Paint & Trim - General Observations

[Brian Styles]

Observations - Paint & Trim

Paint Colors:

• When SAI placed orders with Ford, they referred to the paint colors using Ford single-letter codes, except for Gray. Gray was always specified with a bit more 'clarity'. Descriptors always followed the single letter color codes with variances. There was also a specific order that the paints were listed in (and this order helped us match up District Item Numbers):
   
• Code "V" Bronze          -also-      Code "V" Burnt Amber
• Code "I" Lime            -also-     Code I Lime Green
  
• Code "K" Blue            -also-      Code K Nightmist Blue
• Code "A" Black
  
• Code "M" White           -also-      Code M Wimbledon White
• Code "Y" Green           -also-      Code Y Dark Moss Green
• Code "Q" Blue            -also-      Code Q Brittany Blue
• Code "T" Red
• Code "D" Blue            -also-      Code "D" Acapulco Blue
  
• Thunderbird Gray #1900   -also-     Dk. Gray Met. # 1900 (Thunderbird Color Only)
• Code "X" Burgundy
  
  
  

^ example clip taken from actual DSO Microfilm ^

• The last Gray painted car was ordered was on DSO 2527, dated 10/13/1966.
  
  
• A single GT500 (411F package) Springtime Yellow car was ordered on DSO 2577 (Dec.14, 1966). Like many of the DSOs requesting 428+AC cars, this DSO was also canceled. However, according to the SAAC Registry, SAI sequence 2021, a 201F package ordered on DSO 2572 (Dec. 14, 1966), was painted Springtime Yellow. An "S" in the Shelby VIN designates 'special paint and the Ford record confirms the car left San Jose painted this special color. Obviously there was a special request/need for a specific car. It might not have been the GT500 4-speed originally ordered, however, the Ford record confirms a Springtime Yellow GT350 with A/C was built. 
  
  
• A single GT500 (410F package) Vintage Burgundy car (paint code "X") was ordered on DSO 2609. The SAAC Registry confirms this car received sequence #3211 (again "S" denotes Special Paint in the SAI VIN). The Registry doesn't acknowledge this color code.
  
  
• With the exception of the Springtime Yellow paint car, Candyapple Red (paint code “T”) was the rarest color initially ordered up through the end of the 1966 calendar year (4 months of orders). Only 46 red cars were ordered, and only 3 (all G.T. 500 cars: #0100, #0131, #0139) were finished before the end of the calendar year. This memo tells us why..
  
  
• The quantity of red paint orders were closely followed by only 52 black cars, and that's because we now know that Black was supposed to be a color reserved for Hertz.
  
  
• Initially, there were 84 Bronze cars ordered, however, many of the Bronze cars were changed to Lime Gold (via a Ford Change Notice) and other DSOs containing Bronze cars were canceled. Ultimately, only 22 cars were painted Bronze.
  
  
• There are discrepancies between the registry and the DSO microfilm. This topic summarizes our progress attempting to resolve them

Trim (based on microfilm. memo & Ford record):

• The Parchment trim option was a result of dealers in the warm Southwest wanting a lighter interior color.
• Parchment trim was never intended to be available with a White paint car.
• No Parchment interior (5U) cars were ordered in Bronze, Black or Gray painted cars. 
• One Red painted car, #1020, was ordered with Parchment trim. This was on DSO 2568.
  
• One Acapulco Blue painted car, #2614, was ordered with Parchment trim. It was the only car on DSO 2603, which leads us to believe it was 'special ordered.'
  
  
• With the exception of the Acapulco Blue car on DSO 2603, all other Parchment trim cars were ordered during just a 2-week time period, starting with DSO 2531 (10/17/1966) and concluding with DSO 2569 (11/1/1966).
   
• There are some cars built at the very beginning and toward the end of SJ production with trim-related discrepancies (topic on 5A/6A trim theory and explanation)
   

Here's a paint cross-reference we put together:

Related topics:

• Acapulco Blue painted cars
• Bronze painted cars
  
• Gray painted cars
  
• Red painted cars

[Brian Styles]

These totals are from the Ford record, which is beleived to be the most accurate record as to paint, trim and options installed at San Jose. 

For those that have and use paint totals based on the Registry, you may notice your numbers are different. (this is the reconciliation we're actively working on).

[Brian Styles]

Does anyone else find interesting the use of the term "medium blue" in this 1967 Accessory Price List (effective date: November 1, 1966)?

It clearly can't be referring to Nightmist Blue - -that's as dark as you can get.

And it can't be referring to Acapulco Blue, as that color wasn't offered yet... 

It tells us Shelby planned a medium blue color and we know that Clearwater Aqua was initially going to fill that slot. However, Brittany Blue was chosen and became the 'medium blue' paint option. 

[Rich Plescia]

Hi Brian, this "1967 Accessories Price List" is an incredible find!

