1970 Shelbys. What was Ford's plan and when?

[shelbymann1970]

I was looking at the date on my dist in my 351. It is dated 9F24. June 24. So my assumption based on AO Smith terminating their contract after the 69 model year was that Ford built out 69 Shelbys knowing many would become 70s. The myth being Ford had so many left after production they decided to turn them into 70s. The dist date code means Ford already did their emissions well before that date and started producing 351 distributors for the 1970 model year Shelby. Thoughts?

[Special Ed]

Your distributor was removed at kk plant and upgraded to 1970 specs and stamped ED  in front of id # EDited like all 70 shelbys were at kk plant. I have the 70 KK papers that said what  had to be changed out at kk plant to meet new 1970 specs.  gt350s had changes made on distributors while the gt500s had there distributors changed out to dozf # with no ED stamped like he 351w cars did. We had a 70 gt350 here years ago that had the same ED stamped in it like your 70 distributor.

[shelbymann1970]

Your distributor was removed at kk plant and upgraded to 1970 specs and stamped ED  in front of id # EDited like all 70 shelbys were at kk plant. I have the 70 KK papers that said what  had to be changed out at kk plant to meet new 1970 specs.  gt350s had changes made on distributors while the gt500s had there distributors changed out to dozf # with no ED stamped like he 351w cars did. We had a 70 gt350 here years ago that had the same ED stamped in it like your 70 distributor.

Yes. I'm not sure if I'm reading your post right. The date code on my dist  is stamped June 24 1969. My point is that is when the dist was made/stamped. Was my dist used on any other 1970 Ford engine? My original one would have a C**** part number on it when my engine was assembled possibly April 1969. So to me the dist were changed out and not modified at KK if built months earlier. So were the mods done on the date of June 24th or at KK. Seems to me Ford would batch do the dists and have them ready to drop in the car at KK. Car was changed over in Oct according to stamped docs I have.

[shelbydoug]

If I'm understanding your question, most likely the original distributor to the engine just got swapped out to another that was already modified.

Keeping the original distributor with the original engine is only of importance now, not then.

[Bob Gaines]

Gary is the engineering number on your distributor a D0 number and you are thinking that since it has a June date it would have been used in your engine instead of a modified C9 marked version like is more typical?

[shelbymann1970]

Gary is the engineering number on your distributor a D0 number and you are thinking that since it has a June date it would have been used in your engine instead of a modified C9 marked version like is more typical?

yes. Read my OP and reply #1 by Pete.  See my blown up pic below.  https://www.saacforum.com/index.php?topic=20222.0

[Shelbypat]

According to mustangtek

Patrick

[Shelbypat]

I don't know why it load upside down

Patrick

[shelbymann1970]

I don't know why it load upside down

Patrick

It matches what is on my Dist but the difference is Shelby dist are stamped ED for some reason and I suspect they are NOT the same how it is set up in the guts to a 70 351W 2V which is a different engine and carb.

[Special Ed]

 Date codes on 70 shelby carbs and distributors wont make sense sometimes because of the way they were changed out at KK. Years ago when charlie H and don E.  and others were writing the Kar Kraft book i hepled them as much as i could with what i had learned over the years having owned and worked on many boss 429s and 70 shelbys. I tracked down john hawk third man hired in at the new brighton KK plant and had  some some very interesting talks with him about what all went on at KK plant. I told him about how the date codes on some 70 shelby gt500 carburators didnt line up with the cars dates. He said they would do them in groups of about 20 or so what they had room for in the KK plant at the time and they would remove all carbs and take them to a workbench and remove auto chokes and install manual chokes and hand stamp ED on the carb tag of which was short for EDited then reinstall all carbs and they never cared about date codes on carbs or dist just getting auto back on auto cars and 4-speed parts back on 4-speed 70 shelbys as they were in no order coming in or out of kk. Remember 69-70 shelbys were invoiced thru KK and brighton KK was located between Ionia and dearborn so shipping by rail from Ionia was handy and KK was building new 70 boss 429s that were mostly complete cars coming in at kk and much faster to complete than the 69 boss 429s that had to have many unique suspension parts changed out and were more hand built compared to 70 B9s so they had the time to work in the 70 shelbys . I asked him if they got all 70 shelbys done by the dec31 deadline and he said no as there were about 5 or 6 shelbys not converted over when he went back to kk after the new year and he said they got loaded on a truck and went to a dock and were shipped away over seas or somewhere. John is the guy who told me about the  old batteries that had to be changed out to new batteries because some wouldnt even start and they couldnt sell a new 70 shelby withe a 68 dated battery already 1 year out of warranty. Them old batteries had to have water added 3 times a year to hold charge and some 70 shelby were actually built in dec 68 and i got a 70 gt500 ED stamped carb tag here thats got a late 68 date on it. Most 70 shelbys were late built cars but some early built unsold shelbys were converted to 70 models. I tried to get  my John Hawk interview into the new KK book but they said it was too late as the book was already at the printer and he still lives north of detroit on his dads horse farm and he worked at KK plant for another 2 or so years after the ford program ended on other progects.

