Ford Dealer Codes (and lack of codes for Hi-Performance Motors and Foreign Car Center)

[Brian Styles]

We wanted to start by thanking all those enthusiasts that have forwarded their car's Marti Reports to this project. The information on those reports, when combined with DSO and registry data have proved tremendously helpful to these research efforts. Please keep the reports coming!

A punch card accompanied each vehicle that Ford sold. These punch cards, #FD 8567-P, titled "Ford Dealer's Report of Vehicle Delivery for Passenger Cars," were used to report information back to Ford.

The federal government viewed Shelby American as a manufacturer, though Ford effectively treated Shelby as a 'dealer.' 

In the Ford computer record, all vehicles sold to Shelby American were tagged with dealer code "X999" (prefixed with either an 84 or 89 District code).

Vehicle Delivery Report Punch cards were given to SAI with each vehicle, however, Shelby never completed nor returned these punch cards back to Ford. Thus Ford never knew the actual selling dealer nor any details of who the buyer was. 

The only way we know which actual dealership sold the Shelby G.T. is by Shelby American records (kept by Dave Mathews, 1967 Registrar). The dealer information is often found on each car's Production Order and Invoice, however, not all cars have an invoice and not all cars have a dealer name specifically filled in on the Production Order.

Prime examples of this would include engineering cars such as: 

#0100, #0131, #0139, #0176, #0463, #0522, #1599, #2381, etc.

#0176 may have been considered a company car, but was likely sold or otherwise disposed of before the two 1967-dated SAI ledgers I have were created. 

#1599 is not a company car per any documents we've found. See: Company Cars Topic

Since Shelby does not appear to have ever reported the actual selling dealer back to Ford, the Ford sales record was effectively incomplete.

Dave Mathews provided Kevin Marti a list of all serialized 1967 Shelby G.T. units, including the selling dealer for each, if known. This is how the actual selling dealer became known to Kevin Marti for inclusion into the reports he sells.

However, if the Shelby paperwork for a given car was missing or if no dealer was indicated (as in the case of an engineering car), then Marti would not have the information and any Marti report purchased would simply show the dealer generically as:

"X999" Shelby American, Inc. (or 84X999 / 89X999 when prefixed with the District code)

Basically, if your car's Marti Report decodes the selling dealer as

8?X999

Shelby American

6501 W Imperial Hwy

Los Angeles CA 90009

it is because the actual selling dealer is UNKNOWN.

Digging a bit deeper into Ford's data processing, there was at least one other special dealer code of "Z996" and that was assigned to Ford Rent-A-Car units. Also, the nomenclature of Ford dealer codes can be further understood as follows:

000 - 199  Metropolitan Dealers

200 - 299  Multiple Point Dealers

300 - 999  Single Point Dealers

There's are a couple of other exceptions to be aware of, and we'll cover them in the next reply to this topic...

See Also:

• Ford Regions, Districts and Dealer Codes

[Brian Styles]

In another group post related to dealer data mapping, we discovered a second dealer without a 6-digit Ford Dealer code (based on the car's Marti Report).

The two dealers we have identified so far are:

Foreign Car Center, 421 21st Street South, Birmingham, AL 35211

Hi-Performance Motors in El Segundo, CA and Los Angeles, CA.

Based on the names and lack of Ford dealer codes, we believe that there are no Ford dealer codes because they're not Ford dealers.

see topic: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/shelbyresearch/hQpBJ5mlwYw

We suspect that these would be exceptions specific to Shelby GTs in Kevin's files.

Kevin Marti appears to have manufactured a "HIPOES" code for Hi-Performance Motors, though we haven't seen a report yet with a manufacturer code for FCC. 

[Brian Littlefield]

Do you have any more information about Foreign Car Center?  I ran the street address through Google Maps and it goes to a residential neighborhood currently.  I wonder where it was in the 60's.   Also, is there any literature from FCC back in the 60's?

I own 6S2339 and it is from Foreign Car Center.  So far, this page has been the best source for more information about FCC.

Thank you,

Brian Littlefield

[Brian Styles]

We have no literature or details on FCC. 

Only info I have found with a couple quick searches is:

Foreign Car Center, Inc. 

Alabama Domestic Corporation

filed on October 8, 1957 

The company's filing status is listed as Merged and its File Number is 725-325.

No Registered Agent is on file for this company.

The company has 4 principals on record: Elizabeth M Beddow, William H Beddow, George O Wright, and June S Wright.

If you have the time, my approach would be to research the principals, their offspring, and other surrounding business owners that might remember FCC (Repair shops, junk yards, car dealers).

On the principal angle, you might be able to find their offspring.

Elizabeth M Beddow & William Beddow, deceased 1975

George O Wright

June S Wright

George Onley Wright III 1928-1988

 -> maybe George  O Wright 4th, born 1957 is likely a sibling? (addresses and phone numbers are available if you follow the link)

If you go down this path, you'll need a lot of time and have to make a lot of phone calls; you'll hit a lot of dead-ends.

When you find what you're looking for, it's all worth it. Good luck with the hunt.