Early 1965 GT 350 questions

[paul]

1) did early 65's have the serged carpet requiring vinyl between the sill plate and the outer edge of the carpet? If so

2) about when did the production change to the wider/no vinyl carpeting?

3) did any rear battery cars originally use a red, long(from trunk to engine bay), positive battery cable?

Thanks, Paul.

[J_Speegle]

1) did early 65's have the serged carpet requiring vinyl between the sill plate and the outer edge of the carpet?

Yes

2) about when did the production change to the wider/no vinyl carpeting?

Depended on, at San Jose, what body style and interior it was since more popular interior colors and body styles were ordered in greater numbers but were also used up quicker because of it.

Since we don't know exactly when cars were built nor were they assembled by sequential order I would believe, based on collected examples of unrestored cars that black fastbacks built as late as Feb 1965 had the vinyl rocker covers and carpet edges with serged edges where they met. Even though a lot of cars have had the floors replace or patched the give away for most of this production period is the carpet screws that head the rear carpet to the floor back in the two rear corners or at least the original holes for them 

Since these were done by hand with no guides provided to the worker location can vary a bit.  For comparison the car's VIN is basically 5R09x18000x a great unrestored car I got pictures of years ago. In this example the location of the screw is about 6 inches different from one side to the other. Likely due to it being a different worker on each side of the car. The typical locations were like the drivers side location in the pictures below.

Examples - Same screw (finished in P & O)  as used by likely the same worker at the front section of carpet shown below.






And not to be confused with the front carpet screws



Shot of an original side vinyl strip  while we're on the subject




Unfortunately a lot of cars got new carpet early in life (have a few as soon as 6 months old but that is a rare case) do to just wear, tear and wanting the interior to look fresher and carpet can have a big impact

[tomhawk]

5so45 was unrestored when I purchased from Steve Yates, had the early carpet and vinyl strip on inner rocker. Positive cable was missing, so not sure of color

[paul]

Thank you fellas, Paul.

[J_Speegle]

3) did any rear battery cars originally use a red, long(from trunk to engine bay), positive battery cable?

To finish - No

[Brant]

On GT350s, you will find the early carpet on the first batch of cars (100+) and also the second batch (the next 100+).

The front to rear battery cables that I have seen on every car is black.

[paul]

Thank you all who have responded, Paul.