The dated document, prior to just about every sale, clearly defines what is included in the "basic" package, what were "mandatory" options, and what the "other" options were.

It leaves little to guess about. 

It is interesting they initially considered Brittany Blue as "Medium Blue" when it is so light.

Oddly enough, they listed the light-medium green as "Lime".

Thank for sharing!

[Rich Plescia]

Here are two interesting charts created to show the FIRST cars of each paint color built at San Jose and also completed at Shelby American.

By build date at Ford's San Jose assembly plant:
Paint Name	Date	Car(s)	Model
Dark Moss Green	9/23/1966	#0056	G.T. 350 Fastback
Wimbledon White	10/10/1966	#0022 & #0031	G.T. 350 Fastback
Raven Black	10/12/1966	#0033 & #0055	G.T. 350 Fastback
Nightmist Blue	10/14/1966	#0043	G.T. 350 Fastback
Metallic Bronze	10/21/1966	eight (8) cars	G.T. 350 Fastback
Candyapple Red	11/7/1966	#0100	G.T. 500 Fastback
Lime Gold	11/11/1966	eight (8) cars	G.T. 350 Fastback
Metallic Gray	11/23/1966	#0140 & #0141	G.T. 350 Fastback
Brittany Blue	12/19/1966	nine (9) cars	G.T. 500 Fastback
Springtime Yellow	4/7/67	#2021	G.T. 350 Fastback
Acapulco Blue	5/4/1967	fifteen (15) cars	G.T. 350 Fastback
Vintage Burgundy	7/10/1967	#3211	G.T. 500 Fastback

By completion date at Shelby American's Los Angeles facility:
Paint Name	Date	Car(s)	Model
Dark Moss Green	10/19/1966	#0003	G.T. 350 Fastback
Wimbledon White	10/19/1966	#0018	G.T. 350 Fastback
Raven Black	10/31/1966	three (3) cars	G.T. 350 Fastback
Nightmist Blue	10/31/1966	#0065 & #0066	G.T. 350 Fastback
Metallic Bronze	10/31/1966	four (4) cars	G.T. 350 Fastback
Candyapple Red	pre 12/7/1966	#0100	G.T. 500 Fastback
Lime Gold	12/5/1966	#0102 & #0108	G.T. 350 Fastback
Metallic Gray	12/14/1966	four (4) cars	G.T. 350 Fastback
Brittany Blue	1/6/1967	#0328	G.T. 350 Fastback
Springtime Yellow	5/8/1967	#2021	G.T. 350 Fastback
Acapulco Blue	5/23/1967	#2252 & #2394	G.T. 350 Fastback
Vintage Burgundy	7/24/1967	#3211	G.T. 350 Fastback

NOTES:

• The two brochure advertising cars, the Red G.T. 500 V-738-2 and the Lime Gold G.T. 350 #0176, have not been included in the tables above. These cars were not ordered as "Shelbys" and were used for development and advertising purposes.
  
  
• When two or more cars are listed as completed on a given day, there is absolutely no way to determine the order in which they were completed on that day. One could argue that a car is the lowest sequenced “color” painted car number built/completed. However, there would be no way to prove that one car was completed before another.
  
  
• #2021, the Springtime Yellow G.T. 350, was not found on the Ford DSO/SVO documents, and therefore was not originally reflected in the Ford table. It was theorized that the car was originally painted Dark Moss Green at Ford’s San Jose factory and that Shelby American repainted it Springtime Yellow at LAX. Update 4/30/2019 on #2021: The Marti Report indicates this car was in-fact painted Springtime Yellow at San Jose. That means we are missing the Change Notice of this paint color change from Dark Moss Green to Springtime Yellow. We have also added the Information for #2021 in the first paint cars at San Jose to include the date, the VIN number, and the model.

EDIT 1: A paint number correction was made on the first Lime Gold cars built at SJ...increased to seven (7).

EDIT 2: 4/30/2019 Another paint number correction was made on the first Lime Gold cars built at SJ. That number is now increased to eight (8).

[r.plescia289]

Top 5U Parchment Trim Dealers

The 5U Parchment 'comfortweave' trim cars only represented about 8% of the total production for the ’67 Shelby’s, approximately 257 total units (as found in the Marti Reports for these cars).

While the majority of dealers only moved 1 or 2 units each, several of the larger volume dealers moved several times more on this rare color trim.

Below is a list of the top dealers based on 1967 Shelby G.T. units with Parchment trim:

Units   Dealer                          State

12      Hi-Performance Motors (ES)      CA

11      Hayward Motors                  CA

10      Tasca Ford Sales                RI

09      J.D. Ball Ford                  FL

09      Holiday Ford                    CA

All three California dealers averaged ~18% of their total ’67 Shelby sales for the cars with the 5U Parchment Trim. Tasca Ford sales was fourth at just over ~14%, while J.D. Ball Ford came in fifth at just above ~11% of total sales.

