Order Documents from a '66 Mustang

Category: Early Mustang Knowledgebase
Published on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00
Written by Super User
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Following is a sequence of documents that follow the order and delivery of a 1966 Mustang Coupe sold at Bradford Fairway Sales in Bradford, PA. Significant information about each document is provided in an attempt to better understand how an early Ford Mustang was ordered and subsequently received by the dealer. Ford Mustang HistoryUnfortunately, I do not know if this car survived through the years and if it still exists, but maybe this article will help to find it...
I obtained this paperwork many years ago along with a few others from the same dealer.
Author:

Charles Turner - MCA Gold Judge, 1st & 2nd Generation



6T07C194243 was a well-optioned Mustang. It was Sahara Beige with a Black Vinyl top, Black Deluxe Interior, a V-8 Automatic, A/C, P/S, Tinted Glass, Visibility Group, Radio, Heavy Duty Battery, Console and Limited Slip Rear. By today's standards, this might not seem like much, but this car was pretty well "loaded" in year model 1966. It would make a nice little Mustang to cruise around in today! Let's get to the docs...

 

1. Handwritten Order Sheet: Dated 1/3/66. Buyer name, address and phone number listed. At bottom it is noted "order at once"

 

2. Dealer Order Sheet: Dated 1/6/66. Options from the handwritten sheet checked off as they were marked with an 'X' in the appropriate boxes on the order sheet. Of interest are the items written at the bottom of the sheet. "Limited Slip Rear Axel - Console With Air cond. - Deluxe Belts." Incidentally, the dealer overlooked Section 59 on the Order Sheet which does have a box for "Front & Rear Deluxe Seat Belts." Another item of interest on the Order Sheet is the number at the top right '346842'. This number identifies the order once it is entered in the Ford computer system.

 

3. Vehicle Order Card: Dated 1/10/66. The Order Card contains the Order Image of the vehicle as entered into the system. At this point, the blueprint of the car has been created. The scheduled build date is entered as 19A (January 19th). The DSO is 37(Buffalo) and the order number from that district is specified as 2739. Interestingly, the full VIN has yet to be assigned, with the Order Sheet Number being used to fill in the consecutive unit portion of the VIN (6T07C3A6842). For whatever reason, the '4' was recorded as an 'A' (typo?). Under the partial VIN, we can see the dealer number for Bradford Fairway as 37J551. A quick scan of the card reveals many codes for multiple car lines. Savvy Mustang nuts will note that the codes correspond to the codes on the order sheet and alo correspond to codes on build sheets! (I do not have the build sheet from this car.) Unfortunately, not all the codes are present to decipher a build sheet, but it definitely can tell us what most of the build sheet codes were. Continuing on with the Order Card, one can see how each box at the top matches to a numbered category that lists appropriate codes.

 

4. Dealer Delivery Form: Invoice Date of 1/17/66 and a "Seals" ink-stamped date of 1/19/66. The box above is titled "DATE SHIPPED", which makes one think that the ink stamped date is the date the car was shipped from the assembly plant. The "HOW SHIPPED" is noted as "CONVOY", which most likely would have been on a truck. Note that 'DAYS ALLOWED TO SHIP" is entered as "04." The 19th of Jan '66 was a Wednesday, so a delivery sometime the next week would have been expected. Notice that the dealer number is listed as well as the ITEM NUMBER, which corresponds to the upper left number on the Order Card. The Dealer Finance Company or Bank is also listed (obviously so Ford could get paid!)

With this form, we can basically see what would have been on the original Window Sticker (Sorry, don't have that.) It's cool that we can see what the dealer was actually charged for the vehicle and how much profit could be made by selling at MSRP. One last thing that is neat is that the Dealer wrote the door dataplate information on this paper. Also the key codes are listed.

 

5. New Car Purchase Order: Dated 1/29/66. Basically contains all the information about the car and the buyer's name, address and signature. The total cash price of the car is listed. The buyer did not have a trade-in vehicle and paid "C.O.D." as noted on the bottom left.

 

6. Car Invoice: Dated 1/29/66. Document handed to buyer for payment. Handwritten on bottom "personal check", which is assumed to mean how the invoice was paid. Interestingly, a date of 1/17/66 is written on the left of the document. This most likely corresponds to the invoice date from the Dealer Delivery Form. Note that the Price of $3541.84 is the MSRP from the Delivery Form. Looks like the buyer either had a buddy at the dealer or did some negotiating to get a 15% discount over MSRP. "Discount" is listed as $540.24. Final price of the car was $3061.71, which didn't leave much room for profit as the car cost the dealer $2865.35!

 

Conclusion/Thoughts:

It took a little over 3 weeks from the handwritten order to when the car was delivered (1/3 to 1/29). It appears that the car was built on or before the scheduled build date, but that is somewhat difficult to determine from these documents. It would have been nice to see a document that shows a "received" date by the dealer.

Not sure if anyone noticed, but the deluxe interior code on the door dataplate is listed as a "66A", which is a deviation trim code. It would be nice to have seen this car to determine exactly what the deviation was. The best speculation, based on observing the MPC, is that the coupe deluxe interior deviation most likely had something to do with the rear interior quarter trim panels. Most likely either the presence or absence of the stitching on the vinyl cover. If anyone has an original '66 deluxe interior Mustang with an 'A' following the trim code, it would be helpful if you could provide information about how your rear quarter trim was originally.

I hope that everyone finds these docs useful. I have a lot more documentation such as window stickers, build sheets, buck tags and other period documents. It makes for great reading and research! I may expand on this at a later date.

 

Charles Turner - MCA Head Judge, 1st & 2nd Generation