Original Ford Exhaust Hangers

[GT460]

Has anyone had a 65 with the original Ford exhaust hangers on their car?
Or has anyone seen them left on the car?
A SAAC judge told me he has NEVER seen this.
I bought #405 in 1970s and it had the original Ford muffler hangers and rear tailpipe hangers still installed on the body.
I kept them.
Thanks

[J_Speegle]

So your sharing that 5S405 had both forward hangers at the floor/supports and the rear ones at the frame rail?

Never seen an unrestored example with the forward hangers left on the body that I recall or could find a picture of. Workers at SA typically removed the nuts and the hangers left the car with the exhaust. The few pictures we have from the plant during 65 production don't show the hangers either 

Rear frame brackets are somewhat common to find on unrestored 65's in my experience

Please understand that I'm not saying your car did not come the way you describe it. Your car could have been a mistake in this area/detail (done differently as planned, expected or typical) If your going to show the car hopefully you have documentation to offer and of course if you restore it you have the choose to duplicate the mistake or conform to what was typical practice. Hopefully another owner lacking history of how there own cars were originally assembled do not look at yours and copy it assuming that having the forward hangers was typical

Good luck with your choices 

[Bob Gaines]

So your sharing that 5S405 had both forward hangers at the floor/supports and the rear ones at the frame rail?

Never seen an unrestored example with the forward hangers left on the body that I recall or could find a picture of. Workers at SA typically removed the nuts and the hangers left the car with the exhaust. The few pictures we have from the plant during 65 production don't show the hangers either 

Rear frame brackets are somewhat common to find on unrestored 65's in my experience

Please understand that I'm not saying your car did not come the way you describe it. Your car could have been a mistake in the area (done differently as planned, expected or typical) If your going to show the car hopefully you have documentation to offer and of course if you restore it you have the choose to duplicate the mistake or conform to what was typical practice. Hopefully another owner lacking history of how there own cars were originally assembled do not look at yours and copy it assuming that having the forward hangers was typical

Good luck with your choices

+1  . With one exception I have seen the rear hangers left on in a vintage magazine but not on any survivor that I have come across in the real world.  I looked for a copy in my files and have not run across it yet . Regardless the hangers left on is the exception not the rule. If I were judging a 65 GT350 in concours and came across the hangers in place then I would expect some associated evidence that that is how it came on that specific car in the past . Just because a out of the ordinary occurrence may have been seen and or documented on a given car does not mean it would be correct on another car. It is not like it is something cool that was left in place other then just odd. Extra weight, flopping in breeze and a example of under age and or under paid help used to work on the cars is the only testament to a conversion mistake like that IMO.

[GT350Lad]

Has anyone had a 65 with the original Ford exhaust hangers on their car?
Or has anyone seen them left on the car?
A SAAC judge told me he has NEVER seen this.
I bought #405 in 1970s and it had the original Ford muffler hangers and rear tailpipe hangers still installed on the body.
I kept them.
Thanks

Did you by chance get any pics when they where on? Would have been great to see. Love those anomalies

Cheers

[doublemyv]

Hi Guys,

   When I bought SFM5s444 in 2010, the rear exhaust hangers were on the car, and showed no evidence of ever being used, modified, or whatever.  The front hangers were not on the car, but the plate with the two studs that would have held the front hangers were on the car.  No nuts or washers on the studs.  I am attaching two photos showing the driver and passenger side rear hangers.  Mark

[Bob Gaines]

Although the muffler hangers are very very rarely seen and the rear tailpipe hangers sometimes seen I have not seen a survivor car yet that has had the stud plate removed from the car. Just me.

[J_Speegle]

Hi Guys,

   When I bought SFM5s444 in 2010, the rear exhaust hangers were on the car, and showed no evidence of ever being used, modified, or whatever.  The front hangers were not on the car, but the plate with the two studs that would have held the front hangers were on the car.  No nuts or washers on the studs.  I am attaching two photos showing the driver and passenger side rear hangers.  Mark

Very typical on unrestored cars and  period pictures

[CharlesTurner]

5S414 had the rear hangers in place and the stud plates in the floor.

[PaulD]

5S426 also had the rear hangers in place and the stud plates in the floor

[sfm5]

Hmmm...all these vins are in the low to mid 400's. Was there perhaps a "batch" of cars assembled differently than the normal procedure (as it relates to the exhaust system)? Pure speculation but it could be as simple as SAI having a new guy temporarily replace the normal person that did that part of the assembly on the line? Would be interesting to know the real story.

[Bob Gaines]

Hmmm...all these vins are in the low to mid 400's. Was there perhaps a "batch" of cars assembled differently than the normal procedure (as it relates to the exhaust system)? Pure speculation but it could be as simple as SAI having a new guy temporarily replace the normal person that did that part of the assembly on the line? Would be interesting to know the real story.

As it pertains to the subject being discussed it would have to do with disassembly and not assembly.    It is a matter of if the worker took something off not installing. It doesn't take much skill to take something apart compared to installing . In this case during factory exhaust removal the muffler hangers,tailpipe hangers or the stud plates removed or not. Most likely a simple reason why. At least some part of the answer had to do with lack of knowledge,experience or direction for the job at hand.   

[GT460]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and input.

If I remember correctly, even the rear hanger pipe brackets were still in the rubber hangers.
Will dig out that box and take some pictures.

UNFORTUNATELY, I was not a camera nut back then, so I seriously doubt I took any pictures of what seemed insignificant at the time.
The only person who might have remembered the hangers on my car is gone now (Jim Cowles).

Every inch of original exhaust was gone when I bought it. It had rusted out equal length racing headers.

What prompted me to ask this question on the forum was, one person "theorized" that possibly my car had the Arvinode exhaust installed because it was sold to a CA resident through Hi Performance Motors and there were so many complaints about loud exhaust. (Reproduction Arvinode is still available at this moment)
BUT IF my honesty would be questioned as to the originality of the exhaust hangers being on my car, imagine the under-the-breath comments (or outright disgust) that would be directed my way if I installed Arvinode exhaust.  So much for this discussion.

Interestingly, there was a three month delay from when the 405 build was completed (6/16/65), to when it was shipped to Hi Performance Motors (9/17/65).
Personally, I have always reckoned the delay was because it had Valley Head Service ported heads on it.

Thanks Again,
JimP

[GT460]

Jeff,

Sorry for not responding right away.
Yes; on SFM5S405 forward exhaust hangers (rear of mufflers) and rear tail pipe (frame rail) hangers were still installed.
The car was basically original and complete; probably 95% original paint.
Sadly, I took it apart before survivors were a cool thing. Everybody was restoring their cars (or so I thought).

JimP

[J_Speegle]

What prompted me to ask this question on the forum was, one person "theorized" that possibly my car had the Arvinode exhaust installed because it was sold to a CA resident through Hi Performance Motors and there were so many complaints about loud exhaust. (Reproduction Arvinode is still available at this moment)
BUT IF my honesty would be questioned as to the originality of the exhaust hangers being on my car, imagine the under-the-breath comments (or outright disgust) that would be directed my way if I installed Arvinode exhaust.  So much for this discussion.

Don't believe so but if your car had the Arvinode exhaust system in place from San Jose then there would be other clues still present, unless you had work done to the body to remove or hide them, that would support that. Some of the brackets and attaching holes would be different from what others are reporting