We have to wonder if there is a reason behind the higher volumes of the 5U Parchment Luxury Knitted Vinyl trim from these dealers. Perhaps the obvious answer is as simple as the states with warmer average temperatures wanted to offer an interior color other than black, which we know absorbs a lot more heat than the lighter parchment trim color.

[Brian Styles]

Expanding on the direction of Rich's 'first of' each paint chart, I decided to create a different chart that essentially demonstrates a time-plot of each of the paints offered. 

I feel that this visual provides the best "at a glance" representation of when paints were introduced and retired. Does it help you see things with more clarity? 

[Brian Styles]

Pre-production memo about paint and trim, dated 9/28/1966.

Confirms our understanding that SAI's goal was to have only five 'primary' paint colors at any given time to streamline production.

Interesting that red paint was almost never offered.... it sure explains the lapse in production from the engineering cars all the way to the mid-year point.

A quick look into the DSO file provides all the clues we need to know that DSO 2516 (simply dated "August") was the order for what were supposed to be the first 30 Hertz GT350 Automatic cars, and teaches us that black was intended to be an exclusive color for the Hertz cars.

"Medium Blue" remains interesting. Based on an early sales brochure, it appears that Clearwater Aqua (CWA) was originally planned as the medium blue paint option, but something changed and Brittany Blue became the medium blue paint of choice.   We're still curious as to why CWA it was nixed. Did SAI have a hard time matching the original CWA paint on #0176? Did someone simply make an 'executive decision' that CWA was too feminine or otherwise unappealing after first seeing the car that became #0176? 

It now seems very plausible that #0176 was intentionally ordered in Clearwater Aqua. However, it was changed to Lime Green by the time any photographs were taken.

Special thanks to Greg Kolasa for providing this memo.

Related Topics:

• DSO Observations - Cancelled DSOs
• The mystery of car #0176

[Rich P]

The January 17, 2019 4:55 PM post with the two charts has an error in the second chart;

 

It mistakenly notes the Vintage Burgundy car as a GT350 when it was actually a GT500.

It is correctly noted in the upper paint chart.

 

(Unfortunately ‘Google’ has removed the edit function. We can no longer make any corrections or additions to existing posts.)

[Brian S]

Some updated InfoGraphics from the SRG...

[1967 Shelby Research Group]

To help visualize the loose correlation of the built/sequenced/completed dates of the first 150 cars, we’ve created and published a sheet with all three queries side-by-side:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQKd9uUf5rsUl85ILlFfAyKqxudsxkOfC1EVbkKrjjAQkRRFreAqf2kifke9sIkfQu1UkXLFgzGtfXu/pubhtml

One of the first orders (DSO 2505) that Shelby placed with Ford was for 100x GT 350 4-speed cars to be used as initial dealer show and inventory. This order was placed prior to regular production commencing at Ford’s San Jose assembly plant. The paint color breakdown on the order was 20 each of Bronze, Nightmist Blue, Black, White, and Dark Green. The goal was to get these cars completed, shipped, and into the showrooms of the North American Shelby-franchised dealers in time for the November 10th, 1966 dealer launch event. Many of these cars were designated “Showing Car” on their corresponding Production Orders.

Ford serial numbers were assigned to each unit as punch cards were fed into the mainframe computer system and an 80-column record was created for each unit. The assembly plant did not build the cars in sequential order. As they were built, trucks transported them (“convoy”) to Shelby’s LAX airport facility. Upon arrival, cars were unloaded from the transport trucks and staged in rows outside SAI’s hangar. There was no goal nor ability to organize them per Ford sequence or intended Shelby sequence numbers. The first 35 units completed by the Ford San Jose plant were painted either white or dark green.

According to SAI paperwork, the first two cars completed by Shelby American on October 19th wear sequence numbers #0003 (Green) and #0018 (White). Cars #0002 (Green) and #0019 (White) were completed on the 20th. The next two cars #0024 (Green) and #0031 (White) weren’t completed until six (6) days later, possibly because of a temporary “all stop” to assess why the front-ends and hoods weren’t fitting properly. #0007 (Green) was completed on the 28th. The completion bias toward white and green cars clearly corresponds to the paint colors of the units first built by and shipped from Ford.

Thirteen (13) bronze, nightmist, black, white, and green cars, are listed as completed by SAI on the 31st, which follows suit with the colors of additional units being received from Ford. Continuing into November, seven (7) cars were completed by SAI over the 2nd and 3rd, and seven (7) more were completed on the 4th, including #0001 (Green). Five (5) cars were completed on the 5th.

Our analysis of the Shelby American completion and shipping dates provided an estimate that less than half of the 100x cars ordered on DSO 2505 actually made it to dealers before the November 10th dealer launch event.

Thumbnail (only shows first 40 units)

[1967 Shelby Research Group]

A consolidated paint/trim pie chart page - perfect for printing and including in your documentation binder for display at car shows.