustang/Shelbys of course. More sent to me or found weekly or so,
My car’s a San Jose car and has been restored so the build sheets were in an old photo album page, but there are two of them. Would be an early-ish 69/late San Jose car so maybe they were getting lazy as they neared the end.
My car was an early 69, Sept 16th. No sheet #772. Sure wish I’d found it. The clean up crew must have been on high alert that day!
Jeff, thanks for the info. Based on those VIN numbers, that was well into production for the 68 & 69 and it appears the 3rd one is a 74 Mustang II.
rcode