New member and Ford Engineer

  • My son told me about this website and said I should join up. My name is Bill Forsythe and I worked for Ford in Dearborn, Detroit and Lansing, MI from 1965 to 1988. I graduated from the University of Michigan in the Spring of 65 and was working for Ford Motor Company in Dearborn in June.

    I worked on the Mustang, Comet and Fairlane Engineering Team, and was part part of the safety division.

    I hope that with what I think I remember about these cars (there wasn't a whole lot of them that came through), I can answer some questions, and probably learn a lot myself.


    Thanks for having me,


    Bill

  • Welcome to the site, Bill. We look forward to your insights and knowledge on these cars.


    -Fred-

    65 Koupe early San Jose Phoenician Yellow 4 speed
    66 GT Koupe Dearborn Blue 4 speed
    66 KGT San Jose fastback pony interior Silver Frost 4 speed
    64 Falcon sedan delivery 289 4 speed
    65 Ranchero 289 4 speed
    66 Corvette roadster 427/425 4 speed

  • Thanks for the replies! I found where to check for the personal messages, but it says I have none. I must not have done something correctly. It's going to be nice to talk to car people again. It's been years since I sat in a Mustang though. I remember the K cars well though. Though I never owned one, I never passed up the chance to take one out. Listening to the hard tap of the lifters, that odd miss of the number 3 cylinder, and especially that loud take off sound of the secondaries popping open, and deafening sound of that exhaust as we reached 6000RPM and raced it on through to 7+. That was just driving them off the assembly line.

    There was a fit mechanic on the number 2 line, and as the fenders would go on, he would sometimes yell out "K Car" and the others would around would reply "K car". It was a special time when car making was exciting. Today it's all about electronic gadgets and gas mileage. They make 500HP engines, and limit them to 5000RPM or 120MPH, and call that a muscle car? Give me a carburetor anyday!

  • Welcome to the site Bill, its good to have an engineer from that time period to share tech info and memories about the cars, myself being a ford dealership line mechanic for 25+years and working from time to time with ford field engineers on problem vehicles you guys know your stuff, Chuck.

  • welcome aboard bill, i live in australia and also a have a dearborn built 65 gt koupe,looking forward to your knowledge & insights with these street racers..

  • Bill, Did you know any of the fellows that might have worked in the engine plant while the K-code engines were being assembled? There are a lot of questions about the start of the 289 HiPo production, and about when sequence numbers -- and later VIN numbers -- were stamped on the engine.

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