This sticker is in the glove box of Bart Lovely’s GTE. The Marti report says a 3.5 open rear end and the door tag has an 8 code for the same. There is no rear end tag but the rear end has the correct casting date. There is no Detroit Locker in the car. The sticker is not a repop and is old and a bit tattered just like the air pressure sticker next to it.
Could this sticker be attached if the Detroit Locker was a dealer installed item? Or?? This GTE was extensively raced on the East Coast for years after purchase. Just another oddity about this GTE.
I had that sticker in my G’s glove box (until it flaked off). The previous owner went skiing in NY and New England and had the Merc dealer install it. Very noisy these days.
The missing rear end tag can be replaced, Kevin Marti has the original tooling and codes.
Ford dealers didn’t have a 31 spline Detroit Locker to sell until mid - 1970 model year. Unlikely the dealer would have installed the earlier 28 spline Detroit Locker. That would have required installing the much weaker 28 spline axles. It would be mighty expensive too.
My guess would be the sticker is a reproduction. It is a correct sticker for a 1965 Shelby equipped with a Detroit Locker. It was one of the earliest reproduction stickers made because of that. They were being reproduced by the mid 1970’s. So it could have been purchased at a swap meet by then.
So the prior owner decided to install a repop sticker in the glove box where no one would ever see it? Doubtful in my mind. So a 1965 Shelby got a 31 spline Detroit Locker, but other Mustangs or Cougars could not get them until 1970? Or did the 1965 Shelby get a 28 spline locker?
Can’t believe that someone would put that sticker in their glove box where no would see it for a minute. Seems to me to maybe be a later Dealer installed locker and the Dealer put the sticker in it.
The 1965 Shelby GT350 had a 28 spline Detroit Locker that was perfectly suited to the small block.
The model number of the DL called out on that sticker is the one that would have been used in a 1965 Shelby Mustang.
In mid - 1970 model year the 31 spline Detroit locker replaced the 31 spline 4 pinion Traction Loc in the Mustang, Torino, Cyclone and Cougar with the 4.30 Drag Pak. I assume that is the earliest that such a differential could have been obtained from a Ford dealer. It’s not logical that a dealer would have installed a sticker with a different model number locker when the customer purchased a 31 spline unit.
However the model number in your picture does match the one that has been reproduced over the past 45 years.
In my experience the conversion from 28 spline to 31 spline axels is just a different seal. Agree that going to 28 from 31 would not be ideal for a 427 powered car, but the car came with an open rear end. A 4 pin trac lock would be a cheaper solution, but maybe the owner wanted a DL for the racing aspect. Even with a weaker axel.
I cannot fathom why anyone would put that sticker in the glove box just for grins and giggles after finding it at a swap meet. Wish cars could talk sometimes. The fact that it was in the glovebox makes me believe a dealer installed it.
If it was mine I would take it out. It’s not something that any dealer would have done.
I spoke to Bart several times, he claims to have receipts for everything ever done to the car since new. If that’s true why would he not have any documentation for something as radical and expensive as this?
I doubt that Bart said “receipts for everything since new”. Please be careful about what you say in print. He has receipts for the work I have done. Bart likes the racing history and the modifications done to the car by the prior owners. The decal will stay and its how it got there will remain a mystery. As well as the other modifications that are not GTE original.
Exactly! A dealer would place it in the glove box. A guy picking one up at a swap meet might put it on his forehead! Or the rear window! Or on his wife’s Volkswagen!