1969 Mustang (early) production date question

[Bigfoot]

1969 Mustang production started on August 16, 1968 for the brand new 1969 Mustang. That was in Dearborn, which was the first plant to begin producing the 1969 Mustang.
Does anybody know on what date or dates the other plants such as New Jersey and California began?
Thnx

[J_Speegle]

Guest your asking about production cars? Sorry there are a lot of nuances in discussions these days   

[Bill]

1969 Mustang production started on August 16, 1968 for the brand new 1969 Mustang. That was in Dearborn, which was the first plant to begin producing the 1969 Mustang.
Does anybody know on what date or dates the other plants such as New Jersey and California began?
Thnx

Earliest date codes I've found ( some on the web), not pre-production related are
Dearborn shows 13H
San Jose shows 24H
Metuchen shows 27H

Somewhere in a moving box, in my attic, I believe I should have the VIN's to go along with them.



Bill

[J_Speegle]

Kevin Marti wrote that Aug 16th was the first day of regular production at Dearborn. Pretty sure this came from the Ford data. Bill you may have found records from the scheduled or estimated build date from a door tag that was posted. The 13th would be a little late IMHO for a preproduction example. Really hate that "preproduction" term for those cars   

Do have a Marti report of a 69 NJ car being completed on the 26H. Don't know if that is the first day of regular production there or not.

[98SVT - was 06GT]

Ford had a small line (at Wixom?) where they would test assemble a few cars (100?) to test the tooling and fit. I consider those to be "pre" production.
The plants had an annual shutdown where the workers were all furloughed (on vacation?). A crew came in and changed all the tooling and set up the lines. The crew came back and started building production cars. Anything rolling off a regular production line is a production car. Cars rolling off the test line could have found problems that parts were altered to speed up the assembly. Most of those cars went into the company car pool and ended up scrapped or bought by employees - they got regular VINs. There were also a few (10-20?) engineering cars that were assembled piece by piece in one spot. Those went to PR for brochure pictures, magazine tests, durability and crash testing. 99% of those ended up scrapped - they didn't have VINs.

[Road Reptile]

Hi
A quick note to prevent rumors from spreading. Ford uses a pilot plant to test production procedures. Any car produced there in the 1960's used a S in the vin
In place of the assembly plant code. No manufacture can produce a car without a vin of some type. Many of these cars are used for testing purposes. Cold start and seatbelt were 2 major tests and emissions would also be typical because it is often weight specific and they need a complete car to  have accurate weight measurements. Once engineering is satisfied with all aspects of production the assembly plants can retool and begin production of the latest model. When you read Kevin Marti's book it provides approximate dates of production startup at each assembly plant.
Hope this helps explain how it is done in a simple way.
R.R.

[6R07mi]

"Ford had a small line (at Wixom?) where they would test assemble a few cars (100?) to test the tooling and fit."

Wixom was a Lincoln / Thunderbird assembly plant, then just prior to closing and teardown it build the 2005-2006 GT.

Allen Park Pilot Plant, (Oakwood Blvd & I-94) has been for decades a new production pilot build plant. The pre-production 64 Mustangs were built (semi-finished) there and then finished off at Dearborn Assy.
The approx. 180~200 "O5C" pre-production mustangs would fall into this group.
 The Allen Park Emissions Lab is just down (east) I-94 from the Pilot plant.

regards,

jim p

[shelbymann1970]

"Ford had a small line (at Wixom?) where they would test assemble a few cars (100?) to test the tooling and fit."

Wixom was a Lincoln / Thunderbird assembly plant, then just prior to closing and teardown it build the 2005-2006 GT.

Allen Park Pilot Plant, (Oakwood Blvd & I-94) has been for decades a new production pilot build plant. The pre-production 64 Mustangs were built (semi-finished) there and then finished off at Dearborn Assy.
The approx. 180~200 "O5C" pre-production mustangs would fall into this group.
 The Allen Park Emissions Lab is just down (east) I-94 from the Pilot plant.

regards,

jim p

About Wixom. The only thing I know that plant was associated with

"Ford had a small line (at Wixom?) where they would test assemble a few cars (100?) to test the tooling and fit."

Wixom was a Lincoln / Thunderbird assembly plant, then just prior to closing and teardown it build the 2005-2006 GT.

Allen Park Pilot Plant, (Oakwood Blvd & I-94) has been for decades a new production pilot build plant. The pre-production 64 Mustangs were built (semi-finished) there and then finished off at Dearborn Assy.
The approx. 180~200 "O5C" pre-production mustangs would fall into this group.
 The Allen Park Emissions Lab is just down (east) I-94 from the Pilot plant.

regards,

jim p

I remember the Ford GT on the building which you could see from I96. My son's Hockey coach at the time of that shooting at the Wixom plant drove a HiLo delivering fluids to the lines and that shooter was walking along side of his HiLo and he didn't see him at one point. He turned one way and the shooter went the other.