[Special Ed]

Just checked my notes and 0f03R480909 is the oldest 70 shelby serial # and it was used as a shelby company car and probly built in jan 69 at dearborn plant. So this car maybe the oldest early serial # 70 shelby BUT not the first 69 shelby converted over to a 70 at KK plant. I wonder if THE  VINMAN knows the number of the first  or last 70 shelby finished at KK plant as that would be interesting to know.

[CSX4781]

Ed,
  You should submit that interview to Kopec to be included in the Shelby American.  I, for one, would be very interested in reading it, particularly since I currently own a 69. There have been volumes written about 1965-66 Shelbys, not so much for the 1969-70s

Dave

[shelbymann1970]

Just checked my notes and 0f03R480909 is the oldest 70 shelby serial # and it was used as a shelby company car and probly built in jan 69 at dearborn plant. So this car maybe the oldest early serial # 70 shelby BUT not the first 69 shelby converted over to a 70 at KK plant. I wonder if THE  VINMAN knows the number of the first  or last 70 shelby finished at KK plant as that would be interesting to know.

Could this pic lend a hint as to what model as in it could have been one of these cars? Larry took this pic either March or April 1969. Average weather with the melting from my years  living in this area would be late March early April by looking at the pic.

[shelbymann1970]

I guess getting back to the original point of this is that did Ford build out Shelbys knowing they would be converted to 70 models? 4 speed  GT350 distributors are dated June of 1969 so well before the end of the last Shelby being produced. With ford having designs going for a 71 Shelby and AO Smith cancelling their contract after 1969 did Ford decide to keep building 69 Shelbys under the contract with AO Smith knowing these built cars would eventually be 1970 models? I know Claude wanted a bunch for his dealership in Belgium and ordered a bunch of 70s but other than that what was Ford's direction in all of this? I don't think this topic has ever been discussed in length and too many people say all 1970s were leftover 69s that Ford couldn't sell so they decided to convert to 1970 models. Time frame from distributors being made, Ford testing to come up with the ED distributors, Claude ordering 70 Shelby all point to me that Ford possibly in the spring decided to build out some Shelbys for 1970 after losing the AO Smith contract at the end of 1969 production. Thoughts?
Also on my 1969 1970 Shelby Mustang Facebook page I started a topic on 70 GT350 distributors  since we have some 70 owners on the page to find out  to what is on people's cars.

[427hunter]

I guess getting back to the original point of this is that did Ford build out Shelbys knowing they would be converted to 70 models? 4 speed  GT350 distributors are dated June of 1969 so well before the end of the last Shelby being produced. With ford having designs going for a 71 Shelby and AO Smith cancelling their contract after 1969 did Ford decide to keep building 69 Shelbys under the contract with AO Smith knowing these built cars would eventually be 1970 models? I know Claude wanted a bunch for his dealership in Belgium and ordered a bunch of 70s but other than that what was Ford's direction in all of this? I don't think this topic has ever been discussed in length and too many people say all 1970s were leftover 69s that Ford couldn't sell so they decided to convert to 1970 models. Time frame from distributors being made, Ford testing to come up with the ED distributors, Claude ordering 70 Shelby all point to me that Ford possibly in the spring decided to build out some Shelbys for 1970 after losing the AO Smith contract at the end of 1969 production. Thoughts?
Also on my 1969 1970 Shelby Mustang Facebook page I started a topic on 70 GT350 distributors  since we have some 70 owners on the page to find out  to what is on people's cars.

Kind of ironic that if this ascertain was being made on bring a trailer, you would be attacking the seller for trying to explain something that's not correct.