date code on block

[427hunter]

Hi, what's the usual lead time on block casting dates to vehicle order date?

[J_Speegle]

Never heard of anyone comparing order date and engine/block casting date. Are 66 order dates available for every car somewhere?

[427hunter]

Yes, 66 cars show order date and delivery.

[J_Speegle]

Yes, 66 cars show order date and delivery.

Need to read that Registry more completely.. As mentioned never compared or added order date to my spread sheets so I've not compared those dates.

[gt350hr]

 On SAI cars IMPE it's one to two months between engine casting dates and vehicle assembly date at San Jose. SAI build dates are all over the place and we all know no attention was paid to Ford vin sequences versus SAI vins.

[427hunter]

Thanks!

[camp upshur]

This may be the most complicated simple question ever asked!
The short answer is: SAI's use of the term 'order' date. SAI seemingly used that date to suggest when a car was ordered by a customer (usually a dealer). That date often times was months after the car was completed at SAI and completely unrelated the car's Ford or SAI build date.
The long answer is: for instance on my 65 the block was cast:5D19. The engine was assembled:5D28 in Cleveland.
The cars sheet metal is all 2/3 week April and arrived at the airport on 5/09. This would suggest that the car had been completed and they were awaiting engines, especially since 5/09 is apparently the largest single shipment of Mustangs to SAI (38) spanning 5S229-5S375. These 38 sequential Fords entered work immediately (5/10) and were then interspersed with another 108 other Mustangs as 5S375 entered work on 6/03.
The real delamination of 'order' date to block casting number begins here. In cases such as mine, which is not atypical, the car was an HPM demo and was not sold for months. It's order date bore no relationship to it's block casting date.
Hope this helps.

[Bob Gaines]

This may be the most complicated simple question ever asked!
The short answer is: SAI's use of the term 'order' date. SAI seemingly used that date to suggest when a car was ordered by a customer (usually a dealer). That date often times was months after the car was completed at SAI and completely unrelated the car's Ford or SAI build date.
The long answer is: for instance on my 65 the block was cast:5D19. The engine was assembled:5D28 in Cleveland.
The cars sheet metal is all 2/3 week April and arrived at the airport on 5/09. This would suggest that the car had been completed and they were awaiting engines, especially since 5/09 is apparently the largest single shipment of Mustangs to SAI (38) spanning 5S229-5S375. These 38 sequential Fords entered work immediately (5/10) and were then interspersed with another 108 other Mustangs as 5S375 entered work on 6/03.
The real delamination of 'order' date to block casting number begins here. In cases such as mine, which is not atypical, the car was an HPM demo and was not sold for months. It's order date bore no relationship to it's block casting date.
Hope this helps.

Cars were built at SJ plant and had engines installed there not at SA. Ford wouldn't build the chassis unless engines were on hand to install in them. I have never heard tell of a holding area for chassis's built at SJ waiting for engines . Even the R models with special race prepared engines came to SA as running driving car but with stock K engines. Shelby's were not typically special ordered in the later years let alone 65 when they were all virtually the same. I concur that the cars were built on speculation. When a dealer order came in it was typically filled with a car already built.  If there was any relevance between order and engine casting or assembly date it would have to be with the day SA placed the order to Ford and not any kind of dealer order which would most likely be a time way after the fact.

[camp upshur]

The engines were assembled at Cleveland as mentioned, trained to Milpitas. Similar to the sheet metal. The cars, roller and drivetrain were assembled at the San Jose plant and trucked to SAI. I have not heard nor not heard of a holding area (?).
However I do know that 38 cars arrived in one day, which was statistically singular, with the dated components as noted. McNamara's protégés were efficient, however I remain impressed, logistically, that an engine assembled on the 28th In Ohio, trained, accepted, sorted, installed, thence trucked was on property at LAX on the 9th.

[427hunter]

Okay maybe a better way to do it  - lets try and figure out the earliest known non carry over block casting date for a 66 and the latest. 

[J_Speegle]

The long answer is: for instance on my 65 the block was cast:5D19. The engine was assembled:5D28 in Cleveland.

The date you show in the picture is a date showing when the block was machined not when it was assembled

.........The cars sheet metal is all 2/3 week April and arrived at the airport on 5/09. ..........

Sheet metal arrived by train after passing through Pittsburg Ca where is arrived first and was redirected to the Milpitas plant

This would suggest that the car had been completed and they were awaiting engines, especially since 5/09 is apparently the largest single shipment of Mustangs to SAI (38) spanning 5S229-5S375. These 38 sequential Fords entered work immediately (5/10) and were then interspersed with another 108 other Mustangs as 5S375 entered work on 6/03.........

This would suggest that cars were built in sequential order which does not appear to be how they were assembled according to workers and based on the typical practices of all the plants. Holding and storing half finished cars would have been problematic due to space issues. Makes more sense IMHO that the cars were completed with engines and held in the lot until they had the number of cars for the shipment just as they would for any other customer (taxi's trunks, regions)

[s2ms]

Some, maybe most, 66's have an order date listed in the Registry, but some do not. What document is the source of the order date?

[GT350Lad]

Some, maybe most, 66's have an order date listed in the Registry, but some do not. What document is the source of the order date?

Isn't the order date based on the request/order form that SA received from the dealer? I have a copy that I got from Howard.
Correct me if I am way off
Cheers

[6T6/7]

Interestingly, the '65 registry has a different set of milestones: "date recieved at SA", "date work started ", "date work finished", "shipped", but no "date ordered".  Maybe things were handled/documented differently between the two years.

[6R07mi]

My 66 SJ built car has Dearborn stamped unitized body panels and a Woodhaven MI stamping plant hood,
these are all much earlier dated panels ( Aug 65 ), and would have been shipped to SJ as various loose parts.

Cleveland would cast the block & heads ( my casting date late Oct 65 ) and then assemble the engine ( mine Nov 4, 65 ), the stamped date & shift ID on the oil pan rail face.

SJ then schedules the body to be bucked and all the panels welded into the unitized "chassis"

Since we don't have actual build date data for 65 & 66 all we have is the "scheduled" date from the door tag on non-Shelbys, but the general pattern would apply for SAI cars also.

regards,
jp